The first stage of Amivy’s breakdown was regret.
Why had she agreed to this crazy plan?
Why had she trusted that Masked Man who was always scheming against her?
Why did she have to suffer this?
Just because she was the ‘Hero’?
Regretful thoughts grew like poisonous weeds in Amivy’s heart.
After these thoughts completely filled her rationality, she entered the next stage of breakdown: resistance.
‘No, I can’t, I have to get out! I’m not taking this damn test anymore!’
Then Amivy fumbled around, trying to go back, but was horrified to find she couldn’t tell direction at all.
When Ian had been leading her earlier, she had been too busy being nervous and confirming his presence to pay attention to the path.
At that moment, front and back, left and right were all the same darkness, same rock texture, same cold silence.
When the final resistance proved futile, fear and regret broke through Amivy’s last psychological defense, sending her into full breakdown.
“I give up… I don’t want the Holy Sword anymore… We’ll think of another way… Kevin!! Get me out of here! Please!”
Amivy shouted into the darkness with a tear-choked voice, filled with despair and pleading.
But still there was no response.
The darkness, like a cold giant mouth, devoured her voice and also devoured her hope.
After her psychological defenses collapsed, all sorts of painful memories followed closely.
Scenes from her childhood in the slums kept surfacing in Amivy’s mind.
Cold, hunger, bullying, being forgotten, abandonment, the loneliness and fear of no one responding.
Lost in memories, Amivy seemed to revert back to that little girl trembling behind a garbage heap, unnoticed by anyone.
Fear turned into anger and resentment.
She began flailing her arms, stumbling forward, or suddenly turning, only to slam into cold rock walls, painfully scraping her knees and elbows, or trip over rubble on the ground, falling covered in dust.
“Bastard! Liar! You promised you wouldn’t leave me! It was all fake! You just want to kill me! Just like those people… just like this world!”
She cried and cursed, cursing Ian and cursing this damn fate.
“What Hero… I’m not a Hero at all! I’m just an unwanted burden! Someone who couldn’t even protect her own mother, what right do I have to be a Hero!?…”
After continuous setbacks, pain and fear tore away the last disguise of the magic-less Amivy.
She curled up in a cold rocky corner, hugged her knees, buried her face, and desperate sobs echoed faintly in the darkness.
‘Maybe disappearing like this wouldn’t be so bad… After all, no one really needs me, expects me…’
Just as her consciousness was about to be completely swallowed by darkness and despair—
“Woof—bark! Woof!!”
A frantic dog bark cut through the dead silent darkness, clearly reaching Amivy’s ears, dispelling her loneliness.
‘It’s Xiao Bai! She’s really here! That damn Masked Man didn’t deceive me!’
Amivy, learning that she really hadn’t been abandoned, jerked her head up.
Tears still hung on her face, but light burst forth again in her eyes.
“Woof woof!!”
The urgent and panicked dog barks sounded again in the darkness, interrupting Amivy’s joy.
‘The Masked Man and Xiao Bai are in danger!’
Having experienced being chased by red-eyed monsters, Amivy knew the danger of this cave well.
Concern for her companions overwhelmed her own fear.
That kindness and fervor belonging to the ‘protagonist’ reignited.
“Xiao Bai! Hang in there! I’m coming!”
She didn’t even bother to wipe away her tears, and forgot the pain in her body, relying on the sense of direction from that previous bark and the sudden surge of reckless forward momentum in her heart.
And Amivy really did that.
This time, her steps were no longer flustered, and she had a goal…
With renewed confidence, Amivy once again exerted the power of the Protagonist Halo.
In just about two minutes, she found Xiao Bai Gou, who was running wildly while cursing.
If Amivy had the Druid ability, she could hear Xiao Bai’s familiar cursing:
“Damn it! That bastard! How dare he put this dragon in a place where those monsters sleep!! When I get out, I’ll sentence that bastard to death! And execute him repeatedly!! Aaaaaaa! Help!!”
Unfortunately, Amivy didn’t have the Druid ability; she could only see, in the excessively dim environment, a pair of panicked eyes emitting a faint golden light being closely chased by several pairs of scarlet eyes.
“Xiao Bai! Over here!”
Realizing that Xiao Bai Gou was being chased by the red-eyed monsters, Amivy quickly called for Xiao Bai Gou to run towards her.
“Ahh-oww!”
Hearing Amivy’s voice, Xiao Bai Gou let out a surprised and urgent bark, unleashed its last strength, suddenly accelerated, and like a white flash of lightning, directly pounced into Amivy’s arms.
Amivy tightly hugged the trembling little body, couldn’t spare time to comfort it, and started running according to the remembered route!
With a clear mind and the blessing of the ‘Protagonist Halo,’ Amivy was able to choose the right path in the dark environment while maintaining speed.
She ran wildly towards the exit.
However, those red-eyed monsters clearly had experience hunting these ‘bipedal apes’ running on two legs.
And they seemed to have learned lessons from previous hunts.
Sensing that the ‘bipedal apes’ wouldn’t knock themselves unconscious in the dark like other prey, the red-eyed monsters changed their energy-saving hunting method.
They no longer chose to tail and wait for the prey to tire; instead, they accelerated!
And they used a pincer tactic from both sides!
Amivy could feel the stench behind her getting closer and approaching from different directions.
Her heart pounded as she realized this group of monsters was getting serious!
But Amivy didn’t dare stop for a moment; she could only keep running.
‘Almost there… almost there!’
In her memory, she should be near the exit!
‘As long as I see light, everything will be fine!’
And indeed, as Amivy thought, in the distance ahead, a very faint light appeared!
That was light from the outside!
The exit!
The real exit!
Hope injected another dose of adrenaline into Amivy.
She gritted her teeth, unleashed her last potential, and desperately sprinted towards that faint light!
But just as the light was almost within reach, a sudden change occurred!
From the side and behind, a stench-laden wind that scraped her face with sharp pain suddenly pounced on Amivy!
She instinctively dodged to the side, and a cold, slimy thing scraped past her arm, bringing a searing pain.
She staggered, nearly falling.
Before she could steady herself, a long claw suddenly hooked onto Amivy’s heel!
“Ah!”
Amivy let out a shriek, completely lost her balance, and tumbled to the ground along with Xiao Bai Gou in her arms!
At the moment of falling, she struggled to twist her body, using her back and arms to absorb most of the impact, protecting Xiao Bai Gou in her arms.
Bam!
The dull impact and blunt pain in her bones made her vision go dark.
Just as she fell, those pairs of scarlet eyes had all surrounded her, cutting off all escape routes!
The nauseating stench almost drowned her.
She could hear the grinding of sharp teeth in the darkness, and the sticky sound of some kind of mucus dripping…