*As Sanada fought against Brant, the other members of Shadow Eye made it to level 1 of the prison. The whole floor had become a battlefield with guards and prisoners fighting against each other for the sole purpose of trying to return order or escape. The guards were too preoccupied with the prisoners to notice the members of Shadow Eye who easily worked their way through the mayhem. When they arrived at level 2 it was more chaotic. The guards seemed to have the upper hand with their numbers and were slowly gaining control of the floor. A few of the guards did notice the members of Shadow Eye and attempted to stop them, but were easily defeated by Ryuuji, Gael, and Jin who took the lead and fought them off. Level 3 just as chaotic as level 2. The prisoners seemed to have the edge as the guards were being pushed back. Some had actually blockaded themselves in other rooms for their protection. One prisoner was actually on fire and another guard was dropped from the railing onto the ground below. This time the prisoners tried to attack them believing them to be special forces of Hargus. They were quickly handled by the group who reached the door to level 4.*
(Hibana): Man, it’s like a jungle in there.
(Dust): And they have you to thank for it.
(Morgan): Let’s stay focused. It took us about 30 minutes to get through these floors. Once we get to the fourth floor we need to make a beeline for five.
(Jin): Honestly, all the floors have been bad so far. I wonder how bad level 4 is going to be.
*The group open the door and to their shock the floor was not chaotic*
(Gael): Apparently not as bad as the others.
(Raika): This doesn’t make sense. This floor should be crawling with escaped and hardened criminals.
(Hibana): Granted, there’s only about 50 criminals on this floor but that should be more than enough to cause panic and destruction.
*As the group continued to walk through the floor, they could see signs of struggle and unconscious bodies of guards and prisoners lying around. They heard some noise and soon came to the center of the floor where they saw members of Blood Sword and the guards. Barbosa and Aliyah were among them, and various parts of their bodies was covered in blood*
(Barbosa): So you guys finally made your move. Impressive work getting the whole prison to riot. Brant said you guys would cure our boredom and he was right. If you were expecting a riot and sneak by, you’re out of luck. As you can see, they’ve been killed. Now, who are you guys working for?
*Everyone remained quiet*
(Aliyah): No words? Well you’re in luck. We’ve got some new cells to hold all your asses in and this floor just happens to be where we keep all the good torture devices. We’re going to take good care of you here. Get them.
*The guards and members of Blood Sword charged at the group who readied themselves to fight. Raika, made the first move and fired at the guards shooting four of them with lightning bullets to take them down. Morgan’s wand began to glow and caused small icebergs to pop up from the ground and split the guards and Blood Sword members into two groups. On the left side were Amarti, Zia, Raika, Gael, and Alita. Gael charged at the guards where he blocked their attacks with his bo of light. After blocking, he countered by striking the stomach of one of the guards with one end of his staff followed by a strike to the head on another guard nearby with the same end of the staff after a 180-spin. The guard who was hit in the head fell down backwards while the guard who was struck in the chest staggered before Gael delivered a dropkick by planting his staff into the ground and using it to gain momentum. After dropkicking the guard, Gael landed on his feet just as Zia jumped over him followed by Alita who ran past him from the side. Zia was holding her twin katanas and began to slice through the guards and Blood Sword members. Alita charged at the guards with guns who began shooting at her. Holding out her right hand she created a pink shield of light to protect herself and deployed a metal blade from her right hand. Once she was within striking distance of the guards she sliced through the guns to split them in half and then followed up with her glowing pink tail to slash through four of them. On the other side of the icebergs were Morgan, Jade, Hibana, Jin, Dust, and Ryuuji. Jin and Ryuuji led the attack with Ryuuji getting behind Jin who deployed his umbrella weapon to protect himself and Ryuuji from the bullets. Ryuuji then jumped over Jin to deliver a flaming foot stomp on the ground. The force of the impact caused the seven gunmen to jump into the air where Jin, pulled on the handle of his umbrella weapon and pulled out a shorts word. Jin slashed the guards with his short sword to knock them out as they fell to the ground. All of a sudden a laser-like sound could be heard as the icebergs were sliced in half and smashed through by Aliyah and Barbosa. Aliyah was holding a gun while Barbosa carried a long kanabo that had spikes coming out of it and blue lightning sparks shooting from it as well. Barbosa quickly charged toward Jin and attempted to strike him with his lightning kanabo, but Jin blocked the attack with his umbrella weapon using it as a shield. In terms of strength, Barbosa had the edge but Jin had the element of surprise on his side. A hold opened up in the center of the umbrella and shot out a cannonball aimed directly at Barbosa’s face. Despite being shocked by the attack, Barbosa reflexes were quick and he dodged the attack with a jump backstep. Barbosa didn’t have time to relax as he sensed another attack coming. Looking up he saw Jade lunging toward him with her macuahuitl. Barbosa swung upward while Jade swung down as their collided releasing a wave of magical energy throughout the floor. As those two collided, Aliyah focused on Dust, Hibana, and Morgan. She pointed her gun at the three which shot out a purple beam of light magic. The three quickly scattered as Aliyah focused on Dust with the beam closing in on him. Dust quickly fired off a wire from his wrist which latched onto a railing above him. Dust pulled himself up to the railing and landed on the railing to escape the beam but it continued to followed him as Aliyah tried locking in him as he ran away. Morgan attempted to hit Aliyah with his ice spears, but they were destroyed by red flying blades in the shape of triangles. Morgan looked to the left and saw a human female member of Blood Sword who had five blades in the shapes of triangles flying around her with a smirk on her face. She launched the discs at Morgan where they were blocked by Hibana and her yo-yos using a spin attack. The blades returned to the woman who had a smirk on her face. Before she could launch another attack, she dodged a blade disc from Amarti who got her attention. She quickly eyed his small stature and licked her licks*
(Blood Sword Human Female Member). Oh ho. You must be the cello player. This is perfect. I’ve been wanting to hear your screams of pain. When I’m through with you, you’ll be calling me Mistress Cassandra.
*She laughed heartedly and launched her triangles at Amarti who quickly launched his blades as well. Amarti’s blades broke but quickly restored themselves only to be destroyed again as the triangles made their way to him. He quickly dodged out of the way of the discs and then ran toward Cassandra with a blade disc in hand. Cassandra smirked, grabbed a triangle blade, and charged at him as well. Their blades collided where Amarti’s discs were obviously weaker and could barely hold against the impact Cassandra’s disc*
(Cassandra): It would appear your inferior Elfan metal is no match against me.
*Amarti quickly backed away as Cassandra pursued him*
***
*While everyone was busy with their own fights. Dust continued to be pursued by Aliyah’s light beam*
(Aliyah): Head towards the light.
*The beam was closing in on Dust until Aliyah stopped firing after being hit by Alita. While Aliyah was focusing on Dust, Alita came from her blind side and delivered a charging elbow to her. This staggered Aliyah to the right a little bit before she regained her footing and faced Alita. Aliyah pointed her gun at Alita and fired at her but Alita held out her hand to create a pink force field of light magic to protect herself. Alita then countered with her tail, but the attack was stopped by a knife Aliyah pulled out. Aliyah continued to block the tail attacks until she was backed up into a pillar. Alita’s eyes began to glow pink and she fired a laser at Aliyah who pointed her gun upward to shoot out a grappling hook. She pulled himself upward and escaped Alita’s. She was now on the same railway as who began charging at her. Aliyah turned to see Dust coming and charged up her gun. At this distance and with limited room there would be no way for Dust to dodge the attack. Aliyah fired her gun at Dust who smirked, snapped his finger and disappeared. Aliyah stopped firing as Dust reappeared next to her and delivered a punch across her face before he grabbed her. They both went over the railway where Dust once again snapped his finger and disappeared with Aliyah. When they reappeared they were above some of the broken ice where Dust slammed Aliyah back first into the ice to knock her out. The ice cracked from the impact as Aliyah lied there motionless.
***
*While Dust took care of Aliyah, Jade was clashing weapons with Barbosa. Their heavy strikes clashed with each other and neither one was backing down. Barbosa managed to catch Jade off guard with a spin attack that struck Jade and backed her into a pillar. Believing that he had handled Jade, Barbosa turned around to survey the area for his target, but the minute he turned around, he was greeted with a punch from a ninja ice spirit. Barbosa staggered backward as the ice spirit landed on the ground and took up a fighting stance. Barbosa lip was bleeding from the punch and he wiped the blood away with his free hand*
(Barbosa): Little bastard.
*Angered, Barbosa swung his kanabo downward at the spirt who dodged the attack with a sidestep, but Barbosa quickly lifted his weapon and swung sideways only for the spirt to jump in the air. The spirit landed on Barbosa’s arm and ran up to his face to deliver another punch to him. Barbosa once again stagged backwards and noticed summoning circles forming in front of Morgan*
(Barbosa): Using spirits to fight instead of yourself. Coward.
(Morgan): My spirits are a reflection of my strength.
*Morgan finished his summoning, where an archer, a boxer, and two ninja spirits appeared. The archer fired ice arrows at Barbosa who easily destroyed them with his kanabo as the two ninja and boxer spirits charged at him. The third ninja spirit that was closest to Barbosa launched ice shuriken at him which were once again blocked the electric kanabo. However, the electric sparks around the kanabo were dying down unbeknownst to Barbosa. When the boxing spirit reached Barbosa, it jumped up into the air and struck the kanabo with its fist. The collision of magic caused a shockwave which caused the kanabo to be split in half much to Barbosa’s shock. With him defenseless the spirits took of this. One ninja spirit headbutted him in the stomach causing him to fall his knees. The other two ninja spirits then delivered kicks to Barbosa’s chin to send him airborne. Above him was the boxing spirit who unloaded a flurry of rapid punches all over Barbosa’s body. When the punches stopped, Barbosa’s body was battered in the bruised but he still conscious. As he attempted to get back up, he was curb stomped by Jade to knock him out*
(Jade): And I’m the wild disruptor.
***
*Back with Amarti, he was beginning to breath heavily. The constant need to reassemble his discs after they were broken Cassandra’s triangles was taking quite a toll on his body. He couldn’t ask the others for help as they were busy with their own fights*
(Cassandra): You can’t keep this up forever. You’re going to run out of magic eventually.
*Knowing that she was right, Amarti grabbed one of his discs and charged at Cassandra hoping to take her down. Unfortunately, her triangles attacked him. Amarti was able to dodge two of them, but three managed to strike him. One on his right arm, the other on his left shoulder, and the final one on his left knee which forced him to fall over. Amarti lied on the ground in pain as Cassandra let out her condescending laugh to mock Amarti as she approached him. She grabbed two of the triangles while the last one floated around her. Amarti threw his disc at her in desperation only for it to get shattered as she made it to him*
(Cassandra): Now let’s remove that mask and that face of agony.
*Just as Cassnadra was getting ready to strike Amarti, her body began to freeze up and shake and her vision became blurry. She had never felt anything like this before. It was as if she had lost complete control of her body*
(Cssandra): What’s going on? What’s happening to me?
*Amarti rose to his feet smiling underneath his mask*
(Amarti): That disc you destroyed, I used my magic to add a little soundwave frequency. Harmless to elves but pretty harmful to humans. Causes their body to freeze up and experience nausea. Don’t worry, the effects are temporary, but enough for me to do what I need to do.
*Amarti walks past Cassandra*
(Amarti): Those blades of yours are very impressive. I’ll be taking one back with me to study.
*Amarti pulled out his flintlock and pointed it to the back of Cassandra’s head before he fired it off. The shot didn’t kill her but it did knock her out as she fell to the ground face first. Amarti then grabbed one of her blades just as the others were finishing up their fights*
(Zia): Master X, are you okay?
(Amart): I’m fine, Blade. How’s everyone else doing?
(Dust): All good on my end.
(Morgan): We’re fine over here as well. Are we ready to move out?
(Raika): Ready.
*The group quickly met back up at the entrance to the fifth floor*
(Jin): Woah, nice blade. Where’d you get it from?
(Amarti): It’s yours. Consider it a souvenir. All I ask is that you share what you learn about it.
*Amarti hands the blade over to Jin who tucks it away. The group then made their way down into the fifth floor. Thanks to Hibana, all the security turrets had been turned off so the group met no resistance on this floor. They walked past cells with some of the prisoners trying to grab them. Some begged to free them while others threatened them. The group ignored them and made their way to Howard’s cell*
(Howard): What the? Who are you?
(Dust): Just a few people passing through.
(Howard): It’s you! You’re-
(Ryuuji): Best not to say what you’re about to say. We don’t know who’s listening.
(Neighboring prisoner): Motherfuckers why is he getting rescued!? Get me out of this cell too!
(Raika): Shut the fuck up!
(Neighboring prisoner): Fuck you!
*Hibana manages to unlock the cell and the group can see Howard in his prison uniform which was all black*
(Ryuuji): Any injuries? Can you move?
(Howard): Yes. I’m fine. Now let’s get out of here.
*Howard gets ready to his cell before the group stops him*
(Amarti): Sorry, but the way we came is hectic. We’ll be using a different route.
*Ryuuji walked over to the back wall with Jin and Alita right behind. Using his metal manipulation, Jin transformed Alita’s tail into a drill and she began drilling a hole. Ryuuji entered next and used his fire to assist Alita in digging through the frozen dirt. The others then followed and they all began to dig their way up*
