I do not own Dragon Quest 11 or any of the characters.

A.N.: So, I was debating whether Tikington meant the Dragon Quest series was one single timeline or parallel timelines, some of which held multiple games. In the end, I decided on separate timelines. If I'm wrong, someone feel free to let me know. Also, I'm changing the appearance of the Dragovian Lord Claws slightly, and maybe the the Dragonlord and Xenlon Claws also.


Escape

"Sheesh! Keep it down, would ya? There goes the neighborhood. Most folks they throw in there have the decency to wait a while before going stir crazy."

Across the hallway from the prisoner talking, in the opposite cell, a boy barely old enough to be called a man looked over at him. He wore a sleeveless, purple, full-length coat with thick leather over the shoulders and upper torso over a long-sleeved, dark-grey shirt, datk grey pants, and green boots. A satchel was hung diahonally across his chest and a leather belt was wrapped around his waist. He had long, straight hair reaching almost to his shoulders, and a crest on the back of his left hand reminiscent of a trident.

"What are you in for, anyhow?" the first prisoner asked. "You don't get free bed and board down here without having done something pretty bad."

"I told the king I'm the Luminary and he had me arrested on the spot," the second prisoner explained.

"Wait, did you say 'the Luminary'?" the first prisoner asked, suddenly alert. "You're serious? You're telling me the Luminary has just shown up in the cell next to mine? This is crazy." He went silent as a guard walked over with a bowl of barely-edible gruel.

"One plate of delicious gruel for the gentleman in the dungeon suite," the guard taunted, shoving the bowl under the bars to the first prisoner. "Come and get it!"

The prisoner walked over and smiled, then punched the guard in the gut through the bars, knocking him unconscious. Once the guard had collapsed, the prisoner took the keys, unlocking his cell door before dragging the unconacious guard into the cell and taking his sword. Next, he unlocked the Luminary's door, resting the sword on hia shoulder.

"The Luminary? You're serious?" He surveyed the Luminary's face for a moment before smirking. "So it's all happening just like the Seer said it would. We'd better get out of here."

"Mind tossing me the keys while you're at it?" a new voice spoke up.

The prisoner turned, staring at a third prisoner, who was leaning against his cell door, arms on a horizontal bar about level with his diaphragm.

"How long have you been there?" the prisoner asked.

"About two...maybe three days," the prisoner said. "They decided not to feed me, so you never noticed me."

Both surveyed each other. The prisoner with the keys wore blue pants, fingerless back gloves, a hooded, green shirt with a red vloth belt wrapped around his waist, and the front of the shirt laced loosely, leaving his chest exposed. A necklace of blue beads encircled his neck, and his hood was up at the moment, hiding his face.

The prisoner in the, as of yet, locked cell wore a long, blue coat reaching just past his knees and open, a black tunic underneath with long sleeves, white-grey pants, black boots, a belt around his waist outside the coat, and his short, platinum hair combed back in a semi-messy fashion, all of it remaining in pkace except for one short lock which resolutely hung forward just to his rigjt of his slight widow's peak.

"And what are you in for?" the prisoner with the keys asked.

"Existing," the locked-up prisoner snorted. "I was born wrong."

The prisoner with the keys frowned, but when the Luminary nodded, he unlocked the cell. The third prisoner nodded his thanks and turned, walking toward the stairs back into the castle.

"Where are you going?" the Luminary asked.

"To get my things," the prisoner replied casually. Just as he reached the small room where his weapons had been left, as had the Luminary's, it seemed, as he was the last to arrive and no one had bothered to put them somewhere secure yet, a guard reached the bottom of the stairs.

"You!" he snapped, lunging, only for the prisoner to turn sharply, his right foot sweeping up into a hook kick at the guard's helmet and sending the guard crashing to the ground in a heap.

"Now, where was I?" the prisoner mused to himself, collecting his things.

He returned his first sword to his back, a double-edged sword with a curved guard, a blue grip, and a generic pommel diagonally so that the hilt was over his right shoulder. His second sword was strapped behind his waist, a curved, single-edged weapon with a tanto point, a red, scale-patterned grip, a silver buttcap with a large, silver, five-sided hook extending from it, a small, orange claw decoration hanging from the hook, a section between blade and grip consisting of an orange wheel-like piece with silver plating around three quarters of the outside edge, leaving only the front and the flat sides exposed, then a small, spherical, red crystal set into the orange piece on each side and secured by four small arms reaching from the silver plate. Along the first six inches of the blade, writing had been engraved, but as the prisoner who'd unlocked the doors glanced at it as he was retrieving a dagger from nearby, he didn't recognize the characters.

Once those swords had been secured, he lifted a burlap sack that had a thick, black, leather strap attatched to the opening and the bottom and lung it across his chest opposite his double-edge sword's strap, then reached into it and withdrew a necklace. It had a black chain, and the pendant looked to be some form of shield. It was largely red but with a small, coin-shaped gold section at the tip, where the shield split in the middle. Atop either of the shield's upper arms were three spikes, the bottom of the shield was pointed, and the face of the shield bore a design of a dragon flying upward with other small, curved lines around it, seemily just as accents. As the third prisoner was pulling the necklace over his head, however, the first spotted what he could swear were branding scars on his palms that matched the shield-shaped pendant.

"Got everything?" the third prisoner asked.

"Uh, yeah," the first nodded, realizing he'd been staring at the pendant, which was now tucjed out of sight inside the prisoner's shirt, and the brands.

The prisoner nodded, walking out of the room and tossing the Luminary his sword, one nearly identical to the one across his own back, but with a red grip. The Luminary thanked him and slung it across his back as the first prisoner walked into his room and slid a carpet aside, revealing a hole in the floor.

"Let's get out of here before any more of out tin-headed friends come knocking," the first prisoner said. He chuckled, looking to the Luminary. "I spend ages digging this whole, and you just happen to show up the day I finish it. Guess I really was meant to help you out, just like the Seer said. Anyway, there'll be time to talk about all that later. In you go!"

They all dropped down the hole, reaching a small tunnel at the bottom and crawling along until they reached a brick wall. The Luminary, who was in the lead, pushed the loose bricks out of the wall abd climbed through, dropping to the ground in a sewer under the city they were in. Onve all three were through, the prisoner who had been the last free and the first to collect his belongings looked around.

"Heliodor even has fancy sewers," he mused.

"No kidding," the first prisoner nodded. "So, who are you? That necklace of yours, and the matching brands on your hands, is a coat of arms, right? You an assassin?"

"Why would I tell you?" he snorted. "Do you make it a point to tell strangers your whole life story?"

"Fair enough," the first prisoner nodded. "I'm Erik."

"And I'm David," the Luminaty introduced himself.

"And I don't care," the prisoner replied, walking away. "Knowing your name doesn't mean you're not a stranger."

"Aren't you even going to tell us your name?" Erik asked.

The prisoner stopped, looking back at them for a moment, then turned back to the front. "No."

With that, he walked away. For lack of a better idea, David and Erik followed, but after a few minutes, a small group of guards sprinted around a corner behind them.

"There they are!" a guard shouted. "You lot! Over here!"

The sound of more soldiers running echoed from further on, and Erik swore, he and David fleeing. As they did, however, David turned to the soldiers calmly, the guards drawing their swords.

"Capture the Darkspawn!" the lead guard, who was taller and wore heavier armor than the others, ordered. "Kill anyone who stands in the way!"

"Forget it, you can't take them all!" Erik shouted. "Just run!"

"Feel free to run if you want, coward," the prisoner shrugged. "I don't run from anything."

Erik shook his head and turned, running after David. The three guards all charged just as the prisoner's hand dipped into his sack. A moment later, there was a clash, a trio of metallic screeches, abd a wail of pain and dismay as the guards collapsed to the ground, dying within seconds before reinforcements rounded the corner. They all stopped short, seeing the prisoner wearing a pair of black, armored gauntlets with red highlights, three overlapping plates making up their body with red along the edges, the plates reaching to his just shy of his elbows and streamline, two small, diamon-shaped red points off the back of each plate to either side of a pair of larger red spike reaching out from the gaps between the plates, the larger spikes reaching up the outside of his forearm, and three long, silvery, blades extended from the front end of the guantlet. Unlike most Claw Gauntlets, which protected only the outside of the forearm and featured a handle and sometimes a strap for the forearm, these had the metal of the gauntlets wrapped around the forearm entirely, and lacked a handle, leaving his hands free to use while wearing the gauntlets, if need be.

"Get him!" one of the guards shouted.

The prisoner turned to meet them, deflecting a pair of blades with his gauntlets. As the blades sparked off the metal, his arms flashed inward, the claws ripping through armor and flesh with ease, leaving both soldiers to collapse. Then, the prisoner darted forward, right arm lashing out and downing a soldier, then the left struck another. He deflected a sword and kicked the soldier off of the walkway into the water, his armor's weight dragging him under. A pair of guards lunged, stabbing, but his left gauntlet knocked the two blades aside before the right lashed out, slashing the first soldier's neck and upper chest, then tore across the second's face. The next trio of soldiers stepped forward, only for the prisoner to spin, left arm whipping around and slashing all three across the forward leg, then the right across the torso.

As more and more soldiers began to fall, the prisoner rapidly shredded his way through more and more until he broke free of the group, leaving none standing. Then, he turned, walking the way Erik and David had gone. He wasn't sure he'd killed all of the soldiers, but most had died. Before too long, he reached a broken bridge above an underground river. He looked around, then shrugged, dropping off the bridge.


Kai yawned, stretching as he stored his claws in his burlap sack again. He was ready for a nap. He'd gotten a nice stretch in slaughtering Heliodor's guards, had had a nice, relaxing swim in the underground river, and then had found an exit tunnel that led through a Black Dragon's lair to a cliff. Now, he was fed, had some left over dragon meat skewers for later, and was in a nice, secluded spot of the Manglegrove Forest where he could sleep in piece.

A Bubble Slime, a poisonous variation of Slime that was more liquid than the normal, blue Slimes, emerged from the grass off to his right, a spot in the center of it rising and forming a face as it looked at him, only for him to snarl at it. As he did, his teeth elongated into fangs and his dark irises flared crimson, and the Bubble Slime fled instantly. He yawned a second time and leaned back against a tree, letting his eyes slide closed.

A few hours later, once the sun was high overhead, he pushed himself up, dusting off his backaide and coat. Then, he pulled his burlap sack over his shoulder, having attached his double-edged sword's scabbard to its strap, as he usually wore them when not in a rush to escape prison.

He walked through Manglegrove in silence for a long while before eventually finding an exit, one which exited onto the lands around Heliodor. He turned away from Heliodor, walking South. There was a small village on the way called Cobblestone that he wouldn't mind stopping in, the same village where he'd had his double-edged sword forged as a replacement for the Platinum Sword he'd been wielding before it. He liked the sword. It was simple, but it was finely made. And then once he had passed through Cobblestone, he could continue South. Or maybe South East toward Hotto. It was a bit of a long trip, but he could probably make it in about two days. Three if he was slow. And if it came down to it, he could always cast Zoom to travel there inaide of ten minutes. He just hated the feeling of travelling as fast as that spell made him. He always threw up after it.

He shook his head. He'd just travel the normal way. A few days wouldn't be bad.


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