<~> Chapter 324The ground was rumbling when we reached the top of the stairs. It hadn't been noticeable when we were still in the dungeon, but now that we were in the cave that hid the entrance, the entire area was shaking.

  "Lilith! Help me reinforce the walls!" Morrigan yelled as she pushed past me. "If this cave colpses, we'll be trapped!"

  I pulsed an affirmative to her through the bond and used [Light Scribing] to activate one of my earth magic rituals. Since none of us could cast terra magic naturally, I had copied more terra magic rituals into my book of recollections than any other type of magic. Terra magic was so helpful that it was usually worth the inefficient mana costs of ritual magic because it permanently altered the ground. My ritual spell activated, and I pushed the spell into the floor to harden the tunnel we were in as much as I could. Morrigan took all of the waste terra mana I created and used it to reinforce the walls further.

  Our group had swelled to fifteen people since we found the four adventurers. Since they were being used to threaten the dungeon throughout the dungeon break, they luckily still had their equipment with them so they wouldn't be helpless on the way back either. From the looks of things, it might not be easy to return. I wasn't sure how rge of an area the earthquake was affecting, but I wouldn't be surprised if the monsters and demons in the area became more active because of it.

  Silva was the first one to leave the mouth of the cave, and I felt a wave of shock flow through the bond. Since we were only a few steps away, I didn't bother asking and just came up next to her to look.

  Devastation. The area looked like a tornado had come through. Trees from the nearby forest were turned up and knocked over. The ravine that we had crossed to get here was carved even deeper into the mountain. Fires had spread to the forest nearby, which would cause some complications when we try to make it back to the city.

  "What happened out here? Do you think it was him?" I asked.

  Before anyone could answer my question, the ground began to shake again, and rocks were starting to tumble down the cliff housing the cave.

  "Lilith, we need to move!" Torien said, pushing me.

  Our group ran along the tremoring cliffside as rocks tumbled around us. We headed into the clearing that ran between the edge of the torn-up forest and the mountain we had just exited. A massive explosion from the other side of the ravine made me jump, and we got our first look at the source of all the destruction.

  Two people were fighting. They were too far away to see clearly through the smoke and debris, but it was clearly two people throwing magic at each other. One was casting hundreds of spells a second, destroying everything in their path, and the other moved quickly, deftly dodging everything the other threw at them. The occasional spell the second person retaliated with was massive, shaking the earth whenever one of the disturbingly dark bck explosions went off. It was impossible to tell the state of the battle, but the second figure almost seemed like they were toying with the first one despite the immense amount of magic they were using to try to kill the second person with

  "Those are two extremely high-level people fighting! We need to get out of here!" Lori said frantically.

  Despite the wreckage, the safest pce to go was right into the mess of toppled trees and unstable ground. It was in the opposite direction of the two people fighting, which made it the clear winner despite the danger. With the amount of magic the two were throwing around, any other direction would be more likely to put us into harm's way. They were moving erratically and unpredictably, but at least they were headed away from us.

  "Are we going to be able to find a path from here?" Aquil asked. "Our scout isn't with us anymore."

  "I can lead you back. I know where we are," Torien replied confidently.

  "Are we going to the bridge? Is that even safe right now?" Morrigan asked.

  "The only other way back to Traehall would be into the ravine, and I don't think that's a good idea right now," Yefen said. As if to illustrate his point, a tree was blown out of the forest and nded in the crevasse with another explosion of shrapnel.

  "Could we fly over the mountain range with Lilith's wings?" Raya asked.

  "I don't see any banshees around," Silva added in agreement.

  I grimaced. "The idea isn't terrible, but unlike inside the dungeon, my wings would be visible for miles and I do not want to draw any attention to us."

  "I'm not sure those two, whoever they are, would be able to spend any time focusing on us while fighting the other. They look evenly matched," Nelly said.

  Silva shook her head. "No, Lilith is right. We don't know that. If one of them is hostile toward us, the other might try to protect us, which would only put us in the crossfire. It would be better to just slip away while they're distracted. We don't know anything about them. I don't think it's worth the risk. Let's just head to the ravine pass. It'll be dangerous, but the distance away from those two might give us more options."

  The ground shook again as another bck explosion rocked the area and caused the cave the dungeon had been inside to colpse behind us. I didn't want to dwell on how lucky we had been to get out of there in time, so I pushed it out of my mind and headed toward the ruined forest ahead of us.

  Many of the logs from the fallen trees were massive, and at several points, we wouldn't have been able to cross the area without Mimi's ability to eat anything in her immediate path. The horrifying giant mouth that opened where Mimi's belly button should be was visible to the other adventurers, but they wisely kept their mouths shut despite their frightened expressions. It was pretty apparent to everyone that Mimi was not just a strange looking beastkin. She was something else, but the people we had rescued knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth with such a dangerous fight going on behind us. They didn't say a word about it as Mimi chomped us a path through any obstacle too difficult to climb over.

  It didn't take us all too long to make it back to the stone bridge where we had crossed the ravine. The bridge was still standing, but I don't think any of us felt comfortable crossing with all the shaking still going on in the area. I turned back to watch the two high-level people fight. Neither of them had lightened up in the slightest. It was amazing that the two had so much mana capacity. They had to have been fighting for over an hour by now, based on the destruction, and neither of them looked like they were casting any fewer spells than when we first saw them.

  "We're going to need to cross. There's no other way around," Torien said with trepidation.

  Some of the rumbling stopped for just a second before another explosion began to shake the ground once again. Not only would we need to cross the bridge, we would need to do it while the entire thing was quaking. I examined the bridge as much as I could under the circumstances. Despite everything, the bridge still looked firm. I activated the magic sight in my succubus eyes and could still see the reinforced terra magic that flowed through it. The bridge was still heavily fortified, so it would theoretically be safe to cross as long as it didn't get hit by the two dueling casters directly.

  As much as I didn't like this, and every part of my survival instinct said this was a bad idea, I got an even worse feeling about being anywhere near those two forces of nature fighting on the far side of the ravine. I took a breath and waved everyone forward. Unlike before, when we made a mad dash across in pairs the entire way, we took things slow and moved one by one, each with a hand held securely on the wall. We kept this up the whole way, until we reached the part of the bridge that wasn't connected to the cliff face. This would be the most dangerous part to cross.

  "I'll go first," Silva said, not even waiting for a discussion before pushing off the wall and centering herself on the bridge. Slowly, she began to walk forward. The entire bridge was still shaking, but there was plenty of space between the two edges in the middle for one person. Shortly after her, Lori insisted on going next. I went third, followed by Mimi, the twins, our four new compatriots, Raya, Sibyl, Bel, and finally Nelly and Kal'daeryn in that order.

  Even though we went one at a time, we didn't wait for anyone to get all the way across before the next person went. It wouldn't make the bridge any less likely to hold us, and being closer would be better in an emergency anyway. I felt like I was holding my breath the entire time we were crossing. My heart was pounding in my chest as I stepped past the very middle of the bridge. I kept walking, not daring to slow down and hold anyone else up. We all needed to make it to the other side as fast as possible.

  I let out a sigh once I made it past the free-standing part of the bridge and could safely put my hand back on the wall of the cliff face again. I didn't stop, but I turned around to see the others continue to cross with the same anxiety I had. All of us had been forced to close our bond as much as possible so we wouldn't bleed too much of our emotions into each other and make the entire thing even harder.

  My eyes met Morrigan's when it happened. We both went wide-eyed at the same time as we felt the ripple of mana surge toward us in that fraction of a second. By this time, nearly everyone had made it across the free-standing part of the bridge, but that didn't matter because that wasn't the part that got hit. Far down below us on the wall of the cliff, a cluster of explosions hit the wall and tore out a chunk of the rock supporting the bridge. It was only the briefest of moments that the bridge continued to hold all of us before the rocks began to slide into giant sbs, breaking the bridge into pieces.

  Some of us were more prepared for it than others. Morrigan and I both knew what was happening and began to push the information into the bond as quickly as we could. I leapt from the side of the bridge and shifted into my true form. My [Arms of Light] armor exploded into a bright light as it quickly grew to cover my new form as I dove to catch the twins. I caught Morrigan in one arm and Torien in the other. Unfortunately, the two of them together were heavy. After my experience with Sibyl, I immediately cast [Lightfoot] and neither twin resisted the field that made both of them lighter.

  At some point during that, Mimi had managed to shift into a choker and wrap around my neck before I noticed, so she was safe too. Silva and Lori both pulsed through the bond that they were safely on the other side. At the same time I was getting that message, I was already speeding toward Yefen and Aquil, who were still falling. Nelly and Samuel had managed to stay on a piece of the bridge that had survived for now, while Kal'daeryn dove through the air after Nora. On the edge of one of the rocks, Raya was on a stranded piece of the bridge holding Sibyl's hand, who was struggling to find the leverage to pull herself up.

  Once it hit my brain that my hands were full and I didn't know what I was going to do about the two ahead of me, Bel passed by on her own wings. She didn't have the luxury of using [Arms of Light] to repce her clothes, so she was bare naked as she flew forward to catch the two. She scooped Aquil into her side and caught Yefen with her other hand, but the three immediately began to fall from their combined weight. To my side, I saw Kal'daeryn clutching Nora before the two suddenly disappeared.

  Morrigan urgently spped me on the side. ("Wings! Give me wings!")

  My eyebrows rose, and I began to cast [Winged Cloak of Light] onto my two girlfriends. I could power both without issue, but having the free hands would make all the difference. The seven of us plummeted toward the ground before the wings finally activated, and I let go of both of the twins so they could catch the air.

  ("Mimi! I need you to blunt the air resistance again!") I yelled through the bond.

  Rather than any kind of verbal response, I got a pulse of acknowledgment as the spell took shape in front of me. I rocketed forward with the wind shield diverting the air around me, and we quickly caught up. Bel turned to face me and a non-verbal conversation passed through the bond faster than ever before. She let go of Yefen and spread her wings to catch an updraft. The two shot up above us just as I caught Yefen's hand.

  The effects of lightfoot activated on Yefen, who was even heavier than the two twins combined, and Mimi instantly released her wind shield without needing to be asked. I spread open my wings and tilted to the side to catch the air and follow Bel up. As we headed back to the cliffside, my eyes searched for my friends. Everyone looked okay, but some of them were stranded in pces along the remains of the broken bridge. I caught sight of Kal'daeryn next to Nelly with a hyperventiting Nora. Kal'daeryn must have used that artifact she got from the dungeon to teleport back to the ground. They were on a part of the bridge before most of it colpsed, stuck on the other side.

  I made it to the side with Silva and Lori, and dumped Yefen with the two of them before immediately heading over to help Raya and Sibyl. When I got close though, I noticed neither of them were looking at me. When I turned to follow their line of sight, I saw one of the figures that had been off in the distance shoot toward me like a shooting star.

  My eyes went wide as a rge hand grabbed me by the chest, and a grinning, toothy maw smiled down at me. "Looks like I found a hostage!" Felketh cackled as he bounced off the cliff and shot back through the air in the other direction. I heard screams and cries as the bond forcibly snapped when he dragged me far out of range again. We were moving so fast that even with my high Vitality, I bcked out.

  Saine

  Hello! Uh oh, looks like we're not out of the woods yet! So to speak. It's hard to escape when everything is exploding around you! We're getting super close to the end of the book now, not a lot more to go! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thanks for reading!

  Check out my other story here: Umbral Feast

  Here's a link to the community Discord: https://discord.gg/XsNwYuZp6s

  If you would like to support my writing on Patreon, you can read up to 10 chapters ahead there!

  Please leave a favorite so I can get my story in front of more eyeballs! I would greatly appreciate it!