Book 2: Chapter 75

Author Note: If you want a physical copy of Book One... 

Get it now! https://a.co/d/bQblYu4

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Chapter 75:

Daniel stepped in front of Orrin with his hands on his hips. “That sounded really cool but we still have the element of surprise. Don’t be stupid.”

Orrin frowned but let the swords dissipate. He turned on [Mind Bastion] and let a cycle of blood mana course through him. Using [Heal Small Wounds], he recovered the health he’d lost for a fraction of the cost. When his mana pool was filled to the top, he considered the options he had and sighed as he dropped the skill. “I did sound pretty badass, didn’t I?”

Madi patted his shoulder as she walked toward the kitchen door. “Awesome. Let’s do this.”

Orrin reapplied [Camouflage Ward]. With the kitchen staff neutralized, the trio were able to sneak by the cooks with ease. Orrin felt uneasy leaving potential enemies moving around but the chefs and helpers running around and preparing food didn’t look up as one door opened or the other door closed.

The long hall on the other side of the kitchen had doors every few feet but Daniel crept past all of them, focusing on the end of the path. If Meena lied to us, we are screwed.

Daniel peeked around the corner and motioned for them to get close. “There is a single guard at the end of the hall. There is a painting near him but I can’t make it out. Let’s take him out. I think that’s our way in. Orrin? You good?”

“Ready,” Orrin made to move past him but Daniel caught his arm.

“How long before our stats dip?”

Orrin hit them both with another round of buffs and gave a thumbs-up. “Twenty minutes. Let’s hurry.”

The guard was at a higher level than the staff. Orrin hit the man with four inversed [Increase Dexterity] before he looked up. A crossbow fired once and missed him. The second bolt hit his [Ward].

Orrin snarled and hit the man with five rapid-strength debuffs as well. The bow fell from his fingers and the guard slumped to the ground.

“What the hell?” Daniel asked as he ran up behind Orrin. “How did he get two shots off? Are you hit?”

“My [Ward] stopped the bolt,” Orrin kicked the metal-tipped piece of wood to the side. “He was stronger than he looked. I should have used [Identify] first.”

“It’s fine guys. We don’t have time. Someone is going to find out we’re here soon enough.” Madi grabbed the arm of the guard and pulled him to the side of the wall. “Help me, please?”

Orrin checked the paintings on the wall and found the imperious-looking blonde woman in a deep green mage robe. “If Meena wasn’t lying to us, this door should lead down to the dungeon.”

Daniel stripped a dagger off the guard’s body. “Or right into the guard’s barracks…”

Daniel took Gertrude off his back. “Try not to kill anyone if you can but if we find Brandt and they resist…”

Madi nodded. “We do what we have to. Everyone gets out.”

Daniel put his hand on the door and pushed it open. A dimly lit staircase led into darkness. “Brandt, you better be down there.”

The walls near the staircase were brick for the first few steps but quickly turned to stone. Orrin could hear something in the distance but couldn’t put his finger on what the noise was. Before he could figure it out, they were at the bottom.

Three guards were sitting around a table. The one facing the three of them squinted in their direction but before he could say anything, Orrin took all three down with a combination of dexterity and strength-sapping spells.

“This doesn’t look like a dungeon,” Daniel commented as they pulled the three guards under the stairs. Madi took their weapons and passed them to Orrin. He stored them in his [Dimension Hole].

“It’s not built, it’s natural.” Madi ran a hand along the walls. “It’s wet.”

Orrin’s mind clicked as he placed the noises. “That’s the ocean. Are there caves around the coast?”

Madi shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Behind the table, two paths split off into the darkness. Torches were placed farther in but Orrin couldn’t make out anything.

“This way,” Daniel pointed Gertrude to the right. “There are bars along the walls down there.”

Orrin muttered about Daniel’s eyesight as they made their way down the hall. A cough echoed and they paused for a moment. A second cough sent Madi scrambling forward.

“Brandt?”

“Now she can recognize him from a cough?” Daniel muttered.

Five small jail cells had been carved from the rock with iron gates hammered into the openings. Behind the first one, wrapped in a threadbare sheet was Brandt. He was gaunt, pale, and had lost at least twenty pounds.

Orrin noticed the marks along his arms and back before he pulled the small blanket around himself.

“Lady Catanzano? What are you doing here?” Brandt coughed and stumbled to the bars. “You have to leave, right now!”

“Brandt, you idiot,” Madi cried as she threw butterflies of light around the cells looking for a key to the door. “We came to get you out. Where are the keys?”

Brandt’s cough rattled and Orrin stepped up and put his hand out. “Brandt, come here.”

Orrin took his hand and cast [Diagnosis]. Brandt’s body lit up like a Christmas tree. Hundreds of lines of white light radiated from his back, chest, and extremities. Around his center mass was a flickering haze. That’s probably pneumonia or something. Are they trying to kill people down here?

Brandt kept his right hand behind the blanket but was having trouble keeping it closed. Orrin could see tokens of light along the base of his hand. They cut off his fingers.

Orrin’s rage built up so fast that [Mind Bastion] auto-activated. He left finding a way to open the door to his friends and started casting [Heal Small Wounds] on his friend. He tried [Purify] as well. It seemed to work partially. The cuts on Brandt’s body began to close over. The old bruises cleared while the fresher purple skin faded into a pale yellow. Brandt moaned and Madi rushed back to his side.

“Are you hurt? Brandt?”

“Orrin’s healing me. I forgot how good it felt not to…” He trailed off and glanced at Madi. His eyes flickered to Orrin. “Not be tired. Thanks for the refresher.”

Daniel kicked the bars. “I’m not sure I can open this without making a lot of noise. Brandt, join our party. Take my hand. I’ll try to use [Homebase].”

“I can’t join your party,” Brandt said, letting the blanket slip down. A collar of metal was around his neck. “I’m cut off from the System.”

Orrin studied the band of metal as Daniel and Madi yelled questions. The smooth dark metal was encrusted with jewels arranged into runes. He couldn’t recognize any of them but noticed some similarities to the book the store owner who worked on Gertrude had shown them.

“We don’t have a choice,” Daniel was saying. “Orrin get ready to run. We’ll figure out a way to take off the collar once we’re outside.”

“Wait, Daniel. I might be—” Orrin snapped out of his own thoughts but was too late. Daniel had wedged Gertrude into the hinges and was pulling with his increased strength.

Orrin summoned an [Ice Sword] and wedged it in the bottom half. The metal screamed as it reached its burst point and then bent with a loud groan. The door didn’t fall off but enough of an opening was created that Brandt could crawl out.

Madi hugged him tight while Daniel watched the path back to the stairs. Orrin cast more healing on him, noting the haze around his chest wasn’t clearing up.

“You’re sick,” Orrin whispered when he gave Brandt his own hug. “It’s in your chest and I can’t heal it.”

Brandt slapped Orrin’s back. “I’ll be fine.”

Orrin reached up and touched the collar. It was almost ornamental and if he’d seen a noble wearing it, he could have passed it off as jewelry. It felt cold. “I’m going to try to melt it.”

Brandt nodded and reached out, taking Madi’s hand. Orrin saw her notice the missing three fingers and gasp. Orrin slipped his fingers under the metal and pulled gently before activating [Toxic Touch].

Nothing happened.

He used [Remetabolize] once. Brandt grimaced. Orrin cast it twice more in rapid succession and Brandt let out a breath of pain. Orrin felt the metal under his fingers give a little and smirked. “Just a bit more.”

“Finish that later,” Daniel ran back in. “I heard shouting.”

Orrin checked his mana. He’d used over half his mana pool again. He held off from cycling or using a potion. Turning to Brandt, he pulled a sword he’d stolen from one of the guards out of his storage. “Can you fight?”

Brandt took the sword and let the blanket fall from his shoulders. Shirtless and bare, he looked worse than Orrin had thought. With the sword in his left hand, he stepped in front of Madi as if to protect her. “Until my last breath.”

Orrin was frustrated. He contemplated letting Daniel handle the incoming guards while he finished breaking the collar off Brandt but dismissed the idea. Madi wasn’t going to leave Brandt’s side and the footsteps echoing down the hall sounded like too many feet for Daniel to take alone.

“Try to push through,” Brandt suggested. “If we get stuck down here, they can work in shifts to wear our stamina and mana down. They’ll have reinforcements… Do we have reinforcements?”

The sad glimmer of hope in his voice cracked at the last word. Brandt had been alone for months not knowing if anyone knew or cared if he was alive. The dazed look in his eyes whenever Madi crossed his sight was enough to let Orrin know Brandt was going to have some trauma to work through.

He cast [Calm Mind] on the [Knight] as Madi shook her head.

“The three of us came straight here when we found out you’d been captured.”

Brandt hung his head but squared his shoulders. “I’ll make sure you get out of here.”

“We’re all getting out of here,” Daniel shouted over his shoulder. “I have a plan.”

Daniel took off running and Orrin threw up a hand in a futile gesture. “What plan?”

Brandt rushed past, dragging Madi by one arm.

“Damn it.” Orrin ran as well. He buffed Brandt as he ran and checked him using [Identify]. His strength and dexterity went up, which meant the collar stopped him from forming a party or using his skills but he could still be affected by outside spells. Brandt stumbled a step but found his footing. He laughed as they began to move faster down the tunnel.

Reaching the end, Orrin saw Daniel already fighting two guards at the foot of the stairs. Five more were making their way down. Madi threw flashes of light at them as she entered the room and held them from coming further down with her spear but it was only a matter of time before one of them got by.

Brandt tackled the guard on Daniel’s right and viciously punched his face. When the guard stopped moving, he let out a scream of rage and bodily threw the corpse at the other guard. The man was so engaged with blocking Daniel’s strikes, that he didn’t even see what hit him. The two bodies went down in a flail of arms and legs. A swift strike from Brandt ended the movement.

“We’ve been trying not to kill them, Brandt,” Daniel scolded as he stepped away from the dead guards. “They’re just hired guards and—”

Brandt kicked the second guard’s body. “That one cut off my fingers. The other would spit in my food before dropping it on the floor every day. They’re animals, not men.”

“A little help?” Madi yelled out and the two left it to rush to her aid. Only to find three guards falling down the stairs.

“Sorry,” Orrin said as he hopped from foot to foot avoiding the falling guards. “I hit the two in the back with some debuffs. I didn’t think that through.”

Orrin and Daniel knocked the remaining guards out before they got to their feet, with Madi blinding two. Orrin pulled the last of his rope out of his [Dimension Hole] and tied them in a bundle. “I’m not sure how well that’ll hold up. Daniel, what’s your plan?”

The [Hero] pointed down the other tunnel. “You said you heard the ocean that way. It has to be an emergency exit.”

“That’s a leap, D,” Orrin said as he peered into the darkness. “Give me two more minutes to get that collar off. Then we can just [Teleport] out.”

“[Teleport] isn’t going to work down here,” Brandt interjected. “There are wards everywhere.”

“But will they block the [Hero]’s version,” Orrin said, wiggling his eyes. “Even if we can’t jump here, we don’t know what’s down that way. We should go back upstairs and—”

Shouting and more footsteps from above interrupted him.

“You were saying?” Daniel raised a hand to point at the door.

“Let’s go to the beach?”