I Am Legion: Chapter 54

For the sake of not alerting every single Centurion in the mines all at once, Angel switched her rifles for a bow. She nocked an arrow and and drew it back as I banged loudly on the door. A freckled face appeared. A teenage prison guard, maybe nineteen at the most.

I launched the points of two tentacles right into his face.

He his mouth was open to yell when the obsidian spikes punched through his skull. I used his corpse for traction as I bounded out, silent and deadly, and casually nailed two more Centurions to either side of the entryway.

“You know, I remember when my conscience used to bug me about killing humans,” I remarked to Lulu. “About… ooh… three weeks ago? Before I knew how awful most of the people are.”

“Ooooh-hoo,” Lulu agreed.

We’d found a prison block. Four levels of crude cells hewn from rock, windowless, locked with heavy wooden doors. There were no bars and nothing for the prisoners to look at. The Centurions didn't want to waste the metal. The block was laid out panopticon style, like a big round drum with a spiral walkway and a central watchtower. It was late, so the doors were closed, the exhausted slaves getting what sleep they could. The guards were still clueless. We had about ten seconds until that changed.

Angel knew what to do. She peeled around me and ran toward the ramp leading up to our catwalk, the highest level of the prison. Torchlight bobbed from downstairs as another guard headed toward us, maybe sensing something, maybe hearing something. Angel dropped fluidly to one knee and aimed down, the muscles of her jaws flexing with concentration. When his helmet crested her lined of sight, she fired. The arrow took him through the eye, and suddenly he was rolling back down the ramp.

"Okay, Lulu. It’s go time." I threw almost everything out of my inventory onto the ground, a great big stack of guns, spears, bows and quarrels toppling to the dirt floor. Then I backed up until my butt was almost against the wall. “Hold on, and get ready to grab something if I miss.”

“If yoo mooss…?” Lulu got her answer as I shot off, sprinting at the edge of the catwalk. I flung us off out into the open air, soaring toward the tower in the center of the prison.

There were a pair of watchers inside, one male, one female. The woman looked up from her book to see a ton of dragon-panther-octopus sailing gracefully toward her. She yelled a wordless warning – and then I crashed into the fence around the walkway and pulled myself up, paddling with my back feet to scramble up and then into the tower. After my power boost from Karkinos, the wooden walls and windowsills were about as much protection as a paper bag. I tore them apart, roaring to drive the pair away from me. They had a pair of cutes with them, but no Brutes. Both the cutes - some kind of flying cat and a lizard - were turned into kabobs as I skewered them and chased their fleeing trainers. The humans screamed and fumbled for weapons.

"KARMA, BITCHES!" I charged the woman down, raking her back with claws. The man somehow evaded the tentacle swipes, diving around me and coming up to frantically reach for a rope pull leading to the tower's alarm. Lulu screeched and lashed out at him - little more than a slap, but she'd leveled up since her t-rex suffocation days. Getting slapped upside the head by forty pounds of slime was enough to throw a guy off his feet. The guard squawked as he went to his ass. He fumbled for the sword on his belt. Got his fingers barely around the hilt before I tore his arm off.

"Oops." I lunged forward, jaws gaping. A snap and a crunch, and he got the horror movie monster experience.

There were shouts from outside. The guards downstairs had spotted Angel. Me and Lulu ran to the edge of the watchtower and peered over. Angel’s hood was off, her hair a brilliant white flash as she ran back up the ramp, several Centurions in hot pursuit. They had crossbows, firing up at her. One bolt hit the wall as Angel ducked on instinct, leaping and rolling into a crouch so she could fire down. I tensed, wanting to yell at her to drop her head, but she knew what she was doing. Ammunition clattered uselessly off the walls as one, two, three Centurions went down, white-feathered quills protruding from their necks and faces.

"I am never not impressed by how good you are at shooting shit dead." I thought to her. I could only shake my head in wonder. "But we need to start opening these cell doors yesterday. We have slightly less than a minute until these guys respawn."

"I know. Do your rounds on the corpses and spawn camp them. Niner them all." Angel signed from across the way, her expression hard, then turned and began to rack the bolts on the doors.

One by one, confused prisoners emerged warily into the open. While Angel freed people, I leaped back from the watchtower to stop our guards from coming back to life. It felt... not great, to purposefully wait for a gladiator to revive and then nail them again. I felt like a murderer, retracing our steps from the door and sticking the downed, defenseless Centurions with claws and fangs. When the spawn counters ticked down, the people didn't just suddenly spring back to their feet all bright-eyed and bushy tailed. There were a few moments of groggy confusion, almost paralysis, while they struggled to life and processed the moments of their death - before gurgling as a ten-inch tentacle spike plunged them back into senselessness. By the second round, Lulu slid off from around me to huddle miserably under the table in the watchtower while I performed the grim duty a second and third time.

"Wait... you. Angel!" As Angel unlocked one of the doors on the second level, I heard a familiar voice from underneath me. It was another of Merc's lieutenants, a big Black guy with a scarred face. I recognized him, but didn’t know his name. "The hell are you doing here?"

I translated that for Angel, figuring she was unlikely to have heard it. A few seconds later, she voiced: "We can talk later. Help me open cells, then run upstairs to Noodles and grab a weapon. We have minutes before the Centurions figure out something's wrong and this place turns into a warzone."

"Roger that, ma'am." A small pause. "MAROONS, YOU HEARD THE WOMAN! LET'S GO LET'S GO!"

A yell went up among the freed people, who flew into action: releasing their cellmates, or jogging upstairs to receive their armaments. Scarface was in the lead, and goggled when he saw the pile of hurt I'd left for everyone upstairs.

"One each! I catch anyone picking up more than what they need to break out of this shithole, I will personally shoot you in the head!" he grabbed a [Crude Shotgun] and racked it, turning to command the group following him. "For those who do not know me, I am Solomon! From now until we recover our commander, I am the effective commander of the Maroons!"

I knew just by the way he barked each word that Solomon had been in the Army. He held his gun like a pro, a finger resting beside the trigger of his weapon. Other senior Maroons, shaken and exhausted but riding a new wave of adrenaline now they were out of their cells, set up to either side of the pile and began handing out weapons. I was somewhat grateful when Solomon caught on to what I was doing with the Centurions - and before I had to go and execute the guy Angel had nailed on the ramp, he aimed down as soon as the guy’s timer was up and blew his head off.

"Damn. Solomon there ain't fuckin' around." Shaking my head, I leaped light back over to the tower to rejoin Lulu and continue the grim business of suppressing the jailors.

“I hoot thoos.” Lulu shuddered.

"Me too, but it’s gotta be done. Close your eyes, kid. Or your... uh... photoreceptors. Whatever you have now."

Lulu grumbled, but hunched down as I did what I had to do. It was the man's last life, and as he expired, a glowing red X appeared over his corpse.

[You have earned a new achievement: The Grim Reaper]

[You have dealt your first permakill. I love a strong man, and this world rewards the strong. You gain 500 bonus EXP.]

"I’m actually starting to hate you, Chorus." I went over to deal with the second guard as she began to writhe on the ground. "Spare me the fucking justifications. Nothing about murdering semi-conscious people is me proving I'm 'strong'. This whole world is like the twisted wet dreams of some 17-year old Nazi sympathizer who plays FPS games in his basement all day and rants about the demise of the white race to his VRchat buddies. And half of THEM are fucking Polish femboys in the socks. The thigh-high stripy ones."

[That is a highly specific scenario, darling. It suggests you possess experience.]

"If I was involved with any Polish femboys, I don’t remember. All I remember are facts about South-East Asian bugs. Which I hate, by the way." I shook the woman's corpse in frustration, until I realized what I was doing and let her go. As she flopped over, I saw the red number on the inside of her wrist – a one. The next life was her last. "Not as much as fake alpha bullshit and Nazis, but bugs are definitely a close second."

3... 2... 1. The Centurion sucked in a rasping breath, and I regretfully leaned a claw on her jugular and opened it from just underneath her ear down to her collarbone.

[You have gained a new achievement: Serial Killer]

[You have gained 200 bonus EXP. You are Level 23.]

"Great, thanks for that." Growling, I was about to turn away - then realized that I could loot the bodies. It would be stupid not to. I took their shit, scooped Lulu up and ordered her to absorb the dead cutes and form an Omnishell liquid armor vest.

[Lulu has absorbed a Felitaro. Lulu has absorbed a Coelonyx.]

[Lulu has learned Confusion. Lulu has learned Razor Leaf.]

[Lulu’s Omnishell has obtained a polarity: Mind.]

Lulu turned a paler shade of silver as she absorbed the elemental polarity. She felt somehow both lighter and cooler as she bounced over to me and went splat against my flank, winding around my limbs and torso like a bodysuit.

“Hmm. Minty fresh.” I rumbled and left the corpses on the floor, tail whipping. Trying to put them out of mind, while I bounded back over the gap to join our newly formed Irregulars. Maybe it was because I had only just noticed the fallen Centurion's life counter, but I found myself looking at the wrists of everyone assembled - and realized that every single of one of them was down to one life. Many of them still showed signs of torture. Suddenly, I didn’t feel so bad about ninering the Centurions.

"Solomon: do you know what happened to Merc?" Angel voiced. At mention of her name, a pained expression came to Solomon’s eyes.

"She was separated from us. We… we were forced to watch them torture her, execute her repeatedly. I think she was taken to the slave training facility outside this mine," he said. His voice still had that authoritative drill-instructor bark, but the light left his eyes as he recounted what happened. "Someone betrayed Eden. Led them right to us."

"It was Hong," Angel said. "We saw him at Oil Town talking to Targent, after we defeated Karkinos."

"Motherfucker.” Solomon ground his teeth. "That piece of shit. Targent said that ‘one of our own’ had betrayed us. I thought he was just trying to screw with our morale. We all thought Hong had been killed on a recon mission."

"Who else would it be?" Angel asked.

Solomon scowled. "Could have been anyone."

"He means us," I thought to Angel. "He thought it was us."

"Right, yeah." Angel planted her hands on her hips. "As soon as we realized that Eden was in danger, I tried to warn Merc. When I didn’t get a reply, I rode straight there. Everyone there is dead, other than Doc.”

Some of the hope returned to Solomon’s heavy face. “Doc’s alive? Seriously?”

“He is. And is waiting outside the mines, holding our base camp while we free and arm everyone. We’re here to give you the best opportunity you will ever have to get revenge for yourselves and your people." Her gaze swept over the loose, disconnected mob forming around the spiral walkway. The Maroons and the Pigs and Centurions prisoners had naturally gravitated to their own tribes. "And I’m sorry, but you're not in command for the moment. I am. But I AM asking you to be my second in command until we rescue Merc and she's able to take over again."

Solomon’s dark eyes filled with fury, until I growled. He looked over at me, then suddenly seemed to remember that Angel was, to all intents and purposes, now one of the strongest Gladiators on the island.

"Everyone! Listen up!" Angel didn't wait for his reply. Straight-backed, her motions efficient and confident, she went over to me and lay a hand on my shoulder. "Whatever you've done in the past, whatever led to you being here, none of it matters until Imperator Argent - otherwise known as Nicolai Kaban - is defeated and the Sponsored's grip on this island is destroyed. Today is the day that happens. The Hell Pigs are planning an assault on Fortuna, and we’re going to make the most of the chaos. This is our mine, now. And we need to hold it.”

That caused a stir to go around the now-crowded prison ward: over seventy people from various tribes, all reduced to one life - and most of them now armed and armored.

"Fortuna is currently weak and only partially defended. The bulk of the Centurions are on the Warfront a hundred and fifty miles to the west," Angel continued. "We have minutes before the next patrol comes into these mines and the Centurions realize what has happened here. So all of you: forget your clans, forget everything you thought you knew about this place. Let's smash our way out of this place, and I swear that I and my Legions will ride into the heart of Fortuna and take care of the Sponsoreds once and for all!"

A roar went up. The Maroons, the most heavily armed of the convicts, thrust their rifles up and cheered - even Solomon, who had put aside his reservations for the time being. The room erupted with noise: Pigs howling, betrayed Centurions and freemen and women whooping battle cries. Angel couldn't hear it, but she could see the energy in the rebels. And their enthusiasm was right on time.

Below us, the main entry to the cell block flung open. The three-headed dog and the giant bull Brute I'd glimpsed before bounded in, along with close to fifty Centurions and half a dozen Cutes.

"Infantry! Archers! Open fire!" Solomon shouted orders, taking over from Angel as she ran to me and vaulted onto my back. "Spearmen, form a phalanx and keep these assholes from climbing the ramp! Leave the Legions to Angel’s team! The rest of you, fight to win, or die!"