Gales POV
"Hey it's time" a voice faintly called out.
While stuck in this place I grew to become a bit of a light sleeper and along with Wolf heart, hearing the faint voice was enough to wake me up. Looking towards the source of the voice I saw that it was Max who had begun to wake his group up. Before he had gone to sleep he had apparently made a small rune next to him in the floor and placed his hand over it so that it would send out a small vibration that would wake him around 15 minutes before we set our plan in motion.
As we all woke up the rabbit demihuman whose name was apparently Darrell began to focus on activating his magic once again to confirm where Rekka was and while he did that I went over the plan with the group.
"Alright, once he's locked down Rekkas position we'll leave the cells and start making our way through the tunnels. While we make our way through the tunnels you all need to follow right behind me, we won't have much time to do this and we'll have to be quick or we lose our chance."
"Cam't we just wait until Rekka starts to make her way down to the mines?" Questioned one of the captives.
"No" I replied
"We only have around an hour before she starts to make preparations to leave which is about the time that the slavers will come and get the next batch of slaves aka us resulting in our cover being blown. Even we did try that by the time we make it to the airship she most likely would have seen us all gone from our cells and will send out an order for the whole prison to search for us. Not to mention that she wouldn't just leave her ship unprotected and most likely would have left a few of her close personnel guarding it and making final preparations, so in order to maximize our chances of success I won't be taking us to the exit."
At hearing that last part nearly all of the group became agitated with me.
"What?! You said you knew where the exit was and that you would lead us!"
"I knew we couldn't trust him."
I ignored their complaints and continued "I'll be taking you all to our distraction."
They soon became silent and their looks told me that they wondered what I meant.
"While we were resting I kept thinking of a way to create the best possible distraction that would cause everyone to gather in one place and from there we could trap them and have enough time to secure the airship and leave. I eventually came up with the idea of using the mining equipment they have stored away."
Everyone began to pay closer attention to my words as I explained the distraction.
"I only passed by it a few times but there was a storage area where they kept most of their heavy machinery and regular mining equipment but on one occasion I saw them take out small explosive charges that they used to blow out a tunnel that their drills couldn't get through. If we can get to that storage unit we can grab the explosives and from there we head to one of the areas that other batch of slaves are at and create a riot that will cause Rekka and her men to head to the riot where will blow the structure of the cave up and cause a cave in and trap them."
I could hear small exclaims of awe within the group as they listened to my plan and then I heard someone ask a question.
"But how do you plan on making sure Rekka and all her men gather together?"
It was a solid question as there were plenty of variables to consider that could prevent her from arriving but before I could answer it Darrell spoke up.
"I found her. She said in half an hour she would be heading down here."
At this I turned to the group and told them that it was time and that I would put the plan into motion when the time came but we had to move now. At this the group silently agreed and we began to move out of our cells. We gathered up in a group and as I was preparing to move I felt a small tug on the rag I called a shirt. I looked back and saw Ashes grabbing on to my shirt with an anxious look on her face. It looked as though she had no intention of being near the others and was going to stick to me. I let out a small sigh and told her " do exactly what I say and don't make a sound." She's silently nodded and continued to hold on.
I looked at the group and took a quick count.
'All together including me is about 20 people. We need to move quickly and quietly so as to not attract any attention.'
At last I was ready and signaled for all of them to follow me and we began our escape.
As quickly but as carefully as I could I led the group through the tunnels all while remembering the directions and taking a moment to brace my nose and smell the air to ensure there weren't any patrols that decided to change their path. It was an agonizing walk that took no more than 10 minutes but it felt like hours with every turn we made filling me with anxiety as I silently hoped I had remembered the paths correctly and thankfully we had arrived at the storage.
We approached the large metal storage unit and once we made it I told Sasha to open the doors and quickly she approached the thick large metal gate that held the equipment and she quickly made a small opening in the large gate that was big enough for a person to walk right in. I along with Lucas, Clover and Max entered and saw the various heavy machinery and mining equipment and in a crate I could smell the same scent as I had on the explosives and as we opened it we found the explosive charges along with remote detonators.
We carefully took the charges out and began to give them to various people in our group and grabbed pickaxes and gave them to everyone in our group as a another means of protection. All together we had over ten charges and once we gave out the equipment I told the group to start moving and we made our way to where the next batch of slaves were currently being put to work and where the slavers were. As we made our way there I silently spoke to the group.
"Ok once we make it close to the area we are going to split up in two groups. Group 1 will be going through different tunnels and placing the charges around the area to collapse the area once Rekka and her men are in the area and once they plant it will be hiding while the second group does their job. Group 2 will be our distraction group and will enter the area and begin the riot. Use whatever you can whether it's with magic or with weapons but the most important thing is that we also try to get the other slaves to join the riot."
As I explained the plan they all with the exception of Ashes nodded confidently with the small dragon girl showing a nervous look and cleary feeling the pressure. It was clear that she wouldn't be much help in the plan so I told her to stay to the side and not to touch anything in which she only silently nodded. I planned on going with group 1 as there was a high chance that Self Preservation would activate and either cause me to freeze before going in or worse force me to run and get out of danger and I needed to be close by.
As I told them the plan I became anxious as I realized in order to make this plan work we would have to kill the slavers. I already knew that we would have to do this and I had no love for the slavers and have seen people die already but I still had complicated feelings about killing another person. I also had no idea if the people in our group would be prepared to take another persons life as not everyone would be on board with it and even a moments hesitation would be disastrous for the plan.
"Before we start..." I look towards the group and began to speak "are you all prepared to take another person's life? If anyone isn't ready then I recommend staying out of the way."
Once I finished speaking the group exchanged looks with one another and then Clover spoke up "Of course I'm ready. Back home my father taught me how to hunt monsters, this isn't any different, just killing more monsters." As she finished speaking the majority of the group agreed and looked resolute in the plan.
....I wasn't expecting this. This was a reminder to me of the kind of world I was in and that if I wanted to survive in this world I needed to be ready to do what I needed to do.... even if it meant I had to kill another person.
I fully made up my mind and grabbed my explosive charge and we split the groups up. I along with Lucas and Max would lead group 1 who consisted of the ones who had the least experience fighting place the explosives on the infrastructure of the area and Clover along with Sasha would lead group 2 that was made up of those who had the most experience fighting and had access to attack magic as well.
We got into our respective groups with Ashes hiding away in a corner and got into position. Once we were all ready I gave them a countdown.
"3...2....1... GO!"
With that we all ran into what would be the most dangerous moments in our lives.