Blademaster Ascension

33- No Choice Left

In front of the furious audience, Turio jumped off the steep slope that was no different from a cliff, his hands holding onto one of the ropes attached to an anchor at the edge of the apex. His target was, surprisingly enough, the bunker that was about to explode in a few hours. Although his pursuers could still chase him provided they were under seventeen, it'd still reduce the pressure on him to the minimum. The maze-like internal structure of the bunker was quite easy to get lost in. Hiding inside an obscure room there would be an almost perfect solution to their current predicament, almost; since he'd have to get out of that place soon no matter how many enemies stood guard outside waiting for him. But all that was a problem that could be considered in near future. What he needed the most right now was safety, even if it was temporary.

Thinking thus, Turio practically ran vertically toward the bunker deep inside the canyon, disregarding all the safety measures due to the danger behind him. Isa seemed to have already reached the same conclusion, seeing how he was doing the same thing not far away from Turio.

Within seconds, both reached the protrusion on the walls where a portion of the bunker stuck out and simultaneously looked upwards. Their pursuers were hesitant to follow them to such dangers, not to mention they had to defend against the monsters that were prowling at the edge of the slope. Quite a distance away from their position, Rowan's tired face popped out as he followed their actions as well. Behind him were two rather confused looking boys who were glancing backwards repeatedly.

What happened there that caught their attention? Did Rhea get caught? That wasn't likely to happen.
Did Rowan make a powerful move and finally resort to his legacy? Turio was slightly confused as he tried to figure it out. A few seconds later, Rowan reached the steep landing too. He looked rather terrible. Probably the handiworks of those spells he got hit with. His limbs were occasionally twitching uncontrollably.
If he didn't find a safe corner to suppress and filter out the foreign ether from his body immediately, he'd be screwed permanently.

Apparently, Rowan seemed to be somehow aware of the latent danger inside his body despite being an inexperienced novice mage. He impatiently entered the bunker after the age test without waiting for his two fellow "teammates" and vanished inside the dark corridors.

At this moment, a sudden massive outburst of ether, accompanied  by terrified screams came from the ground overhead. Turio grinned rather devilishly as he realized what happened. His senior sister had finally showed her true abilities which she had been hiding since the start of the battle, just so that this secondary plan could work smoothly. She had even let a few less damaging spells hit her just to make their attackers belittle her. Dumbasses, all of them. Turio couldn't help but shake his head at their lack of professionalism. From the sounds he heard overhead, his senior sister seemed royally pissed off. Did those idiots do something to infuriate her?
That would be no different from seeking death.

A battle wasn't something where you showed off brute strength and flashy spells. He preferred battles to be based on wits and deceptions. After all, even an all powerful mage is bound to run out of ether if he followed the mainstream style of battle to overcome high odds. But human mind was a weapon of infinite potential and endless usage. Laughing at their foolish attempts at subduing his senior while they should have already run out of ether by now, he flashed toward the door of the bunker.

Their backup plan was built on the premise of certain vague intelligence from their master. Apparently, when the bunkers were built, the architects left hidden escape pathways for the important personnel. Seeing that it was a place for secret research and experiments, the probability of this information being true was very high. They didn't know whether the escape routes were still useable after all this years. Which was why they had left the option out for the backup plan when the situation would be truly demanding and dangerous.
And the current situation certainly hit the mark.