(Second Book Complete!) Runeblade: A Delving & Skill Merging LitRPG

Their captive was a weak man with a weak will, that much was clear. The second Porkchop had bitten through his companion’s skull, Kaius knew that they had broken them.

Using his weight to keep the man pinned, Kaius felt the bones of their broken arm grind as they tried to pull away in a flinch—unable to deal with that wet crack.

Porkchop opened his mouth, letting the limp body fall free. Snaking his paw out, he caught the guard’s corpse and lowered it to the floor gently in an effort to avoid creating unnecessary noise.

Not that it would matter all that much. Porkchop had left the guard’s blood splattered halfway up the wall—the evidence of their ambush gleaming dully in the red wardlights.

Kaius felt their captive shake beneath him. Looking down, he saw the man staring at him pleadingly—tears beading in his eyes.

Then he heard a dull thud, and the guard groaned, tensing upwards.

“Gross. He pissed himself.” Kenva muttered from behind him, a quick glance showing her scowling in disgust.

“Easy,” Kaius replied, his sudden shift to a soft tone throwing his captive further. “We’re here to learn what we can, not stoop to their level.”

With the guard already broken, they needed him to have hope that obeisance was a path to survival. It was the only way they’d learn anything helpful—otherwise the man would be liable to lead them astray out of sheer spite.

Returning to his captive, Kaius felt a wave of distaste temper the heat of his anger. He knew what they were about to do was necessary, but that didn’t mean he felt good about it.

Even if the counter-interrogation training Father had put him through while learning Rapid Adaptation meant he knew a fair bit about getting what they wanted, it was still an act he took little joy in.

His face hardened. “Now, will you be quiet? Or will I have to get my beast in here to eat you?” he said, ignoring Porkchop’s silent scoff in the back of his mind.

The guard whimpered, doing his best to nod.

“Good,” he replied, keeping his hand in place as he sat back—reducing some of the pressure he was putting on the man’s broken arm.

“Grab Ianmus and get in here, and bring the body with you. No need to make it any more obvious that we’ve passed through than it already is.” Kaius pushed through his bond, eying the dark stains in the hall out of the corner of his eyes.

He waited patiently as Ianmus and Porkchop trickled in, their mage shutting the door behind him. Carrying the corpse of the other guard with ease, his brother wandered over to the corner of the room and dropped it by a cabinet.

Their captive watched in naked fear the entire time.

Kaius took his hand away from the guard’s mouth, knife still poised and ready by his eye. Their captive gasped, eyes snapping back to him.

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Anything I know, I promise, just please don’t kill me!” the guard whispered desperately, his voice hoarse and thin.

Kaius smiled grimly. “Good, I don’t fancy stooping to the level of scum like you.” he said, the man beneath him flinching. “Tell us what we want to know, and we’ll bind and gag you and stuff you in the closet.”

His words hit the guard like a hammer—tension flooding away from his pinned body as fresh tears started to well in his eyes.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I didn’t mean to come here, I promise! It was just supposed to be a quick job for a friend. I didn’t know what they really did until I wasn’t allowed to leave,” the guard blubbered, pleading with Kaius.

“I normally just rough people up, I swear I didn’t know they tortured people. I’m as much a captive as you are, please believe me! I’ll tell you anything!”

Kaius ground his teeth. That was the biggest crock of shit he had ever heard. A place like this, scooping up uninvested nobodies? When his room was so close to the cells used for holding and interrogating people for their legacies? It took all of his willpower just to avoid suppressing a scoff.

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As if whoever ran this place would even give away its existence to anyone who was not seasoned, cut throat, and completely under their thumb.

No matter what the guard said, he was knowingly complicit in their capture and torture. He had very little patience for his excuses.

“Shh.” Kaius hissed, tapping his blade against the guard’s cheekbone. “Don’t blubber, just answer our questions.”

A shudder ran through their body with every touch of the knife, but he fell silent all the same.

“Where are we?” Kaius asked, starting small.

“I don’t know,” the guard whispered, hoarse and quiet. “At least a few weeks south-east of Deadacre, in some kind of woods.”

Kaius grunted. Just great—the bastard didn’t even know where they were.

Seeing his frustration at his response, the guard started to pant as panic set its claws on him.

“I’m telling the truth, I swear! The woods must be big, because even when I’ve been in one of the watchtowers I’ve only ever seen tree tops—though, I couldn’t see very far. This place is surrounded by some pretty big hills.” they blubbered.

That…was very little to go off, but it was something. As far as he knew, there were no significant hills for a fair distance, and it was further than that until he remembered seeing any maps that showed any hilly forests.

“Any guesses, Ianmus?” he asked.

The mage crossed his arms. “Well, it’s the same direction that Kenva thought we were—assuming that’s correct, we’d have to be at least three weeks from the city at a slow hike. Maybe half that if we rushed the whole way. It could be further though—that’s only the first place that matches.”

That was less than ideal. Even if they could move at full pace the whole distance to cut the time down further, evading what seemed to be a small army of men when most of that distance would be open plains was all but impossible.

They’d need to lose their pursuers somehow—he doubted there was any way they would escape unnoticed.

Still, the fact that the compound was so remote was not exactly unexpected. It was the only way he could imagine hiding something of this scale was even possible. It still galled that not even the personnel who were trusted to work here had much more information than that though.

“How’d you even get here without knowing where we are?” he asked, exasperated.

“We met in a warehouse!” the guard stammered. “In Deadacre’s industrial district—across from some textile mill—Sunath’s Silks, or something. Looked just like a normal place, with shipments being loaded onto wagons and such.”

Kaius cocked a brow at that, filing away the name. It would make a good lead to dig into this operation further when they escaped.

“And what, they put a bag on your head?” he asked, probing for more.

The guard shook his head. “No. We had to drink a tonic to accept the job. Next thing I know I’m waking up in this room.”

Kaius grunted in disgust—this was a dead end.

Seemingly sensing his annoyance, the guard he had pinned whimpered.

Sighing at the pointless line of questioning, Kaius decided to change his approach. If they couldn’t learn anything about their surroundings, then they may as well learn what they could about the inside of the compound.

“How many of you are there, working here?” he asked.

“I’m not sure exactly, maybe a few hundred? more?” the guard said with a gulp, noticing Kaius’s mouth flatten into a line at another vague answer.

“So many? What, do they need an army to keep us imprisoned?” Kenva hissed in disbelief.

Kaius couldn’t help but agree. Even if he knew there were a lot of them based on what he had seen, he would have guessed their total numbers were far lower. Though, they were obviously valuable to the leader of this place, so it was possible that they could have just been kept away from most of the personnel.

So many men complicated things. It turned their entire escape into a twisted reflection of the culling of the boggart swarm. And once again they were low on information, without any time to plan.

At least this time they had advantages. Their foes were under siege, by a swarm of maddened beasts, of all things—and they didn’t have to wipe this place off the map, only break through and disappear.

Plus, whatever they were fighting had to be a significant force. Far larger than he had expected, if it was enough of a threat to martial what was apparently hundreds of men in defence of the compound.

They needed to learn more.

The guard beneath him winced as he leaned harder on his slowly healing arm.

“Answer her!” Kaius hissed.