NOVEL NEXT Chapter 22: Just What Kind of An Undying Monster Are You?
Quietly, she starts crawling towards the lock. Soundlessly as she can, she tugs the chains inwards. Dragging it towards her. Alright, alright, Lumeria. Don’t fuck it up this time. She’s trying to recall her training. Something about teeth. Staring into the keyhole. She sees the little pins protruding out. Right. The pins need to be configured the same way as the teeth of the key.
She searches for it around the soldier’s belt. Remembering the orientation of each one. Now, she just has to try all of them until she gets it right. Sliding her dagger out. She takes a deep breath to stabilize her hand. She starts. Replaying her elder’s words in her mind. Patience, she needs patience to do this. Patience and delicacy. It’s not the first key. Neither is the second. Third. Fourth. Fifth. So, it must be the sixth then?
The fuck? None of them are opening. Or she’s just terrible at this. This stupid fucking thing if only she can just bre- She shakes her agitation out of her. Come on now, Lumeria. She can do it. Don’t panic. Don’t be frustrated. Keep a calm mind and stable hands. She can’t be conquered by a stupid little lock. She reimagines the keys in her mind. Double flicking her sight over to check. Just a little more. A little more. The pin at the back needs a bit more encouragement. She hears something click.
Ayo? Ayo? Slowly, she attempts to pull the latch. It’s twisting apart. She got it! So it was the second key. She slaps a palm over her mouth to stop herself from letting out a yeep of excitement. Okay. Don’t get too happy yet. On to phase two. Getting past the cellar guards.
They aren’t asleep, but they aren’t exactly very vigilant either. They’re just slouched against the wall, in a boozed induced chatter about some gossip they heard. In this part she needs to create a distraction to draw them away from the entrance. Something loud enough. The setting is on her side. She swipes a rock from the ground. Pelting at a sleeping dog opposite her.
She startles the animal alert into a confused bark. It instantly wakes the others around it to follow up. And soon, all the three cages of rabid dogs are causing a ruckus. Howling and growling at each other. Frantically body slamming into the bars attempting to fight. The two guards rush in to investigate the commotion,
“Woah, woah. What’s going on here? Calm down boys.” at that. She quietly nudges the gate open. Slipping out behind them. She exits the building, ducking behind a wall. She immediately encounters an unexpected roadblock.
Half the soldiers are still awake! There are tons of troops here so it’s only natural that there’ll be alternating day and night patrols. And they’re only being promptly attracted here by all the noise. Clustering her exit route that she needs to go. She needs to divert their attention away and quick. It’s only a matter of time before they realize she’s gone.
Come on, Lumeria. Think fast. Act fast. She flicks her eyes around, looking for a solution. Windmill, tents, clustered pigpen, crates. Pigpen! She eyes for the biggest, shriekiest ones. Again. Pelting rocks at it. Stirring them up with heaven rattling oinks. It’s raising some eyebrows, but it’s not quite enough yet. A bit more. She needs them to be clamorous. She throws more rocks.
Go, her ferocious warriors! More noise! More chaos! Louder, louder, louder!
“What’s agitating the pigs?” their attentions are being attracted there instead. It’s working better than she thought it would. The pigs are getting frantic. Trampling over each other in the narrow enclosure in confusion. Ramming against the wooden fences keeping them in. It breaks loose.
“The animals are all going mad!” the pigs begin pouring out like a stampede.
“Don’t let them escape!” The soldiers are now diverted in trying to catch the runaway livestock, clearing her path. She scurries down, ducking between buildings and nooks and crannies. She’s keeping herself close to the stone walls.
“Astia’s wench is gone!” Shit. The cellar guards are coming out to notify her escape,
“The animals are a distraction! Stop fucking around and search for her!”
But she’s so close to the front gates now. She can almost taste freedom. Taking a deep breath, she dashes towards it. But a soldier crosses her path. He hasn’t spotted her yet. He’s turning his head. Frantically. She dives into the first tent she sees. Peering out the door. He didn’t see her. Good. She heaves a sigh of relief. Okay. Now she’s just got to wait for him to go away and she can resum-
She’s suddenly picked up by the collar. This sensation feels awfully familiar. Rakgar. He’s half dressed in loose trousers. Fuck. Is this his tent she ran into? This motherfucker!
“You really are a slippery little wit-” She swings herself, kicking him hard as she can between the legs mid-sentence,
“Fuck off!” Forcing him to drop her with a tormented grunt. Swiping her dagger out. She shanks him there too for good measures. Doubling him over to the ground. This should keep him incapacitated for a while. Serves him right for threatening to castrate Soril. She immediately runs after, but he’s ordering with a resounding bellow,
“Get her! She’s here.” as she’s sprinting out.
The soldiers are being alerted to her presence. Swords drawn. Blocking her off with encroaching strikes. She’s trying to weave through the attacks. But with each passing moment, more and more backups are just arriving. Gradually surrounding her like an island to an ocean despite the gate is right there within few meters.
Come on Lumeria. Is there anything she can do in this situation? She doesn’t want to get captured now. She doesn’t want to get captured! Think Lumeria! Think!
What does she have? She has a dagger. What can she do? Is there anything in the surroundings she can snipe to clear a path? What about the signpost against the tavern wall? That’s too small to be impactful. What else? What else? The hay stacks? No. She doesn’t have a second dagger to cause an ignition.
The blades of the windmill? The log holding it is sturdy. Wait. No. She doesn’t need to collapse the entire thing. One rotor is already dangling off by the fabric. That’s good enough! She throws her dagger towards it. Severing the cloth entirely. It comes crashing down. Forcing the soldiers ahead of her to flee from the falling debris. Now she just needs to brace the crowd.
She makes a mad sprint. Shielding her eyes from the dust cloud that had been stirred from the impact. Squeezing and diving into any little cranny she can between shoulders and legs. But they’re rapidly coming back with vicious sword hacks. She tanks the noncritical damage. Barrel rolling, she picks a sword up from the ground. Swinging at any hands trying to grab at her. She dodges a body tackle from the side, but she runs straight into the stab impaling into her mid. She’s getting overwhelmed.
She’s too fucking weak for this! Bathory simply doesn’t have the physical capabilities to pull this off even if she can afford reckless injuries. The pain makes her slow and recoil. But she’s already at the gate. Staggering around like a broken marionette to juke fatal attacks. She grips her fingers around the stone trim. Just a bit more Lumeria. Don’t give out. She’s already gotten this far. The last phase is to dash into the darkness with all her might!
Freedom is right there! She’s so clos- it’s here her blood starts to freeze. Her heart seizes. She stalls in horror. There are two semicircles of garrisons securing the perimeters on the outside that she’s only now able to see. Twenty in the inner loop. Ten on the outer loop. They’re all being alerted of the commotion and emerging out of their tents with torch fires. Not only that. In the forest, there are more archer outposts scattered midst the thick leaf forage. Bows drawn towards her. The glister of sharp arrows piercing like crystals from the tree lines.
The dread is suffocating when she realizes she was nowhere close. She couldn’t have possibly gotten out this way even if she did get past the gates. She completely underestimated just how well Feror is fortified.
“Halt.” a resonating command stops the few soldiers about to swing at her into lowering their weapons. She’s still flicking her head over her shoulders when she’s abruptly manhandled to the ground. It’s Rakgar. He twists her arm behind her back. Popped it right out of her socket. She lets out a suffocated scream as he’s cutting her palm with a sword. Shoving her hand down his pants. He’s healing himself with her blood. She wants to throw up. The failure is making her bitter,
“You fucking ingrate! I should’ve let you die-”
“Oh. Let me kindly repay you personally then.” He chokes her sentence short with a heavy knee into her spine. Forcing his weight down. A harrowing crack resounds. A fire seethes her veins. An indescribable pain flares her senses. This vengeful bastard snapped her back!
Her ears are still ringing when he picks her up. Dangling her by the wrist. She's struggling to keep her consciousness when she hears him question,
“How exactly did you manage to break out of your cell?” Her vision is blurring with tears from the sheer agony. All she sees is a fuzz of red and gold. She spits on his face,
“Fuck you. Go to hell.” that just came out a pathetic whimper. She doesn’t even have the energy left to yell. It earns her a violent smack against the stone wall, slamming her like a tantrum throwing child would a rag doll. Fracturing her ribs, puncturing into her lungs, the air gets knocked out of her,
“I don’t think it’s your cleverest idea to aggravate me given your circumstance.” She can’t breathe. He’s dragging her against the dirt back into Feror.
The soldiers are clearing a path for him with confused clamoring and befuddled gazes. Watching her in disgust and horror as she writhes her bones back into place with skin crawling snaps. She’s finally able struggle again, clawing at his vice like grip,
“Let me go!” with gritted teeth. But he only seems curious when he asks,
“Just what kind of an undying monster are you, little missy?”
“You’re the fucking monster here.”
“Fine by me if you don’t wanna answer.” He’s returning to the cellar, but he doesn’t simply toss her in like last time. Instead, he’s fastening the shackles on her wrists. Stringing her akin a blanket being put out to dry before yanking her chin up and forcing her to look at him,
“Try and escape again. I’ll hack both your legs off and send it to Soril Blaine.” his twisted smile makes her sick to her stomach,
“I’d like to see if you can recover from that too.” before leaving to lock the gate. He orders,
“I want four guards watching her around the clock.”
She’s a bloody fool to have saved him.