Kael had already removed the cloak, and they were now running eastwards.
"Let's pick up some weapons on the way; we might end up needing them."
The girl nodded.
"By the way, my name is Lola; what's yours?"
Kael looked at her a bit surprised.
"We're running from hundreds of people who wouldn't mind seeing us dead, and you want us to start socializing? Are you crazy?
The girl laughed faintly before replying.
"Sure, it is weird, but what if we need to call each other and there's no other chance to ask?"
She looked ahead then continued.
"Let's take the chance while we can."
'Well, she's not really wrong; we might end up needing to call each other, and we can't do that if we don't even know each other's names.'
"My name is Kael.
So Lola, what else do you know about this place? It could help us leave this fortress – "
Suddenly a short sword hurled through the air; Lola pushed Kael away as well as herself.
They both fell on the floor in opposite directions, but both of them jumped to their feet almost immediately.
'What was that?'
"Thanks."
"Who are those two?"
There were a few dozen people blocking their path.
"Kael, let's run back.
I think I saw a passageway earlier."
"Yeah, I saw it as well, but it will only lead us back inside."
'Wait, but in there only a few people can chase us and we'll have a higher chance of surviving.'
"Okay, let's go."
The group was already approaching them; they immediately turned back and ran.
Lola picked up the sword and passed the knife she picked up earlier to Kael.
He gripped it as they ran.
Both weapons were high-grade swords, meaning their opponents were very strong.
They entered the narrow passage and headed for the opposite exit.
"Let's wait and ambush them behind the boulders by the exit."
"Lola, we can't bring down a dozen fighters ourselves."
She looked at him.
"Yes, we can. I'm awakened, and we have the element of surprise on our side.
"And you can also help; we just need to take down a few then keep running."
'That's way too risky; she might not die immediately but I will if I get stabbed just once on my already bruised body.'
Unlike the girl who had probably had her fair share of kills, Kael had never killed anyone before
He noticed some tall boulders at the next passageway.
"I have an idea."
The pursuers had reached the end of the first passageway; their leader ordered his men to a halt.
"Find those two; they might be around here somewhere."
One of the soldiers walked towards the leader, who was leaning on his greatsword.
"But Captain, why are we even looking for them anyways? We have a different target."
"Yes, I know, but we still don't know how to get across the fortress without getting caught up in the fight between those two monsters.
Those two were dressed like slaves; they probably know something about getting around the fortress
If they don't, we'll just kill them then."
While they were discussing, Kael, who was standing nearby at the entrance of the second passageway, had summoned his cloak.
He commanded the cloak to assist Lola to push the boulders down.
The boulders eventually yielded and toppled down on their pursuers.
"Captain"
Some of them were buried under them; while they were disoriented, the pair seized the chance, went through the cloud, and dashed towards the group.
"Now."
He rushed towards the first one and stabbed him in the neck; the man jerked and turned in shock.
Before he could speak, Kael withdrew the knife and stabbed him again in the throat.
Just as the soldier was falling, he was already running towards the next person.
The soldier lunged at him, but his hand was held by the cloak in the air, and before he could shake off the surprise, Kael's knife was buried into his chest.
The soldier fell down lifelessly.
A notification rang in his ear: "You have killed an awakened human."
But he was not even focused enough to think much about it.
Kael was breathing heavily as he finally took a moment to catch his breath.
He looked to his right and saw that Lola had taken down four of the remaining six.
She was struggling with the last soldier when the captain lunged his greatsword at her.
The attack was so fast that she could barely react to it.
"Lola, watch out."
He sent the cloak to hold back the attack, but the captain was clearly on a different level from the other warriors.
The cloak was barely able to slow down the attack, but it was enough for Lola to dodge it by a hairsbreadth.
She stumbled back beside and finally caught her breath.
"This guy's really strong; can we even win against him?"
"Let's run."
The both of them ran through the passageway; the remaining two were still chasing them.
Suddenly, an arrow hit Kael's arm, and he fell.
'Damn it, it hurts like hell.'
The soldier shot another arrow at Lola, which she deflected.
She carried him on her shoulder as she ran; he used the cloak to pull down a boulder to slow down their pursuers.
"Just hold on a bi—"
Suddenly the wall behind them shattered from an explosion.
Both of them were thrown forward from the shockwave of the impact.
Kael fell from Lola's grasp and hit the wall; he rolled and tried to get on his knees, but he spewed blood from his mouth.
His whole body felt as if it was on the verge of crumbling.
"Hold on."
She crawled to his side and broke the arrow in half, then helped him to his feet.
"Let's keep moving; we can't slow down."
His voice was haggard.
'I can't die here; I'm not going to die here.'
"You're not looking good at all.
Just hold on until we can get out of here."
Kael nodded as they moved forward.
"Damn it, my major worry is the two guys chasing us.
What if we run into the rest of them?
Also outside, the main fight is probably still going on; they could still come back this way."
"Okay, one problem at a time; we should just focus on getting to the barricade."
As they approached the barricade, their pursuers emerged from the corner.
The both of them looked bruised and were bleeding all over.
They seemed to have gotten caught up in the blast.
The archer shot two arrows imbued with flames at them.
The both of them fell down trying to dodge the arrows; they dodged them by an inch but were still grazed by the flames.
'Damn it.'
"We need to defeat them here before we get even weaker than we already are."
"Okay, should we take them on each on our own?"
"No, we can't; the archer is too much trouble for us right now."
He looked around, saw a sack on the floor, and then turned to Lola.
The archer was already shooting at them while running towards them.
He ran towards the sack and hurled it over his shoulder.
"Once I throw this sack, you need to go for the captain.
I'll take the archer."
As Lola lunged towards the captain, Kael ran towards the archer with the sack still on his shoulder.
He mustered all the strength he had left just to keep going.
The archer immediately shot an arrow at him; he leaned to his side and let the arrow hit the edge of the sack.
He pulled out the arrow and threw the sack at the archer, which he dodged with little effort.
The moment he dodged, he saw a knife that had been thrown at him; he used his bow to deflect the arrow at the last minute.
'Got you.'
Without hesitating, Kael plunged the arrow into the archer's left eye.
The archer screamed in pain as he fell to the ground holding his face.
Lola dodged the great sword before swinging her own sword at the captain's shoulder.
He deflected her attack with the hilt of his great sword before hitting her in the abdomen with a powerful fist.
They were both visibly tired and battered.
'Damn it, I'm getting weaker; if I delay this too long I'll definitely lose.'
She noticed Kael's cloak with the corner of her eye and smiled.
'So that's it?'
She suddenly lunged towards the soldier.
"So you've realized your useless struggle and decided to die honorably."
He swung his great sword, aiming to cut off her left shoulder.
But he suddenly lost his footing and lost his balance a bit, and the strike completely missed Lola.
Not missing her chance, she delivered a strike to the captain's neck.
Sending her opponent to his knees, she noticed the look of surprise on his face.
"What did you do?"
"Why do you need to know when you're dead anyways?"
She delivered a final strike, and the head came rolling to the floor.
"Kael, how's it on your e—"
'Huh, why is everything upside down?'