They said that when you're about to die, or near the brink of death, your life flashes before you, like some sort of cinematic movie that's playing. Rolling from the prologue of your birth, riding on the feels train of your youthful years and adolescent life, and then making its way back to the inevitable present. That's how its been portrayed by other people. And you know what? They lied. That isn't happening to me at all, and the only thing that’s on my mind right now is the cavern wall a hundred or so meters away, that's enthusiastic on greeting my face head on.

"WAHEUGHF!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. The loud unintelligible noise coming out of my mouth was at a high pitch which hadn't been reached before this day. It was a good day for breaking records, I guess. I just hope that dying wasn't one of the records that I'm about to break, though.

"Ay, look at you. Already enjoying your first flight towards a wall” Mr. Cobalt suddenly said. I just noticed that he was right next to me, on my journey towards the rocky wall.

His posture was as if he was standing up with his hands crossed in front of his chest, but his body was positioned horizontally in the air while being sent flying along with me. He seemed quite casual about the whole flying towards the wall thing.

“Ah, brings me back to my first experience flying like this. It was back when I was just ten, when my old man caught me loitering in the glass castle” He started telling the tale of his childhood, which wasn’t the right time or place for such a thing. “Told me to grit my teeth hard and take it like a man. So, I did, and I got whacked and sent flying outside… good times, is what it is”

That’s nice, remembering the good (?) memories from the past, but how about we focus on the ‘now'? I’m having a hard time imagining a ten year old surviving something like that, equally as stupid for some weak and frail person like me to survive, too. I definitely won’t. All I see is bad things happening when I reach that wall. Bad. Things.

Mind you, this was all happening so fast, like, a child trying to count down from ten and properly saying every single word correctly, kind of fast. Now that I think about, it wasn’t that good of a comparison, to be honest.

I don’t even know how he managed to say that much in that small amount of time, when all I could shout out was ‘WAHEUGHF!’. I was amazing too, I guess. Since I understood every single word that came out of his mouth in that time frame.

“There was also that peculiar Wanderer that I met up in a foreign country when I was on my first solo trip. I bombarded him with compliments of how dashing he looked with a face full of colorful bright makeup while wearing very revealing feminine clothes, cause, you know, I’m being nice and all” He said without a hint of urgency. “And what do you think I got in return for being nice and polite? A one way ticket towards a den of ungodly creatures hungry for my flesh, is what it is”

I wasn't listening anymore, because my attention was wholly focused on what’s coming up ahead. And I don’t particularly like what I’m currently seeing.

“Bah, people back then were so rude. Good thing t-”

“WALL! WALL! WALL! WALL! WALL! WALL!” I repeatedly shouted at him in quick succession, as we were only twenty meters away before hitting the wall. The man’s stories were very interesting, but telling stories really wasn’t helping at all.

“Oh?” He snapped out of his story telling mode, and came back to see how close we are towards our death. But, I mostly think that it’s just me that’s going to die. From the looks of it, hitting a wall with this speed is just a trivial thing for him. The wall might break first if they clashed, I think.

“Oh!” A split second after he realized how close we are, he twisted and turned while in mid air, grabbing my hand in the process and also making me spin. We spun a couple of times before he planted his feet in the stone floor, cracking and tearing the stone surface before he skidded to a halt.

He then let’s go of my arm and I drop down on the floor. With sweat dripping down from my forehead, I got my bearings together and stood up. Still woozy from the suddenness of being spun fast and then stopping.

“Everyone alright!?” The young (?) man shouted. He was standing at the opposite side of where we were, looking around the cavern.

“I’m fine!” Mr. Cobalt shouted out in reply.

“I’m not asking you, you fool!”

Each one then responded with an ‘I’m fine' or ‘we’re still kicking' from all over the place. Making a chorus of responses to echo throughout the cavern. From what I was seeing, not a single one of us crashed into the wall. Also, none got injured or hurt from the rocks that came flying along with us, which was already a miracle since there were a lot that went flying from the explosion. But, there was now this huge gaping hole that went all the way to the sides which split the people here into two groups in the center.

“Are you fine?” Al asked, to which I nod my head in reply.

“All of you there at the other side, gather at the other cavern before this one. We’ll find a way around and meet you there” He gave his order. “Now! Move!”

With that said, our half of the group went towards the tunnel and making its way back to the cavern where dozens of dead bodies were littering the place. It wasn’t a good place to stay, since that stench of death was slightly permeating in the air. This was a horrible place to wait for someone, and I hope that they won’t make us wait for too long.

Looking around, everyone in our group was on alert, still distressed that something might happen next. And surely, there was going to be. I feel it. Sixth sense for that sort of thing? Of course I don't have something so convenient like that. But I can feel it happening, any time soon.

“Oi, everyone just sit and relax while we wait. Don’t want any of you dying because of fatigue now” Mr. Cobalt said.

After everyone listened to his order, the man next to me sat down with his legs crossed. I also did the same and asked him something when I saw everyone was busy doing their things again.

“Uhmm, can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“It’s that… uh, that thing that happened back there. What caused it?”

He rubs his chin and looks up. “Hmm, I’m guessing it's that man’s move to divide our group, so maybe he sent one of those dolls towards the lower floors on a suicide mission”

“Suicide mission?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

“Yes” He nodded. “Cause, you see, when those dolls that he got reaches critical point, they're made so that the core that’s inside of it would explode, dragging the surrounding men and women along with it to what hell those pesky things end up in”

“Ahh…”

“That could be prevented, though” He added. “By destroying them fast enough before they can register what happened to them, or just interrupt its connection from the person that’s controlling it”

“How do you do that?” I asked, even though I already knew that I couldn’t do something like it.

“Link Intervention” He answered.“But that doesn’t matter right now. All you need to worry about is to stay alive and finish the job”

I nod my head in understanding. It worries me though, that our group was divided into two. In the fantasy books about wars and in-fightings of empires that I’ve read, one of the easiest and most common ways to weaken the opposing forces is to make it so that their forces were split up. If the other party can’t help and communicate with each other, then your chances of winning would sky rocket by slowly whittling them down, one group at a time. After that, it’s checkmate.

Now, for the real question that needs to be answered. Who is he going to target first?

We sat there and waited for a good half an hour. In that time, I asked Mr. Cobalt a few more questions to pass the time, which he answered enthusiastically. He derailed from the topics that I put up, though. Often going into a state were he loses focus on the subject and starts retelling his past ‘glories'. Most of them were about him getting into tricky situations, but it was interesting, nonetheless, so I still listened in.

Moments later, foot steps could be heard from one of the tunnels in front of us. Everyone stood up and got ready for whoever or whatever it was that’s coming. But, all of those who were on alert, relaxed after they saw who it was that came in.

“Ay, you still alive. Thought you’d at least be missing a limb or two” Mr. Cobalt got up and went near the young man with a tropical shirt.

“Shut up. I don’t want to hear your voice right now” He said in a tired voice.

“Hmm…” The hulking man looked at the ragtag group that just arrived.

“What happened?” He asked, seeing that there was only less than a dozen of them left.

“What happened?” He replied slightly irritated. “The fucker got to us, is what happened”

“Details, Worth. Details” He said assertively.

“…” After a few seconds of reluctance, the man named Worth sighed and started speaking of what happened to them. And speaking, he did.

He went into full detail of every second after we parted ways. From them entering the tunnels, to the ambush that seperated them again into another group. And then, all hell started for them when they were trying to escape from their pursuers.

“The fucker had more dolls with him than we thought. Gave us five more of them shit bags after we broke up with the others in the inner rooms. He positioned them there, lying deep underground until we thought we finally escaped from the first ones” He said. “Good thing we got Vik at the back of the group before they could suck us dry. Then we ran for our lives before his mirrors shattered”

“How about the others?”

He shakes his head dejectedly. “We didn’t see anyone along the way”

His answer dampened the mood of everyone else, except for the man beside me who was sporting a huge grin on his face.

“Hah! Seems like the mouse is the one doing the hunting in this maze now” He said. “Better to step up our game, or else we might just become dead meat for a rodent to feast later on”

“And how do you propose we ‘step up’?” Worth said.

“Elementary, my dear Worth!” He said in an exaggerated tone. “Firstly, we should find out what he wants to do the most right now, which is?

…

“…To get out?” I said subconsciously, to which I quickly looked down because people started staring again. If I can’t see them, then they ca-… it’s not working. I can still imagine them looking at me.

“Bingo!” He said, as he slaps my back, making me fall forward.The man should learn how to control his actions, each time he does this makes me feel like he’s trying to send someone towards their death. Imagine if we were near the edge of a cliff or something, the last thing I want is to be near this man.

“And why do you think he split our group up?” He asked again, and someone answered with ‘to make it easier on him?’.

He nods his head at the man’s words. “But why, though? If all he really cared about was escaping, then he could have just done so by sneaking past us and using the other routes towards the entrance, or doing a hail mary and forcing himself out with the dolls. But he's deliberately staying here and leading us by the nose”

WHY? The question that everybody had on their minds right now. Some people gave their opinion, but Mr. Cobalt struck down their words with a shake of his head.

“I’ll tell you why” He said with a smirk, as if he was a kid who just found a trivia magazine in a barber shop while awaiting his turn.

“He still needs something, and from what I can tell…" He pointed his index finger at someone in front of him. “it’s us”

“”“Huh?””” A lot of the people here wore flabbergasted expressions at what he revealed.

"Or more precisely, it’s our body and blood” He claified.

“… Ah! So, the big oaf can use his rotten brain from time to time” Worth said, understanding what Mr. Cobalt was implying.

Mr. Cobalt laughs aloud for quite some time when he saw everyones expression.

“Let me explain it in a more simpler way for you to understand” He said, after he was done laughing to himself. “He knows that escaping the city while keeping that damned bomb on him isn’t going to be a walk in the park, and when he does eventually get out of here, there should already be a group of hardened men trained for just this types of situations awaiting for him outside. If he wants to escape unscathed, he needs a lot of decoys to distract them, which is the dolls. And if he wants to use those dolls, he’ll need Souls to power them"

Everyone besides me seemed to catch on on what he was trying to say, as each of their expressions darkened.

“Our blood and bodies will retain most of the Souls that we make for quite some time after death, meaning," He snaps his fingers, making a loud audible sound to ring and echo throughout the cave. "we’re gas tanks for those godforsaken war machines”

“””…”””

The cavern grew silent, and each one of us realized that there wasn’t a cat and mouse scenario anymore. It was now a cage where two beasts were put inside to see who comes out alive and breathing . And I don’t think our group is winning this face off right now.

“Alright everybody, change of plans, so huddle up! I got a plan, and it needs a special someone for this to work” He looks at me with glint in his eyes. “And it so happens, that special someone is among us, and he’d be willing to volunteer as bait”

I inadvertently gulp, as I notice that that special someone who he was referring to, was little old me. What happened to keeping the care package safe and sound from a while ago?

“Should we start running away from them?” Al asked.

I don’t think I’d be able to out run the man that’s looking at me as bait, or anyone in this place at all.

Although reluctant, no, I was very well against doing something suicidal, but what can I do. I’m just a boy, with nothing else that I can do besides being ‘good' bait.

Well, it worked the last time I was used as bait, so maybe I would work again on the same fish. But…

“There’s still the option of trying to run away” Al said. “You could still try, at least, before the inevitable happens”

I sigh, as I look down. Why even bother, I'll just conserve my strength for when it’s time to run. And I’m pretty sure that I’m going to need every single bit of energy for what’s to come next.

“… What do I need to do?” I asked in resignation.

“Ohoho, you just need to remove those rings from your fingers and look like the most fabulous bait ever” He said. “Show them some skin or something. It might add a little more effect to what you’re doing”

I sigh at what he said. I keep repeating in my head that it’s going to be fine, but I remembered Mr. Cobalt’s words from a while back. Doubt the plan and make a ‘Plan B'. But what’s my ‘Plan B’ supposed to be?

I removed the rings that were keeping me alive, and pocketed all of them. It was in the opposite pocket of where the dagger was, making sure to remember which is which.

“Let’s get this show on the road, kid” He said. “Worth, take four other people with you, and escort him down in the tunnels. We’ll follow behind”

The man wearing a tropical t-shirt, although sickened in taking orders from the hulking man, nodded his head.

“This is good. It’s easier to run away from five people rather than thirty” Al said. “All we need now is a distraction”

What is it with Al and running all of a sudden. But I agree, it is easier, and more so, with a distraction. Although, I’d still get caught someway or another.

…

Ah… I’ll just have to wing it.