Absolute chaos and bedlam. That was the only thing to describe the scene of where the people had been held. Every room in the area was open and there were numerous pieces of broken furniture scattered about. Jack guessed that they were likely destroyed in order to create makeshift weapons as all of the patients were likely unable to use any magic.
Looking at everything it seemed that the other person let loose did indeed decide that he would be better off freeing others rather than continuing to chase Jack. Thanks to that Jack had been able to discover that he could cleanse someone of the system’s influence but by the same token it now made the entire facility much more dangerous.
Jack and Charise did a quick check of all of the rooms to make sure that there was nobody lurking behind to ambush them. All of the rooms turned up empty with only damaged furniture left in the escapee’s wake.
Jack turned to look at Charise and asked her, “Do you by any chance remember what direction the guards or doctors would come from when they would take people out of their rooms? I know I saw a number of the patients gathered in the common area over there when I was first brought in.” He gestured over his shoulder in the direction that said room was located.
Shrugging Charise replied, “It’s a bit fuzzy but I think most of the time they came from that same direction. Somewhere past the commons. I think they might have had a break room or something. No idea really as I never went down the hall where they came from.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything. Speed or silence would you say?” Jack nodded and asked in a flat emotionless voice.
slightly uncomfortable at Jack’s tone Charise answered, “I want to say speed but I think that is simply my nerves. It’s probably a better idea for us to be as quiet as possible if all the people who broke out here might try and attack us.”
“Right let’s go. I don’t think we are going to be finding anything else of use here.” Jack glanced around one last time as he agreed.
Charise nodded and started to head to the door before pausing and checking, “Agreed. I don’t suppose you have any way for me to recover some of my mana before we go.”
Jack shook his head, “The only method that I have is the one that we did before, and I don’t think my body can handle me channeling mana like that again without causing myself permanent damage at this point.” He paused for a moment and expounded, “Plus, even with me doing my best I have such low aspects that I barely gave you enough to cast your enhancement earlier and that was straining myself as much as I could. It just wouldn’t be feasible to restore your mana levels.”
“I’ll just make it work. I suppose I should make myself a weapon as well as it looks like all of the others will likely be armed.” Charise sighed at his response. She had figured it was a long shot but he had done other things that were difficult or thought impossible. With that thought she went to one of the beds and with a loud grinding screech ripped one of the legs off. After a moment’s consideration she repeated the action and handed the second hunk of metal to Jack. “Here. If you are going to be as useless as you were saying with the lack of mana then take this. At least you can defend yourself somewhat.”
Jack found himself shuddering slightly at the noise. He let out an impressed whistle as he took the twisted pole and couldn’t help but to comment, “I’ll be honest. I couldn’t do something like that on my best day. The fact that you are strong enough to do that without mana to enhance your power further is slightly terrifying.”
Charise’s only response was to laugh and call back “You haven’t seen anything yet!” as she went out the door.
The two of them proceeded as quickly as they could while maintaining a level of stealth. As they headed for the commons area the damage that they had seen in the rooms and the hallway where people had been kept continued. Looking at the markings it seemed likely that only one or two people were contributing to the destruction.
It was an oddity that made Jack wonder just how the puppetting of the system truly worked. When he had worked on Charise, was the tiny spark of who she had been still within her because the system hadn’t gotten to it, or was there a different reason entirely? He hadn’t thought about how much of an oddity it was while he was making his attempt at destroying it’s hold over her. But seeing the actions of those under its control not being uniform or driven entirely by logic and reason like he had assumed they would be raised all kinds of questions in the back of his mind.
Jack shook his head and picked up his pace in order to get back up to Charise before he fell too far behind. Those were all questions that could wait for another time if they needed to be answered at all.
Soon enough the two of them had passed the commons area. It was not hard for them to figure out which way the escapee’s had gone, all the two of them needed to do was continue to follow the destruction left in the mob’s wake. It was clear that the inmates had not split up when they hit the commons but they all went down a single hallway. How exactly they had known just where they needed to go, Jack was unsure. But they obviously had a better level of coordination then the mess they left behind would suggest.
The next leg of Charise’s and Jack’s journey was filled with apprehension and worry. At every turn and corner, the two of them would find themselves holding their breath and clutching the makeshift weapons tightly. As they went through the hallways, they soon came across the remnants of a bloody conflict at what looked like a security office. Inside the room there were several bodies in guard uniforms. Beaten and broken so badly that bones were sticking out of the flesh in places. On a desk there were the shattered remains of some type of crystal. The level of violence displaced made the two of them far more nervous about following the group of thralls. Jack had suspected that they would be willing and able to kill to enable their escape, but knowing something mentally and seeing the actuality were very different things.
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Stepping out of the office the two continued their tracking of the escapees more worried than ever about being spotted. Their worry about being noticed during the pursuit soon turned out to be superfluous. Not long after leaving the security office they came to what sounded like a pitched battle. There were yells and screams along with the sounds of spells and metal hitting flesh.
Looking around the corner Jack and Charise saw a massive brawl with a couple dozen people wearing the same robes and clothing as the two of them fighting about half as many guards. The position of the fight was right in front of a doorway with the security people trying to get more people into the room.
The two of them looked at each other. Jack shifted his grip on his weapon and said, “Lets try our best to not cause any deaths. Everyone out there is a victim just like us or just doing their jobs. I mean obviously don’t do it if it’s going to put you in tons of danger but I would say we should do our best to try and keep people alive. Just be careful, if they react to you like they did to me they certainly won’t be pulling their punches.”
Charise contemplated before nodding. “Sure, I’ll do my best.”
There was a moment right before they were about to leap out and join the melee when Jack started. “Oh! Also, if you see a young cat beastfolk with black hair and accoutrements, let me know. She’s probably the person that I was hired to find in the first place. If there is any way for us to save her It would be fantastic.”
Charise turned back towards Jack with an expression of disbelief, “We’re about to jump out into a deadly fight where all the combatants will probably target and try to kill us, and you want me to try and nab one of them in the middle of all of that?”
“Well, only if you think it’s feasible. I was hired to find her and do what I could to bring her parents resolution and I would still like to do my best to do so. If you don’t think it’s manageable, don’t worry about it. I was just saying if the opportunity was there…” Jack trailed off slightly embarrassed.
“You know what? Sure. If I can manage it, I’ll do what I can.” Charise replied somewhat exasperatedly. “Now then. Are you ready to fight for our lives and freedom?”
Jack bluntly stated, “No. But then that doesn’t really count for much because I’ll still have to do it anyway.”
Charise quietly laughed, “True enough.”
With that both of them stopped talking, took deep breaths as they adjusted their grips once more on their weapons, and charged out into the fray.
The first that any of the other combatants knew of their presence was when they slammed into a back row of inmates who were throwing projectiles at the guards. Charise, keeping Jacks request in mind grabbed the closest one to her and hit him hard across the jaw. Knocking him out and sending his unconscious body flying into another person. Jack was not as proficient. He struck out with the metal rod and almost missed. The tip of it connecting with the person’s arm right as they were about to throw sending their shot straight into the back of someone else’s shoulder. While it certainly disrupted the flow of the battle for several people Jack was faced with a furious person obviously far stronger than he was.
Without pause Jack flung himself deeper into the brawl. He would have no chance at all in a fair fight against any of the combatants here. His best choice was to try to use the confusion and density of the melee in order to dodge people’s retaliations and take what opportunities to do damage that he could find.
It worked, somewhat at least. The person that Jack had just clipped let out a bellow of rage and charged in after him not paying attention to their allies in the least. Seeing the wall of muscle that was chasing after him Jack dove forward scrambling between a pair of legs. Pausing a brief moment to kick upwards into the soft tissue as he passed.
The was a loud thump as the person chasing him slammed full tilt into the man who had just been kicked in the nuts sending both of them sprawling. Their fall did knock over two others, one of the inmates as well as one of the security staff. Hoping it wouldn’t kill them Jack swung his chunk of metal and smacked one of the patients in the temple before shoving himself backwards and attempting to stand.
As he regained his feet there was a burst of pain from his left arm and he found himself spinning in the air. Another one of the fighters had caught him from behind while his attention was focused on the pile of people on the floor. Rolling with the blow to help bleed off the energy Jack managed to get himself back onto his hands and knees. As soon as he could, he took off, crawling hurriedly through the scuffle.
As the fight went on there were more than a few times that Jack’s mere presence would cause the thralls to go berserk, forgetting about everything else in order to try to get at him. Thankfully that narrowmindedness in the middle of a skirmish usually meant those people were taken out shortly after. They would be so distracted; they wouldn’t even try to defend themselves from the person they had just been fighting.
While Jack’s frantic bobbing and weaving created openings for the guards to strike, he didn’t get away unscathed. More then a few times he got caught by the edge of attacks and even had several solid blows connect before the guards could take the distracted people down.
While Jack desperately attempted to evade injury while in the middle of the struggle, Charise was much more brutal and efficient in her strategy. Jumping from one person to another on the outskirts and hitting them hard enough to take them out. She had managed to take out four people before the other patients turned their attention to her. Unlike Jack who dealt with the attention by fleeing and using others as his shield, Charise simply went blow for blow with the people that turned to engage her. Ending up in a wild melee with three other people.
Even as fists and clubs smashed into her, her face turned into a massive bloodthirsty grin. She lashed out with heavy blows aiming for knees, elbows and other joints. Looking to cripple, hopefully only temporarily, her opponents.
As she fought, she could hear some shouting coming from the guards on the other side of the door but couldn’t quite make out what was said. Nor could she see Jack anywhere within the chaos.
Jack meanwhile was busy rolling around a guard’s legs to get out of the way of a fist aimed at his head. As he came up, he could clearly hear one of the security guards in the rear shouting that reinforcements were on their way and should be there in a few minutes. Looking around Jack spotted both his temporary ally as well as two black fuzzy ears.
Running to where he saw Charise fighting, he slammed himself bodily into the back of one of her opponents and sent them stumbling forward out of control right into her fist. As the other two turned to face him Charise took advantage and quickly punched one in the solar plexus before bringing her elbow down on the back of his head.
Jack attempted to get out of the way but was quickly grabbed by the woman that Charise had been fighting and struggled to keep her from choaking him out. Barely keeping her one arm from crushing his windpipe even as she punched him hard in the kidney.
Charise came up from behind her and clocked her over the head hard sending both Jack and the unconscious woman onto the ground. She picked Jack up who nodded in thanks and wheezed out while pointing. “More guards coming. Ears beast, over there.”
She looked where Jack was shakily pointing and spotted the tell-tale ears of a beastfolk. She grabbed Jack and shoved him under her arm carrying him bodily as she sprung forward to where the person he indicated was fighting. Slamming her fist into the back of the young woman’s head Charise grabbed the unconscious body and barreled out into the line of guards.