PreCursive
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Chapter 114 - Revenge or Right
🕑 Added 2023-12-04 18:00:08 +0000 UTCBefore I could even react, Woodrick tackled me out of the way of whatever had been waiting in the room. As the two of us sailed through the air, I twisted just enough to see what was happening.
I just barely managed to catch a glimpse of what was happening.
I think it was a Neptaurian—a big one.
This must be the missing Prime.
In the split second before Grey and the monster escaped my field of view, I was able to see my mentor snap his blade up in a guard position and brace himself. He was just barely able to catch the hideous monstrosity's foot long claws on Stellarum before they could skewer his heart. However, he wasn’t able to hold his ground.
Grey was pushed off his feet and carried through the doorway to Woodrick’s former cell. I squeezed my eyes shut briefly from the resulting shower of stone as the doorway was obliterated with a deafening boom. Milliseconds afterward, I heard a second crack of stone as another wall was broken down.
The entire exchange had taken place before Woodrick and I had even hit the ground. We impacted the stone of the fifth floor, driving the air from my lungs. Still, I managed to say something. “Grey!” I wheezed out, scrambling out of Woodrick's arms and to my feet. I stumbled forward as quickly as I could, hooking a hand around the crumbling stone of the now destroyed doorway to the Sculpted’s former cell. My eyes widened at what I found.
It was destroyed. Gone.
As was Grey and the Prime.
Not only was the far wall of the tower cell destroyed, but so was most of the floor inside. It was a crumbling ruin that I didn’t dare step foot in, else it collapse underneath me. However, that wasn’t what caught my attention the most.
It was what was happening on the roof of Caer Drarrow outside.
Just barely in sight and below me, Grey was fighting a vicious battle against the Neptaurian Prime. I watched as my mentor desperately parried a blow from the lightning fast claws of the sea monster, before being forced back a step to avoid another. With a frustrated shout, Grey released an explosion of black and silver Mana in a sphere all around him. Eerily silent, the Neptaurian skipped back a step to avoid the spell, before instantly spearing forward with its talons in a bid to skewer Grey as the energy dissipated. However, he wasn’t there.
Grey’s sword descended on the shoulder of the monster, from where he had jumped into the air in the moment he was concealed by his blast, leaving a deep wound. The Neptaurian finally made a sound loud enough to reach me from this distance, a horrifyingly warbly whinny. The beast skipped back several steps to retreat, letting Grey land back on the flat prison rooftop.
The two combatants stared at each other for a moment, before starting to circle.
I…I didn’t know what to do. Should I go down there and help him? Would I even be any help, in a battle of that caliber? If the Neptaurian Prime was anywhere as strong as the Frostbrine Prime had been, it might be ten times my level.
Before I could make a decision, I was startled as a familiar form blurred past me from my gawking position.
Venix.
He sailed through the air, descending on the battle between Grey and the Prime and drawing his blades as he did so. The Antium must have blasted up the staircase to this floor so fast he didn’t even make any noise. I hadn’t heard him coming at all.
I was startled when I was spun around by someone else. It was Woodrick, with a grim look on his wooden features.
“We need to go,” The Sculpted leader told me soberly. “Greycton and Venix can handle…whatever the hells that is. We need to get everyone else out of this tower. It could collapse after something like this. That’s what you guys were doing, right? Rescuing everyone?”
I blinked at Woodrick for a moment before snapping out of it. I relaxed the hand that had automatically gone to my dagger-spear and clutched it in a death grip, before nodding at him. “You’re right,” I said shortly. The two of us left the sight of the ambush, and raced down the stairs.
Sylvia and Bella were there to greet us, both with blades drawn. The two of them were tense in expectation, but relaxed when they saw who was descending the stairs. Sylvia nodded at me, and then paused at the sight of the other Sculpted. “Woodrick.” She acknowledged in a tense tone, lowering her blade.
Woodrick nodded at her. “Sylvia. Good to see you.”
Aurum popped his head out from behind a nearby cell wall at the exchange. The healer smiled widely when he saw who was with me, emerging fully. “Rick! Are you-”
I cut him off. I’m sorry man, but we don’t have time for reunions. “Grey and Venix are fighting the missing Prime,” I said shortly, cutting off all other questions and conversation. Sylvia tensed back up at my words, looking like she was about to bolt past me. I laid a hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Some crazy bastard set a trap with it inside the other cell up there. They can handle it. But we need to get out of this tower now. The Prime damaged it too much. We don’t know if it’ll hold up.”
As if to punctuate my words, we heard the rumbling sound of collapsing stone on the floor above. Thankfully, the ceiling didn’t collapse in on us just yet, though our group was showered with dust briefly.
I laid another hand on Sylvia’s other shoulder to look her in the eye. “Did you get everyone out of the tower yet?” I asked her urgently.
Sylvia reluctantly dragged her eyes off of the staircase to meet mine. “We evacuated everyone to the first floor at the noise,” She said with an extraneous exhale.
Bella made towards the stairs while Sylvia and I were speaking, but was blocked by Woodrick. “Lady, are you mental?” He said incredulously. “That floor is actively collapsing. We need to get out of here.”
The pirate Captain glowered at the Sculpted. “Out of me way, bark boy. I’m ‘ere for revenge against that beasty out there, and I’m goin’ ta get it.”
I let go of Sylvia to turn and frown at Bella. “Look, I get it,” I told her, frustrated. “But we have more important things to worry about right now.”
Bella rounded me with furious eyes. “What do ye get, weaklin’?! That monster out there ruined me life! It stole everythin’ from me! Me fleet! Me crew! And me PRIDE! I ain’t gonna let you busybodies stop me from settlin’ the score!”
We didn’t have time for this.
I bounded over to get in her face. “Right now,” I hissed to her. “There are dozens of traumatized, starved, sick children below us. They’re waiting on us to get them out of here, terrified out of their minds. You need to choose right now. Do you care more about your revenge, or do you care about doing the right thing?”
Bella met my intense stare with one of her own in a tense silence. I held her gaze, unintimidated by the woman by this point.
Our standoff was broken by the sound of more rumbling from above. A stone came loose from the ceiling, and crashed to the floor not far from us.
With a muffled curse, Bella spat off to the side. Without a word, she marched past me towards the back stairs and descended them, uncaring about the dust falling from the ceiling. I let out a breath, and turned to nod at Sylvia. She returned it silently, and then turned and ushered a bewildered Aurum down the stairs with her.
When I turned to gesture Woodrick with us, I found him looking at me contemplatively. “Intense bunch, aren’t you?”
I sighed. “Not usually. C’mon, let’s go.”
At that, the two of us departed for the stairs ourselves. Woodrick had to stoop over to fit through cramped stair hallways. As we descended through the now-empty cells, I couldn’t help but be glad that this horrible tower was going down. A place like this where such evil was allowed to fester didn’t deserve to exist.
The two of us reached the packed first floor to find the rest of my companions waiting for us. Outside the door to the tower, I could hear the pitched sound of battle, which alarmed me to say the least. It seemed to have scared the children too, who they had gathered in a large group. Sylvia and Aurum were trying to keep them calm, too busy to acknowledge me. But here was an additional problem. Several seemed to be out of it, lying insensate on the floor. I grimaced at the sight of them.
Azarus must have noticed, because he returned my grim expression. “Aye, some of them are too sick to move. We’ll have to carry ‘em out. Which is a problem, cause them pirates are fightin’ off a horde of guards that came runnin’ at the sound from above.”
That made me notice that both McGill and Bella weren’t in here with us. I guess they had joined the fighting outside.
Damnit, how were we going to fight off the guards and get these kids out of here at the same time?
A rumble from above reminded me that I didn’t have a ton of time to think of a solution.
Luckily, someone else saved the day.
Woodrick stepped past me. “Leave it to me,” He said confidently, reaching up to his chest and plucking something out from under his bark. They looked to be seeds of some kind, to my eyes. He tossed them at one of the empty sections of the floor and visibly concentrated, making a gesture.
Under my astonished gaze, the seeds somehow grew into makeshift stretchers. The beds of the stretchers were made of leaves, while the frames seemed to be made of branches. Instead of wheels, they had what almost looked to be animated, oversized chicken feet made of wood. I watched the stretchers independently stand up and shuffle in place. The Sculpted leader had made three of them in total
“Those will hold them, and follow us as well,” Woodrick said, nodding in satisfaction. “They’re more than strong enough to hold the children.”
Azarus was nonplussed at the overt display of magic. “That’ll do. C’mon, help me load the kids up.”
I shook myself out of it, and helped the two others load the sick kids up on the mobile stretchers. There were six of them in total, so about half of the kids from the fourth floor were too sick to move on their own.
I took a deep breath when we were done. “Okay then,” I said, nodding to the adults in the room. That included Richard Everfield and the other freed adult prisoners of the tower. “Let’s do this. Azarus, Sylvia, Woodrick. You guys go first. I’ll bring up the rear with Aurum, the kids, and the others.” I paused for a moment, before reaching for my spare collapsed spear behind me. “Woodrick, do you need a weapon?”
Woodrick confidently shook his head. “No. I bring my own.” He said, plucking another seed from his chest. This time, instead of growing a stretcher, a giant double bladed great axe hewn from oak grew in his right hand. In seconds it reached full maturity. Once it had, the Sculpted slung it on his shoulder.
I blinked, and then sheathed my comparatively puny dagger.
Okay then.
I nodded at Azarus, who walked over to the door and readied his hammer and shield. “Let’s do this,” He said grimly, before opening the door.
On the other side was chaos.
Bella, McGill, and the rest of the pirates were embroiled in battle with a mass of Loyalist Guards. Blood and screams filled the air, both from the guards and the pirates. The freed prisoners might have been more vicious than the guards, but the guards were just better equipped. The pirates mostly had scavenged weapons and no armor to speak of.
Bella and McGill were by far the deadliest of the pirates. Bella was scything through the guards with a cutlass sheathed in razor-sharp winds, darting across the battlefield. Meanwhile, McGill had picked up a second scavenged longsword and was hacking wildly at the opposing forces to great effect.
Still, even with those two powerhouses, the combined pirate forces were still being pushed back by the seemingly never-ending stream of guards.
Woodrick clucked his wooden tongue with a hollow noise, and shook his head. “Can’t have that, can we?” With a running jump, the Sculpted leader crashed into the thick of the melee. “Timber Rend!” I heard him shout, followed by a green flash of light and the screams of the guards.
Who actually said skill names out loud like that? I shook my head, glancing at Aurum while Sylvia and Azarus advanced on the fighting as well. “You stay in front so you can heal,” I said shortly, uncaring at this point of his wary gaze. We could sort it out later. “I’ll bring up the rear.” At Aurum's nod, we got into position.
Ahead of us, the introduction of my companions had shifted the tide of battle significantly. They were pushing back the guards now, leaving room for us to advance with our precious cargo. Carefully, I urged the children forward, Woodricks stretchers following along in our wake dutifully.
Time to get out of this hellhole.
I could only hope that the crew of the Thorny Reef had succeeded in their mission.
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Comments
Shotgun_Samura13
Yassss more levels coming up
