What happened next was a reflex, a result born of months of pain, planning, and burning thoughts of revenge finally taking shape in physical action.
The moment she stepped close enough, Tyler moved.
He lifted his head and, with every bit of strength he had left, pulled hard on the chains. The rusted iron groaned, and the chains tore loose from the roof.
"MOVE—!
Before anyone could react, Tyler lunged forward like a blur. He locked his chained arms around the woman's neck.
She struggled and reached for him, but Tyler had already prepared for this moment.
Using the chains wrapped around her throat, he twisted sharply. A loud crack echoed, her neck snapped before she could even use her strength against him.
One down. Five more to go.
The others froze in shock. Their minds hadn't yet caught up with what they had just seen.
Tyler didn't waste that moment.
He took advantage of their hesitation. Before their thoughts could turn into action, he bent down, grabbed the knife on the ground, and charged forward.
He swung it across one of their throats. Blood spurted everywhere as the Magus fell to the ground, lifeless.
Panic spread fast. The remaining ones scrambled to defend themselves, but Tyler was already moving again.
For every single one he faced, he aimed only for death. No hesitation. No wasted motion. Each slash was aimed at a vital spot, the throat, the heart, the skull.
He couldn't afford to let any of them live long enough to fight back.
If even a few of them joined forces against him, Tyler knew he would be overpowered in seconds, faster than he could scream, "CAT!"
So he kept moving, fast and ruthless. Each time one body fell, he was already attacking the next.
In only a few seconds, it was over.
Six Magus corpses lay across the floor, their blood forming small red pools that soaked the cracked stone tiles of the cell.
And in the middle of the room stood Tyler, his hands still chained together, a knife dripping blood, his body covered in sweat and the stench of iron.
He threw his head back and let out a raw, fierce roar, a sound that mixed pain, rage, and victory. Then, without looking back, he ran toward the exit.
He had finally broken through the barrier, finally reached the Early Stage of the Mana Initiation Realm. But he knew this was just the beginning.
The real journey was about to start, and if he wanted to live long enough to see it, he had to move fast.
He couldn't stay here and risk being caught.
As he sprinted, Tyler gritted his teeth and yanked hard, breaking the chain still binding his wrists. His hands were red and swollen, his wrists bruised and bleeding after years of being tied down.
Every part of his body hurt. His muscles screamed in protest. It felt strange, even the simple act of walking was unfamiliar after so long in chains.
When his bare feet hit the solid ground, he stumbled.
"I didn't think it would feel this bad," he muttered under his breath.
But he didn't have time to rest or complain. He forced his body to obey, his mind reconnecting with his limbs through sheer willpower.
Step by step, he regained his balance, and then he ran again.
When he reached the outer part of the prison hall, he froze for a brief moment. In the other cells were people, faces he recognized immediately.
His classmates.
They were the ones who had been summoned with him.
[Leave them]
The voice inside his head spoke sharply, warning him not to waste time.
"I can't," Tyler whispered back.
Yes, they hadn't treated him well before. Many of them had mocked him, ignored him, and looked down on him. But even with all that, he couldn't just abandon them now.
He knew their pain, he had lived it longer than anyone.
He couldn't leave them to die here.
Tyler moved to the nearest cell and grabbed hold of the bars. With his mana-enhanced strength, he pulled hard until the metal bent and broke.
Inside, a boy fell to his knees, weak and pale.
"Can you stand?" Tyler asked quickly.
The boy swayed, almost collapsing again. Tyler rushed forward and caught him before he hit the ground.
"Who… are you?" the boy asked in a faint, confused voice.
"It's me, Tyler," he said firmly. "You have to get up now. We're leaving."
He helped the boy out of the cell and moved on to the next one.
This time, it was a girl, and what he saw made his stomach turn.
She was half-naked, with only a thin, torn shirt clinging to her body. Her skin was bruised and dirty, and her empty eyes spoke of the cruelty she'd suffered.
Tyler clenched his jaw, rage burning in his chest. "They've gone too far," he whispered.
He broke her chains and helped her to the ground gently. She was too weak to move, her body trembling.
He left her in the cell for the moment and moved quickly through the row, breaking open each lock and freeing whoever was trapped.
By the time he was done, sixteen of his classmates had been freed. Including him, that made seventeen survivors.
Almost everyone from their class except three.
Tyler frowned. He didn't see John, Sarah, or Damon anywhere.
"Those bastards," he hissed through gritted teeth.
He didn't want to think what it might mean. Maybe the three of them had escaped. Maybe they were taken somewhere else.
But a darker thought lingered, what if they were part of this?
He shook his head quickly. "No," he muttered. "I shouldn't jump to conclusions."
Sure, John was capable of selfish things, but Damon? He was the class representative, the one everyone respected. And Sarah… she would never join something like this.
"They probably don't know what's happening," Tyler told himself. "Yeah… they can't know."
He looked back at the group of exhausted, frightened faces staring at him, people too weak to move, too broken to believe freedom was even possible.
But freedom was right there, just a few steps away.
He clenched his fists, blood dripping from his knuckles.
"It's time to leave," he said under his breath. "Time to end this nightmare."