Chapter CV (105) - Broken Leg

Kizu gasped in pain as the cloth of the leg brace squeezed tight around his calf, the metal support wires now alive and burrowing into his sinew and bone like a parasite. He grasped at his leg as he fell from his chair to the floor, attempting to pry out the metal digging into his body. His fingers tore against the cloth fruitlessly.

“I heard you have a pension for jumping,” Kateshi said. “I’ve reenchanted it with antimagic to keep you from simply leaving it behind in a jump. It’s designed to keep you in this room at all costs. So long as you don’t struggle, it won’t cause any long-lasting damage.”

“Why?” Kizu growled through the pain. It made no sense. Kateshi had been stern, but an altogether reliable teacher.

Kateshi looked at the exit, then sighed and looked back to him.

“I was at Ilosin-Don ten years ago. I suppose I owe you that much of an explanation before I go catch up with the prince. I helped the evacuation efforts. Kusatta and I both were pulled from our delving exhibition and placed on site. I saw what Harbingers do. I don’t know why Gizrim has been shielding her and, frankly, I don’t care. I won’t let it happen again. No cost is too great.”

“She’s only a child,” Kizu said, shocked by the insinuation.

“Which means easily manipulatable. I’ve read reports that state the Ooze Harbinger was also a child. I visited the north weeks before you did and saw the aurora. They didn’t have all the information, but they told me enough to know the increased monster activity was due to a breach in the dungeon. The Blood Harbinger escaped. So I set up a situation where Kusatta could send some agents in to discreetly interrogate students about any strange recent happenings. He uncovered some information and examined you at the dance. It was pretty clear after only a cursory examination. I had heard you were watching over someone for Gizrim, but never thought much of it until tonight.” She grimaced, as if swallowing something foul. “I trusted that man.”

Kizu ignored the pain and dragged himself to stand on his non-mangled leg. He raised his fists and prepared to launch himself at the professor.

Kateshi waved her hand and the leg brace cinched, shattering the bone. The blood-stained metal wires pierced out of his leg and wrapped themselves around the chair he had been sitting on. Blood oozed out of the piercings in his leg.

“I told you before,” she said. “The enchanter holds complete power over an enchanted object. I can manipulate it however I like. But Kizu, I never lied to you about that healer. Stay put and stop struggling. You’ll be fine. I don’t begrudge you attempting to protect a child. You’re a good student and your heart is in the right place. You simply lack the understanding of the risk she poses to humanity.”

With that final statement, Professor Kateshi stepped through the painting. It rippled, the usual response to someone traveling through it. But this time when it settled, the painting bled out all its color, only a white slate remaining. Kateshi had cut off his escape.

Kizu growled in frustration and turned his attention to his leg brace. He attempted to scan it with his spellsense to start breaking it down and understand it better to break the cursed object. He only managed a brief glimpse before pain raked through his body, the blood below his knee boiling. Every second he attempted to channel spells; the pain traveled a dozen centimeters up his thigh. The antimagic laced into the leg brace didn’t just weaken his spellcraft, it punished him.

He reached out through his bond with Mort. That, at least, caused no reaction from the cursed item. Mort and the others were safe, for the moment. They were walking down the trail over to Owl’s Respite. Basil and Aoi were laughing at some joke and Anata grinned at them. The moment Kizu made contact though, Mort understood his pain and panic. The monkey’s first instinct was to rush back to the academy to find him. Kizu pushed against that. He steadfastly directed Mort towards Anata. She was the one in danger, not him. Mort understood enough to stay by Anata’s side.

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The jovial moment with the small party ended as Mort leaped down and started nipping at their heels. Very clearly panicked and not his usual playful self. The monkey rushed their party along, hurrying them to get as far away from town as quickly as possible. He didn’t stop until the whole group was running.

Next Kizu attempted to channel through Mort to jump. If he was successful, the academy’s beacon should draw him in, letting him escape the room and alert the academy that someone had entered the beacon’s chamber.

He blacked out.

Uncertain how long he’d been unconscious, Kizu dragged himself across the room. He saw only one way out from here.

His leg brace gripped into everything nearby, attempting to anchor him down. Grabbing onto nearby objects, he tore through it all, causing his leg to rupture as he slowly dragged himself toward the remaining unfinished final projects. There was a trail of blood and torn skin from the front row all the way to the very back of the classroom.

The bookshelf was still there, glyphs completed. It only lacked Basil’s trigger. It was connected to its pair. The other bookshelf down at Owl’s Respite. Kizu closed his eyes and tried to block out the pain.

Once he arrived he could warn Basil to take Anata as far away as possible. Take her and the atlas and return to the World Dungeon via the entrance in the necromancer’s laboratory. Yes. It was a clear escape. They had all the tools on hand. He just needed to remain conscious.

He linked with Mort and summoned all his remaining energy to manually trigger the glyphs etched into the bookshelf. It should have only required a miniscule amount of blood to activate, with the glyphs already set up. It took everything in him not to black out again from the effort. He managed the smallest spark of a gate spell.

It was enough.

It spluttered to life, a swirl of energy linked to its twin at Owl’s Respite.

He reached through and heaved his body through. He needed to be quick, the gate threatening to cut power at any moment.

The familiar sight of skeletons playing cards around a table greeted him. He had made it back into the crew’s quarters. Escaped the classroom.

Then his leg caught. With dread, he recalled what Kateshi had said. She enchanted it to keep him inside the room. He felt his leg rip to the side, dislocating as the strands of metal wrapped themselves around the bookshelf’s kickplate.

Kizu closed his eyes. The gate spell was running out of energy. Only two options remained. Return or stay. In reality, only one option truly remained. Kateshi offered to heal his leg, to bring him back to what he used to be from before the academy. All he had to do was stay in the classroom. But, honestly, he never wanted to return to who he used to be. Instead, he looked to the future. Anata’s future.

The portal cleanly severed his leg across the thigh.

Blood sprayed from the wound. He hauled himself forward in a wormlike crawl, leaving behind a trail of blood, attempting to reach his potion stash on the other side of the room. He needed the ring given to him by Allik. It contained solutions. He hated himself for deciding it too inconvenient to always wear. After a painstakingly long minute, he reached his hammock. Then he realized his foolishness. His ring sat on a shelf above him. How would he reach above his hammock? It remained completely out of reach.

He felt a spike of utter dread and confusion from Mort. It was close. They were in Aoi’s rowboat, crossing the lake to Owl’s Respite.

Not close enough, he realized. He had no blood left to jump. And even if he did, he lacked the focus. Gripping his stump, he stained his hand in his blood. Then he dragged his palm across the wooden floor in front of him. Before passing out, he wrote two words in the Universal Script –

ANATA RUN.