Chapter 9: Escape

Chapter 9: Escape

Jack awoke sometime later in an unfamiliar place. He had a terrible headache, and it took him a moment to focus before he noticed his surroundings. Getting up, he immediately checked his head. It felt like there was an open wound on the back, but he couldn’t find any blood or wound. Satisfied that he appeared to be okay, regardless of how he felt, he began taking in his surroundings.

The first thing Jack noticed was that he was in a cage made of bamboo. There were other cages like the one he was in nearby, but as far as he could tell his cage was the only one occupied. Looking through the bars of the cage, Jack saw more of those four-armed gorillas from several days ago. He counted four that he could see, and they were busy working. They were in the process of erecting tents and setting up a wall. None of them were paying any attention to Jack. But after looking around a bit, Jack realized there was little he could do.

The cage was strong. The only metal on the cage was the lock, but it was attached firmly and wouldn’t budge. From his cage, Jack watched the gorilla-people work. As they worked, they spoke to each other using some kind of grunting language and hand motions. Each of the not-gorillas wore at least one belt, in which Jack could see a large knife sheath, but one had a second belt and carried a large hammer as big as Jack, and the last one had three belts and had two large axes attached to his back.

The one with the three belts and axes appeared to be some kind of leader among the non-gorillas. He watched over the others as the single belts non-gorillas worked on setting up their camp. The other three also appeared to look at the lead one for directions every few minutes. At least that is what it looked like to Jack. He started to try and piece together the situation he suddenly found himself in when the System screen appeared before him.

*Quest: Escape*

The Wenduags have captured you.

-Escape from your confinement!

Reward: Experience, Freedom, +2 to random attribute, System title

Failure: enslavement, possible death

*You have gained the status: Enslaved*

Enslaved: Skill gain and progression halted. Stat gained reduced. Experience and Cultivation earned will be transferred to your captor’s experience bank.

“Great,” Jack muttered and immediately the Wenduags, as the system called them, turned to look at him, for the first time noticing that he was awake. They stared at him for a moment, but when Jack didn’t do anything further, they returned to their conversation, ignoring him once again.

Jack waited until he was sure the Wenduags were no longer paying attention to him before inspecting his cage again. The cage was held together by vines, and Jack was hoping that he would be able to find a weak point in its design. However, despite its looks, Jack couldn’t find any part that he could take advantage of. It wasn’t the most complex of designs, but similar to the hut that Jack made, he was able to see where magic was enhancing the structure, and he knew it was stronger than it appeared.

Still, he wasn’t going to give up without trying anything. Carefully he tried shaking and bending the bars, trying to create a gap to slip through, but they wouldn’t budge. He tried using his Flame spell, making sure to hide the spell with his body from the Wenduags, to light the vines or bamboo, but even emptying his full mana bar into channeling the spell did nothing to the cage. Jack couldn’t even see signs that he had done anything.

Jack was still trying to think of a way to get free when suddenly the Wenduags began hollering. Immediately Jack jumped away from the cage bars, thinking he had been caught in the act. But the hollering was coming from far away. Too far to see. The Wenduags immediately pulled their weapons from their belts, but none were looking over at Jack. Instead, they all looked out into the jungle. They waited, as the hollering abruptly ended.

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A moment later a large black shadow shot through the camp, carrying away one of the Wenduags. More black shadows appeared, launching themselves at the Wenduags. Most of the shadows moved past Jack’s cage, ignoring him and going further into the camp. Soon, all the Wenduags were engaged in fighting.

Two more of the shadows shot towards the axe wielding Wenduag. The Wenduag swung out at the shadows, the axes somehow appearing in his hands, with a force and speed Jack couldn’t follow and two large black snakes were revealed from their shadow form falling to the ground dead, their head split in half.

The black snakes were the same kind that Jack saw attack the Wenduag almost a week ago. These weren’t as big but still large enough to swallow Jack with a small gulp. Still, they appeared uninterested in anything that wasn’t a Wenduag. Several passed right by Jack, close enough for Jack to reach out and touch them if he was quick enough, but none of them even stopped to look at him. Instead, they were actively searching the camp. It was almost like a raid, but why would snakes work together to raid a camp attacking only one creature?

The fighting continued and the combat, which initially appeared to be one-sided, slowly started to shift. The flow of battle went from Jack seeing the Wenduags being picked up and eaten or killed in an instance, to more and more of the monstrous black snakes falling dead. Several of the black snakes fell from the treetops taking out many of the newly created structures.

In a twist of good-fortune, one of the snakes crashed onto the cage holding Jack. He was thrown back from the impact, being carried several feet away with the remnants of the cage. The impact knocked the air out of his lungs, and he was certain he had broken several ribs, but he was still alive, and he fought to stay conscious. He was still in the camp as the fighting continued, but the impact had created a hole in the cage.

This was his chance. Jack couldn’t have imagined a better opportunity to escape, and he was going to lose it if he didn’t act quickly. Adrenaline and desperation spurred him into action. Jack scrambled for the opening, only to be knocked back into the cage as a Wenduag appeared. It roared at Jack, and he got the impression that it was telling him to stay put. But just as Jack was thinking that his chance for escape had disappeared, the Wenduag was knocked away by one of the snakes that had taken the opportunity to attack the Wenduag while it was distracted.

The two started fighting each other a few feet away from Jack. Not wanting to waste the second chance he was given and end up a collateral in their battle, Jack ran for it as fast as his broken ribs would let him. Jack didn’t know what direction to go to escape from the two clashing forces, but he had an idea. The snake had come from somewhere, somewhere that the Wenduag weren’t.

Jack headed towards the direction he had seen the snakes come from. The snakes attacks were getting bolder as they dropped the stealth attacks and began engaging with the remaining Wenduags in battle. The snakes and Wenduags moved with such speeds that they seemed to disappear and reappear from Jacks sight. It was hard to find a safe path to escape, but with every passing second the battle was getting closer to its conclusion and Jack didn’t want to be anywhere nearby when it did.

Ultimately Jack decided to abandon carefulness and run for it. He found himself at the edge of the Wenduags’ camp, fenced off with bamboo too tall to climb over. Hurrying, Jack continued along the edge trying to find an entrance or a gap in the wall to the camp. All around him, snakes and Wenduags fought and died. It was a great distraction for Jack, but panic started to set in as he was unable to find an exit from the camp. Did he go the wrong way?

Then, abruptly, the bamboo came to an end and Jack nearly swore out loud. He found himself in front of a cliff. The Wenduags probably left it open, as there were not a lot of ways to enter or leave besides climbing it. Looking over the edge of the cliff, Jack saw the start of a canyon. There were several land formations sticking out of the sides of the canyon wall and the closest one that Jack could see was easily a fifty-foot drop from where he was.

Behind him, Jack heard horns bellowing and the ground started to shake. The sound was approaching, fast. There wasn’t any more time to waste. Quickly casting a Heal on himself, Jack started climbing down the cliff face. There were enough rocks and plants growing out of the side that made climbing it more nerve-wracking than difficult.

Jack had made it ten feet down when the first of the giant snakes from the camp started fleeing. Jack watched the giant snake come over the side of the cliff, soaring down it like they were flying rather than slithering with how fast they traversed the cliffside. It was immediately followed by several others, all fleeing the same way. The stampede of the snakes leaving the fighting created a mild localized earthquake. Jack couldn’t bring himself to move with so much shaking and found himself holding onto anything he could wrap a limb around to stop him from falling.

There was a large number of rocks and what looked like spears that flew out from the camp that Jack assumed was coming from the Wenduags, trying to take out as much as they could before the snakes escaped. One of the rocks smashed into one of the giant snakes that was passing next to Jack. The force of the strike knocked the snake into a collision directly with Jack. The crash took Jack from his rooted spot. He had a vague feeling of falling before an explosion of pain and everything blacked out.