Captive - 4

"This…"

I held out the spear and cloth to Alex who in turn only took it into his own hands. For a moment he just stood still, his knees crossed together.

Yet in the next moment he found his rhythm and stood with it slung over his shoulder. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Then with another breath he opened them and swung the spear over his shoulder. The air split and the ground was cut into.

"Sharp..." He muttered to himself. And with another pull he swung it under his arms.

"Its edge retains well too, good spear, better than what I would expect for a goblin."

He smirked and with a hand pulled me to my feet. I took it in stride.

"That's better than I thought it would be. You do something to it?" 

Suddenly, and without any warning, he swung the spear once again. This time was at the wall which he pierced with little to no effort.

"Its better than it was before." 

He turned his eye to the marks the previous goblin had made, and with it the marks he had made.

I shook my head, "No, I didn't do anything to it, the cloth on the other hand."

Instead of dwelling over the spear and risking more suspicions, I turned the conversation over to the cloth rather than the spear.

"What'd you do to the cloth?"

Instead of answering I swung the cloth around and tugged it until it was taut.

"Try breaking it"

He did.

Alex placed the spear over on the wall, leaning there, then with a punch he tried to snap the cloth in half.

"Huh, that's pretty durable, ain't it. How'd you do that?"

I smirk proudly, as if I had just shown something off and with a lie I told him of some special mana technique, that technically did work, but it wasn't something that I could do.

It would still hold up to scrutiny though.

"Interesting, so this'll disintegrate in a bit."

"Yep."

"Right, sure, that makes sense, but back on track, how are we going to get out of here?"

His face was serious as he asked the question. His gaze focused on the open cell.

I shook my head and gestured for him to follow.

We went out of the cell and with a quick turn of my head, I found nothing.

"I don't know…" I whispered.

"Then what are we doing out, we should plan."

"We can't, It's already been long enough and we can't afford to dawdle any longer."

He nodded his head and I took one last look before I turned the corner. It was lit with a couple of torches.

It gave the room an eerie glow that seemed to echo some ominous future.

But I paid no mind to that, in fact I just held my head high and walked with confident steps.

Through the twists and turns I did the same. And for each one we took a random path.

It was not like there was some sudden revelation on where we needed to go, or even just where the next place should be.

We knew nothing of the place, nor of the layout.

So even just guessing would be inaccurate.

It was for that reason that we did nothing and simply walked through the first to gather our eyes.

But after the third corridor we finally found something.

"Shh…" I quietly said, my finger to my lip.

And with a sudden stop I took a look at the corridor in front of me. It was guarded by two goblins.

Both of them held a sword at their waist and armor that protected them. I looked and found the weak points of the armor but it didn't look good.

"Armor, weak points, standard joints, throats protected."

With a nod Alex took my words in and gave me something.

He reached down and under his sock. It was a small dagger, barely anything but it was something.

"Inari, you've any training in knives or even spears?"

"You could've asked this so much sooner."

I was a bit peeved. If he had a dagger then I would have never handed him the spear. But now that it was this late there was no time for me to argue.

"A bit, I'm not terrible with them but I'm even worse with the spear."

And so with that tidbit I grabbed onto the handle of the knife and rolled it in my hand. I felt its weight before I placed it in my pocket for a moment.

After it was pulled out it glowed just that bit brighter.

I had taken the moment to infuse my mana into it. A standard technique that took others moments where it took me seconds.

But the practice I had in it was more than anyone I had ever known. And because of that I was better with it.

I could hold it for far longer with just as much mana as they would take in minutes.

And so, with a grim smile I stalked forward.

…

…

…

The light of the flame told of shadows. A flickering thing that revealed of which what had not been known.

I felt the wind rush past my hair and a small armored fist touch my shoulder.

It forced me to the ground and dislocated it.

"Bastard…" I whispered out between my pain.

I held my fist tight, the knife it hid sent with flustering fury.

It impacted and with a cry the goblin let go of me.

But that was not the kind of it for within a moment I was upon him.

My legs straddled him to the ground and took the mobility from his arms and legs.

He struggled kicking and screaming with bloodshot eyes.

But it was not enough as with a herculean effort I pushed the knife through his eye and into that skull of his.

Gradually his hold over his muscles lessened.

And within the moment I tugged on my own shoulder, with a pop it came back into place.

All for a grunt of effort. A stabbing pain that took my vision for a moment.

Then after all of that I turned my head towards the other fight.

If it could even be called that.

"HAHA"

The laugh startled me. It was accompanied by the ringing of spear against metal.

Of the grating that came from the spear piercing the said metal.

And with a bit more force the armor came apart. With it the death of the goblin was all but foretold.

I staggered to my feet, still weighed down by the pain in my shoulder.

But with a bit of grit it came apart, my pain that was.

"You done?" I asked, watching, waiting as he slowly dismantled the goblin in combat.

The thing was already dead, the only thing that kept it alive was pure grit.

But one wrong move and it was completely dead.

"Yeah"

And with that he stabbed forward with the spear and killed the thing.

It was finally done.

I sighed and let out the breath that I held.

"Finally, anything we can use from them?"

"Nothing, armors shit and their swords are in disrepair." Alex replied, "they got no sharpness for them. It was like they hadn't sharpened em for years or something. And even the armor barely held up."