Jayne’s earlier dread returned in a rush that nearly made her fall back to the ground, even Rendal grunted.
“Come on Kid, Let’s go,” Rendal said as he stepped out of the cell, all signs of his injuries gone from his demeanor if not his body.
Jayne scrambled to keep up with the man as he strode down the hallway toward the door exiting the cell block. The ground rumbled again, it wasn’t enough to jostle them but Jayne shivered, “What is it?”
Rendal made a noise halfway between a chuckle and a grunt, “An inconvenient addition to an already fucked up mission. Later Kid-” Rendal froze one a few steps past the cell block door and silently stepped back in and around the doorway as two soldiers staggered past. Neither of them looked into the cell block or else they would have spotted Jayne as she stood stock-still in the middle of the hall.
Jayne got enough of a glimpse of the two guards to see they were injured, not terribly so but she could see enough burns on their armor to guess that they had fought a mage. Jayne moved closer to Rendal and opened her mouth to whisper but before a single word had come out something cold sunk into her mouth and it felt as if her tongue had frozen.
You have been muted by Rendal Tahnarl.
Rendal raised a finger to his lips and spun back out into the adjacent corridor. Jayne followed as spritely as she could but spending so much time in a cell had made her feel unused to moving with any kind of speed.
Leading Jayne through the corridor, Rendal moved with silent grace despite the injury. Jayne couldn’t help but wonder how smooth the man was without the wound and her dragging him down. The corridor led them to a wide spiral staircase that led both up and down, the latter raised the hair on Jayne’s neck as she felt all too close to what was down below.
*Boom…*
Rendal stepped away from the staircase and pushed Jayne into an adjoining hallway as over a dozen soldiers charged down the stairs past them and to the levels below. Jayne hadn’t heard them coming but she did hear their argument as ran past.
“What the fuck do you mean a skill was detected!? The demon is bound!”
“The arrays should hold it until we arrive and put it down. There's no way it could survive the failsafe!”
*Boom…*
Jayne’s heart froze at the sound of the word ‘demon’, “A demon!? Oh gods…” Jayne felt the urge to flee crash home again Rendal’s hand on her shoulder kept her steady.
The chatter between the soldiers grew suddenly quiet as they continued down the stairs. She couldn’t be sure but it sounded like they slowed down. Not that she could blame them, there was no way she could take one step down that staircase. Up it on the other hand…
Rendal tapped Jayne’s shoulder before moving into the staircase and darting ahead to the next landing. Jayne packed slightly as she lost sight of him but with each step away from whatever was below them that fear faded. When she reached sight of the landing Jayne caught a glimpse of Rendal’s dagger darting in and out of a guard's throat and face before he tossed the guard down the stairs.
A black mist appeared around the falling body before it hit the ground and strangely there was absolutely no sound as it bounced and broke on the way down the stairs. Jayne shivered but it was nowhere near as bad as seeing what Jenkins had done to those people.
Rendal gestured upward and darted ahead again while Jayne followed behind. She glanced at her status and was relieved to see her mana had replenished enough to make protecting herself at least possible.
Jayne Lesta
Status
Class:
Ice Sorcerer [Rare]
Level:
35
Race:
Human
Health:
440/440
Stamina:
440/440
Mana:
302/1960
*Boom…*
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*Boom…* *boom…*
Jayne ran up the stairs to the next landing and saw Rendal leaning against the wall peering out into the adjoining room. Jayne immediately understood the hesitation. The next room looked like what used to be some kind of great hall of dark almost black stone but now it was far from great. Dozens of soldiers moved between connected hallways, moving even more prisoners all of them bound in both chains and Cuffs of Binding.
Not only were there more prisoners but they weren’t the usual ones she had seen or heard. They were commoners, no, not just commoners, with a second glance Jayne spotted several mages and fighters among them.
[Jilian Ketal | Keeper of the Wilds 76 | Half-Elf]
[Lelashian Lifetouched | Hand of Life 89 | Elf-Dryad]
“What is going on here?!” Is what Jayne tried to say but instead nothing came out and the notification flashed in front of her eyes again.
You have been muted by Rendal Tahnarl.
Frustrated, Jayne fell in line behind Rendal while he scanned the hall, his face returning to a pained grimace. Blood was pooling on the ground at his feet but the man ignored it and remained focused on his task.
As suddenly as before Rendal’s features began to shift and warp until they settled on the appearance of a rather pudgy man with an arrogant sneer on his face and the creases to show it had been there for a while. Rendal turned to her, “Let me drag you but don’t make too much of a fuss.”
Jayne didn’t like where this was going at all but it wasn’t like she could voice her objections, instead she nodded. She wasn’t expecting him to grab her by the hair though and she nearly stomped on his toes before he dragged her out into the hall. Jayne held back the growl from the pain in her scalp as they moved between ranks of prisoners and rough soldiers as they arranged array runes around the gathered prisoners.
Rendal was straining to keep up the pace with her added weight and Jayne could hear the pain in his breathing but the nearby guards and prisoners didn’t seem to take notice of them as they passed. That was until the woman Jayne had spotted saw them. The dryad’s eye widened from beneath dark bruising and deep swelling as she stared at Jayne.
Lelashian’s group of prisoners were being dragged into one of the array circles and because she was focused on Jayne she was pulled nearly off her feet when the rest of the prisoners moved without her.
“Gah! Dryad bitch, what are you looking at!?” One of the soldiers shouted.
Jayne could practically feel the man’s eyes burning into the back of her head but Rendal’s stride didn’t slow at all. Until the guard shouted again, “Oi! Where are you taking that prisoner!?”
Stumbling Jayne tripped and fell but Rendal’s grip on her hair made her spin instead of falling to the ground but because of that she got a glimpse of the shouting guard.
[Jenkins Royd | Jailer 88 | Human]
Jayne’s eyes widened at the results of her Identify, “Hadn’t he only been level 65?”
Jenkins saw the recognition in Jayne’s eyes and a sneer fell across his face, “Stop! You think just because I was forced to see to other duties allows just any binder to take what is mine?!”
Rendal tensed slightly but didn’t turn, instead with a surprising burst of strength Jayne left the ground in a rush and landed over Rendal’s shoulder as he began to dash toward the other end of the hall. Rendal’s disguise dissolved like water as he ran and then chaos broke out and the hall exploded into a dizzying array of light.
Jayne looked back and saw Jenkins raise both his hands, his face outraged, “Infiltrator! Kill the spy!” Before he had finished his words dozens of gold-green chains burst forth from the ground all around them.
Shouting a warning in vain Jayne held on for dear life as the chains swarmed toward them, narrowly avoiding a dozen soldiers who had turned toward them and activated skills flaring green and gold as they drew their weapons.
Rendal moved as if he had eyes in the back of his head and despite his injuries and Jayne’s weight on his shoulder he darted and dodged between the chains. Next two soldiers ahead of them swung weapons toward him but Rendal jumped over one low swing and with his left hand threw two blades into the second soldier’s face.
Grunting as he landed, Rendal spun around a third chain but a fourth landed a glancing blow against his wounded side. He grunted and his dash slowed. Jayne felt useless but as the soldiers and chains came toward them, she snarled and for the first time in too long mana flowed through her and out of her outstretched hands.
Mana Bolt was far from her best skill but it was efficient at least. Jayne held no illusions that her attacks would hurt Jenkins but the other guards were a different story. Bolts of pale blue mana fired across the hall in an erratic pattern, barely aimed but there were enough of them that some of the charging guards were forced to slow to batter them aside or block them.
With the chaos of their passage through the hall, the gathered prisoners took the opportunity to propagate the chaos. The fighters with enough physical attributes to deal damage without skill stepped forward and wrapped chains around the necks of distracted guards while the weaker prisoners followed to lessen the restriction of the chains.
More chains continued to arc toward them while Rendal ran, narrowly avoiding each. Jayne almost thought they were going to make it out but suddenly she was thrown into the air and tumbled to the ground awkwardly. Her head spun but when she raised it, she saw Rendal lying on the ground next to her, his face bloodied and the wound at his side pouring blood even more severely than it was before.
Rendal’s eyes focused in the next moment and he crawled up onto his knees just in time for Jenkins’s chains to burst from the ground around him and clamp down over his shoulders. Behind Rendal was the culprit who had knocked him off his feet.
[Erak Hal | Fighter 65 | Human]
It was just a fighter but one lucky strike was all they had needed to end their escape. Jenkins was chuckling as he walked across the hall and the guards returned their attention to the prisoners, killing several of the fighters in the process. Jayne used the time to get closer to Rendal who looked furiously back at the jailer.
“Sorry Kid. Did my best,” Rendal said, his voice catching slightly as he took a breath.
Realizing the mute skill had deactivated a tear fell down Jayne’s cheek again but she nodded, “It's okay. Thank you for helping me.”
Rendal didn’t respond and his head sagged. Jayne could see he was still breathing but barely. Jenkins ignored the man as he arrived, letting his chains drop away from Rendal’s barely conscious shoulders.
“You were never going to get away you stupid girl! If I hadn’t caught you, you would have been killed with the rest of this filth anyway,” Jenkins spat. He stepped closer and lifted her from the ground by the neck, his grip far stronger than it had been before, “At least if I kill you, you will have some use.”
*Boom! *
Jenkins's face darkened and he turned to the fighter who took down Rendal, “Go see what is going on out there!”
“Sir, it's not-”
The fighter tried to continue but Jenkins shouted over him, “Just do it!” Jenkins looked back at Jayne, “Tell me, girl. How did you like the view? The Lord Prophet said it might glean some important insights but I doubt your worth that much…”
Jayne groaned at the pain around her neck but held it in and spat in the brute’s face. Jenkins's face darkened and his grip around her neck tightened but then it loosened as a familiar sensation returned and both Jayne and Jenkins paled.