Bab 76: We Must Escape From This Place!

His eyes opened slowly, and a corroded wall appeared in front of him. His breathing was shallow, and he still felt the pain in his head from the continuous blows that Bones had given him.

Studying the room where he had awakened, Malcom realized that it was a dungeon, and his good arm was shackled to the wall.

Fear grew, and he tried to regain his composure. His belt with the cards was missing, and on his neck, an inhibitor collar was activated.

"Damn it!" Malcom muttered when he was completely defeated and captured, and he never thought that the people looking to catch the Markeds would have such an exorbitantly different power.

Not even Skyler could match him.

At that moment, his mind turned to Skyler. Looking around him, he was alone in that room, and the dizziness in his mind was persistent. He got up despite being chained to one arm.

He could stand up, his other arm was still wrapped in a cast, but thanks to the inhibiting collar, the magic of that cast was not activated.

When looking at his hat, it was not there, nor was his dagger. The only treasure he kept with him was his boots. Thinking that he still have something to use, Malcom calmed down and started making plans.

At that moment in the gate of the entrance, a disturbing laugh was heard. Malcom glanced to where it came from and saw that Emanuel was looking at him behind the small bars of the window.

"Comfortable, Marked?" Emanuel asked with a grin.

Malcom wryly smiled before he replied, "Yeah! And you? How about your ribs?"

"I'll kill you fucking Marked!" Emanuel glared at him murderously.

"Yeah, we tried that already, not your forte, bro!" Malcom responded before laughing tauntingly.

"You wanna get a beating?" Emanuel asked coldly.

"Well, you try that already, remember? I'll beat you!" With a Smile, he added, "It must be pretty embarrassing for you to have been beaten by a Marked. I bet your friends will love that story!" Malcom was confident. He might get a beating, but he would still live.

After all, he was really sure that the people that captured him needed him alive.

Just as Malcom spoke, Emanuel entered the cell and forcefully kicked Malcom's stomach. He had difficulty breathing but still continued to look at Emanuel.

"That's the only way you have to hit me, right?" Malcom asked mockingly through clenched teeth.

Emanuel raised his feet to deliver another kick. Still, at that moment, Malcom swung his base leg down and then, with his heel, struck a strong blow to Emanuel's nose that rendered him unconscious.

"Dude! Thanks for freeing me!" Malcom grinned, despite the discomfort, he felt on his stomach.

With great effort, he dragged him towards himself, and, taking the keys from the chain shackles off him, he freed himself only to chain Emanuel to the wall.

"For your sake, I hope Skyler is ok," Malcom muttered as he lifted his body.

In his mind, he had an advantage. Being a Marked made him indispensable for these people, but Skyler's life was different. She did not have the Mark, and containing a mage of her level could be a challenge.

Malcom eliminated those thoughts from his mind, and taking a deep breath, and put his cast on the floor.

With his boot, he stepped on the plaster that wrapped around his injured hand with precision, broke it, and released it.

When moving it, he still felt some pain, but the healing of the cast was almost complete. The bracelet that activated the magic shield was there. Still, with the inhibitor necklace, he probably could not activate its magic.

The treasure in his boots still worked, but the energy that fueled that treasure was not magic, it was Malcolm's physical energy, and that was the reason why he could still use it.

"If it doesn't have magic, it's not useful," Malcom released a heavy sigh after realizing that.

That would make these people lose their opportunity to retain him. Having left the boots was a mistake, and now Malcom would use that mistake to escape.

He slowly approached the huge iron door that separated him from freedom and took a look. When he didn't see anyone, he opened it with Emanuel's keys and got out fast.

That made a guard turn to see what was happening, but when his eyes looked in the direction of the corridor where the cells were, a huge kick broke his nose and knocked him unconscious.

Malcom checked the unconscious body of that magician. Still, besides the keys to the shackles, he did not possess anything else.

To remove the inhibitor collar, he would need a special magic key or the person who had placed it, but he first had to find Skyler.

Slowly and trying to stay attentive to any other guard, he began to walk down the corridor where the dungeons were.

He checked each one of them, but they were all empty. In the distance, a woman's laughter was heard while loudly some lashes echoed.

Malcom approached that place, trying to carefully observe what was happening. Looking through the crack, he saw how a girl with the mantle of fire on her shoulders lashed another one with a whip.

The image was bloody, the prisoner's back was tattered, and her bloody figure was similar to Skyler's. The woman whipping her was Sarah, who seemed to enjoy the task as her smile widened with each blow.

Malcom felt how anger rose on his body and slowly knocked on the door. When the young woman approached to see who it was, a huge kick took off the door from its hinges and flew towards her.

It dragged her until she crashed against the wall of the cell, leaving her unconscious at that moment.

Sarah fell completely unconscious on the ground when Malcom entered the cell with speed.

When he saw Skyler, he approached her with speed and tried to free her hands, her back was covered with blood, and the young woman on the edge of unconsciousness looked at him smiling.

"You came for me…." Skyler said weakly.

Malcom smiled and, looking at her, said, "You came for me first."

Seeing Skyler made him happy, but her state was so bad that he wanted retribution.

Looking at Sarah's unconscious body, he walked toward her and raised his foot. He wanted it to kill her, but Skyler's voice stopped him.

"No! Malcom, don't do it!"

Malcom looked at her with surprise. He could not believe that the young woman was asking him to stop, but he understood that she was serious looking into her eyes.

"You already beat her… there is no need to kill her!"

"She almost killed you!" Malcom said through gritted teeth. His was dominated by enormous anger to the point that he wanted to taste blood.

Skyler got up, walked with a lot of difficulty, covered her naked torso, took the mantle of fire, put it on just to look at her, and slowly chained her to the wall.

Skyler looked at Malcom and, placing her hand on the boy's cheek, said, "We must go!"