Joseph held his breath because of the tension as the man creeps in closer, but fortunately for Joseph — the man infront of him was very suddenly called by another person. With this time, Joseph tries to think of ways to escape but with his hands chained, he couldn't do almost anything, and so he just lies there on the wall while his hands hanging up, chained to the wall.
Before long the man had came back but this time he didn't try to get close to Joseph, as if he was ordered to, but from time to time the man regularly peeks through Joseph's cell and days pass, and as it goes by — Joseph's body began to get thinner and thinner as they kept giving him less food. One day the man came back with a whip on hand — with the whip, he whipped Joseph a single time and this sent Joseph a pain so insufferable — because of the lack of food, it made his whole body weak, and with it — it only worsen the pain he felt from the strike of the whip. He winces in pain, trying to move but he was still shackled to the wall.
Joseph still couldn't move and is forced to endure the pain, as more days pass, the man with the whip came by weekly — each time whipping Joseph double the amount of what he had taken from the previous week, and because of this -- Joseph's clothes began to tear off until he no longer had a shirt on, his pants filled with holes and torn edges and his body filled with scars. On one day someone passed by, but this time it wasn't the man — it was someone else, someone he doesn't know but Joseph's intuition tells him that he's not there to hurt him, but still knowing this he still keeps on high alert.
"I am not here to harm you.", the man said in a calm and low voice. Joseph, still unwilling to talk — stays quiet and in place, keeping his guard up.
The man scoffed before saying, "So... You don't trust me yet, do you.", Joseph kept quiet, keeping his eyes on the man, watching his every move. The man and Joseph stared at each other for a minute before breaking contact, the man looks away and drops something as he walks before leaving Joseph's cell and locking it, Joseph immediately reached out towards the item he dropped as it might be his one and only hope of escaping so he kept trying and trying to reach for it and after failing a few times he finally grabbed it and before he could take a look at it he hears footsteps nearing his cell so he dropped the item near behind the toilet besides him and as he do the guard looks at him intently whilst searching the room from the cell's gate, and fortunately the guard doesn't seem to notice anything suspicious so he keeps on walking ahead.
Joseph then again went to grab the item and sees that it's some sort of metal file that he could use to free himself from the chains and possibly his cell, Joseph's eyes glimmer in hopes of escaping and fortunately for him the chains he was chained by seemed rather old and rusty so it seems he might be able to take it off within a few hours and so he starts filing down the chains sa fast as without slowing down — not even a bit. As a few hours pass Joseph's finally off the chains but he couldn't get the cuffs off so he just ignores it. Joseph looks to the gate to see what the outside of his cell looks like and to him it seemed empty, so with the file in his hand he quietly began filing down the locks of his cell gate.
As he was close to finishing to file the locks he hears the guard outside grunting and this made Joseph stop for a moment and avoid waking the guard up by the noise, after a few moments as soon as Joseph hears the guard snore he continued filing the locks of his cell and soon he is finally out of his enclosed cell. Joseph opened his cell gate quietly, he couldn't contain his thrill but he realizes that he's still not out of danger, "What now...", he asks himself, Joseph looks around the place and sees multiple path ways and decides to check one out, as he goes through the tunnels he hears screaming from afar coming from his surroundings so he decides to cover his ears and walk faster. Soon Joseph arrives at a dimly lit room with one cell in it, he tries to look closely in the cell to see a girl laying in place, Joseph wanted to check up on the girl but unfortunately someone was coming close so he decides to hide behind one of the crates in the room.
Soon a guard came to bring food for the girl and left it at the front of the girl's cage, the guard left immediately so Joseph went out of hiding, as he looks at the girl — Joseph felt pity and try to get the gate of the girl's cell open but to his surprise it was open, he ignores this and rushed towards the girl to check up on her, "Hey, are you alright?", Joseph asked the girl, the girl faintly opened her eyes and she was barely able to speak, Joseph took the initiative to help the girl eat and so he fed her the food the guard brought. After finishing the food the girl finally had the strength to barely talk, "Please... Help me...", the girl said faintly as she lays on Joseph's arms, "Don't worry, I will.", Joseph reassures her, the girl smiled faintly and fell asleep so Joseph laid her in the cage before getting out and putting everything back to place not leaving any trace of him being there.
"I'll come back for you, just wait a little bit more.", Joseph whispered under his voice before continuing to walk and search the other tunnels, after searching for a bit he finally reached the exit, but unfortunately for him a new problem arises, the exit was heavily guarded and is being checked on from time to time, Joseph had no choice but to find another way out, and after searching a bit more he comes across a room, it was neat and organized, Joseph got a bit curious and checked the room out and to his surprise it was the room of the leader of the group, as he search through room Joseph pulled over a book and finds a secret entrance, Joseph suddenly detects footsteps and decides to hide behind the entrance and right after getting in the people who came in the office began talking, Joseph took this advantage to listen in their conversation. Joseph was shocked by what he had learned and rushes to find the exit quickly, after following through the entrance he came in from he arrives at the bottom of the mountain where he was at, "Finally, I've escaped." Joseph sighed in relief but his peace didn't last.
He was interrupted by a person hidden in the darkness of the forest, "Who are you? Show yourself.", Joseph calls out to the person hiding. Joseph began to hear clapping from one of the trees and sees a person slowly coming out of the shadows, "I'm surprised you noticed me.", the person praises Joseph's instincts.
"What do you want from me?", Joseph exclaims in a defensive posture, "I'm not here with bad intentions, you want to help the girl locked up in there don't you?", the person replies. Joseph looked stunned by what the man had said but he was able to keep his composure. "And how did you know? Were you watching?", Joseph asks suspiciously at the man.
"How did you think you escape from your own cell?", the man said to Joseph with a smug face. Joseph was a bit annoyed by the mans personality but he couldn't do anything about it as he is too weak to even compare to him, "Then what do you want from me?", Joseph asked the man. "You either join forces with me and devise a plan to save the girl or go there alone with no support.", the man replied to Joseph. Joseph had no other choice but to go along with the man as he knows himself that he cannot save the girl on his own, "Fine, I'll go with you." Joseph reluctantly accepted to go with the man.
"Good choice, I haven't told you who I am right? I'm Strauss Malhever, pleasure to meet you Joseph.", Strauss smirks as he walks away, "Nice to meet you Strauss, my name's Jo- wait how did you know?! I never mentioned it!", Joseph shouts as he follows Strauss towards the forest.
The nearby surrounding's were quiet — only their footsteps are clear enough to be hear as they both kept walking in the forest, the more they walk the more anxious Joseph became. "When are we getting there?", Joseph cautiously asked whilst looking around his surroundings but seeing nothing except for the trees they're surrounded by. "We're not that far from it now.", Strauss replies to Joseph.
They continue down further the forest and they soon reach a hill, "Where are we now?" Joseph asks in curiosity as he felt the winds' breeze flowing around his body, "We're here now.", Strauss exclaims as he passes through a boulder as if it doesn't exist, Joseph was amazed by what he saw but also quite skeptical to check it out.
"Come in kid, it's safe to pass.", Strauss's voice echoed from where he had entered. Joseph entered with caution and when he got in he was fascinated by how many artifacts was laid in Strauss's lair. "So this is your base of operations? Looks pretty cool I must say.", Joseph complimented Strauss's lair while checking out some of the artifacts on display.
"I wouldn't dare touch those if I were you, they can kill you if they're triggered accidentally.", Strauss warns Joseph right as he was about to touch one of the displayed artifact. Strauss continues walking and Joseph follows along. Soon they reach a room filled with artifacts, "I'll be looking for something so feel free to take a look at some of the stuff here, just don't touch them.", Strauss instructs to Joseph before going to a separate room — leaving Joseph alone.
Joseph sat on a chair for quite some time but he quickly got impatient so he stood up to look at the artifacts displayed around the room. "Hmm, I wonder what this thing can do.", Joseph picked up a bow-shaped artifact and then begins to look for it's arrows, "I wonder where Strauss stashed them.", as Joseph looks through the different places in the room he sees something that caught his eye, "Huh... What's that?", Joseph grabbed an orb-shaped ball in his hands and begins to inspect it but just as he was about to take a look at it Strauss had come back, Joseph got startled and accidentally dropped the orb, "Oh, you've come back, did you get what you need?", Joseph asks as he looked at Strauss trying to push away the orb with his foot.
"I'm almost finished packing up, oh and by the way can you pass me that orb near you.", Strauss answered before instructing Joseph to hand over the orb he dropped. Joseph handed it over with a bit of a worried look, hoping that he didn't damage it, "Are you good with the bow? We can bring it if you are.", Strauss asked Joseph.
"I'm sort of good with it, I could probably handle it.", Joseph replies. "Alright then, let's bring it with us and let's head out.", Strauss said before they walked out of the lair, they trailed back to where they had came from and taking a bit of a detour towards a cliff to get a better view of the enemy base.
Joseph gulped in nervousness, getting tensed by the upcoming battle he's about to face, and an event that will turn his life around.