"Now… what will I do to get out?" Kelvin thought to himself, feeling the rough bite of the ropes against his wrists. His mind ran through possibilities. Then, a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "Oh, I know."
"What are you thinking? Different ways you're going to die?" Silvia asked in a snarky tone from where she was tied up, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Nope," Kelvin replied confidently. "I'm going to escape… and then save everyone."
Before she could even scoff, Kelvin began swinging his body back and forth, building momentum. The coarse rope burned against his skin, but he kept going until with a sharp twist of his wrists—"snap!"—the fibers gave way. He dropped mid-air, twisting his body so he landed with his legs bent, absorbing the impact.
Without hesitation, he activated one of his only skills. "Thousand Falling Death Blades!"
In an instant, hundreds of shimmering, translucent blades rained down from the void above, slicing cleanly through the clawed hands of the sandstone beasts that had been holding them captive. The creatures roared in pain, their grip broken. Their once confident movements now became clumsy, stumbling as if their entire balance had been ripped away.
Kelvin didn't stop there. He gathered energy into his palms, compressing it until it glowed white-hot. With a loud crack, the blast exploded outward, knocking the nearest monsters away and tearing open a path through their ranks.
Silvia could only stare, eyes wide, as Kelvin danced through the battlefield, cutting down any sandstone monster foolish enough to approach. The air smelled of burnt stone and dust, and shards of their rocky bodies littered the ground.
"Great work!" Silvia called out, though her tone quickly shifted to irritated. "Now, could you please get ME DOWN FROM HERE!"
Kelvin casually glanced her way. "Calm down. You don't have to be such a crybaby." He threw one of his smaller blades toward her. The rope above her head was sliced cleanly, sending her tumbling as it the blade flew back to him like a bumarang—
—"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!" Thud! ---
she shouted as she landed "— HEAD FIRST? Really?!"she said groaning as she held her head. "Don't you know how to treat a lady properly?"
"Whatever," Kelvin said, rolling his eyes as he turned to walk away.
"Wait—hey! You can't just leave me here! What about the boss?!" Silvia's voice rose in alarm.
Kelvin didn't even turn around. "I was just taking a nap when I got dragged into this mess. If you wanna die so badly, go for it. As for me, I'm going away from here so bye."
She ran after him, almost tripping over debris. "Wait, you can't just—"
But her words froze as the air grew heavy. From the shadows at the far end of the cavern, something massive stirred. A single, earth-shaking thud echoed through the space. Dust trickled down from the ceiling. Then, out of the darkness, the monster appeared, even the dead bodies of the sandstone monsters were trembling.
It was easily twice Kelvin's height, its jagged body a mix of obsidian black and glowing red cracks that pulsed like a heartbeat. Its jaw opened in a snarl, revealing fangs like serrated daggers.
"You… are the ones who did this?" the monster growled, voice like stone grinding on stone. "My minions… my food… GONE?!"
Silvia's face went pale. "I-it's a Sword Fiend…"
Kelvin's grip tightened on his blade, eyes narrowing.
The fiend's patience snapped. With a roar, it lunged at them, the ground cracking beneath its feet.
"Ah—ahhh!" Silvia screamed, fumbling for her magic book, but the monster was already upon them.
Then, just as the killing blow was about to land—clang!—a faint blue light flared in front of her. Kelvin had stepped between her and the monster, sword in hand, blocking the attack with one arm while pushing her back to safety with the other.
"W-what just happened?" Silvia gasped, staring at his back her mind blank void of thought.
"Stay behind me," Kelvin said without looking at her, a smirk tugging at his lips. "Unless you want to get killed."
The fiend glared, its single eye blazing with fury. Dust swirled around them as the tension in the cavern thickened.