"To meet you," John didn't stop and headed directly towards the stairs next to him. In less than a minute he was up there and already killed the guard who was already in distress from what was happening here.
"Hurry, more will come," John said before he bravely jumped off the walls.
And Arthur stood there in amazement watching him fall ten meters and land with an injury.
"Jump," John urged, "no other way to leave."
"Damn! I miss being a dragon," Arthur couldn't help but retrieve those fresh memories in his mind when he could simply flap his wings and cover a vast distance in no time.
"Crack!"
As he landed on the ground he heard the sound of something being broken inside his body. "Damn! I broke my elbow!" he cursed in pain while feeling strange warmth coming from his left elbow.
"At least you didn't break your leg like me," John was already on his feet, trying to run with a limb movement.
"Come, lean on me," Arthur moved fast and went to his side before John put his arm around him.
And then the two started to run towards the deep darkness with broken elbow and leg.
"Where to?" Arthur asked after running this way for half an hour.
"As far as we could during the night," John said before adding, "it's a blessing the forests around this place are all cleaned by the guards."
"Monsters?"
"Wild monsters," John said, "pray not to meet one or else we would both die."
Arthur nodded and kept helping him in their escape. As they went further away, the noise coming from the prison back there started to die down.
"Will they suspect us?" Arthur asked.
"We left some loose loops behind," John could only grit his teeth out of pain and exhaustion, "after all some guards already knew we were prisoners dressed in guard outfit."
"I doubt any of them would be still alive."
"And we killed one guard before running," John added, "this alone would bring suspicion to us."
"Rumble!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
Just as John finished his words, a loud bang and violent rumble occurred in succession. "Even from this far… what the hell that prison contained?" Arthur couldn't help but mutter in deep shock.
The noise that came from the direction of the prison was so loud as if they were still nearby.
"This sound… there must be an armory hidden in the prison and I knew nothing about," John said before laughing, "or I just underestimated the explosives inside the one we broke into."
"And you wanted us to remain there and play," Arthur couldn't help but mutter.
"Admit it, you had fun back there, right?" John was in his usual joyful state, "I saw your eyes, you fell in love with that game."
And Arthur could only shake his head and say nothing in return.
The two kept moving as fast as they could, yet as they progressed deeper in the forest, their speed kept declining because of John's injury.
"You should leave me behind," finally after five hours of running and enduring the growing pain, he couldn't keep up anymore and let his body fall on the ground.
"I won't," Arthur firmly said. He wasn't that loyal to him, but John was like his guide in this world. Without his help, he doubted being able to move anyway forward safely.
"But my injury won't allow me to proceed forward."
"How about your system?" Arthur asked, "hasn't the seal been removed?"
"Removed?" John bitterly laughed, "this seal requires more than leaving the prison to be removed."
"Then tell me what to do," Arthur was still holding the hope of helping him, "is there any way to heal you?"
"Without my system then I would need potions," John said, "but making one without any of us having power is just mere dreams."
"Potions," Arthur's eyes shone brightly before he decided to take this risk. "Is there a place where we can hide for the rest of the night without being seen?"
"Well…" John was hesitant yet the face of Arthur under the bright light of the full moon that night told him he wouldn't be able to persuade him. "if my calculations are right then we are just less than an hour from a perfect place to hide."
"A mountain?"
"No, it's just a simple underground series of caves," John said before his face turned serious, "but those caves are famous for being a maze underground. We shouldn't wander deeply inside or else we might find ourselves a new prison."
"I understand," Arthur nodded before helping his friend up, "try to endure then."
"Thanks," John suddenly said, "for not abandoning me back there at the prison and for now."
"It's abandoned," John firmly said yet Arthur let him fall slowly on the ground before jumping all the way down.
When his feet touched the ground, he found the darkness of that cave quite disturbing. "Let's see if I can use one of these," he took out one explosive ore and the moment he took it out the ore shone brighter with red light.
And Arthur felt some resonance deep inside him. It was much weaker than the one he felt when he was bathed with green light from before but it was present.
"At least you are still there," he muttered before throwing the ore as far as he could deep inside the cave.
Just as the ore traveled deeper, it illuminated most of the entrance before the light could only show pieces of the wide interior of the cave.
And Arthur could clearly see a long tunnel extending deeply under the ground.
Arthur only nodded before the two kept walking at a lower pace that wasn't enough to take this too far this night.
But as John said, just in less than an hour Arthur spotted a deep groove that ended up with a cave entrance. "We are here," John said while holding over Arthur's shoulder, "let's go."
"Wait," Arthur suddenly stopped him while taking out his sword, "let me check it first."
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