[mystogan]

well the recent chapters have been fast to write, as i am not playing any games and have run out of animes to watch(temporarily), so now most of my break time other than studies goes into writing, so i have been able to write.

i hope you are liking the story build up behind the protagonist although the entire of it is yet to come in next chapters.

"Chapter 17: Rescue"

Spoiler for Chapter 17 : Rescue:

They were snacking and drinking at the guild bar as usual,

“wow, irena this new cocktail you made is so horrible” said gilbert

“yeah it taste likes the berry in it puked and then the lime puked watching the berry puke in it, speaking of vomit” said gus “where is arwin i’d like to vomit this on him” followed by a laughter

“don’t you think you are going too much on him lately” said irena

“of course not, i’m just playing with him, its all fun” he said

“well, he din’t seem like having fun yesterday”she said

“i said fun, but for me not him” he replied with another grin, Irena sighed and just went about her work.

“where is he by the way, he usually shows up by this time” said gilbert “din’t see him ever since he ran off suspiciously yesterday”

“yeah din’t see him at all after that” added fiora awkwardly as she had met him

Erica was in the master’s office, he was seated in his chair going through routine paperwork,

“master you summoned me” said Erica

“yes, our sources from the city has informed us that they saw a person being carried bearing our guild’s insignia” he explained , “one of our guild mage has been kidnapped and it seems it was arwin”

“how did they know it was him?” she asked

“who else is missing from the guild right now” he said, “it is most probable that a rival guild might have abducted him for information, if he spills anything our guild will be at risk”

“understood” she said , “but where am i suppose to go?”

“first gather your team and i’ll inform you of the location” he said

Erica exited the office at the same time Irena entered,

Marco explained the situation to Irena

“can you track him” asked Marco

“i can, let’s hope he is still wearing his wrist band” she said

That was the true purpose of a guild insignia, the custom of guild mage wearing a guild insignia ornament was about a few centuries old, in previous times the insignia was branded and planted on the mage forcefully so that if a mage went rogue the insignia could be used to track him down. However, as time passed the purpose of a guild insignia was kept a secret and only the most loyal and trusted members were told of it, as years passed by wearing it became a fashion, the mages wore it just because everyone else in the guild did ignorant of the secret, but till today the insignia serves it’s true purpose when required.

Irena took a seat, closed her eyes and concentrated. She was the one who made the insignia on arwin’s wrist band, so she left the signature of her magic in it enabling her to track it to arwin.

After few moment she opened her eyes, “ i know where he is”

Outside, At the bar....

“guys we have business to take care of” she said, “it seems someone had abducted arwin, we have to get to him before he spills out anything about the guild”

They were struck with shock, Fiora sprayed her drink out of her mouth and gus almost fell from his chair,

(Fiora)what the devil!?, we met last evening and he was abducted after we parted?

“now he went and got himself kidnapped” said gilbert

“it appears so, we got to go now” said Erica

“yeah...., well i have better things to do than rescuing princesses from castle” said gus and ran away.

“looks like there isn’t much choice here, we can’t let the guild’s details get out” said gilbert

“can i come too” said emily as she appeared behind Erica

“this isn’t a kid’s job” said Erica,

“i worked with arwin, going through the city when the noble war was going on, i think i can handle it” she replied

“alright let’s get going then, but where are we going?”said Fiora

“i’ll tell you” said Irena as she came out from the office and joined them.

Irena put out her hand and everyone placed their hands together with her, she used her magic and transferred the information into other’s minds. Images started to appear in their heads, their minds were flooded with the information about arwin’s surrounding and his location.

“it doesn’t seem there are many mages around him, it’s just a small team”said gilbert

“let’s go then”said Fiora and they left to the rescue.

Arwin was held at a war tower at a cliff by the sea, it was abandoned for some years. During time of wars these towers were efficient to look for any threat at long distance and to temporarily hold a prisoner, it also served as a point to carry a signal or message.

Arwin’s eyes slowly opened, his eyes were feeling heavy, he felt a burning around his wrists and ankles, he looked around and found himself in a cell, the walls were old and rotting and metal bars in front of him. His hands and legs were bounded by manacles chained to the walls. His clothes were on, but greywand was missing. Then he started to remember the events of last night

(Arwin)what the hell happened?, i was going back and ...i was followed yes, it was bryce that bastard smacked me, but how in the world did i end up here.

Then he heard footstep approaching him, Bryce walked infront of him, he unlocked the door and entered

“you might be wondering what you are doing here”said Bryce

“yes, but more than that i want to kick your ass”said arwin

“ya, good luck with that lying here chained up”he said, “i am of the guild Shadow Rage i took up a job of a certain man, he hired me and instructed me to bring you to him, Malcolm Klein, does that ring any bell to you”
arwin’s expression hardened on hearing the name,

“Malcolm Klein hired you to kidnap me and bring me to him”said arwin

“he din’t specify like that, but i chose the method”he said, “nothing personal i am just doing my job, but to watch you like this, my pleasure is personal”, he laughed at arwin and walked away locking the bars behind him.

Arwin said nothing and was lost in thought, he looked beside him and jumped in surprise, there was a skeleton chained in the same manner as he was

“alright, i got to get out of here before i end up like this dude”he spoke to himself

Erica,Gilbert,Fiora and Emily were hiding in the bushes outside the five story tower with a pointy roof, the tower was much higher for a five floor building, with prison on the top floor.

“there are seven of them inside including arwin. Three are on the ground floor, two of them are on second floor and the rest two are at the top floors”said emily and opened her eyes

“looks like the only way in and out is through ground floor”said Erica

“then i guess our route of action is pretty clear”said emily

Arwin shook his manacles vigorously still they won’t come out, he dropped to the ground, he then looked at the skeleton,

“you won’t mind if i take this would you?, you don’t need it anyway”he said to the skeleton and pulled the bone from his forearm, he put the bone in a crack in the wall and pushed it downwards it broke with a crack leaving a piece of bone with pointy end in arwin’s hand. He put the pointy end of the bone in the key hole and tried to pick the lock hoping that the blind attempt would open the lock.

Three mages of Bryce’s team were sitting at the ground floor chatting, suddenly the door burst open, and four wizards jumped in, as soon as they entered the two groups started attacking each other, one of them used a telekinetic spell and threw miscellaneous objects at them such as tankards, stones, pieces of wood etc. Emily put up a force field infront of her team and all the objects bounced off. Erica summoned a sword and went in a frenzy slashing between the enemies, one of them touched the floor and formed ice on it, Erica slipped on it sliding and crashed into the wall, gilbert used his flames and burned the floor, the ice melted leaving water behind. Another one of the mages used lightning sparks on the floor, using the water at advantage hitting all of the four intruders with his lightning. Emily created a force field and expanded it pushing the enemies behind, Erica continued with melee attacks, more two enemies entered from above and joined in the fight, they kept firing magic at each other. Fiora spot the way to the upper floor, as soon as she got an opening she escaped the scene and head above to the rescue. The original plan the entire time was to distract the mages while one of them sneaks away and get arwin out of the prison and then escape.

Bryce was on the upper floors, he sensed a magic colliding below his feet, he quickly went up to arwin.

After few moments he gave up and tossed aside the bone aside. He calmed himself, he picked up the pointy bone and charged it with his lightning, the pointy end of the bone was covered with a black layer of electricity increasing its penetrating power, he then took away the skull from the skeleton, he placed the pointy end of the bone and the chain and hammered it with the skull. After few more blows the chain broke freeing from the wall, he did the same on remaining chains and was free from the wall but the manacles and chains still hung from his wrists and ankles.

Then arwin also felt numerous magic colliding below,

(Arwin)what is that?, something is happening downstairs.. but now how do i get out of the cell

He walked up to the bars, trying to find a way out, he heard footsteps approaching fast. he quickly got back to the wall and sat there as if he was still chained to the wall. Bryce came in running in a hurry, he opened the bars and came to arwin.

“you are coming with me”he said

Arwin instantly dived ahead and dashed into Bryce and pushed them out of the cell, they got up, arwin saw the greywand was on Bryce’s waist

“oh i am not going anywhere with you and you have something of mine”said arwin

“we’ll see”he said

Bryce fired up his magic and moved around the room with blinding speed jumping from ground to wall to roof, he hit arwin from behind the next moment he hit arwin from front the next moment he hit arwin from the side, arwin swing the chains on his wrist in mid air, the chains hit Bryce throwing him off his trajectory and fell down. Arwin attack with a straight punch , Bryce blocked the attack while arwin pushed him by the waist, arwin quickly stepped back and pulled the chain on his left hand that was fixed to Bryce’s belt, arwin swing the chain in his right hand, while Bryce blocked the swinging chain, he pulled the left chain and separated the greywand away from him, he pulled the chain and caught the sword. Before arwin could unsheathe Bryce was already close to him , he caught arwin’s right arm and punched him in the gut, arwin bend over in pain, Bryce grabbed his neck in his arm pulled him to the ground and rolled backwards, slamming arwin on his back, arwin coughed and curled.

They got up and were about to go at each again, the door blasted open and Fiora walked in, Bryce quickly used the distraction and blasted the wall,

(Bryce)damn it!, this is done here

And jumped off from there, arwin followed to the edge and saw below, but there was no sign of him as if he disappeared in thin air.

“what’s going on?” asked Fiora, “listen first tell me did you--- ”

“i am fine by the way thank you for asking” he said “i know why you and others are here and no they did not interrogate me and i did not give away any information about the guild”he said

“lets go then”she said

“you leave, i cannot go back there is something i need to do”he said

“what are you talking about?”she asked

“i am not coming with you......... i must go somewhere else”he said

The walls on the ground floor were decorated with blood and the floor with the dead bodies of five mages of which none was from Dragonest, the rest were heading upstairs when fiora came back

“where is arwin?”asked Erica

“he is gone”she said

“what do you mean?” said emily

“well he is not on the other floors and not in the cell and i saw him escaping on a hawkzile”

“what is he that idiot doing”said gilbert “should we follow him?”

“no use he is already gone far”she said

“but why would run away”asked emily

“who knows looks like he din’t wanted to come with us”said fiora

“i guess we are going empty handed then, we failed here, we were suppose to bring him back to the guild” said emily

“it seems so” said Erica

(Fiora)you better have a good reason for this

The group left the tower and went back. A few hours later after they left the tower arwin cautiously stepped outside the tower and was on his way to Ritherhithe.

Back at the guild......

“you think he will be coming back” asked fiora

“i don’t know ”said gilbert

“he is coming back” said Irena

“how can you be so sure?”asked fiora

“because he is still wearing his wrist band”she replied.