[This is a raw chapter so it's slightly unedited. I'm back to school and this chapter was written during my break so it's not really edited. I'll try to edit it later when I'm back. Thanks for reading and see you in a few hours]

[Third Person POV],

As the group struggled to dodge the rocks that threaten to crush them, they continued to retreat towards the exit of the pit but looking at how they were starting to get surrounded by fallen rocks, Ace turned to the earth mage beside him who was in the same situation as him as they were both carrying people on top of everything that was currently happening.

The wind mage on the back of the earth mage has also fallen unconscious like Andrew Dawn.

Putting aside the fact that the earth mage might want to die here due to his people being in the pit and unable to move their bodies, Ace was already thinking of ways he could adjust to situations that are likely to happen.historical

Situations like if he had to choose between carrying Andrew Dawn at the cost of him possibly dying to the falling rocks or choosing to abandon everybody in the den to escape.

If a situation like this was truly before him, Ace knew he was going to choose to abandon everyone in the den and try to escape by himself because he believed his life was more important than any reward or coins.

Perhaps it was too cruel to do this, especially when one of the humans in the den was Adara's father and someone he has known for quite some time but Ace did not consider any of this thing as he didn't even think there was even anything to consider.

For one, he believed that if Andrew Dawn was in a situation where he had to choose between his life and that of his men, the answer was already obvious without stating it.

If the choice was to change between his life and Adara's life, Andrew Dawn's choice was even going to be more obvious as there was no way he was going to choose someone else over his daughter no matter how much of a kind and just leader that he was.

This was the same thing Ace was thinking as he believes his life to be more important than most things.

To Ace, it was better if he was the one who made risks with his life than taking risks for another person with his life when the benefits weren't worth it or didn't look like it was worth it.

In any case, Ace's situation hasn't been reduced to the level he has to choose between his life and anything.

"We're almost there! Hold on brother!"The earth mage shouted to Ace beside him to encourage him when he saw that they were getting closer to the exit of the pit which was one of the tunnels in the den.

The only problem was that the road in front of them which was going to take the shortest time to reach the exit was blocked so they had to turn around to avoid the rocks on the ground and the ones which were still falling above them.

The issue of having to turn around did not seem to be that much o a problem but it should be noted that the den was already collapsing at this point and it wasn't going to wait for Ace and the earth mage to reach the exit so if the two weren't fast in their movements, it wasn't impossible for them to get caught up in the den finally collapsing with them still in the pit.

This meant that the more time they spent in the pit, the more dangerous it was.

"Brother?", Ace muttered as he thought this was a very strange term to address someone that was a stranger but since he didn't have the time to ponder about this, he put it at the back of his head and nodded at the earth mage as they both took a detour around the rocks to get to the exit.

Taking a quick big jump to his left side as the earth mage that was beside him before did the same, a huge rock came crashing down on the location they were before and just before the two could group up together again, several rocks came raining down on them as they tried their best to not get hit which only further increased the energy consumption the two barely had.

Thankfully, they were able to avoid getting hit by the rocks shower as they resumed making their way to the exit of the pit.

Along the way, there was no form of a discussion between Ace and the earth mage as they both continued to make their way to the exit with heavy breaths.

The earth mage only spoke again when he saw that they were already a little less than a hundred metres away from the exit so after crossing this relatively little distance, they'd finally be able to get out of the pit and finally attempt to get out of the den as a whole.

"Just a little more to go brother!", the earth mage said as Ace heard the same odd address again.

At this point, he was starting to believe that this should be the earth mage's way of supporting him so he doesn't give up as he's indeed the only one in the pit right now who can carry Andrew Dawn out of the den.

If he was to be not capable of carrying Andrew Dawn again then the earth mage still had the strength to move then with Ace no longer being in the picture again, he'll have to choose between his comrade and his king and except they were nothing wrong somewhere, it was obviously going to be Andrew Dawn that he would choose to leave the wind mage all alone to die in the den when it collapses.

This was what the earth mage didn't want so he tried to support Ace in his own way by trying to encourage him to keep pushing.

Ace nodded at the earth mage, feeling a little strange towards the earth mage for his support. He had been in a situation like this before, where his life was in danger and he had to make split-second decisions that could mean the difference between life and death so his goal did not change as he was determined to make it out alive, no matter what.

As they got closer to the exit, Ace could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins. He knew that they were running out of time and that they had to move quickly if they wanted to make it out of the den alive. The rocks were still falling all around them, making it difficult to move without getting hit.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that they saw that they'd soon be able to leave this pit where a random huge rock could crush them, Ace and the earth mage increased their speed despite the toll it took on their body.

"Finally!", The earth mage exclaimed when they finally made it to the tunnel as Ace also visibly relaxed when he saw that he didn't have to jump around from one place to another with his injured body but he knew he could also not fully relax when he saw that even the tunnel they had just entered showed signs of collapsing as well.

"It's not yet over", Ace said aloud as he observed the cracks that were appearing on the tunnel's walls and were slowly widening.

Hearing this, The earth mage nodded in agreement as he turned to reposition the mage on his back to make it more comfortable for him.

Ace also did the same as he got ready to start moving again but just as he and the earth mage were about to move, they heard a loud noise behind them that brought chills to their bones.

SQUEAK!!!!!!

"T-that's not w-what I think it is right?"The earth mage asked Ace in broken words as Ace did not even bother to give a reply as they slowly turned their head to look at the pit behind them.

It took a while before they could trace the source of the sound but when they finally saw it, beads of sweat immediately appeared on Ace and the earth mages' faces.

Unlike the earth mage who was scared silly by what he just saw, Ace was sweating more from the pressure that he could weakly feel from where he was.

He was sweating out of fear but because of the initiative feeling of his body.

"Why is it still alive?" Ace said in a low voice that was barely audible as he stared at the figure of a particular mutated rat that first battled with Andrew Dawn.

The rat queen.