A howl cut through the mist, echoing from all directions at once. Another replied soon, followed by a third.

  Everyone looked at each other, suddenly filled with adrenaline. The ambush had failed.

  "RUN!"

  Nobody knew who said it first, but the entire group instantly sprinted away, spreading out a bit to avoid getting in each other’s way. Axehand stood back up, glaring at the mist-faced death knight who’d sent him flying. At least, he’d delayed enough for Boboar and Headless to escape.

  That death knight was a terrifying opponent. Axehand could feel his body and soul boiling, and not just from Jerry’s overcharging. His gaze sharpened. The bones on his skull creaked and groaned as they morphed into a grin, and he stared right back at the mist-face, who only regarded him coldly. It clearly viewed Axehand as inferior, and though it had the strength to be arrogant, Axehand itched to rub that cockiness into its helmet.

  He crouched and prepared to charge as everything else washed away. Lumberjacks were proud warriors; after all, the trees never win.

  "Axehand! We need you!" A cry cut through Axehand’s battle haze. He turned to find his Master—Jerry—staring with plea.

  Axehand was his own Master now. He was strong enough to attain freedom, if he wanted to, but still chose to follow Jerry out of respect. Now, Axehand’s mind was torn; on one hand, he wanted to fight, to kill or die.

  On the other hand… Though Axehand was a proud, lonesome individual, he still regarded this group as his friends. They’d grown together and shared fond memories, be it relaxing around a campfire or triumphing over their enemies.

  Axehand spared a final glance at the mist-face, grunting a challenge and a promise to return. He then decisively departed.

  He had chosen to help. That would get him a good battle, too, anyway.

  The mist-faced warrior watched Axehand’s departure coldly. It had received the challenge and ignored it. Its only goal was to protect its Master; everything else was secondary.

  Arakataron watched the group go as well, and he did not pursue. His purple flames took on a mocking tint and dimmed down as he refocused on his ritual. He knew that they could not escape.

  ***

  Axehand brought up the rear as everyone else jumped from island to island like deer. Their gazes flickered left and right, expecting danger to appear from anywhere. The howls kept coming.

  The stone islands that previously hampered them were now as easy to cross as gaps in the sidewalk—adrenaline did wonderful things.

  "Jerry, guide us!" Horace said, his eyes sharp as they surveyed the mist. Their hundred-foot eyesight range was neither short nor long. They were almost surrounded and relied on Birb for a way out, as it flew ahead and scouted possible routes—in this terrain, it could move much faster than them.

  Of course, Birb was just a bird, and its instructions were relayed and translated through Jerry.

  "Go right! That’s our only chance to—"

  Another howl filled their ears, closer this time, and an elongated form burst through the mist. It wore plate armor and had unnaturally long arms wielding a sword each. It pounced as it found them.

  The death knight crossed the stones easily and jumped at Marcus with abnormal speed. The treasure hunter almost fell back.

  An axehead flashed at the last minute. Axehand, already overcharged, smashed into the death knight and cleaved an entire arm off as he pushed it back. At the same time, two arrows flew precisely into the death knight’s eyes. It collapsed into the dark water.

  Marcus was filled with relief which was instantly shattered when the mist burst with howls. Two blurry forms phased closer; one was a long-armed death knight, and the other a tall, grotesque caricature of a man sewn together from multiple bodies.

  It sported two legs, two heads, and six arms, each wielding a weapon. Its body—two torsos stacked on top of each other—was bloated so much that its stitches burst with dark red blood, and every step it took caused pus to leak from several wounds.

  Jerry had seen two of these monstrosities on the Damn Wall, but never up-close. It was disturbing enough to make even him, a necromancer, frown—and that’s without mentioning everyone else.

  Axehand and Horace fell on the enemies as the rest kept running. Blades and arrows whooshed through the air, heralding intense violence as they hacked through Arakataron’s army. Both the monstrosity and the death knight fell, but the battle had taken some time, and more enemies were catching up.

  Moreover, the death knights had superhuman physicality, meaning they could run faster than Jerry and the rest of the group. More undead occasionally appeared from the left or right, stalling the group. Fortunately, Axehand and Horace were faster than the rest, so they could stay back to deal with the enemies before quickly catching up.

  "Wait!" Jerry shouted, screeching to a halt. "There are three death knights and five monstrosities between us and the shore. They’re working together!"

  Everyone blanched. The patrols farthest away from them had time to group up and were apparently too strong to ignore. Even Axehand and Horace couldn’t deal with three death knights in a short amount of time.

  "What do we do, Jerry?" Marcus asked, filled with tension. They were hunted and standing still.

  "We can’t get through them!" Jerry shouted. "We’ll go around. Follow me!"

  He quickly dashed to the left, heading for a different part of the shore. Everyone followed him, but a moment later, Jerry’s face went pale. "Crap! They’re shadowing us!"

  If the grouped-up undead had headed directly for them, as Jerry anticipated, their diagonal route might have bypassed them. It wasn’t a foolproof plan, but it could have worked.

  Unfortunately, these undead were coordinated by someone smart. They didn’t blindly rush towards the group’s current location. Instead, they moved in parallel, keeping themselves between the group and the shore. They had to cross a longer distance, as they were circling around the lake at a wider radius, but they were faster anyway.

  "We’re trapped! They somehow detect our position, and they’re guarding the shore!" Jerry said.

  "Well, guide us! What do we do!?"

  "Keep running!"

  They were out of options. All they could do was keep running around the lake and hope for something to happen.

  For a few minutes, the group circled around the lake at a radius between the center and the shore, while a large squad of undead circled in parallel with them and prevented them from escaping. At the same time, every other undead of Arakataron was chasing them, and enemies occasionally leaped through the mist.

  Whenever that happened, Axehand and Horace were barely able to react in time.

  "We need to do something, Jerry!" Marcus cried out. "I can’t run much longer!"

  "Crap!" Jerry gritted his teeth. Birb was much faster than everyone else, giving Jerry a good overview of the situation, but he could still see no way out. Birb could survive, maybe Horace and Axehand too, but the rest were doomed.

  Going back meant death.

  Going forward meant death.

  Standing still meant death.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Running around also meant death, just delayed. They couldn’t keep going in circles forever!

  What other option was there?

  None, Jerry thought, feeling melancholy overtake the tension. Oh, I will never see my chair again… I will never make more shoes… Maybe Arakataron will forgive us if I make him a wonderful pair. Does he even have feet?

  Jerry hadn’t seen the lich’s feet through the robes, but it had to have a pair, right?

  However, not everyone was equally resigned. "We must go underwater and swim to the shore!" Laura said, her eyes hardening.

  "Are you insane? That’s suicide!” Marcus shouted back.

  "Not immediately."

  "I don’t want to die!"

  "There’s no other choice. If we jump in, we might still make it! If we stay, we’ll die for sure!"

  "Argh!"

  Marcus gritted his teeth so hard it hurt as he looked around. There has to be a way, he kept repeating in his head. There must be!

  His gaze absorbed everything. The calm dark waters, the panicking forms of his companions, the random stone islands and the few taller rocks which pierced several feet into the air.

  Damn it… He clenched his fists. This is all my fault. I never should have come here! Ugh! I had Dorman’s treasure in my grasp and chose to die instead. What an idiot!

  It was ironic. Marcus had discovered the location of Dorman’s legendary treasure, but an evil Archmage just had to set up lair there and make the entire area forbidden. The treasure was still here, probably, hidden inside one of the myriad rocks, and Marcus was destined to come close but never touch it…

  Could Arakataron have the treasure already? he wondered before shaking his head. Could be a coincidence. It’s sealed in stone, after all; and what does Dorman’s gold have to do with an Archmage?

  His eyes flashed. Marcus suddenly roared with laughter, surprising everyone else.

  "Did you finally go insane?" Boney asked, shaking his head. "I saw it coming."

  "I found it!" Marcus yelled. "I found a tiny chance!"

  "What chance?"

  "The chance to survive!"

  Surprise and elation shone in everyone’s eyes. They kept running, but a barrage of questions assaulted Marcus.

  "The treasure is hidden inside of these stones. It is a sealed, hollow space! If we can find it and reseal it after we get inside, we can escape the death energy for a while. We can hide underwater!"

  Everyone was puzzled for a while before their eyes shone. It was a desperate plan, but if it worked…there was a chance! Escape was possible!

  “What if Arakataron took the treasure already?” Laura asked. “What if that sealed space is no longer sealed?”

  “Then we’re dead anyway!”

  “You realize the chances of Arakataron randomly setting up shop near a treasure trove are nil, right? He has to know.”

  “And we have to take a risk! Come on, Laura, work with me. Let’s fight for hope!”

  "We need to find the crown-shaped stone formation!" Horace’s eyes flashed as he looked around. They’d covered a good part of the lake already but hadn’t spotted it yet. Maybe it wasn’t exactly as they imagined it. “What about the pierced island Arakataron floated over?”

  “That was a donut, not a crown! Wait, I have a picture!”

  Marcus scrambled to take out his notebook. His trembling hands sent a few trinkets of distant civilizations flying, but he couldn’t care less. He hurriedly flipped to a specific page, where he’d once copied the riddle of the pyramid in the Sea of Sands. "Look!"

  Everyone burned the image into their minds; it wasn’t just crown-shaped rocks.

  Two crowned humans held hands under a complex constellation, pointing down. Their arms formed a downward triangle, and Marcus pointed at it while hurriedly saying, "This means the Valley of Kings, where we are! Look lower!"

  Under the kings’ hands lay a crown-shaped hill. A tall, slim rock stood in the middle, surrounded by a bunch of shorter, rounder ones at varied heights. A white bubble could be seen inside the base of the tall rock, containing a red X—the sign for treasure.

  "We’re looking for this rock formation," Marcus explained quickly. "The treasure is sealed inside its base, which means it’s hollow. If we can create an opening to enter and patch it up quickly, we can survive there for a bit!"

  "Won’t we run out of air?"

  "Not immediately! It’s better than running out of blood!"

  A crown-shaped stone formation? Jerry squeezed his mind and asked Birb, too. The two of them combined had seen over half of this lake, but nothing resembling a crown so far.

  "We must keep looking!" he exclaimed. "Quick, let’s run in circles!"

  "Wait." Horace’s voice cut through their panic. However, he didn’t speak anymore, keeping his eyes focused on the notebook. Everyone stared at him, ready to burst from the tension.

  "I know what this mean—" he said, but a sharp howl interrupted him. A long-armed form jumped out of the mist; it had sneaked up on them while they were distracted. It howled as it swung its greatsword at Headless. The zombie tried to block but flew backward from the impact.

  The Billies were there to catch him, thankfully, but the death knight was upon them again. It brought its greatsword down on their heads.

  Horace had no time to react. Axehand did.

  His bulky form flew and crashed into the death knight, drawing him into a roll on a stone island. When they stopped at the very edge, Axehand was at the top. He rained axes on the enemy, who defended with all its might and even struck back some. Their attacks carved the stone before Axehand managed to bury an axe into the enemy’s helmet, destroying it instantly and tossing the body into the water.

  He then accelerated to catch up to the others, who hadn’t stopped running.

  Horace lowered his bow.

  "Focus, Horace! Keep talking!" Laura cried out.

  "I’m sorry for trying to save our lives."

  "I make snarky comebacks, you explain stuff!" Boney yelled. "You said ‘wait.’ You know something!"

  "I do." He nodded. "We aren’t looking for a crown. We’re looking for just the middle rock."

  Marcus was quick to disagree. "That makes no sense. There is clearly a crown."

  "This place used to be a valley, not a lake. The shorter rocks could be under the surface. Only the middle one is certainly still poking out, surrounded by empty water over the other rocks. We’re looking for a tall, isolated rock, not a crown!"

  Horace’s stare could cut through iron as he buried it deep into Marcus’s eyes, and the latter reeled. Jerry said, "I trust Horace! Let’s find the lone rock!"

  "We already have." The hunter chuckled. "It was there at the very start, as we entered the lake."

  Jerry’s eyes shone. Indeed, there had been an abnormally tall rock at the very start, standing upright and mocking them like the middle finger of foreshadowing.

  However, since they were running circles around the lake, they were only a quarter away from their entrance spot. At least the rock was far enough away from the shore that they could reach it without fighting the death knights—probably.

  Jerry grinned. If there was hope, the world was bright! “Let’s hurry!”

  Horace looked at Jerry and nodded, while Axehand grunted in approval as he snuck a sip from his flask. More howls assaulted them at that moment, as the death knights from behind were catching up, and the group accelerated again, sending burning stitches into Marcus’s and Laura’s ribs.

  They were already exhausted, but they had to make it to the mysterious rock. The rock was their savior. They believed in the rock.

  And, if Horace or Marcus were wrong, they would just die.