“This way!” the knight shouted.

“Why in the world are there so many of them?” the Otherworlder cussed as they turned around a corner.

A guard stood right around the turn, but an elbow struck his jaws before he could make a sound. The knight covered his mouth with her palm and kicked him in the nuts before carefully dropping him on the ground.

“I know a way we can jump into the canals behind the castle and get away, but we need to get outside the dungeons first,” said the Otherworlder.

“There is a way to those canals?”

“We’ll be making one.”

The knight gave the Otherworlder a skeptical glance before shaking her head and moving again. Since she was familiar with the dungeon and the movements of the troops, she took the lead, but something was clearly off here as the number of guards had increased much more than anyone could have thought of.

Thankfully, it wasn’t to a level where going anywhere would be impossible.

They cautiously tread through the passages. They would avoid the places with multiple guards together and take the empty passages or ones with very few as they ran around the dungeon to get to the exit.

After half an hour of running back and forth in the dungeon, they were finally just a few turns away from the exit.

“Just a few more turns... we’re almost there.” The knight peeked over the walls and gestured at the other two to follow along.

Footsteps rang behind them as they made the turn.

“Shit, where’d they go?”

“Goddamn it!”

‘Lad,’ Cockarista muttered.

‘Yeah, I know.’ With a sigh, the Otherworlder grabbed the knight by the back of her collars and dragged her back.

“W-what, what are you?”

“Shush. They’ve been leading us,” he said as he rushed behind their steps. “It was all a trap.”

The guards had shrewdly arranged themselves to make it leave only those paths open they wanted them to take, that too with such skill that it took them a long time before they could figure it out. It was more than likely that the shouting they had heard behind them was a signal to alert the ambushers up ahead.

Whoever was instigating this was truly a master of the craft.

The Otherworlder and Cockarista jogged ahead to get to the people that were chasing after them while making as little sound as possible.

They secretly crawled up behind the guards and choked them. The Otherworlder slammed one against the ground and pulled his face up, turning it to Cockarista.

“Kuh! Let go of me!” the other guard screamed as Cockarista lifted him by the head. The Otherworlder forced the guard to watch as his partner was swung around like a rubber toy before being mauled to bits by the cockroach’s bare hands.

The knight girl took a step back as her expression scrunched in disgust, but she avoided saying a word.

“You saw that,” the Otherworlder leaned into the guard’s ears and whispered. “Wanna be next?”

“U-uAhK!”

The Otherworlder smashed his head to the ground again.

“Only speak when I ask you to, else just shake your head. Now, do you wanna be next?”

The guard fervently shook his head from side to side.

“Good, now will you answer our questions?”

This time, he nodded as fast as he could and the Otherworlder smiled. “I’ll let you speak. Tell me all about the ambush you guys kept for us. Fast.”

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ ⟨ ⏣ ⟩ ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

“Why aren’t they coming yet...”

“Hey, shut up and keep waiting. They might have gotten alert, too.”

“Exactly. It’s Sir Mathias’ orders. It can’t go wrong.”

The guards waiting in ambush around the staircase exchanged banter while waiting for the escaped prisoners to show up. They had already received a signal from the scouts. It should be anytime now.

“Oh, there they are! Run, run!”

Just then, another loud sound reached the ambushers’ ears. It was the signal to call off the ambush because of the criminals not going for the staircase.

“Huh? Why is it being called off?”

“They were totally heading towards this place though...”

-Tap, tap.

Footsteps rang out from the distance and the guards all stood on alert, their weapons pulled out. Coming from the route where the criminals were supposed to, was another guard in the same armor and the scout who was giving out the signals. He approached them with raised arms and a baffled face.

“Th-those guys just disappeared. There was a secret passage here!” His voice was rough and tired, but the guards didn’t even notice it after hearing the words ‘secret passage.’

“What? There is a secret passage here?”

“No way! Show us where!”

“We have to inform Sir Mathias right now!”

Hearing the responses, the scout quickly snapped back. “Are you crazy? How can we go to Sir Mathias without checking anything out? We need to inspect the place at least once! My partner is already there. We have to give him back up!”

“He makes sense! Let’s go!”

The guards waiting in ambush followed the scouting guard to find the secret passage, all the while not noticing the shadowy figure crawling on the ceiling above them and passing them by with a person in it's hands. They vigilantly followed the guard, who was but the Otherworlder, towards the alleged secret passage.

Cockarista and the knight girl made their way through the ceiling and towards the staircase.

The Otherworlder led the guards through the underground passage until they came across the mauled body of his partner. Their vigilance grew and their nervousness skyrocketed, so much so that they didn’t even notice the Otherworlder leaving. And when they did, they would just find the body of the real guard and assume the worst.

They had finally escaped the underground prison and entered the main palace.