CHAPTER 92: RUN!!!

Max swiftly ended the battle with destroying the hound’s spine where the runes were carved. As expected, it didn’t give any EXP.

He sighed and muttered, "This shit so ass!"

Then, he went towards the two ladies and they congratulated him while asking some questions about his new strength.

After that was done, they once again set off to hunt the monsters for seriously this time since they were prepared for everything.

Or so they thought.

It seemed like their luck ran out as the moment they stepped past a giant hall made of withering roots, they encountered a being they never thought they would meet so soon.

Max’s hair stood up in alarm as his eyes widened seeing the monster standing before them.

It closely resembled the Black Knight of the first Floor.

It was a knight of twisted bark and black iron, fused with the dark mist flowing all around them. It was so tall that they had crane their neck just to see it’s head where two cursed red light burned under the visors of the helmet.

It Wielded a cleaver-like greatsword made of obsidian roots that dripped liquid dark as the roots.

"Fuck! Run!"

Max didn’t say anything else and turned around to pick Charlotte. Then, with as much as speed as he could muster he ran towards the exit of the dungeon.

Stelle didn’t need to think twice to follow his order as she made the size of her hammer smaller and ran with all her might.

Even without Max’s shout, she would have done the same because her intuition was screaming of death to her. If she stayed behind, she would be gutted by the knight.

Running slightly ahead of her, Max cursed his luck when he sensed the knight moving, ’Damnit! I should have expected this!’

He was wondering how could the Dark Tree not do anything even though they were practically slaughtering it’s underlings.

At first, Max thought that maybe it was because it’s influence was low because of the density of the dark mist. But only how he understood why the dark tree didn’t do anything.

It had actually sent it’s guardian, the Ebornlem Warden to kill the three of them. As the guardian of that damned tree, the warden shared many of the powers from it while having none of it’s weakness.

It was Intelligent because it was directly connected to the tree and had the Monstrous power of the Middle-Stage Second Order Monster who was almost Late-Stage Second Order Monster.

There was simply no way they could win against that thing.

That was the reason Max had planned to just scavenge the outer borders even though he often thought of killing the tree.

He didn’t know if the knight was really there and if it really was that dangerous.

’I need to be more careful. Next time, I’ll overestimate every enemy.’

Just then, Charlotte in his arms squirmed slightly before whispering something to herself.

Max didn’t have the liberty to ask what she was doing but he soon felt the effects when both him and Stelle gained a boost in speed all of a sudden.

’The hell! She even knows this? She’s just too damned OP!’

Unfortunately, the warden had also began pursuing them and was closing in rapidly. If they were the same when they had entered the Labyrinth, they would have been slaughtered already but leveling up gave them a chance to run.

And they took it!

"What do we do, dummy?" Stelle asked, running beside him while occasionally throwing some trunk, roots and whatnot at the warden.

However, there was a strange mist girl around the warden which deflected everything away, making her annoyed.

She clicked her tongue and focused on him again, asking, "Is there any weakness we can use?"

Max blinked, confused by the sheer confidence and trust he sensed in her voice. It was as if as long he was there with her, she wouldn’t feel despair at all.

Perhaps that was why she was fighting actively without being overwhelmed by emotions.

Max smiled, feeling warmth in his heart and said, "Don’t waste your energy throwing anything at him as the viel around it passively deflects all projectiles."

Stelle instantly stopped her plans and paid attention to his words.

"It also has another skill which is deadly but we’ll be fine because it needs to be in contact with enemies to use the ability. It also has a second transformation which I’m sure it’ll use once we are close to the exit."

He paused, jumping over a root that suddenly sprouted because of the dark mist.

"It’s only weakness is it’s cleaver which works as it’s second heart. But we need to hit precisely at the spot where the heart is, which will send a heavy shockwave in its body. It isn’t enough to kill it but useful nonetheless."

Stelle thought for a while before saying, "Alright, leave it to me then. Take Big Sis and run."

Both Charlotte and Max wanted to reject her proposal but her following sentence made them choke on their words.

"I am useful, right?"

Max gave a side glance at her, feeling her intense emotions through her eyes. It was clear that she wanted to use this opportunity to clear her insecurities and doubts for once and all.

As much as he wanted to support her, the warden was simply too powerful and he just couldn’t risk her life like that. Still, he also knew rejecting her here would have heavy consequences.

After some hesitation, he took a deep breath, feeling the world beneath them rumbling as the warden got closer and closer.

They wouldn’t be able to make it back to the exit at this rate.

"Alright. But listen carefully before doing anything rash," Max’s eyes burned with resolution as he said. "Wait for it and when it’s close, the warden will disperse the viel to attack you."

Confidence surged into his heart as he continued.

"It’s extremely confident in it’s cleaver so it’ll attack you with that, but it’s also because it will use it’s second skill through the cleaver. It’ll be dangerous but you can time your attack and hit the end of the cleaver. That’s where the heart is when it wants to use the second skill. It’ll glow slightly. But if it isn’t glowing, attack the spot slightly away from the end. Around two palm length of your palm."

The two ladies specially paid attention to his words while Charlotte also casted some spells for their help.

"Once you strike it’s second heart, it’ll cause a shockwave throughout it’s being but don’t think it’s an opportunity to attack because I’m sure it’ll use that to activate his second transformation."

Max went over every minor detail to think of the most the warden could do and use. He didn’t want to leave out any possibility.

It was only after that he had formed this plan.

’What is it’s second transformation?’ Stelle wanted to ask but she kept her mouth silent as she knew time was of essence here.

"Using that small time break, you will come to use using everything you have, don’t save any mana and use everything to increase your speed. Once you are caught upto us, we should be outside of the dungeon."

He looked down at the beauty in his arm and smiled, "But even if we didn’t, Char will prepare the slowing down spell which will give us enough time to exit the dungeon. Do you two understand?"

They both nodded with serious look in their eyes, especially Stelle who wanted to prove herself.

"Then, here we go. We can’t waste another second."

Max muttered and bent forward, having a wide smile on his face, "Miss Healer, please be careful because we are turning into a bullet train."

He pushed his mana on his feet then launched himself forward as his momentum helped him even more.

Stelle slowed down her speed, her face turning ruthless as she waited for the warden to catch up.

The warden certainly didn’t keep her waiting as in the next moment she felt her hair standing up in alarm. It was the same feeling of death but much worse.

However, she didn’t panick nor she ran away this time.

She ducked a rotting bark that the warden had thrown at her and looked back. She noticed the viel around the warden slowly disappearing.

The warden itself had raised it’s hand up with the cleaver almost touching the ceiling of the corridor.

Instead of her hammer, Stelle took out a small metal ball that she covered in her flames. Her eyes lit up in similar colour as her crimson flames as she watched the cleaver coming down on her to split her apart.

It was so fast that Stelle couldn’t even react properly. But she remembered her talk with both her sister and her boyfriend.

That gave her confidence and strength as she waited and focused on the cleaver, looking for the glow Max had mentioned.

’The warden is really smart to hide it!’