Chapter 59: Jail Break

  Alex crouched low at the lip of a rocky outcrop overlooking a wide chamber lit by flickering crystal sconces and glowing moss. A distant clatter of pickaxes echoed from below where he could see them, his unit. All of them were shackled and weary.

  They were forced to work in silence under the harsh stares of kobold guards. Most were lightly armored, wielding crude weapons, and they occasionally barked guttural commands. But one...

  Alex felt the pressure before he saw him. The kobold wore armor of bone and obsidian, and his very presence made Alex's spine tingle. Adept Tier.

  No chance in a fair fight, Alex thought.

  The particular kobold wasn’t the Chief, but another warrior. Sylvaris had told him that the Kobolds would have a few of them. This just confirmed that unsettling fact for him, a tough pill to swallow. This threw a fucked up wrench in the carefully built machine that was his rescue plan. He knew that trying to free them from the prison pit chamber would be too dangerous. It was far too deep into the heart of the tunnel system for so many humans to make it out without being spotted too early, no matter the distraction he came up with.

  Here in the outskirts, where the mining took place, was a far better point of extraction. He just didn’t think that the Kobolds would see the humans as valuable enough to have one of their Adept Tier warriors guarding them. They weren’t there when they kept everyone in the pit, after all.

  “Perhaps that’s the point. Here it is easier to make an escape, thus the increased security.”

  He hated that Obby was right. He silently cursed his bad luck but ultimately he had to accept the situation and adapt. Adaptation was what Sylvaris had taught him, he’d have to put his training into proper practice.

  He dropped back into the shadows, his mind racing.

  "I can’t fight that one head-on," he whispered even as he worked on a change to his plan. Obby, strangely silent, mentally nodded once in agreement.

  "We need chaos. Something distracting enough to get them out, but not kill anyone. At the same time, it needs to be serious enough to have the Adept warrior to see the prisoners as a lower priority and leave with the rest."

  “I have an idea, but I don’t know if you will like it.”

  “Fuck… okay fine what’s your idea?” He asked, but he knew he would regret it even as the words left his mouth.

  Obby told him.

  Sure enough, he regretted asking.

  ***

  He placed three crystal glyph-bombs in branching tunnels, rigged to explode in noise and light. They powerful enough that they would blind and confuse, but were nothing lethal. After learning so much about the Kobolds and the way they lived, he refused to kill if he didn’t have to. But the explosions would certainly sound lethal, and hopefully shake the tunnels enough to make the Kobolds feel in danger.

  Like a wraith, he moved from shadow to shadow, behind rocks and crates, placing the crystals as he moved about the complex. It was the last few crystals he was worried about, which made him hesitate, second guessing his plan.

  “This is the only way to make sure the warrior leaves your friends long enough for us to free them.” Obby once again reiterated the harsh truth. Alex sighed and pulled out a few more aether crystals he had prepared and set them in place.

  Then, he stepped back into the shadows, and was gone.

  It wasn’t hard for him to return to the mining area, sitting again on a ledge of rock, hidden well away from the light of the luminescent moss on the walls, and the lanterns in the hands of the various lizards below.

  “How much longer until they activate?”

  “If you did it right? Only two minutes until we get our personal independence day celebration.” Obby sounded excited, like he was looking forward to this.

  Admittedly, Alex was as well. He was anxious to find out if all the work he had done would pay off. Crafting all those [Flare] crystals was the first part. He also spent hours creating timed activation glyphs and imprinting them on smaller crystals.

  Linking the two of them together as a single unit which would go off when he wanted them to required him, once again, learning some alchemy. Obby talked him through making a new substance which acted like magical glue, a mixture that wasn’t strong enough to really hold objects together under force, but enough for this job.

  “What do we do if it fails? Or if the Adept warrior doesn’t leave the mine cavern?”

  “Hmmm, that’s a good question. Cry?”

  “I’m being serious.”

  “So am I. You can’t beat them, so you’ll have to come up with a whole new plan. If it comes to that, I fully expect you to cry about it.”

  “Did I ever mention how much I hate you?”

  “You say that, and yet here we are.”

  “Maybe if you—”

  “Shhhh, get ready, it’s about to be go-time.”

  Not wanting to lose focus, Alex stealthily pulled his dagger from its sheath with one hand and fingered the object in his right pocket with the other.

  Moments later, Alex knew he hadn’t fucked up his enchanting as the tunnels lit up with the deafening sound of rapid-fire bursts, crystalline echoes cracking through the chamber like thunder. Screams, both human and kobold, filled the space as his little present went off in the far distance.

  It was now or never.

  Everyone in the cavern below was stunned for a moment, humans and lizards looking at each other awkwardly until one of the kobolds barked loudly and ran off into the tunnels towards the sound of the explosions. Once the first moved, the rest seemed to follow in a cascade of movement. The kobolds were far more worried about the fate of their friends and family than in guarding some slave humans.

  Only the Adept Tier kobold stayed behind in the cavern with his friends.

  Come on… go… Alex urged in his mind. He felt like a wanna be psychic, starring at the lizard and trying to project a thought into its mind. To get it to move.

  “Wait for it…” Obby said.

  The sound of another blast rocked the cavern, coming from a different direction, this one more distant. This was the blast he had been hesitant to set. It was close to the Egg Chamber, far too close, and he didn’t want to risk fucking up his enchantment, thus destroying the eggs. For Alex, it would feel like having slaughtered infants, he couldn’t just do that indiscriminately.

  If his placement was correct, the eggs wouldn’t be harmed in the least, but the sound would seem like it came from that cavern, which is what he wanted. The kobold looked towards the tunnel, then back at the prisoners, its tail thumping wildly. He could see it was torn between duty and instinct, it’s ears twitching and it kept adjusting its grip on its weapon.

  Come on! He urged once more in his mind.

  Then, the warrior barked and ran off down the tunnel quickly. Alex sighed in relief as it passed of out of sight. It had worked.

  He dropped from the ledge, landing in a crouch beside Allie.

  "Alex?!" she gasped.

  "Shhh...quiet. Can you walk?"

  "Yes, we can walk. Well we could if these chains weren’t on us."

  Unable to hide a smirk, he stepped forward and pulled the item out of his right pocket. It glinted in the light of the moss, revealing itself to be a piece of obsidian rock that was heavily covered in runes and sigils. A stream of aether energy activated the enchantment and the tip of the obsidian suddenly stared to glow white hot.

  “Don’t move.”

  He severed her chain with the shard of obsidian in a swift slash.

  One by one, he freed five more of them, moving fast, staying low. His bracer and the gemstones within thrummed with focused energy as he drew on the aether stored inside them. Every motion was careful, swift, because the enchantment on his little item wouldn’t last long. He was abusing the hell out of its output capacity to manage this feat, meaning it would melt away in his hand within a minute.

  He kept moving, cutting through the chains that held each of his friends one at a time. He had them all free just as the obsidian dagger-shard in his hand began to spark. He threw it to the side where it cracked and fell apart, releasing a bright flash of red-white energy.

  He had done it, had gotten them free in time. But not fast enough.

  A kobold rounded the corner, hammer raised. It must have been another miner off deeper in the tunnels who had probably heard the sound of Alex’s distraction but hadn’t made it back to the main mining cavern to investigate, until now. It’s yellow eyes locked on Alex.

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  “God dammit!” He unsheathed the dagger in his left hand.

  He didn’t want to kill. But this one possibly wouldn’t be giving him a choice.

  The Kobold rushed at him, swinging its weapon erratically. Alex entered into a defensive stance of the [Demon Asura Style], narrowly dodging the hammer’s arc. A fist connected with the lizard’s chest, injecting a wisp of foreign aether from [Burning Strike] during the blow, staggering the kobold. Alex struck its jaw with an aether-charged palm as a follow up. The creature collapsed as more of his energy forced it way into the Kobold’s head, knocking it unconscious.

  Alex didn’t linger. He signaled the others forward to follow him.

  They darted through the tunnels, limping, supporting each other. Their physical stats made them capable of moving at peak human standards, but the unfamiliar tunnels coupled with the malnutrition and injuries, made their pace slower than he would have liked.

  Map in one hand, he referenced it as he came to a fork, pulling on Allie’s hand to follow him down the left side tunnel. He knew the way, but Alex’s adrenaline was running so high, he couldn’t think straight. The map would make sure he didn’t fuck up.

  All around him he heard his friends shouting questions, which he ignored. The barks of Kobolds and the slaps of scaly tails on rocks still echoed down the tunnels and were far too close for comfort.

  Any second now they could be discovered. Hell, they probably already noticed their prisoners had vanished and were looking for them. Alex felt like they were hot on his heels, the lizards barely a tunnel or turn behind them.

  They made another turn down a tunnel and he began to feel hope, knowing there was only one more large cavern and then two tunnels between them and freedom. They were so close that he could almost already feel the forest breeze on his face.

  But just as he turned the corner into that final cavern a weight settled across the air. Not metaphorical, but a presence. He turned to look behind them and froze.

  The Chieftain had arrived.

  Towering, broad-shouldered, and draped in ancient bone charms, just as Alex remembered him, the kobold leader stood taller than any of his kin. His scales shimmered like emeralds, and his war spear crackled faintly with red-hot aether. His eyes locked on Alex with the gravity of a mountain.

  "Run!" He shouted, pushing the map into Allie’s hands. The others hesitated.

  “What?” Allie said.

  "I said RUN!" He shoved them towards the tunnel across the cavern, towards the exit. Towards safety. Meanwhile, he pressed past them all, placing himself between them and the kobold chieftain.

  His friends fled and he stepped forward. He didn’t expect to win. That wasn’t the point.

  The ground trembled beneath the weight of the chieftain’s approach. His spear dragged sparks across the stone as he walked, each step echoing like a countdown. Alex’s heartbeat slammed in his ears, but he didn’t move. Instead, he rolled his shoulder once, raising his left arm.

  From a pouch on his belt, he drew a small crystal, white laced with fine rune lines and a swirling pulse of energy inside. His fingers sparked with aether as he activated the glyph he’d carved into it hours ago and tossed it over the Chieftain’s head.

  A flash of blinding white force exploded at the base of the tunnel, angled downward. Dust erupted, casting smoke across the chamber. The [Flare] didn’t touch the Chieftain but it bought Alex three seconds of obscured vision.

  He used them. Alex shot forward, the spell’s aftershock fueling his momentum, his body coiling low in a practiced stance of the Demon Asura. Elbow tucked, foot angled just so, controlling his stance, his weight. Sylvaris's voice echoed in his head. Angle, Alex. You don’t block with power. You block with direction.

  He closed the distance and brought his [Shield] spell to life. Not at full force, but with precise output, the translucent barrier curving from his bracer in a crescent arc just in time to deflect the sweeping end of the chieftain’s spear, and then just as quickly the barrier vanished.

  The blow rattled every bone in his arm. But the angle redirected it, upward and wide.

  Alex stepped in, left palm glowing faintly blue as he struck, his palm landing at the juncture between scale plates near the Chieftain’s floating rib. His fist, thanks to the [Burning Strike] effect, infused a ripple of aether. It wasn’t enough to damage the chieftain, but enough to disrupt his internal aether flow for a moment.

  The Chieftain growled, surprised, but not hurt.

  Alex pulled his hand back, feeling a lance of pain through his fingers. He knew they were broken from one glance, punching this Kobold’s scales broke his fucking fingers. Needing some distance, he danced back.

  He didn’t wait for the Chieftain to respond and reached for a second enchanted crystal from his belt, another [ Flare] , smaller than the first. A flick of the wrist launched the crystal into the air. It ignited, this time above the Chieftain’s head. The sudden blast was blinding and disorienting. Alex moved in again, fist cocked and ready to try strike, but this time, he wasn’t fast enough.

  The spear swept low, Alex barely leaping away in time. The tip grazed his calf, and pain ripped through his leg like fire. He stumbled and rolled, coming back up to his feet, but slower, too slow.

  The Chieftain was already there. The haft of its spear slammed into Alex’s side, launching him across the cavern like a ragdoll, hitting the wall with a crunch, his vision flashing white.

  Move, Alex, he told himself. MOVE! He staggered upright, coughing up blood from his mouth. He tasted metal. The Chieftain approached again, now at a casual pace, appearing curious maybe, almost… amused? Alex’s stance wavered. He planted his back foot, centering himself and smiled.

  “You’re... not unbeatable,” he said between gasps.

  The Chieftain tilted his head. Not speaking, just watching. Alex raised his bracer one last time, having a last ho-rah in mind, one final gambit.

  The amount of energy he had at his disposal was probably small when comparing himself to the Chieftain, especially so as it was just mortal grade aether, not Adept Tier. But between his two gemstones and the energy in his body, he had quite a bit of it.

  He started to draw on all of it. He pulled in every bit of aether he could grasp and began molding it into a spell pattern. It was the most energy he’d used at any one time. The Chieftain seemed to notice he was up to something and began to move towards him more quickly, the spear held aloft to strike at his face.

  Alex let his heart race, let the fear in, let it rise. BOOM!

  He finished the [Flare], the explosion of kinetic force sending both of them flying back. The Chieftain crashed into a wall with a snarl, Alex hit the opposite wall once more, slumping to the ground and not getting back up this time.

  His vision blurred. His body screamed in pain. His breath came in shallow, broken gasps.

  He couldn’t even move. The Chieftain rose, shaking off the attack from Alex like it was simply the wind. He walked toward Alex, with a smoldering bloodlust in his black eyes. His steps were sure, more controlled, his hand moving to his spear and lifting, ready for the final blow.

  Alex closed his eyes.

  Then—

  A shrill whistle echoed. A runt of a kobold bolted into the cavern from one of the side tunnels, waving his arms and yipping frantically. “ Tukak! Wait! Stop! ”

  The Chieftain froze.

  Alex forced his eyes open just in time to see the spear quiver in the air just in front his nose. The little kobold slid between them, arms outstretched, its head barely touching the spear in front of Alex.

  "Stop!" Tom-Tom shouted in the kobold barking-like language. "He is not prey. He is Dragon."

  The chieftain growled, dismissive and angry.

  The little kobold held firm."Look! He fight even knowing he lose! He protect his kin. That is strength! That is pride!" He turned to Alex. "You not like others. You walk with will of fire. I see spirit of great dragon in you."

  Silence settled throughout the chamber.

  Then the chieftain lowered his weapon. He barked a command. The little kobold slunk back submissively. The Chieftain stared down at Alex, anger and battlelust still alight in the lizard’s eyes. He spoke, Alex’s ring still translating for him.

  "You want freedom? Prove it. The test of s strength, survive the Dark Den."

  Alex blinked. "The what?"

  "Undead dungeon.” The little kobold stepped up this time, whispering in hiss ear. The thing’s breath smelled like mushrooms and raw meat. “Place of old death. Cursed and hungry."

  The Chief stepped closer. He leaned down, its snout almost touching Alex’s nose. Somehow, its breath was even worse than the little one’s.

  "You win... you all go free."

  Alex paled, “All?”

  The Chief nodded and pointed its spear over to the left. Alex’s eyes turned, finding all of his friends standing in the tunnel that was supposed to lead them all to freedom. A squad of kobolds wielding spears stood around them, one of them another of the Adept Tier warriors.

  They hadn’t made it out after all. Alex, still bleeding, met the chieftain's stare. Then he nodded. "Fine. I will take your test."

  “Test of the Dark Den!” The Chieftain shouted and raised both its arms, the spear sparking against the ceiling above him. All the other Kobolds present cheered along with their Chief, even the tiny one that still stood next to Alex’s side cheered.

  “Come, feast will be had. Tom-Tom will prepare you.” The little kobold, who he now understood to be Tom-Tom, pulled on his elbow.

  He tried to stand, but the bite of pain in his ribs and calf made him stumble.

  “Alex, I’m sorry.” Allie and the others were being pushed past him now. He looked at them all with guilt ridden eyes. He couldn’t save them, he had failed. There was still hope though, and he had to make sure he finally didn’t fuck things up.

  Two of the guards peeled away from the others and stepped up behind him. One grabbed his shoulder and nudged him, making him stumble once again.

  “I will guide the aspiring dragon.” Tom-Tom thumped his tail loudly.

  The two guards starred at Tom-Tom for a moment, then looked to the Chieftain. The tall kobold was also watching this happen and Alex was sure he saw a grin on the lizard’s face. A moment of silence stretched through the cavern as everyone waited for the Chieftain to say something.

  “Tom-Tom will guide him. But all go to pit until the test.”

  The guards backed off, and Alex was left limping to follow his friends down the tunnels. Tom-Tom pressed closer as he moved, letting Alex lean on him for support.

  “Thank you,” he whispered.

  “Don’t thank Tom-Tom yet,” the little lizard whispered back. “You still have to face the den.”