Our combined forces succeeded in pushing forward, enough that we were out of the hallway that led to the crumbling tower. That didn’t mean that the guards stopped coming, even as we fought a grinding battle through the halls of the prison. I didn’t forget Grey’s estimate that there could be upwards of three hundred guards or troops currently quartered at Caer Drarrow.

I don’t know if we could fight off that many. Especially without Grey or Venix here to pick up our slack.

But I guess we were going to try.

Speaking of them, every once in a while I could hear the sound of battle echo through the thick stone of the prison roof. It wasn’t often, but occasionally I would hear impacts. If they were still fighting up there, then the battle with the Neptaurian Prime was taking longer than the one against the Abyssmother had. And that was with Grey and Venix working together from the start. The two of them had finished off that giant spider pretty quickly, once the Antium samurai had entered the fray.

Just how much stronger was that Centaur?

Still, we were making progress. I don’t know who was specifically leading the way through the battle, but I hoped they knew the way to the docks. With all this commotion, I was sure that the Reef sabotage crew had to know by now that we were coming in hot. I hope they had the ship ready for a fast exfiltration.

Or else things were going to get even dicier.

Every once in a while, the battle in front of me would grow more intense as Guard reinforcements arrived. During this period of amped-up fighting, the movement of the group would stall in place. When that happened, I noticed that the inmates from the cells next to us would start to try and plead with me or Aurum to free them. The Sculpted Healer was doing his best to ignore them, as he had an actual job to be doing. His ranged heals were pretty important to the staying power of those in the fight, as we hadn’t lost any combatants under his eye.

I couldn’t say the same for the Guards. Seemed Healers were rare.

Lucky us.

I, however, was actually considering freeing some of these guys. I didn’t have any attachment to the laws of Herztalian society. I wasn’t sure how much I cared about what they’d done to deserve being put in here. However, most of the people who pleaded with me to free them seemed sketchy as hell. There was just something about them that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Some of these guys were just off. I couldn’t help but remember Grey’s reluctance to free prisoners to help us in a general revolt. How he had said the prison was built for a good reason.

I eyed one guy that was trying to entice me, with visibly hand-sharpened teeth.

Maybe Grey had a point.

However, there was one person that gave me pause.

During one of the times reinforcements arrived, I was knocked out of my vigil over the terrified children by someone catching my attention from a nearby cell.

“Hey hey hey hey,” I heard someone speak urgently. Turning, I saw a furry arm sticking out of a cell door food slot, while an equally furry snout was pressed up against the peeking door at head height.

I blinked.

A Gnoll? I hadn’t seen one of those since I’d said my goodbyes to Illuvia in Hollow Hill.

The occupant of the cell, seeing that they had caught my attention, pulled back enough from the window so I could see them better.

Yup, that was a Gnoll all right.

I think he was a male. Mostly black furred, he had a large white oval on his face from which peeked out bestial orange eyes. As best I could tell, the Gnoll was around my height, thin from probable starvation, and wearing little more than tattered prison wraps. He was also very visibly ansty.

He pulled his vulpine lips back in an anxious grin.

“Hey, hi, I see that you’re in the middle of a prison break,” He said with a sickly grin over the sounds of battle in front of me, shuffling in place nervously. “Any chance you could getmeouttoo?”

I parsed his quick words, tilting my head. Briefly flicking my eyes at the battle and seeing that it was still stalled in place, I decided to hear him out. “Make your case,” I said shortly. “But make it fast.”

The Gnoll’s eyes lit up and moved closer to the door. “I’m a Healer,” He said hurriedly. “I can help you, I swear! I don’t need anything to cast!”

I furrowed my brow. “What the hell is a Healer doing in prison?” I asked him skeptically. Like I’d said, Healers seemed rare. Why let one waste away in Caer Drarrow?

“I shouldn’t be in here!” The Gnoll told me, frustrated. “I just pissed off the wrong noble, that’s all! I didn’t do anything to deserve this! I swear, I’m just a student at the Academy!”

Hmm. I had a good feeling about this guy, actually. He didn’t seem to be a crazed cannibal, like some of these guys.

One more test.

“If you’re lying, you should know we have Headmaster Greycton with us,” I told the Gnoll seriously. “I’ll stick you right back in a cell if you’re fucking with me.”

The Gnoll’s eyes actually lit up. “Nononono, that’s good! That’s great! The Headmaster can vouch for me! I know him! I’ve worked with him!”

Well. All right then.

I felt recovered enough at this point to use at least one Skill, so I pointed a palm at the padlock on the Gnoll’s cell door.

Poisonthorn Shot.

The poisonous skill-borne thorn materialized in front of my hand and shot forward, lodging itself in the lock. In seconds, the metal of it had corroded away to fall in pieces to the floor of the prison. Stepping forward to the cell, I undid the latch and swiftly stepped back. As the door opened and the Gnoll stepped out, I laid one cautious hand on my dagger and made sure I was blocking the way to the children.

Just in case. This guy could have been pretending the entire time.

The Gnoll stepped out of the cell skittishly and flinched at the sight of the battle occurring ahead of us. He also boggled at the large group of children that we were escorting, who were mostly being kept calm and under control by Richard Everfield and the handful of other adults we’d rescued.

“Hey,” I called out to him, keeping an eye on the battle myself. It looked like they were about to move up. Seemed like the others had dealt with the latest group of reinforcements. “What’s your name?”

“Uh, Renauld,” The Gnoll said, dragging his eyes away from the fighting to give me a weak grin. “Nice to meet you?”

“Sure, right. Well, if you’re going to be healing, get up there with the gold guy,” I told him, jerking my head in the direction of Aurum. Said Sculpted must have somehow heard me say his name, because he briefly turned around to look in our direction. At the sight of another freed prisoner, much less a Gnoll, he gave me a strange look. I just shrugged at him. Aurum shook his head and returned to watching the battle.

Whatever, man. I made a judgment call. I’ll watch him.

I wasn't willing to extend complete trust to someone who had been in a jail cell, no matter what he said.

“Right. Right! Yeah, I’ll do that!” Renauld told me, scurrying his way across the stone on padded feet to stand next to Aurum.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The battle advanced in front of us.

……………………………………..

Our grinding battle through the halls of Caer Drarrow continued for the next fifteen minutes. In that time, our new acquisition in the form of Renauld proved his worth. I think he might have both been higher level than Aurum and more knowledgeable about healing. As we advanced, I saw him demonstrate a greater variety of Healing spells of varying strength. Thanks to his inclusion, we didn’t end up losing any of our weaker combatants in the form of the freed pirates. However, he also didn’t seem to have much stamina in his spell-casting. He wasn’t able to throw spells out as quickly as Aurum could.

If I had to take a guess, it was probably weakness from being imprisoned. Still, between the two of them, our pace picked up. By this point, we had long since passed our entry point that led out to the caves. I was almost tempted to ask a few people to break off and try and get out that way, but we needed all the fighters we could muster.

I don’t know how they were managing to fight non-stop like this. From my experience, combat was such an exhausting thing that even short bursts of it was enough to exhaust me. Maybe it was just physical conditioning? Maybe I was just dumb for going for a Mage build, when I couldn’t even practice Magic until I was level one hundred? From what I had learned, it was common for regular people to invest most points into strength, dexterity, and vitality if they had no ambitions to become an actual Mage or Cultivator.

Man, thank God for Ringed Mind. It was so much easier to multi-task now that I had more than one train of thought. I was able to consider useless crap like that while at the same time keeping an eye on the kids and Renauld at the same time. Not that they needed much minding from me. The adults that we’d freed in the tower were doing the brunt of that work. I don’t know if I’d have been able to keep them calm like they were doing, in the midst of this chaos. Renauld had been keeping his word as well and causing no trouble.

Screw it, time to put the new skill to good use. I could keep watch on the kids with the outer ring, an eye on Renauld with the middle one, and check my Status with my core.

I called it up with Hidden Amidst the Spheres.

Man, what an odd sensation, feeling out my Status with one-third of my new partitioned mind...

You have gained 6 levels! You are now level 57! Spear Proficiency has reached level 7 (Max)! Observe has reached level 6! You have sixty unspent Virtue points.

Oh, I'd heard about this. Grey and Azarus had told me that General Skills like Spear Proficiency had max levels of seven. I'd finally maxed out one of them. I was unsurprised that it was my oldest one in Spear Proficiency.

As for the rest?

I mentally pondered my sixty free points. I'd just been thinking about how it would help if I was just a bit physically stronger. I wondered if having a higher base Strength would increase the effect of Sylvan Vigor? Well, I guess I could find out.

I spread out my points, and then checked out my base Status when I was done.

Name Nathaniel Eugene Hart Titles Unbound Liberator Level 57 Age 24 Sol Race Human (Precursor) Affinity Terrestrial Classes Thornblade Acolyte (Uncommon) Professions Aetherial Melding Health 660/660 Stamina 59/100 Vitality 66 Strength 30 Spirit 10 Dexterity 122 Perception 66 Intelligence 168 Wisdom 168 Free Points 0 Options [Talent Page], [Skill Page], [Profession Page]

I nearly stumbled in place at the sudden dramatic physical difference that I felt. Damn, but was I really feeling those extra points into Strength. I could get used to this.

Almost made me wish I had chosen to go Cultivator, all those months ago.

Yeah, this worked. I mentally nodded to myself, before turning my attention back to the battle.

Looked like it had died down again. Actually, it had died so much that our fighters…weren’t. There was nobody for them to fight right now. A new group of reinforcements hadn’t come running into their blades for a while now. Which was suspicious in and of itself...

I cast a wary eye over my shoulder, in case they were thinking of hitting us from behind.

Thankfully nothing.

Turning back around, I frowned, tapping the hilt of my dagger. What was going on? Had the guards given up, and decided to just let us leave? That didn’t seem right to me. No, something else was up.

They must be setting a trap for us of some kind.

I don’t think I was the only person suspicious about this lull in the fighting as well. Even from my position, I could see the tense and wary posture of our nominal leader. Woodrick had naturally fallen into a command position and had been leading the fighters in battle. Right now, even though I couldn’t see his face, he didn’t look like he thought the fighting was over. He still had his bloodied great axe up in a ready position.

Before long, our group reached an end to the long hallways of the prison. In front of us was a large, closed wooden door that reached up to the ceiling. What was odd was there didn’t seem to be any locking mechanism on it, nor were there any guards waiting for us there. The door was held shut by its own sheer weight.

Woodrick held up a hand to stop the group, frowning at the door. Glancing back again and seeing that it was safe behind us, I decided to go up front and see what was holding us up. Passing both the children and the Healers, I reached Woodrick just as he was addressing the rest of my companions.

“…trap, on the other side of this door,” Woodrick was saying. He gave me a nod of acknowledgment at my approach but continued his speech. “It’s just too obvious. Problem is, we don’t have a choice. Our only shot off of this rock is your ship, and we need to continue if we’re going to reach the docks. Those of you who were imprisoned know this door leads to the entry hall. I have no doubt the Guards have entrenched themselves inside, since they couldn’t stop us in the halls.”

“Then what the hells are we waitin’ on?” Bella grunted. Flicking my eyes her way, I saw the blood-soaked pirate still looked grumpy. She was probably still unhappy about being denied her revenge.

“Nothing,” Woodrick answered with a smirk. “I just wanted to let everyone catch their breath and get on the same page.”

“Enough gabbin’ then,” Azarus said, tightening his grip on his bloodstained warhammer. “Let’s get this over with.”

Woodrick caught my eye and jerked his head back towards the children. I decided to take his wordless advice. As the apparently elected leader of the Sculpted, this guy probably had more leadership experience than I did. I gave him a nod and started walking back to my position.

As I passed Renauld, he leaned in to whisper to me. “What’s going on? I mean, if I can ask,” He amened hurriedly.

“Probably an ambush on the other side of the doors,” I said, shaking my head. “Look alive.” I clapped him on his furry shoulder in passing.

I reached my rearguard position in time to watch as Woodrick laid his wooden hands on the wooden doors. At his touch, they smoothly began to open themselves as if they had been animated somehow. Woodrick walked inside the large hall that I could see on the other side as if he owned it, axe nonetheless at the ready. The rest of us followed him.

Initially, I thought that he had been wrong and that there was no ambush waiting for us. However, that was before I was fully inside the hall.

The hall was around the length of a football field, and halfway down it, the Guards had entrenched themselves like we’d thought they would. They’d set up a giant barricade made from what seemed to be furniture. Tables and chairs blocked the width of the hall from wall to wall. Curiously, there seemed to be an actual entranceway to the barricade. Through it, I could see that there were plenty of Guards lined up in military formation, just ready to hack us to pieces. On top of the barricade were plenty of Guards as well, bearing ranged weapons. Most had bows, but I saw several slings and even some crossbows.

I didn’t even know Vereden had crossbows.

As our group cautiously approached the barricade, I was unnerved by the fact that the guards hadn’t tried to attack us at all. All of the guards on top of the barricade had their weapons lowered for some reason.

When we were maybe twenty feet away from the barricade, Woodrick slowed us down. Staring up at the makeshift edifice, I saw him cross his arms. “Well?” He called out to the Guards we could see on the other side of the barricade. “What are you waiting on? We’re right here.”

“I’m well aware,” A smooth, even voice called out in answer. Ominously, I saw Woodrick and many of the pirates tense up at the sound of it. From where I stood, I heard McGill curse loudly. Just ahead, I saw Renauld tremble in place briefly.

A man appeared at the entranceway of the barricade. Unafraid, he walked out to stand in front of it. “I’ve simply decided that the rank and file are incapable of quelling this by themselves. I’ll have to handle it instead.”

Woodrick drew in a deep, steady breath and let it out. He met the eyes of the man standing in front of him fearlessly. “Hello, Warden.”