nagpurpolice Chapter 20: Out With a Bang
Chapter 20: Out With a Bang
Chapter 20: Out With a Bang
Time seemed to freeze as Edwins bag of high explosives clattered to the ground. He spared a panicked glance at the axe-wielding dwarf, who looked at him uncomprehendingly. Freed of some thirty pounds of ammunition, he dove away from the bag as fast as he could.
A moment of clarity made him twist in midair as to not land on his other bag of ammunition. Mostly empty it may be, but having them break open directly against his stomach would not be survivable. Once he was on the ground, though, he rolled over to present as slim of a profile as possible, covering the back of his neck with his hands and screwing his eyes shut.The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))
A massive explosion followed a moment later, as almost all of Edwins steam and flash grenades went off in unison. The axe-wielding dwarf responsible for the mess was still in one piece, amazingly, but his front was covered in fragments of stone and mortar and had been blown off his feet. Edwin couldnt tell if he had survived, but the dwarf wouldnt be happy even if he had.
Edwin scrambled to his feet and beheld the greater carnage. Fragments of stone were buried in the tables around him, and, as Edwin realized when he tried to put weight on it, in his foot. Stifling a scream, he yanked out the offending piece of casing and carried on as fast as he could limp.
From beyond the hall, Edwin could hear more dwarves approaching. He managed to make it to the bottom of the stairs alright- if any remaining dwarves had been considering attacking him before, they seemed to be quite dissuaded after the last explosion. But as another squad of dwarves came around the corner, and he heard movement and shouting above, he checked his stocks to see what exactly he had to work with.
Edwins bag still held three each of sticky, and steam bombs, four slipstone, one flash, four filled with water, and lastly, one extra-large grenade entirely full of infused lime. He also had a decent amount of putty-hard supermortar. Overall, it was nowhere near enough. He had seen dwarves all but take a full-powered steam grenade to the face and Edwin probably hadnt run into any actual high-level elites yet, who may well be able to shrug off his entire arsenal for all he knew. Scary thought.
Edwin started climbing the stairs three at a time, wincing every time the ball of his injured foot came down on the wrong angle, but didnt let that slow him down any, pushing forward through every shot of pain. He was perhaps a third of the way up the staircase when dwarves came into view at the top. They had pretty obviously been hastily called from being off-duty (which made Edwin wonder where the on-duty ones were), as half werent wearing full suits of armor and the other half looked confused.
As they saw Edwin on the stairs, though, they seemed to come to some sort of consensus at remarkable speed, and two dwarves, one on each side of the group, pulled out crossbows and fired at him. Edwin hit the ground, but the bolts actually curved midair to try and follow him. Fortunately, though, they werent able to turn enough to strike him head-on, and so while one cut through his leather lab coat and gave him a long cut along the side of his back, the other just struck his backpack and stayed there. Edwin hissed at the pain, but he couldnt stop now.
There wasnt any cover on the stairway, and so as the crossbowdwarves began to reload, Edwin began to frantically think of some way to survive the next pair. Below him, another set of dwarves began to climb the stairs.
Fortunately, the latter problem helped solve the former, as the marksmen at the top of the stairs seemed unwilling to shoot Edwin while their allies were in the line of fire, and they lowered their crossbows instead of taking aim. Edwin was more than happy to take advantage of the time provided to keep climbing the stairs, pulling out his supermortar putty to try and fashion himself a shield. Not like he had any other option. Unfortunately, the momentary reprieve was broken by a familiar, bellowing voice.
What are you doing? Shoot him! SFashkchlil had arrived, apparently, and was yelling in dwarven at his minions. Something was said in response, but too quietly for Edwin to understand it. He certainly heard the reply, though, To hells with them! Theyll live! Just dont let him escape!
Real inspiring leader there, Edwin thought, preparing himself to try and block the incoming shots. He hefted his makeshift shield, hiding his head and upper torso behind the magically-strengthened mortar. The first shot clipped him in the shoulder, making him involuntarily release his grip on his shield with that hand. His right hand, not strong enough on its own to hold up the solid rock, dropped just enough for the next quarrel to strike the center of his makeshift creation, instead of the edge, and the entire block of mortar just shattered, covering his hand with cuts of the fragmented stone.
How the heck-NOT THE TIME, EDWIN.
Desperate for any kind of escape, Edwins free arm blindly groped in his almost-empty bag, and fingers settled around an extra-large sphere. He broke his final weapon over the head of his captor, scattering Infused lime dust all over Sfashkchlils hair and beard, sadly none getting in his eyes.
You Tasked me with impressing you.
The dwarf just snorted derisively, wiping some of the lime out of his beard, Ha! Is this the best you have, Outsider? I knew you wouldnt be any sort of threat. Your kind needs far more time to-
Edwin wasnt listening, his hand moving once more. His fingers closed around one of his final two slipstone spheres, and he crushed it against the ground, curing it in a blink, rendering the bridge almost frictionless.
The next thing he grabbed was one of his water grenades, and while it was snatched out of the air by the enraged dwarf and crushed like a paper bag, it did get what powder stayed on the lords hand thoroughly wet, and Edwin felt the skill he had been pushing to try and use finally have a bite.
Firestarting.
As Sfirefaces hand ignited into brilliant white flames, he yelled in anguish, involuntarily releasing Edwins arm from its death grip. He staggered back, trying to smother the magical flames, but didnt manage anything save spreading the chemicals to more parts of his body and his feet flailed, trying and failing to find traction on the slipstone all around him.
Edwin broke his final sticky grenade on his own foot, giving him enough traction to throw all his weight against the dwarf. He barely managed to budge his captor and his shoulder felt slightly singed from coming so close to the reacting infused lime, but it was enough. A last barrage of water-filled casings, Infused with as much mana as he could manage caused Sfirebeards torso and head to erupt into more flames, only intensifying his struggles and making him susceptible to one last push by Edwin, Are you not impressed? he asked, eyes hard as he toppled the dwarf, making him fall into the river of molten metal below.
Edwin dashed for the exit, ignoring the dwarfs tortured screams, and made it thankfully unaccosted as he reached the massive doors. Unfortunately, they refused to budge, even when he put his (uninjured) shoulder into it as hard as he could. Looking around, he saw an archway built into the wall, and ran into it. Inside was a younger-looking dwarf clearly terrified of him. Glancing back behind him- several dwarves were trying to pull out their lord from the molten metal river, but a pair was still pursuing Edwin (still trying to avoid the sand, from the looks of it). He didnt have time for anything clever, so he took the fastest route.
Open doors and I wont, he threatened the dwarf in dwarven, hefting his second to last grenade, a flash bomb. The dwarf seemed reluctant to do so, but Edwin mimed throwing it, and his target quickly ran to an unmarked portion of the wall? Ah, it was a hidden door. Made sense theyd want to have a quick entrance or exit. The terrified dwarf pushed it open, and it swung out, letting daylight, actual daylight, spill into the tiny room.
Good dwarf. Edwin absently said in English, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the blessed sunlight. Behind him, he heard the first of his pursuers curse in dwarven as the light once again shifted. He threw his flash bomb at them as a final farewell present, and was about to do the same with his last grenade- a slipstone bomb- when he looked out at the massive Blackstone road in front of him, dipping and running down the side of the mountain. It would be an absolute pain to try and run down that, especially with pursuit, unless
A smile played across Edwins lips, and it grew into a full smile and then a laugh.
Freedom.