"Lara is finally ready!"

After five more hours of relentless running, Silas finally received the message he had been waiting for. Lara’s part of the plan was nearly complete.

Under normal circumstances, he would have preferred to wait for confirmation that everything had been finished. Unfortunately, this was hardly a normal situation.

He was exhausted.

For the past couple of days, he had done little except run, surviving on minimal rest while constantly evading pursuit. With a major confrontation looming ahead, he could no longer afford to waste his strength.

The initial plan was for everyone to gather at the garrison post, sleep and rest for half a day, before moving out to execute the rest of the plan. But everything turned south, even Cher, and he didn’t rest when they reached the garrison post, didn’t even dare to set foot inside.

And now he couldn’t run without feeling sharp needles painfully pricking his legs. He began to sweat out of exhaustion from time to time.

"Time to regroup."

He immediately sent a message to Darius.

"Pick a suitable location and send it to me."

Darius selected a position far from any mine troops and transmitted the coordinates back. An hour later, the two finally reunited. And Darius looked terrible.

In fact, he looked even worse than Silas.

Seeing the exhausted state of his friend, Silas felt a brief pang of guilt. Part of it came from the mental stress he put his friend into as a form of gentle punishment. But it turned out to be much worse than he ever imagined.

Yet the guilt disappeared almost as quickly as it came.

’That should be enough of a lesson, my friend.’

The satisfaction he felt was far stronger. Judging by Darius’s expression, the latter understood perfectly well why he had spent the past several hours suffering.

"Should we head to the mine now?"

Darius sounded impatient. After everything they had endured, a few hours of rest before the next phase of the plan sounded more appealing than ever.

Silas was about to agree when a message from Cher suddenly appeared.

[Don’t approach the mine directly.]

[There is a second defensive line stationed here.]

[I’m trying to determine how far it extends, but it will take some time.]

Silas frowned.

The existence of a second layer of defences did not concern him by itself. However, when combined with the first, the entire arrangement transformed into something far more troublesome.

It was an almost inescapable net.

Over the past several hours, the newly arrived mine forces had spread throughout the region. Unlike the remnants of the first army, they had not attempted to chase him, nor the Dark Hunters. Darius had reported the unusual behaviour earlier, and Silas had initially interpreted it differently.

’And here I thought they were searching for the dragon before dealing with us.’

’It seems Cher’s old man is not only ruthless, but cunning as well.’

The Enhancers and soldiers were not dispersing at random. They were positioning themselves with purpose, gradually expanding outward until they formed a massive semicircular encirclement around the mine.

By itself, the outer encirclement posed little threat to Silas or anyone on his team. However, combined with the hidden second layer concealed deeper within the region, it formed a complete net from which escape would be nearly impossible.

The difference between these reinforcements and the army that had fallen to the dragon’s breath was already obvious. Their commanders were more disciplined, more patient, and far more competent.

Unfortunately, that created another problem.

Neither Silas nor Darius could continue running indefinitely. Exhaustion was slowly catching up to them, and sooner or later, they would need a place to hide, rest, and recover. Yet under the current circumstances, their options were limited. They could either continue the endless chase or push forward and hope for an opportunity to reveal itself.

"What’s wrong?"

Seeing the grim look on Silas’s face, Darius finally voiced his concern.

"Let’s move," Silas said after a moment of thought. "We’ll talk while heading toward the mine."

His decision was not born from desperation, nor was he relying on some impossible miracle.

Instead, he intended to create one.

"Contact Lara and tell her to do this..."

As he explained the nature of the trap closing around them, Silas sent a message to Cher. Darius listened carefully, then raised an eyebrow.

"It’s risky," he said after a brief pause. "If we do that, Lara’s progress will be delayed by a few hours."

Silas looked at him for a long moment before inwardly sighing. It felt like this trap was another detail Darius had not known beforehand.

By now, Silas had lost count of how many times his friend had been caught off guard by hidden information, whether it involved secrets, schemes, or traps like this one.

And that raised more alarms towards Darius’ perfect pieces of advice... They weren’t perfect at all. They were actually quite dangerous as they might backfire and ruin everything at some point.

"We can’t keep running in circles forever," Silas said quietly, lowering his voice in case someone was tracking them nearby. "Sooner or later, we need to rest. If we continue like this, we’ll collapse from exhaustion before anyone manages to catch us."

Darius remained silent, but his expression spoke for him.

"And there’s something else. We’re already inside the trap Cher’s father prepared for us. There’s no guarantee that the cunning old fox will remain patient. If he decides to tighten the net and orders both forces to move closer, we’ll lose every avenue of escape."

This time, Darius nodded immediately. At that moment, he would have traded almost anything for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep and a good meal.

"My plan will delay Lara, that’s true," Silas continued, "but it will also stop us from bleeding ourselves dry."

A mischievous smile slowly appeared on his face.

"We should repay their kindness twice over. We’ll disappear, rest, and let all these forces deal with one another. And who knows? Maybe that strange dragon will grow bored and decide to make things even more interesting."

Understanding dawned in Darius’s eyes.

"You’re looking for chaos while we recover," he muttered. "And while we’re resting, Lara can make up for the lost time... Not bad."

"More importantly, the trap won’t remain the same once chaos spreads through it and we vanish. When we return, there will be gaps, distractions, and opportunities. At least the coherent mine forces will be forced to scatter and divide to find us. All we need is a loophole large enough to slip through."

After a brief moment of consideration, Silas sent another message to Cher, adding one final instruction.

"Keep a close eye on your father’s forces. Mark every gap, every weak point, and send us everything you find after we wake up."

After that, he turned to Darius.

"Until Lara gives the signal, we’ll keep moving in a zigzag pattern. The moment she does, we’ll disappear."