Chapter 5: Prisoner
Lewis selected the 5% chance to unlock a new summonable being. Once Lewis chose the option the window disappeared and a new one opened shortly afterward. The window had only two things, in the middle was "???" and underneath was a big "SPIN" button. Lewis pressed the button and the three question marks began to change between two words "Failed" and "Success" Lewis watched as it began to change, and every time it changed it got faster every time until Lewis could no longer tell what it was on anymore.
The speed slowed down after a bit, and the word it landed on was "Failed" Lewis frowned, and the window closed just as fast as it was opened. Lewis did not expect much from a 5% chance, but seeing the result still made him feel disappointed.
Lewis stood up from the bed as a burst of intense pain struck his chest and left leg. Lewis fell down onto his knees, and as his weight shifted to his legs there was another wave of pain from his left leg. Lewis was about to scream out in pain but instead, he clenched his teeth in order to keep himself quiet in case his captors were unaware of him being awake.
Lewis fell onto his back on the floor as he waited for the pain to subside, and sure enough, the pain slowly disappeared. Lewis slowly lifted his shirt and discovered there was now a large bruise on his chest.
"That's great, just what I needed," Lewis said with a pained expression. He pulled his shirt back down and looked at his leg to see it was still bandaged from before. Lewis crawled to the bed and placed his back against it before going into his thoughts once more.
"How did I not feel the pain earlier? Was I still half out of it after being beaten? And how long have I been in here for?" Lewis kept on asking those same three questions over and over again trying to figure out the answers.
While Lewis was trying to answer his own questions he had missed the three kobolds that had now entered the holding cell. Lewis was picked up from both of his arms by two of the kobolds while the third one lead them out of the holding cell.
Lewis was instantly brought out of his thoughts and was about to struggle but decided not to as he was still injured. So instead he decided to question the kobolds.
"Where are you taking me now?" Lewis asked, however, they did not answer his question instead they kept on carrying him throughout the police station. Lewis took the time to look around as they carried him and he could see multiple blood stains all throughout every room they walked through.
The station was a total mess it looked like a tornado had hit the rooms as everything was scattered all along the ground. some hallways had a pair of kobolds walking them while other rooms had groups of five or more that were simply talking or relaxing. Some of the rooms had Kobolds who were even asleep.
Lewis scanned the rooms looking at the blood stains and a thought came to mind. "What did they do to the bodies? I'm seeing a lot of blood but not a single body"
Soon the kobolds had carried Lewis to the main entrance of the police station and brought him outside where there had to be at least three hundred kobolds, each one moving around the area while another fifty or so were lined up on the road.
The two kobolds that were carrying Lewis sat him down on the sidewalk of the police station before leaving back into the police station. The kobold that was in the lead turned to Lewis and then faced the gathered 50 kobolds and began to call something out in their language before leaving like the previous two.
Lewis looked around at the surrounding area and saw that this was definitely their base as different groups of kobolds returned with all sorts of things ranging from firearms to food. While some even had things they thought were interesting or to their liking as one even had a stuffed animal, an elephant to be exact.
When one group returned another group would depart the groups ranged from five to thirty, while the kobolds that stayed were focused on building barricades out of anything they could find or they went into the surrounding buildings. As Lewis focused back on what was in front of him he saw the fifty kobolds that were lined up on the road were different from the rest of the kobolds.
Unlike the lightly armed kobolds, these kobolds wore armor made out of some kind of metal, and even their weapons were in much better condition. They also had round shields strapped on their backs but there was also a small amount that did not have shields instead, they had a bow around their shoulder and a full quiver some even two quivers. Lewis knew that they were different not just because of the armor but because he could see the way they acted they all stood evenly apart from one another while standing in rows of five.
That was when Lewis saw what they were looking at. It was the same kobold mage from before and this time he was not alone. There were two more kobold mages that stood by his side and like the fifty other kobolds, these ones wore leather armor under their robes and carried a sword on their waist. The only thing they did not have was a helmet instead they wore a different kind of robe it wasn't like the other mages, their robes were made out of a different material entirely one was a dark red while the other one was dark green.
As Lewis was staring at the kobolds the kobold mage that had brought him back, turned and looked at Lewis and a grin formed on the kobold's face. Lewis unconsciously leaned back.
The mage turned back to the gathered kobold soldiers and said something in their language before beginning to walk over to Lewis. Following behind the mage were the two other kobold mages, they followed behind the mage silently. Once the mage got close to Lewis the mage just stopped in place and looked over Lewis with his lizard eyes and began to take in every detail of Lewis's body. After what felt like hours but was only a few minutes the mage walked even closer to Lewis until he was directly in front of him, giving Lewis and the mage only a few inches between them.
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The mage crouched down to match Lewis's height and stared into Lewis's light blue eyes before turning to the other two kobold mages. The mage began to say something to them and the two mages simply nodded back to the now older-looking mage.
The mage that Lewis had first met was now only inches away allowing Lewis to take in every detail of the old mage. The scales of the kobold mage were dark gray in fact most of the kobolds were some shade of gray besides the ones wearing the metal armor and the two other mages, they were the same color as their robes. While the ones wearing the armor were a variety of colors.
The old mage had darker and worn-out scales, the two mages behind him had much brighter scales which did not seem as worn as the older one. Or so Lewis thought he was older by the worn-out scales but he was still unsure.
The old mage lifted his hand out and placed his palm on Lewis's forehead and before Lewis could react the old mage's hand began to glow transparent white. The light began to dissolve into Lewis's forehead and upon seeing this the old mage smiled and lifted his hand away from Lewis before standing back up onto his feet.
The mage looked down at Lewis before turning to the door of the police station and began to call out in their language, and not long after the three kobolds that had brought Lewis outside walked out of the police station and stood in a line just behind Lewis their heads at a slight bow. The mage spoke to the three and the three of them responded to the mage keeping their head at a bow. The same two kobolds from earlier walked up behind Lewis and at the same time, they both lifted Lewis up and turned to the police station where the same kobold lead the way once more.
Lewis was still trying to figure out what that old mage's spell did to him but before he could think about it anymore, his chest began to pulsate in pain once more, most likely from being picked up abruptly. Lewis yelled out in pain, and the kobolds that were carrying him both jumped in surprise and hurried to set him down on the ground.
The kobold that was leading turned around and looked to the two others for answers which they shrugged in confusion before speaking amongst each other. While the three kobolds were trying to figure out why he was yelling Lewis began to yell louder as the pain got much worse, Lewis placed both hands onto his chest as it felt like someone was stabbing him with a knife.
One of the kobolds had seen Lewis grab his chest and the kobold took off Lewis's shirt as gently as possible which revealed why Lewis was yelling out in pain. Lewis's bruise on his chest seemed to have gotten much worse revealing that some of Lewis's ribs have been fractured and possibly broken. The three kobolds looked at Lewis's chest before one of them leaped up onto his feet and began to run down the hallway where he disappeared.
The two kobolds that were left behind began to talk to one another as they tried to keep Lewis from not moving to avoid causing any more pain and injury. Lewis had stopped yelling in pain as that had made the pain twice as worse.
"How the hell did I not feel this?" Lewis thought in between every painful breath.
After trying to slow his breathing down to avoid any more pain. The Kobold that had run off earlier had eventually returned and behind him were three other Kobolds that wore robes and one of them was of similar design as the mages. while the other two wore satchels around their chest. the mage and two other new kobolds were female Lewis could tell by the structure of the body and they were slightly thinner and smaller in size compared to the others.
The mage waved her hand to the two kobolds at Lewis's side and they got to their feet quickly and backed away. The mage walked over and kneeled down above Lewis, After a few minutes, the other two carrying the satchels joined the mage by kneeling next to her. The other two kobold's robes did not have hoods attached to them like the mages and they did not carry weapons at their sides, instead they just had satchels. The robes were of pure white with a golden thread around the neck part and down and around the sleeves.
The mage's robe was the same color but had a golden embroidery of a light gold kobold skull on the right side of the robe with gold threads circling the skull like a badge. Lewis guessed they must be the doctors of the group or so he hoped, and thankfully he was right as the mage placed her hand just a few meters away from Lewis's bruised chest. A light gold color formed around her hands and began to fall into place around the bruise on Lewis's chest.
Lewis looked in shock as the bruise began to clear up and he could feel the fractured ribs and even the broken one move back into place. Lewis did not like this feeling one bit as he could feel the pain from the ribs moving back into place. Lewis was about to yell in pain once again but before he could one of the other female kobolds with a satchel began to pour a vial filled with some sort of liquid down Lewis's mouth and his vision began to fade to a familiar black once again.
Lewis opened his eyes just to find himself laying on the bed in the cell once more. Lewis looked at his body and saw he was wearing his shirt once more, he lifted the shirt up and to his disbelief, the bruise was gone. He pressed his fingers where the bruise once was however, he felt no pain, he got out of bed and stood on both of his feet expecting to feel pain from his left leg to appear once again but just like his chest pain the pain on his leg did not appear.
Lewis pulled up his pants leg and saw the place where the bandages were was completely empty of bandages and there were no more arrow wounds on his leg. Lewis was flabbergasted at this discovery but more than anything he was happy as he can now walk normally and the chance of escape was now much higher.
Lewis looked out of the holding cell and saw there was now a single guard at the end of the hall keeping watch. Lewis frowned at this discovery and went back to the bed and sat down to think over his options.
Lewis went over his options in his mind. He could allow himself to stay a prisoner and see where that gets him or he could try to escape by summoning two gnomes and pray that they can help him escape. Lewis thought about the second option and he knew that was the only option. "Who knows what will happen to me if I stay here," Lewis thought.
Lewis also knew that the gnomes come out with weapons and seem to have knowledge of fighting so he could definitely escape even if he has to use the two gnomes as a diversion.
"Well let's give it a shot," Lewis said. He stood up from the bed once more and stretched his hand out in front of him and began to whisper the phrase, that way the guard did not hear him. Lewis took a deep breath and spoke "Summon Forest Gnome"
Lewis's eyes widened as he finished saying the phrase. Something felt different he felt his mana leave his body for the first time and numbers appeared in the corner of his vision showing how much mana he had. Lewis watched as all of his mana decrease from 200 to 0.
Lewis liked this new feature as he could at least know how much mana he used after each spell. The feeling of his mana leaving his body will take some time to get used to as it was a strange tingle sensation but he knew he could get used to it eventually. Lewis focused back to where he casted the summoning spell and saw the portal was now appearing in front of him it grew to 4 feet in height like before but this time it was wider.
The light of the portal shined throughout the holding cell and eventually, the light leaked into the hallway making the Kobold guard call out in his native tongue. Lewis heard the kobold but paid it no mind as he waited for his soon-to-be saviors to appear out of the portal. Lewis's face changed from hopeful to dread in an instant.
"Well. . . . I'm done for" Lewis said out loud as the portal vanished into thin air. Lewis looked at the two new gnomes and gave his best smile and began to let out a pain-filled internal scream.