Chapter 26
Tyson
Ithink another day has passed. I’ve had enough time to think, and I can’t keep dwelling on Rohan.
I need to get the fuck out of here no matter what he’s chosen.
Maybe he has made some fucked up deal to get out of the game.
I cringe at the thought. But it doesn’t matter.
The first thing I need to focus on is getting out of this cell and scoping out the map.
I still can’t tell where I am. I definitely haven’t been to this map before. I know that much by now.
My head snaps over to the town’s leader, who has been knocked out cold this entire time. Not that I’m too worried, it’s a NPC. He’s moved a couple times, so he’s still alive. He must be under some type of magic. And the unknown monster hasn’t returned to check on either of us, so that’s been great.
I’ve conjured up a way to get the fuck out of this cell, only it’s going to cost me a shit ton of MP. I don’t have many supplies to recover it after that. I don’t even know what map I’m in to gauge the monster levels. But this is the only way.
I call up shadows using magic from my blade and let it consume my entire body, making us one. Kind of like the fucking creatures that put me in here, but a lot less creepy. I stay in my shadow state, slipping through the bars and materializing as myself on the other side.
The game sends alarms to my interface telling me my MP is dangerously low, as I already knew.
At least I’m out on this side of the cage.
I look to the town’s leader. I could probably get him out if I think hard enough, but I need to go out and see what I’m dealing with. And maybe where the fuck I am.
I turn and climb the steps, opening the door cautiously.
I scan the cold, empty halls of the map.
It looks like any other eerie-ass map right before something jumps out of the dark and attacks you.
A long corridor of brick walls with lanterns burning with dim flames nailed along them.
I make it to the end of the hall, to a bigger room, a kitchen.
The kitchen leads to another fucking hall, only there are monsters.
This must be the main map.
I know where I am.
Fuck.
And my chances of making it out on my own just drastically decreased, if not depleted completely.
I dash at the first monster, summoning my blade, but it dodges away. Not only are they a lot more powerful, but I don’t even have the MP or items to support my lack of level. More monsters appear out of the dreary darkness of the halls. I float back away from the gathering creatures.
“Looks like someone has escaped.”
My blood runs cold in my veins.
The boss-level monster has returned out of the shadows.
“I’ll have to teach you a lesson. A deal’s a deal.”
“I didn’t make a fucking deal with you.”
“But your friend did. So you’re mine.” It thrashes around frantically, whipping at my body. I dash back just in time, but my cheek stings, fresh blood beading at the cut it’s made.
“I don’t fucking believe you! I don’t belong to you!”
“Your friend abandoned you! So you do!”
Before I can even register its movements, it feels like time has frozen around me, us, everything. Like the game has halted. I cough, shadows spilling from my mouth violently.
What the fuck is happening to me?
“All you had to do was listen,” it says. “If only you’d listened to your father and been a good son.” My vision blurs; blinking, I see my dad standing in the hall. When I blink again, I can’t.
My eyes won’t open.
I use my last breath to get out the only thing on my mind, “Rohan…”