Spells lit the last room with cages in it, as Vessa cursed herself for the nth time. Freed Casters countered and sent spells of their own. As those unable to fight opened cages with keys taken from dead jailors. Vessa continued to pull numbers. She was committed at this point.
Male 2215: 1%
Female 205: 1%
Male 104: 1%
Male 3012: 1%
Female 2150: 1%
Though she didn’t bother bringing them fully to death, as the Casters on her side of the fight easily finished them off.
Vessa looked away from the front lines to people barely standing, body parts missing. Those who lacked legs or couldn’t walk for a myriad of reasons were currently on the floor and would have to be carried. She took in all the numbers on her side to total 2745 people. Most of those couldn’t fight and could barely walk. Though, Vessa had to admit that some of the scariest Casters were lacking a lot of their body and were floating in the air or laying on the sidelines.
Female 257:1%
Male 56: 1%
Female 2705: 1%
Male 2541: 1%
Male 78: 1%
Spells flew at Vessa as the enemy found her again. They had to know she was the reason they fared so poorly against their weakened captives. The crackle of bones whispered in Vessa’s ears, as a multitude of mini balls of light came towards her and her body began to itch.
Vessa held her number at 100% and waited.
The spells were negated before they affected her beyond a mild injury that healed easily and the casters were dead before they could send more her way. She looked down at the boy sleeping in her arms and drooling on her shoulder. This was an absolute mess.
Male 25: 1%
Male 4650: 1%
Female 1003: 1%
Male 45: 1%
Female 87: 1%
Not to mention she was positive that they were killing all the Casters as the numbers reflected dregs or higher ups. Eventually, they have to call for reinforcements; she wondered why they hadn’t already. Vessa could go for a while, but she couldn’t take on all the Casting Constellations. Not to mention those on her side who were far from great shape; although they seemed more than willing to fight to the death. Given their previous conditions, Vessa could see why. Though she managed to keep most of the death on the enemy side.
The fun part of all this was that the teleporter room was back up, and the building was likely to be flooded by reinforcement at anytime.
Had she just took the boy and killed everyone in the building, she would have been gone by now. Now, she couldn’t leave until everyone was either dead or outside. Which meant getting to the teleporter and then killing everyone in the area or finding a way to lock the doors.
Female 3312: 1%
Male 2053: 1%
Male 507: 1%
Female 23: 1%
Male 628: 1%
“Is that everyone?” Ensald called and Vessa looked to see all the cages were open and the makeshift carts were filled.
She checked the incoming numbers and blinked, checked again. There weren’t any new numbers. Just the ones that had already entered the building. Vessa waited for several moments, but still no new numbers arrived. Where were the reinforcements?
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“Problem Number assassin?” Kelsi asked.
“There are no more enemy combatants coming towards us. You’d think they would have a way to call for reinforcements.” Vessa said and Kelsi gave a darkly amused laugh.
“Turns out we’re all ingredients. Except for you and the boy,” Kelsi said, and Vessa looked passed the front lines to the enemy combatants. Were they fighting just as hard? Would reinforcements kill them just as they would the prisoners?
Female: 451: 1%
Male 65: 1%
Male 91: 1%
Male 325: 1%
Female 237: 1%
“Why?” Vessa asked and Kelsi shrugged, as if he were bored. Except, his eyes were haunted.
“Always a need for body parts, for one spell or another.” He shook his head.
“It wasn’t always like this, once there was The Dark Arts. Now? Now, it’s all dark.” He said, flipping his hands palm side up and staring at them. Vessa felt her stomach sink. Uh-oh.
“As in when this all over they’re going to….”
“Retrieve all the bodies, yes.” Kelsi gestured to everyone moving around them, to the front line and to the multitude of the dead. Vessa looked with him, as she tried to puzzle a way out of this conundrum. Trying not to think of a certain hallway when Castillo learned of this debacle.
“Is that a problem?” Kelsi asked.
“When they come in after all this and see not nearly enough prisoner bodies, they’ll figure out what happened,” Vessa said.
“Ingredient bodies.” Vessa turned to look at him.
“What?” She asked.
“We’re not officially prisoners. We’re ingredients.” Kelsi said.
“What difference does it make?” Vessa asked. It certainly could not be the treatment.
“Prisoners are treated worse.” Kelsi said and Vessa blinked, glanced at the cages, and then back to him.
“You don’t want to ask,” Kelsi said, and Vessa felt sick. She took in a breath and reminded herself she was a professional.
“As for the body problem, there is a solution.” Kelsi said, and Vessa turned her attention back to him.
“What’s that?” Vessa asked
“Blow up the building, no bodies, no way to tally.”
“What’s going on?” Ensald asked and Vessa realized the fighting had to come to an end. Everyone that was still alive stared at them with silence except for moans of pain.
“She needs us to blow up the building.” Kelsi said, to murmurs of agreement.
“If you use the teleporter to do it, they can’t use this place again.” An older woman in a makeshift cart said. Both her eyes were gone as well as her legs with only one arm remaining, and she wasn’t considered a prisoner?
“Couldn’t they just remake a new teleporter?” Kelsi asked, no hint of revulsion in his voice.
“No, the teleporter is just a manifest of the lay lines. Blow them up and they’ll be too wild for Malenia, if it’s done right.” The woman responded, and Kelsi nodded before glancing to Ensald.
“We set some sort of time delay. Get everyone through the teleporter and then make it destroy the building.” Ensald said to cheering, which caused the Wisher boy to wake and look at Vessa. She was sure there was no way this ended well, unless she killed them all, and left with the boy. There was still time for that.