The Undying Magician - Book 3 - Chapter 3 - Escape
Added 2023-05-15 00:07:28 +0000 UTC The Wall of the City of Ashes
Year 2850 | Month 3 | Day 4
Tyler feels his heart racing, practically almost beating straight out of his chest and he can’t help but wonder if the others next to him notice as they all stand silently at the edge of the building closest to the city gate. This escape has been in the works for nearly an entire month now, and who knows how much work and effort has been put into it by now. Not to mention the lives its cost.
But now that they’re at the most important part of the plan, Tyler can’t help but feel nervous and anxious.
Do the others feel the same?
With a brief glance at the others behind him – a mishmash of people from various different backgrounds and fields of employment – he immediately finds almost all of them with worried or anxious expressions. All of them except the few soldiers amongst them, that is.
Looks like I’m not the only one then.
He turns his gaze back to the gate again where there are four guards each holding rifles in their hands standing guard while a fifth guard – their captain – checks the credentials of any vehicles that try to pass through the gate.
Tyler and the others all stand at the edge of the alleyway, just waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
Soon enough the vehicle currently being checked is allowed to go through, and right when the gate begins to close, an explosion occurs on the other side of the street, catching the attention of all of the guards. Then another explosion that sends said guards flying away from the gate after they’ve all moved away to investigate with their backs all turned to it.
“Move!” Tyler whisper shouts at the others before they all quickly begin running towards the gate, making it under right before the thing finishes closing, the explosion not having damaged the wall or the gate, leaving only the gatehouse connected to it damaged.
Tyler quickly hears shouting coming from the other side of the gate, following which gun shots echo out and he ducks down, proceeding to run in a crouch while pushing the girl in front of him who had almost stumbled. And they continue running all the way till they reach the line of trees surrounding the city, only for a rifle bullet to find its way into one of the escapee’s backs, making Tyler shout, “No!”
But he can’t stop running, and none of the others do so either. Especially not when they see the downed man simply shaking his head and coughing out blood.
Damned Robert wanting to be a fucking hero now?!
Despite his thoughts, he lets him do what he wishes as going back now – especially when more and more gunfire is starting to echo from the city, along with the sight of dozens of soldiers pouring out of the walls in pursuit – would simply waste his sacrifice.
Tyler and the others continue running past the line of trees and into the woods, heading straight in the direction of the Undying Caverns that they had heard about from traveling merchants and given directions for. But despite knowing where to for the most part, they almost lose their way more than once. All still with gunfire sounding from behind them.
Over the course of an hour, the gunfire finally begins to subside, only a single other bullet having hit any of them. And that one only grazed one of the soldier escapees who shoved Tyler out of the way personally, not wounding him critically.
Eventually Tyler begins to slow down, only for that very soldier escapee to whisper, “Don’t! It’s entirely possible they stopped shooting to trick us.”
Tyler’s eyes widen at that, but he nods before he and the others continue making their way through the trees. And just like the soldier said, the gunfire from rifle shots resume again five minutes later from behind them.
A shiver runs down Tyler’s spine as he realizes just how close he’d come to falling into their trap.
That would’ve been bad…
He shakes his head, only to glance back and spot some flashes of light in the dark of night shining between the trees far away from them.
“They’re getting closer!” he whisper-shouts at the others.
One of the other soldier escapees grunts and says, “They probably got backup from a magician to make them run faster or to track us.”
“Or both,” another soldier escapee says, making Tyler tense up slightly as they all continue running.
Please let us reach the cave in time…
The Undying Caverns. A place shared amongst all of the merchants in the inner region of the Kingdom as a stronghold against the abusive magicians that are commonplace on the continent. A settlement owned by the Undying Magician – the magician who has taken on nine different Class C magicians at once and came out on top.
But the most important thing about the place is that the magician doesn’t bother much with the day to day ruling of it, and it’s said that he doesn’t treat non-magicians any differently than he treats magicians.
Tyler and a lot of the other escapees believe it has something to do with him not being human himself, but opinions are varied from everyone he has spoken to on the subject. So no one knows for sure.
They all continue running through the trees, occasionally flinching as bullets strike the trees near them until eventually one of them takes a bullet straight to the heart, sending them falling to the ground. But Tyler just closes his eyes, tears building up as he continues running.
“Stop running and you will be spared!” a loud voice echoes through the trees, the sounds of pursuit getting closer and closer.
We can’t fail! Not after getting this far!!
Tyler and the others ignore the warning and continue running, and soon one more of them takes a bullet. But before any more shots can be fired, they all notice lights further ahead in the forest, along with people.
“We’re here! We made it!” Tyler practically shouts, only to bite back a shout when a bullet tears through his shoulder, not hitting any vital organs.
The soldier next to him helps him continue running through the trees, and by the time they make it to the clearing with the lights, they find themselves running into a troop of soldiers each wearing black and red kevlar armor with a patch on their armor’s shoulders and a rifle in their hands aimed in their direction.
Tyler’s eyes widen as he focuses on the patch. A simple design of a pair of glowing red eyes looking through the shadows with flames occasionally licking out at the edges of the patch.
The symbol for the Undying Caverns forces.
For the Undying Magician.
And the moment they break out of the clearing, they hear the gunshots behind them stop entirely. Then the soldiers in front of them continue pointing their rifles at them in silence for several seconds, following which movement can be heard from the trees.
One of the soldiers belonging to the Undying Caverns speaks into a radio that was clipped to his waist, his voice too quiet for Tyler to hear. But whatever the other side said makes the man put the radio back on the clip and shout at Tyler, “Get behind us.”
Tyler and the other escapees don’t waste a second as they rush through the armed troops before they soon hear their pursuers exiting the trees into the clearing led by the ash affinity magician who had taken over the City of Ashes from his father.
The new City Lord was personally chasing after us?! How bad could our luck have been for that to happen?!
“Undying Caverns soldiers, you are currently-” the man begins to state with a frown only to be interrupted by the man who had spoken into his radio, “Begone, Ashen Magician. The Undying Magician has little patience to spare for slavers.”
The magician in question flinches at the mere mention of the Undying Magician.
Tyler’s eyes widen at that.
I know the stories mention him defeating nine Class C magicians, but I truly thought those were exaggerated… were they not? Did he really… do that?
Several tense seconds pass in silence before the Ashen Magician huffs and turns around with a scowl on his face while telling his soldiers, “We’re leaving!” but right as he’s about to step into the tree line again, he pauses and calls back to Tyler and the others, “You better not get anywhere near out city. Because you will be shot on sight.”
He then leaves, making Tyler and the others slowly relax.
The man who had told the Ashen Magician off turns around and lowers his rifle before nodding at Tyler, clearly finding him to be the leader as he says, “Welcome to the Undying Caverns.”
Tyler can’t help but smile.
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