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Chapter 11: Improvised Weapon
Selina told me what had happened while I was unconscious. Captain Samuel had thrown a tantrum when he came back and interrogated more workers. However, when all the assembled workers saw how their colleagues were treated, a riot broke out. While it wasn't nice that this was happening now, after Finn and I had already been beaten up, it was better late than never. In fact, the timing was probably much better.
Finally, the scientists got together with the workers and started a strike. They were all hanging around the dormitories, refusing to lift a finger until the guards apologized and promised a better working environment. The workers needed the money, but their dignity and survival seemed to matter to them after all.
With the help of Finn as a distraction, Selina could sneak out and track me down.
It felt like the break-in, creeping along the metal walkways. But a lot had changed in the last few days. I no longer wanted just to discover a few islands. I now wanted to unravel the mysteries behind them. Of course, I wanted to kick some guard butt, too, but mostly I wanted to understand the Jade Mint, study it, and tinker with it. Become a better engineer.
What are the animal carcasses, and do they come from Under The Dawn Sea? What's the deal with the fruits? Is jade made from bones? What are the actual limits of Jade Mint? The Witchery? And what else is hiding down there? And last but not least, what does my father have to do with all this?
[New To-Dos]
…
Two guards patrolled below us. With some hand signs, Selina made me understand that each of us would take out one of them. At a silent cue, we both leaped toward them. Like eagles swooping down on their prey, we appeared above them as if from nowhere. Their armor clattered on the floor, and a sharp crack echoed off the factory walls as their necks snapped. While I had the strength of my prosthesis for that, Selina was probably just that strong.
We threw the bodies in one of the green soup containers. It sizzled for a few seconds, then silence. No traces swam to the surface.
We hastily parkoured through the factory, paying less and less attention to staying quiet as we lacked the places and time to hide all the accumulating guard’s bodies. We neared the room where we had hidden the Jade Masks, my grappling hook, and cutlass. We didn’t wait until the guards in the area patrolled past us and attacked without hesitation. Selina took care of two while I went for the left one.
He noticed my quick steps early enough to react. Fearing he might cry out in alarm, I made short work of him, intercepting his blade with my prosthetic hand. I spun into him with my momentum and threw him over my shoulder. He hit the ground hard and dropped his sword. I rammed it into the notches in his helmet.
I dragged the body into the locker room, where Selina had already retrieved our stuff.
[Item Record]
It felt good to have it back. I could finally see through the Jade Mask again. It offered me some confidence and a sense of security. And I could finally test my Grappling Hook in the factory.
+Jade Mask, Grappling Hook, Dad’s Old Cutlass
Selina also equipped her mask. “Alright, let’s keep going.” Shivers ran over me at the sight of her. “To the office, lead the way.”
—
Fortunately, the office was empty. It took me a little longer than usual, but I eventually lock-picked the door.
“That’s it.” I scanned the room. The Jade Mask actually helped me see better in the dark, as I had hoped, but not much.
“Damn, search for a smaller map.” Selina stared at the big map on the wall. “ We can’t run around with that big thing.
“And hurry.”
We rummaged through drawers.
I resisted the urge to read through all the parchments and focused on finding the smaller map. One of the drawers was locked for some reason, so I worked on it. After a minute or so of failing, Selina came.
“Lend me your arm.” She took my prosthetic arm.
“What?”
“Relax. Make a fist, and don’t move.” She bent me over and pulled my arm up. Then she slammed my fist down and broke through the desk.
I moaned in pain. I felt like she almost ripped the prosthesis off my shoulder. “A more precise warning would have been nice.” I pulled my fist out of the desk and rubbed my shoulder
“We don’t know how much time we have. Come—there it is.” Selina pulled out a duplicate of the map on the wall, only standard map size.
Further back in the drawer lay a bright green crystal shaped like a stone for one of the spears I had made in my childhood. However, it had no handle.
“Come on,” Selina was so focused on the map that she didn't even notice. “We have to get out of here.”
“Sure.” I carefully took the crystal with my dead hand, which now had bent fingers because of Selina. The crystal seemed to vibrate from the pure energy it contained. Very slowly, it ate through the alloyed hardwood of my palm.
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“Woah.” I just stared at it. The vivid green glow seduced me. Cracks like lightning carved into the smooth surface. It should have looked rough, but it didn’t. It seemed like wet glass, reflecting its own glow, creating multiple branches of light with beads that hung from it like fruits.
“Come on, Hercu!” Selina urged.
I grabbed a cloth handkerchief, wrapped the crystal and took a random book from one of the shelves, and tucked it into my worker overalls, wedging it between my stomach and the waistband of my pants. Then I followed Selina.
[Item Record]
+Jade Mint Crystal, Book
[To Do fulfilled]
I had successfully stolen the Mint Map from the factory.
[Relation Record]
+Hopefully that had increased Selina’s affection for me so she would hate me less.
“We leave through the second storage room and grab some Jade Mint on the way. It’s the closest to our escape route,” Selina said.
“Alright, then you go ahead again.”
“Keep up!”
The storage room was located at the end of the factory, the same side from where we had entered the factory grounds after sliding down the cliff.
“How are we supposed to get up the cliff without getting shot in the back?” The metal grid rattle under our steps.
“We don’t.”
“Huh?”
“We make a detour.”
We arrived in front of the storage room. Four guards stood at the two entrances. I zoomed in on the windows. A couple of badly battered workers packed pallets with lots of Jade Mint. This was probably the important shipment Captain Samuel had been talking about.
“Can you take two?” Selina asked.
“I got this.” I showed her the Jade Mint Crystal.
“Where did you—no, let’s hurry. We take them from two sides.”
We split up. Selina dashed her side’s guards from the ground while I shot my grappling hook at a walkway above and swung at mine.
These noticed me early enough to draw their swords. I didn't stop, holding the crystal before me to ward off their slashes. However, I didn’t simply block them. The shard-like crystal went straight through their blades and armor.
I crashed into them. All three of us struggled on the ground. They tried grabbing the crystal, but I simply cut through their hands. With sickly crawl noises, their skin rolled itself up and crisped. While they flailed and screamed in pain, I severed their heads, releasing them from the pain.
Selina glanced at me, shocked. I zoomed in on her face. She seemed relieved.
“Did she think that they got me?”
Her eyes widened in horror. “Watch out!” She pointed to my side.
A guard stormed out of the storage room, sword over his head, already swinging at me. I squinted my eyes and held up the crystal protectively. This blade was also sliced cleanly in half. It continued to swing, however, as it had not lost its momentum. I tilted my head to the side and narrowly escaped a fatal hit. The upper half of the blade, the tip, hurtled toward me like a projectile. It bore into my shoulder while the lower half cut my stomach.
Selina dashed to my side and kicked the guard so hard that he disappeared into the shadows.
“You okay?!”
I checked my stomach. The book had only suffered a superficial cut.
“Can you keep fighting?”
“I’ll manage.”
”Good. Keep the blade’s tip in your shoulder, or you'll lose too much blood.”
More guards came out of the storage room, dropping empty vials.
Selina clicked her tongue and also popped a vial. Another blurry battle broke out, but this time I could see more. Selina held the guards away from me, so she had trouble finishing them.
I searched a dead guard and quickly found a green vial beside their sword sheath. I popped it and was about to drink it when Selina suddenly kicked it out of my hand.
I cried out in pain. It stung severely on my shoulder. “Without it, then,” I grunted.
I got ready to attack with the crystal, but it was no longer in my hand. Half of my fingers were also missing. It had entirely eaten through my prosthetic hand.
[Item Record]
-Jade Mint Crystal
Honestly, how was I supposed to notice without a sense of touch, huh?
[Prosthesis Status]
-3 fingers were halfway severed, and the hand partly melted. Repair necessary.
I drew my cutlass with my other hand and concentrated, as best I could with the pain, on my eyes. My vision turned greener, and the blurry movements slowed to speedy ones but recognizable ones. My head throbbed from the exertion, but I plunged into the fray anyway. I could at least give Selina some cover.
I groaned the pain away between clenched teeth. Each block stabbed deep into my shoulder, the blade's tip feeling like it was sinking deeper each time.
Workers came out of the storage room.
“Hercu?!” Finn yelled.
I was too busy dodging close calls to respond.
They watched for a bit, but when Finn grabbed a sword from one of the dead guards, the other workers joined the messy fight.
One of the blows in the flurry struck my face, rocking my mask off. Selina turned to me. In a burst. In a gush. Like paint falling into water, green tangles snaked around her. All the guards were pierced by them right through their armor.
Selina stumbled to the ground, clutching her throat. She gasped violently.
“Selina—”
She coughed up blood. A lot of blood.
“Come on, it's time to go,” I said as I lifted her, supporting her as she appeared unsteady and on the verge of fainting.
“Listen. We’ll flee from here whoever wants to get out and back to the sea. Tag along.”
The workers eyed each other in confusion.
Finn, of all people, came first: “You lost this.” He handed me my mask. “I'm coming with you. I can't stand it here another second.” He smiled genuinely.
“But I thought you were angry—”
“For what? That this brat, Wyatt, is a little bitch? That you stood up for me? Or literally, saved my life? Hell no. I'd rather risk working somewhere else than waste my life here.”
A smile cracked on my lips.
“Me too!” It was Brenda.
Finn helped me carry Selina. “Will she be alright?”
We went into the storage room. “I hope so. It wouldn't have worked without her.”
The workers opened the roll-up door. It creaked open, revealing a pair of dirty, snow-white eyes, pale cracks spread with curved, fine lines. Then the metal curtain rose higher, and more light shone at us, their surface aglow with many dark craters.
The Twins gazed at us from the horizon.