Dead Man's Luck

by kurapica

Attack and Escape

"Remember to slice their throats not stab them; if you stab them the blade might get stuck because of their muscles contracting." I said quietly about an hour before the guards were supposed to arrive. We soon heard the sound of footsteps coming toward the cell that let us know when the dogs were coming.

"Time to work ponies; follow us to the tunnels." came the voice of a diamond dog, followed by the sound of the door opening, but when none of the prisoners moved the dog started to get angry. "I said to get to work! If you don't go now, we going to make you!" he said as the dogs; seven of them came through the door, weapons raised.

Still no response. "That's it; kill a few of th-" the guard was interrupted by my dagger severing his windpipe and both carotid arteries. The others killed their dogs but there was still one left so I turned quickly and charged the spell I learned and aimed at the remaining diamond dog who was trying to escape. Just before he passed the doors I unleashed my spell with a swing of my arm, sending a wave of razor sharp wind at the dog cutting it in half just below the right shoulder to the opposite hip.

"Alright, if you want to escape then follow us the armory; we're getting out of here, even if we have to carve our way through every dog in these caves." Howling wind shouted as he picked up a sword that one of the guards was using.

We had the other prisoners stay back a few steps and had our group take the weapons and lead them to the armory where we could all get weapons. We had Howling Wind and I lead the group up front, and had the others take up the rear to take care of any dogs that tried to ambush us. "Alright, we're coming up on the armory; there's going to be a couple guards so stay back while we take care of them." I said as we approached the armory.

There were only two guards by the door that were a bit more skilled than the other guards we fought so they took a little longer to kill than the others. Just as we finished them off we noticed that there were two more that saw us killing them and ran off to warn the other diamond dogs. I took the key out and unlocked the door. "I don't care if you're just a foal, everypony take a weapon; if you can swing a knife or throw a rock you can fight." Howling wind ordered as several of the ponies came into the armory and began to pass weapons and some shields to the other ponies.

As we were arming ourselves I noticed a small leather pouch on one of the shelves so I picked it up and looked inside; it was a set of slightly rusty lockpicks that were otherwise in decent condition. there weren't really any more doors that we'd need to deal with to escape but I took them anyway for when I actually could use them. I then grabbed a couple hand axes to use as weapons and made my way out of the armory.

"Alright follow us, we still need to get out and now they know we've escaped. Don't stop until you've made it to the mess hall!" Howling Wind ordered once we were all armed. We made our way through the tunnels trying to get to the mess hall but were stopped at one of the turns by a group of a dozen well armed dogs.

"Don't slow down, we'll handle them" Scarlet arrow shouted as we took the turn and she and two other archers began picking them off while a couple shield ponies blocked the way; preventing the dogs from getting to the archers. Once we arrived at the mess hall we were met by another, slightly large larger group of diamond dogs who were just as well armed as the others.

"It seems like we only fought their grunts when we were trying to get in." Defiant Mind said.

"Seems like it." Silver Stronghold said. "Shields! Stay back and guard the archers; don't let them touch them!" he shouted as the rest of us began to fight them head on. I began by sending a powerful gust of wind that sent the first few diamond dogs barreling in to a few of the others which allowed them to be easily finished by the ponies. The rest of the dogs however, were not that easy to deal with.

We continued to fight them for a few more minutes until the rest of them decided to cut their loses and run, which caused the ponies to cheer even though we lost a few of them during the fight. "No time to cheer yet; the rest of their fighters are coming from behind." said Scarlet Arrow who must have joined us during the fight.

"Where are the others?" Howling Wind asked her.

"They stayed behind to hold them off while we get out of here." She replied

"Then we better get going; leave the dead where they lay and we'll tend to our wounded once we escape, Let's move!" I shouted as we continued our escape. As we stepped over the bodies of the fallen I replaced the axes with a sword from one of the fallen diamond dogs. We didn't encounter any more diamond dogs and were almost out when Howling Wind broke of to the right and started down another passage.

"Where are you going?" I asked as I stopped him.

"As long as their chieftain's alive they're going to keep trying to get slaves, and he's tortured and killed several ponies. He needs to die. Don't try to stop me." He said, his voice showing more anger throughout his answer.

"Stop you? He's a monster; an animal that needs to be put down." I said as I let go of him. "If you weren't going after him, then I'd fight him by myself."

"I guess he would be easier to kill him if there were two of us." Howling Wind replied as we started to make our way to the chieftain's chambers. This time however we warned any diamond dogs that we came across to back away unless they wanted to die.

We soon made it to the chieftain's room; A large set of reinforced wooden doors with gems in the metal. "You ready for this?" Howling Wind asked, putting one hoof on the door.

"Probably not, but it's either this or let him go; so let's just say that I am, OK?" I answered.

"Ha! I feel the same way; Now let's go kill that son if a bitch." Howling Wind replied as we pushed the doors open. The first thing we saw once we got inside the room was the diamond dog's chief sitting on a stone throne surrounded by gems and gold. He was wearing the same armor as when we surrendered as well as a helmet; but this time he was using a battle axe large enough that a strike from it would likely end with whatever it hit being severed from my body.

"Ah, you've finally arrived; I had a feeling you two would be paying me a visit." he said as he stood up.

"You're smarter than you look; too bad it wont do you any good in a few minutes." Howling Wind answered, bloodlust practically dripping from his words.

the chieftain laughed in response. "You're brave, I'll give you that, and your strong enough that you've earned my respect; that is why I'm going to give you one chance to walk away, I'll let you and the other slaves go so long as you leave now."

"Sorry, but no thanks; I could have forgiven the fact that you whipped us, but I can never forgive the fact that you took these ponies from their homes and forced them to work in this hellhole." I replied, barely able to hold myself back from charging him.

"I feel the same way." Howling wind said as we got ready to fight.

"You kill my soldiers, freed my slaves, killed my only sons, and now you barge into my chambers and refuse my offer of safe passage? I'm going to enjoy killing you!" the chief shouted.

The chief charged us and tried to kill Howling Wind with a vertical strike and then batted me away with his fist once he missed and destroyed a chunk of the ground. He quickly turned toward me and tried to cut me in half at the waist just as I regained my balance which caused me to have to use my wings to back myself away from the strike and create a gust of wind for some extra distance.

"I'm surprised you managed to hide your magic from my men." the chieftain stated as he put his axe on his shoulder for a moment.

"It wasn't that hard; I just didn't use it when we first attacked on the outside." I answered.

"Very clever, but it won't do you much go-"

"Don't forget you have a second opponent now." Howling wind said as he buried a third of his sword through some exposed chainmail and into the diamond dog's waist.

"You little runt!" the chief shouted in rage as he tried to strike Howling wind with his fist.

The attack would have hit if Howling wind didn't let go of the sword and duck underneath it. While the chief was distracted by Howling Wind I used that time to knock the helmet off his head; only to be head butted immediately after doing so. As I lay on the ground I felt a sharp pain in my side and looked to see that the wound from the chief's son had reopened and was causing me to lose some blood. I looked up just in time to roll away from the diamond dog's axe that was coming down toward my head.

"You two are better than I thought; you might actually kill me, but I can assure you I'll be taking one of you with me." the chieftain said as he removed the sword from his side and tossed it back to Howling Wind.

The moment he caught the sword the chieftain charged toward him and body slammed him and sent him straight to the wall. The impact wasn't enough to kill him but it left him stunned for a moment and vulnerable to the diamond dog's next overhead swing. As the chief raised his axe I charged all the magic I could into my sword and unleashed it with a swing of my sword as his axe started it's descent.

My attack created a wave of razor sharp wind that cut the blade and some of the handle off the axe causing it to fall to the ground. The moment the chief realized what had just happened he threw the remaining piece of the handle at me as a spear, picked up the axe to use in one hand and charged me.

I managed to dodge the handle but only avoided a fatal blow from the axe which grazed my already bleeding wound and went across my stomach. As I landed I started to feel lightheaded and coughed up some blood. "Well, it seems I'm the one who's going to join you, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to stand here and bleed out." I said as I drew my knife and threw it at the diamond dog.

The knife caught him off guard and, though it didn't hit it directly; the dagger grazed his right eye causing him to go blind in that eye. "You'll pay for that, runt!" he said as he grabbed me and threw me to the wall.

As I hit the wall I felt a few of my ribs crack from the impact. I staggered to my feet just in time to dodge an axe strike aimed at my neck and managed to get a strike on the unprotected inside of the chieftain's elbow, only to get a kick to the gut that sent me sprawling across the floor.

Howling Wind charged him and started attacking the weak spots on the armor; the joints. He aimed mostly at the chief's legs to slow him down, but managed to a few small strikes all across the joints in his armor. While the Chief was distracted I managed to get a quick stab on the back of his ankle and get away before he could retaliate. I then charged another spell and created a gust of wind which knocked the axe from the chief's hand.

Howling wind and I used the loss of his weapon as the signal to just keep attacking. We managed to get several small cuts all along his body, and also cut the straps to his shoulder guards giving us another target we could attack. After that set of attacks my legs started to give out and I coughed up a worrying amount of blood.

"You alright?" Howling Wind asked as he got ready to defend us both from the chieftain.

"Not really, I don't think I'm going to be able to physically attack him any more, but I'll keep casting spells until I bleed out." I said as I handed him my sword so he could duel wield. "Just...make sure you kill him before I die so I know we won, alright?"

"Like I'll let that happen." the chieftain said as he charged us.

Howling Wind tried to stop him but the chieftain just knocked him aside and grabbed me by the throat before slamming me into the ground and knocking the wind out of me. The chieftain planted his foot and began to press on my already injured back, causing me to shout because of the pain.

"It's a shame you didn't take my offer; you could have been a great warrior, but you had to attack me. Oh well, time for you to die." the diamond dog's chief said as he raised his axe above his head.

And as it fell, everything went black.

Author's Note:

Sorry about the delay; I've been too busy lately so I haven't had time to write. I'll try to write more once I get out of school.

Comments

[ponyheart07]

CLIFFHANGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tattered Ribbon]

He's dead! What are his new powers going to be?! I can't take the wait!

[kurapica]

6114447 you'll find out in the next chapter