บท 133: Bad Decision
Altair examined her surroundings as best she could while she was carried out of the room. She didn't turn her head at all and kept it in one place in order to prevent anyone from noticing that she wasn't unconscious. This was done for more reasons than just because she didn't want to be unconscious.
Altair wanted to get an idea of where she was and what possible ways out of the building she could find. Thanks to that fool for telling her that her Teleportation Magic was traceable in the Empire, she suddenly found that she wouldn't be able to use it to return to the Marnithok mansion. It was also likely, to her, that all of the people that Renald had placed at that building were now dead.
Since she couldn't rely on her Teleportation Magic to escape, then she had to do it the normal way. The first step towards making an escape plan was information. She didn't have this opportunity back when she first arrived at the Marnithok mansion.
Back then, she could barely move and didn't have any of her Mana. Now, things were different. She could already move and the darts weren't effective at knocking her down. She could also use some of her Mana, although not all of it.
She wasn't confident that she would be able to stop the darts from hitting her if they used their strange ranged weapon against her unless she was running at full steam. However, she wouldn't need to worry about them if she just continued to use her Cleansing Magic. It consumed less than Body Reinforcement Magic so she would last longer if she got spotted when trying to escape.
The hallway she was taken down was covered in nondescript white tiling. The walls were all white as well to match, and the ceiling had pockmark holes all over it. The hallway was not barren in any way. There were people going about their business even while Altair was carried past them. A lot of people wound up giving the two men carrying her strange looks as they went by but they ultimately didn't do anything about it.
A couple men who were wearing yellow and orange clothing were standing with a metal skeleton that was missing its head. The two men were chatting leisurely as the metal skeleton was moving large boxes onto a pallet on the ground.
They didn't even glance at Altair as she went past them.
There were several hallways that split off of the hallway that Altair was taken down. She saw them on both sides of her, which told her she was somewhere in the middle of the building. She didn't see a single window.
Eventually, she was taken to a room that took ten minutes to get to. Altair did her best to remember the pathway she took, but there was nothing distinct that stood out at any point while she was going down the hallway. Thankfully, or perhaps not thankfully, she wasn't taken around any turns.
One of the men pushed open the door to the room she was taken to and Altair was brought in. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a man and women, both dressed in lab coats. Towards the center of the room was a chair with a bowl sticking out of the top of the chair. It had leather straps for the arms and legs of people that were set in it. Half a dozen wires were connected to the bowl and they led to a door that was near the man and woman.
The sight of it alone chilled Altair to the bone as she felt a sudden wave of panic wash over her entire being.
'What is that?'
Altair wasn't taken to the seat immediately. Instead, one of the men carrying her asked, "Is it ready?"
The woman looked at Altair with a trace of hesitance on her face. She then replied, "Almost. It just needs to be calibrated for… her age."
The man scoffed, "The Major says that won't be needed. There is no need to be gentle."
"The damage it could cause-" the woman quickly pleaded.
But the man interrupted her, "Irrelevant. You have your orders, doctor. Prepare the machine in the other room." He pointed at the male doctor and continued, "You, help secure the patient."
The male doctor nodded his head once and immediately went to the chair. The two men started to continue towards it along with him.
'Damn,' Altair thought to herself as her eyes narrowed. 'I don't have enough time I guess.'
Altair waited until she heard the door close. Then, as the two men were alighting her towards the chair, she burned her Mana, strengthened her body, and formed a dagger in both hands all at the same time.
The two men didn't even realize what she was doing until she had stabbed them both in their sides, aiming for their kidneys but not knowing if that was exactly where she was stabbing.
The man holding Altair's right arm immediately let her go with a loud curse. The man holding Altair's left hand reacted differently, however.
He swung around and grabbed Altair's throat with his left hand while roaring in anger. He then rushed towards the wall and planted Altair into while shouting wordlessly at her. He glared at her with an intense, primal fury across his face and deep in his eyes. He even started to pull harshly at Altair's arm like he was trying to rip it off her body.
The man in the lab coat was startled by the commotion and immediately ran to a desk that Altair didn't see when she entered due to the position of her escorts. He started fumbling with the drawers on the desk.
The other wounded man was holding his side with a slightly panicked look on his face. He was completely ignoring the life or death struggle that Altair had provoked.
By now, the daggers that Altair had made had already faded into nothing. The moment she had finished stabbing both men was the moment she stopped providing them fuel. She didn't think she would need them anymore and suddenly felt some regret as she was getting choked once again.
Her face was already turning red under the pressure and she resisted the urge to try and pull the man's beefy hand that wrapped completely around her neck off her. There was no point, since he was able to completely close his hand around her neck there was no way for her to pull him off her neck.
Instead, she brought her hand up to the man's elbow, which was as far as her arm could reach. She then held out two fingers on a fist, created thread out of her fingers in the smallest amount she could, and proceeded to slice through the man's elbow in a smooth motion.
Blood trickled from the point where Altair's thread went smoothly through the man's arm. However, his grip did not lessen in the slightest. It caused Altair's brow to furrow as tears started to come to her eyes.
'What the hell?' She would have clicked her tongue if she could. Instead, she started to hit the arm with her free arm to try and dislodge it from the rest of the man's body. She knew that she had completely severed his arm. It shouldn't be too difficult to get free from there.
It took only two nudges from her arm to cause the man's arm to separate from his body. It was only then that his fury turned to complete bewilderment as Altair fell to the side and he quickly grabbed his upper arm and cried out in pain. His cry quickly escalated into a scream as he held his severed arm in disbelief, his previous fury had completely vanished.
Altair quickly tossed the man's hand off of her throat and coughed roughly a couple of times while taking quick stock of the room.
At this point, the other wounded man was staring as his disabled ally in shock. The doctor had also looked up and was staring at him in disbelief. The woman wasn't currently in the room.
'Best chance is now!' She dashed for the door that she had come in through and reached up to the handle.
Just as she was pulling the door open, Altair heard a pop from behind her. She then felt two pinches on the center of her back and she immediately used her Cleansing Magic.
However, instead of any kind of poison going into her body, an electrical current surged through her instead. It burned through every muscle, tendon, and nerve, causing her entire body to lock up immediately and she fell backwards as her hand slipped off the door. The sound of something clicking in rapid succession was coming from behind her.
She cried out in her mind as she wasn't even able to utter a sound due to the voltage paralyzing her body, 'What is this thing!?'
She was still able to burn her Mana, so she did so to check what was happening to her body and she was shocked. 'They have weapons that can harness lightning?!' Just as she thought that, her lungs froze up. She didn't have much time.
She quickly shrouded her heart and brain with as much Mana as she could. She then reinforced it through a rough patchwork of Magic that she was creating on the fly. She knew how dangerous Lightning Magic was, and it appeared that what she was getting hit with was a constant current of something similar. She could only do everything she could with her Mana to protect her vital organs. Even though she couldn't breathe, she could hold her breath for a long while.
She was just hoping that it would be long enough.
It felt like every fiber of her body was on fire. It wasn't a low fire either. It was an extreme blaze that burned through her body unrelentingly. As it approached her heart and brain, it was successfully blocked by her Mana from continuing, which caused it to disperse to other parts of her body instead, thus increasing the pain she felt.
The door to the back room opened as the woman quickly ran out and shouted, "What are you doing!? That's set for an adult!"
The male doctor, the one holding the taser that was currently shocking Altair's body, turned his head towards her in confusion. He then pointed to the two men in the room and shouted in an agitated voice, "Look what she did to them! Are you telling me she isn't dangerous enough for this!?"
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