Anora slowly continued to cover more ground. There had been no signs of life since she split from Ikra. She already had an idea of the layout of the map in her head, and so far the route she took was the furthest she's been in.
She crouched as the walls began to shake, remaining vigilant until the tremor stopped. "When will they ever stop?" Anora complained. There have been numerous tremors already, most likely caused from the explosion.
Where even was this explosion?
Ever since she went down, there has been no signs of one. No fire or smoke, and no crater or blown out walls. Something that loud should've left something huge in its wake.
"Wait," Anora stopped. "What if I'm not thinking in the right direction?" She was assuming that the explosion had been an accident, but what if it was intentional?
The explosion could've been used to intentionally make Warhound go into a frenzied state, erupting chaos. It would give them a chance to escape, but it would also cause Warhound to go after anyone he sees.
I guess that explains the dead children in the staircase.
The deduction left her with more questions however, where was Warhound? How about the other two targets? And where are the people insane enough to pull such a stunt?
"Hello?"
A voice stopped her thought process. A silhouette of a child could be seen further down the path.
"Hey!" Anora shouted out, "Don't move!" The silhouette jumped at the sudden sound, they moved as if they were about to run away any second. "What? Who are you?"
She went in closer to see that it was one of the children, "I'm Anora," She introduced herself, "I'm with the team that was sent to rescue the hostages here." She went to him to check his condition.
"What's your name?"
"Jug." He said, "Ow!" Jug shouted out as Anora touched his stomach. She removed his shirt to reveal multiple bruises.
"Did they do this to you?" She asked him, looking at how much there was. Jug nodded, "They would beat me up if I didn't do well enough," He told her. "We would be beaten up for hours." Jug started to tear up from recalling the memories.
"Well it's fine now, we're going to get you out of here." Anora patted his back as a way to comfort him. "Come on, let's go." She ushered Jug to follow him but he didn't move.
"What about the others?" He asked her. She turned to him, "The others? Do you know where other survivors are?"
"Mhm," He replied. "They can't escape because they're trapped." Anora took a while to think about it, "Alright, can you lead me to them?" She asked politely.
"Sure!" Jug responded, quickly moving to lead the way. As soon as he turned away, he couldn't help but smile.
What an idiot.
Jug was surprised to hear her in the caverns, but it was a welcome surprise as he needed some form of protection against Warhound. He normally wouldn't have gone walking around the place with a mad dog on the loose, but he had a mission to fulfill from Parquatz.
Before Jug met up with Anora...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Tom screamed out as loud as he could as Jug nudged a stalactite all around his wound. "You know, you should be grateful," He told him. "I'm making sure you never forget the pain of betrayal ever again."
His eyes were filled with anger, "You already made sure of it when you betrayed us."
Jug laughed at his words, "Aw, come on! Don't be so distant. Here, I'll do you an extra service." He pulled out the stalactite, then used it to carve a scar in Tom's cheek. He was so immersed in the situation that he could barely hear Parquatz screaming for his name.
"Jug!" He tried to shout out to him again. Parquatz swiped the three hands that flew to him like bullets out of existence, then dodged to the left as the palm of a giant hand slammed right where he was. Meanwhile, the person who coordinated the attack stood far away, watching his every move.
This man, he isn't someone I can handle.
Parquatz hated the fact, but he knew the worst mistake he could make was to deny reality. "How about this?" Arm summoned more arms from the void, forcing Parquatz to keep staying defensive.
"God damn it, Jug!" He shouted out again as another barrage of arms came after him, this time following him more accurately. Each attack Arm did gave him more information on his opponent, making the next one harder to deal with.
Parquatz tried to run towards Jug, barely avoiding the arms and erasing them as fast as he could. "Jug!" He grabbed his shoulders and shook him. Jug looked at him in shock, "What?" He slowly came back to his senses.
"I need you to release him," Parquatz told him. "The last resort." Jug's eyes widened, he never thought that the day that Parquatz trusted him with that monster would come.
Jug's eyes then focused behind Parquatz, realizing that there were multiple arms that were aiming for the both of them.
He pushed Parquatz away, then tried to punch the arms away, but ended up being overwhelmed by them. Arm used the arms to lift Jug up, "You're in the way." He tossed him far away from the both of them.
"And you," Arm looked at Parquatz. "Stop running." He unleashed another wave of arms towards him. "Do it, Jug!" Parquatz shouted out before running at him.
He inched closer and closer as he erased the continuous onslaught of arms that came his way. "Finally," Arm exclaimed. "Now you're fighting!"
I should do my part too.
Jug went further away from the fight, getting out of Arm's vision before he started digging down with his hands. He had good memory, even in the complex passageways of the mines he was able to clearly determine the locations of each room. Or at least, he thought he was able to.
"You know, you're brave to be able to go out and find some help." She reassured him, "How old are you?"
Her question took Jug back to the present. He wiped his smile away and turned to look at her, "I should be around 10, I forgot when my birthday was though."
Luckily, almost everything about him was child-like, it was only Parquatz who knew his real age. All he had to do was act childish and she would be none the wiser.
"So how many are there?" Anora asked as they walked. "Just one." Jug said, "The others tried to escape by themselves, did you see them?"
The deceased bodies at the staircase flashes in her mind, "No, they probably slipped by me." Anora didn't want him to know about their fates. "How are they trapped?" She continued to ask questions.
Jug found it annoying, but he kept his facade up. "Behind bars, like a jail." He looked down, "He was kept there for as long as I knew him." The comment made Anora feel sad for whoever they were going to. It kept herself quiet as she continued wondering what life was like down there.
Finally,
He sighed in relief. He was already tired physically, any more questions and he would've been exhausted mentally as well. The silence stayed until they reached a cell. It was a small opening that had bars preventing others from entering, or exiting.
Anora went closer and touched the bars. They were cold to the touch, old yet stronger than the ones used in standard cells. "How do you enter?" She asked, noticing that there was no entrance.
"You don't." Jug told her, going deeper in and pulled off a large piece of cloth to reveal a lever. "They never allowed him a way out." He reached out to the lever, but stopped as soon as a bullet flew close to his hand.
He followed its path to see that it was Anora who shot it. "Hold up," She told him. "Get away from it." Her gun followed Jug's movements closely as he slowly moved away.
Jug tried to talk to her, "I don't understand, why are you doing this?" He asked, "My friend is barely alive inside that cell, we have to hurry and get him some help." He tried to go closer to the lever, but Anora shot another bullet. "Your story doesn't add up."
She slowly moved herself to the lever, keeping him away from it. "How did you know about this?" She started to question him.
"I was able to watch them feed him their scraps." Jug answered, he was confident that he would be able to talk his way out of the situation.
BANG!
The sound of the shot hit his ears first, then the pain from his leg getting shot surged throughout the wound. "Why!" He shouted out in pain as he tried to stop the blood flow. "Why would you shoot me?" He asked, genuine confusion filled his voice.
Anora smiled, "You think I wouldn't notice?" She asked, "My eyes aren't naturally this perceptive, you know?" Her eyes glimmered silver. Jug finally took notice of it, taking a moment before he realized.
"Are you The Argent Eye?"
Anora was surprised to hear the name. "Yeah, that's one of them." She scratched her back, "I thought that name died long ago though." Jug finally knew who he was messing with, and it made him terrified.
There are many types of people who roam the badlands, from nobodies to legends. Unluckily for Jug, he ran into the worst person for the situation he was in. The Argent Eye's eyes were special, they were able to see through the essence of things.
That includes the truth.
His thoughts scrambled, thinking of everything that he said when he was talking to her. The weight of his lies laid in his shoulders when he realized the gravity of the situation. "I guess there's no way of getting out of this now, huh?"
He raised his arms, showing that he was surrendering. Anora smiled, "I'm glad we resolved this quickly." She pulled out some handcuffs and placed them on Jug.
"Now what was this supposed to do?" She inspected the lever, trying to find if there were any clues. Then she tried to follow the circuitry, only to find that it ended up going to the walls.
"To release him," Jug said. "I wasn't lying when I said that he was a prisoner, a victim of those who run this place." with a glance, Anora knew that he wasn't lying.
Something is off…
Her intuition compelled her to continue asking questions. "Why do you want to release him in the first place?" She was doubtful, why would he lie in the first place if he wasn't hiding anything from her?
Jug smiled, "His name's Beam, and he was a victim of the selfishness of those who run this place. Don't you think that after all this time being held captive, he deserves to be free?" He asked her, slowly walking forward. "Didn't you say you were here to help the victims down here?"
She shot her gun again, "Go back right where you were." Everything he said was the truth, but she felt deep inside that there was an ulterior motive behind that smile of his. She looked into the cell, there was no lighting to see who was inside. It got her to start thinking about how odd it was.
Why aren't they showing themselves?
Whoever was inside wasn't speaking, no call for help or the sounds of breathing, just silence. "Hello? She called out, "Are you there?" Confused, she turned to Jug.
"Is there even a person there?"
"Of course someone's there, they just aren't able to speak." He smiled at her. It annoyed her a bit, but since he wasn't lying she chose to let it go. She got out her flashlight and shone it inside, only to see that there was nothing there.
She looked around inside, "Looks like he isn't home." Anora said. She went to the lever and decided to pull it.
"Looks like you got what you wanted after all."