Chapter 19: Break

When Jerry awoke, he was immediately greeted with a damp, rotten smell. He could hear water dripping one by one as he stayed down on the floor, analyzing his situation. The room was dark, but there was still light from the torch outside. Jerry’s equipment was stripped and was left on the floor with nothing more than his combat fatigues which were wet. Jerry sat up and looked around the room. There was a table with a note and the floors, walls, and ceiling were made of stone. There was a cell door which was made of a metal that Jerry couldn’t identify. It seemed a bit rusted but the bars were thick and was implanted deep into the walls. Jerry walked over to the table to read the note and was astonished to find it was from Kasune. Jerry, I’m sorry for what I did but I had no choice. The other 9 Commanders found out about what happened and reported me to the Demon Lord. I hope you find room in your heart to forgive me for what I have done. After you were knocked unconcious, the Demon Lord’s main army seized your men and escorted them to the dungeons in the Demon Lord’s castle. Your men have been sent to the fields of slaughter to be turned into undead. Now, the main army marches towards the Empire to finish the war. You will be here for a while. Please cause trouble since if you do, someone will come and beat you. That was it? Jerry let out a snicker. He looked around for a tool of some sort. There were many reason to break out of this cell and it included getting revenge, saving his men, and putting a bullet in the Demon Lord’s head. Jerry patted his pants, looking for something and felt something. He pulled it out to find that it was his taino knife that he made. He formulated a plan which involved screaming, making noise, and killing the guard but the problem was, it was stupid. But, the thought of men dying because of him was enough to cause Jerry to go with it. Jerry put the knife between the bars and banged them together, left, right, left, right making all sorts of noises while screaming on the top of his lungs. “Hey! Fuckfaces! Come get me!” Jerry screamed. Jerry’s plan was to get someone to comedown and Jerry would shank’em as they came in and take his weapon and start a prison break. So, Jerry kept banging and screaming profanities at the top of his lung. Eventually, his wish came true but not the way he expected. Instead of a regular undead coming out, it was a monster. The thing was 2 feet taller than Jerry, had a decomposing face between the helmet, and had heavy armor. The monster even had a mace in his right hand. The monster scared Jerry but he had no other choice. Jerry charged the monster screaming as it opened the door and made the monster tumbled backwards, falling on it’s back. Jerry raised his knife and brought it down into it’s face multiple times screaming the words ‘Fuck you!’ over and over again. It felt like an eternity while Jerry was stabbing the thing over and over again. It allowed Jerry to release his anger from being treated like trash from the Empire and the betrayal of Kasune. When he was finished, a large pool of blood could be seen around Jerry. “Yea, overdid it there” Jerry said as he got up. It helped Jerry get release his frustrations, but it wasn’t enough. He took the monster’s mace and helmet and proceeded down the hall where it came from, making an audible ring as he dragged the mace across the bars of each cell. As he was walking down the hall, an undead stood before him. It made a growl before charging at Jerry with it’s sword, with it’s free hand out and sword hand up in the sky. Jerry put the mace into a baseball batter position before swinging it into the undead’s face. As it made contact, Jerry could feel and hear the bones break in the undead’s face. It felt very satisfying to Jerry. The undead was sent flying into the wall, dropping it’s sword in the process. It let out a small screech before it’s blue eye’s faded from existence as Jerry bent down to pick up the sword it dropped. He now held the mace in the right hand and the sword in his left as he continued down the hall. As he strolled down the hall, he played a song in his head. This ain’t no place for no hero. This ain’t no place no better man. He hummed the tune as he walked down the hallway, each cell bar he passes making an audible clang as he dragged his sword across the bars. He was soon met with more undead but this time, they were well geared. There were three in total and they moved in with steel armor and longswords. Luckily, the hallway was narrow but not narrow enough to not be able to have three undead side by side. Jerry stopped in his tracks, waiting for the undead to make their move. The undead soon quickly made their move as the center one charged Jerry with an attempt to stab. Jerry quickly stepped to the side and as the undead passed with it’s missed stab, Jerry tripped it. The undead fell with a thud and scrabbled to quickly stand up but was stopped by Jerry as he brought the mace down, striking it in the back of the undead’s skull. It made an audible bang as the blue light faded from the undead’s eye. The next undead to make it’s move came in with a very large, overhead strike. As it came closer to Jerry, it made a battlecry, screeching a high-pitched noise as it came closer. Jerry reacted quickly by charging at it, shoulder bash causing the undead to stagger as it couldn’t bring it’s blade down in time. Jerry quickly did an underhand strike causing Jerry’s mace to make contact with the undead’s chin, launching the undead a few feet back, and on it’s back. The next undead quickly reacted, doing a right side swing towards Jerry. As it came closer, Jerry reacted by parrying the strike with a parry from his sword, halting the undead’s advance. Jerry, now in an excellent position thrusted his sword into the undead’s neck. As it entered, blood started to spill out of it’s throat. Jerry let the sword go as the undead stumbled backwards before falling on it’s back. Meanwhile, the other undead, stumbling to it’s feet caught Jerry’s attention who quickly kicked the undead. There was a fair distance between Jerry and the undead as the undead stared at Jerry with it’s cold, blue eyes. Jerry made the first move, walking towards the undead in a battle position, left out in front, right foot facing outwards, left hand out as a ward, and the mace resting on Jerry’s shoulder, ready to be swung. As Jerry inched closer and closer to the undead, he got a bit more nervous with each step not knowing when the undead would strike. The undead then let out a mighty roar as it did a left swing. Jerry ducked under the swing and quickly maneuvered behind the undead. Jerry quickly struck at the undead’s right knee, bringing it down on it’s left knee. Jerry then quickly ended it with a heavy swing to the back of the undead’s skill, making a large crunchy mush sound as the skull broke and the brain being struck. The last undead then fell forward onto it’s stomach, making a clank as it hit the stone floor thus leaving Jerry alone. Jerry continued to walk the stone hallways with nothing in his mind. He thought and pondered as he walked down the hall. What would he do? When would he get his stuff back? Questions circulated throughout his mind and eventually, he stumbled upon a bigger question. How long is this fucking hallway? Jerry had walked down the hallway for a very long time now. It felt like he was walking in a circle for the last few hours. As he paid more attention to his surrounding, he saw corpses on the ground that were the same of the three undead that he had dispatched earlier. Jerry looked over the bodies, scavenging for anything useful. He found nothing but he did unscrew some pommels and placed it in his pockets. He looked for his cell and found the body of the monster he killed with the large blood puddle surrounding it. He examined the corpse further, finding a pink crystal. As he examined the crystal as it fit his entire palm. It was sphere shaped but had rough cuts, and was clear. It had a mystifying thing to it as Jerry stared deep into it. It felt hypnotizing to him but was rudely greeted with a loud screech. Jerry put the crystal down and looked at the source of the noise to find a skeleton looking at him, mouth open. Jerry looked at the skeleton at the moment before tossing the crystal at the skeleton. As it hit the skeleton, the crystal shattered causing it to scatter all over the skeleton. The skeleton quickly recovered and drew a sword as it screamed at Jerry. Jerry quickly did a swing across the skeleton’s face causing teeth to be launched out of it’s mouth and a fracture in the skull. The skeleton however, did not go down and quickly faced Jerry again, with missing teeth. Jerry was soon met with a overhead swing that made impact with his helmet. Jerry was stunned with the strike as it was fast and came from no where. He stumbled backwards a few feet before seeing the skeleton charge at him, sword ready. Jerry jabbed at the skeleton with the mace, causing the mace to directly hit the skeleton’s face. As it fell down, Jerry quickly moved in to finish the job, doing one mighty swing down onto it’s skull causing it to break into small pieces. The skeleton did not rise after that strike Jerry made. Jerry looked around the room, finding that he was not in the same place as before. It appeared that he was in a room with his stuff laid out in front of him on a table. On the table was his backpack, vest, helmet, gun, and a longsword. Jerry let go of the mace and put his equipment on, dropping the old one. Jerry lifted up his vest and put it on before sliding his helmet on his head. Jerry went through his backpack and brought out a pack of AP-F and AP before taking the magazines on the side of the vest out. He emptied both magazines and placed the ammo into his pocket before opening the ammo packs. The AP-F ammo had a blue tip while the AP ammo had a green tip. He loaded each magazine with a different type before placing it back into the vest, face down. To his left held the AP ammo and to the right held the AP-F ammo. He put his arm into the backpack straps and placed the rifle in the holster of the backpack before taking down the longsword. He put the pistol holster on the right side of his pants and put the knife on his left before picking up the longsword. It was also the one he made with the fabricator and it felt nice to properly hold it in his hands for once. Jerry laid the sword on his shoulder in a casual manor and opened a door that was to the left of him before leaving the room behind. As he exited, there was a sign above him. It pointed to the left and right of the hall. Under the right arrow pointed to ‘Throne Room’ and to the left pointed towards ‘Killing Field Storage’. ‘How convenient’ Jerry thought. Jerry did a quick decision and dashed down the left side of the hall, towards the killing fields. As he ran down, he met undead that he quickly dispatched with a swing of his sword, cutting and slitting their throats or stabbing them in their chests. He soon found himself in a room full of cages, filled with Infantrymen, Cavalrymen, Archers, and Mages being stacked or just left there. Their armor were left on them but their weapons were confiscated it seemed. Weapons seemed to be hanging on racks on the floor, or on the wall. “Hey guys, how we doing?” Jerry asked. “I-Is that you commander?” A voice asked. “Yes, it is I, Commander Jerry” Jerry said. “Why have you come here? It’s a nightmare here!” The voice cried. “It is the duty of the commander to take care of his men. That’s why.” “Oh no” A voice cried Jerry looked around the room. There wasn’t many cages maybe totaling in the 20s with 5 men each cage maybe. The locks looked like they were standard padlocks and were rusted. Jerry took aim at one of the locks with his pistol and fired, causing the lock to come loose. The men inside looked at Jerry who was opening the door to their cages. “Grab something to bash these locks with. They aren’t very strong. Stones, metal, anything. Help everyone out, get geared and get ready. We strike at the Demon Lord soon.” Jerry said to them. “Yes Sir!” The men said as they scrambled out of their cages. Soon, the room was filled with grunting, cheering and clanging of metal as men were freed and worked to free others. Soon, the entire room was freed in just under 20 minutes. “Attention!” Jerry said. “Yes Sir!” They cried back. “I know you are scared. I am too I’m afraid. But we are about to strike the Demon Lord directly! We’re going to finish him off for good and go home as a hero!” Jerry shouted as he raised his sword. “Yes Sir!” They shouted, seeming significantly more confident. “Great! Now, get armed and ready. I want swordsmen and mages only. Archers if that’s the only thing you’re good at. Dismissed!” Jerry said. He looked around the room. As the locks broke one by one, he found soldiers bonding with each other as they freed each other from the cage. He zipped up his backpack, placed it on, and then faced the men. “Are you ready!” Jerry shouted. “Yes Sir!” They screamed enthusiastically. “Then let’s go! Follow me!” Jerry said as he left the room, and started dashing back down the hall, towards the Throne Room.