When I saw that the guard I’d hung had…passed, I lowered him to the floor by letting out a little bit more vine. Once he was resting soundlessly on the floor, I dismissed the vine in my hands, letting the entire skill diffuse into formless, invisible Aether.
I let out a shuddering breath once my grisly work was done. When I did so, a wave of exhaustion rolled over me. I nearly buckled standing upright, but caught myself at the last moment. I’d pushed too hard and fast after the strain of dispersing the door. Using multiple skills in a row had been a bad idea, but…
I tried to give Aurum a weak smile. My heart sank though when he just gave me a nervous look in return. The golden Sculpted retreated into the crowd of freed inmates as if he was trying to hide from me.
I…see. The guy had seen me do some pretty…questionable things by this point. I shouldn’t be surprised if he was wary of me now. I tried not to let it bother me, but I wasn’t sure I was succeeding.
Soundlessly, Sylvia faded into view on my right. She had put up her hood so I couldn’t see her face but said hood was pointed in my direction. I didn’t look at her. Instead, I was looking forward at Grey and the unknown man, who were approaching me.
When they reached me, the straggly inmate clapped me on the shoulder. “You with this lot, eh?” He said, jerking a finger at Grey. “Didn’t know they had anyone so hard with ‘em. Names McGill.” The man thrust a hand in my direction. Warily, I reached out to grip his forearm, as I’d grown accustomed to in Vereden. They didn’t shake hands here. When I did so, he man gripped mine in return powerfully. I didn’t flinch, just meeting his eyes. McGill gave me a toothy smile. “Clan Shadesey.”
Clan? From what I understood, that implied he was from the Hill Tribes. Like Bleddyn.
I gave him a slow nod. “Nate,” I said shortly.
“Nice to meet ya, Hangman,” McGill told me, smirking. I let go of his forearm, trying not to let on how much that word bothered me. My Acting skill had to be good for something, I suppose, as the man looked briefly disappointed that he didn’t get a rise out of me.
I put his new nickname out of my mind, compartmentalizing it further down the rings. Instead, I flicked my eyes in Grey’s direction. He met them, and nodded slightly at me. My mentor then deliberately turned to stare at McGill himself. The man got the hint, and wandered off to join the rest of the inmates, where they started asking him whispered questions and sending me slightly fearful looks. I didn’t blame them. I still had Thorn Cloak active, and the skill did lend me an intimidating air.
I leaned in closer to Grey. “That’s who you decided to free?”
Grey let out a short, frustrated huff of air. “Isabella insisted. Apparently, she recognized the man as a fellow pirate of Marrowmist. Normally, I wouldn’t expect her to care about such things, but according to her, she owed him a favor. Freeing him and his crew from imprisonment counts, in her words. Said crew are the rest of the rabble. She argued that they could either help operate the Reef or commandeer one of the other ships.”
“…the ones that are being sabotaged right now?” I asked him in an incredulous, whispered tone.
“…I don’t pretend to understand the mind of women,” Grey whispered back. “Either way, I didn’t care to argue much. We must move quickly now. Are you well enough to fight?”
I immediately shook my head. “No, even that little bit nearly made me black out again. I have no idea what would happen if I tried to call up something like The Scintillant Blade.”
Grey nodded shortly at that. “Then return to your reconnaissance above. One of the other inmates informed us that all the politically important prisoners are being kept in the central tower, under heavy guard. Keep watch with Sylvia. Speaking of,” He waved his daughter closer, from where she was pretending not to be eavesdropping.
She did so, apparently already guessing what he was going to ask. Before I could say a word in protest, Sylvia picked me up in a bridal carry, reminiscent of how she used to back in Addersfield. I ruthlessly suppressed my embarrassment when several of the inmates chuckled derisively. My Sculpted friend didn’t care and simply jumped straight upwards to land on the wooden beams above us. Once there, she let me down, where I could find my bearings once again.
Below us, Grey visibly concentrated before making a gesture. At it, a bubble of silence descended on the entire group, cutting off the low conversation I heard coming from the inmates. My mentor then turned around and pushed his way through the group to lead them once again. At his silent gesture, the group got underway again.
I let out a breath and followed them from above with Sylvia.
……………………………………..
I wasn’t able to help the group much from above, as they made their way further into the prison complex. The guards that I had seen, and the one that I had killed, were far from the only ones that they would encounter.
Overall, I think they would…dispose of a dozen different guardsmen as we made our way to the central tower. Sylvia had chosen to leave me behind to scout ahead of the group and alert them to threats in front. Meanwhile, I was left behind in order to guard and watch the rear of the group. Thankfully, I didn’t need to do much, as there weren’t any other guards who had the bright idea to try and ambush a trailing member of the group. Not that there were any, now. Aurum was safely ensconced within the group of inmates, being eyed by them speculatively. The closest person I knew that was in the back was Azarus, who was bringing up the rear guard on the ground.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Speaking of, my dwarven friend ‘surreptitiously’ turned around and looked up at the rafters. I don’t think he knew exactly where I was, but he still winked up in my general direction. I winced slightly. Azarus, you’re not meant to be pointing out the position of a scout like that…
Not that I thought there was anyone actually watching, but it was the principle of the thing.
Seriously man, you need to pick up some basic stealth skills.
Before the group could progress any further and turn a corner ahead, I saw Sylvia drop down in front of the group. They stopped, and father and daughter started a conversation, completely muffled by whatever silence spell Grey was using. After a moment, Sylvia jumped back up into the rafters, while Grey turned to address the group. Meanwhile, I could see the slight outline of Sylvia moving rapidly in my direction.
When Sylvia reached me, I shuffled in closer. “There is a large guard checkpoint ahead,” She whispered. “From what I can tell, this is the only entrance into the tower and there are perhaps fifteen guards stationed there around the large grate that leads inside. We have no choice but to assault the station. There’s no chance we’d be able to sneak past them.”
I nodded at Sylvia seriously. “All right. What’s the plan?”
“The plan,” Sylvia said pointedly. “Is for Father to extend his silence spell to cover the guard station, and the rest of us will charge them. Meanwhile, you are to continue to watch the rear. Unless you’ve recovered enough?”
Briefly calling up my Status and checking my Stamina, I grimaced and shook my head. “No, I’m still tapped out,” I told her. “I’ll keep watch up here.”
With an acknowledging nod, Sylvia slipped away to join the group that was going to assault the checkpoint. I stayed where I was and watched as Grey, my companions, and the freed inmates prepared for the fight. The inmates seemed almost eager, readying the weapons that they’d stolen from the corpses of various guards.
With a look of intense concentration on his aged features that I could see from where I was crouching, Grey stepped out around the corner in front of him. Immediately, he threw a hand forward, supposedly casting another silencing spell. He then drew Stellarum from its sheathed position on his waist and charged forward beyond my sight.
The group of inmates took that as their cue, seemed to let out a silent cheer of bloodlust, and charged around the corner themselves. My companions followed as well, just not as savagely.
Meanwhile, I crept up in order to better keep an eye on things. As I did so, I caught sight of the battle that was happening on this apparent guard outpost.
It was an almost eerie massacre. The entire battle was being conducted in complete silence, with none of the usual sounds of violence evident in the air. Grey’s spell had succeeded in quieting the entire corridor in which the fight was taking place. I couldn’t get over just how odd it was to watch a fight take place without the sound of steel on steel, or cries from combatants.
Sylvia had been right about the number of guards that had been manning the station. From the amount that was still fighting combined with those already slain, I counted exactly fifteen guards. However, they were outnumbered by inmates alone, much less my companions. I grimaced at the wild swipes that the guards were being bombarded by, with swords stolen from their compatriots. They didn’t have a chance against the inmates who were hungry for revenge against their jailers, much less my friends who were stronger in general.
However, I wasn’t watching the battle very closely.
Instead, I was the rear guard. And good thing too, because I could see a pair of guards on patrol that were approaching the corridor. They hadn’t quite reached the hallway where the battle was happening, but they looked like they were returning to it in my eyes.
I scowled. I still hadn’t recovered enough to do something about them. I’d likely get slaughtered in a straight fight, and I couldn’t replicate what I had done earlier. I just didn’t have it in me to cast another skill right now and be combat-effective. I was going to need to get some of the fighters behind me to deal with them. However, with the silencing effect in place, I couldn’t warn them verbally. Looking around for a moment for an idea, I eventually just took out my collapsible spear and carved off a few pieces of wood from the beam I was crouching on.
Turning around, I looked for someone that I could bean with these wood chunks to catch their attention. I grimaced when I saw that the closest person that I could see was that pirate from earlier, McGill. He was busy slitting the throat of some poor guard with a pilfered dagger.
Fuck it. Beggars can’t be choosers.
I took aim and tossed the chunk of wood at his head. Thankfully, I hit the mark. The pirate spun in place, scanning wildly for what had hit him. I dropped Thorn Cloak and waved at him. McGill caught sight of me with a confused look on his rough features. I pointed behind me urgently with one hand and held up two fingers with the other.
He got the point.
With a vicious smirk, the pirate caught the attention of two other inmates who were standing around, presumably part of his crew. He made a gesture to follow him and then raced to the end of the corridor. As he passed me, I made a gesture to the right so he would know which direction they were coming from. He adjusted, and then he and his two fellow inmates flattened themselves against the right wall.
They didn’t have to wait long.
The two patrolling guards rounded the corner and didn’t have time to do more than widen their eyes before the inmates jumped them. I looked away, rather than watch as they were knifed to death by a trio of escaped pirates.
Instead, I turned around to see if the battle was over yet.
Seemed like it was.
Grey and the rest of the group were just…cleaning up any stragglers that had survived. Seeing that the coast was clear, I jumped down from the rafters into a pool of blood. I couldn’t just stay up there when we went into the tower, as they stopped at the large gate. I nearly slipped in the blood before catching myself. I still jumped, though, when I felt a hand slap me on the back.
“Nice work, eh, Hangman?” I heard McGill say, as he and his cronies stepped past me.
I sighed. Yeah…sure.
I copied the man and started to approach the group that was gathering at the now-empty guard station.
It looked like it was finally time to rescue the people we had actually come for.