Unleashed

Grabbing the axe handles, a momentary stunning sensation overtakes me. The feeling of a dormant power stirs and responds to me from within the bladed weapons. Before I can focus on it, another sharp stunning feeling strikes my back.

I sink down fast enough for a lance that was about to run me through to hit a wall above my head.

"Lucky", my subconsciousness thinks for a split second before I come face to face with a massive black-furred riding tiger that leaps at me as a consequence of its charging momentum.

I wasn't quick enough to understand that I must fight for my life now, yet the cat need not understand anything but how to claw and bite, and oh that it did.

I was able to tell by just how quickly after a massive beast locked its dull teeth around my head, my entire lower body felt numb in all places, then something warm started to pour over me. Another one of my split-second thoughts foolishly concludes that the great tiger must have soiled itself upon me, but an instant screaming pain everywhere suggests a bitter truth - my muscles are being torn apart and are bleeding all over.

Luckily I find my arms relatively untouched, and that is enough for my brain to command them to start swinging at their best.

The tiger does not tolerate being hurt in return and soon retreats from me to lump away into the nearby shadow.

A moment of pause at last as the Alranai are eyeing my torn body in shock.

We need to call for a priestess! He's going to die! Bandage his wounds! – commands the green-haired rider from atop her mount.

One of the bow-maids dashes up the exit and the root stairs but nobody moved to approach me.

"He still has the axes."

"By Alra, who left them there?!"

Little did they know, I didn't need a healer.

"Alra..." -I coughed. "Your life champion calls upon your mercy." Nnghh... "Let your loving heart heal my wounds."

An astonished "What?!" has sounded from all three of my remaining observers when a jade-colored glow starts radiating from my gashing lacerations. They remain frozen even when I am already standing and stretching my body to shake away the remnants of the disappearing pain. Old memory suggests tearing out an arrow from my shoulder blade before the gradual healing process will conclude, which I do with a painful roar.

As the glow stops, a moment of silence descends upon the root chamber that used to be my prison. I remember why I squeezed out between the two long-ago weakened wooden bars, why I ran for my axes. Though a glimmer of hope that this momentary lapse of judgment can still be forgiven sparkles in my head, it is not an option. Something was amiss and I must find Ashenchesa. Besides, everything in me was protesting against returning to the cage my eyes briefly glance over before fixating upon the wingless angels that wore almost nothing else but shoulder pads, gloves and boots for armor.

I did not miss an opportunity to take a glance over their weighty breasts, and then down their crotches, finding them all well-haired down there for my satisfaction.

The women whose eyes alarmingly follow my slightest motion are already recovering from their stupor as they seem to have understood our predicament just as well - they are hesitantly raising their weapons.

Repeatedly calling upon Alra's mercy so soon will not work, thus before long I already parry a lance that clumsily tries to stop my charge with one axe and strike it apart with another.

I do not plan to stay and fight the angels of Alra to the death, the thought of even so much as scratching them is firmly blocked in my head after centuries of endless friendship and closeness I shared with other creatures of their kind. I need to reach the exit and in blocking my way there is only one bow-wielding maid that is preparing to take a shoot.

Calculating the very second she will be releasing her arrow, I dodge down into a sliding motion to continue closing distance with my opponent. A thump of an arrow's landing sounds close behind me yet I cannot pay attention to it as my axes yearn to break the bow of a gasping angel.

The moment I lift my hands for a double swing, the planar creature drops the bow I aimed at and shrinks in posture, cowering her face in anticipation of a deadly blow.

I stop the axe motion right near her, taking a moment to look at her squirming face with closed eyes. She slightly opens them the next second and presents me with the most amusingly skewed facial expression. I couldn't hold out a chuckle, but instinct reminds me of two other guards still in my back's blind zone who could be aiming a strike upon me at this very moment.

With a swift dodge I turn around but find them inactive, more so, the blue-haired rider who was somehow dismounted, now stood with her sword and shield being drawn, yet her chest was pierced by a recently launched arrow.

For a second, I try to remember why I was fighting them, but the adrenaline rush is making it hard for me to think. Subconsciously I recall that I must run, so I turn to the exit that is now free for me to take.

"Sorry." I say, running off.