Even if I was in a secluded room, I still had a pretty good idea of where I was in the castle. The waygate was almost a straight shot from there.
“You know, if you just tell us where the item is this will be a lot easier for all three of us.” The kobold groaned.
I took a moment to catch my breath. ‘Do I tough it out while they try and find the money… Or should I run? I have to decide now…’ “I… I don’t have one, I have tier-two arcane magic, so I just use the spell...” ‘Wait, should I have told them that? I could have bought time with another bluff.’
He let out a sigh while the other shrugged. “The hard way then I guess…”
‘They didn’t even believe me… Ok, so metal magic, I’ve already weakened the metal, thinning it, it won’t take much for me to reshape it enough to slip out, then I’ll use boulder toss too–’
While I was thinking the guards had already begun, latching my shackles to the wall. “Don’t try anything and we won’t hurt you. Now, you don’t have any hidden weapons do you?”
‘Everything feels cold…’ I fell into a state somewhere between asleep and awake as my breath continued to thin and I started to feel lightheaded.
The cold air suddenly brushed against my bare stomach as they started searching through my belts and taking off my armor. Suddenly everything fell silent as my head spun and I began to regain consciousness as if I had never lost it.
“Fairy dust…” One of them said.
It felt easy to breathe again, but my chest was still sore as if the muscles were breaking down from how tense I was. ‘The metal is loose enough… but I need to regain my balance first…’
They both paused, The ogre staring at me with a mix of horror and shock. “This is bad, isn’t it? What are we supposed to do now? She's a girl isn’t she?”
“I don’t see the problem here.”
The ogre grabbed the kobold and pulled him away from me. “Aren’t we supposed to get the female guards to do this sort of thing? People take this thing super seriously, don’t they?
He groaned. “I don’t get why you’re so worried. It’s not like it’s that hard to check, is it? We just–”
The ground dented slightly as the ogre placed another hand on his shoulder, bolting him to the floor with pressure.
I was so out of it I couldn’t form any thoughts on what I was seeing as I came too. My first thought was how long I was out. They had taken my helmet and arm guards, as well as a half taken off my leather jacket, but given that was all I guessed I was out for no more than a minute.
The long stretch of time I spent struggling to breathe made me feel asleep though, even after I had woken up. It took a while for my brain to start fully functioning again, before I could string together two conscious thoughts my body was already moving.
in an instant, a switch flipped and my survival instincts kicked in. It was just like when I was fighting the minotaur. I started to move too fast to feel anxiety, relying on pure instinct. My body wasn’t responding to my thoughts but moving on its own, the same way you would pull your hand back from touching a hot stove only continuously.
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I slipped out of the shackles like they were nothing and attacked in the same motion. With the ability to move freely, I channeled my magic, grabbing a solid stone brick from the wall and flinging it into the kobold's head, instantly knocking him out before I slugged the other in the face. The ogre’s metal helmet dented under my bare hand bloodying my knuckles but I didn’t feel any pain from the intense rush of adrenaline.
My windlance spell blew a hole through the door and I burst out into the hall, conjuring a strong tailwind at my back, only then did I manage to get my head on straight. ‘The teleporter, I have to get there.’ I didn’t have a plan or even the real beginnings of one, but I was moving and fighting, and that was enough for me to start to calm down.
I saw another guard come out into the hallway at the noise so I cast a blinding flash to further confuse him and stop him from following ‘Halfway there.’
The man I had only punched quickly recovered and was chasing after me. Soon enough other guards were joining him. ‘Freaking ogre’s… Why are there skulls so thick…’
I made it to the stairwell, but I could hear footsteps coming from below, blocking me off. ‘It's stone, so earth magic then.’
Stopping for a moment I firmly planted my feet on the ground and took a step back. ‘Control is hard… But good thing destruction is easy enough.’ Feeling the rock underneath me I widened my stance and quickly jerked my arms down, caving in the staircase and making the stone I was on crumble until I landed on the stairs beneath me at the bottom of the spiral and on the other side of the group that was following them up. ‘The last hallway, this connects to the teleporter, and it’s the ground floor, the ground is dirt, which gives me some options.
All the doors in the hall opened almost at the same time. ‘I haven’t used plant magic in a while…’ Opening up my storage I grabbed handfuls of seeds and chucked them through the air, following up with two water balls leaking water into the ground as they flew past. Then I used explosive growth to block the doors with vines and entangle the guards that were already rushing through. My legs were slowing from the rapid drain of my manna, but they were still carrying me, even if I was starting to lose feeling.
‘The vines aren’t too hard to get through, but I only needed a few seconds. That’s it, the exit.’ Finally, just before I made it out to the end, four more guards blocked the entrance with heavy shields.
‘what now?’ I looked behind me, it took a while, but they were catching up, and the ones blocked by vines were getting through as well. I turned back to the guards in front, never slowing my pace as if my life depended on it. ‘Those shields aren’t enchanted, and they're made of thin metal.
I was already breathing heavily, but despite that, I took a deep breath in and let it out with a burst of flame. Those who were afraid ran, and the ones who stayed were forced to drop their shields from the heat.
‘I’m out of magic, so it’s time to start improvising.’ I pulled the minitour's head out of my storage and held its sharp barbed horns out in front of me, running straight forward just like a bull. They didn’t even try to stop me, diving out of the way like cowards as I made it out onto the main road.
It was filled with rows of carriages, most of which were bearing the white light guild emblem. I threw the minotaur head back into my storage and quickly ran between two of the carriages. My whole body was shaking and breaking out into a cold sweat. ‘Good… They haven’t left yet… This stupid plan of mine might just work out after all…’
“Hold on… You’re that girl?”
As if things couldn’t get more perfect, as I gasped for air I turned to see Pieta’s teacher, the troll woman that had helped me in the past.
“I– help— Those men— They took me away, and they were—” I coughed. “They were going to—” I coughed again, taking a knee as my vision faded to black circles and my head began to ring from lack of oxygen. My mana was completely drained, and it caused me to lose all feeling in my legs and arms for a moment. I was already short on breath when I used my fire breath spell, and on top of that, my anxiousness forced all of my mana into it, drying out my throat and making it even harder to speak.
I had to focus on breathing just to stay conscious. ‘I need to tell her they were framing me. I need to somehow convince her before they convince her of the opposite…’ My lungs burned as I started to get lightheaded again. ‘I used all of my strength in my fire breath spell and completely dried out my throat.’
She took a long look at me, and then raised her eyes to the men chasing after me… Then she took another sharp look at me, her face more angry than before, quickly kneeling down beside me and gently resting a hand on my shoulder for a moment. “It’s ok now. Don’t worry.”
I felt the warm glow of divine power and in seconds a giant golden barrier built itself around us before the guards could pull themselves together and follow me.
‘Thats… Sanctuary… A tier 6 divine spell…’ I was still shaking and struggling to breathe, and everything was still a little hazy, but inside the sanctuary, I finally started to feel at ease. The only thing crazier than her being able to cast such a strong spell was the fact she would waste it the way that she did. Especially her… The girl wouldn’t use higher-level healing spells in order to conserve power. ‘I just don’t… No… Is this a dream?’ My chest tightened up again, feeling like it was heavily bruised from much it had been happening and sore to the touch. ‘No… I can’t black out… If I do I might wake up.’ I forced air as deep into my lungs as I could and although I was seeing stars, I managed to stay conscious, if not only because sanctuary had a certain calming effect, on top of being a giant barrier. ‘So… What exactly happens now?’