Chapter 112: Prison Break
The hidden pin moved on Perrin’s first pull.
Their mage had spent three days practicing how to hold a narrow thread of mana instead of flooding an entire stone. Their scout had replaced the improvised hook with a forked steel tool made to catch the pin from either side. Perrin watched the arena wall while the other two worked.
The handleless door slid open in twelve seconds. It was much faster this time.
They crossed into the service corridor, pulled the door shut, and moved before the first orc entered the empty preparation room. The arena crowd roared on the other side of the wall. Workers hurried toward the entrances carrying water, food, and bundles of practice weapons.
Perrin’s party already knew the traffic pattern.
They waited behind a stack of barrels while two cooks passed, then slipped through a smokehouse yard before the next supply group arrived. The scout wore a rough brown cloak over her armor. The others had similar coverings, but none expected cloth to make five humans look like orcs at close range.
The disguises only needed to prevent someone at the far end of an alley from noticing them immediately.
Their previous attempt had gone wrong beside the cages. They freed the prisoners before anyone had weapons, then tried to move a frightened crowd through an entire camp while the alarm sounded.
This time, they went to the armory first.
The confiscated weapons were stored in a long building near the prison yard. Its front door faced a training field filled with orc warriors. Perrin’s scout had found a rear hatch during their first attempt, but they had been too busy running to use it.
The hatch was barred from inside.
Their mage touched two fingers to the surrounding wood and whispered. A thin line of green light showed where the bar crossed the frame. Breaking it would make noise. Burning it would fill the building with smoke.
Perrin crouched beneath the window and listened to two orcs arguing inside. One believed a captured elven bow should be displayed above the arena chief’s seat. The other wanted to cut it apart and use the wood for tool handles.
The healer took a small vial from her belt. She rolled it through the gap beneath the hatch.
The argument stopped.
One orc complained about the smell. The other managed half a sentence before something heavy struck the floor. A second impact followed.
Perrin waited until the healer counted to ten before pulling the hatch. The weakened bar bent without snapping, and the party entered.
The sleeping mixture would not last long. It did not need to.
They filled two canvas bundles with short swords, bows, knives, a dwarven hammer, and every quiver they could carry. The shield bearer took a coil of chain from the wall. Perrin found the hooked tool used to lift the eastern gate’s lower locking bar and added it to the load.
They left the two unconscious orcs behind a rack instead of killing them. Bodies would be discovered as quickly as sleeping guards, and Perrin did not want blood running beneath the front door.
The largest prison pen contained the same nineteen captives while a small pen next to it contained two dwarves. Aelith stood near the bars with her face turned toward the camp. Several elves rested against the rear wall. Their wounds had reset with the level, but the exhaustion written into their roles remained.
She saw Perrin and glanced toward the empty space where he had approached during the previous attempt.
"We brought the weapons."
That earned the smallest change in her expression.
The scout passed blades and bows between the bars while the mage worked on the lock. Aelith selected six elves and armed them before the cage opened. Two remained beside the wounded. The other four spread near the gate, ready to move instead of staring at freedom.
Perrin opened the smaller cage and gave the dwarves their hammer and a short axe.
"The alarm will sound as soon as someone sees the empty pen," Aelith warned.
They did not run directly toward the eastern gate.
Perrin led the prisoners behind the smokehouses, using the same storage lanes that had hidden his party earlier. The healer and two armed elves stayed with the wounded in the center. Their shield bearer walked at the rear, where he could stop anyone who came around the last corner.
The scout went ahead with Aelith.
They reached a supply road north of the prison yard before an orc worker looked through the bars and shouted. The alarm horn sounded. Warriors on the training field turned toward the cages instead of the eastern wall.
That bought Perrin’s group almost a minute.
It was enough to cross half the camp.
They encountered three orcs near a row of storage sheds. The fight ended quickly, but not quietly. One orc struck a hanging iron pan as he fell. The noise drew a patrol from the main road.
Perrin did not order the prisoners to keep running. That had stretched their group apart during the first attempt.
They occupied the narrow lane instead.
The shield bearer and two elves held the front. Perrin and Aelith attacked anyone who tried to force through the gap. The mage filled the wider end of the lane with a waist-high ridge of stone, preventing the patrol from surrounding them. When the healer confirmed that the wounded had crossed the next yard, the defenders withdrew together.
They reached the eastern gate with every prisoner still alive.
The Warchief’s Brother stepped down from his platform.
He wore the same layered armor and carried the same two-handed blade with a hooked tip. Orc warriors were moving through the camp behind the prisoners, but none rushed past him. The gate commander owned the road in front of his gate.
[Alternate Route Boss]
[The Warchief’s Brother]
[Defeat the gate commander and escort the prisoners beyond the camp.]
Perrin’s first plan had been to defeat him quickly.
Their revised plan began with opening the gate.
Aelith took two elves and both dwarves toward the locking bars. The healer moved the wounded prisoners behind a stone supply platform beside the wall. Perrin, the scout, the mage, and the remaining elves spread across the road.
Their shield bearer stood in the center.
The Warchief’s Brother charged him.
During the previous attempt, the first impact had thrown the man into a wall. This time, the shield bearer did not try to absorb the strike while standing upright. He dropped onto one knee, angled the shield, and wrapped the chain from the armory around a stone post behind him.
The hooked blade struck.
The shield bearer still left the ground. The chain snapped tight and dragged the post sideways, but it kept him from flying across the road. Their mage raised stone beneath his rear foot before the second blow landed.
The shield held.
Perrin attacked the boss’s right side. He did not aim for the armor seam. The Warchief’s Brother knew the weakness existed even if the level did not remember Perrin discovering it. He kept his arm low, turned the layered plates toward Perrin, and used the hooked tip to pull Perrin’s sword out of line.
The scout waited.
Behind them, the dwarves fitted the armory tool under the lower locking bar. The wood rose an inch and dropped. One of the wounded elves left cover to help before the healer pushed him back.
The Warchief’s Brother heard the gate mechanism. He struck the shield bearer hard enough to crack the stone beneath him, then turned toward Aelith.
That was the opening.
Perrin stepped into the boss’s path and forced him to raise the two-handed blade. The plates beneath his right arm separated.
The scout’s narrow weapon entered the seam.
The Warchief’s Brother roared and caught her with his elbow, but Perrin seized the strap she had cut. He pulled while two elves struck the loosened plates from behind. The outer layer of armor shifted down the orc’s side.
Their mage did not try to bind the boss’s feet again. The Warchief’s Brother had torn free too easily. Instead, he drove a wedge of stone around the hooked blade when it struck the road. The weapon remained trapped for only a moment.
Four people used that moment.
The boss abandoned the blade rather than fight to free it. He caught one elf, threw another aside, and drove Perrin backward with the weight of his damaged armor. The shield bearer released himself from the post and blocked the route toward the gate mechanism.
The battle divided into two tasks.
Perrin’s party and the armed elves prevented the boss from reaching Aelith. Aelith and the dwarves worked the locking bars while the healer kept the wounded together. Orc soldiers collected at the far end of the road, but the raised stone ridge and narrow approach prevented them from joining the boss in large numbers.
The upper locking bar fell.
The Warchief’s Brother struck Perrin’s shield bearer with both hands. The man went down, but this time he fell in the road instead of disappearing through a wall. The healer reached him before the boss could finish the attack.
Perrin and the scout pressed the damaged side of the armor. The remaining elves rotated around them, attacking only when they could withdraw without blocking another person. They did not have the strength to overpower the orc. They did have enough people to deny him a safe direction to turn.
The lower bar lifted.
The dwarves shoved the gate.
Cold highland wind entered the camp through the widening gap.
The Warchief’s Brother looked toward it, and Perrin saw the moment the boss decided to abandon defense. He charged the prisoners with his damaged armor hanging loose and an elven blade still lodged beneath his arm.
Their mage raised one final ridge across the road.
The boss broke through it.
Breaking through slowed him.
The shield bearer caught one leg. Aelith struck the exposed seam. Perrin drove his sword between two shifted plates while the scout cut the remaining strap holding them in place.
The layered armor collapsed around the Warchief’s Brother’s feet.
He remained standing for three more steps.
Then the gate commander fell.
[The Warchief’s Brother has been defeated.]
Perrin did not stop to read the rest of the notice.
Orc soldiers had cleared the ridge at the far end of the road. Aelith ordered the armed elves through the gate. The healer and shield bearer moved the wounded. The two dwarves took opposite ends of a makeshift litter and carried the slowest prisoner between them.
Perrin crossed last with the scout and mage.
As soon as the scout cleared the opening, the mage spent his remaining mana on the road. Broken stone rose behind them and jammed the gate. The barrier would not hold the camp for long, but it forced the pursuing orcs to climb through a narrow gap while Aelith’s armed elves covered the retreat.
The first orc reached the outer marker stones after the slowest wounded prisoner crossed the escape line. None reached the prisoners before the completion notice appeared.
[All surviving prisoners escorted beyond the camp.]
[Alternate route complete: Prison Break.]
[Level 2: Orc Highlands has been completed.]
[Secret progression route unlocked.]
A portal formed beside the valley road.
Aelith did not enter it. She stood with the freed prisoners and looked toward the distant tree line.
"Our riders will find us." She said. "If you travel this road again, they will remember what you did here."
Perrin wanted to ask what road she meant. The completion portal began drawing his party toward it before he could.
They appeared in the Sanctuary covered in dust, blood, and pieces of orc armor.
[Alternate Level Three entry available.]
[The Elven Road]
For once, Perrin did not immediately tell the people gathering around him what he had found.
He read the name again.
Then he looked toward the Level Three portal and smiled.