Chapter 67
“Kanda…I can’t! You are my friend!”
“Friend… Then take up arms,
friend. We don’t have a
choice.”
“Kanda…”
She swings her axe in the air
above her head before she
slices at me. I dodge it, it is not hard to dodge her
movements. Her body might be fast but that weapon is a heavy weapon. It slows her down just a bit.
As I dodge back the swing, I do not see one of her hands
letting the axe go. She grabs me by the throat and hits me with the axe’s hilt right on
the mouth.
She fights like a warrior.
She then throws me back,
picks up her axe with both hands and swings down at
me. I roll on the ground and manage to barely dodge the blade. The edge of the axe gets stuck in the mud. I take the moment to swing my dagger, cutting her in the
arm. This makes her let the
axe go but she doesn’t move back, instead she sprints
forward and tackles me with
her shoulder. I fall to the
ground and lose my blades
but the moment she is on me, I get to my knees and use both my fists, punching
her in the stomach.
“Uh!” She takes a step back with a gasp.
I wrap my fingers around the blade that is next to me, then
I swing it. My blade plunges into her thigh. She screams
and falls to her knees.
Wasting no time, I got to my
feet. I swing around her, and put my arms around her
neck, ready to snap it. But I
hesitate. I don’t want to kill
her.
In a split second, she grabs
my shoulders and flings me to the ground in front of her.
She puts a hand on my chest, pushing me down. As she does this, my hands feel the ground looking for one of my daggers.
Suddenly, her other hand is
on my face, then, she wraps her fingers around my mask
and rips it off of my face.
I scream in pure agonizing
pain.
I know the crowd cheers but
all I can hear is a ringing in my ears. I feel disoriented. I am lifted and thrown a few
feet away.
I can feel warm liquid drip down the side of my face. I get to my knees and finally, I
am able to focus but I am
still in shock.
Kanda grabs her axe and faces me standing a few feet away from me.
“Kanda…” I whisper.
She stares at me–I can see the remorse in her eyes—she looks up behind me at where
Zao watches. I am sure he
has a huge smile on his face.
She looks back at me. “My
friend…” She says.
Kanda takes a deep breath and then to my surprise, she
lets the axe fall from her
hand. She kneels down,
grabs my daggers, and throws them at me. They
land in front of me.
“Pick them up!” She shouts.
I shake my head, telling her
no.
“Pick them up, or I kill you
as you are! Fight! Give yourself a chance.”
So those are my choices, fight or just roll over and die…never. If I go down, I go down fighting.
I do as she says and pick up the daggers.
“Kill them all.” She mutters
and then starts running in
my direction without her
axe.
I try to move back away from her but I can’t seem to
react. I am so confused by
her words. When she is on
me, she grabs me by the leather straps, one hand on my chest and the other on my back, then she twirls around as I dangle in her hands. Suddenly, I am flying in the air and when my eyes focus, I am heading straight
to Zao. I fall on him and tackle him to the ground. Without even giving it a second thought, I stab him
and immediately I stab him
again, then a third time. By the second stab, he was
already dead. I dug my
dagger right into his heart.
People start screaming and running. I get up and though I stumble, I stand straight and turn my head.
Ezra’s eyes widen and almost
burst out of his head when
he sees me.
Feeling like a demon is
taking possession of me, rage
boils inside of me when I see
his face.
I open my mouth to say my next words and as I do, in a
quick movement, he closes his eyes and puts his arms
around Sienna–who is next
to him–covering her.
“DIE!” I shout. Three to four
guards that were behind Ezra fall to the ground, lifeless.
I am surprised. If I am correct, this power did not
work like this for Warrick.
And how is it that it is
working so easily now?
I hear footsteps behind me and quickly turn. About five guards run in my direction. I put a hand up. “Stop!” They all immediately stop. “Free the prisoners!”
They don’t even blink when
they turn and walk in the direction of the barracks and
cells.
At that moment, I hear
something break, a crack, but it is very subtle. I feel little pieces of something fall down my chest. I pick up the
amulet from my neck and notice that two of the opals have broken and it is starting
to feel cool to the touch.
This is it! This is what is
helping me use my powers, this is why they are so
strong…but I think I only
have one more use. One
more Opal left.
Bringing my attention back,
I look for Ezra but the f**ker
has run.
“No!”
I look for him in the
stampede of people running
away.
“NO!” I shout.
I had him! I f**king had
him!
I stumble, feeling a dizzy spell come over me.
“No! Not this time!”
I hold myself against the wooden veranda, close my eyes, and shake my head.
“Wake up!”
When I am able to get up again, I spot Sheril and the rest of the prisoners fighting the guards but there are just too many of them. I rush towards them and join them.
“You crazy bitch! You
actually freed us!” She shouts
with a laugh as she takes a guard down.
“We can’t hold them off!
They are too many!” I say.
“We need to find a way out!”
Maribel says.
Kanda finally joins us.
“That was amazing!” I hug
her.
“A spur–of–the–moment
thing.” She says. “But now
what?”
“Chen will never let us leave.”
“Chen?” I ask, confused.
“Zhao’s son. Now that Zao is
dead, he’ll be taking over.”
I remember him now. Man, the bad guys just keep
coming.
As we talk, a huge fire starts right next to us. Maribel
threw a torch at the bloodied
wooden floors of the arena.
“A distraction.” She says with
a smile.
“That…works.” Sheril says.
“This way!” Kanda starts rushing through the fight
and we follow her.
We end up in the market but there are guards everywhere.
From here we can see the huge gates that lead outside. Guards are everywhere and it will be impossible for us to
go through there until all the
prisoners have gotten out and started fighting.
“In here!” Sheril shouts while
she rushes inside the dinner
hall.
When we get inside, we close
the doors behind us and
move the huge table to form
a barricade.
As we enter the room, a huge mirror on the wall greets us. It was always there but always too far to be able to really get a good look at myself, but I do now. I look
horrible. I am very pale and
there is blood all over the
side of my face and down my neck and shoulders. It is dark now meaning it’s dry
and my wounds are healing enough that I am not
bleeding anymore but I look terrifying. Now with the adrenalin coming down, my head starts to hurt. A spliting
headache but I can’t let it
take over me.
“Now what?!” Maribel asks.
“I don’t think there is a way out of here.” Kanda says.
“Yes, there is.” Lia comes out from hiding. “There is a back
door.”
“You are safe!”
We start to hear fighting
outside. They’ve started.
She nods. “I was taken to
Zao’s room for his nightly
entertainment after the
game was over.”
“I…I am sorry.” Sheril says.
“It is okay. Helped me get
acquainted with this place
and there is a back door this
way.”
“Even so, how are we going
to make it out? It won’t be
long till the guards
overpower the prisoners.”
Maribel says.
“There is a tunnel in the
brothel,” Lia says. “It leads to
a bunker. There are other
tunnels to get there but I
only know of that one.”
“And how are we going to get
to the brothel… didn’t even
know there was one.” Sheril
says.
I follow Lia who leads us to a
curtain on a wall. “Hiding,
and if not, then we fight.” I
say.
Lia pulls the curtain to the
side and reveals a wooden
door. We rush out and head
to the side of the building, an
alley.
“There. That’s the brothel.”
Lia points to a building
across from us and in the
middle of it all, prisoners
and guards fight in their wolf form, and many still in
human form.
I start to overlay a plan. “Okay so-”
“No more waiting! Let’s do it!” Before I can say a thing,
Kanda throws herself out
into the market streets where
many guards fight,
overpowering the prisoners.
“Damn it!”
We all rush in and start
fighting. Lia hides behind us, I’m guessing she can’t fight.
I don’t have my daggers with
me now so I take a sword from a dead guard on the floor and start swinging. It is a short light sword so it is not that hard to wield. I actually find it surprising that it is so easy to move. I take a guard down, then another. We are halfway to the brothel when
more men pour through the
front gates.
That’s when I see Ezra, it is
his men. No surprise that
next to him is the witch
Sienna but there is also
another man, It is Chen. I
remember him.
I zone in on Ezra.
“You guys go…I can’t let this opportunity go to waste.”
I feel my wolf’s will come on
to me. She detests these
people and wants to end
them.
“Are you crazy? There are
too many.”
I don’t answer her. I start
taking men down. I would normally say that this is luck but no, I am using the skills
that I learned with Victor.
Skills that have slowly started becoming much easier since
I have been here.
As I am engaged with an enemy, another quickly rushes me through the side
but he is blocked by Kanda.
A look back shows me that
Sheril and Maribel have also
stayed with me.
“This is not your fight.”
“We have made it our fight.”
Kanda says.
“Fine. Just don’t die.” I tell
them.
I would never forgive myself if they got hurt because of
me.
One by one, we take down many of the guards but they are too many and start to
overpower us.
One look at Ezra is all I need
to give me the strength to
keep on going.
Amidst the loud sounds of
war, I give an echoing growl
that gets the attention of
everyone who stands in front
of me.
“DIE!” I shout.
Within seconds, bodies start falling down. It scares even me the level of power this pendant gives me. For so many people to fall lifeless just by one word.
Unfortunately, Ezra and many others were too far back. But this display creates
fear in most of the men who
witness it. They back away as I take a step forward. I look down at the
roughly—
fifteen men whose bodies lie
motionless.
That was it. That was all I
had. I can feel the broken
shards of the opals on the necklace crumble down my
chest. The necklace is now
cold to the touch. But the enemy doesn’t know this.
I point at Ezra who is still a good distance away. “I will have your head!”
