Vox Machina Book One: Nobodies to Heroes

Chapter 17: No Plan

The hall was littered with the bodies of the dead guards as Vex retrieve her arrows, "Upstairs." she informs, Kyria dusted off her hands as she stridden past the dead bodies.

She stood next to Vex as they watched the hall with a few of the rebels and the rest hurried up the stairs. The rebels soon join them as Kyria and Vex keep their eyes open.

But movement catches their attention, Vex looks over to Kyria as she meets the rogue's eyes. They both nodded and readied themselves.

The bowstring was drawn back further, and the fire was conquered in the Ashari's hand as they were ready.

But four shadows moved in front of them, revealing the back door team as they finally joins them. "Oh. Thank the gods." Vax said with relief.

The two exhaled as they lower their weapon and magic. Vax smiles as he steps up to his sister, but then looks up at the people on the steps "Wait, what's this crowd?" he asks, seeing everyone looking down at them.

"Pick it up along the way," Vex answers him, Vax walks past with the others, letting them get a whiff of the scent lingering on them, Kyria covers her nose as she looks at the rogue. "Why do you cover piss?" Vex questions.

"Picked it up along the way," Vax answers, Kyria just blinks as she looks at Jason, he groans shaking his head at her.

They hurried up the steps to the second floor, they spread out and look through each cell, trying to find which one was holding the rebel leader.

Percy kept his wide open until his eyes landed on a prisoner just inside one of the cells, he shot forward and gripped at the bars. "Archie," he whispers to the prisoner in the cell.

"Archibald," he calls out again, the prisoner inside the cell groans, lifting his head, and opens one eye. "Percy..." he groans. Then the exiled prince looks to the rogue. "Vax, get him out of there," he begs him.

The others just looked at him and watched, "Ah, right." the rogue mutters. Then kneels in the cell and pulls out his lockpicks. "Okay, here we go," he mutters, picking at the lock then it opens with ease.

"Did you see that? I'm telling you that the back door was cursed," he informs the others as Percy marches into the cell. "Shit, is this the afterlife?" Archie questions as Percy kneels in front of him.

Percy just smiles at him, "We're not dead yet, friend." he assures and helps him back onto his feet. The rebel nods at them and looks down the hall. "All right. We're getting out of here together." Vex informs the others.

But a burst of sickening laughter caught their attention as they looked down the hall "I'll give you this, girly." Stonefell slams his hammer onto the ground. His guard was right behind him. "You'll at least die together," he assures as they held Scanlan hostage. "Throw down your arms, return to your cells, and maybe I'll let you live." he offers them.

Jason just glares at him, "Why, so you can kill us all later? Fuck up!" he snaps at him. The others looked at him in shock, "Kill the gnome." Stonefell orders.

The guard removes his hand and held Scanlan by the hair as he held the guard's arm, struggling. "No, no, no, I'm too handsome to die." he cries, but his throat was cleared as everyone looks over and saw... Another Scanlan.

"What's a guy got to do to get some action around here?" he asks as he leaned against the guard, holding Scanlan. Keyleth just blinks at him. "Scanlan?" she asks.

The guard shoves Scanlan to the ground and then turns to the other Scanlan, bringing his sword down, only to strike at an illusion. The gnome took his chance and ran for it. "Run, you beautiful bastard, run!" Kyria calls out.