PreCursive

  PreCursive

  Before I could eve, Woodrick tackled me out of the way of whatever had been waiting in the room. As the two of us sailed through the air, I twisted just enough to see what was happening.

  I just barely mao catch a glimpse of what was happening.

  I think it taurian—a big one.

  This must be the missing Prime.

  In the split sed befrey and the monster escaped my field of view, I was able to see my mentor snap his bde up in a guard position and brace himself. He was just barely able to catch the hideous monstrosity's foot-long cws on Stelrum before they could skewer his heart. However, he wasn’t able to hold his ground.

  Grey ushed off his feet and carried through the doorway to Woodrick’s former cell. I squeezed my eyes shut briefly from the resulting shower of stone as the doorway was obliterated with a deafening boom. Milliseds afterward, I heard a sed crack of stone as another wall was broken down.

  The entire exge had taken pce before Woodrid I had even hit the ground. We impacted the stone of the fifth floor, driving the air from my lungs. Still, I mao say something. “Grey!” I wheezed out, scrambling out of Woodrick's arms and to my feet. I stumbled forward as quickly as I could, hooking a hand around the crumbling stone of the now destroyed doorway to the Sculpted’s former cell. My eyes wide what I found.

  It was destroyed. Gone.

  As was Grey and the Prime.

  Not only was the far wall of the tower cell destroyed, but so was most of the floor i was a crumbling ruin that I didn’t dare step foot in, else it colpse underh me. However, that wasn’t what caught my attention the most.

  It was what was happening on the roof of Caer Drarrow outside.

  Just barely in sight and below me, Grey was fighting a vicious battle against the aurian Prime. I watched as my mentor desperately parried a blow from the lightning-fast cws of the sea monster, before being forced back a step to avoid another. With a frustrated shout, Grey released an explosion of bd silver Mana in a sphere all around him. Eerily silent, the aurian skipped back a step to avoid the spell, before instantly spearing forward with its talons in a bid to skewer Grey as the energy dissipated. However, he wasn’t there.

  Grey’s sword desded on the shoulder of the monster, from where he had jumped into the air in the moment he was cealed by his bst, leaving a deep wound. The aurian finally made a sound loud enough to reach me from this distance, a horrifyingly warbly whinny. The beast skipped back several steps to retreat, letting Grey nd ba the ft prison rooftop.

  The two batants stared at each other for a moment, before starting to circle.

  I…I didn’t know what to do. Should I go down there and help him? Would I even be any help, in a battle of that caliber? If the aurian Prime was anywhere as strong as the Frostbrine Prime had been, it might be ten times my level.

  Before I could make a decision, I was startled as a familiar form blurred past me from my gawking position.

  Venix.

  He sailed through the air, desding otle between Grey and the Prime and drawing his bdes as he did so. The Antium must have bsted up the staircase to this floor so fast he didn’t even make any noise. I hadn’t heard him ing at all.

  I was startled when I un around by someone else. It was Woodrick, with a grim look on his woodeures.

  “We o go,” The Sculpted leader told me soberly. “Grey and Venix handle…whatever the hells that is. We o get everyone else out of this tower. It could colpse after something like this. That’s what you guys were doing, right? Resg everyone?”

  I bli Woodrick for a moment before snapping out of it. I rexed the hand that had automatically goo my dagger-spear and clutched it in a death grip, before nodding at him. “You’re right,” I said shortly. The two of us left the sight of the ambush and raced dowairs.

  Sylvia and Bel were there to greet us, both with bdes drawn. The two of them were tense in expectation but rexed when they saas desding the stairs. Sylvia me and then paused at the sight of the other Sculpted. “Woodrick.” She aowledged in a teone, l her bde.

  Woodriodded at her. “Sylvia. Good to see you.”

  Aurum popped his head out from behind a nearby cell wall at the exge. The healer smiled widely when he saas with me, emerging fully. “Rick! Are you-”

  I cut him off. I’m sorry man, but we don’t have time for reunions. “Grey and Venix are fighting the missing Prime,” I said shortly, cutting off all other questions and versation. Sylvia tensed back up at my words, looking like she was about to bolt past me. I id a hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Some crazy bastard set a trap with it ihe other cell up there. They ha. But we o get out of this tower now. The Prime damaged it too much. We don’t know if it’ll hold up.”

  As if to punctuate my words, we heard the rumbling sound of colpsing stone on the floor above. Thankfully, the ceiling didn’t colpse in on us just yet, though roup was showered with dust briefly.

  I id another hand on Sylvia’s other shoulder to look her in the eye. “Did you get everyo of the tower yet?” I asked her urgently.

  Sylvia relutly dragged her eyes off of the staircase to meet mine. “We evacuated everyoo the first floor at the noise,” She said with araneous exhale.

  Bel made towards the stairs while Sylvia and I were speaking, but was blocked by Woodrick. “Lady, are you mental?” He said incredulously. “That floor is actively colpsing. We o get out of here.”

  The pirate Captain glowered at the Sculpted. “Out of me way, bark boy. I’m ‘ere for revenge against that beasty out there, and I’m goin’ ta get it.”

  I let go of Sylvia to turn and frown at Bel. “Look, I get it,” I told her, frustrated. “But we have more important things to worry abht now.”

  Bel rounded me with furious eyes. “What do ye get, weaklin’?! That monster out there ruined me life! It stole everythin’ from me! Me fleet! Me crew! And me PRIDE! I ain’t gon you busybodies stop me from settlin’ the score!”

  We didn’t have time for this.

  I bounded over to get in her face. “Right now,” I hissed to her. “There are dozens of traumatized, starved, sick children below us. They’re waiting on us to get them out of here, terrified out of their minds. You o choht now. Do you care more about your revenge, or do you care about doing the right thing?”

  Bel met my inteare with one of her own in a tense silence. I held her gaze, unintimidated by the woman by this point.

  Our standoff was broken by the sound of more rumbling from above. A stone came loose from the ceiling, and crashed to the floor not far from us.

  With a muffled curse, Bel spat off to the side. Without a word, she marched past me towards the back stairs and desded them, ung about the dust falling from the ceiling. I let out a breath, and turo nod at Sylvia. She retur silently, and then turned and ushered a bewildered Aurum dowairs with her.

  When I turo gesture Woodrick with us, I found him looking at me ptively. “Intense bunch, aren’t you?”

  I sighed. “Not usually. , let’s go.”

  At that, the two of us departed for the stairs ourselves. Woodrick had to stoop over to fit through cramped stair hallways. As we desded through the y cells, I couldn’t help but be gd that this horrible tower was going doce like this where such evil was allowed to fester didn’t deserve to exist.

  The two of us reached the packed first floor to find the rest of my panions waiting for us. Outside the door to the tower, I could hear the pitched sound of battle, which armed me to say the least. It seemed to have scared the children too, who they had gathered in a rge group. Sylvia and Aurum were trying to keep them calm, too busy to aowledge me. But here was an additional problem. Several seemed to be out of it, lying ie on the floor. I grimaced at the sight of them.

  Azarus must have noticed, because he returned my grim expression. “Aye, some of them are too siove. We’ll have to carry ‘em out. Which is a problem, cause them pirates are fightin’ off a horde of guards that came runnin’ at the sound from above.”

  That made me notice that both McGill and Bel weren’t in here with us. I guess they had joihe fighting outside.

  Damnit, how were we going to fight off the guards ahese kids out of here at the same time?

  A rumble from above reminded me that I didn’t have a ton of time to think of a solution.

  Luckily, someone else saved the day.

  Woodrick stepped past me. “Leave it to me,” He said fidently, reag up to his chest and plug something out from under his bark. They looked to be seeds of some kind, to my eyes. He tossed them at one of the empty ses of the floor and visibly trated, making a gesture.

  Under my astonished gaze, the seeds somehow grew into makeshift stretchers. The beds of the stretchers were made of leaves, while the frames seemed to be made of branches. Instead of wheels, they had what almost looked to be animated, oversized chi feet made of wood. I watched the stretchers indepely stand up and shuffle ihe Sculpted leader had made three of them in total

  “Those will hold them, and follow us as well,” Woodrick said, nodding in satisfa. “They’re more than strong enough to hold the children.”

  Azarus was nonplussed at the overt dispy of magic. “That’ll do. , help me load the kids up.”

  I shook myself out of it and helped the two others load the sick kids up on the mobile stretchers. There were six of them in total, so about half of the kids from the fourth floor were too siove on their own.

  I took a deep breath when we were done. “Okay then,” I said, nodding to the adults in the room. That included Richard Everfield and the other freed adult prisoners of the tower. “Let’s do this. Azarus, Sylvia, Woodrick. You guys go first. I’ll bring up the rear with Aurum, the kids, and the others.” I paused for a moment, before reag for my spare colpsed spear behind me. “Woodrick, do you need a on?”

  Woodrick fidently shook his head. “No. I bring my own.” He said, plug another seed from his chest. This time, instead of growing a stretcher, a giant double-bded great axe hewn from oak grew in his right hand. In seds it reached full maturity. O had, the Sculpted slung it on his shoulder.

  I blinked and thehed my paratively puny dagger.

  Okay then.

  I Azarus, who walked over to the door and readied his hammer and shield. “Let’s do this,” He said grimly, before opening the door.

  Oher side was chaos.

  Bel, McGill, and the rest of the pirates were embroiled in battle with a mass of Loyalist Guards. Blood and screams filled the air, both from the guards and the pirates. The freed prisoners might have been more vicious than the guards, but the guards were just better equipped. The pirates mostly had sged ons and no armor to speak of.

  Bel and McGill were by far the deadliest of the pirates. Bel was scything through the guards with a cutss sheathed in razor-sharp winds, darting across the battlefield. Meanwhile, McGill had picked up a sed sged longsword and was hag wildly at the opposing forces to great effect.

  Still, even with those two powerhouses, the bined pirate forces were still being pushed back by the seemingly never-ending stream of guards.

  Woodrick clucked his wooden toh a hollow noise and shook his head. “’t have that, we?” With a running jump, the Sculpted leader crashed into the thick of the melee. “Timber Rend!” I heard him shout, followed by a green fsh of light and the screams of the guards.

  Who actually said skill names out loud like that? I shook my head, gng at Aurum while Sylvia and Azarus advanced on the fighting as well. “You stay in front so you heal,” I said shortly, ung at this point of his wary gaze. We could sort it out ter. “I’ll bring up the rear.” At Aurum's nod, we got into position.

  Ahead of us, the introdu of my panions had shifted the tide of battle signifitly. They were pushing back the guards now, leaving room for us to advah our precious cargo. Carefully, I urged the children forward, Woodrick's stretchers following along in our wake dutifully.

  Time to get out of this hellhole.

  I could only hope that the crew of the Thorny Reef had succeeded in their mission.