Chương 92: Chapter 91. Don't cross me

The lizard's claws came down like falling cleavers. Rayne braced behind his shield as they struck. The claws scraped and screeched across reinforced metal, biting deep enough to gouge long furrows but not quite punching through. The force rattled his arms, but the shield barely held. Before the creature could follow through, a streak of red light slammed into its side. Captain Edran hit it like a charging warhammer. His sword glowed with furious crimson mana as he drove it straight into the lizard's flank.

The blade punched through overlapping scales with a wet crack, burying itself deep into muscle. The monster roared, its balance breaking as the momentum carried it sideways. It crashed into the floor with a thunderous impact that shook the entire library. But even grounded, it wasn't done. The lizard twisted violently, tail snapping around in a savage arc. It caught two soldiers mid-motion, hurling them aside like broken dolls, and then the spiked mass slammed straight into Rayne's shield.

He didn't even have time to react. The blow ripped the shield from his grip and sent him flying. His body smashed into a towering bookshelf, wood exploding behind him as his back took the full impact. Pain lanced through his spine, knocking the wind out of him for a few seconds. He hit the ground hard and rolled. For a moment, all he could hear was ringing. Rayne groaned and forced himself to move, teeth gritted as he tried to push up on one arm.

His back screamed in protest, but he sucked in a shallow breath and lifted his head. What he saw made his eyes widen. Captain Edran was already finishing the lizard. The captain moved with ruthless precision, his blade a red blur as he drove it again and again into the monster's jaw and neck. Each stab punched deep, tearing through muscle and soft tissue where scales no longer protected it. Blood sprayed across the floor with every strike, coating Edran's armor in dark streaks.

The lizard thrashed weakly, jaws snapping inches from Edran's arm, claws scraping uselessly against the floor. On the other side, Varrick stood firm. A massive force shield pinned the lizard's tail to the ground, translucent mana flaring as the creature struggled beneath it. The spiked club hammered against the barrier again and again, but it couldn't break through. With the amount of blood it had already lost, the lizard's movements grew sluggish, roars turning into hoarse, rattling growls.

Its claws scraped the floor weakly now, strength bleeding out with every heartbeat. Captain Edran didn't relent. He stepped in close and drove his blade up through the underside of the jaw, straight into the skull. The lizard convulsed violently, body arching once before slamming back down. Silence followed after that. For a few seconds, no one moved. Then Captain Edran ripped his sword free and took a step back.

He raised the blade, dark blood dripping steadily from the edge, and kicked the lizard's head once with his boot. The monster didn't react. It didn't even twitch. The moment stretched, and then Rayne's notifications buzzed in his head. He let out a long breath he hadn't realized he was holding and slumped back against the broken shelf, relief washing over him in a heavy wave. The pain was still there, but it no longer mattered. His tolerance skill was good enough for him not to be bothered by it.

Around the chamber, soldiers began to collapse. Some dropped to their knees, others simply fell onto their backs, staring up at the ceiling as if afraid to move. Jason sat heavily against a pillar, armor dented and bloodied, chest heaving, while Kesh and Axel immediately took off their helmets. Bran leaned on his bow at the side, and the archers around him were similarly exhausted. A few soldiers immediately uncorked health potions, pouring the liquid over wounds or forcing it down the throats of the injured.

Groans and quiet curses echoed through the ruined library as men tended to broken ribs, cracked armor, and deep cuts. No one cheered or celebrated. They all knew how close it had been. Rayne briefly glanced toward the massive corpse sprawled across the floor. The overgrown lizard lay still in a pool of its own blood, eyes glazed and empty. For a brief second, Rayne wondered if the fight had been enough. If killing something like that had finally nudged him over the edge.

He doubted that, since the final blow had been dealt by Edran and he had mostly stayed away from the monster, but maybe it had given him another skill. The thought lingered, and instinctively, he was about to open his notifications. Then he heard footsteps approaching him, looked up, and froze. Fredrick stood in front of him. There was blood on his armor and a deep cut along his forearm that seemed to be slowly healing, and his expression was blank as he looked down at him. Then he extended a hand.

"Get up," he said. Then, after a pause, he added, "You fought really well." Rayne didn't move. He just stared at the outstretched hand. Confusion crept in before suspicion could fully take hold. They hadn't spoken since the duel. Not a word. And now this same man—who had looked at him like he was filth back then—was standing here, offering help like nothing had happened. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Rayne's eyes flickered briefly over Fredrick's face, searching for mockery. There was none. And it only made it worse. When Rayne still didn't take the hand, Fredrick hesitated, then slowly lowered it. His shoulders stiffened slightly.

"Sorry," he said.

"I'm just… trying to help." Rayne pushed himself upright using the broken shelf behind him. He didn't thank him. Instead, he asked, "Why?" Fredrick grimaced as if he'd just bitten into something sour. He looked away for half a second, his jaw tightening, then sighed.

"There's no point in me being against you anymore," he said finally.

"I know I crossed you before. I acted like an asshole." He swallowed.

"But I don't want any enmity with you." Rayne barely stopped himself from frowning. The words didn't sit right with him.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" Rayne asked after a while. Fredrick didn't answer immediately. He looked at Rayne for a few seconds before shaking his head slightly.

"It wasn't sudden," he said.

"I've been thinking about it for a while." Rayne said nothing, simply watching him.

"Even my family reprimanded me for what happened," Fredrick continued, his voice quieter now.

"If you don't know… I'm pretty much isolated in the warband. Once I lost Axel's goodwill, that was it. No one wants to stand beside the man the squad leader doesn't trust, noble or not. My status means very little when there are rumors that I would be leaving the army." His jaw tightened faintly.

"I don't have any friends left here," he added.

"So I don't get to do much other than think." He paused, glancing over at the scattered soldiers tending to their wounds, the corpse of the lizard still bleeding out across the broken wooden floor.

"Honestly," he went on, "I don't even know if I'll survive this dungeon. We almost died just now. If I die, I don't want it to be while holding onto something pointless." He exhaled slowly.

"So before that, I wanted to at least try to make things right." Rayne tried not to frown. The words made sense. In isolation, they were reasonable. But people didn't usually change overnight. Pride like Fredrick's wasn't something that bent easily, and he recalled everything he had done and said very clearly. Still… Rayne remembered something. Fredrick had helped John during the march. He hadn't needed to. No one would have blamed him for ignoring it. But he had stepped in. Rayne finally spoke.

"Thanks for helping John earlier." Fredrick blinked slightly, as if he hadn't expected that. Then he nodded once.

"It was nothing." Rayne held his gaze for another moment before saying flatly, "If you don't cross me, I won't care for you." Fredrick's lips twitched faintly.

"That's good enough for me." Rayne gave a single nod and stepped past him, heading back toward his party. Even as he walked, a faint unease lingered at the back of his mind. Fredrick's words had sounded genuine. His posture hadn't carried the same arrogance as before. But Rayne couldn't afford to be naïve in a place like this. Trust was earned slowly. And this dungeon wasn't a place where he could waste attention worrying about a personality shift.

If Fredrick was telling the truth, then at least Rayne wouldn't need to look over his shoulder anymore. That alone was worth something. Rayne pushed the matter aside and focused on what actually mattered. He reached his party quickly. His party had fared better than he expected. Heins had lost his spear during the fight, but aside from bruises and battered armor, most of them were intact. The warband carried spare weapons for exactly this reason, and Heins was quickly rearmed.

A few men drank from their remaining health potions, others adjusted cracked shields or dented chest plates. After about fifteen minutes of rest, the scouts were ordered to venture into the hole the lizard had burst from. There were stairs leading downward, and the scouts returned after a few minutes, saying that the stairs seemed to be long, but they sensed no other monsters. Captain Edran didn't hesitate upon hearing that.

He ordered the warband to form up at once, and despite their exhaustion, the soldiers rose without complaint. As they formed up again and began descending, Rayne couldn't help but glance back once toward the ruined library. A faint irritation lingered in him. He hadn't even gotten the chance to properly read the one book he had pulled from the shelf. Although it was an illusion, the book was probably copied word for word, and he would have wanted to read it to see what it was about.

But he had nowhere to carry it, and there was no time to linger. Maybe the library held a few more books like that, but if he waited around to snoop, who knew what other trap might activate, revealing another lizard or worse. So he let it go and kept moving. They descended the stairs slowly, boots echoing softly against stone. Casper kept small flames hovering near the front and middle of the formation, lighting their path in warm orange.

There were no glowstones embedded in these walls like the rest of the dungeon. Hence, Rayne kept his shield ready, his eyes occasionally flicking upward to the ceiling. If something dropped from above in this narrow stairwell, it would easily kill or at least injure a few soldiers. But nothing came. Minutes stretched into an hour. The air was dry and stale, and the only thing that assaulted him was the dust in the air. Gradually, the soldiers relaxed. Whispers began weaving through the formation.

His own party started murmuring beside him, and before he knew it, Rayne was drawn into it.

"What do you think is waiting for us at the end of this?" Kesh asked quietly. Rayne huffed.

"I don't know. But we've been going down long enough. I'm guessing this is some kind of shortcut to deeper levels." Varrick, walking a few paces ahead, nodded slightly.

"I think so too. But dungeons don't hand out shortcuts without appropriate challenges. You all should be careful." Nate sighed softly in a whisper.

"Can't we just get through something without more trouble? Feels like I haven't relaxed in months."

"That's because you haven't," Rayne replied flatly.

"Even when we sleep, it's just exhaustion taking over." A few of them chuckled quietly, though it held little humor. Sensing the mood dipping, John cleared his throat and said, "You know what I'm looking forward to? Once the Pascar Plains campaign is over, we're definitely going to be assigned to a city." That shifted the tone instantly. What followed was predictable. Talk of rest. Of warm beds. Of cooked meals that didn't taste so dry, like the cook barely paid attention to it.

Then it slid naturally toward the usual soldier fantasies—booze and the whorehouses that catered to war-weary men. Jason eagerly joined in, adding crude commentary that earned a few tired laughs. Rayne stayed silent. He wasn't interested in either. Sleeping with prostitutes was the last thing he wanted to do when he had no idea how this world handled diseases. Even his memories didn't help in that regard. The conversation soon blended into background noise as they continued their descent.

Time blurred as they kept moving and moving, and Rayne was sure hours had passed by. Eventually, murmurs began spreading from the front of the column that the exit was in sight. Rayne straightened immediately, fatigue melting into sharp alertness. After a while, he could see it—a faint, pale glow coming from far ahead. They had finally reached the bottom. The stairs finally leveled out into a tunnel. The first of the scouts moved carefully toward the opening, but just then, something unexpected happened.

The dungeon shook. The ground trembled violently beneath their boots. Dust poured from the ceiling in thick clouds, and the walls groaned with a deep, grinding rumble. A few soldiers cried out, and the next second, the ceiling fell on them.

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