Twenty men and women unsheated their weapons, looked at each other and nodded. They approached the traitor and tried to surround him, five Leafers, trapped in the middle of the circle were completely dumbfounded. Elizabeth, as soon as she found words in her dry throat, ordered her people to create a counter formation and prepare for engagement. Although she shouted at the top of her lungs the command didn't have any effect, even Arath, who was standing next to her, could barely hear what she was saying. He looked around trying to understand how it was possible and quickly found the reason of this phenomenon. Next to Heroes' commander a short, burly man was distorting space around him. Thanks to Arath's sensitiveness towards any, even the most subtle, changes he could easily recognise him as a Sound Elementalist. His darker skintone, which was almost impossible to achieve for people living in caves often without seeing sun even once, indicated that he was one of the 'summoned bitches'. What surprised Arath the most was not his background but his ability to already manifastate his element outside of their own body, this kind of advancement was incredibly rare even among Heroes and godly among normal people.

Arath without any delay reported his findings to Elisabeth and soon regretted that decision, he had to shout so loudly he felt like his throat was about to fall apart. She nodded in understanding took out her shortsword and raised it for everyone to see while screaming like a wild beast she was about to become. In a matter of seconds the blade was set aflame and behind her dozens of other weapons were raised to show their fighting spirit. Despite the fact only Arath, Ben and two other Leafers could hear any sound coming from her mouth, Elisabeth screamed as loud as she could.

"We will never give up our brother in arms. Not until the Tower itself wants to take him, he is not your slave. Go back if you want to see another day."

"That's what i was hoping for, good girl. My boss wouldn't be happy to hear that no stupid NPCs were slaughtered today." Heroes' commander answered and just smiled, somehow everyone easily heard her words and their souls crumbled upon hearing such terrifying statement. "Kill them all, leave only Ben alive, but don't worry about breaking some bones."

'Now it got messy, either we die here or win this fight and face death penalty from the Council. Great, just fucking great.' Arath thought as he reached for his own weapon but before he managed to do so he saw his friend throw his weapon on the ground.

Beniamin raised his hands in order to signal his surrender and approached the other group. Their commander smiled even more creepily as she ordered her soldiers to tie the traitor. Once they were done with that, she approached the captive, spat in his face and kicked him in the stomach, Ben groaned in pain but inside he was relieved that no one would get hurt because of him. His inner morality forbid him from letting others suffer for him, if someone died today he would never forgive himself. Even though he spat blood and could hardly breathe he was smiling all along. Noticing that fact the commander bit her lips, raised her thin eyebrow and clunched her fist.

"Kill them anyway. They will cause problems in the future, we don't want rebels in our Tower." She said and turned around.

Suddenly Leafers' faces darkened and they all seemed to skip a heartbeat, none of them could believe how arrogant and cold-blooded their enemy was. Because of the heavy atmosphere that now weighed on everyone's heart and mind no matter how light and vivid the torches were the enitre cave was pitch-black for Leafers, the only thing they could see was Ben lying on the floor, enemy commander's back that still looked at them almost as if amused and determined flame in Heroes' eyes. A loud, wild roar filled with primal rage shook the cave as two lines of Elementalists clashed against each other.

At first glance one could think that Leafers held the advantage thanks to their numbers but at closer inspection it was plain to see that the other side was much stronger. Individual strength of every otherworlder was equal to power of three natives at the same level of advancement. The only reason why Leafers held their ground was thanks to the much more experienced veterans that have long mastered manifesting their elements. In the middle of this sea of chaos were standing Arath and Elizabeth, arm to arm not giving away even a centimeter of battlefield.

Ben, still conscious, wanted to puke so badly his body trembled in every possible way. His sacrifice was for nothing, they were all going to die, all because of him. He couldn't even protect his new friends, so what was his life good for? He would much rather die thousand times than see all his comrades slaughtered one by one. He tried to break the rope but all strength just left him, him who was proud of his physical prowess but couldn't do anything when he was needed the most.

Arath raised his two blades and prepared to face next opponent, his first one was nothing more than a cannon fodder - a Water Elementalist who could barely use his powers. This time around it wasn't going to be that easy - his enemy was a slender man with short white hair and blood-thirsty grimace on his face. Arath tried to take a defensive position in order to find out enemy's tactics and element only to surprised few seconds later. The Hero pulled out a throwing dagger and smiled cruelly. He threw it aiming for Arath's head but the boy wasn't even trying hard and dodged it by side stepping.

'As long as you throw things at me you have no chance to win.' Arath commented internally and rushed forward.

When he was about to slash his enemy a shield appeared out of nowhere and blocked the attacker. When Arath regained his balance the man with the shield suddenly dissapeared as quickly as he appeared and left him flabbergasted. With no time to waste he activated his ability and sensed an almost perfectly hidden presence beneath him.

'You bastard, trying to hide in my shadows to backstab me? I know your little tricks too well, my friend.' Arath laughed at enemy Darkness Elementalist's futile efforts and stabbed the ground under him with full force.

In the same moment, a body appeared in that space with a surprised look in their eyes. The man didn't have the opportunity to suffer for a long time as Arath finished him with another quick stab, this time right between the ribs, piercing the heart. The original opponent had a terrified expression as he tried to run away. Arath had no intention to let him go and with the movement of a cobra got behind enemy lines. With eyes of a madman he jumped forward and plunged the shorter blade in the other man's neck. A quick gasp of surprise was the only sound that indicated the events that just took place.

Suddenly an arrow pierced the body of the deceased man and it would hit Arath if not for his inhuman reactions. He was about to look for the shooter when two more arrows flew right beside him. The man used his previous enemy as a meatshield and tried to back off when another series of arrows almost killed him. Each time they got closer as Arath was feeling results of an almost whole day of fighting in the dungeon more and more gravely. He focused his entire ability in the direction of incoming arrows in order to be able to keep dodging them and after two more series he finally left their vision and sighed in relief, when he suddenly felt immense pain in his stomach. He looked down only to notice the tip of a sword coming out from his body. With a stunned look he turned around only to see the short Sound Elementalist smiling at him.