Koya’s face had been growing redder and redder the entire time Roy spoke, but he didn’t care. He wanted the boy to become angry. He wanted to make him hurt the way he’d hurt him his entire life. And if he was about to die, then he would spit on Koya’s ego before he met his end.
“For that, you die!” Koya yelled, charging right at him.
Seeing as Koya was going to leave him here to die anyway, the threat fell somewhat flat. But Roy felt he had gotten what he wanted.
Koya’s fists were tightly clenched as he ran, and Roy could see the telltale signs of Water Essence as they began to shine a bright blue. If he could have felt Essence, as even a child could, he would have been able to sense the Physical technique building up behind the blow. Seeing as he couldn’t, Roy simply prepared himself for what was to come.
He moved his right leg back, planting it firmly against the ground and raising his fists into the stance shown in the book. Then, as Koya threw his first blow, his arm snapped to the side to redirect the attack. He’d misjudged the speed of Koya’s attack, and instead of hitting the arm just below the wrist, as the book instructed, the back of his hand slammed against the inside of Koya’s forearm, about halfway up the arm.
Roy gritted his teeth as pain exploded from his hand. He’d misjudged just how strong a Yellow-Belt actually was. Had he tried to actually block the attack, instead of redirecting it, his arm would undoubtedly have been shattered. The attack aimed to blow his head to bits, instead only scraped by his ear, but the trailing Essence caught the tip of it and this time Roy did cry out, as his entire right ear was torn off.
Even as he felt hot blood gushing down from the side of his face, he brought his hand back, slamming the cupped palm into Koya’s ear with all his strength. Then, he stepped in, forming a blade with his left hand and jamming it against Koya’s exposed throat.
Nothing happened.
He tried digging his nails into the skin, but he may as well have been trying to crush a rock.
He felt a hard impact to the side of his head and heard a loud crack. Stars danced before his eyes as he was sent sprawling and landed hard on the stone floor. He coughed a few times, spitting up blood as he tried to focus his hazy vision on the boy standing above him.
He couldn’t help but wonder if Koya would kill him in the end or leave him for the Beasts.
A few breathless moments passed as Roy scrambled back, picking his hands up in a desperate attempt to shield his face. The expected attack never came, and a moment later, Koya’s voice sounded throughout the cavern.
“I see what you’re trying to make me do, cripple. You’re trying to make me kill you quickly so that you don’t suffer.”
He laughed then. It was not a cold laugh as he’d been expecting, but a laugh-filled with amusement.
“I would let you go, but honor demands I pay you back for what you said to me. Now, what would be an appropriate punishment…?”
Roy’s vision finally focused as Koya paced around him. He tried to think up some plan he might use to escape, when Koya seemed to have a revelation.
“I think I’ve got it!” he said, moving right up to his prone form.
Roy tried to shuffle back but found that his back was now pressed to the cavern wall. He looked up with fearful eyes as Koya stopped by his legs. His grin grew just a bit wider as he lifted his right foot.
A loud crack sounded throughout the cavern as he brought it down, the attack leaving a trail of blue Essence in its wake. It actually took Roy a few seconds to process what had happened, before the pain hit him. It felt as though a thousand white-hot needles had been driven into his legs, and he screamed. He could still taste blood in his mouth and feel it trickling down from his ruined ear, but that pain was nothing compared to what he felt from his legs.
“There,” Koya said, stepping back from the shattered remains of both his legs. “That ought to assure that you can’t hobble away. Even if you do somehow manage to survive, you’ll be of no use to the clan whatsoever.”
Roy only vaguely heard him, his pain too unbearable to concentrate on anything else. He barely saw Shah Koya and his co-conspirators giving him one last hateful look, before leaving him there alone and at the mercy of the Dungeon’s Beasts.
5
Roy’s entire world was pain. He didn’t know how long he sat there, consumed by it, his back propped against the cavern wall and staring listlessly at the twisted appendages. But eventually, the pain began to recede to the point where he could once again think straight. Or as straight as one could in his current predicament. He was still bleeding from his right ear, though that had somewhat slowed as well.
He groaned, coughing, and spitting to the side. The saliva came out red, coated with his blood. The only thing that was keeping him alive right now was spite. He would not allow this to be his end. Herald Leroy would not sit here and wait to die.
Looking around the cavern, he tried to find the way out. If this was the deepest part of the Dungeon, then there had to be a way out somewhere in this room. His eyes finally alighted on the escape route, and he groaned. Could his luck be any worse?
A series of notches were carved into the wall, and as he craned his neck upward, he could see that they extended all the way up to the top.
Of course, the only way out would be a ladder, he thought miserably.
He shook himself from those thoughts. He would not allow something like this to stand in his way. He had not endured his suffering for this long, only to give up now.
Gritting his teeth against what he knew would be an extremely painful task, Roy began gathering the longest remaining pieces of his brace. Part of the brace was embedded in his right leg, blood seeping out from a multitude of puncture wounds left by the jagged bits of wood. Thankfully, he was able to gather four pieces that were mostly intact.
Pulling the rope belt from around his waist, Roy quickly unbraided it, separating it into four workable strands. He took a few deep breaths, then reached down and shoved his lame leg outward in one quick motion. He cried out in pain, but set the two pieces of wood to either side of the broken limb, quickly twining the rope around them and setting the leg in a crude splint.
The left leg was just as bad, but Roy tied the splint as tightly as he could manage all the same. By the time he was done, his entire body was trembling. Sweat beaded his brow and tears streaked his face. He knew undoubtedly that this was one of the most painful things he’d ever have to do. He then tore a few strips from his undershirt and bound the side of his head. He knew he probably should have done this sooner, but he’d wanted to get the worst over with before he lost his nerve.
He wanted to take a few moments to rest but knew that he’d been fortunate so far that none of the Dungeon’s Beasts had shown up yet. He didn’t feel like testing his luck any more than he had to. Gritting his teeth once more, Roy rolled onto his stomach, feeling the flare of pain as his legs were jostled. He then began dragging himself forward with just his arms, his legs scraping over the floor.
Every movement was agony for his ruined legs. His head throbbed and his vision swam, yet he kept moving toward the ladder that was his salvation. He kept repeating a mantra to himself to keep going.
I will not die here. I will not die here. I will not die here…
It wasn’t the most creative, but it served its purpose. It kept him going. Roy had never realized the depth of his inner strength before, but now it bolstered him, pushing him ever closer to his escape route. Finally, he reached the far wall. His fingers hooked into the first rung carved into the stone. It was rough, with a slightly downward hollow that he could feel. This would make it easier to keep his grip, but he also knew that it would be extremely painful on his fingers.