ImmovableMage
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142 Breaking Out
🕑 Added 2023-06-23 23:59:01 +0000 UTC– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 217, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 96 –
In the twilight of the approaching dawn, Fate grabbed her mage staff and followed the path that her magic revealed to her. She knew that there was still a soldier between her and her destination, but she could not see the person. Even though the guard was hidden, Fate confidently aimed her spell according to her latest scrying.
*Thud* The sound of someone falling to the floor echoed quietly in the hallway.
Fate refrained from using a spell to force the unconscious opponent into view. If someone came along, it would be better for the downed guard to remain invisible. Assured that she was now alone in the hallway, she approached the entrance to the cell.
Fate exhaled softly. “Mission first.” A complicated expression entered her eyes. “Debts… Why? Why did it have to be… that person… again?” She shook her head. “Debts… resentment… only increasing…” Her dark-scaled hand pushed the door open.
Unexpectedly, Fate’s active magic predicted movement in another location. Not in the hallways. Much further away. In a different cell.
A cell Fate had planned to visit next.
Fate stared at the direction with blue eyes that radiated the light of mana use. “That person…” She clenched her sharp teeth and forced herself to concentrate on her mission.
Fate walked into the open cell and she finally laid eyes on one of the future pillars of rebellion. A key pillar of liberation from what her magic had shown.
A pair of shaken red eyes met hers.
“Who are you…?” Xuan glared suspiciously at the sudden visitor. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor while trying to recuperate from his injuries. He had already been feeling vulnerable after his loss to Terry.
This unfamiliar guest made Xuan uncomfortable. His blood felt warmer, which only increased his wariness. Something in him was reacting to the sight of the lizan woman. Something beyond instinct.
Fate almost replied in the native lizan tongue. However, she recalled in time that this prince had been evacuated from their native realm before he had any chance to properly learn their language.
Fate had already learned that she had not been the first one to discover the truth. All of her current efforts were based on those that came before. Their sacrifice made her mission sacred in Fate’s eyes.
“Your realm needs you,” said Fate in the common tongue shared by the humans, elves, and dwarves of this realm. “Your tribe needs you.”
“Scram,” growled Xuan. “I don’t—”
A spell by Fate had silenced Xuan in an instant. Her magic showed him a condensed version of the truth – impressions, scenes, emotions, thoughts. An overwhelming sensation. A truth that could reframe everything and change how you look at your own history, your own self-image, your own future…
At least, if you were a lizan of recent generations.
Xuan’s eyes were shaking from the crushing revelation. He stood up slowly and clenched his fists. He felt the warm sensation of healing spells activating on himself. He had not noticed Fate casting, but he knew it was her who was healing him. “Is it… true?”
“I fear it is,” replied Fate softly. “Daunting… prospects. Still…” Fate took a deep breath. “I understand if you…” She gazed deeply into Xuan’s red eyes. “More comfortable here… In our home… Only death for those like us.” She sighed. “I have burdened you with the truth.”
Xuan stepped forward. He did not know why he was suddenly thinking of Terry, but he was. “I’ll fight.”
“Not yet,” said Fate. Her eyes wandered to some items in the cell. Items from which she could sense the strands of karma, a significant complication in one’s fate.
Even more so for one fated to lead a liberation.
Fate’s eyes proceeded to the deformed scale on Xuan’s forehead. “There are debts to be paid.” She turned her head to gaze at something unseen in the hallways. “We have to go now.”
***
Terry took one last breath to calm himself. “All or nothing.”
He stared at the gap he had created through meticulous efforts throughout the night. The transparent cage was pressed forward and held in place by immovable pebbles.
Terry had broken a few obstructing bars completely, but his primary aim had been something else.
He had succeeded in damaging parts of the key mechanism with unstoppable shifts – Terry’s combination of the Immovable Object spell and oscillating spell slicers. Terry had focused on shifting vulnerable unshielded parts to damage the shielding in others.
Finally, Terry had exposed a centerpiece. Terry had spent many weeks staring at the lock mechanism that remained visible through the transparent walls. He had gambled his all on this one central piece.
Terry pressed his mana into the dimensional bag outside. He retrieved the bracers from his equipment and forced his mana into the imprint inside. Terry was more familiar with handling this imprint than he had been with the Liquify Earth wand before his escape plans. He had guided this spell many times before.
Terry caught the directed spell structure and moved the ignited spell towards the exposed mechanism.
As soon as the Shape Metal spell found its target, Terry’s mana surged through the centerpiece and changed its form.
Click Click Click
Terry exhaled sharply and lightly pressed against the cell’s door…
The door gave way.
Terry walked out of the inner cell with determined eyes. He sent a thought transmission. [Get ready.]
[Wh— Terry, is that you?] Rafael sounded half-asleep.
[I’ll come to get you,] said Terry. [Get ready.]
[Okay…? Wait, you sending sound transmissions means you’re out of the mana-blocking cell? Are you serious?!] Rafael’s voice was becoming more and more excited. [FUCK YEAH! I’ll get ready! I was born ready! YES!]
[I have to concentrate now.] Terry was quietly putting on his equipment.
What is left of it anyway…
Terry was scowling while remembering the items he had lost to Thanatos and to Xuan. He put on his familiar armor.
I should not put on my Academy bag for now. That would give me up immediately.
Terry mentally took stock of which items he could rely on.
My volcanic mushroom leather armor with all its pieces, including the coil spring and pearl mechanisms. One inscribed barrier spear. Two keen daggers. The one glove I have left from Aunt Brynn, with both the bidirectional attraction and the radiating light inscription. The only other glove I have left is my old glove with the Blinding Flash imprint…
Terry paused.
The Blinding Flash glove was among the first magic items he had ever purchased, but he was now holding something else: the silvery bandages with the divine hammer inscription.
Terry wrapped two of the bandages around his legs like he was used to. These were the rolls that his aunt Sigille had personally given to him.
Terry felt a rush of gleeful defiance well up in him when he remembered how Damian had insisted on keeping the divine hammer inscription out of Terry’s reach.
After Terry was done wrapping the inscriptions around his legs, his hands were clinging to another roll with the same inscription. This was one of the bandages that Dhruv had given to Terry in Tiv after the battle against Willow’s faction.
Terry smiled weakly and decided to place this third divine hammer inscription around his right forearm.
The Blinding Flash glove can’t be used for the strobe light effect combination. The imprint would probably collapse if I attempted to use it that quickly in succession. The flash on its own seems redundant with the radiating light inscription…
Terry nodded to himself.
Or maybe I just like the idea of Aunt Sigille watching over me today…
Terry shrugged and continued his equipment check.
The necklace from the dungeon that helps cloak my mana. The magic cloak for stepping into the shadow realm…
Wait.
Terry recalled his past experiences with stepping into the shadows without checking the vicinity first. He circled his mana into the cloak and discovered that it wasn’t working. He could still change the form of the velvety black fabric, but he was unable to step into the shadows.
“Good to know…” Terry muttered to himself.
Terry tentatively tested his divine hammer inscriptions. To his pleasant surprise, he discovered that his reach for summoning layers of divine mana had increased. Evidently, his training with mana touch had some synergy with the targeting of the inscription.
Aunt Sigille had planned for it the other way around, but this is great, too.
Terry remembered when Sigille had explained some of her thoughts for training with the inscription during their stay with the dungeon scavengers. Sigille had mentioned that training with the inscription might have benefits for Terry’s casting reach.
“Still as fragile as before though…” Terry frowned subconsciously at the brittle layers of mana he summoned. If Sigille had been here to see him wearing his habitually dissatisfied expression, she would surely chuckle.
Terry’s mood was lifted when he realized that using the inscription on his arm took little experimenting to reach a familiar level. Brittle, to be sure. But it only took him a dozen attempts to get the hang of it. His outstanding mana control and mana sense were invaluable for transferring his past experience with the divine hammer inscriptions on his legs to the usage from his arm.
“Ready…” muttered Terry. He focused on moving his mana outside the cell to scout ahead with his mana touch. Terry could sense the location of the patrolling guard. He had to decide if he should move out into the tunnels or wait for the guard here.
Terry sunk his consciousness into his dimensional storage once more. Oh wow. That’s from forever ago. I didn’t know I still had that.
Terry made up his mind. He wrapped himself in the black velvety fabric from his magic brooch and stepped up to wait for the guard near the ceiling.
***
A soldier in a crimson uniform was passing a hallway when he caught a whiff of smoke from one of the cells. He rushed to the door. “The snot-nosed brat? Did one of his debtors come to settle the score?”
The guard frowned. “If Damian learns that anything happened to his prize pony, I’ll—” He hurriedly unlocked the door to the outer cell. His gaze was immediately drawn to a flaming glaive on the floor. The fire-aspected blade on one side was singeing a wooden chair.
The soldier subconsciously relaxed because this appeared more like an accident than an assassin coming to settle blood debts.
The soldier was familiar with Terry and he knew the glaive was among the possessions of the Arcanian. It was possible that Damian had stored the weapon in one of the Arcanian’s cheaper storage items and that the enchantment had expired, which caused the item to appear. The soldier remembered that the storage anklets of the Arcanian had seemed close to expiration.
While the soldier was still trying to see through the smoke towards the inner cell, Terry had already lowered himself. He pressed a cloth drenched with anesthetic on the guard’s nose and mouth. Simultaneously, Terry pushed a dart filled with more anesthetic into the guard’s neck. Under Terry’s stranglehold and the huge dosage of sleeping poison, the guard collapsed silently.
I should add Miguel to the list of people I have to invite to the teahouse…
Terry was thinking useless thoughts while he collected his glaive back into his storage bracelet and put out the fire to avoid inviting more attention. He closed the door and dragged the Thanatos soldier into the inner cell.
He looks familiar. Wasn’t he among the people that initially brought me here?
Oh well, who cares?
After stripping the soldier off his uniform and picking up all other items that appeared useful, Terry gagged and tied the man up. He reshaped some metal to block the door of the inner cell from the outside.
“Let’s do this.” Terry wore the crimson uniform loosely above his own equipment. He scouted ahead with his mana touch and stepped into the hallways outside the cell that had trapped him for so long.
This way… Terry had a rough idea of the tunnels from the first time he had been brought here and from all the times he had been brought to the arena. His next objective was to get to Rafael’s cell.
A part of Terry was lamenting the fact that he did not know where his mana sublimator was stored. Another part was itching to retrieve his notebooks and take notes on all his recent discoveries. Terry had to suppress both parts of himself. He had to focus.
Noiselessly walking in the air thanks to his long-missed boot mechanisms and the Immovable Object spell, Terry progressed through the tunnels.
Whenever his mana sense or mana touch warned him of approaching people, Terry picked another path to proceed in the same general direction.
***
Terry mustered the resolve for his next plan of action. According to what he had heard from Rafael, the felan’s cell was physically impenetrable. If even the Heavenly Wolf Slash failed to break through, then Terry had little hope of succeeding this way, much less succeeding while remaining unnoticed.
Even though Terry had a powerful physical attack in his Unstoppable Shift combination, it was the equivalent of trying to cut a hole into a stone with droplets of water.
Terry had to suppress a snicker when he remembered how Instructor Palmer had once used a similar metaphor to describe using disruption discharges against stronger aspect beings.
‘It’s possible, but not the most efficient of plans.’
‘...you might be able to make it work.’
However, Terry knew that this would not work for the current situation. The clock was ticking. It would take far too long for him to get through anything of significant width with the Unstoppable Shift.
The only way to free Rafael was to get the key, which meant…
I’ll have to take my chances.
Terry had his mana sense locked on a specific mana signature. It was the guard that kept closest to Rafael’s cell. [Short stature, metal- and earth-aspected, slightly leaning to the left when he walks. Does this ring a bell? Is that the one with the key?]
[YES!] Rafael’s thought transmission betrayed his excitement. [That dude is one of the key-bearers!]
Terry nodded.
Should I attack the guard as well? I still have some sleeping poison left, but not as much as I used for the previous guard…
Should I use the bidirectional attraction glove to steal the keys when he’s passing by? No, they’re probably secured to the belt…
I could try approaching him and acting as a Thanatos guard myself. I have the uniform…
But I’m terrible at acting. If it was outside maybe, but as a Thanatos guard stationed here, he might be suspicious of an unfamiliar face in their uniform. There is also a risk that he would recognize me from the coliseum. The uniform is good to remain inconspicuous at a distance, but up close? No.
Forget it. Terry exhaled sharply. Set up the trap and fight. If I drag him into Rafael’s cell, it doesn’t matter if he wakes up at some point.
Terry used his cloaked boot mechanism to step up to the ceiling, close to a corner. He pulled the light-absorbing fabric from the magic brooch around himself. In a matter of seconds, he had transfixed a handful of metal rods in the air and covered them with one of his spare combat robes from his stay in Tiv.
This should be enough to catch attention…
Terry waited to see if the guard would react to his uncloaked spell casting, but eventually, Terry had to accept that the guard’s mana sense didn’t seem to be particularly sharp. Therefore, Terry hurled a metal ball into the tunnel that intersected with the hallway in which the guard was standing.
*Clang* *Clang* The metal ball impacted on the floor and then continued rolling noisily.
Terry could sense the guard approaching. He pressed himself close to the ceiling, kept an eye on the transfixed clothes in the badly lit tunnel, and waited with bated breath.
The guard turned around the corner and spotted the combat robe. “Hold th—”
While the guard’s attention was on the harmless bundle of cloth and metal rods, Terry dropped from the ceiling. After the well-tested combination of a drenched cloth and a dart filled with anesthetics, Terry softly laid the unconscious guard on the floor. He gagged the guard and then stripped him of his crimson uniform and items.
Among the items was a keyring with several keys.
Good. Terry took a moment to examine the keys. Afterwards, he heaved the unconscious guard onto his shoulders. He already knew that there was no one in the hallway at the moment, because he had never stopped feeling around with his mana touch.
[I have the key, don’t make any noise while I enter.] Terry warned Rafael that he could expect a visitor soon.
[YES!] Rafael replied instantly. [Damn, buddy, if we really pull this off, I’ll name my firstborn kitten after you. If you decide to join me in the secret realm, you’ll get first dibs on any treasure!]
[No need.] Terry frowned. [And not the time. Let’s first get out of here before discussing anything else.]
Terry pushed a thin amount of mana into the keyhole for Rafael’s cell. His mana touch had become a lot more sensitive thanks to his training. He didn’t dare to use more mana in case there was an alarm system for fiddling around with the locks.
The only reason that Terry even attempted to use his mana touch was that there were way too many keys on the guard’s keyring, and he couldn’t be sure if there was an alarm system for wrong keys either.
With all of Damian’s talks about silent alarms, it didn’t seem out of the question that the Thanatos guards had a way to notify others in case someone threatens them to open a door. A second key that would open the door but also send an alarm seemed just like the kind of thing that people like Damian would come up with.
This one… Terry had finally found the correct key. There was only a single one whose shape seemed to match. Perhaps I was too paranoid.
If they had an alarm key, there should be at least two matching keys. I guess not everyone in Thanatos is as mindful as Damian.
Terry unlocked the door and entered while bringing the unconscious guard with him. Inside, Terry could see a table with a few items in one corner. Straight ahead was a larger door. Terry placed the guard down and walked towards the inner door.
There was a wheel that appeared to move several large bars. The wheel itself was secured by another lock with a keyhole.
Once again, Terry used his mana touch to get an idea of the required key. He was relieved beyond belief when he had verified that he had a key matching the lock. [I’m getting you out now.]
Terry unlocked the wheel, and then hurriedly spun the wheel to unlock the massive inner door.
Click The bars had reached the outermost position and the massive door became movable. Terry pushed on the door and it slid slowly to the side.
“Buddy!” A wide-grinning felan with leopard spots greeted Terry. Rafael immediately pulled Terry into a bear hug. Then his eyes caught sight of the unconscious guard, who had been stripped and looted. “You come bringing strange gifts. I don’t have a naked smoothskin for you.”
“Funny,” said Terry drily. He handed over the crimson uniform he had taken from the second guard. “I’d suggest you wear this. If someone sees us from a distance, this might avoid some unwanted attention.”
While Rafael changed clothes, Terry pushed the unconscious guard into the inner cell and locked it again.
“The smoothskin was a bit too short.” Rafael looked at the way his crimson pants ended slightly too far above his ankles.
“Our disguise would only survive a cursory glance anyway,” said Terry. [We should switch to sound transmission again.]
[Got it.] Rafael collected the few items on the table.
[Where to next?] asked Terry. [Where is the entrance ticket located?]
[Don’t worry, I know where to go.] Rafael’s nose moved slightly. [There.] He pointed. [However, I should warn you. You have done me a huge favor, so I’m going to be straight with you. If my suspicions are correct, then we’ll have to break into a secure facility right after we break out of this one.] He grinned. [The good news is that there might be other items to compensate us for our troubles. I’ll definitely try. It’s your decision if you want to join me.]
[I’m in,] said Terry. [There is a countdown ticking until they discover our escape and as far as I see it, the entrance key is our best bet to get far away quickly.] He added only for himself: I sure hope the entrance key teleportation really works.
[You made it this far. You should take the lead. I’ll point out the direction.] Rafael scratched his head. [I’m more the type to make a big entrance and not really suited to sneaking around.]
Terry held back the desire to retort. [Let’s go…]
***
Comments
s476
I wonder if fate misses Terry and has to follow him even more :)
Logan
https://youtu.be/QrfSlVNJPLg
Sesharan
*Mission Impossible music plays*
