“It's today,” Arbor reiterated.

He could not help but feel a sense of dread in the pit of his stomach. Him! Of all people. When he was 12, he had dived off a sheer cliff into a lake without batting an eye. When forced to tame Zen at 24, he wrestled the wild animal into the ground of submission until she fell asleep in his arms. During the civil war, he swam unexplored underground channels to sneak behind enemy lines, never once skipping a heartbeat. Yet an expedition as small as a prison break was driving him to shivers.

Enthes was quivering her arrows - which she normally saved by using magic instead. “Are you sick, dear? You look practically ghastly.”

“Please don't call me that,” he answered, rubbing the slight ache in his temple. “Your wife might get jealous.”

“Why would I be jealous?” Raven calmly retorted while she tightened the straps of her leather grieves. “You're not that attractive.”

Dropping the leather case emptied of keys on his bed, he scanned the objects he was leaving behind. A couple of bowls and utensils he skimmed from his meals. A broken copper vial from his daggers damaged during one of the fights. His old leather chest piece which finally saw the last of its use during a recent battle, no longer able to hold together its tightness with just repair strings and moxie. It meant leaving his body less protected, but he'd rather that than having to worry about his armour drooping and catching his arm on an untimely attack.

The air in their cell was tense, stretched with fraught from the wait. This was it. A year of preparation undercover as gladiators all lead to this. A prison break as a distraction while they made their way to kill At-Tro-Pos. For now though, they waited a few seconds more for their time. Zen seemed calm by all comparison, her head on her paws as she sat patiently on the ground. Every so often, she would smell their tension and dart her eyes at the one most stressed, who would in turn become conscious of their strain and made an extra effort to breathe. It was a strange exercise in mindfulness, proving once again that canines were a beings' best friend, helping them keep their senses intact in even such tearing times.

Minutes passed.

They finally sat down on their beds, figuring there was no need to stand and waste energy. Arbor's thoughts went to the scarf he had ordered for Zen. It was supposed to boost the wolf's power, and he wondered if the apparel had been delayed or forgotten. Perhaps there was a miscommunication or a bump in the delivery process. There had to be hoops to jump through for sending an item to an imprisoned gladiator.

An hour.

“By a river would be nice.” Raven admitted. “Let's hope property prices hasn't increased after this job.”

“Enthes would like to have a cart to sell food.”

Arbor raised a brow. “You still want to work after this?”

“Enthes thinks if she is left alone to wallow in boredom for too long, she'd go nuts.”

Raven agreed. “Even with all the money we'd get from this job, I'd still want some work or hobby to keep my mind occupied.”

A loud crash came from the corridor outside followed by a flash of orange flare under the seams of their door. There was a short tearing shout and a long muffled scream, ending with a loud bang on the other side of their cell door, forcing the four to their feet, the two elves with their weapons drawn, and the one and a half beasts readied to claw at any enemies.

Three knocks on the door.

Bom.

Bom.

Bom.

“I'm coming in!” Came Langsley's voice.

After a short clank of metal, the cell opened up and on the other side stood the omniknight, a pair of spears in hands, aside of Aramas, who was wiping the blood off his knuckles over his leggings. Around them, two guards laid on the flood, either unconscious or dead, judging by the amount of blood splattered across the surrounding walls scorched by Aramas's flames.

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Arbor quipped, “Took you two long enough.” He moved out of the room, followed by Zen and the couple.

Aramas ignored him. “Trini set up the delivery outside the north arena. We just need to get there and set off the signal.”

Langsley reiterated, “Then, Raven will get us into At-Tro-Pos's panic room while the guards are distracted.”

“We know the plan,” Arbor replied annoyed.

The party made their way through the corridor of blood splattered walls between chasms of corpses of unsuspecting guards. One had their neck snapped to an unnatural angle, likely the work of Aramas, and another had a bifurcated arm from remnants of dark fire. The group made their way through, following a line of light magic scorched marked across the floor, stained yellow.

“By a river,” Raven mumbled a mantra. Even the normally tough and rumble dwarf was having the jitters at such a key point in their operation.

Enthes noted, “Why aren't there any reinforcements?”

“Isn't that a good thing?” Arbor replied.

Langsley answered, “We made our way through them pretty quickly. Maybe they haven't the time to react yet.”

As they opened the door to the stairwell, the Omniknight immediately ate his words as they were flanked on both side by two groups of three guards coming up and down the stairs, shock expressions quickly giving way to drawn blades and raised shield.

Aramas clicked his tongue. “You should just keep your mouth shut.”

One of the guard on the upper landing turned and sprinted up, heading for the ground floor to warn of the escape. Aramas's fists lit up in flames, and he jumped after the escapee, only to be blocked off by a spear wielding guard. He dodged down against a thrust, using the height different to his advantage as he stepped aside and grabbed the spear in one hand. With his other arm free, he pushed against a leveraged area middle of the polearm and spun, lifting the guard of their feet by pushing the handle deep into their abdomen and sweeping and stumbling across the other enemy with the unwilling body, before slamming the spear wielder into the opposite wall with the feat of strength.

Langsley took the commotion to vault up the stairs with his spear, landing a kick on the last guard above who struggled just in time with drawing her shield as he slammed his feet into the buckler, throwing the woman off her feet and onto the painful angles of the steps. Apathetically, he used his second shorter spear to pierce her throat. With the two high ground guards down, the knight gave chase to the escapee.

Below, Raven threw bolts of lightning down at the swordsmen below. The two flanking guards who threw up their round leather shields deflected and insulated the electrical attacks with their guard but the middle warrior was hit square across the chest and was sent tumbling back and down the stairs, rolling metal armour being heard clanking as the unconscious body rolled.

The left guard's arm glowed red as he charged a fire spell. Enthes quickly zeroed in on the mage and shot an arrow through the spellcaster's hand with pinpoint precision, causing him to raised his palms away in pain and firing the ball of flame at his own ally, blasting the right guard's leg clean off. The group of gladiators braced themselves against the blast, but Zen jumped through the flames, protected by her shadow mantle, and clawed at the throat of the mage, sending their final enemy do their gave.

Raven turned to Arbor and sarcastically quipped, “Weren't you helpful.”

“What?” He exclaimed with raised arms. “You all managed just fine without me. Go team!”

Enthes sighed disappointedly while scratching the back of Zen's ears affectionately, the wolf wagging her tail oblivious to the conflict.

Without instruction, Aramas sprinted up the steps after Langsley and the cellmates followed after. At the top of the ground floor landing, they found Langsley removing his long spear out of the body of the would-be-escaped guard, the latter's legs bifurcated at the waist where tickles of shadow fire lingered on the hems of their clothes.

“Excessive,” Raven noted as she caught up to the scene. “I approve.”

“You're up, bird girl,” Langsley casually commented as Aramas opened a small gap between the door. “Remember, north gate.”

“Yeah,” Raven confirmed with a tone of respect that Arbor had never heard reserved for him. “I got it.”

Enthes knelt down beside her lover and gave a kiss. “Good luck,” she said.

Raven smiled. “Quick as lightning.”

The dwarf turned into her animal form and slipped quickly through the gap which Aramas quickly closed behind.

Of the ones that remained in the stairwell, Aramas and Arbor made their way back down as lookout for their rear, with Zen following her owner. They stopped just short after the electrified body of the bottommost guard.

“I know we joke around a lot,” Aramas began once they turned the corner with a pant. “But we couldn't have done this without you finding out that bastard's Soul Arm.”

“Anyone could have done it,” Arbor answered, slightly monotonously.

“Someone must ask the right question first. But to think that he'd own Elmo's Crossfire. They say a Soul Arm decides its wielder. Why would Crossfire choose such a slimy goblin lover such as him? Wasn't Elmo an explorer who loved freedom?”

“That's probably just a legend. Soul Arms are weapons, after all. I doubt they actually have souls.”

They stayed quiet for a minute, listening out for either the signal from above or footsteps from below. Then, the ground and walls around them shook, trembling with dust dropping from the ceiling, before a split second latter, a loud explosion could be heard echoing from up top. Aramas and Arbor nodded to each other in confirmation and moved to rejoin the others.