Displaced

Chapter 131

Rudra's lungs ached, remnants of two separate smoke clouds still inside. His nostrils burned, partly from said smoke and partly from whatever acrid substance the cloth over his nose and mouth had been soaked in. His arm and side hurt as Tepin dug her sharp nails into his skin hard and deep enough to draw blood—not out of fear, he knew, but rather out of rage at him and his actions. Outside, alarm horns blew, their chorus growing more numerous and more deafening by the moment. And yet, despite it all, his mind remained perfectly clear.

"You foolish man!" Tepin hissed through her own cloth facial wrapped around her face as she futilely tried to wrest the key ring from his grasp. With her paltry strength, she had no shot at success, but she tried anyway. It was one of the things he loved about her. "What are you doing!? The woman is right! We must leave now or it will be too late!"

"I'm not going anywhere," he told them both, his voice loud and unwavering. "Not while the others continue to suffer. Only when the Shells are free will it be time to leave."

"Have you lost your mind?!" the woman outside—Gabriela, if he remembered her name correctly—sputtered.

A group of figures shrouded in smoke came into view. Gabriela spun around, her absurd sword already in hand. The blade flashed around in an arc from right to left so fast that it left a blur and a mighty clap of thunder, but Rudra noticed how tall that blur was. She'd swung her weapon like a cricket bat, striking the forms with the flat side. The Stragmans practically doubled over around the huge blade from the power of the blow as she flung all three of them out of sight, but at least they were alive—probably.

"I've had nothing but time recently to think about my failures. I know I'm a fool; I've wasted too many precious opportunities already. I will not waste this one," he declared. "If you want me out of this cage and going with you, then help me free these people. Until then, I'm staying put."

More came without pause. Before Gabriela could even finish her follow-through, another Stragman—cheeks puffed out from held breath—darted in and slid a dagger into her back. If the woman even felt the pain, Rudra couldn't see it in the way she reached around, grabbed her assailant by their leather chest armor, and threw them away like a rag doll, only for them to be replaced by two more.

"You saphead! What in the howls do you expect her to do?!" Tepin growled as five loud thumps resounded from above.

"Yeah!" the woman outside yelled, jumping up atop the cage and out of view—though not out of earshot. "Stop being an idiot and get out of there now, before the entire city comes down on us!"

"She's a mighty and unkillable warrior with the backing of an entire country and others like her and me, all probably just as strong," Rudra explained his thinking. "If anybody can do it, it's her. This is the only time I have leverage, and I'm not going to pass it up."

"We do not have that kind of time, you stubborn ass!" Gabriela snarled as she hopped back down into Rudra's sight again, her words barely audible over the clamor of thousands of Stragmans closing in. At least a dozen arrows stuck out of her, making her look like a human pincushion, but then she let out a grunt. A third, crimson smoke emerged from her body and the shafts fell off as if cut away.

Grabbing two adjacent bars, she strained mightily against them, trying to force them apart. The wood didn't move a single millimeter, nor did it creak or moan—a total no-sell. "This is lunacy! We're leaving!"

The woman swiveled her large pack to her front like an oversized fanny pack, then snaked an arm in between two of the bars. Suddenly, Rudra's world rotated ninety degrees as she seemingly effortlessly lifted the cage into the air. He hugged Tepin close, twisting so that his back struck the bars and his body cushioned Tepin's landing. Before he could even react and grab hold of a bar to steady them, Gabriela burst forward in a startling display of power and speed. Inertia threw them against the back wall, drawing a pained gasp from his delicate partner.