Fight to the Death (4/6)
As one, all the Wills converge on the lowest floor, where they know the survivors are crammed in. When they fly through the hole in the top, they come a large crowd of men and women, standing together and looking up above with fearful eyes.
Just when the Wills are about to dive down and begin the slaughter, Kaalhyme notices that the guards aren't moving to attack. To all appearances, it looks like the Pit guards are presenting their weapons as a sacrifice to some god, with the way they're holding their weapons above their heads, and their faces lowered in fear.
"HOLD!" Kaalhyme orders. "They've surrendered. Don't kill them. Just take what we need and get out of here."
Even though many of the bandit Wills have decided to follow Kaalhyme faithfully, they still aren't happy about being denied the chance to kill some prison guards. Still, they've learned through hard experience by now that killing the guards here would just give them more annoying pests to share space with for all eternity in the commander's soul. Thus, they reluctantly back down after considering their options.
The people on the ground breathe a sigh of relief when all the presented weapons float out of their hands and join the armada of blades hanging above them.
…And they suck in their breath again when some of the blades slowly lower to the ground. One of them approaches the warden, since he has the most fancy uniform here.
Seeing a dozen blades hang over his head and approach him, the warden raises his hands and cries out, "I surrender, I surrender!"
Fortunately, the blades only cut the space bag from his waist without harming him before ascending back up with the rest of its companions.
Once all the Wills are gone, the warden falls to his knees and nearly cries. One of his officers pats him on the back and says, "Despite saying so many unlucky things earlier, you're still alive. Good job, mate."
Through his tears, the warden punches his friend on the arm. "... Shut up."
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A few minutes later, after Haalfrin is healed up enough, he gets back on his feet and thanks his Wills for keeping him out of the fire wall.
Still, after seeing the situation for himself, he knows Dakka is planning to push him further and further back until he has nowhere left to run to.
Because of a dragon's natural connection to the elements, the dragon's fire is the most potent ability they have. There's nothing Haalfrin has that can protect himself from the stuff.
So… if he can't shield himself and dive through the fire to make it back to the surface, how's he going to get back up and face the dragon?
"Hmm…," Haalfrin murmurs thoughtfully, "I know the teleport circles in the lower levels haven't been used in hundreds of years, but with the high ranking Pit officers down below, they might be able to activate them again – especially the warden."
So, Haalfrin dives through the hole he dug on the way up, then he follows the next hole the Wills made when they went to get the weapons from the guards before.
All the survivors look up in fear at the new arrival. This time, instead of seeing an armada of blades, they see a lone man in simple clothing and Kareen tattoos on his arms.
"It's him," the warden mutters to the officers next to him. "Be quiet and let me do the talking."
Once Haalfrin sets himself down, he looks the warden in the face and says, "Open the disabled teleport gates on all these floors. Now."
Haalfrin thought he was going to have to spill some blood to make these people cooperate, but the warden immediately turns to his officers and pulls out a crystal from his pocket. "These are the enchantment codes for all the portals. Go get them up and running. NOW!"
"Yes sir!" With that, they run off towards the dark teleport circle.
Knowing his problem is about to be fixed, Haalfrin goes over to another corner and looks up anxiously.
He's not anxious because he's afraid to die; he's anxious because he doesn't know where Frey is right now. With Dakka attacking the lower levels, she might get caught up in the destruction and die.
Thus, Haalfrin summons a dagger from his space bag, inserts a Will into it, and says, "Go tell the others to find Frey. Make sure that one's safe." (What Haalfrin hadn't thought of is that Frey is already safely mixed in with the crowd.)
The dagger flies out of his hand and shoots through the hole in the ceiling.
With that, the only thing left to do is wait and hope Dakka's fire doesn't reach the lowest level before the teleport circle is activated once again.
Once Haalfrin sits down, all the other survivors back far away from him. Many of them glance at the Demon with strange eyes. All of them are afraid, yes, but there's other emotions mixed in as well.
Most of them weren't even alive long enough have met the Demon before this day. Growing up, they'd heard stories of the evil monster trapped by the brave Empire soldiers.
These were mostly taken as fairy tales for children, though when they came to work in the Pit, they learned the Demon was actually real.
Even knowing the Demon is an actual thing, it was still a creature shrouded in mystery. The higher-ups didn't like to talk about it, despite inflicting so many rules upon the staff for its sake.
Now, sitting down before them, is the demon. He isn't some monstrous creature, but just a man. Other than his unkempt appearance, he looks quite normal.
The officers who've seen through the surveillance mirrors in the sky above, however, have more complicated feelings as they're looking at the demon. They've seen the monstrous strength this creature has. They can't look at Haalfrin as a human, like the others can.
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A few minutes later, some of the guards posted on the upper levels cry out in panic through their far speak medallions, "Sir! The wall of fire 5 floors away! I'm pulling back!"
As the floors get deeper in the earth, the smaller the floors get. The smaller they get, the less time Dakka has to spend burning through it all.
Thus, the guards note in a panic that the fire is getting closer to them at a faster rate, and they freak out.
Hearing these panicked reports coming more and more frequently, the Warden anxiously calls out to his enchanter's team, "How close are you to being done!"
The chief enchantress – an older-looking woman – cries out in despair, "We can't do it, sir!"
"Why NOT!"
"These portals have been inactive for so long that we'll have to redraw the glyphs on the circle. An enchantment strong enough to make a stable portal needs to have a constant supply of magic run through it while the glyphs are being drawn, else it'll fly apart. When these portals were made the first time, they had to have at least 2 thousand pounds of mana stones to keep the spell steady while the circle was enchanted. However… we don't have that much material handy! There isn't even enough mana among all the mages here to finish the job!"
"Move," comes a gruff voice as a tall man moves some of the officers aside. The enchanters look up, startled, at the demon's imposing voice. "I'll supply the mana. Just get back to drawing the glyphs."
Haalfrin then outstretches his hands and pulls out all the mana he has. As a 5th Gate mage, Haalfrin has several times more mana than an average mage, but this still isn't enough to complete the teleportation circle.
Thus, he has to start using his Fel name to convert some of his stored-up Death Aura into mana, as he's running out far too quickly.
The enchanters and mages looking at this are shocked by the monstrous amount of mana pouring out of the Demon's soul. It's so much mana the mages closest to the man feel choked out.
Only the warden and his closest officers aren't surprised. Any man who can fight a dragon alone should have at least this much mana.
"The fire's on Floor B34!" comes a frantic voice from the medallion around the warden's neck.
Feeling more worried, the warden orders the enchanters to hurry up.
Even under this intense pressure, and feeling the searing heat just above them, the enchanters work even harder.
After only another minute, they fall back in exhaustion and proclaim, "Ah! We're done!" They all look at Haalfrin who, despite doing all the hard work, still doesn't look tired.
'I guess they call him a demon for a reason,' the warden thinks. 'I just hope he doesn't slaughter us all, now that we're no longer useful.'
Fortunately, the demon doesn't seem like he's planning on doing that.
Instead, he looks over the crowd one last time and spots Frey. Seeing that she's safe, Haalfrin pats the warden on the back and says, "You're doing a good job keeping these people alive. If you can keep doing that, I promise I won't kill you after all of this for keeping me imprisoned for so long."
Knowing that if the warden can protect this crowd with his life that Frey will be safe, Haalfrin leaves for the teleport circle to go confront Dakka once again – this time with a better-equipped army.
Once Haalfrin steps through the portal, an unending tide of steel flows in through the ceiling and follows their master through the portal.