Supreme Magus novel Chapter 701

Well, at least the chains patched you up just fine. Let’s move." Yondra said.

"What about the others?" Rainer asked.

"Good question." Yondra sneered, looking at her colleagues who had yet to move a finger.

"My Assistant Nilla died at the hands of the fungal creature. I have no obligation towards any of these kids. I already failed to protect myself, taking care of someone else is out of the question." Gaakhu said.

"I’m sorry, Onma, but Professor Gaakhu is right." Ellkas said. "I promise you that if I manage to escape from here, I’ll send the whole army to your rescue. If I fail, I hope you’ll be able to kill me, because whatever the Odi have planned for us I’m certain it’s worse than death.

"But all of you are powerful mages!" Rainer stuttered. Quylla’s voice calling him a coward still echoed in his head, driving him to be a better man. "Is there really nothing you can do?"

"Kid, grow up." Gaakhu said. "Saving everyone, beating the odds, those are all fairy tales. I bet that our story will end with ’and then they died too’. If Yondra wants to burden herself with you, it’s none of my business."

She then freed the imprisoned soldiers, who immediately started to eat and drink to recover their strength.

"As the head of the expedition, in the absence of Captain Ernas I’m the highest-ranked officer." Gaakhu said. "I order you to help me find a way out of Kulah to alert the Kingdom of the threat the Odi still pose. Is that clear?"

The soldiers gave her a salute, turning to look at the weeping Assistants only once. As members of the military, they were all too familiar with collateral damage, but that didn’t mean that they liked it.

Yet, there was nothing they could do. The Assistants had proved to be dead weight more than once. Sure, the soldiers had fallen by the hands of the Golems as well, but they had gone down fighting, not crying and begging for mercy.

Phloria’s soldiers had all someone waiting for them at home and none of them was willing to die for nothing. They would either get out of there or die trying to alert the Kingdom. Everything and everyone else was irrelevant.

"You heard her, she only cares about herself." Yondra whispered to Ellkas while her esteemed colleague was playing her part as Yondra had predicted. "I need you to read the Odi gibberish and you need me to operate the Odi technology. Deal?"

Ellkas nodded and shook her hand. The door to the prison was open as well, which gave everyone an eerie feeling. It could only mean that no one had ever managed to escape.

They entered in a wide room, from which branched several corridors, each one with its own tag. Gaakhu guided the soldiers in the second hallway to her right, without even looking at her colleagues.

"Where is she going?" Yondra asked.

"To the warehouse." Ellkas replied before reading and pointing the other signs one at a time. "Mana Reactor, Meat Shields, Golem Factory, bathrooms, administrative office, stairs, and canteen."

"It’s a good idea, that’s why we’ll go to the Meat Shields room." Yondra said after scanning the corridor of her choosing.

"And why is that?" Ellkas trusted no one, but at least Yondra needed him. He was afraid of outliving his usefulness and needed to be ready to fend for himself.

"Because when she triggers the alarm, because she will, I want to be as far away as possible. Plus, Lith and Phloria took a look at the room and told us what kind of arrays we can expect. It’s our safest bet."

Ellkas nodded, realizing that the Odi must have had prepared multiple exit points for their guards, and maybe one of them was near a town whose name he might be able to recognize.