Jailbreak

Down below on Floor B33, Haalfrin and the 5 surviving prisoners all look up and feel something change. "The barrier's down!" one of the mages laughs crazily from another room.

Knowing this as well, Haalfrin grins and looks up, 'Thank you, Freyya… and Dakka.'

Haalfrin then looks up and reaches out with his Aura through the hole in the spirit barrier. "Frey. You there?"

The young girl's spirit touches Haalfrin's, and he hears her soft voice answer back. "Yes. I'm here."

"You sound sad," Haalfrin notices.

"I felt the barrier go down," she answers, "Does that mean you're leaving?"

Haalfrin sighs. "Yes. I'm leaving. I never wanted this cage. I'm off to find a bigger one of my own choosing. You're free to come with me if you want. I'd hate to leave you in a dark hole."

"You know, I…," her voice trails off. "I never wanted to leave this place."

"I know, Frey. You like this cage very much…" There's a long, uncomfortable pause. "So… this is goodbye then?"

"Hmm…," Frey nods before letting go of his Aura and disappearing from his view.

Haalfrin sighs with emotion before steeling his heart. "It was fun knowing you, but it's time for me to leave."

Indeed, all things end eventually, but that doesn't make it any less sad when the end finally comes.

Breathing in a gulp of fresh air, Haalfrin looks behind him and sees the apprehensive faces of the other prisoners, who are shuffling into his room one by one. "Is it time, Haalfrin?" one of them asks.

"Yeah. You ready?"

One of the girls looks down and scratches her head, "I never thought this day would actually come. I don't know how to feel."

Everyone sighs at this. "Yeah."

Haalfrin looks at them all seriously. "You all remember the plan?" They all nod.

"Good… but there's been a change in the plan." Before Haalfrin explains, he looks up and retracts all his Aura back to himself. He doesn't want Frey to hear this next part.

"What changed?" one of the prisoners blurts out.

"Oh, don't get worried, Vic," Haalfrin coughs, "It's just that the rescuer Freyya promised us is a lot stronger than I thought. If you all head up now, you'll be caught in its path and killed."

Haalfrin puts his hand on his chest and steps forward. "I'll go up ahead and fight the beast. The condition for our freedom was that I had to fight the dragon anyway, so this shouldn't be surprising. However, it would be best if you either find a way to teleport outside the fortress above, or you should wait until my battle with Dakka is over with."

The 5 men and women look at each other and nod.

One of the men looks up and asks, "You said Dakka should be a 3rd horned dragon when we talked about this… so… if the dragon is even stronger… does that mean he has 4 horns?"

Haalfrin nods.

Everyone goes pale hearing this. That same man steps forward. "No, Haalfrin!" he protests, "you're going to your death!"

"I know," their de facto leader says with an even voice. "And when you leave, I need you to take Frey with you, if she's willing. Just… don't tell her about the dragon having a 4th horn. I don't know what she'll do if she knows how powerful the dragon actually is."

"Well," Haalfrin announces while he stands up abruptly, "It's time to escape!"

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During the 700 - 800 (ish) years of imprisonment on Floor B33, Haalfrin had spent a lot of time experimenting with his Names.

With this time, he learned very quickly that his Dra Name is useful for more than just empowering his body the more Aura he has. It also allows him to use the goddess's body reinforcement technique without hurting himself.

Before, when he used it once in his duel against Kaalhyme, his limbs could only bear using a part of that "divine" spell once before shattering. This was because a human body is naturally too frail.

Now that his body is stronger, he can bear the full brunt of that spell without repercussions – hence, multiplying his strength many times over once again.

Now that Haalfrin's own body is strong far beyond any mortal standards, he breaks through the ceiling and starts tunneling upwards.

When he tried digging upwards the first time using just his Dra Name so long ago, he quickly got tired after just a few hundred feet, and he slowed down.

This time, Haalfrin's bare hands dig through the granite like butter. Even more, instead of shoving the loose rock behind him and letting it fall, he uses his titanic strength to compress the rock around him and shove it to the side.

The added pressure the rocks are under after being condensed immediately melts them all into molten magma. Fortunately, Haalfrin doesn't have to worry about the liquid rock pouring down and burning everyone or dissolving the tunnel, since the 7 mages behind him are using their spells to quickly suck the heat away from the rocks and enchanting the sides of the tunnel to hold firm. They want this tunnel to last, after all, since they're not strong enough to rip their way to the surface like Haalfrin can.

It only takes a few minutes for Haalfrin to get to floor B32. Once he gets up, he sees furnishings similar to the floor below littering the place, except this floor isn't nearly as clean as his own.

Food stains and trash liter the place, and instead of a bed, there's a giant pile of blankets on the floor with dirty clothes mixed in.

Haalfrin only sighs at this. "Nobody was there to teach the kid to keep her room clean. Oh well."

He then looks around and calls out, "Frey! FREY!"

There is no answer.

Haalfrin looks down feeling disappointed. 'Did she not want to say goodbye?' Letting out a long sigh, the man leaves a note on the wall with a mana pen for her, then turns back up to continue his journey upwards.

"Goodbye," he mutters one last time as he makes the long ascension to the surface.

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Haalfrin fully expected he'd have to find mana stones on the way up to replenish his mana pool, due to the huge amount of land he has to dig through on the way up. However, that's just it. He feels fine even after climbing through 2 miles of hard rock and ascending to the surface.

The young man's hand sprouts up from the ground like a sapling, then his body ascends from beneath like a rising tree. He looks up at the blue sky and stretches his arms out wide, and he closes his eyes in reverie. He feels the cool wind around his body, and a deep emotion overtakes him.

For a few minutes, Haalfrin stands there reverently embracing the free sky.

Of course, there are burning buildings, crumbled walls, and horizontal towers littering the floor, but never mind that! This moment is far too special to Haalfrin for him to let anything interrupt him.

Haalfrin only opens his eyes when he hears rumbling footsteps in front of him, and warm breath on his face. Opening his eyes slowly, he sees a giant nose right in front of his face breathing air that smells like a fireplace.

"Hhhaalfffrinnn," Dakka's voice rumbles from some deep place in his throat, "Youu sssmelll sssstrongg.. Youu mussst be himmm…"

Instead of answering directly, the human pats the giant snout on the tip and remarks, "Hello, Dakka. You've gotten a lot bigger."

"…" The dragon is apparently confused, which makes Haalfrin laugh. Despite remembering that strange boy he met in the forest long ago, Dakka evidently can't mentally connect the man before him with that boy.

"Never mind that," Haalfrin says, "Let's just get this over with."

Dakka steps back and plants his big bottom on the ground. "Youu resssted? Youu lloook tirrred." Without waiting for an answer, the dragon reaches into his own mouth and starts scraping at the side of his teeth.

After what sounds like the most infernal screeching of metal against metal, the dragon dislodges something from his teeth.

The dragon spits on the ground, and Haalfrin looks to see several fat mana stones. "Whaat?" the dragon protests, "I have ssstonesss carved into my teeettttth for emergenccciessss."

Other than having a practical use, Dakka thinks the shiny stones are a pretty addition to his body…

Haalfrin shrugs and decides to take the stones. While he does so, he reaches out with his Aura and starts absorbing the Death Energy from the fallen guards here.

After Haalfrin is absorbing the Aura and gifts from the dragon, Dakka bares his teeth and growls, "Wanna ffffight nnnow!?"

"Not quite," Haalfrin stops the beast, "You're pretty tired too. Here." He reaches down on his waist where his space bag is, and he presents the rest of the food rations the gods left him. "I hear dragons especially need food."

"Oh, thank you!" Dakka happily says as he turns into his human form and sits down next to Haalfrin. Haalfrin lays on a rock and closes his eyes while the dragon spends some time gorging himself.

'This is the last time I might be enjoying the blue sky of this world,' Haalfrin realizes, 'So I'd best make the most of it.'

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"Why have we stopped the attack, sir?" one of the remaining guards asks the fallen warden's second-in-command.

"The beast stopped its rampage and seems to be chatting with an escaped prisoner," the austere man replies. "I would assume this dragon came to break this prisoner out, for whatever reason. Now that he's free, the dragon has no more reason to attack us."

The soldier looks up and prays to Das, "Please, let the dragon just go away. We're all probably going to die if it's still angry."

"It's fine," the acting warden comforts the soldier while patting him on the back, "dragons don't usually go out of their way to attack people unless they're challenged first, or if there's something they want. See? The dragon and that man appear to be good friends. That means the fighting has stopped. We can relax now."

One of the soldiers (a fellow with a long black beard) holds his hand over his head and says, "Boss. It's bad luck to proclaim everything's going good before the dice have fallen."

"I don't believe in luck!" the acting commander spits out gruffly, "Just keep an eye on them and tell me when the dragon leaves. I'll go prepare a report for the emperor. Then, I'll go write a letter to my sweet wife and daughter. I heard my wife is pregnant with twins… It's ok to be jealous boys. Haha!"

"But boss," the black-bearded soldier protests, "It's bad luck to-"

"Enough, kid. Let's just go down."

"…Ok." As they go down, the bearded guard makes sure to walk far away from his boss, as he's afraid of picking up that bad luck.

Before the 3rd warden can even make it downstairs, he feels a searing wave of heat sweep over him and his subordinates. He turns around and hears a dragon roar in an explosive voice that so powerful, it generates wind.

"IT'S A CHALLENGE THEN! PREPARE TO DIE, HAALFRIN! ... FOR THE GODDESS! RAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

"Sh#t."