by R. A. Mejia
It’s not an undying oath of loyalty, but it’s good enough for me. I climb up onto the platform, and the giant crouches down and presents his chained wrists to me. There’s only one key on the ring that can fit these manacles. As I insert the key into the lock, I note that the dark black iron that binds the giant’s wrists is as thick as my arm. I don’t think I’ll be able to stash this set in my [Inventory].
As the manacles unlock they fall to the floor with a loud crash. I’m slightly startled by the sound, but Gorbash just smiles and rubs his wrists with his hands and smiles in relief. His jagged, crooked smile reminds me of a broken picket fence I once saw. Gorbash points to the chains around his ankles, signaling that I haven’t finished freeing him. Once I release his ankles, he rolls forward from his sitting position. I have to quickly back away and jump off the platform or risk being squashed. The giant crawls off the stage a bit clumsily and stands up straight. I have to crane my neck to look up at the giant’s face now. He’s so tall his head almost touches the high ceilings. He puts his hands on his lower back and leans forwards, then arches back, stretching out his muscles.
The giant takes a deep breath, and I hear a deep rumbling sound like an avalanche. I realize it’s the giant. He’s laughing. Guess I’d be happy to be free if I were him too.
I wave to catch the giant’s attention and yell up at him, “Gorbash, we need to hurry. Can you move into the next room where they load the slaves? Guards should be coming soon, and we need time to free everyone.”
The giant nods and heads towards the door to the loading area. It only takes him a few long steps to get there. Finding the door too small to accommodate his height, he proceeds to create his own exit. The giant’s meaty fists slam into the wall repeatedly until he creates a hole large enough for him to fit through if he ducks his head. We follow in his wake as he moves through the hole into the next room.
Thankfully no guards have arrived yet. However, I do find a familiar reptilian figure waiting for me.
“Vrax!” I yell, happy to see my friend. I see that he’s not wearing the chains we’d rigged for him, and I ask, “What happened with the wagon? Why are you inside?”
Vrax doesn’t answer me for a moment, his eyes transfixed on the mountain giant. I can only imagine how startling it must have been to see him tear through the wall.
“Vrax!” I yell again. This time my kobold friend hears me and tears his gaze away from the giant. He shakily runs to me and hugs me. “I am happy to see you, Armon.”
“Armon? Is that your name?” the foxy woman next to me asks.
“Yup.” I tell her quickly.
Then letting go of me, Vrax looks at the fox woman and the giant, then asks, “Who are these peoples?”
“Oh, sorry.” Gesturing to the fox woman I say, “This is..uh..”
The woman raises one eyebrow, her fox ears stiff with indignation. However, she says in an even tone, “Kitsune. My name is Kitsune.”
Gesturing to the others in the room, I tell my friend, “Yeah, this is Kitsune. The giant there is Gorbash. They were chained up here as slaves, and I freed them. Now please tell me why you left the wagon.”
Vrax nods at both Kitsune and Gorbash. “Nice to meet you.” Then turning to me he says, “It’s good you freed them. No good to be a slave. I got worried when you were inside so long. When I got a message from the blue box that you killed someone, I knew something go bad. So I take off fake chains and grab guard outside wagon. I pull him inside the wagon and knock him out. Goblins with me happy to watch him.”
Kitsune interrupts Vrax, “Wait, you left the guard with goblins? You know that goblins are carnivorous and think of humans as a delicacy, right?”
Your group has helped kill a human guard, Lvl. 4. You gain 3 XP.
The notification only surprises me for a moment. Those goblins did look pretty undernourished.
I look down at an embarrassed looking Vrax, and he says, “Oops.”
I can only shrug and motion for him to continue.
“After I leave the guard with the goblins, I see the fat wagon driver run past yelling. So I jump out of the wagon and I run inside. When I get here, the room empty. Then big fist breaks wall and I find you and these people.”
It makes sense that Vrax would have gotten the notification that I killed Mr. Gerald since he and I are grouped. “Well, I’m glad you’re out of those chains buddy. Help us find the people from Restrian and free the rest of the slaves here.”
Before we can move off to search the rest of the building, the loading dock doors crash open. When the dust clears, I see a squad of five armed men in brown leather armor.
Kitsune sees the men and says, “Oh no, the building guards.”
Seeing the armed men, I realize that I dropped my axe in the other room. Before I can pull up my inventory and grab another weapon, I hear a mighty roar to my side and I see Gorbash charging the guards. He only has to take two long steps before he reaches them and with an almost casual swing of his arm, he punches the five tightly grouped soldiers. The five guards don’t stand a chance. As a group, they go flying through the air and crash into a wall and crumple to the ground.
I stare at the giant, amazed. With a single swing of his fist, he took out five armed guards.
“Don’t just stand there. This city is filled with soldiers. We need to hurry before they show up,” Kitsune urges as she tugs on my arm.
I can only nod my agreement. I yell at Gorbash who now stands before the open loading dock doors, “You stay here and take care of any guards that come through, ok?”
He turns and nods. Then turns back to face the open doors and takes a fighting stance, ready to deal with anyone that comes through.
I quickly pull up my [Inventory] and give Vrax back his armor and weapons. Then tell him to search the building for the Restrian citizens that were taken. He ‘yips’ once and moves off silently in a different direction.
Kitsune and I run to one of the three other doors in the room and open it. The first door leads down a hallway to a thick wooden door bound with iron. I wonder what could be behind such a heavily reinforced door. Dangerous animals? Pit fighters?
Unsurprisingly, the door is locked. However, it opens with one of the keys I picked up from Mr. Gerald’s loot bag. The heavy door creaks loudly as I open it a crack and peek through expecting to see some vicious monster or raging warrior. Instead, the smell of lilies hits me and I see…well, there’s no other way to describe it. A harem. I push the door open wide to reveal a room that is decorated with beautiful tapestries and rugs. But the more enticing view is the dozen women wearing gossamer clothing. I see women of a variety of races lounging on cushioned sofas and pillows. There are women with wolf ears, cat ears, and bunny ears. There’s also a silver haired elf and a petite brunette with three eyes. The rest of the women are humans, with features that represent the spectrum of skin tones, shapes, and hair colors. Each woman, regardless of species, has a silver or gold collar around their neck decorated with jewels. Welded to the collar is a thin, sturdy chain that is attached to the wall.
I hear a low growl behind me and turn to see Kitsune glaring at me, her ears stiff and her arms crossed. I realize I must have been staring at all the women. Oops.
I turn back to the thinly clothed ladies and see them all looking at me. I don’t think I’ve had this many women staring at me at one time in my entire life. Instead of saying something heroic or dashing, I just wave and say, “Hey.”
Wait, did my voice just crack?
Kitsune sighs and grabs the keys from my hand as she walks past me to face the harem. She stands boldly before the group of women, raises the keys high above her head and yells, “Freedom.”
All most as one, the group of women gasp, then rush forward towards Kitsune. Each is eager to be rid of the jeweled collar and chains that bind her to this room. In short order, all the women are free and thank Kitsune for rescuing them.
Seeming to take charge, Kitsune tells the women, “We don’t
have much time till the guards arrive. Everyone needs to head down the hall and be ready to fight. Search the building for any weapons or clothing you can find.”
The women look at her with incredulity for a moment. I don’t think they expected to have to fight anyone. Kitsune glares at them and yells, “Move! Unless you want the guards to arrive and put you back in chains!”
The women stream past me without a second look. Soon only Kitsune, I, and one other woman are left in the room. Kitsune glares at the last woman as if she’s going to rebuke her for not following her directions, but the tall blond woman ignores Kitsune and instead runs towards me. For a moment I think she might attack me, but instead she wraps her arms around my chest and hugs me tightly. I have to look up at the woman, and as I look into her blue eyes, I realize that I know her. I used to see her in work clothes, and she usually had a clothespin on her nose. But I recognize her as Allison, the alchemist from Restrian.
She pulls back from her hug, looks down with a tear in her eye and says, “Thank you for coming to save us, Armon. I didn’t know if the Imperare soldiers had gotten you, but I didn’t see you with the group of us they captured. I hoped you were ok. Did you already get everyone else out from their cells? Who else came with you?”
Still surprised to find Allison here I mutter, “Uh, Vrax is here with me. Mary is in the forest waiting for night to fall.”
Her mouth drops slightly in disbelief, “That’s it? No one else came with you? No town guards or citizens?”
I shake my head and answer, “No, we’re the cavalry.”
Allison bites her lip in worry and asks, “What about the other people from Restrian? Did you free them yet?”
Who does this lady think I am, Houdini? Still, she’s only showing concern for her people, so I answer patiently, “I’m sorry. I haven’t found anyone else yet. I only just freed Kitsune here and this is the first room we’ve searched. If you know where they are we can free them now.”
Allison nods and starts for the door.
I turn to Kitsune, “Can you start to organize a search of this place for clothes and weapons? Also, see if you or the other girls can find a way to shut off that darn alarm or find a way we can all get out of here.”
Kitsune frowns slightly at the order, but when I add a, “Please,” she nods once and heads out of the room.
I walk quickly through the doorway and back towards the loading dock. I scan the room and find Allison waiting by a red door on the far side. She’s trying to pull it open, but it’s locked. I jog over to her and use the keys to open the door. Allison runs through the doorway, down a long hallway. She turns right at a junction and stops at a metal door with a large padlock.
Pointing at the secured room, she tells me, “Here are the cells they first put me in. Open the door.”
I do as she says and the padlock drops to the wood floor as I unlock it. Allison opens the metal door and walks in first. The smell of unwashed bodies assaults my nose as I enter the room. The room reminds me of horse stalls, with a walkway down the center and small pens with metal bars and doors to prevent the prisoners from escaping. Each pen is barely long enough for a person to lay down and only a few paces wide. There’s no bed, just a thin piece of cloth. In the far corner of each pen is a bucket that the prisoners use for their daily needs. From the pungent smell, I don’t think they’ve been emptied today either.
Without checking who’s in each of the pens, I immediately begin unlocking doors. I don’t recognize most of the people that come out of the pens, but I do recognize one. Harold, the tailor. He’s wearing a patterned tan vest over a white collared shirt with brown pants that are cuffed at the ankle. His dark brown shoes look a bit scuffed, and while he doesn’t look as immaculate as he normally does, he looks ok otherwise. Everyone that comes out knows Allison though, and they all try to ask her what’s happening all at once.
Allison cups her hands to her mouth and yells, “Quiet everyone! We do not have time to play twenty questions. You hear those alarms? They’ve already attracted the building guards. While we’ve taken care of them, they’re sure to get some real soldiers’ attention very soon. So you get to decide. You can stand here and ask questions, or you can work to get the hell out of here. Which is it going to be?”
“Why would a soldier free us?” One of the men asks, while pointing to me.
I slap my forehead in frustration and answer with a groan, “My name is Armon Ellington, I’m from Restrian like you folks. I came to rescue you, and I’m only disguised as a soldier. If it makes you feel better, I’ll change my clothes. But you need to get out of here, or you’ll end up back in your cells.”
The people stare at me, then I sigh and access my [Inventory]. I even take off the gloves, revealing my red hands and I change into the simple homespun cloth outfit that Lilliandra gave me. While the clothes feel lighter, they won’t protect me as well as the leather. But I guess it’s more important right now to assure these people that I’m not with the Imperare Empire.
“There. Better? Now go!” I yell in irritation.
Most of the people start to head out the door, but Allison and Harold stay behind.
“If you have any tools on you, I can see about silencing that alarm,” Harold tells me.
I look at him, my curiosity undoubtedly showing on my face. He just shrugs and says, “I wasn’t always a tailor you know. Used to get up to no good in my youth.”
My natural curiosity wants me to ask more. Instead, I look through my [Inventory] and pull out one of the knives I have. I hand it to Harold and admit, “I’m afraid that’s the best tool I have at the moment.”
Harold takes the knife and grimaces slightly when he sees the Imperare Empire logo branded into the hilt. Then he shrugs once and flips the blade up into the air, catches it deftly, and says, “Well, it’s better than nothing I guess.”
As he walks out the door on his short hobbit legs, he says, “You can count on me to find that alarm.” Then he’s gone.
Allison walks up to me and asks, “Have any more weapons or armor you can spare?” Then gesturing to her harem outfit she continues, “I don’t like the idea of defending myself with my bare hands wearing only this.”
Looking through my still open [Inventory] I tell her, “I only have that Imperare soldier leathers, a sword, and a dagger.”
She considers her options, looks down at her opaque sea blue cotton pants and her sheer top.
I force myself to look anywhere except that see through top and those amazing... Gee those cobwebs in the corner of the ceiling need to be cleaned.
Allison coughs, and I intently focus on her blue eyes while she speaks. I notice the corner of her eyes crinkle with mirth as she says, “While I don’t want to look exactly like one of those soldiers, I should take that leather shirt and the sword. Otherwise, you’ll likely get skewered looking for our enemies on the ceiling.”
I grab the black leather shirt from my inventory, toss it to her, and look away while she changes tops. “Ok, now the sword, please. I have more experience with that than the dagger,” she says to my back.
I turn around and see Allison dressed in the black leather armor shirt, the full black sleeves ending before her wrists. It’s an odd look when compared to the warm blue pants, but at least I’m not distracted by her anymore. Well, not as much.
I toss the black leather gloves from my [Inventory] to her. She catches them in midair and raises an eyebrow questioningly at me.
I tell her, “Every bit of armor is going to help. Besides, they complete the top half of the outfit.”
I take my own advice and re-equip the leather pants and boots. I check my [Status] screen and find that with my change of shirt and loss of the bonus from the full leather set I have a defense of ten. Which gets bumped to twenty when I have the shield equipped. I don’t look bad wearing the black leather pants and boots with the brown cloth shirt.
Allison and I head out of the pens, back towards the loading dock. As we near the door tha
t separates the two areas I hear crashing noises and people yelling. I run past Allison and rush through the door, equipping my shield and knife on the way.
Entering the loading docks, the first thing I see is Gorbash on his hands and knees breathing heavily. He’s surrounded by the bodies of over a dozen soldiers and blood is pouring from several large gashes on his thighs and legs.
The group of recently freed Restrian citizens are huddled in a corner of the room together. However, the women from the harem are grouped around Kitsune. They face off against three large soldiers with swords. A few of the women seemed to have found weapons and armor from somewhere. One woman wields the wooden sword with the obsidian shards along its edge, another a pair of golden daggers, and another swings a dark smooth staff. While there are three women for every man, the men are better armed. They seem to be at a stalemate for the moment but several of the women bear wounds.
