Anora slowly continued to cover more ground. There had been no signs of life since she split from Ikra. She already had an idea of the layout of the map in her head, and so far the route she took was the furthest she's been in.
She crouched as the walls began to shake, remaining vigilant until the tremor stopped. "When will they ever stop?" Anora complained. There have been numerous tremors already, most likely caused from the explosion.
Where even was this explosion?
Ever since she went down, there has been no signs of one. No fire or smoke, and no crater or blown out walls. Something that loud should've left something huge in it's wake.
"Wait" Anora stopped, "What if I'm not thinking in the right direction?" She was assuming that the explosion had been an accident, but what if it was intentional?
The explosion could've been used to intentionally make Warhound go into a frenzied state, erupting chaos. It would give them a chance to escape, but it would also cause Warhound to go after anyone he sees.
I guess that explains the dead children in the staircase
The deduction left her with more questions however, where was Warhound? How about the other two targets? And where are the people insane enough to pull such a stunt?
"Hello?"
A voice stopped her thought process. A silhouette of a child could be seen further down the path.
"Hey!" Anora shouted out, "Don't move"
The silhouette jumped, they moved as if they were about to run away any second. "What? Who are you?"
She went in closer to see that it was one of the children, "I'm Anora," She introduced herself, "I'm with the team that was sent to rescue the hostages here" She went to him to check his condition.
"What's your name?"
"Jug" He said, "Ow!" Jug shouted out as Anora touched his stomach. She removed his shirt to reveal multiple bruises.
"Did they do this to you?" She asked him, looking at how much there were. Jug nodded, "They would beat me up if I didn't do well enough" He told her, "We would be beaten up for hours" Jug started to tear up from recalling the memories.
"Well it's fine now, we're going to get you out of here" Anora patted his back as a way to comfort him. "Come on, let's get out of here"
She ushered Jug to follow him but he didn't move.
"What about the others?" He asked her.
She turned to him, "The others? Do you know where other survivors are?"
"Mhm" He replied, "They cant escape because they're trapped" Anora took a while to think about it, "Alright, can you lead me to them?" She asked politely.
"Sure!" Jug responded, quickly moving to lead the way. As soon as he turned away, he couldn't help but smile.
What an idiot.
Jug was surprised to hear her in the caverns, but it was a welcome surprise as he needed some form of protection against Warhound. He normally wouldn't have gone walking around the place with a mad dog on the loose, but he had a mission to fulfill from Parquatz.
Before Jug met up with Anora...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Tom screamed out as loud as he could as Jug nudged a stalactite all around his wound. "You know, you should be grateful" He told him, "I'm making sure you never forget the pain of betrayal ever again"
His eyes were filled with anger, "You already made sure of it when you betrayed us"
Jug laughed at his words, "Aw, come on! Don't be so distant. Here, I'll do you an extra service" He pulled out the stalactite, then used it to carve a scar in Tom's cheek. He was so immersed in the situation that he could barely hear Parquatz screaming for his name.
"Jug!" He tried to shout out to him again. Parquatz swiped the three hands that flew to him like bullets out of existence, then dodged to the left as the palm of a giant hand slammed right where he was. Meanwhile, the person who coordinated the attack stood far away, watching his every move.
This man, he isn't someone I can handle
Parquatz hated the fact, but he knew the worst mistake he could make was to deny reality. "How about this?" Arm summoned more arms from the void, forcing Parquatz to keep staying defensive.
"God damn it, Jug!" He shouted out again as another barrage of arms came after him, this time following him more accurately. Each attack Arm did gave him more information on his opponent, making the next one harder to deal with.
Parquatz tried to run towards Jug, barely avoiding the arms and erasing them as fast as he could. "Jug!" He grabbed his shoulders and shook him. Jug looked at him in shock, "What?" He slowly came back to his senses.
"I need you to release him" Parquatz told him, "The last resort"
Jug's eyes widened, he never thought that the day that Parquatz trusted him with that monster would come.
Jug's eyes then focused behind Parquatz, realizing that there were multiple arms that were aiming for the both of them.
He pushed Parquatz away, then tried to punch the arms away, but ended up being overwhelmed by them. Arm used the arms to lift Jug up, "You're in the way" He tossed him far away from the both of them.
"And you" Arm looked at Parquatz, "Stop running" He unleashed another wave of arms towards him. "Do it, Jug!" Parquatz shouted out before running at him.
He inched closer and closer as he erased the continuous onslaught of arms that came his way. "Finally" Arm exclaimed, "Now you're fighting!"
I should do my part too
Jug went further away from the fight, getting out of Arm's vision before he started digging down with his hands. He had good memory, even in the complex passageways of the mines he was able to clearly determine the locations of each room. Or at least, he thought he was able to.