Now that they suspected Sarah had caught onto something, they changed their tactics. They were no longer acting as predators waiting for the perfect opportunity to ambush their prey.

They sped up their approach, not giving a damn whether their footsteps could be heard anymore. If they’d been caught, then there was no point in trying to conceal their presence, and even if they hadn’t till that point, they still had to speed things up regardless.

Otherwise, the teams in the last two tunnels might make it to the boss’ chamber, which itself would cause some problems for them.

’If they manage to reach it, they’ll realise that the E rank Elite isn’t in there for some reason.’

He couldn’t possibly know how they’d react to that news.

Their hastened pace led them down the sixth tunnel, which stretched on and on.

At first, Rohan and Elane maintained a leisurely jog down there, stopping every so often so that Elane could focus on her hearing and check for movements.

But there was nothing, no footsteps, no breathing. Nothing at all.

They frowned, but kept going.

Then they sped up.

If the pair ahead of them had simply gone farther than expected, then all they needed to do was close the distance quickly and cut them down before they could react.

So they ran.

Five whole minutes at the fastest pace they could maintain, which would have left Ordinary F rank Awakened gasping and stumbling for air.

But still, their efforts were fruitless.

By the time they finally came to a stop, both of them were breathing heavily. "Fuck, this is ridiculous..." Elane muttered, hand against the wall as she listened one more time.

Rohan looked deeper into the tunnel, though his eyes couldn’t exactly see much through the darkness.

"Either we weren’t fast enough, and they managed to slip out towards the chamber on the other side, and into a different tunnel. Or they noticed our presence earlier than we initially thought." Rohan suspected.

Elane clicked her tongue.

"...They must’ve regrouped already."

This was the last thing either of them wanted to hear. They’d hoped to bleed Rudith’s force dry, one weak pair at a time, until none of them remained.

But if the sixth tunnel was empty after all that distance...

They were already too late.

"There’s still the seventh," Elane said without much conviction in her tone.

Considering the sixth was empty, not much hope remained for the seventh.

"We should clear it anyway just to be sure. We don’t want to head over to the entrance and face off against them and have someone ambush us from our flank because we didn’t check it out."

Rohan agreed.

"Then let’s check it."

That was all they could do. So they turned around and ran back.

Unless they grew impatient, Rudith and the others would still be waiting for them at the entrance regardless of if they took an extra 10 minutes or not.

***

The seventh and final tunnel proved to be even more infuriating. It was shorter than the sixth, less winding, and a little wider in places, which should have made it easier to hear or see anything moving inside.

But that only mattered if there was actually anything there to begin with...

The result was the same as before.

They didn’t need to explore the full length. The truth was obvious.

Rohan stood there in the dim tunnel, chest rising and falling as he slowly fought back against the exhaustion brought by so much intense sprinting.

"That confirms it. They’ve regrouped." He said flatly.

Elane silently shook her head in condemnation.

By now, they accepted it.

There wasn’t any point in denying the possibility.

They’d taken down all of the ten Awakened they’d hired, and unless there were more that Elane failed to spot when she scouted them out, it only left the original six.

’It’s almost as if they knew something like this would happen... creepy.’

Rudith had split the groups up to perfectly save herself and her core team for last. Whether that was luck and coincidence or a calculated move had yet to be seen. Did she know that the danger would be higher in the right hand side of the beast nest?

The duo cooled their emotions.

"And they all have to be at the entrance waiting for whatever’s been killing their people."

Rohan gave a dry, humourless laugh.

"Do you think they suspect it’s us?"

Elane let that question sit in the air for a few seconds before answering. She crossed her arms, leaned lightly against the tunnel wall, and stared into the darkness they had just come from as if Rudith and the others might suddenly appear from there.

"I think Sarah suspects something," she finally spoke. "Not necessarily that it’s us, but definitely that something is wrong. Otherwise these last two tunnels wouldn’t have been empty. All it would take is hear picking up on the sounds of us fighting... or letting their dead bodies fall to the ground."

Midway through giving her opinion, Elane realised the mistake they’d made.

"We should have accounted for that, dammit! It’s such a simple thing too."

"What?" Rohan asked, confused.

"Every time we took care of the Awakened in the earlier tunnels, we just left their bodies to ragdoll naturally, like you normally would. But we failed to account for the sounds and vibrations they produced on impact!"

Rohan’s brows raised, and he became equally frustrated. ’Something so simple... really derailed our whole plan like that.’

Elane pushed herself off the wall. "We should go. The longer we make them wait, the more impatient and irrational they might get."

They sauntered off towards the exit of the seventh tunnel. Rohan held his Horned Rabbit Spear in one hand, and a Poison Rocksnake Pike in the other.

They knew that even in smaller groups, Rudith’s team are able to take on and even kill Elite beasts without breaking much of a sweat, so this face off against them wasn’t exactly going to be a walk in the park.

Eventually, they finally reached the precipice of the beast nest’s entrance, where some faint sunlight was filtering in.

...And six silhouettes stood in between them and the sweet salvation of the outside world.

"It’s you two!?????"

An incredulous voice shouted in shock.