The Lowat warrior had an angle to plunge his daggers into Issa’s chest, throat, or head. Almost no one in the forest would kill a Seg, even in these circumstances. But Sosora couldn’t trust the Lowat warrior, not in the slightest. She couldn’t take that chance.
She had to stop him before he could target Issa.
She flew forward and whipped out her leg to kick the Lowat warrior away from Issa.
But Sosora had been too hasty.
Even if the Lowat warrior wanted to kill them all, he knew better than to focus on someone who was already out of the fight. Sosora was of much higher priority. The Lowat warrior had been waiting for her to charge in.
He jumped back to avoid her kick and then struck down with the pommel of his dagger onto Sosora’s leg.
Sosora gritted her teeth and grunted in pain as she came down and put her weight on the leg that had just been struck. Her shin wasn’t broken, but something was definitely fractured. Unfortunately, she couldn’t ask for a timeout, and she bore with the pain as she stood up straight and raised her guard again.
"What’s going on here?!"
A short young woman with the hallmark pointy ears of the Orovir tribe shouted angrily as she came upon the scene. She took Sosora and the Lowat warrior by surprise.
Since both of them were surprised, Sosora was fine. But the Lowat warrior was alone and surrounded by others who wanted him dead.
Tilo had mostly recovered from the first hit and had snuck up behind the Lowat warrior. He did not miss this opportunity for revenge and stabbed the Lowat warrior in the back.
"Ahrgh!"
At the same time as Tilo snuck up behind the Lowat warrior, the effects of both Tilo and Issa slamming into the walls showed themselves. A plume of sandy dirt fell onto Sosora, blinding her. She reached up to brush away the sand from her eyes.
The moment after she brushed, when her face was completely exposed, the Lowat warrior made a wide sweep with his arm to keep her at bay so he could deal with Tilo alone.
But Sosora didn’t see that.
She didn’t see the shiny dagger slicing through the air at the same height as her eyes.
But she did feel it when it slid across her eyes. The tip barely scratched her. She had kept a distance that would have been more than enough for her to react if she hadn’t been blinded by the falling sand.
A moment later, burning pain blinded her mind as her eyes caught on fire. She covered her eyes and sank to her knees. She vaguely felt the warm blood trickle through her fingers. She vaguely heard Malak shout her name. She vaguely sensed someone hit the ground in front of her.
She vaguely felt someone grab her arm, yank her to her feet, and start pulling her away. Everything was dark. She couldn’t see anything. Her mind was clouded by pain and an instinctive feeling of loss. She didn’t know what was going on.
Malak, Tilo, Issa, and the Orovir woman were panicking, and it had nothing to do with Sosora’s injury.
Malak’s eyes had widened while his pupils narrowed to needlepricks when the first lump of sandy dirt fell from the ceiling onto Sosora.
There was only one reason why that would happen.
The tunnel was collapsing.
Malak, Tilo, and Issa didn’t know why. But the Orovir woman did.
As he thought about it later and compared the tunnel the Lowat tribe had come from with what was on the other side, Malak would also figure out why.
The tunnel was made to collapse.
The Orovir lived underground and made tunnels for a living. Unless they wanted a tunnel to collapse, it wouldn’t.
This tunnel was designed to be fragile in case outsiders or enemies entered the tunnels. The Orovir tribe would know about it and avoid it or intentionally collapse it when enemies infiltrated the tunnels.
But the Lowat warrior didn’t know about it and had recklessly slammed both Tilo and the large Issa into the tunnel walls.
It was a wonder it had taken this long for it to cave in.
Malak had stormed over and clobbered the Lowat warrior in the back of the head with enough force to knock him out, thanks to a surge of adrenaline and the Bawin tribe’s innately heavy and dense hands.
He had to get Sosora out before the tunnel collapsed completely. That was the only though in his mind. She needed his help to get out right now. He wasn’t sure how badly injured she was since the Lowat warrior and Tilo had been in the way, but he had seen the drops of blood fly when the warrior cut her.
And the way she was covering her eyes with crimson blood streaming between her fingers...
Malak feared the worst.
It could have been the eyebrows, the nose bridge, or just the top of her cheeks.
But the way Sosora seemed unresponsive...It was the eyes.
He hauled her to the entrance and practically threw her out. Then, he rushed back and helped Tilo and the Orovir woman with Issa. She was still disoriented from having her head rammed into the ceiling and couldn’t walk quickly or steadily.
As they pushed Issa out, more and more sand started coming down from the tunnel’s ceiling, and the cracks ran like veins across the walls. Malak couldn’t even feel his heartbeat anymore.
But they got Issa out in time.
However, before Malak could breathe out in relief, he noticed the Orovir woman turn around.
The Lowat warrior was still lying unconscious on the ground inside the tunnel.
Malak’s eyes widened. The Orovir woman pushed off the ground.
"No!" Malak shouted.
The tunnel’s collapse had already gone too far. Going in now was suicide. He had to stop her.
But he was too slow. She jumped right as the tunnel collapsed.