Freedom
The Master had put Tom in a difficult position. He essentially had a human shield protecting him from any attacks. As they stood there between the two opposing leaders, some of the people had fearful looks on their faces while others seemed resigned to their fates and others still began crying. This had to be a terrible situation to be in.
"Don't worry, we will save you," Tom said firmly to the people standing in front of them.
"How will you save them if you can't even save yourself?" The Master asked with a laugh at Tom.
The door slowly closed behind The Master sealing the only other exit from the room. From behind the group of slaves The Master sneered at Tom and his companions.
"People like you make me sick. You, with your self-righteous ideals and charismatic bravado, are worse than even that detestable Shandra. At least I can respect her for her ruthless search for power in this unforgiving world." The Master chided Tom with a look of disgust on his face. "You pretend that you care for other people and pretend they are on the same level as you when we all know they are just weak examples of human flesh that don't deserve to be the ones calling the shots for their lives."
The Master began pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back behind the human shield.
"You treat them with kindness, which does nothing but make them weaker in giving them the belief that they too can make a difference. It's ridiculous! You think yourself some kind of messiah when in reality you are nothing more than an idealist who is going to get them killed." The Master continued. "What...what are you doing?"
The Master paused when he saw Tom moving out of the corner of his eye.
"What? Us? Oh, nothing. Continue. You were saying something about us making you sick and me thinking I'm Jesus or something? Kinda blasphemous if you ask me." Tom prattled as he tried to pretend they weren't doing anything.
"Not Jesus you buffoon! I said...nevermind, it's not the point!" The Master grew frustrated at Tom's dismissal of what he was saying.
"Oh, I'm so glad. I'd hate for lightning to strike you instead of me. That would be such a bummer." Tom interrupted.
"You think to kill me? HA! You can't even save your friends. What do you think you will do here?" The Master said derisively at Tom's suggestion.
"It's gonna happen. Just give it time. And it's going to be slow. I want to enjoy the moment." Tom said, suddenly shifting from his carefree attitude to one of a man who had been through hell and back.
The Master paused in his pacing and looked at Tom. Hesitation showed on his face as he couldn't help but avert his eyes from Tom's icy gaze as he attempted to recover from the pause to continue with his speech.
"It will not be you who is the one killing the other, I promise you that," The Master continued, trying to not show he had been shaken by Tom's words and look. "You have no hope here and not only will I kill you, your friends will die above and then I will march on your guild to destroy them as well. All you have come to know and love will die because of you."
"I guess we will see, won't we?" Tom said, back to his nonchalant attitude.
"You are so infuriating! I have you by the literal balls in this situation, bearing down on you with your own destruction, and you still seem to feel like you are going to come out on top!" The Master shouted, feeling more and more agitated.
"That's because I know something you don't," Tom said holding up one of the anti-magic grenades in his hand.
"What the hell is that? You think to throw a ball at me?" The Master asked, looking let down by what he saw.
"Something like that," Tom said, pressing the button on the device.
Tom then threw the orb at The Master and it flew toward him like a missile. The Master's eyes went wide as he ducked behind one of his slaves to protect himself. The orb flew forward and then stopped in mid-air, expanding as it cast the spells it held inside. Glowing yellow light extended out in a cube from the device, expanding to encase all of the slaves and most of the room.
"RUN! GET AWAY FROM HIM! IT NULLIFIES THE COLLARS!" Tom shouted as he moved forward.
Looking at each other in confusion, the slaves didn't seem to understand what happened until they realized they could move their heads on their own. As soon as they understood they ran toward Tom's friends as Tom darted past them toward The Master. Seeing Tom rushing at him so quickly, The Master's eyes widened in shock and he threw up his hands to cast the shield he had before.
When nothing happened, the color drained from his face as he tried to figure out what had happened. While he was looking at his hands, Tom ran up beside him and with a powerful downward swing of his greatsword, lopped off both of The Master's hands with one swing.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" The master screamed in pain and fell to the ground, unable to do anything but stare in shock as blood fountained out of his stumps.
Tom stared down at the pathetic excuse for a man who was now crying from the pain of the strike.
"What have you done?! How is this possible?! You were supposed to be the one to die! You are weak!" The Master finally managed to scream through his agony.
Moving closer, Tom placed the point of his sword on The Master's left shoulder and pressed down lightly as he put one foot on the man's chest. A small stain of blood began to appear through his suit as he let out another scream of agony.
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"You know what I hate more than anything else in the world? Well, when they put lettuce on my tacos I guess, but right after that? People who think they can play god with other people's lives." Tom said staring down at The Master with an almost impassive look on his face, as if this was just a regular day at the office for him.
The Master began to sob loudly now as he tried not to move much and aggravate the wound. Tom leaned on the sword and it sank all the way through his shoulder to the floor.
"Ahhhh!!! GAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" The Master cried and then screamed as the sword stopped and Tom wiggled it a little.
"What's wrong? Did you put all your attributes into stats for your magic because you thought it was the pinnacle of power here? Bad move bucko. Now you're stuck. You see, this is what we have been waiting for. An opportunity to use this new magi-tech to minimize our risks. The only reason you continued to live was because I allowed it." Tom spoke softly, ending in barely above a whisper.
The Master was beyond words at this point, suffering through a hellish pain from the damage Tom was inflicting on him. Tears streamed down his face as he continued to attempt both writhing through the pain and staying still to prevent further damage.
Tom lifted his sword out of The Master's shoulder and the man let out a wimper of pain and relief.
"You see, people like you make me sick. You are more than happy to torture someone else because what? Someone gave you a wedgies in school? Made fun of you? Tossed you in a dumpster? Called you names? You could have made something of yourself to prove them wrong. Instead, you held onto those childhood pains and became bitter at the world and when you got the chance to hold that same power over someone else, you jumped at it." Tom said in disgust at the sobbing form of The Master.
He swung his sword swiftly up in an arc, cutting The Master's right leg off just above the knee.
The man's screaming hit a new level of suffering as he tried to grab his leg out of instinct with hands that were no longer attached, aggravating the wound in his shoulder as well when he tried to sit up.
"It's time to end this charade. Rot in hell you son of a bitch!" Tom said holding the sword up over his head.
Swinging the sword down, Tom cut off The Master's head with one swift movement ending in a clang as the sword struck the ground behind his neck. The screaming cut off abruptly as his head rolled across the ground.
Silenced reigned in the room for a long moment as no one spoke. Then, sobbing could be heard from near where Bohdan, Michael, and Bron were standing. Tom turned to see the former slaves all hugging and crying. Feeling his heart fill with joy at seeing their freedom, he kicked the head of his adversary and walked back over to the group.
"Let's get those collars off now too," Tom said producing a pair of bolt cutters from his inventory.
Bohdan did the same and they soon had all of the slaves freed.
"There are more. We were kept in a room behind that door and down the hall. Can you save them too?" A woman said after Tom had removed the collar from her neck.
"Of course. You are all free now. We will make sure we free everyone." Tom comforted her.
She smiled up at him with streaks on her face, the tears she cried making tracks through the dirt on her face.
"Thank you," She said in a voice that caught in her throat, choking up with emotion at the idea that she was no longer bound to The Master.
"Bron? Can you take out that door?" Tom asked, looking over at his large friend.
Nodding once curtly, Bron walked over to the door and exchanged his greataxe for the largest warhammer Tom had ever seen. Pulling it back in preparation, Bron swung it with all of his not-inconsiderable strength into the stone door. The stones were smashed inward and a shower of dust shot out into the room.
Tom moved over to the door and walked down the hall. It ended in a wooden door that he proceeded to kick in. Inside were utterly squalid conditions with human feces stacked in a corner and moldy food left on a plate to the side of the room. A group of about thirty people were all huddled in the corner opposite their apparent toilet, recoiling from Tom as he entered.
"It's okay. you are all free now. The Master is dead and we are here to help you. Come with me and we will get those collars off." Tom spoke softly as he gestured for them to leave the room.
The woman that Tom had spoken to after the fight, came running up behind him and into the room. She hugged one of the other women in the room in a tight embrace.
"It's true! He saved us!" She said to the others in the room.
Looks of confusion turned to disbelief, then joy as they found they could move freely. They rushed out the door and down the hall to be away from the prison they had been living in. As they had their collars removed, the former slaves embraced Tom, Bohdan, and Michael still unsure about what to think of Bron.
"Come with me. We will bring you somewhere safe where you can clean up, you will be given new clothes, and then you can choose how you want to live your lives." Tom said after all of the collars had been removed.
They retraced their steps past all the zombies they had to kill to reach this point and back up into The Master's quarters. When they reached the open air after leaving the building, the Slaves all covered their eyes, the sun more than they had been used to from the dark room they had been inside. Tom looked around to see the giant creature the others had been fighting, lying motionless on the ground, his guildmates all gathered around and tending to the wounded or cleaning up the battlefield.
"Tom!" Derek called out to him.
"Derek! You made it! Did you kill that thing?" Tom asked.
"No. I'm guessing the animation magic was released when you killed The Master. Which you did do right?" Derek asked his friend.
"Yeah, he's dead. Sorry it took so long, there's a basement under the building and that fucker made it a maze and filled it with zombies." Tom explained.
"I wish we had sent more with you," Derek said suddenly feeling guilty.
"No, no, no. You needed everyone here. We were fine." Tom tried to allay his friend's concerns. "Walk with me. I'll tell you the whole story."