“You ready?” Li came into the tent, Shug was resting on the floor for about thirty minutes. “Your little friend is all patched up, no serious damage to her head so be thankful for that.”
“Oh thank god.” He was relieved.
“Still surprised you came out fairly unscathed.”
“Guess I’m just lucky.”
“You better hope your luck stays like that. Take your weapon with you.”
He got up off of the ground, picking up the bone club leveraging it on his shoulder as he trotted out of the tent.
Brentha and Kurt walked up together. She had a bandage wrapped around her head. She was more lively than ever as her eyes lit up as she saw Shug.
“Shug!” She said as she ran up to him for a hug. “I’m glad you’re ok.”
“I’m glad you’re ok as well. Thought you were gonna have a concussion or something.”
“Thankfully not. To be honest.” She leaned in close. “I didn’t really trust these guys. I thought they were gonna kill us.”
“Well they didn’t.” He said as he patted her on the shoulder.
“You guys don’t have time for your little chit chats,” Kurt butted in. “Now let’s get going, we’ll lay out the plan for you.” He started leading the charge. Shug, Brentha, and Li all followed him towards a set of two carts. “You’ll both be sharing a cart while Li sticks behind you. He will be your guide on how to get around here. Now we don’t know where exactly Angeline’s base is but we know she lies somewhere along these rails. Maybe she’s resting or something but we haven’t seen her in a while, even though she checks up on us regularly.”
“Once we get in there.” Li chimed in to finish. “Her fortress is just a connection of minecarts like a train. But filled with a huge amount of crystals, very sharp that it hurts to touch. So with that club of yours, we’re gonna smash them into tiny pieces so we can get on. Only problem is that we have no idea what kinda power she’s fully capable of. I’ve seen her kill before but I’ve never seen her take on someone in an actual fight. I believe this’ll be a tougher fight than any of you are ready for.”
“You two are very brave. Coming down here in the first place. Didn’t you get warned to stay away from this cave?”
“It was actually the opposite.” Brentha responded. “We were advised to come here.”
“By who?”
“A guy named Jinlin Lofter.”
“Hmmm, oh right that rich dirtbag. I’m guessing he wants the mushroom as well.”
“No, we’re trying to cure our friend of the Vill stone.”
“Really now? Well you shouldn’t be taking this much time to chat. You guys curing your friend is very unlikely but I appreciate your dedication.”
They approached the mine carts, with Shug and Brentha getting in the first one together and Li squeezing in the one behind them. Kurt jumped on the track and connected them.
“Alright now, imma give you guys a good push and from there you should be good to go.” Kurt explained as he got behind Li. “Good luck out there, and if you don’t come back, at least you went down fighting.” He started running and shoved the carts forward up the track. He was running for a few good seconds, driving the cart until giving one huge final thrust as they got sent flying. “Take that bitch down!” He yelled one last time before he disappeared out of view as the track took a sharp right turn.
The wind breezes through Shug and Brentha’s hair as the red glow from the crystals below them gets brighter and brighter. The track they were on was near a cave wall that overhung the shining red gems.
“These tracks span across the wall for a bit before transferring over to another part of the cave, hold on tight and pray this thing doesn’t derail because we’ll be hanging over a bunch of crystals.”
“How long is this track anyways?” Shug asked.
“No clue, but I guess we’re gonna be here for a little while.”
“Hopefully not for long.”
“We’ll be entering a tunnel up ahead, that’s the farest extent that I know about these tracks. Other than the fact this thing loops around this whole cave. So no matter what we’re gonna find her.”
“That’s good. Only hoping that we don’t directly crash into her.”
“If that happens you have me. I’m only here to help you guys with transportation, other than that the fighting is up to you two.”
“You’re not gonna help?”
“I’m sorry but I’m not willing to die like that. Out of anyone here I’ve seen what she can do and it’s not pretty. The people she’s sucked the life out of is enough to scare anybody on the surface. Vivian, Birk, and Prancer all fell to her. Trust me, I’m more willinging to take part in her defeat but the odds are very low. But I believe that something has happened to her because the barrier went down, so maybe there’s hope. On top of all of that, Huune will be very disappointed if I took her life. He wants her back to the camp alive and if he finds out if I took part in killing her, he’ll lose his mind for sure. But me, go for the kill if I care.”
“Why does he want her back alive?” Brentha questioned.
“He believes he can fix her from the power and turn her over to our side. Use the powers for good.”
“It’s a better shot than any. But I doubt it’ll work.” Shug said.
“I have the same feeling. Her humanity might still be in there, and I have no idea how he’ll bring it back.”
“Maybe Shanta can!” Brentha enthusiastically said. “She’s a mage, she’ll know the best about how to deal with her.”
“You have a mage?” Li inquired.
“Back on the surface. She stayed behind with Jinlin.”
“Yeah, a mage will help out a lot. If they’re like you guys then they’ll be a huge load of help.”
“They’re all good people. Haven’t known them for long but I just have a feeling they are.”
“I’ll take your word. We’re even lucky you guys came down to help, even though that wasn’t your intention.”
“Is that darkness over there normal?” Shug pointed out as they were steadily approaching a tunnel entrance that was clouded by heavy darkness.
“That’s definitely normal.” Li responded. “Get ready, we have no idea what’s on the other side.”
Their carts linked together barreled into the cloud of darkness, basically disappearing from vision as a little opening puff in the smoke that outlined their entry.
240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOSacvA1OPd
Bullets were hurled towards them as all of them ducked, thankfully not getting hit by the oncoming barrage.
Zunci peered her barrel of the rifle over the ledge and shot blindly in the small crowd of guards. She nailed one in the head as he collapsed on the floor dead. More lead was coming in an onslaught.
“I don’t think we can take them. We’re held down pretty tight.” Zunci said. “What’s the plan?”
Yunga darted her eyes to the opening in the courtyard that revealed the skylight, casting down the sun’s rays. It had a little ledge on the top that someone can possibly grab onto.
The guard’s started marching up the steps to get on their level, exactly ten. They had to act fast to get out of this pickle.
“Ok, I’m gonna throw you.” Yunga pointed at Zunci.
“What!? Where?” She concerningly asked.
“See that skylight. You can get up there and shoot at them with cover.”
“Ok, ok.” She was worried. “Let’s go now.”
“I’ll stay on the ground and make sure Piper doesn’t get hit.”
“Alright.”
“Get ready to stand up in front of me. I’ll carry you and propel you forward.”
“Hope to god this works.”
The ten guardsmen reach the top and they disperse into five per side of the center, five to the left and five to the right.
Yunga and Zunci jump up off the ground, with Yunga’s hands nestling on Zunci’s hips as she carries her up. She bends her knees and then zooms off the ground, launching towards the ceiling.
Zunci’s body barrels towards the ledge, with her barely getting a grip on the ceiling. She was able to lift her body up and get a great angle on the guards.
Yunga is left stuck in the air as every gun in the room aims towards her. As soon as they shoot, she zips over to the left side of the room, just above the five guards.
All of the bullets missed and hit into the stone wall, some of them clanging together as they collided mid air. All of the guards are left stunned as Yunga slams down on top of a pile of them.
The poor fellow that was in the middle get’s his body careened into the floor as a sword slices through his head. Yunga stabs the next guy in the back and throws his body over the railing and into the cement below.
In a flash she rushes into the next guy, tackling him to the ground, dodging the next wave of bullets.
Zunci shot down from above, killing a few on the right side that were trying their hardest to shoot but not hit their fellow comrades on the other end. They turned their attention to her and unleashed a load of lead towards her. She took cover and all of the bullets splatted into the stone.
Yunga slit the guys throat on the ground and props his body up as a human meat shield as the other two guys left take hot shots at her. Once their fire stopped she threw the corpse at one guard and charged another.
Sticking the guy in the stomach with her sword, impaling all the way through. She swung him around and threw him at the other guy knocking him down. She picked up one of the rifles and finished the last guy off.
From above, Zunci was raining down more bullets, killing more guards as they collapsed in the ground, with only two of them standing. Yunga comes leaping across the chasm and sticks her sword right into a guy’s face. The last guy tried running away, but was shot down, his body landing right next to Piper hunched over.
“Wow, you guys really know how to kill.” She said in astonishment. “Too good in fact. Are you guys pirates?”
“Yes.” Yunga responded. “Been one since I was born.”
“Damn, thank god I got a rad group like you two to rescue me. Thought you guys were just some schmucks.”
“I mean, some of us are.” Zunci jokingly said. “Now where are we going next? They're going to send more guards after us, as much as I like killing them we don’t have time for that.”
“Can you see a way out from there?” Yunga shouted.
She took one good look around. The courtyard was connected to the whole prison, which meant all of the roofs connected to each other. There were walkways that led to guard towers they could use to get down.
“We can get to the guard towers from up here!” She yelled back. “Maybe we can use that to safely get down.”
“Great, great.” She said to herself. “Piper, I'll throw you up there.”
“What!?” Piper exclaimed. “Are you crazy!?”
“You want to get out of here or not?”
“There has to be a better way.”
In convenient timing a huge stampede of footsteps and voices could be overheard down below. Few guards shouting, on lookout for them.
“Shit come on.” Yunga said, hurrying up Piper.
“FIne fine.” She said, “Let’s do it.”
“Zunci, get ready to catch her!”
“Ready!” Zunci shouted back.
Yunga gets behind Piper and gets ready to launch her up when a prisoner from a nearby cell bangs on the bars to get her attention.
“Hey!” It was a human male in his twenties with the standard beige prison uniform on. “Let us out please!” He begged. “We’ll help you, I swear.”
“Ignore them.” Piper interjected.
“Please ladies! I’ll fight off any guards to get out of here.”
Yunga stood there contemplating. “We could get you to cause more of a ruckus, drawing the attention off of us.”
“Thank you.” The man started crying. “Thank you so so much.”
She went and searched the bodies for a key and she found it relatively and surprisingly quickly. She approached the cell and unlocked the padlock, sliding the barred door open.
“Take their guns and this.” She tossed the man the keys. “Release everyone else and revolt for all I care.”
“I’ll never forget you.” He ran out of the cell and ransacked the bodies, releasing some other prisoners as well.
“Can you do this already?” Piper annoyingly said.
Yunga quickly got behind her and lifted her up as she propelled herself off the ground and launched her to the ledge. Zunci was there with her hand and grabbed Piper’s as she was screaming flying in the air. Using all of her strength she was able to lift her up on her feet. Yunga used another rush up and landed perfectly at the top.
Piper fell down as she was left absolutely terrified. “Holy shit.” She was completely out of breath. “I don’t understand what’s the source of that power? There’s a spellfield around this place, how can you use magic?”
“It’s not magic.” Yunga said.
“Huh? No way.”
“Yes way.”
“Stop chatting and let’s dip!” Zunci butted in pulling Piper off the ground.
All of them start running along the rooftop. Alarms can still be overheard from the prison inside. People can be heard in the courtyard, usually being callouts to get into formations. They were sprinting along some overhanging barriers protruding from the roof, concealing their bodies from being spotted from the guards below.
They were making great distance as the place basically started to fall apart as more gun shots could be heard in the distance. The distraction they released was giving them a great advantage.
Rapidly approaching the guard towers as broken out inmates below duke it out with the soldiers. Out of nowhere a shot comes barreling towards them and luckily misses.
Surprisingly there’s still guards posted up on the top of the towers. There were many situated around the perimeter of the prison, locking it all down making sure no one gets in or out.
“Get down!” Yunga commanded.
All of them took cover behind little pillars. More bullets riddled their way at them as they scurried away. Yunga and Zunci were behind the same wide but fairly short pillar, while Piper was ahead of them as she dived forward.
“Inmates on the roof!” A guard called out.
Multiple soldiers climb up ladders and make it all the way to the top. Exactly four popped up and drew out their rifles. The walls split off from each other, leading into two walkways that went right to left diagonally to the guard towers. Two guards were on each pathway blocking them off.
Another guard came up from the middle. Completely separate from the other two but this man was huge. A very hulking beast of muscle and armor, a huge conglomerate mix of threatening and terrifying. He gave off this ghastly aura that no other run of the mill soldier has offered. He was carrying this big sword. The blade being a good four feet, along with the girth of three inches.
“Oh shit!” Piper squealed out as she ran from her cover in terror, being the closest to the huge man. “It’s Grok!” She screamed out.
Without a word spoken Grok steps forward and stomps his foot on the ground, creating a huge shockwave. Destroying all of the stone pillars and launching all of them off of the castle walls and into the prison yard below.
Piper fell off to the right and landed onto a pile of crates that shattered as she crashed into it. Zunci fell off to the left into an ongoing battle between a bunch of inmates and guards. Yunga was surprisingly able to push through the wave with her power, barely being able to stay on as she strained her body. Unfortunately with all of the dust that was kicked up she couldn’t see.
Zunci was in between crossfire. A current battle between a singular inmate and a guard, struggling to win over a rifle they were tugging on. She got up in the middle of the carnage and blasted the soldier in the face. The prisoner looked surprised as the body hit the floor with some of the blood splattered onto him. He looked over at her and thanked her as he charged forward to join in the fight.
Yunga coughed up some of the dust, finally clearing up after the blow. Once it spreaded out to the point she could clearly see, Grok charged at her with his sword held highly in the air. Reacting quick enough to dash out of the way behind him. He was heavily armored so she couldn’t get a clean stab in him. He had no slits in his armor to puncture through.
Grok swung again behind him but Yunga already zoomed off. She was not ready to have a fight with him, heading off to find Piper and Zunci. She hurried into the billowing smoke where she was confronted with the four armed guards who made their entrance earlier before everything got blown off. All of them were shocked to see her make an appearance out of nowhere. She was able to zip her way over to one of the soldier’s faces on the right walkway.
She pierced him through the stomach and equipped his gun in a blink of an eye. It was so swift that it surprised herself, shooting off a round into the other guy on the same walkway.
The two others quickly shot but Yunga flung herself off the ledge and softly landed in the courtyard down below. She had some time to catch her breath as she heard more gunshots being fired off alongside the screams of guards and prisoners alike.
“Oh god.” Piper groaned as she rolled on the ground. “My fucking back!” She arched herself up as she grabbed her behind to stretch it out.
“Reinforcements!” A guard yelled out. “Someone call the militia, say we need backup now!” A bunch of soldiers ran by the smashed boxes, not paying attention to her whatsoever.
She got up off of the ground, still hazy from the fall. She stumbled a bit but regained her balance. She starts running the other way the guards were heading to.
Zunci sprinted out of the courtyard while the battle started to die down, bodies of prisoners and guards piling up. “Yunga!” She looked up above to where they were blasted off to see the rubble. “Where the hell is she?”
“Hey!” Yunga shouted out around the corner. “Over here.”
She ran around to where she was. Yunga was crouched down behind some bushes to conceal herself. She was holding her hip, blood seeping through her clothing. Zunci slid towards her.
“What happened?” She asked her.
“A bullet hit me, but it doesn’t hurt that much.” She responded. “I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure? Can you walk?”
“Yes I can stand, just stings a little. Think it grazed me more than it went through me.”
“Good. We’ll have Jinlin look at you when we get back.”
“We need to find Piper first.”
“Oh shit yeah. What happened to her?”
“Think she just fell down like you did. Did you see her?”
“No, not at all did you?”
“Got too busy being flung off the roof.”
“So much dust kicked up I couldn’t see shit. Fought that Gronk guy but he’s tough. His armor is like skin tight, there's no slits in it to stab through. This ain’t no Drinter were dealing with.”
“Let’s just get Piper and leave.”
“That’s if she survived the attack.”
“If I did then surely she did right?”
“Don’t bet on it.”
A few more screams of pain fill the air coming from near the entrance. Gunshots fired alongside the screeching noise. Yunga and Zunci take notice of the sound and rush towards it.
At the front gate, Grok was slicing people into halves like it was a hot knife through butter. Making quick work of prisoners who dared escape through the entrance. At this point many guards and inmates were wiped out, the bodies piled up by the second, leaving a diminishing population left.
Yunga and Zunci hid around the corner as they observed the beast mangle bodies like it was nothing. Both of them scared stiff on what to do.
“Definitely don’t want to deal with that guy again.” Zunci said.
“Agreed.” Yunga nodded. “Find Piper and let’s get out of here.”
“Help!” Piper was heard screaming from the other side.
They both peeked around the corner as they were being chased by a guard with a knife, being led towards the front gate where Grok spotted them.
“Kill this wretched bitch already!” The guard said. “She bit my fucking hand.”
“You deserve it, you cretin.” She barked.
Grok slowly walked up behind her and lifted the sword, about to send her to the heavens above in any second. Yunga came flying in and kicked him straight in the head.
He didn’t feel a thing, only lost his balance and stumbled backwards before quickly gaining his balance.
“Huh?” The guard was bewildered. “Who the hell are-” His sentence cut short as Piper lunged off the ground and took control of his knife, plunging it straight into his throat.
Guards posted up on top of the gate were shot down quickly by Zunci in a second. Leaving Grok the only standing soldier left in the whole prison.
“Move back! We don’t have time for any of this.” Yunga commanded the two of them. She zoomed up and grabbed Piper, cradling her in her arms.
Grok swung down on them one last time before she zipped out of there. Missing Yunga by only a inch, luckily she didn’t get any blowback from the slam. She swept up Zunci as well as she hightailed it out of the prison, leaving him behind as she kicked up dust.
She got a huge four steps out of the vicinity of the prison entirely, leaving Grok no chance to follow them or even pursue. Though in the excitement of it all, Yunga completely lost control where she was going and tripped over an exposed rock.
Yunga fell down, launching Zunci and Piper forward into the forest as they tumbled around.
Zunci got catapulted into some foliage and bushes, gathering a few scrapes on her exposed arms.
Piper fumbled into a tree, hitting her directly in the stomach knocking all of the wind out of her.
Yunga landed face first into a dirt path just before she reached the edge of the treeline. Her face completely covered in dirt she shook all of it off and dusted her clothes off as she slowly rose from the ground.
“Is everyone alright?” She shouted out.
“I’m good, I’m good.” Zunci responded back as she groaned, stretching out her arms.
“Piper?”
“I’m gonna need a doctor after all of this.” Piper groaned.
“We’ll get you patched up after you get us that knife.”
“Oh yeah, forgot about that. I guess you both earned it.”
“You bet your ass we earned it after all of that.” Zunci said.
“Y-yeah. Well I’ll lead the way.” Piper said as she stretched out and strolled forward, alarmingly quickly.
“Hey wait up!” Yunga said. “At least rest for a bit if you need it, you took a heavy fall.”
“I’m fine, don't worry. Besides we wouldn’t wanna stick around because more men from the nearby militia will come up, they’ll be searching for you all over the island.”
“Good point.”
Piper was picking up the pace very fast, almost getting into a light jog with Yunga and Zunci a few feet behind her. She was making sudden turns that started to make no sense, it was like she was running in a circle. It was starting to become clear that she had no idea where she was going.
They went on this little jaunt for ten minutes, a wild goose chase where there seemed to be no end to it.
“Do you have any idea where you’re going?” Yunga asked her.
“Nope, no idea.” She responded back with a complete tone of seriousness, no sense of worry.
“Then where the fuck-” She was stopped mid sentence as Piper turned around and casted a spell at her.
It was a big purple puff of smoke that covered her eyes and gave them a nasty sting like a bee. She screamed in pain and faltered to her knees.
“Yunga!” Zunci shouted as she drew her rifle. It wasn’t long until she was also struck by the purple smog, but as soon as it hit she fired a shot. With complete blind luck the bullet whizzed into the left leg of Piper.
She screeched along with the squealing of Zunci. She grabbed her injured leg and limped away from them as they both were on the ground in pain.
“You dumb cunts really thought I was gonna give you that knife? You must be fucking psychotic if you think I’m willing to give that shit up! Up yours you fuckers!” Her voice started to draw farther and farther away.
“That bitch!” Yunga barked. “I’m not letting her get away!” The pain was completely unbearable and she couldn’t even finish her sentence.
“Piper!” Zunci shouted out. “You’re not getting away with this!” She was still trembling and holding her eyes.
Both of them were stuck on the ground as the pain got worse and worse by the second, their screams of agony being extremely loud, it felt like the whole island could hear them.
As much as the anger from the betrayal was skyrocketing, there was nothing for them to do as Piper hobbled away, their hopes of saving Hillanter were dwindling.240Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSpEDhaqsSe
