A Final Stand

A/N & Chapter 11: Kindred Spirit

Eyo, guys. I have something to say at the very end of the chapter. Just so y'all know.

Up there at the top is an art of, from right to left, Ruby, Kai, William, and Sammy, made by the wonderous @FayeofThunder !

<Jesse's POV>
The sound of pickaxe breaking obsidian slams my ears, and Magnus whisper-shouts, "We're out!" I turn to look towards him, expecting to be blinded by bright light, but instead I'm greeted with the faint indigo glow of night.

"That's a relief. They won't be able to see us," Lukas begins, but Ruby cuts him off.

"They'll have Night Vision and Sharpshot potions, and their mutant wolves can sense body heat. We'll be hard-pressed to escape alive."

"That's grim."

"That's the truth. Anyone have any ice blocks?"

We stare at her, confused. Ice blocks in a lava prison? They would have melted!

Ruby groans and pulls out a bucket of water. She then dumps it on the roof, and the water spreads quickly, until it's completely covering our feet. Jess is clearly attempting not to make a sound, and Magnus whispers, "Holy Guardian, this water is cold!"

"It's also the only way we'll get out of here alive." She blinks, seeming to be holding back a thought, and continues, passing out a few potion bottles. I look at the one she gives me with suspicion. What if it's another attempt to murder me? "These are three-minute Invisibility potions. We'll have to be careful with the particle effects, though; that'll be the most visible part of us to the humans." She downs the potion without another word, and everyone else, myself included, follows suit. We're instantly invisible. It's then I realize that she mentioned a potion we hadn't heard of before.

"You said a Sharpshot potion?" I ask.

"Do you not - oh. Right. You don't have Sharpshots or Acids or anything of that sort here. The Sharpshot potion strengthens your accuracy and ranged projectile damage, so a talented archer with Sharpshot, possibly Swiftness, and a bow could wreak havoc on an entire army without breaking a sweat. Very dangerous in the right hands," Ruby explains.

I frown, but secretly I'm impressed. What else do she and her world have up their sleeves?

"We should get going. Everyone, under the water, and stay there for as long as possible," Kai interrupts. "We should be here as little as possible."

Dripping wet, invisible, and shivering with cold, I walk out of the hallway and out against the wall. Glancing upwards, I can see heads - both human and mutant wolf - peering through the battlements. They haven't noticed us yet.

Something bumps my arm and a finger scrawls a g and half of an o on the point of impact. I understand the message; we need to keep moving. Every moment we spend our here is another moment we could be spotted.

On the other side of the entry, I can see a pale amber potion flowing through its bottle, and that bottle vanishing into someone's inventory as they begin moving forward. I'm already some ways across the bridge when someone shouts, "Escapees on the bridge!" Calls of "Raise the bridge!" emanate from inside the walls, and the bridge we're standing on splits in half.

I take a deep breath and begin sprinting, calculating the distance between the two halves silently. My chances of making the jump are getting slimmer and slimmer, and then-

My chest rams into the other end of the bridge, and I grab hold of the wood with all the strength left in my arms, which isn't much. I can feel my grip slipping, slipping, until I'm hanging on by my fingertips. Something's grabbing my feet and pulling me toward the lava, and something takes hold of my wrists and pulls me upward. I chance a glance at my potential savior, to see that it's Lukas.