Tailun fought against Alex to the best of his capacity, but he realized just how severely weaker he was than Alex.
Fighting against Alex, he felt as if he was fighting against an actual Extolite. He had sparred against actual Extolites and had nearly the same amount of trouble.
The man before him was not an Extolite, but compared to Tailun, he might as well be.
It had been 50 years since Alex finally got a chance to fight at all. He had almost grown rusty. But, as he fought Tailun, the natural instincts of his body returned rather quickly, and the battle got even easier.
Tailun was not weak at all. Physically, he had about the same level of strength as Alex. What he didn’t have was Alex’s years of training and battle experience, and that was all Alex needed to defeat the man.
He didn’t use his Qi. He didn’t use his Blood Aura. He didn’t use his Spiritual attacks.
He fought the man with only his physical strength and skill, even allowing the man to use Qi attacks when he could, and still he won.
Alex first cut off Tailun’s arm, the one he held the spear with. Then, he stabbed him through the chest before pulling it back out and stabbing him through the head.
Once he pulled the sword out, Tailun slumped onto the ground, dead.
Alex swung the sword to the side, getting rid of the blood before he walked back into the cell.
Xichen had barely stood up at this point, her body relying on the wall to keep herself up. Alex put her arm around him and carried her out. She seemed to get a little stronger as she walked out, but she was still far too wounded.
“Let’s go. We’ll get your daughter and leave,” Alex said.
“My… my father,” she said in a low voice. “He’s somewhere—”
“Your father is dead,” Alex told her.
“No, they won’t kill him. They need him to stop our tribe from fighting back. So long as he’s alive, they can use him to—”
“Xichen,” Alex said with a stern voice. “Your father is dead. I killed him.”
Xichen’s face fell the moment she heard it. She looked toward Alex, trying to see if there were any lies in his words, but she could not find any at all.
“No,” she said. “No, you didn’t. Please, tell me you didn’t.”
Alex continued carrying her. “You should know it’s no lie, Xichen. Look at all your father has done to me, and try to think why I would ever leave him alive.”
Xichen tried and failed. There was no reason why Alex would ever have to leave her father alive at all. She understood that, and still, she couldn’t reconcile with the fact that her father had died.
Tears flowed down her swollen face. First she had to see her husband die, and then now her father was gone as well.
Xichen found it hard to keep her emotions in check. She wailed.
Alex brought her over to where her daughter was. Around the same time, he heard commotion from further ahead, as though many people were making their way toward him.
He guessed the man outside should have told someone that he had gotten in here by now.
He placed Xichen leaning against the wall and walked in to free her daughter. Goyin was in a much better state than her mother, albeit she too was wounded. Once Alex freed her from the shackles and brought her outside, she could stand on her own at least.
Goyin stared at Alex, unable to believe that he was standing before her. It had been so many years since she had last seen him, and he barely looked any different now.
“Mother!” she cried when she saw Xichen to the side, beaten and bloody. She saw her mother wailing and found tears in her own eyes.
“Mother, father…” Goyin spoke. “They killed father.”
Watching her daughter cry, Xichen found more tears streaming down her eyes. She took her daughter into an embrace.
Alex wanted to let the mother and daughter share their sorrow, but now was not the time.
“People are coming. We need to leave quickly,” Alex suggested. “We have to get out of here.”
But it was too late now.
They had arrived.
A swarm of warriors flowed into the dungeon hall, each one carrying a torch or a lantern in one hand, while they carried weapons in the other hand.
“Intruder!” someone shouted.
“The Sunwarden chief’s daughter and granddaughter have escaped!”
Alex pulled his sword out again.
“You all are far too weak to go up against me!” Alex spoke loudly. “Do not try to fight me. You cannot win.”
Alex’s words caused the people to consider what he had said for a moment, but the moment passed when someone else saw something.
“There!” a person pointed in the distance next to debris along the wall. “That’s…”
“Young lord!” someone else recognized.
“Young lord Tailun!”
“Young lord is dead.”
“The intruder killed the young lord.”
“Don’t let him get away. Kill him.”
Once they realized what had happened, not a single person that had come in would move aside. They had far too much pride and even more loyalty in them to just step aside and let their young lord’s killer walk out free.
Alex realized the situation as well and knew that he would have to fight to get through this.
He sighed and turned toward the two women behind him.
“Stay back. I’ll be done with them in a moment.”
Once he turned back around, he dashed.
He arrived in the midst of the group of people before anyone even realized he had moved. He struck his palm onto a man’s chest, crushing it, and sending him backward, tumbling many other people.
The ones who realized what had happened tried to retaliate, but Alex moved in a flurry. Wherever he moved, people fell. Some injured, some dead.
As the fight went on, they quickly realized that they had severely underestimated him.
“Extolite!” someone shouted. “He’s an Extolite.”