Chapter XXIV: Getting Out Of The Fire
"Kai!" Anna screamed as the Bandit held his dagger of the back of Kai's neck, who did not see what was going on.
Rapunzel saw what looking at right when the two broke eye contact earlier. Rapunzel saw the blade threatening Kai's life, and she reacted as quick as she could. Before the Bandit could jab his blade down upon Kai, Rapunzel threw her frying pan like a throwing knife at the Bandit's face. Before the Bandit's blade touched Kai's neck, who by the way was preoccupied at the moment, Rapunzel's frying pan hit the Bandit's face, bounced off of it, and flew back towards Rapunzel who caught it in one hand.
Kai turned back quickly to see what had happened. He saw the unconscious body of the Bandit who almost killed him, the dagger next to the body. Kai knew something flew by his head, and when he turned to look towards Rapunzel who was holding a frying pan in her hand, he knew that it was her. He heard Anna scream his name but he didn't know what she was trying to do, but now, seeing the body of the Bandit, he knew. Kai didn't know how close the Bandit was to killing him, but at least he was safe now thanks to Rapunzel.
Kai nodded at Rapunzel, smiling under his face mask, acknowledging her help. Rapunzel smiled and nodded back at him. Unfortunately, there were still plenty of men who were after Kai's head. One man ran up to Kai and Kai was able to strike first. Kai slashed at the man's torso, but the man blocked Kai's sword with his own. Then, Kai leaned in and swiped his dagger at the man's gut. Kai didn't cut him deep enough to kill him, but enough to leave him in a lot of pain. The man dropped his sword, grabbed his bleeding belly, and fell to the ground.
Another Bandit slowly approached Kai. This man's physique was similar to Kai's as he was thinner than most of the Bandits. His sword pointed toward the ground as he made his way towards Kai. Kai had half a mind to just take this newcomer out and be done with it, but something told Kai to refrain from that. This man believed himself to be a challenge for Kai, and Kai had a feeling that that man thought that. This man's confidence amused Kai, who was ready to fight.
"Hey there, tough guy." Kai said, spinning both weapons around, making them look like spinning helicopter blades (of course helicopter blades didn't exist yet). The man responded to Kai by spinning his one sword around himself in a similar fashion. Two Bandits were approaching Kai from behind the man, ready to support him. But, the man knew of their presence, and raised his hand to head level, telling the Bandits to back off.
"I'll stick your head on a stake." The man told Kai.
"Be my guest." Kai responded.
The man then quickly jabbed at Kai with his sword, but Kai easily smacked the sword away with his own, parrying the man. Then, Kai punched the man in the face with his left hand, where he was holding his dagger backhand, knocking the man back, unconscious.
"So much for confident." Kai said.
It was miraculous how Kai fought so well with an injured shoulder, and it was miraculous how the girls fought so well with no experience or training. Either they were really lucky and skillful, or the Bandits all sucked. The latter seemed more likely.
Kai noticed that two Bandits were running at him from the side, each on a different side of him. He had options on how he could take them out, but he figured he shouldn't let them get closer to him. He turned to his right to face the man running at him. He took his dagger and threw it at the man's feet. His dagger flew downward and stabbed the running man's right foot, making him fall down immediately in pain.
Kai assumed that the other man would be very close to him by now. So, Kai swung around and slashed his sword, but the man was expecting that. The man blocked and parried Kai's attack, making Kai's sword fly out of his hand. The blade of the sword stuck to the ground next to the head of an unconscious Bandit. The man Kai was facing pointed the tip of his sword toward Kai's chest, telling Kai than ant form of movement will result in death.
Kai knew that the man was going to kill him either way as those were his orders. He then asked himself why he should fall victim to this man.
"Prepare for death!" The man said, taking the sword away from Kai just to raise it in the air for a finishing blow. Kai easily sidestepped and ducked the attack, making the sword blade miss it's target and hit the ground. Then, Kai moved behind the man and punched the back of the man's head, hoping to knock him out. Unfortunately, the man had a thick skull... literally. Kai hurt himself more than he hurt the man. Kai's adversary turned his head back to give Kai a dirty look. He then turned his full body around with his sword still in his hand.
"Take this!" Kai heard Rapunzel yell.
He looked over at her to see her toss him her frying pan while she was busy evading the Bandits trying to catch her. Kai caught the frying pan, mid air, and smacked the Bandit's face with it. A loud smacking noise was heard when it made contact with the man's face. Kai hoped the frying pan would be enough, but apparently, it was not. The man looked unmoved by the frying pan. The Bandit then smiled widely to which Kai was confused to. Then, the left side of the man's face, the side where Kai hit him, starting to turn more red. The man's teeth then started to fall out one by one, and those that did not fall out were cracked. He closed his eyes and fell to the ground, right in front of Kai's feet.
Kai looked at the frying pan in awe. "Huh..." Kai said, confused to it's usefulness.
Then, in front of Kai, a sword swung down upon him. Kai quickly blocked the attack with the frying pan, now focusing on the new adversary standing in front of him. Kai pushed the sword back with his frying pan and kicked the man's crotch. The man then fell,to his knees where Kai swung the frying pan upward towards the man's head, knocking him out instantly.
Kai heard the footsteps of a running man behind him. After a second or two of waiting for the perfect moment to strike, Kai spun around and smacked the Bandit behind him hard with the frying pan, blood and saliva flew out of his mouth. Then, Kai felt another presence behind him. When he turned around, he saw a sword jab towards him without any warning. Before the sword could meet it's target, Kai smacked it away with the frying pan. Kai then swung the frying pan at the man's head, but the man quickly pulled out a knife and used it to protect himself from the frying pan by putting it in between his face and the incoming pan.
Luckily for the man, his block worked. The frying pan failed to make contact with the man's head. Unfortunately for the man, Kai had fire powers and a free arm. Kai engulfed his hand in flames and punched the chest of his adversary. The man flew back and hit another approaching Bandit, both knocked down to the ground. That still didn't stop people from trying to kill Kai.
Kai was then approached by four men, all with rusty swords in their hands. One came in from in front of Kai, one from behind, one from the left, and one from the right. He was being surrounded. Too bad that wouldn't be much help to the health for those men. Kai just stood there and let them come to him until they were all about five feet away. Kai made the first move by kicking the man in front of him with a fiery foot, knocking him back by quite a distance. Then, to Kai's left, the man jabbed his sword. Kai quickly ducked the attack, making the man accidentally stab the man to Kai's right in the shoulder, making him fall to the ground in pain.
Kai then quickly kicked his left leg out and turned to his left, making his leg knock the man to his left down to the ground. Then, Kai jabbed the front side of the frying pan to the man who used to be behind him in the knee, not hard enough to knock him down but hard enough to make him wince and bend down in pain. When the man bent down, Kai swung his frying pan up at the man's head, knocking him out. Kai then looked at the man he had just knocked down moments before, quickly stood up, and hit him in the head with his frying pan.
Kai looked down at the frying pan once more. "Huh..." He said once again, amazed by it's usefulness.
Kai looked over at Rapunzel to see how she was doing without the frying pan. Instead of attacking people with a weapon, Rapunzel was just dodging and running away from their attempts to subdue her. Kai was surprised on how she was able to hold her own without a weapon. Kai looked around to find his sword sticking out of the ground. He ran to it, hitting a Bandit on the head on his way. When he picked up his sword, he looked over at Rapunzel once more.
"Rapunzel!" Kai yelled. She looked over at his direction, and he threw her the frying pan like a frisbee. On it's way to her, it hit a Bandit in the head, knocking him out, and it bounced off to hit another Bandit's head, knocking him out as well. Rapunzel caught the handle of the frying pan with one hand, and immediately used it to hit an incoming Bandit.
Kai saw his dagger stuck on the foot of a fallen Bandit, rushed to it, and yanked it out of the foot. The blood on the blade didn't look very appealing to Kai so he wiped it off with hit shirt. With that, he continued to fight.
Rapunzel fended off incoming Bandits as if they were flies; using her frying pan as a fly swatter. They stood no chance against the might of the frying pan as all would fall prey to it's might. She made her way closer to Anna who was fighting just as well as she was. Soon, the girls found themselves fighting back to back, making sure no Bandit would come close to touching them.
Rapunzel smacked a man's face with her frying pan on his right cheek, but he still wasn't knocked out. She then smacked him again, this time on the opposite cheek, and that did the trick. He flew down to the ground to his left. Behind her, Anna was fighting fiercely. Anna jabbed her club at the stomach of the man in front of her, making him bend down and clutch his stomach in pain. Taking two fingers, Anna poked the man in each eye, making him take his hand off of his stomach and onto his face with tears. The man took a few steps back, making him trip over the body of a fallen Bandit who fell wrath to Anna's club.
Anna then saw another Bandit run at her. They just kept coming and never stopped. She raised her club in the air like a baseball bat, and when he was close enough, swung at his head. She could've swore she heard the sound of cracking bones, but she wouldn't know since the sound of her club breaking was much louder. Upon impact, her club snapped into two parts, and Anna was left holding the smaller half of the club.
"What am I going to do with this?" Anna said, turning around to Rapunzel.
Rapunzel also turned around to face Anna. Then, Rapunzel spotted a Bandit run up towards Anna from behind who still had her back turned. Anna saw the same thing behind Rapunzel. At the same time, they raised their weapons in the air and threw them at their adversaries. Anna's club piece flew and hit the Bandit's head, shattering into small pieces of wood in the process. Rapunzel's frying pan hit the Bandit's head and then flew back to Rapunzel who caught it.
They couldn't spot any more enemies around them, believing that was the end. They turned towards Kai who had just finished kicking a downed Bandit on the head. He too looked around to see no more enemies in sight. On the ground lay countless bodies of unconscious or incapacitated Bandits. Kai ran to the girls, stepping on some Bandits in the process.
"Good work." Kai told the girls.
"This was easier than I thought it would be." Anna said.
"Yeah..." Kai said. "These guys aren't getting up anytime soon."
Rapunzel heard a groaning Bandit next to her, so she kicked him once in the head to shut him up. "Is that everyone?" Rapunzel asked.
"We can assume since I can't hear any other voices echo through the cave." Kai said.
"What about Lance?" Anna asked.
"What about him?" Kai asked.
"I don't see him anywhere." Anna said. "Any idea what happened to him?"
"Knowing him, he probably escaped during all of this conflict. We shouldn't worry about him now." Kai said.
"No, you shouldn't..." said a voice behind Kai. Kai turned around to see who it was, and the girls looked towards that direction as well. There, they saw a Bandit who was using a club as a cane as if he had trouble standing up. He had a large, red, diagonal cut on his front body from Kai's attack on him.
"Worry about me..." The man said, weakly. Then, he pulled out a sphere bomb from under his clothes. He pulled out a small pin from the sphere bomb and held it in front of him.
"By any means necessary..." The man said. With that, he tossed the bomb high up in the air as hard as he could. The girls and Kai looked up at it as it flew upward towards the ceiling of the cave. They didn't know how he was strong enough to throw it that high, but somehow he mustered up the strength for it.
This isn't going to end well, Kai thought to himself. When the bomb touched the ceiling of the cavern, it immediately exploded. The sound of the explosion echoed throughout the entire cavern. Then, the entire cave started rumbling, and cracking sounds could be heard. The three glanced up closely at the ceiling and found that cracks were being made in it. Then, a piece of the ceiling parted from it, falling down onto the ground below. It landed above a tent, completely destroying it.
That wasn't the last of the falling chunks of rock. More large rocks fell from the ceiling onto the ground, all around the cave. No where was safe. A large chunk of rock fell down around the large fire, crushing the bodies of some Bandits upon impact, killing them, and it landed near Rapunzel, Anna, and Kai as well. Rapunzel looked over at the Bandit who threw the bomb. His eyes were closed, signifying that he was ready to accept his fate. Rapunzel, however, was not.
"What's the plan?" Rapunzel asked Kai and Anna as she turned towards them. She then found that they were not next to her as she previously thought. They were running away from the circle, heading towards the open path that led to the ladder. They had a small head start from Rapunzel by about ten feet. "Hey, wait for me!" Rapunzel yelled. She then sprinted after Kai and Anna, and she eventually got behind them.
"We gotta hurry!" Kai said. "This whole place is coming down!"
As they ran through the cleared path, a large chunk of rock was falling down towards them. The rock was too large for any of them to not notice. It was big enough to block the path, meaning if they didn't get ahead of it, their path would cut. Kai started sprinting as fast as he could, hoping for the girls to follow his example. Luckily, they got the message. They sprinted as fast Kai was sprinting and it seemed enough to run ahead of the falling rock. The large rock landed with a thud and almost crushed Rapunzel who barely got ahead of it.
Both to their left and right, tents were being crushed by the falling rocks. The sounds of snapping and crashing was all that could be heard. A large rock, though smaller than the one they previously escaped, fell toward the path, yet it wasn't falling to the middle of it. Kai saw it in time to side step it, running around the left side of it. Anna and Rapunzel then followed in Kai's footsteps by running to the side of it.
"What about the people back there?!" Anna asked Kai. "They'll all be crushed and die!"
"If you want to go back and help those thieves and murderers, be my guest." Kai said. "There's nothing we can do about them."
"So we're just going to let them die?!" Rapunzel asked Kai, running behind Anna.
"This whole place is coming down with or without us under it!" Kai said. "There's no time to save them."
He was too focused on the girls, he failed to see the giant rock fall down in front of him. He wasn't quick enough to run ahead of it. When the rock landed right in front of him, he wasn't able to stop running. He ran straight into the rock, hurting his injured shoulder when he made contact with it. The girls, luckily, stopped before they crashed into the rock like. Kai.
There was no way they would be able to climb over the rock as it was too tall for even Kai. It stood about fifteen feet tall, and completely blocked the path. Kai kicked the rock in anger.
"What do we do now?" Anna asked. Looking around, they didn't have much time before the the entire place caved in. Kai motioned the girls back to which they did. They stood about ten feet back away from the rock, standing right behind Kai. Kai then shot a large blast of fire directly at the rock, hoping for it to destroy the rock. But, when his fire made contact, it quickly dispersed, not doing any damage to the rock at all.
"Fire isn't very effective against rock." Rapunzel said.
"Good to know..." Kai said. "What do we do now?" Kai said.
Anna walked up to an opening between two tents off to the side of the path. "We could just go around the rock." Anna suggested.
"That works too, I guess." Kai said.
They ran around the tents until they got on the opposite side of the rock. Only then did they re-enter the path they were originally running through. With that, they continued to sprint towards the ladder which was their only way out. The wooden slide that went around the entire cavern was already destroyed, and most of it became falling debris.
Another large rock was falling onto the path. Kai ran to the right side of the path while the girls took the opposite side. The rock fell in between the two and Kai, but luckily, nobody was harmed. Rapunzel's foot almost was under it, but luckily she ran fast enough to avoid losing her foot.
This entire place was filled with close calls. They almost met their fates many different times. The rocks just weren't letting up. This would continue going on until the cave completely, well, caved in.
The ladder was only about one hundred and fifty meters away from them. Even though they were so close, it wasn't the time to slack off and run any slower. The rocks didn't want them to survive as they continued to fall on the path, but they always landed after the three passed the landing location. They didn't worry about any more falling rocks ahead of them as they would always keep an eye up. By now, they assumed that the Bandits had already met their fates by the falling rocks.
The large fire had not extinguished, even though rocks completely destroyed the wooden structure it ran on. Now, it was just scattered in smaller fires in the center of the cave, or at least what was left of the cave. Some torches still burned, but most of them were taken out. The cavern was getting dimmer and dimmer as they approached the ladder.
Finally, the trio reached the ladder, and without hesitation, Anna started to climb up. When she was about five feet above the ground, she looked down at Kai who had not yet started to climb.
"You sure you know where this thing leads?" Anna asked.
"Yeah." Kai said. "Just go up!"
Anna continued to climb the ladder. Rapunzel prepared to climb the ladder, but Kai held his hand out in front of her, preventing her from getting on the ladder.
"No, not you!" Kai said. "They expect one of us in the wreckage, sister."
"What?!" Rapunzel said. "Are you kidding me?!"
"Of course I am." Kai said, taking his hand away from Rapunzel. "Why so serious?"
Rapunzel started to climb the ladder, about a few feet away from Anna. When Rapunzel was high enough, Kai then himself started climb the ladder as the last one to go since he needed to assure the girls were safe. He just hoped that the hole wouldn't cave in as well while they were climbing since that would mean the end for all of them.
Anna soon entered the hole, finally out of the way of the falling rocks. It was a miracle that the ceiling around the hole hadn't fallen down yet. As the climbed, they noticed that the ladder was really shaky and unstable. Thanks to the cave-in no doubt.
"We're not gonna make it." Rapunzel said, scared. "We're gonna die here!"
"Don't think about that!" Kai said, able to hear her worries. "When you have children and raise them, and when your skin starts to wrinkle along with your husband's, then you have my permission to die."
"Who gave you that right? Who do you think you are?" Rapunzel asked, irritated.
"It doesn't matter who I am. What matters is the plan; the plan to get you guys out." Kai said.
"I'm still not sure about how this ladder will hold!" Rapunzel said.
"Calm down, Rapunzel!" Kai said. "We're still close to the ground. Now is not the time to fear... That comes later."
"What do you mean by that?!" Rapunzel said.
"Just climb!" Kai ordered.
Soon, Rapunzel entered the hole, then followed by Kai. When Kai was finally clear from the cave, the fire inside of it all died down, leaving the place completely darkened. Nothing could be seen, only heard. The only thing they could hear was the sound of the falling rocks onto the ground.
Kai was sort of glad that the Bandits were unconscious when they were crushed by the rocks. That way, they wouldn't scream.
They seemed to be climbing up forever, but soon, Anna was able to see a form of light above her. She continued climbing until the light became more bright, and the air became more fresh. She then found herself off of the ladder, standing in what looked like a hollow tree. She saw the outlining of a door in the side of the trunk, and she opened it. She found herself in the same small open area she was in before she fell down the trap. She took a deep breath, glad that it all was over.
The ground Anna was standing on luckily didn't fall down into the cave as it was many layers up above the ground so the cave in wouldn't affect it.
Anna walked out of the tree and into the open area, careful not to enter the center of it, knowing where that led. She turned back toward the tree she exited from and saw that Rapunzel had already finished climbing the ladder and was standing beside the tree. Kai was still climbing out of it.
It was about mid afternoon when they got outside. Night time was coming close, and the deadline Ander gave was coming to an end.
"Well, that was fun." Anna said.
"Yeah, we barely-" Rapunzel was interrupted by Kai shushing her.
He gave them a motion, telling them to be quite. They didn't know what was up with him, but knowing Kai, he wouldn't be doing that for no reason. The girls zipped their mouths closed and looked at Kai, still confused as to what was going on. Rapunzel slowly walked over next to Anna, feeling comfort close to a friend.
Kai was hearing breathing. Heavy breathing. He knew it wasn't coming from him or the girls as they breathed much less quietly with their noses. This breathing sounded like it was coming from someone's mouth. Someone was nearby, and Kai had to find out who it was. But, he had his suspicions.
The girls watched as Kai walked behind the tree they were just at. From behind the tree, Lance appeared being pushed to the ground. He landed on the snow with snow flying off the ground where he landed. Kai stood over Lance who was trying desperately to crawl away.
Kai picked him up by the shoulders and slammed him on another large tree to the side. Kai then let go of Lance and let him sink down to the ground where he sat leaning against the tree.
Kai then cracked his knuckles.
"Okay, Lance." Kai said. "I want some answers."
Next chapter will be up on either Sunday, July 27th or Monday, July 28th.
Author's Note: Did you guys catch the references I put in there? The opportunities were too good to pass up. Also, now you guys know when I'll post the next chapter. Be sure to be one of the first to read my next chapter. Feedback from everyone is appreciated. Please right a review/comment! Ciao.