The Low roll

Sigurd Agnarsson

TING TING!

I braced myself for what's to come. My brain continued to stir continuously as my eye rapidly flickered back and forth. Trying to find some sort of change in the environment. But nothing happened. No change in atmosphere, no sudden explosion or anything.

"You feel any different…?" I asked Akira.

"A bit yeah…But I don't know." She shook her head.

The guards had halted their march, exchanging stares with each other, "Did you feel that?" a dwarf this time asked his friend.

"Yes…" The other guards nodded their heads, "What was that-?"

The sound of a horse galloping to back of the cart filled the air as the leader of the guards presumably, a more handsome elf compared to the scarred one that explained what they'll do to us when we reach their 'matriarch', with long flowing brown hair, and a pretty face, "Arsyn, any ideas?"

"Only one…" The scarred elf opened his book, flipping through multiple pages, "No…it can't be."

"What?"

"I remember learning about this but…why is it happening today?" Arsyn shook his head.

"Just tell us what's happening!" An orc shouted.

"Alright, fine! It's a bloody BOON WAVE! There! Are you happy?!"

"Boon wave…?"

A boon wave? What in gods name does that mean? Akira and I shared a look of confusion, and even the black haired guy didn't know anything. He appeared just as confused, but he didn't stop tampering with the lock.

However, I noticed someone on the cart, a middle aged man twitching slightly, smoke sizzling out of his face as I backed off from him. This screamed bad news. Akira saw it too, as she held my shirt and pulled me back from him.

The man continued to emanate with smoke as a guard noticed what was happening, "Boys…" Soon enough, the others watched as the man continued to twitch as he pulled his head back, his veins burning with a bright orange color on his neck.

"Akh..! Akack-!" He seemed to choke in his spot, as the other prisoners around us backed away from him, he threw his head forward, just as pure fury bursted from his mouth. A raging flame burned through the bars of the cart, setting it ablaze as it melted the frame.

"Holy shit!" Someone screamed from the carriage. The man changed directions and started to melt away his chains, freeing him as he continued to breathe flame.

He jumped off of the carriage, continuing to send forth his fire to the guards as they backed off from him, shouting orders at each other in an attempt to contain him.

Meanwhile they were busy with them, the wooden floor of the cart slowly burned brighter, threatening to overcome us with its rage as the chains refused to budge, the rest of the humans here fell into chaos, as they desperately tried to break the chain off.

"Shit shit shit!" Akira tried to break her cuffs with her own strength.

"It's no use, woman." The jet black haired man stood up, with a loud CLICK, the cuffs on his hand fell to the ground, and he kicked away his leg chains, "You're not escaping those chains without a lockpick."

"Then help us bro?!" Akira shouted, "Don't just leave us here to die!"

He stared at her, before turning to me. And then to the other adults and children. Maybe he's rethinking his decisions? To save us? One part of me just wanted…to let the flames take my body. But another refused, saying that it'll be painful. Find another way. However, those sensations were drowned out by something else, a cold tingle crawled up my spine as a new desire overtook my body:

Live.

"Free us…" I muttered.

The guy tilted his head slightly, "Hm?"

"Free us!" I shouted this time, "I don't what the hell you want! But if you need human shields for now! You have all of us. At least give us a chance to live! You can't just leave us here!" 

He thought over it for a second before moving to the side, there was another guard standing far away from the battle raging on in the back. WHile they were too busy dealing with the fire-breather, it appears that he had made a mistake backing off within arm's reach of the prison cart.

The man pulled up the right cuffs of his slacks, before pulling out a sleek dark blade, strapped to his calf, Akira was baffled from the sight, "Where and how the hell have you been hiding that-" 

"Shh…" He shushed to no one in particular, as he suddenly grabbed the guard from behind the bars, pushing his hand over their mask and jammed the blade into his neck. The poor and probably inexperienced guard choked for a second before succumbing to the oblivion that waits after death. It was clean, efficient, and brutal. Hinting that this may not be his first time killing someone.

"Jesus christ…"

The man held the deceased guard up as he reached for the keys, pulling it into the cart and tossing it to me. I quickly grabbed it and unlocked Akira's chains first, "Aha! Thank you goldilocks!"

"Yeah yeah…" I unlocked mine right after, before tossing it to the others, "Go do it yourself."

They scrambled to grab the keys, fighting with each other to unlock their own chains. But now lies another problem, "Right! How the hell do we get past the flames?!" Akira shouted.

The man gazed at the raging flames for only a few seconds, before pulling down his cuffs and bracing himself. Before charging through the flames and jumping through it, "OKAY! So this guy is straight-up batshit insane!" Akira palmed her face.

"What else are we supposed to do?!" I asked.

"Okay damn! At least let me tie my hair! Shit!" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a hairband, quickly tying her hair into a low bun as fast as she could. Pulling her jacket up her shoulders and zipping it up, "I'm not ruining this jacket…It cost five hundred…fucking dollars."

I have no choice but to gamble my life and jump through the fire. I turned behind me, finding that most of the prisoners had unlocked their chains. Before I could think of anything else, Akira grabbed my wrist, my expression shifted for a second as she yanked me along "No time to think! Jump!"

We jumped through the fire together. Covering our faces with our jackets and praying for the best. I could feel the heat singing my body as we jumped through the flame. The fabric of my flannel jacket caught aflame as we ended up on the other side.

"Shit shit shit!" I quickly threw away my flannel jacket, one of the sleeves had caught aflame, but thankfully, not my pants

"Thank god…I forgot my jacket was Kevlar. And my pants as well…" Akira breathed a sigh of relief, "Looks like yours was as well!"

Someone grabbed the two of us and pulled us up, the man had been waiting for us and pushed us into the forest, "Go. Run now."

"Hey! They're escaping!" The leader behind us shouted, "Shamar! Vulun! You stupid oafs! Get them!"

"Shit-!"

My feet began to move faster than it has ever before. Fatigue and exhaustion became a foreign concept to my body as my body continued to bolt through the dirt and leaves. Pushing past trees and rocks to maintain my speed. The man was ahead of me, followed by Akira. Compared to the two of them, I'm a sloth. Yet I managed to keep up with them, but barely.

I peeked over my shoulder, the orc was rapidly charging at us, huffing like a mad monster, while the elf was on a horse and racing the orc beside him, "They're gonna catch up!"

"How do you know?!"

"They have horses, Akira!"

"Blyat!" The man disappeared into the trees, leaving Akira and me running alone. The horseriding elf approached closer, ready to pounce on me. Before he could do so, something jumped out from the tree. Landing ontop of the elf and dragging him off the horse.

"The blazes-?!" 

SHICK SHICK!

"Akh-!" The Man had lodged his dagger into the crevice of the elf's full-plated armor, sliding it across and leaving the poor guard choking on his own blood.

"Vulun! No!" The orc turned around, shifted his focus to him, and stopped chasing us. Charging at the man and raising his axe to the side. Swinging it horizontally, but he failed to land a hit on the man. He rolled to the side and sliced his hip with his dagger.

But it didn't seem to harm the orc anyway, as he continued to swing his axe wildly, trying to land a feral strike on the man. One wrong move and it would be the death of him. No matter what he did, slicing the hips, legs, arms, sides. Nothing seemed to budge the orc as he continued to flail wildly.

It was only when he sliced the tendon of the orc did he flinch slightly. Yet, his thick skin and muscles didn't do as much as they would have done to a normal human. Just mildly annoy him, "You little rat-!"

The orc probably has far superior stamina and durability compared to the man. He'll outlast him. Part of me wanted to just leave, and let the man do everything himself. And focus on keeping myself alive. But my body refused to do so, as I bolted to the body of the elf, ignoring the cries of Akira and holding myself back from vomiting due to his bloodied corpse and grabbed his weapon, a simple halberd.

Even with my small arms, I was able to lift the halberd and aim it at the orc. Akira ran up to me and held the other side of the halberd. "God, you're quite something, aren't you, Sigurd?!"

"At my count!" I waited for the perfect timing, the man caught wind of what we were doing and made sure the Orc never laid eyes upon him and focused on him, "Three! Two! ONE!" 

"Hragh-!" The two of us charged forward, having aimed the halberd just enough to cause a direct hit onto the orc. The man rolled out of the way, as the Orc turned around just too late. The spike of the halberd impaled through his stomach, blood spurting out of his mouth as he cried out in pain.

Yet again, I held back the urge to vomit and continued pushing the spike deeper into the Orc's stomach. He held his ground, trying to rip it out, but the man rolled in from behind him, slicing and stabbing his tendons and weakening his stance before joining us at the Halberd and pushing with all of our might.

"Argh-!" We successfully impaled him on the tree, as the orc continued to spit out blood, The man let go of the halberd, and ran up to him, stealing the dagger the orc had in his waist and jamming it into his heart, twisting and screwing it deeper as the Orc desperately attempted to push him away, but soon enough, his body went limp. Unmoving as we let go of the halberd.

"Holy shit…we actually killed someone…" Akira panted, "What the fuck…"

"I feel sick…" I muttered.

The man stood above us, tilting his head as he observed the dagger of the orc, it's much bigger than a usual dagger. Of course it would be. The orc's about seven foot three. And his hands are large. But damn, his own dagger was dwarfed in comparison.

"I…appreciate your help." He spoke up.

"Mind telling us your name then?" I asked, for some reason, he looked oddly familiar. I couldn't exactly point my finger at it, but he resembled someone.

He held his hand out for both of us, "It's Vladimir. I doubt you'll last long to remember it."

As we grabbed his hand and stood up, the sound of leaves rustling alerted all three of us to snap our heads in its general direction. We heard the sound of a child whimpering and the sobbing of a mothers cry as three figures stepped out from behind the trees, "Well, will you look at this?"

The scarred elf held the son and mother from the carriage by knifepoint, hovering his daggers above their skin as he shook his head, "You killed Vulun and Shamar. That's…unexpected. They had families, y'know?"

"And you're holding one by knifepoint right now…" Akira mentioned, but he suddenly pushed his blades closer against the two of his hostages' necks.

"Move again, and I'll slit these two's throats wide open." He said.

All three of us froze up, my eyes darted to Akira as she was visibly sweating from the situation, "Slow down…You two. We are not getting those two innocent people killed…"

Vladimir didn't seem to care too much, as he tried to slowly back off, "Their lives do not matter as much as-"

WHICK!

SHING!

"Agh-! Blyat-!" The two of us flinched as we turned around. Vladimir's body was wrapped by a sort of chain that circled around his arms and bound them to his side. No matter how much he struggled, the chains seemed to tighten around him, as he grunted in pain.

Before he could do anything else, he was suddenly yanked up into the air, hovering a few feet above the ground as he flailed his legs. Behind us, the young leader of the guards appeared from the trees, "You killed Eltaor. This was his first job with us, and you murdered him. I know it was you."

For a second, his calm and calculated facade shattered, revealing his true expression, "How…? What is...happening to me-?"

"The others told me what you did, and judging from the other two, only you would have been able to kill my other men." The leader tightened his fist, squeezing Vladimir further, as he wriggled in agony, "And this…? Is something you wished you would have. A boon. A blessing from the world tree. Without it, you're nothing but a pawn to those with one. And you dare to defy us? Look upon the one who breathed hellfire. See his mangled corpse by the side of the road and take it as a warning. And this as well-"

The leader swiped his hand horizontally. The chains that wrapped around Vladimir violently pulled him to the side, sending him crashing into a tree. Enough damage was done to send him out cold.

"Oh shit…" I muttered.

"Okay first of all…how the fuck did he do that?" Akira couldn't hold herself, "First, a dude literally breathed fire. And now…this?!"

I couldn't say anything else before the chains that wrapped against Vladimir's body unraveled, revealing it's full size and shape as a web of metal. It hovered before us as we slowly backed up, but it was useless. With a quick flick of the wrist, the leader sent the chain barreling towards us. 

It wrapped around our necks. Coiling around it and strangling us as we let out rasps of choking sounds. Through teary eyes and agony, I witnessed the leader walk over to us, with Vladimir in one hand, dragged along by his collar as he grabbed the chain that connected both mine and Akira's choker. Pulling us through the rough terrain and back towards the cart.

"You tried, young ones. Oh, you really did. But this isn't how things operate in this place."