Starting out as a Dragon Slave-Chapter 58: Escape

The reddish smoke fell slowly, like a theatrical curtain gradually revealing the extent of the chaos left by the Queen’s detonation. The acrid smell of burning and poison hung heavy in the air, mingled with the muffled groans of the hunters on the ground.

Isaac opened his eyes. His body was crushed to the ground, covered in ash and chitinous dust, his ears were ringing, his face was covered in bloody scratches, and his left arm was burning with a stabbing pain. He tried to stand up, his muscles trembling with the effort, but barely managed to get to his knees.

Around him, the other hunters lay shaken, disoriented and broken.

Erika was the first to regain consciousness clearly. Her hair was covered in dust, an open wound on her forehead trickled blood down her pale face, but she knelt down moaning in pain, looking around with an almost animal-like urgency.

Then her gaze fell on Maëlle.

- MAËLLE!" she screamed, immediately crawling towards the young mage.

Maëlle was slumped against a cracked column, her eyes closed, a trickle of blackish blood escaping from her half-open lips. Her body convulsed slightly, as if her spirit was still struggling to cling to life.

- MAËLLE, ANSWER ME! Erika shook her, panicked. She looked around, meeting Jonah’s dazed gaze. "Damn it, Jonah! Help me get her up! She’s barely breathing!"

Jonah struggled to his feet, holding his broken arm to his chest, stumbling awkwardly towards Erika in an attempt to support Maëlle. Rémi and Leïla were still staggering about, completely haggard.

Isaac didn’t move. His gaze was elsewhere, caught up in something bigger.

The mana crystals.

Five of them were still there, embedded in the ground of flesh and stone. And they vibrated softly, a slow, faint, but alluring pulse. Isaac understood at once: they were still reacting, despite the death of the boss, despite the dungeon itself collapsing.

As the ground began to tremble beneath their feet, Erika looked up, sensing the impending catastrophe.

- THE DUNGEON IS COLLAPSING! WE’VE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!

The ceiling cracked, whole chunks began to fall like blades of rock, shattering eggs and still-wriggling larvae, spilling streams of viscous, whitish bile everywhere.

Isaac didn’t move immediately. His heart was already racing under the crazy idea that had just germinated in his mind.

"If one crystal gave me this power... What will five more offer me?"

His core, this new source of power he’d felt being born within him, seemed to burn with envy. And so did he. He’d tasted absolute power, the divine sensation of pure mana, and he hadn’t had enough.

Isaac rose slowly to his feet, advancing towards the crystals, totally deaf to the panicked cries of his comrades behind him.

- ISAAC! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! screamed Erika, watching helplessly as his figure approached the crystals.

But he couldn’t hear. He raised his hand and touched the first crystal.

[Absorption in progress...]

[Crystal absorbed: Mana +80]

[Mana level: 210]

He screamed under the internal burning that followed, his nerves becoming fiery pathways as the power poured into him. But he didn’t stop. He immediately placed his fingers on the second crystal, energy surging through his veins.

[Absorption in progress...]

[Crystal absorbed: Mana +60 (reduced effectiveness)]

[Mana level: 270]

His body vibrated with excruciating pain, as if his blood were now boiling with pure magic. He staggered towards the third crystal, his head spinning, his vision blurred by tears of pain. His fingers trembled violently, but he placed them on the cold surface anyway.

[Absorption in progress...]

[Crystal absorbed: Mana +40 (effectiveness still reduced)]

[Mana level: 310]

His scream sounded like a death rattle, a mixture of forbidden pleasure and unbearable suffering. He fell to his knees, his bones burning like internal torches, but the fourth crystal was right there, within reach.

He crawled forward, his nails clawing the spongy flesh of the floor, and reached out a desperate hand towards the fourth stone.

- More... just a little more...

[Absorption in progress...]

[Crystal absorbed: Mana +20 (critical efficiency)]

[Mana level: 330]

This time, he felt his veins swell under his skin, threatening to explode. He vomited blood, falling almost unconscious, but he knew it wasn’t over. There was still one more.

- ISAAC! WE’RE BREAKING NOW!" shouted Jonah, barely holding Maëlle in his arms, running for the exit as the walls crumbled around them.

But Isaac was beyond words, beyond limits. He placed his hand, now covered in blood, on the last crystal.

[Absorption in progress...]

[Crystal absorbed: Mana +10 (physical limit reached)]

[Mana level: 340]

His body twisted in a convulsive spasm, his scream muffled by the blood in his throat. He felt his own body approaching its absolute limit, but the power he had accumulated was now titanic.

Isaac staggered towards his companions, who were almost at the entrance to the now gutted boss’s room. Erika looked back one last time, terrified but also fascinated.

- What the hell have you done, Isaac...?

He raised fiery eyes to her, his blue pupils glowing, almost supernatural.

- I don’t know, but it hurts like hell!

And just then, the entire ceiling of the dungeon cracked with a deafening roar. An avalanche of stone, flesh, mucus and corpses came crashing down on them.

Erika shouted a final panicked command:

- RUN! DAMN IT, RUN NOW!

The last thing they saw before the world went black was Isaac’s silhouette, his mana wings now monstrously large, outstretched like a dragon’s, illuminating their escape with an unearthly blue light, in the face of the death that was coming.

Then everything collapsed.

Isaac felt the world crumble around him.

The entire ceiling of the dungeon fell in an avalanche, a deadly shower of rock, metal and flesh. The ground shook violently, dust and mucus forming a suffocating fog, making it impossible to see clearly.

The accumulated mana burned in his veins like a volcano ready to erupt, but Isaac, strangely enough, felt absolute clarity.

He knew what he had to do.

There was no choice: he had to save the team.

Isaac gritted his teeth, his eyes gleaming an unreal blue, his mana wings abruptly unfurled, spreading out in an electric blue glow, as if the accumulated power sought to tear him apart from within.

- I won’t let you die here...

He contracted every muscle, every nerve, propelling all his mana into his flying skill. The pain was indescribable, liquid fire consuming his cells one by one, but he gritted his teeth, growling with determination.

Isaac was hurled forward like a human missile. The ground and walls became blurred at such a speed that reality itself seemed to distort around him. In front of him, through the dust, he could see the panicked, staggering silhouettes of his team, desperately trying to escape the death that was nipping at their heels.

Erika, holding Maëlle almost unconscious against her, was yelling at the others to move faster, but they had no chance of surviving alone. Jonah, Rémi, Leïla... all were slowed down by their injuries and exhaustion.

Isaac couldn’t leave them behind.

He veered slightly off course and, in a split second, overtook the struggling Jonah, grabbing him by the collar of his jacket. Jonah, startled, barely had time to scream before he felt his body being lifted, carried away at insane speed.

- WHAT THE FUCK?!

Isaac didn’t answer. He no longer had the strength or the intention.

Without slowing down, he passed Remi, still injured and stumbling. Ignoring his cry of pain, he grabbed him by his valid shoulder and propelled him forward in his wake.

The pain in his muscles was excruciating, but he held on.

Erika had turned around, her eyes widening in amazement and terror as the human figure became a blue comet hurtling towards her.

- Isaac, is that you?!

But he didn’t give her time to react any further. He grabbed Erika and Maëlle, each with one hand, grunting under the monstrous effort of maintaining this insane speed despite the extra weight.

Finally, he lunged towards Leïla, who was falling to her knees, overwhelmed by fatigue and pain. Isaac plunged forward, grabbed her by the waist and lifted her without slowing down.

All now hung from his body like broken puppets, swept along in his wake by the supernatural force of his extreme skill.

The dungeon was collapsing behind him, the stones falling just a few centimetres away, every second of delay could sign their death warrant.

The pain was indescribable, his muscles slowly tearing under the pressure, and yet Isaac didn’t stop, his gaze fixed on the exit, on the last bluish glow of the portal now visible.

- HOLD ON! WE’RE NEARLY THERE!" he roared, his howl half-covered by the infernal roar of the ruined dungeon.

The portal was approaching, both quickly and too slowly, through the explosions and rock projections that brushed against their bodies, tense with effort.

- DON’T YOU FUCKING STOP ISAAC! WE’RE GONNA CREATE HERE!" screamed Jonah, terrified.

Isaac let out one last heart-rending cry of rage, pain and determination, his mana wings stretching out one last time, propelled by the last drops of power still available.

[Critical mana achieved: ability to maintain flight: 10 seconds].

He accelerated one last time, gritting his teeth until they bled. His muscles cracked under the pressure, but he held on.

He crossed the final distance at supernatural speed, then, arriving at the bluish opening, he brutally hurled the bodies of his team-mates through the portal.

Erika screamed, Maëlle failed to react and Jonah let out a terrified expletive as they all disappeared into the passage.

Isaac felt his whole body give way, his vision going black, his mana totally depleted, his mana wings gone up in smoke. His momentum dissipated instantly, and he hit the ground hard, rolling several meters.

The portal still flickered in front of him, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

The dungeon behind him was about to disappear in a final blast.

Isaac, crawling half-consciously, reached out one last time with his bloodied, broken hand towards the portal.

- Not now... I can’t die here...

He drew on the last of his strength, throwing all his remaining willpower into his final movement.

With a final cry, a final burst of life, he threw himself with all his might towards the portal, plunging blindly into the bluish light, just as the dungeon’s final explosion consumed the entire space behind him.

His body passed through the light, everything around him fading away and the world sinking into total darkness.