[Third Person POV],
When Ace and the earth mage saw the familiar figures of the men who had been left outside before entering the den ahead in the distance, they quickened their speed to catch up with the three ahead of them who were also sprinting towards them.
Perhaps it was because they did not need to worry about one of their common issues because when Ace together with the earth mage and Andrew Dawn men who were left outside the den, were only a few metres apart, their bodies gave out from exhaustion and they both collapsed to the ground.
Apart from the fact that the earth mage should have long since collapsed after taking the berserk pill and was only still holding out because the earth mage will of wanting to leave the den and not hinder Ace who was carrying the king, Ace was also equally exhausted because he still had several bloody cuts on his body that were still open.
Due to a number of factors, he hadn't taken any pills to heal himself. On top of that, he had to carry a grown man on his back while also stressing his weak body to move with all the burden it had on it.
If Ace hadn't been determined to leave the den, he wouldn't have been moving either, and when the earth mage and Ace realised they were both out of the den, their bodies couldn't take it and they both passed out.
Of course, the two didn't want this because they knew that even if they were no longer in danger of being crushed to death by a collapsing den, the rat queen was still hunting them.
The rat queen was right behind them and should emerge anytime soon if the den does not collapse to kill it or slow it down, so even though they had just escaped danger, that did not mean they were completely out of it. If one were to look at it from a different perspective, one might say that the real danger had only just begun because they were in the open with nowhere to hide.
Naturally, the three men who had remained outside from the beginning were unaware of this and were just relieved to discover that everyone who had entered the den, including their king, was still alive.
Blue had recently awakened as well, and when its master returned, it was relieved—not because it was concerned for Ace's health or even because it understood what Ace was going through—but rather because it could now free itself from the group of unidentified guys it had been with ever since it had woken up.
It didn't hate them and was very inquisitive about them at first, but it had always desired to be with its tamer, so when Blue saw Ace running out of the den, it let out numerous ecstatic screeches as it allowed itself to be carried by Caleb, who rushed to meet up with its master.
Everyone that wasn't Ace and the earth mage was happy but this all changed when they saw that Ace and the earth mage suddenly collapsed as they all increased their speed to quickly get to the side of the exhausted duo.
Even Blue kept quiet when it saw its master suddenly collapsing and fixed its eyes on Ace's body
When the trio together with a gryphon got closer to the collapsed duo, they immediately turned to check on the individuals that were important to them as Andrew Dawn's men went to check on their unconscious colleague and their naked king that fell down from Ace back when he collapsed while the little blue gryphon went to check on its master that was momentarily ignored as it licked Ace bloody cheeks with an extremely worried expression on its young face while letting out several sounds filled with worries.
Meanwhile, when they had gotten to finally see the appearance of Andrew Dawn, all three of his men were stunned but they quickly reacted by opening the store to buy a cheap set of clothes for their king and after confirming that no one on their side had died and were all just unconscious, Caleb finally had the time to check up on Ace.
At first, he had been surprised about why Ace and the earth mage were tasked with carrying someone on their backs but looking at the appearance of everyone including Ace when he got closer to Ace, it seems like things weren't so smooth in the den.
"He's unconscious as well", Caleb muttered after he checked Ace's pulse to confirm he was still alive which was good news but now that everyone that had entered the den had fallen unconscious, Caleb was at a sudden loss of what to do and under the gaze of a certain tamed pet, Caleb turned to look at the den that was still shaking in the distance while he pondered on his thoughts.
'Although I don't know what happened down there, It's good that everyone is safe', Caleb thought as he turned to look at everyone on the ground that was unconscious before turning to look at the other two who were beside the king and spoke aloud.
"Let's carry them and get out of here!" Caleb said to the two who immediately turned to look at him when they heard his voice as one of the men opened his mouth to speak and question Caleb.
"How can we leave like that when we don't even know if the king has retrieved what he came here for?", one of the two men beside Andrew Dawn asked as Caleb immediately replied.
"True but that does not mean we can keep staying out here in the open when the king and our colleagues are defenceless like this", Caleb said as the two men who heard him were unable to reply.
It was just as Caleb has said because while they indeed did not know if their king had achieved his goal of entering the den, he was nothing more than a defenceless human whose life could easily be put in danger which was something that none of Andrew Dawn's men wanted but could they just leave like that?
When Ace saw their struggle from their conflicted expressions, he decided to strike when the iron was hot to convince his teammates.
"And it's not like we have to go to a distance too far from here so when the king awakens, we can always come back fast as I don't think anyone would even want to enter the den when it's in that state", Caleb said as he ended his speech with him pointing at the shaking rocky hill that had huge rocks occasionally falling from its top.
Seeing as they could not refute Caleb's words as it was indeed reasonable, the two other men did not bother to argue as they decided to move according to Ace's plans because after putting everything aside, they really could not leave their king defenceless in the open like this but due to the number of unconscious bodies on the floor that they had to carry, Caleb was once again at a loss from what to do when he suddenly heard a low groan beside him and when he turned to look at the source of the sound, he found out that it was from Ace who was slowly opening his eyes.
Seeing Caleb quickly turned to focus on Ace and was about to lightly tap his cheeks so he doesn't fall unconscious when a certain tamed pet who was happy to see its master move a little jumped on Ace's stomach in happiness.
What it didn't expect was for its action to almost make Ace's condition worse as Ace opened his mouth to spit out a little amount of blood.
Thankfully, the impact wasn't serious and was enough to make Ace semi-fully conscious again as he slowly turned to look at the guilty looking gryphon on his stomach as he pondered if he should really cook it to make gryphon soup when a somewhat familiar voice sound beside him and brought him out of his thought.
"Are you okay?" Caleb asked Ace with a slight concern evident in his blood as he help Ace clean his bloody mouth with his sleeve but just before he could speak again, Ace beat him to it by speaking first.
"Let's get out of here fast!" Ace quickly said with the little energy he had in him.
Hearing Ace's words, Caleb together with his two other colleagues who were paying attention were stunned by Ace words and when Caleb was about to question Ace about what he meant, Ace spoke again with his flat voice and although his voice did not carry any obvious emotions and was fast, the content of his words made those who heard it turned cold.
"Let's get out of here fast because there is something after us that can even contend with you king in power!", Ace said and as if to confirm his words, a loud sound resounded from the den.
SQUEAK!!!
"Sh*t!" Andrew Dawn men cursed.
Follow current novels on freewe(b)novel.c(o)m