01/07/337

Vasuki

Vasuki flinched as the needle entered his neck, and the masked man injected him with the strange blue liquid. He was being held down by two men while the third injected the magic blocker. His body went limp as the blocker quickly took effect, they let him go, allowing his head to fall, hard, on the ground. He looked at them with pure rage as they left his cell, locking it behind them.

“You’ll get used to it, eventually.” Izenia claimed, not bothering to struggle as they injected her with the liquid, “I mean it still sucks ass, but it’s a lot more bearable. They don’t even slap me anymore.” She flinched a little as the needle punctured her neck. Vasuki responded with a series of grunts and incoherent speech.

“Yeah, exactly like that.” Izenia responded as a man put his face close to hers.

“You know, if you weren’t a disgusting animal, you’d make a fine wife one day.” One of the masked men said as he caressed her head. She looked away, a look of hopelessness plastered itself on her face, “Piece of shits, all of them.” She muttered, after they had left.

It hadn’t been too long since he was down here, at least he didn’t think it had been. He assumed it was near the end of the 6th month, maybe a week spent in this hellhole, but his sense of time was long gone. The scales on his left arm were nearly all extracted, revealing the gray dragonic flesh, stained with dried blood, underneath. The patch of missing skin on his right arm had already healed, with gray flesh, and was beginning to shed; the scales were coming in. He had no idea how his back looked, and frankly he didn’t want to know, however, he could tell from the falling skin that he was going to have some scales back there as well.

A few minutes passed when the magic blockers effect wore off and he could move freely, well, as freely as one could in a 6 foot by 9 foot cell. He looked over at Izenia, she looked truly pitiful.

“What did you do, you know, before you were in here?” Vasuki asked. Trying to get her mind off of things.

“You know, the normal stuff for those in poverty, I stole, mostly. Sometimes it didn’t end too pretty and suddenly there was a dead guy in the ditch without any of his belongings.”

“Where was this?”

“Sterandel, on the western side of the southern continent. What about you?”

“I’m the son of two innkeepers. It was a family business in Nevenal. We took in a few people that were willing to help. There was a girl, red dragon variant, she was in a place like this before. Though she didn’t tell me anything about it. All of her scales were irregularly grown.” Vasuki claimed.

“You had a crush on her, didn’t you?” Izenia teased.

“Yeah, I did. Got rejected. Of course rejection is the best outcome for the girls I’ve had crushes on.” Vasuki pointed out.

“Oh, I need the deets.” Izenia claimed.

“Yeah give us the deets!” The guy in the cell next to his demanded. Vasuki smiled in a mixture of joy and embarrassment.

“Well, there was this one girl, she was great. We traveled from Nevenal to Daemerall, we survived a pack of Varulv, a dragon attack, and killed a Shallow.”

“Uh-oh, we got a badass over here!” Izenia shouted, happily.

“Well when we got to Daemerall she abandoned me, and then when I went to find her, the people I thought I could trust, including her, beat my ass and threw me to the wolves. And that’s how I got here.” Vasuki explained.

“You know, I think a simple ‘no’ would suffice.” The guy next to his cell said.

“Ain’t that right, Gord? So, Vasuki, what are you gonna do about it?” Izenia asked.

“When I get out of here, I’m going to get as far away from the people I was with, and if I ever cross paths with her again, I’m going to make her pay for what they put me through.” Vasuki said, a scowl forming on his face. Vasuki felt something click in the center of his abdomen, like something brewing in his core.

“If, you get out of here.” Izenia claimed, laying on the stone floor, her hands behind her head.

“When, you get out.” Vistrata corrected her, though no one reacted to the new voice.

“Is your plan done?” Vasuki asked felt something ignire in the center of his being and something strange flowing through his veins. He lifted his hand and forced some of the power to come out, it quickly formed a swirling ball of cold, blue, icy wind. That answered his question. Vasuki looked up as Izenia began to speak again.

“I wouldn’t just get away from them, I’d make sure they pay. My brother and I lived by one rule; No acquittal for the betrayer.” Izenia claimed, putting her back against the wall of her cell. Vasuki felt a hint of a smile climb up to his lips.

It didn’t take long for the masked men to come back to check on their prisoners, it was meal time. Which meal was it? Vasuki had no idea. He only knew that it tasted like shit, and it didn’t smell much better than their waste in the corner of the cells. Eventually they arrived at Vasuki’s cell, unlocked it and walked in. Sliding the stone plate along the floor. Vasuki stopped the plate and grabbed a piece of hard bread.

“Enjoy your meal, Trophy.” The man turned to leave the cell, before Vasuki threw the bread at the back of his head. The man turned to look at him, even through the mask Vasuki could see the anger in his eyes.

“Why don’t you eat this shit.” Vasuki challenged.

“You want to get choked out, don’t you bitch?!” He asked, falling for the taunt, and quickly walking towards their money machine. Vasuki gripped at the cold chains, this new power flowed through his right arm, numbing a few of his fingers as ice, the color of cobalt, shot from the floor and slammed the man into the right wall of Vasuki’s cell. He approached the unconscious man and took the knife, the same knife that had cut off a chunk of his right arm, however many days ago. Quickly, he cut the key ring from the mans trousers.

Vasuki pushed open his, still unlocked, cell door and got to work on Izenia’s cell door. She looked at him as he fiddled through the dozen or so keys in hopes one of them worked.

“How did you…?” Her face was one of shock

“Etherea. They can block magic, but they can’t block Etherea.” Vasuki claimed, though it was just an assumption, he wasn’t really sure, but he didn’t want them to know that.

“This bitch is ascending!? You a Royal Knight?” Gord, the man in the cell next to Vasuki’s, asked.

“No, just a guy that got lucky.” Vasuki claimed, as the eighth key twisted and unlocked Izenia’s cell door.

Vasuki went from cell to cell, unlocking all thirty of the cells, releasing the prisoners from the restrictions that had been put upon them. Thankfully the eighth key he had tried on Izenia’s door was the key for all of them.

Just as Vasuki opened the cell door for a tall rabbit variant they heard the undeniable sound of the loud creaking door, just a few feet to his left.

“What the fuck!?” The woman screamed, withdrawing a from her waist sword. Vasuki left the keys in the cell door and ran at the woman, cobalt colored ice obeyed his commands, reaching from the ground to restrain her weapon and covering his entire right fist in ice. His fist collided with her jaw, releasing a sickeningly loud pop. He yelled, through clenched teeth, in pain as his right arm cramped violently.

“Damn! You actually are a badass!” Izenia cheered.

“It was either her or one of us. Seeing as how I’m the only one openly using Etherea, I think it’s best if it’s them.” Vasuki claimed, but he didn’t like it. His gut was twisted in knots, up until that point he had fought monsters. It was easy to see the separation between humans and other creatures, but Vasuki was now being forced to blur that line.

Vasuki looted the woman’s longsword and gave it to the nearest person next to him. Another dragon variant, with growing blue scales. His mind wandered to Audra, and the embers of anger began to grow.

Vasuki led the group up a hallway until they came to a small set of stairs that led to a wooden hatch.

“We have two choices, go in loud grabbing everyone’s attention, or try to sneak…” Vasuki counted the people that were with him, “30...ish people through whatever kind of building is out there. Any suggestions?” Vasuki asked.

“Go in loud, they deserve tuh know the sufferin boutta be inflicted upon’em.” The man that carried the longsword said, most of the group nodded in agreement.

“I agree,” Izenia chimed in, “as someone who is well versed in stealthy actions, I don’t think 30 people can achieve that.” Vasuki smiled at the people he had around him.

“Let’s give’em hell.” He said, ordering the Etherea to wrap around his fists, covering his left fist and repairing the ice on his right fist. He could feel his knees wobble, but he resisted the urge to fall, until he was satisfied with the results of his custom, cobalt, ice knuckles. Only then did he cut the flow of Etherea off. He breathed heavily, he was already getting worn out but he had to stay strong.

Vasuki pushed the hatch upwards, the coast was clear, for now. He pushed it all the way open for everyone to climb up. They seemed to be in the dining area, he could tell just by looking around that the person that owned this place had more gold than they could count. The dining room was centered by a long wooden table, with royal-like chairs for fifteen people to have plenty of space, the roof was far above their heads, two balconies with doors that led to other rooms of the possible palace, lined the sides of the dining room. The floors and walls were made of, seemingly, polished marble.

The smell of smoked beef flowed into Vasuki’s nose.

“Smells like someone is about to have a terrible dinner.” Izenia said, as if on cue, one of the doors opened and a man appeared holding a large slab of meat. He stopped and looked at the group, he screamed before anyone had time to react. The next thing they knew Izenia grabbed the knife from Vasuki’s hand and placed it deep into the man’s throat. Vasuki heard someone in the distance say the word he really didn’t want to hear.

“Guards!”

“Shit.” Vasuki muttered. This was going to get complicated, or so he thought.

“Kill’em all!” The man he had given the longsword to shouted. The group of prisoners ran forward, some ran into the kitchen others ran into other parts of the house.

Screams and shouts echoed through the house.

“Look at what you’ve done, Vasuki.” Vasuki turned his head to the other side of the large table, Vistrata was running his fingers over the table top and slowly making his way around, towards him.

“I didn’t want to hurt anyone. It was either them or us.” Vasuki explained.

“Are you sure that’s it? I think there’s something else in you, something much more...primal...instinctual, maybe, going on here.” Vistrata asked, raising his hand in a questioning manner, like it was some philosophical enigma.

“Instinct to survive, maybe that’s it. Maybe I’m just fed up with being walked on by others. Maybe, it’s just to get everyone out of here, I’m doing what’s right.”

“Perhaps you’re right, though I don’t think the guards will give a damn why you’re doing what you’re doing. I think you should turn your focus to getting out...or maybe you want something more? Revenge? I have given you the ability to take revenge of what’s happened to you and the others. But...the choice is yours. I’m simply here to watch my creation fester until it blooms.” And with that, Vistrata vanished with no further explanation.

“There’s one here!” Vasuki turned his attention to the woman’s voice, she wore a suit of black armor, polished and undamaged. A heavy helmet donned her head, covering any sight of her face, an embezzled insignia rest on her left chest and shoulders, one Vasuki could recognize anywhere, a shield with a dragon behind it. His eyes went wide as the Royal Knight threw her spear like a javelin at him.

Vasuki stepped to the side, just barely avoiding the spear. A large mass of black and red electricity formed around her and flew towards the handle of her spear, it faded and revealed her hands wrapped around it. Pulling it out of the wall, she hit him in the stomach with the base of her spear. He felt vomit beginning to go up his throat.

“What the fuck...is a Royal Knight doing here?!” Vasuki asked as he keeled over. She picked him up by his shirt collar with a single hand.

“Earning a bit of extra cash, from the waste like you.” She threw him onto the middle of the dining table, the air was knocked out of him. She jumped into the air and came spiraling down towards him, spearhead first. He rolled out of the way and slammed his elbow into her helmet as he came to a stand. She staggered for a moment, he grabbed her helmet by the eye slots and slung her off the table and onto the floor. He jumped on top of her and began to pound his ice covered fists into her helmet. As soon as it dented she wedged her feet between him and her, and kicked him, his back slamming the edge of the dining table.

The Royal Knight shakily stood up and pulled her helmet off of her, revealing brown eyes hidden under strands of sweaty strawberry blonde hair.

“I refuse to be outdone by an amateur!” She screamed.

“You’re not as agile as Cabana is.” He commented. Her eyes went wide.

“What the fuck do you know about Cabana!?” She ordered.

“She trained me, a little bit at least.” Vasuki replied.

“You’re lucky I can’t ascend yet.” Vasuki counted his blessings.

“Same goes for you.” She scowled at him and became a blur of electricity once again going around him to the spear in the table. She used the shaft of the spear like a pole to swing around and kick at him, she crashed against his defending arms. Using his arms as a platform, she pulled the spear out of the table and before he could realize it she ran the spearhead through his right shoulder.

Warm hot liquid poured from the wound, she retrieved the spear from his shoulder and jumped off of him. She stood low and watched to see if he was going to prepare for anything different. He heard a voice, not hers, not his own, nor was it Vistrata. The voice was cocky, and arrogant.

“Let me guide your frozen maw.” He felt cold air exude from him, frost quickly began to spread around the room, with him at the epicenter. He felt his skin, muscles, and bone reforming itself. A crag of ice shot from the ground next to him. Instinctively, as if he had done it hundreds of times before, he grabbed one of the many sharp rocks in his hand and felt the ice crawl, and reform itself under his grasp. The woman looked around the room, the table between them, the wall, the floor, all of it was beginning to look like a winter wonderland.

Vasuki pulled at the handle of the blade that had formed from the ice, the crag of ice shattered as the black, icy, blade fully appeared. It was a large curved piece of black metal, that turned snow white at the sharp edge. The handle was embedded near the base of the large metal chunk, with part of the blade ending in a point at the base of the weapon. There was a hole between the handle and the actual body of the blade, giving him plenty of room to move his hand. All-in-all the blade was slightly longer than a longsword, somehow it felt light enough to not hold him down, but heavy enough that it could cause some serious damage.

“Can’t ascend, my ass.” The woman muttered, running to the door at the edge of the kitchen. Something about her looked off, there was a faint glow, very faint, but it was still there. Every footstep of hers that hit the floor hit him, as if he could feel her metal greaves hitting the polished marble. He took one step forward, to give chase to the woman, when the world came crashing down. The blade in his hands shattered and he fell to his hands and knees. The Etherea had been draining him, and his body felt like spaghetti.

“Come on, get up ice boy!” Izenia ordered. He didn’t know when it happened but he had both of his arms wrapped around another person’s shoulder. To his right was Izenia, to his left was the dragon he had given the sword to, both were carrying him out of the building, which had began to fall. Though he had no idea as to why it was quickly being demolished. His mouth opened slightly A single look back showed that he was leaving behind a dining room that was completely covered in frost.