Playing a losing hand.

One new discrete check to be sure he wasn't insane.

Tarkos Chosen : lvl13 elite creature.
This lizardmen was modified in the egg through magic and received a part of the essence of Tarkos the living Fire god of the lizard folks. Very robust and deadly warriors, he trained from birth in the art of killing. Absolutely loyal to Tarkos.
Spirit of Tarkos: contains a part of the essence of his god.
Dragon scale: the scales of this creature are reinforced. +50 DEF
Deadly Warrior: he is used to wielding a huge variety of weapons with accuracy.
3500/3500 hp

Those stats were insane and there were two of the damn things. Thankfully, as good as they could be as warriors they wouldn't be good hunters. They hadn't smelled or heard the bunch of elves just around the corner of the tunnel. How could he kill such a behemoth, let alone two of them.

He approached Cali and whispered in her ear. "How do you kill these creatures?"

"We don't! They really rarely leave this place and when they do they slaughter everything in their path." admitted Cali.

John had to find a way, Sylvia was on the other side of this gate and he could not leave her here, he wouldn't abandon her.
The only plan he could come up with was still bordering on suicidal. Hit and run was not an option in a network of tunnels filled with traps and an unknown number of other creatures. No. What John needed was a way to even the playing field.

Another can of BlueBoar, his last one kept for during the fight if needed. At full life and mana, this fight would stretch him to his limits. John explained his plan to the elves and they weren't happy about it, only the reminding of their lost priestess and the fact that John would not accept desertion at this point, made them get in line for this.

John had emptied his inventory of a bunch of things and spread them around between the remaining elven hunters and huntresses. The spools of ropes he had used to explore the Maze, his slime and incendiary ammunition, two full bags of metal bearings for his slingshot.
They all sounded confident about being able to aim for the Chosens eyes with them, a blind target would be easier to defeat. He even gave two of them cans of spray paint for that purpose. He raised his newly acquired Mana Shield, these double spear-swords were terrifying and he had no desire to check how much dmg they would inflict.

On his mark everyone got out of cover and charged the Chosen. As soon as he saw them receive projectiles on the face, John used Move to put the Bitch Binder collar around the thick neck of one of the Chosen.

Sadly it never reached its target. The beast opened his mouth, but rather than a roar it was a plume of flames that erupted from it, hot enough to boil away the slime residue on his face, burn the face of a hunter who was trying to get a good hit on a blind target and blew the collar away.

The other Chosen blind too, took a few step backs and punched something. John realized in horror that was he just hit was a very large drum, one whose sound began to echo throughout the tunnels, shortly answered by numerous horn calls, soon the only access to this place would be crawling with Lizardmen. This fight which would have been really hard to win just went to hopeless, unless he managed to rectify the ****.

John saw a huntress being cleaved in two, by the razor sharp obsidian blade that the leftmost chosen had swung around.

John was casting shadow and lightning Magic Projectiles in hope to stun or blind the creatures even for a few seconds. All his spells and the attacks from the hunters had only shaved a few hundred hp from the huge health bars of the monsters.

John spotted the collar, hidden behind a pile of small stones against the wall. He picked it up and in the confusion of the fight he threw it towards the chosen, picking it up again with Move mid air and latched it around the neck of the rightmost one.

"Kill him!" he shouted to the collared lizard. The small collar had stretched to fit the wide neck of its new wearer. The collared Chosen wasn't fighting the elves anymore, but it wasn't attacking the other one either. "Focus on the other!"

John remembered the line about them being loyal, even with the collar he couldn't make them attack each other.
"Go in the tunnel, block the access!" he shouted. This time the creature obeyed his command. The free Chosen was downtown to 1700/3500 hp.

Of the elves that got to this room 3 were laying down, dead. Another 3 had received wounds that put them in no condition to fight.

John swirled around, dodging the lethal blades of his opponent and delivering strikes on him.

The enthralled Chosen was holding the path in the tunnel, swamped with lizardmen of green, yellow, red, grey and brown colors. The number given by Cali was for the Yellowscales living here, but apparently a lot of other tribes had joined, could it be the night of one of their rituals?

Cali barely dodged a strike, getting herself a long wound on her belly and screaming in pain, John extended his left hand, aiming his dagger at the sexy young elf. He was about to cast a healing spell on her when he realized he could no longer feel the dagger in his hand, actually he could no longer feel his hand.

The move of the second blade of the same weapon that had hurt Cali had cut through his Mana Shield and cleanly cut his hand above the wrist.

-56 hp

His left hand, still holding the dagger was lying on the floor...
The strike had taken a lot of his mana reserves, but the creature was really wounded. John picked up his hand, hoping that the stasis effect of his inventory would help put it back later.

He now had to keep his focus on Move to keep the pressure on his cut limb and avoid bleeding out... While continuing fighting...

John spammed every bit of his remaining mana pool on Magic Projectiles and activated his refill through his bracelet as soon as he reached the bottom of it. The bloodloss and shock were making him a bit dizzy, something that even his half blind opponent couldn't let slip.

The chosen was arcing his weapon to decapitate John, but Cali was faster and she used the opening to Stab it with her spear right in the throat. The beast gurgled and fell down, dead.

200xp

John could only think of one thing, Sylvia! The one he was coming to save, the only one now that could save him. Next to the gate leading to the cell there where three big stone levers in high position, waiting to be pulled down.

John had no idea which one opened the gate and was in no condition to analyze the situation clearly. He just picked the first lever and pulled it down.