I woke up with a throbbing headache. I looked at my surroundings: I was tied up in a dark, dank prison cell. Suddenly, a face appeared from beyond the bars. “How does it feel to be imprisoned, Mensal?” The face sneered.

I didn’t say anything; I only spat at him. The spit bounced off a wall and hit me in the face. The face laughed maniacally. “You won’t escape from this, Mensal! We have finally captured you. The Mastermind will most certainly be pleased!”

“Who is the Mastermind?” I demanded.

“Even if I tell you, you’ll never make it out of this place alive or trapped in a cage! Why do you want to know anyway?” The face sneered.

“I will find a way to escape this dreary, dark prison!” I declared.

“Ha! Nice joke!” The face bellowed. “It is impossible to escape the Prison of Death!”

“Wow, what an original and creative name!” I sarcastically exclaimed.

“Maybe, but you are trapped in it!” The face cackled. “You know, I’ll tell you who the Mastermind is: your death!”

“Wow, thank you for that very helpful information!” I kept talking sarcastically, hoping the face would go away so I could brainstorm a plan to escape.

My hopes were dashed when the face handed me some food (probably poisoned) and water (probably poisoned as well) and just sat there, waiting.

I tried to cast a spell, but the walls disabled my magic. Wait… I wonder… maybe the wards only apply to spells! Maybe Elementalism doesn’t count and I can break out using it! I sat up straight and attempted to summon fire from my fingertips. They lit up, and I grinned.

I burned the face(who yelled, shrieked, and screamed as if he was a banshee), took the key, and unlocked the door. I created a giant fireball, launching it at all of the surprised guards. In the next room, there were a lot of prisoners, and among them, I spotted Khel and Kajun. I unlocked all of the cages, leading all of the prisoners outside. The only way we could go was a door with the sign, “Strach and Meka’s office: DO NOT ENTER”. There was another passageway, but it was blocked off.

I looked back at the prisoners, realizing they were either magical creatures or my classmates. “I think we have to go this way.” I pointed at the door.

“I don’t like the ominous sound of DO NOT ENTER…” Khel stepped out of the crowd and shivered.

“But… we have to! This area has an unbreakable ceiling and that blockade is probably unbreakable as well!” Kajun argued, stepping out of the group of students as well.

“True… you make a good case, Kajun! It seems like the other choices are something like 1%, while this is about 60%.” Khel agreed.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Then it’s settled, to the door!” I announced. I carefully picked the lock and opened it with a creak. The entire group snuck in. The office looked like a mess of papers, documents, and chemicals. It looked like a very messy laboratory.

After I walked past the tables, Khel alongside me, I heard a sudden beep. Everybody froze: except one foolish student who kept walking and fell into a bottomless pit. Then, the tables turned into a wall, separating Khel and me from the rest of the group.

Then, a rumbling noise came from another pit, and the sound of creaking started. “Khel, what do you think the chances are that that sound is a lot of cute bunnies climbing up a metal pole?” I whispered.

“Probably… 0.01%,” Khel responded. It turned out they were cute bunnies… with metal claws and an antenna.

The bunnies hopped up and started clawing at us with their sharp, metal claws. “I didn’t think that I was going to die from bunny scratches!” Khel exclaimed, trying to create humor.

“Relax, Khel!” I prepared to cast Forcefield, only to discover that there were still magical wards preventing me from casting spells. I summoned my fire Elementalism and carefully melted the bunnies’ antennae and metal claws. They soon returned to normal and jumped out of a tiny hole in the wall that neither of us could fit through. I attempted to melt the wall, but it didn’t work. The wall started heating up, but a mechanism made water start flowing down, cooling down the heating metal.

“Dang, how are we going to get out of here?” Khel said.

“Well, to put it fairly, you won’t.” A deep voice rumbled from outside the door.

“W-who are you?” Kajun stuttered on the other side of the wall.

“Meka and Strach, at your service!” A high-pitched voice shrieked.

Meka and Strach walked in with masks on their faces, casting an aura of gloom and doom into the room.

I thought about jumping up and creating a fireball to throw at Meka and Strach, but I decided against it, as that might burn the students as well. Instead, I used Tyronius’s training to carefully only send the flames at Meka. Meka shrieked and dodged the flames, but they hit Strach. Strangely, they flung him back instead of burning him.

Before I could voice my surprise, Meka flung a ball of lightning at me. I met it with a ball of fire, the 2 balls collided and exploded, turning the nearby roof and floor black.

I quickly jumped back down, burning part of the wall with my flames. From there, I sent a giant dragon-shaped flame at them. Strach sent a ball of molten fire at me; but that only helped me. While the wall closed up, the molten flames from Strach melted the wall even further; creating a permanent way for Khel and me to get out. “You idiot!” Meka screeched at Strach, “You broke the wards and let them escape!”

“Sorry, I didn’t notice that Humanoids #5346, #5461, and #5792 were there,” Strach responded meekly.

“I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about Khel and Mensal. Wait… you let 3 Humanoids escape?!” Meka roared.

“Y-yes!” Strach cowered. Meanwhile, Khel and I took the opportunity to sneak out, leading the other students out.

“They’re escaping!” Meka alerted Strach, “Redeem yourself by capturing them!”

Strach pressed a button on his mask, which seemed to give him super speed. He charged straight at me. I ducked, then sent a Fire Punch at him. He responded by meeting it with his hand, holding a ball of water. My fist made it through, although the flames didn’t. Reacting quickly, I cast Lightning Discharge, knocking Strach back, who was dazed.

After Strach recovered, he quickly drew some figures in the air. It sent a giant wave of debris at me, which exploded instantly, the shrapnel all coming straight at me. I barely mustered a Forcefield, flinging the shrapnel around me. However, I prematurely ended my spell, so I ended up with shrapnel sticking out of my sides. I attempted to enter State of Meditation, but I was immediately sent out of it by an explosion on the ceiling.

I jerked my head up to look at the ceiling. There was a cell up there, with a bedraggled-looking Ms. Kului entrapped inside. She was struggling, trying to destroy the bars. “Mensal! Free me! I have a technique to defeat them!” I nodded in acknowledgment.

I decided to melt the bars holding Ms. Kului, creating a cushion of vines for her to land in. She formed some figures like Strach. Suddenly, Strach started thrashing around in pain for no apparent reason. I cast Hurricane and then Lightning Discharge on Strach and Meka. After that, they were both barely standing.

“What should I do with them?” I questioned.

“Hmm… let’s find out their identity.” Ms. Kului decided. After dusting ourselves off from falling from where we were levitating, I melted off Strach and Meka’s masks. I made a very startling discovery.