A Journey through Kingdoms

CHAPTER 13- UNDER SOLOMON'S HOUSE

Solomon. He is renowned for his mean-spirited attitude towards the people around him. Most would gaze from afar, and the man would berate them for doing so, even if it was just a mere glance. He was a wicked man with a wicked heart. Full of spite and anger. But that wasn't just all that he had going for himself. Below the house of Solomon lay the foundations of an underground workshop that led out into the underground sewer system, then back out into the surface. But why a workshop? It turns out that Solomon had mastered the art of enchantment, as in his spare time, he would create and enchant weapons of many varieties. Some for his personal enjoyment, others purely for business, as enchanted weapons had been made illegal by the inter-kingdom summit for they held too much power and destruction during battles of old and new; thus, the ruling was decided that all kingdoms shall not use or harbor such weapons in the case of another war. But rules were always avoided by miscreants and the like since now, in the present day. Derrick and Tetsuga watched on as the people with them moved around heavy crates of what could be weapons of presumably unknown enchantments.

"We got a schedule to keep people! I don't want to see anyone slacking off!" One of them shouts as he encourages them to work faster. "Amazing. All this time, Solomon has had this hidden workshop under his house! Ha! Ha! Who would've known!" Derrick said as he sat behind the back of Tetsuga, who was still fast asleep, tied together with rope. "The hell are we going to do about those two?" one of the people asked. "We'll deal with them later! Now keep working! The boss wants these things shipped out later this evening, so you all better haul ass with those crates!" He orders them while they obey with little pushback. "Uuurrghh..." Finally, Tetsuga slowly regains his consciousness, and he groans. "Mr. Tetsuga! I'm so glad to see you're awake now!" Derrick happily greets the man tied to his back as Tetsuga flaps his eyes open before yawning. "Aw man! That nap really did a number on me," Tetsuga comments as he tries to stretch his arms instinctively before realizing he was bound by rope. "Did we get captured?" he asked in a monotone voice as Derrick replied with a smile, trying his best to look behind him while still being tied up back to back. "Oh, most definitely, yes."

Now that Tetsuga has his bearings back together,. He starts looking around to properly assess the situation. "By the way, how long was I out for?" He asks Derrick, wondering how much time has passed since he got knocked out by a literal scent. "Usually the effect lasts for eight hours, but you knocked it out at just two," Derrick explains, which made Tetsuga's eyes go wide. "2 hours!?" He yells, which gets the attention of one of the smugglers there, leading them to shut him up. "Hey! Shut up!" He points, to which Tetsuga gives him a nasty side eye. Now noticing the criminals, he sees the crates. "Hey Kid, you know what they got in those boxes?" Tetsuga tries asking him. "I have no clue myself. But they seem to be important since they've been mass producing them for 2 hours," Derrick summarizes for him as they watch. They both look around to find a way to escape. Normally, Tetsuga would try and fight them with his hands tied, but this would cause too much of a problem considering Derrick is with him at the moment. But, thinking of it,. An idea sprung up in his head. Not at all a safe idea, to be sure, but an idea nonetheless. "Alright, I got an idea, but you have to trust me on this. Got it, kid?" he whispers to him as Derrick nods. "I shall trust you with my life," he then whispers back.

Tetsuga looks around for a bit to check on everything and everyone around him before clearing his throat to prepare. "... now," he spoke before immediately standing straight up from the floor as Derrick hung on by his sternum as the rope held him up close to Tetsuga's back. One of the smugglers notices this and shouts for them to sit back down. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" They try to approach, but Tetsuga kicks him away, causing quite the commotion that alerted the others. "So, what is the plane here exactly, Mr. Tetsuga?" Derrick asks him politely as he watches the smugglers whip out their weapons of different kinds. Some are blunt, others sharp. "Simple. We fight them with our hands tied," he says confidently as he stares them all down. "Oh dear," Derrick mutters before an all-out brawl transpires as they all rush in towards them both. One slashes their sword down as Tetsuga doges to the side. The sword hits the table behind them and instantly catches fire. Tetsuga looks over and sees it, only to realize what was really going on. "Uh, oh..." he mutters as he looks up to look at the smugglers, now with magic vision to see bursts of magic radiating from their weapons. "What's wrong, Mr. Tetsuga? It's very hard to see while being tied up behind you," Derrick informs as he tries his best to look behind him to see what Tetsuga sees.

"They're enchanted weapons dealers," he says to him back as Derrick takes a pause. "Oh." They all rush back in again, each throwing their own attacks towards them. Tetsuga tries his best to avoid all the attacks while keeping Derrick out of the line of fire but fails to anticipate the last one as a man with a club as a weapon hits him directly in the stomach, sending him towards the other end of the basement. Luckily, he could recover as he planted his feet down on the floor, preventing his back from hitting the wall as he skidded to a stop. Saving Derrick from faceplanting into it. "Ough, power enchantments..." Tetsuga reels from the hit as the attack was twice as powerful because of the enchantment. They try to corner him as he tries to get an edge, dodging their attacks while still being careful with Derrick. Though they did finally corner him as they back him up to one of the work benches. "Crap. They're surrounding us," Tetsuga mutters as they slowly take steps towards them both, inching closer and closer. Ready to strike. Derrick tried to think of something on the spot-something that could help Tetsuga in the moment-before realizing what was in front of him. A set of unfinished enchanted swords is on the workbench. Then an idea filled his head as he quickly gave Tetsuga a warning.

"Mr. Tetsuga! Heads up!" Derrick yelled before slamming both his heels into the table, flipping it over to him as the swords flew upwards. Over their heads. Everyone looks up, including Tetsuga, as they see the swords mid-air. Latching onto what Derrick was setting up for, he leapt backwards onto the edge of the flipped table and jumped up off of it before proceeding to kick the swords from their hilt and launch them towards the smugglers. Some of the swords missed, but others made contact as their unknown properties started to take effect. Some of them had caught fire; others had a part of them encased in ice. This then gave them more room to hit back since now they were all spread out and in a frenzy. "We gotta untie ourselves!" Tetsuga screams as he looks around for any solutions. "My vials! If we can get the one with the acid to fall, we can use it to corrode the ropes!" Derrick suggests as Tetsuga glances over at the hole he and him fell through. "So shake the house. Got it!" Tetsuga understood and proceeded to enact a plan. He weaved through the wave of enemies as he dove, slid, and dodged their attempts. "You guys are sloppy! What are enchanted weapons for if you can't even hit me?" he brags as he slowly tries to rile them up. "You! With the club!" After planting himself next to a support beam that led up to the house, he called out to the man who had hit him with a club earlier.

"Bet you can't use a sword, so that's why you got a club! Am I right or am I right?" Tetsuga tempts as he tries to rile him up. "You know, that hit didn't even hurt! Are you sure you can swing that thing around!?" Tetsuga says, which egged the man on as he pushed past the line of people, his club raised up to lay down a mighty blow. Once he got close, he swung it down with all his force. only for Tetsuga to move to the side and have him hit the support, shaking everything around them as well as the house above. Over at the floor above, the floor shook violently as the vials that were sprawled out on the floor started rattling from it, until one suddenly gained movement as it rolled on over closer to the hole but stopped just as it was about to almost fall. "Oh, c'mon!" Tetsuga complains as he looks back down at the man. "I suppose you can't hit it another time?" Tetsuga quips before ducking down to avoid another strike. "Guess not!" He then moved away to try and gain distance between them. "Looks like we're pinned, Mr. Tetsuga!" Derrick says as he watches the rest of the people slowly approach from behind while the man with the club approaches from the front. "Incoming!" Derrick yells to warn Tetsuga as he dodges to the right, then ducks down to dodge a hit from behind again, then leaps back to gain distance yet again before being socked in the face with the club as he's sent flying over right under the hole. The vial was tempting them as it was so close to falling. "Mr. Tetsuga! Are you okay?" Derrick checks up on him as the man groans in pain.

"I think I broke a molar... or three," he says as he is face down on the floor with Derrick right on top for all to see. "They're menacingly approaching us," Derrick says as Tetsuga tries to get his bearings straight. "They love doing that, don't they!" Tetsuga comments as he tries getting up, but then, from the top, a small yet noticeable shadow peers over at the two, as Derrick was the first to notice it. Looking up at it. "Rat!" Derrick yells as he sees the rat right next to the vial. "Missed the's' there, buddy," Tetsuga replies, assuming Derrick was supposedly trying to say 'rats!'. "No, Mr. Tetsuga, there's a rat right next to the vial! If it nudges it, then it'll fall directly on us!" He says. Hope yet to have left the two boys. "Then what do we do about it!?" Tetsuga asks, as his mind couldn't go anywhere else to formulate a plan. Luckily, Derrick had one, which he says with a great big smile on his face.

"We wait!"