Chapter 77 - Escape

“Oh my god, they’re eating me!” Jack tried to scream as a legless draugr covered in Hannah’s orange flames crawled toward his legs and bit him. What came out instead was a “aaahhhnnn thaaahn mleeemmm ” sound. Apparently, his tongue was also on the list of things refusing to move.

Several panicked thoughts and the ending of every zombie movie ever flashed through Jack’s mind as he frantically searched the skies for Hannah. She had to know he was somewhere around here. He looked down at the draugr trying to tear into his legs and willed his body to move again.

Move dammit otherwise we're gonna be zombie chow. Jack mentally yelled at his unresponsive legs.

Nothing.

The draugrs hand latched to his leg in an area that usually required dinner just as an arrow came streaking through the air,ripping through the draugr’s head as it came in for another bite.

“You alright there?” Hannah grinned down at him, appearing in his line of sight.

“Ahhhnnn” he said again, still unable to put words together. Hannah gave him a curious look, then pulled out a health potion and shoved it in his mouth.

He felt the delicious red liquid pour down his throat and start to revitalize his body. Well. Sort of. He could at least feel his toes wiggling again.

“Better?” she asked, pulling the empty health potion from his mouth.

“Bedda, I thinng.” Jack said through slurred words, moving his tongue awkwardly around the inside of his mouth. It felt as though it had fallen asleep and the health potion had kicked it awake. Every inch of his body had that uncomfortable pins and needles feeling. It was wildly unpleasant, but he could at least move now. He moved like a man who had just celebrated his 95th birthday, but it was still progress.

“Hurry up.” Hannah said, shooting another arrow at a target in the distance.

“You hurry up.” Jack shot back, trying and failing to stand up. He pushed himself up off the ground only to stand there awkwardly before losing his balance and falling back down to the ground with a groan

“What the hell is wrong with you? What did you do?”

“Why do you always assume I did something? Maybe, just maybe it was some crazy magical spell that was cast on me and now I can’t walk?” Jack protested.

“Because it’s almost always your fault.” Hannah said matter of fact, pulling out another two bows from her void sack and launching them into the air. She sent a volley of shots towards the barracks gate where more of the berserker draugr were filing in. Jack watched, more than a little impressed at her skill, as Hannah dispatched a small group of them, easily taking out another oversized draugr who had the tell-tell sign of being an elite, wielding a pair of massive two-handed axes.

“I knew they would be easy to kill if I was at the top of my game.” Jack grumbled to himself, still trying to get to his feet. “Stupid elite draugr my ass.”

“Where the hell are you going?” Hannah shot back as Jack stumbled haphazardly across the courtyard narrowly avoiding a pile of semi-limbless draugr on the ground lashing out at his ankles..

“Daggers. Gotta find my daggers.”

“Did you throw them again? You’ve got to quit doing that, dude. Or invest in a pair of cheap throwing daggers.”

“Siri, add shitty throwing daggers to the shopping list,” Jack called out without looking back. He was focusing on his feet taking careful steps as he ventured to the far side of the courtyard, where he spotted one of his daggers.

“What the hell Jack. Move faster!” Hannah screamed at him, clearly mistaking his slow, deliberate steps for laziness.

“Yea, that’s not happening. I’ve got about as much mobility as a drunk geriatric acrobat with a fake hip and arthritis. I hope your escape plan didn’t involve us running out of here, because if it is then I’m probably dead. Now come help me pull this out.” Jack said, tugging at his second dagger that was buried in the stone wall up to its hilt. He pulled at the handle as hard as he could, but something was seriously wrong with his body. He felt weak and exhausted like he had just run marathons back to back. Despite the screaming draugr, the explosions from Hannah’s arrows, and the general sounds of war, Jack just wanted to curl up and go to sleep.

“What happened? Did Onem do this to you? Where is that asshole, I’ll kill him. Wait. Jack - Did you kill him? We need him alive to help take out Gurthok.” Hannah asked rapid fire, leveling an accusing glance at Jack as she easily ripped his dagger out of the wall and handed it over to him.

Jack took the dagger, returning it clumsily to his sheathe and leaned against the cool of the stone wall, panting slightly as Hannah sent another volley of shots at the draugr that continued to stream into the barracks.

“Didn’t get the opportunity. He left me for dead just as we were making some real emotional headway with the draugr. I guess there was some sort of control rod keeping these guys under control and~.”

“And you destroyed it?”

“Just like I destroyed my chances to get on Love Island.” ” Jack nodded along.

“Not that again.” Hannah sighed as she turned to look survey the battlefield. “Alright. It’s time to leave.” She drew back her bow, sending a charged shot straight up into the air. It flared out in an explosive pattern that Jack didn’t quite recognize.

“Learning some new tricks?”

“Yea, If I focus, I can shape the explosion to some degree. It’s our signal out of here.” Hannah said.

As if summoned, two Valkyries swooped down, landing in the courtyard.

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“Sister, we must hurry. Things are worse than we feared. The queen has sensed activity from Castle Gurthok.”

“Well, that sounds exciting. Are you taking us there?” Jack asked, stepping towards one of the Valkyries.

“Absolutely not, you fool. We must get as far away from the castle as we can.” The Valkyrie said matter of fact, fixing Jack with a judgmental look.

Jack looked over at Hannah for answers, but she just shrugged.

“Alright, let’s get out of here then.” Jack said to the group. “Umm…. how exactly are you going to do that?”

In answer, the Valkyries each wrapped their arms around Jack and Hannah in a strong hug as they pushed off the ground and took to the skies. In the air, the Valkyrie wrapped her legs around Jack in a piggy back fashion to secure him further to her body.

Valkyrie jet-pack. Nice.

Jack stared down below as the forest scenery came into view. Hundreds, if not thousands, of draugr were rampaging on the ground as they flew past. There was little in the way for them to actually attack, but several of them were more than happy to fight amongst themselves. There were several small-scale battles taking place throughout the ranks of the draugr, infecting others with their blind rage. More curious was a large column of draugr that appeared to be marching towards the lakeside castle. Whether that was to return home to their true master or to burn the place to the ground, Jack wasn’t quite sure.

As they flew away from the large lakeside castle Jack tried to grasp just what it was the queen was concerned about. The castle didn’t seem like anything special. It was simple, a large gray structure, built for enduring wars and rebuffing forces. The enormous stone walls lined with towers could barely hide the structures inside, which peered out over the top of the walls, casting menacing shadows in the moonlight. There was an enormous drawbridge at the front, which was pulled up, hiding behind a large moat barring entry. Jack wasn’t an expert on spooky, dungeon castles in mystical towers, but it felt a little drab and cliche.

While studying the castle Jack noticed movement on one of the towers. It was too dark and too far to tell what exactly but he squinted as he saw something shoot out from the castle and into the night sky.

“Did you see that?” Jack shouted into the night air, his voice lost to the wind as the Valkyries massive wings flapped with furious power, their speed increasing with each powerful beat of their feathered wings.

“Screechers! Brace yourself!” He heard another Valkyrie say, her voice cutting through the wind with ease.

I wonder how she talks so easily up here, was the last thing Jack remembered thinking before a dark shape slammed into him and the Valkyrie that carried him. Loud screeching followed the attack, and Jack frantically looked around, eyes failing to trace the shadowy movements of their airborne stalker.

The Valkyrie carrying Jack cried out in pain as she pivoted and hurtled like a rapid dive bomb towards the ground. Another shadow slammed into them, turning their graceful dive into more of a poorly controlled free fall. He felt the Valkyries grasp loosen on him as she let go, intent on defending herself from the attackers. Jack easily slipped out of her grasp as he frantically reached out to grab her ankle while she attempted to stabilize herself in the air.

“Let go of me or we both die, human!” The Valkyrie screamed at him. Jack looked down. They were hundreds of yards in the air. No amount of stats would save him from this height. There was no way in hell he was letting go, if he was going down, so was the bird lady.

Well, he at least had no intention of letting go. The health potion Hannah had given him in conjunction with his beserker channels was working, but much too slowly. His body still refused to co-operate and offer up any strength. Right now he would have lost an arm wrestling match to a toddler. His grip on the Valkyries ankle only lasted seconds, and a swipe from her sword punctuated what would be his freefall.

He looked around in a panic; the wind ripping at his body as he catapulted towards the ground, calculating his odds of survival.

Time to try something really stu-

Jack didn’t have time to finish the thought. Hannah came in like a wrecking ball, slamming into his chest and wrapping her arms tightly around him.

“Hold on!” She screamed as the two continued their free fall. The panic in her voice was barely covered by the anger at the Valkyries.

Hannah pulled out one of her short bows and cast [Bow-Link] on it as it chased the pair in their harrowing descent. Almost immediately she let out a pained scream as she bore down on her ability with all of her focus. Jack watched as dark blood erupted out of her nose and her eyes narrowed in on the bow like it owed her money. Hannah held onto that intense focus as she fought with all her willpower to slow their rapid descent.

Jack held on to Hannah with what little strength he had. He had wrapped his legs around her, clinging to her like a Koala on a tree, but Hannah didn’t say a word. Every ounce of her willpower was trying to manage the weight of two people in the air and to stop them from slamming into the ground.

Jack could feel their fall slowing and let out a relieved sigh.

That maniac is going to pull this off. Damn, she’s terrifying. Jack thought to himself as their descent slowed to a crawl,

Eventually they hung just above the treetops, Jack's back scraping the rough branches. Hannah let out a breath she had been holding and panted heavily in concentration. Face to face, Jack looked her dead in the eyes as her right one started to violently twitch.

That can’t be good.

The bow cracked slightly then split into two pieces.

“Oh shi-” was all Jack managed to get out as the two came tumbling down, slamming into every tree branch on their way down. They hit the ground with two unpleasant thuds and a gasp as the air left their bodies with a force. Jack rolled onto his back, groaning. He was starting to miss ten minutes ago when his body couldn’t feel anything, now he could feel everything and everything hurt.

Jack lay on his back, again, staring up through the trees canopy, trying to figure out what the hell happened as he took stock of his body. Nothing seemed to be broken, but it was hard to tell.

“The hell was that?” Jack asked.

“No clue.” Hannah coughed. “Some crazy screeching thing slammed into us. The Valkyrie dropped me in a panic when she pulled out her sword.”

“Oh I am so gonna leave those two a terrible Yelp reviews.” Jack replied, slowly pushing himself up off the ground, back resting against the tree that had just broken their fall.

“Any idea where we are?” He asked, as Hannah sat up next to him.

“I’d say somewhere on the front lines,” she said with a nod deeper into the forest. She shook her hands in her hair, clearing out the leaves and dirt from their fall.

“The front lines of what?” Jack asked, squinting in the direction Hannah just nodded. He made out the telltale sign of hundreds of blue floating eyes as they approached through the darkness.

Jack pulled out his daggers and Hannah her bow, but neither one got up from their seated position on the ground. Seated or standing, it wouldn’t matter if a hundred draugr were here to kill them in this state. But it didn’t matter. The draugr paid them no mind, lumbering past them without so much as a second glance. Jack let out a sigh of relief, falling back to the ground as the draugr marched past their position.

“Guess they’re with us. Must be time for war. Any idea where we are supposed to meet up?”

“Yea, can you walk? We’ve got a bit of a trek if we want to get back to the queen.”

“Barely. You might have to drag me again. Maybe a piggy back ride if you’re feeling generous.” Jack groaned, pushing off the tree and following after Hannah as they moved through the draugr army.

The two stopped in their tracks as an unskippable notification popped into their vision.

[System Message]

[The sounds of war, the smell of blood-tinged air, the cries of fury and despair have stirred the once sleeping king. Gurthok the Berserker has awoken.]

“Well, that can’t be good.”