The prison captain was bored. Watching the beating of the young man was certainly repetitive after awhile. He allowed the older prisoner to stay out of the ruffians' way for the moment...not that Gwyn could've done anything to stop them anyway.
He wondered why the other cell was so quiet.
Turning his attention back to the task at hand, the villain looked back to see the discipline of the younger prisoner coming to an end. Hiro was heavily bruised and bloodied on the floor, breathing deeply but groaning the whole time.
All three criminals turned to face the half-beast.
"Guess it's your turn now, old man. Take it easy on him boys... doubt he could withstand much strain."
Hiro tried to raise himself from the floor and was unsuccessful. He felt like the Destiny had just rolled over him.
Suddenly they all heard a strange noise from the other chamber. It was the sound of a moaning female.
Chortling, the leader of this trio jeered, "Oh well... I guess we don't get a chance to partake your companions... sounds like they've already been taken."
"By Althena's name... you don't mean..." Gwyn started.
The captain smirked and said nothing.
The fire within Hiro's body was a raging inferno now... that was the last straw in the cavalcade of evils these amoral humans had done to him.
"...If they have tainted Lucia's purity or beat her... and now they're going to seriously injure my grandfather..."
"Nighty night, old one," the villain began to jest when an almost inhuman scream was emitted from the other side of the room.
The bandit barely had a chance to focus on the bloodied boy before his face was smashed into the wall beside the half-breed.
With the fury of a demon, Hiro somehow ignored his vast injuries and proceeded to pummel, pounce and rip with his hands upon the two larger ruffians. Too stunned (and stupid) to comprehend Hiro's apparent madness, they were quickly worn out by his rage.
Gwyn backed away at first, fearful of the strange destructive fervor that his grandson was engrossed in. He eventually had to help his relation when they tried to double-team him... unsuccessfully.
Lucia opened her eyes momentarily to see and feel the sweaty body of the libidinous knave wrapped around her. The stench emanated by his form was appalling.
This looked like the moment of truth... she could be violated in just a few moments...
Stifling a cry, she briefly glanced to the other side of the room and was surprised to see one of the larger bandits laid out on the floor, staring into space with a goofy smile on his face. From her vantage point, it looked like Kuyo's face was firmly pressed into the wide, muscular shoulder region of the remaining giant. She had one leg literally wrapped around his lower torso as her head moved smoothly to meet his.
The beast holding her suddenly shifted his weight and she found herself under him on the cold stony floor. The sounds he was making were very weird as he continued to grope her.
Lucia closed her eyes tightly and bent one knee to mimic Kuyo's pose.
She heard two hideous cracks suddenly... the latter very close to her face. She felt warm fluid dripping onto her visage and nearly screamed in horror.
The guardian's eyes snapped open to find that is was his blood dripping onto her form. She half-sighed inwardly as he groaned, his eyes distant and unfocused in front of hers. His weight upon her abruptly seemed quite augmented as well.
Lucia didn't initially understand why he was bleeding or groaning... perhaps she had raised her knee in a bad place (that is, uncomfortable for the bandit).
Unaware of what was really happening, she watched as the dazed creature opened his mouth and dribbled as he began to stick out his tongue.
Lucia had enough by now. Finding her arms now free of his hideous grip, she slapped him hard across the face. The force of the blow knocked his face away and nearly sent him rolling across the chamber. Unfortunately, he didn't move far due to the cause of that sudden increase in weight: the body of the other giant was partially pinned upon both of them in the corner.
She almost shrieked as a pair of hands gripped one of her ankles.
"Good job...we certainly taught them a lesson..."
Lucia sighed in relief as Kuyo half-dragged/half-lifted her out of the pile of evildoers.
As she was helped to her feet, she noticed that the reason for the oozing crimson liquid upon her face was the fact that Kuyo had cracked the skull of the man on top of her via a club. Her own strike had completely knocked him cold after the head injury.
Shaken up quite a bit, Lucia glanced at the other fallen titan and saw he also had the same far-off expression of the spread out across the room... as well as a blow to the head.
"Too bad the clubs broke on their skulls... are you okay?" Kuyo quested, supporting Lucia as she swooned slightly.
Lucia slowly nodded.
"Are you sure? He got VERY close to you," Kuyo continued.
Lucia looked sadly into her eyes and answered, "Please, you won't tell Hiro or Gwyn about what almost happened or what we did, will you?"
"I certainly won't. That's a deep secret that only you and I should retain... though I'm sure we'll want to forget it as soon as possible. Yet, you didn't act too badly back there..." the other female started when a primeval scream reverberated from the other prison room.
"Oh no," Lucia gasped, "Hiro and Gwyn!"
Kuyo nodded and swiftly examined the forms of the bandits. All she found was one poisonous dagger on the belt of the smaller thief. Lucia recovered the key ring from the floor where it had been knocked away during the 'activities' and bolted for the cavern opening.
The prison captain slowly recovered his composure and backed away from the young man as he beat his two guards to a pulp.
Snarling, Hiro turned this mysterious rage in his direction and took several slow steps toward him.
The brigand pulled out his poison-coated knives and began to hurl them rapidly.
Hiro ducked and dodged to avoid the missiles. Gwyn had already taken refuge in a crouch behind one of the collapsed highwaymen.
After enduring a nick or two, Hiro began to slow down. The outlaw took advantage of the opportunity and aimed straight for Hiro's heart.
The hero of Lunar was slowly tiring from his anger. He barely saw the dark man pull back his arm to throw the dagger.
THUNK.
The bandit froze in mid-toss. He twisted his head around to see two beautiful young women at the cell door... one with a look of shock and the other with an expression of hate...
...Then he saw the knife in his back and dropped to the stones as the poison surged through his body.
"Hiro!" Lucia exclaimed as she ran up to him. He nearly had fallen over before she got to his side.
"Lucia... did they...?" he mumbled as he embraced her form.
She was silent for a moment, then answered, "No..."
Kuyo sighed as she watched the display. It was too bad that Hiro appeared taken... of course, when had that stopped her before...
"No, they tried to beat us. We had a lucky break acquiring their weapons though. Hiro, you thought that they were going to... ah, USE us?"
Hiro slowly nodded, catching his breath.
The warrior woman smiled.
"That's why you mauled these two characters? Wow... imagine the destruction if they did actually try that... you probably could wipe out the whole group!"
Recovering somewhat, Hiro turned to Lucia and hugged her again. Kuyo shuffled over to Gwyn.
"Are you okay, Grandpa? It doesn't look like your wounds are fresh."
The half-beast shook his head.
"No, Hiro took most of the beating. I'm glad the two of you are unharmed... you certainly aren't a helpless person in nasty situations."
Kuyo smirked.
"Speaking of which, we'd better get out of here before more baddies pop in to investigate," she answered. Then, looking at Hiro and Lucia, said, "C'mon you two lovebirds... celebrate after we find an exit from this place.
They remembered their surroundings and immediately moved into the other prison chamber, locking both groups of guards within the cells.
As they opened the doorway out of the confinement area, a burst of warmer air enveloped all of them.
The first room they encountered was a large vestibule containing an assortment of items atop a large wooden table. The little light emitted from the torches on the wall revealed that they were mostly useless junk and clothing. Fortunately, laying amongst the rubbish were most of the items that had been taken from them.
Kuyo and Lucia recovered their missing clothing and slipped the apparel back on their forms. Gwyn's staff was laying against one wall. Hiro found only a small percentage of the healing items that they had carried before, many of which had to be applied immediately to the wounds (both fresh and old) of the quartet.
"No swords though... we're still in a fix," Hiro glumly announced. "Your pendant is missing too, Lucia."
The guardian nodded.
"And Nall... we must rescue him from wherever he's held."
As stealthily as they could manage, the foursome sneaked through the portal at the other end of the cavern. Hiro took the lead, peeking his head outside the opening and finding only a dark hallway going in both directions away from the jail.
He led them toward the left as it lacked the low-pitched voices approaching from the right...
Back in the main treasure chamber, the Dusk Blade mage was closely examining Lucia's pendant.
Nall shuddered slightly in his pained sleep. The DemonFly's stinger had been quite a potent weapon.
His motion attracted the mage's attention momentarily.
"Well, little friend, are you finally awakening?" he asked in a slightly mocking voice.
The white-furred feline merely shifted and emitted a soft purr.
"Unfortunately not," the wizard sighed, turning his attention back to the magical trinket.
Elsewhere in the chamber stood the clan's leader. Galdor admired the trio of swords with great interest. He had not seen such quality in a blade in quite a long time. The weapon with the strange dragon-shaped handle seemed the most impressive by far. The other two were of considerable durability and strength as well, yet the strange way that light was reflected by one and seemingly absorbed by the other was puzzling.
It didn't matter to him. This was certainly an excellent (and easy) haul... and the monster who guarded the entrance to their hidden lair would be fed a considerable lunch after his men were done amusing themselves with the captives.
The magician abruptly stood up and left the room with both the golden trinket and the winged cat in his grasp. It had gotten a too little noisy to concentrate as the other scoundrels had started barking orders to each other. He strode out with merely a nod to the Galdor.
The leader watched his companion leave and decided to take a look at the prisoners. He had already planned to take a plundering party to both Takkar and Nota that afternoon (not that he knew of Takkar's destruction yet) and wanted to make sure that the secret stronghold's guardian was well fed before he left.
Galdor cradled Althena's Sword and delegated a pair of miscreants to accompany him and hold the other blades. With heavy footfalls, he strode out of the treasure room.
It seemed like with the egress of the bandit leader the rest of the men lost interest in hanging about aimlessly. Most of them dispersed to patrol the caverns. One happened to notice the strange boomerang weapon and decided to 'skim a little off the top' so to speak. He grabbed it and headed for the arena.
"Any ideas on how much longer?"
Hiro looked back to barely see the forms of his companions. The torch he had ripped off the wall was dying as it cast little light on the completely dark tunnel they were shuffling through.
Moments later, Hiro's party stumbled into the just-emptied chamber and stood wide-eyed at the amount of loot gathered there.
"By Althena's light...how could they have snatched this much stuff without anyone noticing?" Kuyo blurted out.
Hiro glanced around the room and scowled.
"I don't know... but I plan on stopping them from stealing anymore," he responded sternly with a gleam of anger still in his eye. "We'll recover these stolen articles after we find a way out... I'm sure the local towns will want to clean this place of these robbers once they know of their hideout."
Lucia seemed a little disturbed as she checked the piles.
"Althena's Sword isn't here...we need it desperately. My pendant is missing as well..."
Gwyn and Kuyo dug through a few hordes of valuables.
"My blade's missing too. Guess we're still weaponless."
Hiro turned toward one of the many cavern openings at the sound of a scuffling noise. He was surprised to see two of the black-cloaked criminals staring back at him.
"Intruders?! Hurry! Sound the alarm!" one yelled as he pulled out a set of throwing knives. The other robber fled immediately into the darkness of the hallways.
The four 'intruders' bunched up for a moment.
"Let's get outta here!" Hiro exclaimed and led the group out the furthest portal from the Dusk Blades (which happened to be the same one that the wizard used). Lucia was right behind him. Gwyn stumbled alongside her and glanced over his shoulder as Kuyo took the rear.
All they could hear as they dashed through total darkness was an increasing number of yells throughout the cavern system.
Elsewhere in the tunnels, the Dusk Blade leader was surprised by the sudden calls of alarm... more so than the sight that greeted him when he reached the prison cells and saw the messes within them.
"The prisoners are gone! How could they've escaped?!" he roared to his companions. They made no responses.
Growling in anger, he and his comrades ran through the hallways toward the arena chamber. If the captured foursome were trying to escape, they'd have to make it past that room. As Galdor obviously knew his own hideout very well, the bandit chief certainly beat the completely lost heroes to the exit.
"OOF!" Hiro uttered as he was doubled over by a hard punch to the stomach. He had run straight into the fist of a hidden Dusk Blade as he ran through the caverns of Bandit Butte.
"Don't move!!!" the criminal screamed, unsheathing a nasty long knife.
Lucia looked about in terror as she saw that they were surrounded by at least twelve men.
Gwyn muttered, "Looks like its back in the cell for us..."
"Wrong."
The armored chieftain entered the room with his guards. Hiro and company clearly saw the three stolen swords on their persons.
"You've caused more trouble than you're worth already... though I have to thank you for these splendid weapons," he said with a smirk. "Unfortunately, they won't pay enough for your lives... bring them to the pit!"
The number of thieves had doubled by now. The quartet had no chance of beating them off. They were soon brought to the arena-like chamber... which secretly doubled as the only exit.
As the procession entered, the master found his magical ally studying the strange creature in the relative quiet of the pit room. The monster was still asleep inside the lowered area. A small flock of Banshee Fowls were nestled in one set of 'seats' near the mage.
The wizard stood as the party entered... and didn't notice Nall's eyes slowly opening.
The white dragon was still pained from the battle last night and probably too weak to fly at the moment to say nothing about transforming. However, he soon was able to focus on his surroundings and take notice of what was going on.
Now if only he could recover enough strength to move...
Dusk Blades gathered in the large chamber to watch the hideous spectacle. Hiro and his friends were soon positioned right on the edge of the pit.
"Goodbye!" the leader chortled as he slammed Hiro in the back with one large fist. Other bandits shoved Gwyn and Kuyo forward. Lucia only received a small nudge to knock her to the rocky bottom.
The robbers began cheering and jeering. They throw loose stones at the napping monster to awaken it to feed.
One particularly large rock smashed into one of its heads. The creature growled and righted itself, then glared at the meal presented to it.
The beast had a serpentine blue-skinned body and many reddish-toned tentacles as back 'legs'. A pair of large pincers extended from its front limbs, behind which was nestled its huge one-eyed head and maw. Two green snake-like projections jutted out of its back, each ending with a single-eyed reptilian head.
All three heads opened their mouths and roared loudly.
Hiro stood open-mouthed as he found himself faced with an Evil Eye monstrosity... with no magic or weapons!
Within the tunnel behind the Evil Eye, a figure was trembling slightly.
"Now?!"
It hesitated in silence.
"How can you be sure that a moment of weakness will present itself?"
A sigh followed the second statement, then the form tensed up in readiness.