Chapter Fifteen
Trapped
ELSA
The glaring light from the torches was blinding, and Elsa raised a hand to shield her eyes momentarily as her vision adjusted. What she saw wasn't a pleasant or welcoming sight.
"Get down on your knees!"
"On the ground. Now!"
Elsa glanced over at the Crossing Point, which was still being held open. The last sorcerer had thankfully crossed through the portal, and the Turnsheim locals were in the clear. By now they were probably already safely on the other side, being greeted by Vonco, Holli and some of the other senior members of the League. Which only leaves us.
The room was lit up with the many torches of the Blue Wolves, which meant that there was no way of slinking into the shadows and escaping. It was as good as being caught in broad daylight now.
One of the Blue Wolves trained his musket on Tracy. She ducked as soon as he fired his musket, resulting in a ear splitting crack that echoed throughout the enclosed room of the warehouse. The Crossing Point snapped shut, and the purple mist disappeared, plunging them all into relative darkness except for the flaming ball that still danced on Deirdre's palm like a glowing torch all by itself.
"Damn it! Watch where you point that thing!" Tracy shouted.
"I'm not going to ask again!" One of the Blue Wolves called out in an intolerant voice. "Get down on the ground or we will shoot!"
Elsa's eyes flicked round as she assessed the danger they were in. Apart from the dozen or more Blue Wolves that had poured through the door and were now standing in a loose circle around the seven Warriors, another detail of Blue Wolves were now kicking open service hatches and ventilation shafts around the room, making their presence known.
So they had been planning an ambush. And they have us right where they want us. Elsa gritted her teeth as the Blue Wolves and their reinforcements surrounded the seven individuals at the top of the Confederation's most wanted list of public enemies. All the Blue Wolves' weapons were trained on them, aiming low at their targets' legs. Their fingers nested on the triggers, ready to pull them at the first sign of any sudden movements or attempts to escape. It was safe to say that they were in deep trouble now.
"What are we going to do?" Deidre hissed.
"I…I don't know." Elsa admitted.
"What are you waiting for?" The Blue Wolf yelled. "Surrender now or suffer the consequences!"
Gears turned at the back of her mind, grinding hard to find a solution to their current predicament. Then, she glanced over at Janus, who gave her a tiny nod. There was probably only one way this could work.
"Okay," Elsa called out in a loud voice. "You got us."
"You've got to be kidding." Jade looked at her incredulously. "Surely we're not-"
"It's alright." Elsa said and exchanged a knowing glance with her and the other Warriors. Then, she turned back to the Blue Wolves and raised her hands in surrender as she lowered herself to her knees. "We surrender."
"Good call." A couple of the Blue Wolves stepped forward and took out the infamous magic dampening cuffs that had become standard issue amongst their Task Force. The rest remained in a loose outer circle, muskets and rifles still aimed at the Warriors in the centre.
As the first Blue Wolf reached Elsa and snatched her wrist roughly, she looked over at Janus from the peripheral of her eye, and saw that he had slowly moved his hand towards the rear of his belt as he knelt on the ground. It's now or never.
Elsa twisted out of the Blue Wolf's grasp, and blasted him towards Janus with a short burst of her ice sorcery. The ex-mercenary caught the man and a small blade slipped from his sleeve into his palm. Holding it against the man's neck, Janus positioned himself safely behind the Blue Wolf while Maui moved to guard his rear from a trigger happy musketeer.
The situation wasn't ideal, and neither was the solution. Elsa hated the idea of having to resort to such lowly tactics such as holding an enemy hostage, but in this case there wasn't any other choice. Have I become as much a villain as the enemies I've been fighting all this time? She steeled her features and lifted her voice.
"You know who we are and what we can do. Which is why you're going to lay down your weapons and let us go." She called out coldly. "We don't want to hurt anyone, but we're prepared to." She wasn't but she was quite sure Janus had no compunctions about slicing the Blue Wolf's throat.
Glaring at her, the remaining Blue Wolves backed away, and placed their weapons on the ground slowly. Thankfully, the risky gambit had worked. They weren't entirely savages, unconcerned about their own. So for now, this would have to do.
"Don't try to follow us, or else." Elsa warned, and nodded at Maui to lead the way. The demigod moved in front of the Warriors, acting as a human barrier as they moved slowly towards the door. Janus followed them while walking backwards, shielding himself with the hostage Blue Wolf.
Once they were safely outside the room, Maui hurriedly closed the door behind them and blocked the doorway with a heavy crate that was lying nearby. The coast was clear for now.
"Alright," Elsa nodded at Janus. "Let him go."
Janus removed the blade from the Blue Wolf's throat and released his hold on him. Then without warning, gave him a quick vicious right cross to the jaw which sent the man sprawling backwards into unconsciousness.
"Now what?" Jade asked.
"We'll have to-" Elsa was interrupted by a few cracks of musketry, and the lead balls flew wide past them.
More Blue Wolves were taking positions outside, blocking off the exit of the warehouse. This time, there were even more of them than inside the room during the initial ambush.
"We're blown." Janus said tightly.
"Yeah? What tipped you off?" Tracy hissed.
"Move!" Elsa pulled Tracy and Deirdre to one side as a grenade whipped across the air in an arc, landing near where they had been standing. Maui used his huge frame to shield Jade, Jordan and Janus as they started running to the opposite side.
The grenade hurled by the Blue Wolf landed with a thud. The flaming fuse was visible for one moment and gone the next. The bomb exploded with a frightfully loud sound, sending fragments of debris flying and flames bursting from the impact.
The Warriors had just managed to escape out of harm's range, but not far enough that the impacts of the blast were completely avoided. Elsa's ears rung like bells constantly jingling, and she blinked away the blurriness in her eyes. Ignoring the disorienting feeling, she scrambled to her feet, and turned to see the other four Warriors on the other side of the blast, quite a distance away from them. It would be too risky to regroup now, what with more Blue Wolves trying to cut off their escape.
"Go!" Elsa shouted, waving her hand frantically at them in a shooing motion. She trusted that they would be able to find a way out and regroup somewhere later. Right now, there was no time to think, but to run. She bent over to help Tracy up. "Come on, you got to get up. Deirdre, help me."
Deirdre, who had already recovered, helped to pull Tracy up to her feet. The latter dusted herself off, groaning and swearing.
"Ugh, my head." Tracy complained.
"We can worry about your head later." Elsa and Deirdre half dragged her further away from where the bomb had exploded, as the voices of Blue Wolves and their drumming footfalls drew nearer. "Right now we need to move."
The three Warriors ducked down another corridor, and were careful not to enter another room. If they did, it would most certainly mean a trap or cornering themselves off, something they couldn't afford to do at such a critical juncture. Elsa led them out into another corridor, and the Blue Wolves' shouts and occasional musket cracks were still hot on their heels.
Turning another corner that Elsa hoped would lead them to another exit, the three Warriors abruptly skidded to a halt. Two Blue Wolves were blocking their path, and the first made a grab at Elsa who was in the lead. She faded sideways and slammed his arm against the wall. As she did so, she kept her hand on the man's forearm, and ice began to spread across his arm.
The man shouted and withdrew in a hurry, nursing his cold-smitten arm that was on the brink of frostbite. Tracy charged forward, and threw the man off his feet with a purple bolt of energy which sent him spiralling and colliding with the second Blue Wolf. Both of them went down in a heap, and Elsa froze their legs in place to prevent them from getting up again.
"Tracy," Elsa whirled round. "Can you teleport us out of here yet?"
"Let me try." The girl closed her eyes. "Things like this need focus."
"Get focused." Deirdre said unkindly. "We don't have time for this. We need to get the hell out of here."
"Down!" Elsa yelled and pulled the two Warriors to the ground as something shot out from behind them following a loud crack of a firearm. Just in time too. A single lead ball whizzed past their heads as they dropped to the floor. Elsa got up and spun round like a cat to see two people both dressed in dark grey coats and wearing wide brimmed hats, shrouded in darkness and standing fifteen yards away from where they had come from. The two newcomers hadn't even made a sound.
"Who are you?" Elsa called out. "You're not Blue Wolves."
"No, no we're not." One of the two figures called out. It was a female voice, with a clipped southern accent that came from the other side of the world.
"Who are you?" Elsa repeated. As her eyes adjusted, she could see that the two were swathed in tight fitting greys below their coats, with pistols in hand and swords at their side. Bandoliers holding various types of ammunition and other small weapons were strapped across their chests. They weren't ordinary soldiers, that was for sure.
"It doesn't matter who we are." The man beside her replied. "What matters is what you do next."
Elsa frowned, hands hovering at waist level and ready to defend herself if necessary. The two newcomers were walking towards them slowly, each brandishing a rifle.
"Why are you here?" She asked.
"It's our job," The woman said.
"You're bounty hunters, aren't you?" Deirdre spat from behind Elsa.
"Yes."
"And you're here to help bring us in." Tracy added. "Why? Coz the old Blue Wolves can't figure out how to do it themselves?"
"They're nothing more than common foot soldiers. They aren't trained to deal with rogue sorcerers or monsters like you." The man said in a decidedly cheery tone. "We're here to get it done."
"We're taking you all into custody." The woman said stolidly. "It's your choice how you want to go. Injured or not."
"Please." Elsa warned them. "Walk away now. There's no need for a fight. Obviously you know who we are, and what we're capable of."
"Yes, we know very well who you are," The woman said. "The famous League of Sorcerers."
Elsa's jaw tightened. "Then you know this will get messy, and there's no need for it to."
"I'm afraid that's where you're wrong, sweetheart." The man pushed aside the flap of his grey coat and put his hand on his sword by his hip. "You see, we'll be paid very well to deliver you in chains."
"Deliver us to who?" Elsa asked. "The Confederation?"
The two bounty hunters neglected to answer that, but instead looked ready to pounce at any given moment. Elsa signalled to Tracy and Deirdre to hold off from fighting just yet.
"Who's paying you to do this?"
"Honestly, no one really needs to pay us for this one," The woman said. "See, our lifelong mission is to see you and your kind pay for bringing witchcraft to our world."
"But getting paid is a pretty nice deal all the same." The man added quickly, earning himself a scowl from his partner.
"Please, walk away now." Elsa could sense by now that there was no reasoning with these gray-coated bounty hunters. "We don't want to have to hurt you."
"Don't worry, you won't." The woman hurled something at the three Warriors' feet, and there was a blinding flash of light and a foul smell that followed, along with a lime green gaseous substance which rose quickly from the ground.
The three Warriors stepped back away from the gas, and the two bounty hunters took that opportunity to hurl themselves across the remaining fifteen yards to engage the sorcerers at close range. The man and women tore swords from their scabbards and hefted their weight as they closed the distance.
"Spread out!" Elsa said as she ducked beneath the textbook swing of a longsword. The last thing she needed was for them to get bogged down in a cramp space such as this corridor. This was a far from ideal place to have a fight, but not that it seemed to matter to the two bounty hunters.
As the man sprung to engage Tracy and Deirdre, the woman made a beeline for Elsa, slashing her longsword in a downward cut. Elsa had just enough space to worm her way to the side, and grabbed the woman's outstretched arm before she could draw it back. A simple move, but one that had proven effective time and again.
As she got a firm grip on the bounty hunter's arm, she willed her magic to do its work. The woman's sleeve began to be speckled with small droplets of ice which grew larger and more prominent, and her ungloved hand began to glow blue with cold.
Or at least, that was the way it was supposed to go. Instead, there was nothing. No ice. Just the mild chilly touch that emerged from her hand, but nothing else. Puzzled, Elsa's eyebrows furrowed. Something was wrong. Her powers felt…absent. What the hell is happening?
Elsa felt her leg being kicked out from beneath her, and she buckled, her hand still clinging to her opponent's coat sleeve. The woman was dragged down with her, and fell on top of Elsa. However, she was very quick. The woman wrenched her arm free from Elsa's grip, and elbowed her collarbone.
Giving a sharp gasp, Elsa fended off another blow and scrambled to her feet before the woman could grab hold of her. She nursed her collarbone, where a dull but consistent throb of pain was making its presence known.
A quick glance behind her told her that Tracy and Deirdre had their powers strangely cut off too, and were still busy engaging the man, who was equally as competent as his female partner. Whoever these bounty hunters were, they were good.
Eyes darting back to the opponent before her, Elsa danced away as the woman swung the longsword at her, and wrenched a rusty steel pipe free from the wall which had come loose at some point. She held up the steel pipe, feeling slightly more equipped now that her powers couldn't be relied on. If we're going to be fighting, we might as well even the playing field a little.
Elsa parried another strike, feeling more confident now that she was armed, and returned a quick riposte. The woman rotated sideways to avoid the dull point of the pipe, and disengaged, stepping back slightly.
"Hell. It seems you are every bit as formidable as your reputation suggests." The woman said. "Even without your powers."
"That's good, I suppose." Elsa muttered. So the woman had something to do with her sorcery disappearing. "What did you do to my powers?"
"In a couple of moments, it won't matter anymore. We always finish the job." The woman sprung forward again, and Elsa blocked another blow.
This is dragging out too long. Elsa was very well aware that these two bounty hunters, even without any powers of their own, were able to hold their own against the three Warriors for as long as necessary. And in the case of a protracted close quarters fight like this one, the bounty hunters would likely triumph. And the longer we drag this out, the Blue Wolves are going to get here and back them up and we'll be vastly outnumbered. There was only one logical option left, and Elsa was happy to take it.
"Fall back!" Elsa back-pedalled as she parried another well placed strike from the woman's longsword. Tracy and Deirdre heeded her words, disengaging from the man, and then turned and ran.
Once she was far away enough from the two bounty hunters, Elsa mustered up all her strength and will, and forced the ice to flow out from her. Thankfully her powers manifested themselves again, though quite weakly.
She barely managed to raise a wall of ice that blocked the two bounty hunters from getting through to them though it was nowhere near as firm or sturdy as she would have liked. Still, that would buy a few seconds at least. Better than nothing. She rotated herself on the balls of her feet, and took off running after her two allies who had already gotten a good head start.
"We will find you! You can't run from us forever!" The woman shouted after Elsa as the two bounty hunters began smashing blocks of ice to resume their pursuit.
Watch me, Elsa wanted to retort, but decided against it as the three Warriors turned another corner and fled in search of another exit as the cracks of the bounty hunters' rifles sent lead balls whining just past the back of Elsa's head and chiselling off a bit of stone from where it impacted the wall.