Raze It To The Ground

The tower roof offered no protection; guards were already mobilising to give chase.

We leapt from the tower's roof onto a connecting rooftop. We sprinted across the castle’s tiled roofs until we hit the outer wall, which was too high to jump from.

I looked around. There was a woven banner draped over the wall. Guards hauled themselves onto the rooftop, weapons drawn, charging toward us.

Pippa turned into her fluffball form, and she and Viola flew down.

“I can lift you all down, but I can only handle four at most at a time.”

“Take the others down, I’ll go next,” I called back.

Viola used her skill to wrap wires around Elora, Mel, Túta and Raizel just as the guards rounded the corner and began charging.

There would not be enough time to wait for Viola. I leapt from the roof, driving my hook into the banner. The banner ripped as I slid down. The friction slowed my descent until I dropped to the ground.

That wasn’t so bad.

“Oh my god! That person just damaged the kingdom's insignia!” a woman screamed, shaking as she pointed at us. A crowd of city folk had gathered, drawn by the unfolding chaos we were causing.

“Why would they do it?” Another asked, their face drained of colour.

“What madman would dare pick a fight with an entire kingdom?” Another shocked onlooker remarked.

“Captain Lark is the one!” Pippa proudly replied.

“Pippa! Don’t tell them that!” I snapped back, giving her cheek a light pinch.

“But you were so cool! I’m sorry for making you mad,” she apologised, teary-eyed.

I sighed and placed my hand on her head. “I’m not mad, but we should be trying to draw less attention to ourselves.”

“Halt pirate!” A guard called as he spotted us. Several other guards followed suit. “You cannot escape after killing the king and damaging the city's insignia! If you want war, we will give you war.”

“Can you chalk it up to a misunderstanding?” An arrow shot near my feet. “I guess not.”

“Surrender or die, pirate!” one of the other guards called.

“Hey, look, a Valgroth!” I pointed to the sky.

The guards all instantly turned to look.

“I can’t believe that actually worked,” I chuckled to myself as we bolted through the winding streets.

They gave chase, but we managed to give them the slip and find an abandoned, dilapidated building, where we could hide.

“How did you know where to find me? And how did you get here?”

“Pippa and Pippa,” Túta replied.

I waited for more, but that was apparently the full explanation. Pippa puffed out her chest proudly.

“That doesn’t explain anything!”

“Well, Pippa said you would be in trouble since time seemed to reset,” Túta explained.

I turned to Pippa.

“Do you also remember everything that happened?”

She nodded proudly.

“You mean when my almighty fire consumed all?”

“So you do remember. How?”

She gracefully covered her eye with her hand. “Time means nothing to my dark powers.”

I realised it was frivolous to try to question it further. At least it meant she retained her memories.

“That doesn’t explain how you got here so quickly,” I added.

“Like I said, Pippa. She teleported us here,” Túta reiterated.

“So you can teleport to other places besides the cave?”

“I guess so,” she responded, bashfully scratching the back of her head.

“Then can you teleport back if need be?”

She shook her head. “I can only do it once a day.”

“Then it is true that time is resetting?” Viola asked, concern in her voice.

I nodded and explained everything I knew about the administrator. Once I was done, the others sat in silence for several minutes.

“So, should we leave this city?” Túta proposed.

“It would be the safer option, but we also should consider what will happen if time resets again.”

“How likely do you think it will be?”

“I think it is quite likely.”

“Is the only option to defeat the administrator?”

I sighed.

“It looks that way.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t have run so far,” Mel added as she took a swig from a bottle.

“We couldn’t afford to get caught.” A smile crept up my face. “But it means they probably wouldn’t expect us to come back to them.”

“You’re saying we head back towards the castle?” Túta asked with a sigh. She reached up and began to rub her temple.

“I suppose security will be lower if they are scattered looking for us,” Viola mused, covering her mouth with her sleeve.

“If not, we can just cut them down.” Elora squealed, jumping up and down excitedly.

“I’m just saying, it’s a terrible idea,” Túta replied with a laugh. “But all your foolish ideas usually work out.”

“I agree it’s dumb, but we don’t have any other options,” I replied, placing my hand on her head. “If this keeps up, we won’t be able to escape anyway.”

“Well, if it does loop, we should probably hand you some weapons so you can protect yourself.”

“That would be nice. Where is my sword?” I looked around and didn’t see it being carried by anyone.

They all looked at Raizel. She held out her hand over mine. A mouth appeared, and my blade slowly slid out of it by the hilt.

“Alright, that was pretty darn cool.”

“Right!” Pippa squeaked, eyes sparkling.

“Ah, shucks, you know how to flatter me. And here I was thinking you only knew how to flirt by touching boobs,” Raizel replied, squishing her chest together.

I turned my hand away, though I could feel my ears warming up.

“Look, it was a misunderstanding.”

“So, what you are saying is that my breasts meant nothing to you.” She pulled a fake sad face.

“I didn’t say that either!”

The entire crew gave me a dirty look before bursting out laughing.

“We all know that Foolish Captain,” Viola replied with a smirk.

“Going back to weapons, don’t tell me you forgot about this one?” Túta spoke up.

Reaching into her jacket, she pulled out the Tetanus blade. She handed it over to me, and I slid it into my jacket pocket.

“Thanks, I’m all set now. Do any of you need to do anything else to prepare?”

“I don’t believe so,” Viola replied.

“Nope,” Pippa added.

“Hold on a sec,” Mel chimed in. She skulled the remainder of her bottle. Her face turned almost as red as her hair.

“Kaa~” she exhaled with a drunken smile. She threw the bottle against the wall, shattering it, and wiped her mouth. “Alright, I’m good to go now.”

I looked at my crew and raised my cutlass in the air.

“Then let’s go raze this place to the ground.”

▪──── X ────▪

End of chapter 41