Chương 21: The Escape

Hale could hear every single word being exchanged between the guards, but he still struggled to grasp the full context. Dungeons? Monsters? He had stumbled across the term "dungeon" in fantasy manga back in his old world, but he had never actually read up on or researched the specifics. He vaguely guessed that something serious was about to happen, and this unit was right in position to respond. However, they were escorting Hale, and they feared that stepping into a fight would give him an opportunity to escape.

Venessa deliberated for a agonizingly long moment, her eyes repeatedly cutting back toward Hale as if measuring his potential hazard level. Hale forced a awkward, non-threatening smile, doing his absolute best to look harmless every time her gaze drifted his way. Fight already, cause some chaos—that's the only way I'm getting a window to slip out of here.

"Move out. We stick to the original plan," Venessa finally commanded. And so, to Hale's profound disappointment, the convoy resumed its steady pace. Despite delivering her orders, Venessa remained visibly tense. She continuously checked the magical transceiver, her eyes scanning the distant horizon every few minutes. Hale called out through the bars, "Hey, what was all that noise about just now? What opened up?"

"A dungeon. Don't tell me you forgot about those as well?" Venessa countered without turning her head.

"Yeah. Completely slipped my mind."

"Then you're better off not remembering." Hale suddenly missed Ryan immensely. That kid was basically a walking, talking encyclopedia. Just ask him anything and he'd regurgitate a wealth of knowledge without being stingy about sharing it. Roughly half an hour later, Venessa's magical transceiver chimed once more.

"Emergency broadcast. Monster presence confirmed. All available forces within a ten-mile radius of Soulake City are ordered to deploy to Stonefield Village immediately. Repeating, emergency broadcast..." Venessa waited for the automated prompt to finish before tapping the device to initiate a direct channel: "This is Venessa. What class of monster are we dealing with? Has Stonefield Village been fully evacuated?" A brief pause preceded the response: " It's giant spiders with scythe-like claws.

Extremely aggressive and agile. We initiated evacuation procedures, but the villagers haven't cleared the perimeter... Casualties have already begun." Venessa closed her eyes tight for three seconds before delivering her decision.

"Luka, take nine more with us and deploy to the dungeon area immediately. The rest of you—do not take your eyes off the prisoner for a single second." Without another word, she channeled wind magic, lifting off the ground and rocketing toward Stonefield Village. The lieutenant named Luka rapidly called out nine names, and the selected squad whipped their mounts into a frantic gallop, chasing after their Archmage. The shift in atmosphere among the remaining guards was immediately noticeable.

They were tensed to a breaking point. Though over forty soldiers remained on site, every single pair of eyes was glued to Hale inside his iron cage. Despite holding overwhelming numerical superiority, every guard understood a fundamental truth: only a Archmage or a Sword Master ossessed the raw power to halt another Archmage-level threat. And Hale Wallace had once been hailed as the single most powerful archmage-level to emerge in the past century.

Even down an arm, bound in iron chains, and locked inside a Mana-suppression cage, not a single soul dared lower their guard against him. Hale recognized this as well—this was almost certainly his absolute best window to break out. He had already acquired the Master Versatile Key from the system shop; all he needed now was a spark of chaos... Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"In the sky!" A soldier shrieked, marking the exact onset of the chaos Hale had been praying for. Fireballs began raining down from the clouds above. Without even looking up, Hale knew Maddie had arrived. She maintained a high altitude, raining a relentless barrage of fireballs into the perimeter surrounding his transport carriage. The mages on the ground rallied into formation instantly and began to fight back. Someone bellowed, "It's a Dragonborn! Don't use fire-based magic!"

The majority of the mages shifted to launching ice shards, earth projectiles, and water scythes. However, these elemental attacks lacked lethal piercing power over long distances. Maddie's tactic of maintaining high-altitude mobility made targeting her extraordinarily difficult. Aside from fire magic, wind-type spells were the primary discipline suited for long-range interception. Yet wind magic wasn't a universal skill—it was a high-tier discipline that required a lot of natural talent.

Suddenly, a panicked yell cut through the noise: "The prisoner broke out of the cage!" Capitalizing on the chaotic crossfire, Hale picked the cage lock and rolled out. The iron padlocks binding his chains sat too high for his single left arm to reach. He struggled to maintain his balance as he tried to stand upright, then began focusing on channeling mana into his legs.

The leg shackles restricted his Mana flow, but Hale discovered this dampening effect actually allowed him to regulate his output far better, preventing his Mana from surging out of control. If he relied strictly on atmospheric air pressure as he had during Maddie's duel with Elias, lifting his weight would require a massive Mana burn. This time, he opted to condense a focused mini-cyclone directly beneath his soles to generate localized vertical thrust.

Controlling directional flight using a cyclone was infinitely harder to stabilize, but Hale didn't require precision navigation. He just needed to launch his body high enough into the air for Maddie to catch him. A swirling gale erupted beneath Hale's feet, blasting everything in his immediate vicinity—including dirt, gravel, and nearby soldiers—in all directions. Hale fought to keep from being flung to the side, instead surging straight upward while shouting at the top of his lungs:"Maddie!"

Two massive draconic talons reached down, snatching the iron chains wrapped around his torso. Channeling her raw physical strength, Maddie ripped the metal padlocks apart, stripping the heavy chains from her master's body.

"Hurry, let's get out of here!" Hale urged, wrapping his left arm firmly around Maddie's neck. A flurry of system notifications had been flashing before his eyes over the past minute—notifications he hadn't possessed the luxury to read, though he suspected his Karma score had taken a hit from Maddie attacking the guards below. Maddie didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second, beating her wings to rapidly gain altitude. Just a few seconds later, the attacks from the mages below could no longer reach them.

Hale let out a exhilarated laugh.

"We make an incredible team, Maddie!" Maddie offered a rare, subtle smile, accelerating through the clouds: "Anticipating my master's needs is the duty of a proper servant."

"Where's Ryan?"

"At an inn inside Soulake City." Soulake was the exact city mentioned during Venessa's transceiver broadcast, meaning it sat in close proximity. Recalling that conversation, Hale cast his gaze toward the terrain below. It wasn't hard for him to locate the scene of the fight—the smoke, dust, and noise were intense enough to be perceived even from such a height. However, it was impossible to clearly make out exactly what was happening from where he stood.

He turned to Maddie: "Can we fly over that way to scope out the situation?" Maddie voiced immediate hesitation: "The Archmage who detained you is down there, Master. She can fly; it is far too dangerous."

"I know, but..." Hale was eyeing the potential Merit points. He had learned that Emma was currently frozen solid somewhere within the Military Academy in the capital of Celtatic. That is certainly not a place where one can come and go at will. Given his current capabilities, infiltrating the academy was pure fantasy. Right now, he held just over three hundred Merit points—nowhere near enough to purchase anything substantial from the system shop.

And moving forward, his wanted status meant he'd be hunted with redoubled intensity, drastically shrinking his opportunities to farm good deeds. Back in his old world, his ancestors had a saying: High risk, high return (no his ancestors didn't actually say that). This dungeon crisis required a Grand Mage to resolve; if he could intervene or assist, the resulting Merit payout would undoubtedly eclipse everything he had farmed thus far combined.

It might even net him enough points to purchase the prosthetic arm outright. Still, if Maddie was unwilling to take the risk, he had no intention of forcing her hand. Noticing his lingering hesitation, Maddie asked, "Do you have another objective in mind, Master?" Hale opted for the most straightforward explanation he could construct: "That same deity who granted us the healing elixirs promised me a functional prosthetic arm if I accumulate enough Merit from good deeds. So I was weighing our options..."

"A prosthetic arm? Is it truly functional?"

"It obviously can't match a real arm, but it allows for the seamless flow and channeling of Mana." Hearing those words, Maddie's face instantly lit up with unbridled excitement.

"I simply need to perform a vast number of good deeds on your behalf, correct? Let me escort you to a secure location first, and then I will clear out that dungeon myself."

"If you show up and hover directly over their heads, there's no telling if they'll abandon the dungeon entirely just to turn their weapons on you," Hale reasoned, his brow furrowing as he calculated their odds.

"Let's touch down on the ground first and observe from a safe distance first."