Chp.36: The slaves' escape

Normally, the slaves of the arena were scattered in different places in the building. Some took care of the gladiators, others took care of welcoming the spectators, still others performed all the chores necessary to keep that place clean at least a little. Among these tasks was the care of the animals, but fortunately this task did not begin before the end of the clashes; therefore, when Haku had broken down the gates and opened the cages, there was no one there to be run over by the fleeing animals.

After the arena went into a state of emergency, all the slaves were sent back to their dormitories. They had promptly obeyed: they were too frightened by what was happening and therefore had run to take refuge in the only place that at the moment seemed safe to them. Of course, even in there they had no protection, since there was not even a guard to protect them and the door was made of cheap wood, but at least they felt a little more protected in there. It was a sort of survival instinct, the same one that leads animals to feel safe in their dens; except that a den was normally safe, the slave dormitory was exactly the opposite.

After all, slaves were the outcast of the arena. If someone found them and decided to harm them, who would care? They could easily be replaced.

The only slaves who weren't in their dormitory were the ones who were in the gladiator area at the time, all of whom had not received orders to leave. Ironically, at that moment they were the ones who felt safest, since at least they were surrounded by powerful warriors and if things went badly they could buy them time to flee.

However, none of them expected the gladiators to attempt escape. When they had seen them take their weapons and whisper among themselves, they had understood that something was going to happen, but when Darbi and Brenno had broken down the door they had understood that they were really planning to escape. The slaves obviously had no idea what to do, and so, terrified, they crouched on the ground or under the beds as if desperately looking for a place to hide.

Among the slaves left at the gladiator dormitory was obviously Misune. She knew that now she would have the most delicate task: that of bringing to safety people who had no idea how to defend themselves. Among all of them, only she had learned a minimum of how to fight and only she had any weapons at her disposal, carefully hidden under her filthy dress. Being able to get a group of weak, scared and disillusioned people to follow her would have been a lot complicated. She wished that Haku would suggest a way to convince them, but she knew that the dragon didn't give a damn about them and that she had already tested his patience enough by asking him to allow her to save them. Now, everything was in her hands.

She realized she was sweating quite a bit. It was the first time in her life that she had to use charisma, which she wasn't even sure she possessed. Even before becoming a slave she had never been a leader; she was more the one who went with the crowd and did as others said. But now she was the only one who could make the decisions and who could convince the others to take courage and run. So as soon as the time that Haku had told her to wait had passed, she took a deep breath and with all the strength she had in her body she yelled: "Listen to me! You don't have to hide! This is our chance to go away, all of us!"

The other slaves didn't answer her, but turned their heads slightly towards her. Judging by their looks, they must have considered her completely insane. And they weren't technically wrong. Misune knew that if she didn't do something to prove her point, she would accomplish nothing, so she pointed to her submission collar. "Trust me, Haku has come up with a plan to make us all escape! Look, I'll prove it to you!" and having said that, she slightly lifted the right sleeve of her dress, inside which was drawn a nullification rune previously wet with dragon's blood. She aimed it at the collar and activated it, squinting for the intense light; when it was done, she took off the collar and held it up in the air to show everyone else.

The slaves' eyes widened in amazement. Misune smiled: even if that wasn't really an encouragement, at least it was the demonstration that she knew what she was doing. "Haku taught me this in order to free you all" she said. "We can escape! Come with me, and in less than an hour we'll finally be free!"

The slaves were clearly interested, but not enough to ignore their fear. "This is madness!" someone said. "Trying to escape is a death sentence!"

Misune expected that would be their reaction. After all, nobody wanted to die. And after years spent in the arena, the self-preservation instinct of all the slaves was solely based on obeying and letting their masters decide for them. But that wasn't the right time for that. "It's not a death sentence, I assure you! Haku, Darbi, Zamor, all of them have prepared a plan to escape, and they have also involved people on the outside! They have been preparing for this for a long time! Why do you think gladiators are trying to escape right now, even though they know that if they fail they will die? Because they know there is no chance of failing! They will be victors, they have probably already won as we speak! All we have to do is jump on the bandwagon of victory, and we can finally be free people again!"

"Free? Are you really that stupid?" another slave exclaimed. "Nothing will change for us! We will be out of this arena, but we will still be surrounded by gladiators and powerless in front of them! We will always be their toys!"

Misune gulped. "It's not like that! Haku will protect us! And Darbi will too! And there are other people who will side with us!"

"It's easy to talk for you! You're the dragon's pet!" another slave growled. "He'll be surely there to protect you! We, instead? How do we know that someone will protect us?"

'The dragon's pet!? Is that how they consider me!?' Misune thought stunned by that title. She knew the other slaves hated her for being protected by Haku, but she didn't expect them to consider her his pet. Either way, it was clear that trying to promise them protection wasn't going to change anything. She had to use another tactic. "Well, what will change if you stay here instead? Nothing! Other gladiators will come and you will be their toys, until you are old and broken enough to not be able to work anymore, or someone will get mad at you for some reason and kill you! This is the fate that awaits you if you stay here! You may even believe that it will be no different out there, that I'm lying, that there will be no one to protect you, but at least this is a chance! A little one perhaps, but still a chance! The only chance that each of you has to hope to have a better life than this!"

The slaves fell silent. Someone seemed to want to rebut, but there was no way to rebut those arguments. Misune hadn't told a single lie. Seeing that she seemed to have the advantage, she spoke again: "Listen. We are slaves. We are the rejects of society, that part to which no one cares. Life has taken everything from us and given us nothing. But today it has given us this opportunity! It gave us the opportunity to... to do something! To not remain locked up in this cursed place forever, or to pass from one master to another, or to die of exhaustion and beatings! Today life granted us the chance to change our destiny! For the first time in countless generations of slaves, the gods listened our prayers! But... the gods cannot answer the prayers of those who don't act. You may pray all you want, but if when the gods grant you the chance to escape you hold back... then why should they listen to you? It would be like granting the prayer of a man who, wounded by a sword, wishes to live, and after being healed he takes up his weapon again and throw back into the battle! What god would not be disgusted by such a sight? We cannot ask to be saved if we lack the courage to save ourselves. So, all of you... come with me. Let's get out of here. Let's take the opportunity that the gods have given us. Let's summon up the courage, close our eyes and run to freedom again!"

After the first three phrases Misune already had no idea what she was saying; she had simply said everything that came to her mind in the hope that some sensible speech would come out of it. However, it seemed to work: the slaves were still frightened and trembling, but there was a small hint of determination in their eyes. "Okay" someone said. "I... I go"

"Me too"

"Yes, I don't want to stay here!"

"Let's go away!"

"Let's escape!"

"Aaaah, I wouldn't have long life anyway"

"Oh, I'll regret this, I know I will regret this..."

One by one, all the slaves finally gathered their courage and agreed to try to escape. It was clear their resolve was hanging by a thread, but that was enough for Misune. Using the nullification rune (she had several drawn on her dress and powered by dragon's blood) she deactivated all their collars and then she said: "Come on, let's go get the others back to our dorm!"

The group exited the gladiator dormitory; when they saw the dead bodies of the guards on the floor, many of them screamed and vomited, but Misune encouraged them to go ahead and ignore the corpses. After a short ride, they arrived at the slave dormitory, where all the other slaves in the arena were. Convincing them was easier: perhaps it was due to the fact that there were already so many people who were fleeing, and therefore they believed that there really was the possibility of fleeing, and therefore they wanted to take it more easily. Misune explained their task to everyone, which is to reach the main gate and wait there for the battle to be over, then escape with Haku and the others.

However, as they were checking that everyone was there, a voice rang out from the corridor: "Stop right there!"

Misune turned to see a guard advancing towards them with sword raised. Evidently he was a recruit or in any case someone who had recently arrived, and therefore he didn't yet know the place well and hadn't yet managed to find the way to join his companions. "What are you doing outside your dorm? Where are your collars?"

The other slaves groaned and huddled together in fear, but Misune ran towards the guard instead. "Finally! Someone who can protect us!" she exclaimed, throwing herself at his feet. "Thanks, great Heloisa! Please sir, we just want to go somewhere safe! We are scared!"

The guard ducked slightly, but it was clear he didn't consider her a dangerous person, or he would have cut off her head already. "I asked you where are your collars" he repeated.

"It was the dragon! He did some kind of magic!" Misune replied pretending to be frightened. "He took the collars off everyone, and then he did something to the gladiators! They looked like they were possessed by a demon or some dark force! They smashed the door and killed all the guards! Please sir, help us! We are scared and we don't know what to do!"

The guard grimaced, then he lowered his sword. "I don't have time to deal with a group of slaves. Go back to your dorm and... UUUNGH!!!"

As soon as the man let his guard down, Misune snapped and raised her hand the way Haku had taught her; the mechanism on her arm activated and the wyrm's sting shot out at great speed, striking full on the guard's neck and going through from side to side. The guard fell to his knees and tried to do something, but the poison had already entered his bloodstream and in a few moments it completely killed him.

Misune looked at the body. She felt like throwing up, but she managed to hold back. That was the second time she'd killed a person… but it was very different from the first. Even though she felt guilty, she wasn't terribly terrified and disgusted of herself like she had been the first time. On the contrary, a strange calm seemed to have possessed her, preventing her from freaking out.

Perhaps it was true that the difficult murder was always just the first. Or maybe being in contact with Darbi and Haku had tainted her with their philosophy of doing anything to survive. Or perhaps simply the adrenaline in her body was at such high levels at the moment that she was unable to truly comprehend what she had just done, and the weight of that act would fall upon her as soon as that whole situation was over. She mentally prepared herself to have nightmares for weeks, though strangely she was sure that even those would be less intense than the first time.

In any case, now she knew now that she had been naive: she should have been more careful. If there was still one guard far away from the battlefield, perhaps they would encounter others as well. She had to prepare herself to face them. Then she pulled out her gloves built with feline paws and put them on, to be ready to fight with any means at her disposal. Haku had given her those weapons, so she had to use them.

She looked at the other slaves, who were staring at her as if she were a ghost. She wasn't quite sure what she should say, so she simply shrugged: "What? In anticipation of situations like this, the dragon taught me how to fight, so that I could protect you. Now let's go"