Blindfolded, mana suppressed, and my wounds about to be completely healed, Zoe and I were in a makeshift cell in the middle of some desert Hoodoos, far from our first encounter. Tied up and guarded by a couple of human guards who barely paid us attention.
"Drake, how do you feel? Are you better now?" Zoe whispered at my side, making sure that the distracted guards couldn't hear us.
"Yes… much better now, I'll probably be ready in an hour to get out of this place." I responded with the same intensity, verifying that the connection with my AtlasRune was intact.
After my surrender, they took Belarus and took me with them to draw Zoe's attention from the ground with a couple of spells, causing her to come down and surrender in the same way upon seeing me chained, blindfolded, and with a relaxed attitude.
Trusting me, Zoe cooperated with them, resulting in them not treating us altogether badly since they captured us. After taking us both towards a slightly secluded place from where we were before, the same human girl I had spoken with inside the canyon was conversing with us along the way, explaining to us that it was nothing personal and that it was just work.
Thanks to the long chat we had with the human who, in fact, was named Eris and was only 16 years old, we discovered that they were going to take us to the border city Fallen God along with their leader, who was waiting for us there to then be transferred towards the Central Continent inside a wagon.
Hearing light footsteps approaching our position, the human's cheerful voice broke the boredom in which we were submerged.
"Hello, hello, pair of little siblings." Eris greeted loudly, stopping in front of us with what seemed to be a pair of metal plates, whose smell of hot stew made my stomach growl almost instantly.
With patience and a surprisingly good humor for someone who had shot us down from the sky, almost killing us, Eris started to feed us directly into our mouths with a spoon, helping us recover the physical energies that the heavy shackles on our wrists constantly stole from us by draining our mana.
"Hello, Eris…" I said after chewing and swallowing a piece of meat. "How is it outside? Is it night already?" I asked, lifting my head in the direction from where her voice came despite being blindfolded.
"Almost, the sun just set completely a few minutes ago." She responded cheerfully, bringing another spoonful to my lips.
Having a casual and, in fact, quite pleasant conversation given the circumstances, I decided to test the waters a bit with a joke to see how much information I could get this time.
"Hey, since you saw that we accepted our fate... couldn't you lower the intensity of these shackles a bit? They absorb so much mana at once that it almost costs me to breathe normally." I said with a feigned smile, showing discomfort in my voice.
"Haha, I would love to, handsome, but it's not possible." She answered laughing sincerely. "Because if I loosen them, you might try to escape by breaking the handcuffs with brute force, and believe me, they are too expensive for us to risk you breaking them due to carelessness."
"Haha, don't think so badly of us." I responded acting resentful, generating a laugh in her while she wiped the corner of my mouth with a somewhat rough cloth. "Since you won't do it, at least answer me one thing Eris. I realized on the way that this thing only weakens us and not you or the other guards who are also centimeters from us, why?"
"Cool, right? That's because they are special high-level toys." She explained with a proud tone, as if speaking of her own magic while feeding Zoe. "They are enchanted to absorb solely Dragonkin mana, and not other types of mana. That's why it doesn't affect us in the slightest."
It makes a lot of sense... I thought, piecing together the information in my head while I adjusted backwards to sit in a better way on the ground. If each race has its own unique mana signature, it must be similar to the blood types of my old world, but applied to the energy our cores produce. They have designed or bought a metal that reacts specifically to our type of mana so that it is more effective or cheaper…
Finishing feeding us patiently, Eris collected the plates, saying goodbye with a soft and flirtatious slide of her hand over my shoulder, leaving us alone again under the weak surveillance of the guards.
Remembering the chats we had on the journey, I knew that Eris was relatively new to that group of mercenaries. But despite being a rookie among veterans, she managed to climb rapidly in the hierarchy thanks to her incredible lethality with long-range spells, something that made her very dear, useful, and respected to the group of muscular hulks she walked with.
Feeling that my burns were already completely healed thanks to my passive regeneration and the nutrients from the food, I attempted to divert a little mana towards my eyes to activate Perception discretely, wanting to investigate the exact strength of the people guarding us and the size of the makeshift camp we were in.
Damn it... I complained internally after giving up after a few seconds, letting out a frustrated sigh.
It was a completely useless attempt. As soon as I tried to channel a hint of my mana, the shackles reacted instantly, absorbing it brutally and leaving me with a suffocating feeling of emptiness in my chest and weakness in my body.
Unable to use my normal magic or my augmented senses, I leaned stealthily to one side until I felt Zoe's shoulder collide against mine.
"We will wait until further into the night." I whispered almost brushing her ear, feeling how she nodded slightly in response. "We will take advantage when the great majority of them are deeply asleep in the early morning. That will be our window to get out of here." "Alright, Drake."
We have to get out of here this very night, whatever it costs. I thought, leaning my head against the cold rock wall while analyzing our situation. If we wait for them to take us to that city, most likely they will separate us instantly, locking Mork and Ness in some inaccessible place and delivering us with hands tied to the mysterious leader Eris mentioned. If that happens, we will be finished.
Having the goal clear, I mentally reviewed the plan I had devised. The strategy consisted of escaping from this cell using a method I knew Zoe would not like at all, to then go out and create a noisy distraction at different points of the camp far from our objective.
With a chaos that would give us a couple of minutes to move with greater ease, we would run towards where they had the dragons and pull away through the skies as quickly as possible, destroying part of the camp in our flight to ensure that they couldn't follow us easily.
…
Time passed, and slowly the noise of the camp died down due to the late hours of the early morning, leaving as the only sound the hoarse laughter and the slurred voices of the two new guards watching us on the other side of the cell. These, being away from the rest, started to celebrate their successful work, drinking liquor and hanging out while comparing the girls from a brothel they planned to visit upon arriving at the city of Fallen God, confident of the effectiveness of the shackles.
Brushing Zoe's shoulder in the darkness, I gave her two small taps to indicate to her that it was time to execute the plan I told her about a few hours ago.
Focusing on my mana heart, I closed my eyes and changed cores with an imperceptible delicacy, causing the suffocating oppression of the shackles to disappear completely. By ceasing to emit Dragonkin mana and replacing it with the dense and dark energy of my Demonic Core, the enchanted metal ceased to recognize me, becoming simple heavy scrap on my wrists.
Taking advantage of the absolute coldness that flooded my mind, I channeled my mana and used Immaterial for a single second, causing the matter of the shackles to slide through the altered space, passing through my hands cleanly without making a single scratch on me. Once free, I grabbed them in the air so they wouldn't make noise, to afterwards store them directly in my dimensional space using Atlas, repeating the same and rapid process with Zoe's bindings to make them disappear.
Finding herself finally free of the constant absorption, Zoe let out a small gasp of relief before thanking me.
"Thank you, Drake, now I do feel… free." She whispered, before closing her eyes and straining with the almost null mana she had to activate Perception, something I couldn't do with this core. After a couple of failed attempts where her breathing faltered, her muscles finally gave way, collapsing against my chest upon reaching her physical and magical limit.
"T-there are only… two other people pulling guard outside this cave…" She whispered with a trembling voice, barely audible over the bursts of laughter from the drunken guards that drew our attention. "Be careful, Drake… because the two watching us are Legend Rank and the two further out Expert Rank."
Upon hearing the confirmation of the Legend Rank ones, I felt a bit nervous, before forcing myself to calm down by repeatedly remembering in my head the plan I had to grab them by surprise.
They won't see the attack coming, they won't see the attack coming, they won't see the attack coming…
"Relax, I have it under control." I whispered to Zoe with more confidence, setting her aside carefully so she would stay seated recovering energies while I stood up in absolute silence, before walking directly towards the solid rock wall on one side of our cell.
Immaterial__. I whispered in my head, passing through the wall and disappearing into it completely.
Upon exiting through the other side, I encountered the backs of the inebriated guards who continued laughing while explaining why one prostitute was better than the other.
Atlas, Dark Steam. I thought, drawing Zoe's dagger from my dimensional rune to my left hand, while with the right I proceeded to fill the space with a black and dense smoke that confused their senses instantly.
Moving with the lethal efficiency of my current core, I slit the first guard's throat with a clean and horizontal thrust from behind, silencing the environment quickly when the dull thud of his head and his body collided against the stone floor.
Knowing that there was no turning back now, I spun on my heel and attempted to quickly slit the other guard's throat. However, despite being drunk and blinded by my spell, his Legend Rank instincts made him lift his arms covered in a layer of mana out of pure reflex to block my attack. Fortunately, being so close and not letting him use all his power, the blade cut deeply through his skin, flesh, and bones, shattering his forearms and gravely damaging his neck, making him fall on his back with a slight crash, badly wounded and spitting blood.
Approaching with coldness to give him the coup de grâce before he could shout and alert the other mercenaries, the man looked me directly in the eyes with a grotesque and choked laugh.
"Haha... i-idiots…" He spat fitfully, with blood staining his teeth more and more. "All chances t-to live vanished… because n-now, you will die! B-Because h-he will be here…"
Without letting him finish babbling his warnings, I plunged the blade into his throat, silencing him while my mind processed his words, resulting in that perhaps he was referring to other mercenaries.
Crouching quickly, I searched the pockets and belts of the corpses in search of the cell key.
Damn it, there is nothing here. I thought with a fleeting annoyance upon not finding anything metallic on them.
Ignoring the setback, I approached the thick bars of the cell. Channeling a bit of mana into Zoe's dagger, I struck the lock with precision and brute force, breaking the internal mechanism with a metallic crack before opening the heavy door.
"Come on, it's time." I said, holding out my hand to her.
Zoe nodded and stood up with evident difficulty, taking a couple of steps towards the exit before her legs failed her completely, falling to her knees upon the cold stone.
"Shit…" I cursed in a low voice, realizing that the shackles had weakened her much more than it appeared.
"Drake... I can barely stand." She confessed, clenching her teeth with frustration while looking at the ground.
Approaching quickly to hold her, I analyzed the situation for a few seconds in silence before making an important decision.
"Zoe, change of plans. I will take care of the distraction alone." I told her with a firm voice, lifting her carefully to support her against the nearest wall while my mind finished processing what I would do from now on. "I will leave you in a safe place to hide until you hear the explosions. So… just concentrate on recovering your energies."
Zoe opened her mouth wanting to protest, wanting to say that she would fight by my side, but she stopped upon realizing her own condition. Clenching her fists with helplessness, she lowered her gaze.
"Sorry…" She said in a low voice, with a tone charged with guilt. "I was supposed to help you, and now... now I am more of a hindrance than a help. Forgive me."
Upon hearing her say that, the coldness of my demonic core receded for an instant, replaced by a protective warmth. I crouched to her level and put a hand gently on her cheek, forcing her to look at me.
"It is not like that at all, Zoe." I responded to her with a sincere and determined smile. "You have taken care of me my whole life. Now... it's my turn to protect you."
Zoe looked into my eyes, letting the frustration leave her body before returning the smile with a mixture of tiredness and an immense affection.
"Thank you, Drake."