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World: MSS - Loading...
"Speech"
"Thoughts"
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The sound of metal and the scent of blood filled the chamber, echoing off of the walls. I saw more of the Dokkaebis pick up the daggers and shortswords this time, leaping directly at people’s unprotected faces or stomachs. Guts were spilled and screams of both men and monsters alike pervaded through my senses.
“Hey! Get yourself together, human!”
I saw L’teya wave both her arms from the other side, frowning. She held up the rope with one hand and pointed to it.
“Is it good?!”
“Get a hold of yourself. Focus on what you have to do.” I quickly nodded yes and I saw her lean back, testing her weight.
Then the elf barbarian and beast girl swung down, ending midway between the entrance and the floor.
Working rapidly, I took out the magic stones I had worked so hard to farm. I was lacking sleep and energy but there was one thing I had enough of.
Doubt.
What if these didn’t work?
“Don’t think. Just act.” I threw the magic stone as hard as I could down to the nearest Lesser Dokkaebi.
Boom.
“REE!”
The stone exploded.
It hit the creature on the shoulder and immediately exploded. The creature actually flew back a few feet from the blast impact. I saw that the entire upper shoulder was gone and in its place was what looked like a burnt piece of bone. The right side of its face was beyond recognition, the explosion had burned off its entire lower jaw showing the skeletal bits beneath. The creature writhed in pain and I knew it wouldn’t be getting up any time soon.
Say what you will about the barbarian girl, she didn’t waste time trying to slow her descent. She just slid down and I winced at the rope burn that her hand would undoubtedly have later. But if it bothered her, she didn’t show. L’teya landed deftly on the ground and rolled once, and in one smooth movement drew two small battle axes. One of the Dokkaebi’s thought it had the surprise on her and dashed towards her with the wooden club raised above its head. In the blink of an eye she blocked the club at its handle with one of her axes, and with the other chopped into the creature’s trapezius.
Meanwhile, I threw the stones at any Lesser Dokkaebis that approached her from behind, leaving wrecks of burn victims everytime I threw.
“Fuck! Hurry up!” The beast girl was struggling to go down the rope.
“Hey! Look! Those guys!”
I heard one of the other slaves yell.
“They’re thinning the monsters! We can do it! Push! Charge!”
I wasn’t relieved that help was on its way. On the contrary I felt my heart clench, caught in the vice that you feel when you know that things are going the wrong way.
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“The door will be open for seven days.” Thoktur finished. “Or until we have 100 warriors emerge.”
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No. I couldn’t let this happen. To increase my chances of survival, I had to get to the door as fast as I could.
I had to be one of the 100.
I took a magic stone and threw it towards the battle between the other slaves and the Dokkaebis.
Then I threw another.
And another.
The results were devastating, slaves who were caught in the explosion ended up much like the Dokakebis. Limbs blown off or skin burnt to a black crisp. But I had strategically aimed closer to the Dokkaebis and the line broke further, the slaves were starting to break through.
“Human! Now!”
L’teya had cleared the space around the bottom of the rope, dispatching any Dokkaebi that approached with lethal efficiency. Her fight had no flair, no art to it. It was designed to kill and she was good at it. The pink-haired girl on the other hand was much less adept, she held a spear in her two hands and just jabbed at any creature that approached, until the elven barbarian could finish them off.
I didn’t have time, so I grabbed the rope and jumped, using my hands to try and slow my descent. My hands burned and I imagined I could smell smoke. But a moment later, I felt my feet land on the bottom of the chamber.
“Come on! Let’s go!” L’teya cleared the way in front of us, using her axes.
I followed closely behind, throwing magic stones to deter any Dokkaebi from chasing after us. It must have only taken a couple of seconds but it felt like an eternity. There was smoke filling up in the chamber now and the screams were decreasing. Corpses strewn across the floor made this place look like a mini warzone.
Stolen story; please report.
“Probably what the orcs wanted.”
We reached the door and opened it, slipping through.
“GODDAMIT! FALL BACK! FALL BACK!”
It seemed the other slaves wouldn’t make it.
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I had been bringing up the rear so I was the one to close the door shut. I backed away from it, a magic stone in one hand and a shield in the other, fearing that another Dokkaebi would come through. Or perhaps another slave or two had managed to sneak through and would seek revenge for the stunt I pulled.
“T-They can’t get through the door.”
It was my first time hearing this voice but I instinctively identified that this meek tone could belong to none other than the pink haired sheep girls. I turned around and finally got a good look at my two collaborators.
They were older than I had assumed, because they weren’t girls, not really. They were women and it was evident because the clothing they had on didn’t hide much. I had assumed that because they didn’t have any blood smeared across their shirts that they hadn’t seen much violence. But I could tell that these weren’t their original clothes. L’teya was much more muscular and taller than I had initially expected, accentuated by the way too small tshirt. The sheep girl was slimmer than I thought, wearing an oversized t shirt which hid her size. I wasn't interested in sharing stories or prying about what happened to them, anything other than immediate survival was a distraction.
“You did good there, human.” L’teya patted me on the back, throwing her head back and laughing. “Ha! Now that will be a story worth telling.”
I didn’t share the sentiment. I grabbed her wrist and took it off of my shoulder. We were in another tunnel but this time there were no magic stones embedded in the walls to light the way. Instead, there was sunlight peeking through all the way from the other side. If I walked, I’d finally be out of this hellhole.
As I took a step, the barbarian lifted one hand in front of me, barring me from leaving.
“Whoa. We just went through life and death together! The least you could give us is your name.”
I stopped myself from saying something along the lines of ‘get your hand out of my way before I chop it off’. Where the hell was this aggression coming from? She had held up her end of the bargain and I should be thankful to her. If anything she went above and beyond what I had been expecting. Hell, I could give her a name if she wanted.
Except that I didn’t know the name of this body.
Now that was a problem.
“...You alright there, friend?” L’teya waved a hand in front of my eyes.
I took my chance when she moved her arm out of my way to wave it in my face. I brushed past her and walked towards the exit.
“Hey!”
“Lety. I don’t think he wishes to talk. Let’s just get out of here, ok?”
I heard the barbarian grumble but heard them walking right behind me. To be honest, I didn’t like them walking behind me like this but I knew that if the barbarian girl wanted to hurt me she could regardless of whether she was in front of me, behind me, or above me. So I said nothing and kept my pace, trying not to let my nervousness show.
“Survival. Just focus on that. Not friends. Not thanking someone. Just live.”
When we exited the tunnels, the sight that greeted wasn’t a welcome one.
We exited back into a place similar to where we had been before, except there was no stage this time. Dozens of orc warriors and different races in orc warrior garbs stood, loitering around. As soon as we exited, one of them caught our eye and yelled something to a human in orc warrior clothes. The human came running over to us.
“This way.” He ordered and led us to the others.
The slaves had been gathered but we weren’t being monitored as closely as before.
“They know that we’re too tired to try something anyways.”
There was a small pond of water and we saw some of the slaves drinking from it. I couldn’t tell when these slaves got here but a small part of me was irked that I wasn’t the first. Regardless, I approached the pond and drank from it, trying to count how many slaves had made it through the tunnels in total.
“About 80 or 90. If I took my time and stayed in the tunnel even for a few more hours…”
I shivered.
Those tunnels had almost become my grave.
As I had predicted, we didn’t have to wait long. There were dozens of exits out of the cliff wall, though much fewer than the number of entrances on the other side. I mostly saw smaller groups like mine come out, I counted that the largest group to exit the tunnels had been 10.
I recognized one of the faces from the group of 10. I noticed him because he was the one who chose the same entrance as a young elf girl. He now had a scar across his face.
The girl wasn’t in his group.
I swallowed and stopped myself from staring.
That’s just the kind of world this was.
“Bar the doors!” One of the orcs yelled out.
I saw the warriors, both orc and other races, obey. They ran up to the entrances and locked them, sliding a steel bar in place. No extra time, no waiting for stragglers.
This was it.
Once it was done, the same glasses-wearing elf who had passed out the weapons stood in front of us on a small wooden platform. He didn’t even need to yell, by now we all knew what was going to happen and gathered as a small crowd in front of him. I felt a smile stretch across my lips.
“Not even a week and we’re already doing what they want without them saying a word.”
Survival was a strong motivator here.
“Congratulations!” He seemed to smile at each and every one of us in turn. “You all survived!”
It sounded so genuine that I half wanted to believe him. But I couldn’t get the scene with him and the cat beastman out of my mind.
“You have a long month ahead of you. There will be training, drills, oh I’m sure you will find out soon enough.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “For today, we have prepared food and tents for you all to sleep in. Enjoy!”
He walked off of the wooden stand and left in a hurry. A couple of the other slave-warriors followed him though most of the orcs remained behind. They formed a loose perimeter around us, keeping us encircled but with plenty of room for ourselves. I didn’t have long to think or study our surroundings before murmurs spread through the crowd, the slaves were talking to each other.
“Hello there.”
A man came up to me and held his hand out for a handshake. The only thing I could notice about him was that he was human and well-built.
“Some of us over there are going to eat together. I was wondering if you’d like to join us?”
I looked over to the small crowd of people that was rapidly growing. It was the humans, they were congregating together. Now that I looked, everywhere around me the different races were sticking together. I saw groups that had left the tunnels spit on the ground, insult each other and shake fists at one another’s back as they chose to stick with their own kind.
“What the fuck?”
I was surprised but only for a second. I knew that racism in MSS was strong and that people tended to stick to their own races. Especially for non-adventurers where race was more important than one’s abilities.
“But we’re going to get Cores. They mean to use us as battleslaves, not just some house slave.” I kept my mouth shut.
Perhaps the man took the silence for affirmation because he grabbed my hand, shaking it.
“Haha! I’m Theodore and the folks over there are all good blokes! I left the tunnels with some of them myself! You look like you’ve been through a lot. I’m sure you have a story to share. Why don’t we-”
I snatched my hand out of his.
“I’m not interested.” I told him.
The man tilted his head, not understanding.
“Excuse me? I don’t think you understand the situation but look around you. Everyone is-”
“I said I’m not interested.”
I had considered his offer, but for me whose goal was survival I didn’t think sticking with the humans would be the best choice. If anything I wanted to have more information about our next task before even choosing to cooperate with someone. But more so than that…
That man with the scar was in that group.
Even a loner like me had standards for who I wanted to surround myself with.
The man spat at my feet. “Don’t come begging when you change your mind.”
I scowled at his back as he went back to the group and started talking to a few people. I caught more than a few glances my way and rude gestures. But looking around, not all the groups that came through the tunnels had broken up. Quite a few of them had chosen to stick together, whether it was through the shared experience of almost dying together or recognizing each other’s abilities, they ignored each other’s race.
“Maybe I should have been nicer to the barbarian and the sheep girl.” I didn’t have time to wallow in regret however.
The food and tents had arrived, piled on a wagon pulled by beastman and human slaves. I took one look and said the first thing that came to my mind.
“Motherfuckers.” I whispered.
There was not enough for everyone.