blueteamnovel Chapter 132: A Bit of Polish
Chapter 132: A Bit of Polish
Chapter 132: A Bit of Polish
When Rikuto and Daniel arrived in the Castle of Mornistae, their perspective was a sudden magic circle appearing beneath their feet, a blinding flash of light, and in Daniel’s case, arriving in a strange place when the light finally faded. For Rikuto, the only additional step was meeting with Ryukana to receive her gifts prior to the arrival.
For anyone standing in the ritual room, however, it seems that the spectacle is a great deal more magical than anyone could imagine. A great deal of mana was gathered into the air above the ritual circle, building into a powerful and ethereal core that burst into the heavens to call in a request to the gods themselves, in hopes that they might answer with sending an otherworlder to assist with Zenkon’s most dire problems.
The answer from the Divine Realm returned with just as much of a splendorous and divine tableau. Glowing mana of various colors seems to roll away from the epicenter of the spell circle like a heavy fog.
When the air clears enough, Rikuto’s heart tightens. He was afraid of what would happen if the spell were to falter, but he only now realizes the true gravity of what he has done.
He has taken responsibility for and completed a ritual that pulls a person from another world.
Assuming it went the same as his own summoning, Ryukana the goddess would have verified that the chosen person accepts. During this time, the summoned individual is bestowed with magic and specific powers unique to them even in the world of Zenkon.
If it goes like Daniel, however, the person arrives in the world with no magic and never spoke to the goddess. That person would be akin to a kidnapping victim.
Now, seated on her knees in the middle of the ritual circle, is another apparent American with fair skin, golden blonde hair in a ponytail, mahogany-brown eyes, and a large backpack decked out with camping equipment.
In fact, she looks like a hiker, with obvious brown leather boots, all kinds of equipment tied to her bag, denim shorts and a lightly sweat-stained blue tee shirt.
Feeding into Rikuto’s fears, her eyes are as wide as saucers as they adjust to the dim lighting, and she scans the room briefly.
Yaulander stands up suddenly with a boisterous exclamation of victory. “Ahhh! You did it! Amazing! Look at her! She looks so very foreign, and yet, truly heaven-sent!”
She flinches with a start at the Grand Prince’s joy, and she asks frantically, “Co się dzieje!? Gdzie ja jestem!?”
This catches Rikuto off guard, and Yaulander asks, “What was that? What did she say?”
“I... I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? Didn’t she come from your world?”
Rikuto nods. He asks in English, “[Excuse me? Do you understand me?]”
The young woman looks between him and the Grand Prince, asking with the same panic in her voice, “Kim wy jesteście?! Jak się tu dostałam!?”
She’s of European descent; that much is clear. And, the camping equipment she has all belongs to the modern age. He doesn’t see anything especially alien to him from the year he left. However, he doesn’t recognize the language she’s using. If he had to guess, he would eliminate French and Spanish, since it doesn’t sound like what little he knows of those, but there are still a lot of options remaining that he can’t eliminate for certain.
Yaulander’s impatience gets the better of him, and he marches proudly towards her. “Listen to me! You are a Divine Summon brought to our world to-...”
He is cut off when the blonde whips out a canister from a holster on her belt. It’s about the size of an energy drink can with a looped handle and a pushbutton on top, as well as a nozzle pointed directly at the golden-haired Grand Prince. The young woman quickly scans the room, springing to her feet. She snarls at the Grand Prince, aiming the canister at anyone who moves closer to her, “Nie zbliżaj się, słyszysz!?”
Yaulander simply laughs, putting his hand on his chest. “Obviously, you wouldn’t yet know who I am, but I am Grand Prince Yaulander kos...” The girl bolts for the nearest doorway, startling everyone.
Rikuto calls out, “Wait!”, while the Grand Prince shouts, “Stop her! Don’t let her escape!”
Several guards close in on her, attempting to block her escape. Rikuto hasn’t ever owned one himself, but he easily recognizes the canister. It is a can of pepper spray; specifically, it is a specialized pepper spray designed for protection against bears.
She delays her flight from the room only long enough to take solid aim at the left guard’s face, unleashing a jet of bright orange fog straight into his metal helmet. She swiftly aims at the right guard, doing the same to him, and in just a couple of seconds, both guards are screaming in agony until falling into a fit of coughing and wheezing. They instinctively stumble back away from the source of the spray, giving the young woman enough of a window to dart between them under the cloud of irritant and slip out of the room through the doorway.@@@@
Other guards follow her, but even with her backpack, she is much faster than they are in their armor.
Rikuto watches as the Imperial guards belonging to Yaulander chase after the summoned woman, minus two who are on the ground in agony, unable to breathe properly. A few guards and maids try to tend to them, pulling their helmets off to give them fresh air. Plenty of the spray reached their faces, meaning the two are down for the count, no matter what anyone does for the time being.
“That fool!” shouts Yaulander. “Who does she think she is!? I had her called here! Does she think she stands a chance out there without me?”
Rikuto listens to him vent for a moment. He can’t help the thought that immediately enters his mind.
Daniel survived, and he arrived with little more than a cell phone and a computer chair. Now, he’s enemy number one. That girl looked more like she was ready to survive without help than either me or Daniel.
Yaulander snaps, “Order your guards to seal the city and capture her. She won’t get far.”
Rikuto hesitates for only a second, nodding soon after. “Of course, your Imperial Majesty.” He still can’t stand, too dizzy to focus on much of anything now that the girl has fled.
If I can, I’d prefer to bring her in without his knowledge so I can try to protect her. I shouldn’t have stepped in. What was I thinking?
Rikuto turns to his own Royal Guardsmen and begins giving them instructions. They also need doctors and healers to start treating the collapsed mages.
They’ll need to find the young woman before she gets lost, or something worse happens.
***
Zuzia runs down the stone corridor, too surprised to really take in her surroundings.
How did I get here? Was I drugged? I obviously got kidnapped, but by who? The last thing I remember, I was in the middle of the forest!
She turns around a corner, coming to a stop and aiming her anti-bear pepper spray. As soon as a trio of armored men turn the corner, she sprays them with a solid fog, incapacitating them and tripping several more. It should restrict the hallway for a moment or two.
The Polish woman resumes her sprint down the hall, narrowly avoiding a random medieval cosplayer in a full Victorian era-like dress. Zuzia glances at it briefly, but keeps her focus on her escape.
What is this place? Those guards... that pompous guy? That language? How could I get kidnapped from a forest near my hometown to another country!? It’s definitely not a castle I recognize. What was the one I visited in school? Moszna? This definitely isn’t Ogrodzieniec. It’s too new, and no rock-faces.
Zuzia scoffs, joking to herself. At least I know it’s not Kaer Morhen...
Several guards ahead notice her, and they challenge her. However, the language is completely alien to her, and she doesn’t understand.
“Sorry!” shouts the blonde as she sprays them in the face, dropping them as they flail back against the wall. She keeps running.
I never had to use this spray in all of the times I went camping! Now, I’m going to empty it in a freaking castle!
She uses her free right hand to check her backup spray, which is still firmly locked into its holster. Bear attacks are extremely rare in Poland, but since she likes to go on solo backpacking trips, she chose safety. And, the bonus is that pepper spray strong enough for bears works just fine on people.
Well,... At least,... I hope none of them die, but I’m not being a prisoner to a bunch of drugging kidnappers!
She notices sunlight up ahead, and she runs as fast as she can. She already used about 3-4 full seconds of her current can of bear spray, meaning she probably has one good burst left.
Please be an exit! Please be an exit!
The young polish woman is just running. She has no idea where she is, where she’s going, and how she’s going to get home. For now, she has to get away from the kidnappers.
Because, if this is some sort of weird cosplay cult, she wants nothing to do with it.
Several women dressed like ancient European maids step out of a room carrying wooden pails, and Zuzia does her best to dart around them. She nearly plows into a statue, shoving off of it as she keeps running.
Voices call out to her, and she merely glances. At least one of the guard does seem to be a human being; he’s terrified seeing her at the edge of the battlement, as if he knows what she’s contemplating. Maybe others are worried, as there’s a lot of yelling and waving at her.
However, there are swords drawn.
Actual metal swords.
A solid meter or more of sharpened steel meant to kill.
She can’t escape now. Not without jumping. It’s her only option, other than to surrender. She doesn’t have enough spray left to incapacitate such a large group, who have blocked both exits of the balcony.
Zuzia wishes she could say something suave or cool, reminiscent of an action movie hero. She wishes she had a cool one-liner that would send the guards straight to the burn unit at the hospital.
Instead, she can only hear her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. She can feel the itchiness of adrenaline in her veins. Fear grips her heart.
One of the guards tries to rush her with his lithe frame, seemingly moving like a cat, rather than a man, and Zuzia’s instincts kick back in, denying her chance to go out like a puckish rogue.
She steps forward, using her position to kick off of the lip of the embrasure with all of her strength, and she manages her angle as best as she can before closing her legs in and folding her arms over her chest. It’s a terrifyingly long time that she is careening towards the water; long enough for her to have thoughts, to be afraid all over again, to curse herself for jumping, to realize she noticed something strange protruding from the helmet and backside of the cat-like man, as if he had triangular ears on top of his head and an actual feline tail.
During her long fall, she has time to ask herself in her own thoughts, Wait, are there furries here, too? What kind of mix and match cult...?
Her feet hit the water, and she braces to try to hold her breath as long as she can, scrambling to the surface as quickly as she can manage. However, her bag is weighing her down. She had hoped there would be enough pocketed air volume that she might float, but that’s not the case. Her equipment is too heavy.
She saw buildings, so she's in a town. Though, if cultists have control of such a huge castle right out in the open, they probably have a great deal of influence in town.
Either way, she doesn't have the luxury of hesitating or thinking about it.
Zuzia unbuckles her backpack, slipping free of the straps just as she feels it settle on the bottom. Her ears ache painfully, but she doesn’t think she's much more than three, maybe three and a half meters deep.
The young woman quickly spins, flipping her backpack over and opening the main pocket zipper so she can grab a couple of her granola bars and her water bottle. She also gets into the small front pocket to retrieve her fire starter rod and a multi-tool.
Just in case, Zuzia tries to lift her backpack and swim with it, and she can move. Perhaps it was just because she was upside down. Not delaying further, and now that she has emergency supplies if she does have to ditch her bag, Zuzia slings it over her shoulder again. Feeling the burn in her lungs demand attention even after buying herself a few extra moments by exhaling slowly, she kicks off of the riverbed, swimming up to the surface. She barely reaches the surface when she absolutely has to inhale, and she takes in a massive breath of fresh air. Some water droplets find their way down her windpipe, and she coughs, treading water with her salvaged necessities. Her cellphone is in her shorts pocket, so as long as she can get clear of the immediate danger, she can call the police and try to figure out how to get home.
And, just in case, she has the granola bars to tide her over as she tries to hike to the next town away from this cultist compound. Zuzia’s fine with people having their own personal preferences and interests, but she’s not fine with being kidnapped into them.
And, as if to continue raining on her ‘happy’ little parade, the smell at the surface of the water degrades quickly as she drifts with the current, planning her route of escape. She is now under a tunnel structure, and the air quickly becomes a putrid, sewer-like smell.
It’s then that she realizes that one of the biggest advantages of being on a river like this, exploited by organizations of all levels since time immemorial, is that waste can be simply dumped into the river and it floats away... only to slowly destroy the environment and disrupt the ecosystem.
Oh, hell no! thinks the Polish woman. There’s no way THIS is legal! Just you wait until I figure out where the heck we are! She gags and coughs, doing her best to keep hold of her tools, but agonizing over foul stench invading her nostrils and making her cough. She feels horribly sick, and the downstream way is blocked by a gigantic metal grate. She can’t fit through any of the gaps in the bars, and she begins to panic. She’s still a bit winded from fleeing at a full sprint, and she doesn't want to sacrifice her expensive camping gear at the bottom of a river that a castle full of lunatic kidnappers dumps their waste into.
She searches for options, and her best bet is likely to climb out via the metal grating.
Zuzia shoves her fire starter and multi-tool into the pocket not containing her phone, and she grabs onto the portcullis with her newly free right hand so she can shift herself to allow her to shove the granola bars into her back pockets. It’s tightening her shorts on her legs, restricting her movement some, but she should still be able to run.
She grumbles to herself, “‘Get the ladies’ shorts!’ they said. ‘They’ll be super cute!’ Dumb, stupid... Why did I listen? I should’ve bought men’s shorts...” Zuzia clings the free strap of her backpack back onto her shoulders, but she avoids buckling it for now in case she needs to ditch it. The blonde starts climbing, but she hears the banging of metal armored boots as they approach, and she looks up at the gap above her.
Soldiers appear over the edge of the tunnel roof, shouting to each other and pointing at her.
“Dupki... Debile...” grumbles the Polish woman in her native tongue. Great. Now what?
She looks around as the guards call over reinforcements, while a couple of them bark orders at Zuzia.
I really can’t place that language at all. Who the heck are these guys?
Just out of idle -and admittedly desperate- curiosity, she tries pulling on the bars near her. The metal gateway consists of metal bars that are roughly four to five centimeters across forming squares about ten centimeters at the widest all the way across and up to the top of a stone-block archway.
As she pushes on it as much as she can, bracing herself with her left hand against a separate section, the bar she’s pressing on snaps one end of the section of a square with a loud metallic ‘pop!’ that startles her.
Surprised, she pulls the metal bar back the other way, and the other end of that small section of bar forming the side of a square snaps off as well with a metallic pop.
The guards fall silent, while Zuzia looks at the roughly 8 centimeters of metal she has in her hand.
Okay... I am definitely NOT this strong. This has to be a movie set or something, right?
She tucks the metal piece in between her belt and the waistband of her shorts, in case she can use it later, since it’s good metal. The Polish woman then grabs the newly created double section of a horizontal piece of flat bar, and she pulls on it with both hands, using her feet to brace herself. She yelps as the metal buckles and gives way, snapping off, though this time, the vertical piece that goes down from where her piece was broken bends. She twists a couple of times as she is slowly sinking in the water, snapping the bar free.
There is now a square gap that is roughly twenty centimeters wide and tall through the portcullis.
Zuzia swims back to the surface, inspecting her handiwork.
The guards have also fallen strangely quiet, though she can see they’re still up there, staring down at her.
She states caustically in Polish, “[I’m not sorry about your stupid movie props! You kidnapped me!]”
The blonde then takes a couple of moments to pull bars free under the water so she’ll be able to swim through, rather than trying to climb through. It may be movie prop metal for whatever dumb action scene, or because they’re stingy cultists with their own castle, but it’s still definitely metal. She doesn’t want to get scratched.
A net drops on her, and she yelps, “Gah!” She immediately kicks downwards into the water, bracing herself against the portcullis and pulling against the net as they try to draw it back up.
She encounters resistance for a moment, and it’s rather tangled around her, meaning she’ll have trouble escaping as well as avoiding drowning if she doesn’t get free quickly.
The Polish backpacker bucks backwards against the tension, and it seems to pop free of whatever it was, allowing her to sink with the weights attached to the net. She begins pulling against it to get free, and to her pleasant surprise, the ropes begin breaking.
Thank goodness! thinks the young woman to herself. Just as she has the thought, though, heavy splashes hit the surface of the water, and emerging from the rising bubbles are two armored bodies that sink like stones made of metal. They both flop down onto the bottom of the river bed, struggling to climb to their feet.
During her flailing while tangled, she kicks the portcullis, and the whole thing gongs through the water, startling her briefly.
Geez! This place is crazy!
She pries the netting free and scrambles clear, observing the two knights as they manage to get to their feet. But, with all of that armor, there’s no way they’ll make it to the surface.
What do I care!? I’m the victim!
She swims back to the surface, returning to her hole in the portcullis.
What am I even supposed to do, anyways? The others are coming.
As she pries another section of the metal bars free, she has a thought.
I guess... if their armor is as cheap as this metal...
Zuzia groans as her guilty conscience starts to nag at her.
***