章節 122: Sneaking Around the Enemy Base

A few minutes later, Oleandra's tormentor had returned. Aethel looked regretfully back at Oleandra before leaving her alone with the other Elf.

"Well, it appears you're telling the truth," the torturer said. "You're really just a human with no ties to the Æsir, which means you're from Midgard."

Oleandra nodded.

"In that case, tell us Midgard's world coordinates," he commanded her.

"World coordinates?" Oleandra asked, confused. "If you have a map of the stars, I guess I can show you where it is."

She was trying to buy time for her fingers to become usable again. Unfortunately though, even if she could use her fingers to form signs, she still didn't know most of Nidavellir's runes forms, which meant a large part of her arsenal was unusable. Currently, she knew Ansuz, Gebu, Wunjo, Raidhu, Eihwaz and Dagaz; Communication, Gift, Harmony, Riding, World Tree and Time, respectively. None of these had direct attacking power, and Dagaz acted too slowly to be of any help.

"Are you messing with me?" the man snarled, slapping Oleandra across the face. "The world coordinates, you need to know them to travel between realms. Don't make me ask again."

To his surprise, Oleandra looked back at him coolly. She hadn't been like this yesterday, where did this self-confidence come from?

"Why don't you make me tell you?" she taunted, spitting blood to the side. "Unless you're scared of a helpless little girl?"

"You asked for it, human," the Elf smiled evilly, pulling out an ebony dagger from its sheath. "We could have done this the easy way, but you just had to be stubborn. Well, I am going to enjoy this. Now, don't move; you do not want me to miss."

He seized Oleandra by the hair and forced her to look up. The Dusk Elf slowly lowered his dagger towards her right eye, evidently intent on digging out her eyeball from its socket. But just as it was about to make contact, the blade moved no further. Confused, he tried pressing harder on the handle, to no avail.

Oleandra smiled.

"I warned you not to use magic, girl!" the torturer shouted, unnerved. "Now you've—"

All of a sudden, the Elf's sight was plunged into complete darkness. All he could see were Oleandra's eerily shining eyes, and a mysterious glowing eight-branched sigil on her forehead. He tried moving his body, but found that he could not; he was literally frozen in fear.

"Well, well, well," said Oleandra, with a baleful smile. "How the tables have turned."

Hatred, despair and fear. Oleandra had poured all of her negative emotions into a single word.

"Ægishjálmur."

The Helm of Terror had incredibly tough defences, being far superior to the armour of Elhaz, of which the sigil was composed eight times of. But it was much more than the ultimate shield; it was also the ultimate spear. The best defence and the best offence! This magic inspired fear, and drew strength from it; the perfect magic.

"Hello?" Oleandra asked him mockingly. "Are you still in there?"

He was not; at such close range, he had borne the full brunt of Oleandra's fear bomb, his heart stopping then and there. He had died of fear where he stood.

Her captor might have died, but she still wasn't out of the woods. Firstly, she was still bound to her chair; secondly, she was still in enemy territory and thirdly, using fear magic had given her a massive headache. To begin with, Oleandra inched her way to the table where her wand had been placed. After a few tries, she managed to grab her wand between her teeth.

"Diffindo!" she managed to utter through her clenched jaw, pointing the wand as best as she could towards her bindings.

Thankfully, her wand understood what she was trying to do even without the proper flicks and swishes, and the rope was promptly sectioned, allowing Oleandra to free herself with some difficulty. She picked up her pouch and cursorily checked it for missing items. Nothing seemed to be missing, though the Nimbus 2001 she had strapped to her back before being kidnapped wasn't in the room.

The room had no windows, only one single door. Oleandra carefully opened the door a crack and peeked out; there was nothing but pitch-black darkness. She'd have to risk using a light to find her way out; better to be found than to be completely blind in a building full of enemies with night vision.

And then, she remembered that Draco had given her a Hand of Glory at the start of their second year. This item could produce a light that only its user could see, which made it perfect to sneak around in the dark. Oleandra could have kissed Draco at that moment, this was a lifesaver! She placed the room's lit candle within the Hand's fingers, and they wrapped around it, holding it tightly.

Oleandra tiptoed out of the room and through the flickering light emitted by the Hand, found herself in a nondescript corridor. Little by little, she made her way forwards, in a direction that hopefully led to an exit. Sometimes, as she sneaked around, she had to hide behind a corner and wait for an Elf to pass, or hide in a closet, but she was never discovered.

Finally, she arrived at a certain intersection between two corridors. Oleandra peeked around the corner; at the end of that corridor, two elven warriors guarded a door. Light was shining from a crack under the door; she had finally found the exit! But how exactly was she supposed to get past the two guards?

It's at this moment that Oleandra regretted not learning more attacking spells. Ordinarily, she had Thursaz the Thorn, Teiwaz the Ever-Victorious Spear and Isaz the Brilliant to strike, skewer and freeze her enemies respectively, but those spells were inaccessible to her at the moment.

Apart from those, she only knew 'joke' attacking spells, such as Densaugeo, the Teeth Lengthening Hex; Tarantallegra, the Dancing Legs Charm; and Calligae Lubrica, the Slippery Shoes Jinx.

She also knew Flipendo, the Knockback Jinx and Petrificus Totalus the Full Body-Bind Curse. However, the last thing Oleandra wanted was to have guards chasing after her, so she couldn't let them raise the alarm. The former spell didn't knock its target out and the latter spell was quite the mouthful; if she used it against one of the guards, the other would have all the time in the world to call for backup.

What on earth was she supposed to do? She hadn't ended up finding her broom, which meant that once out, she couldn't even escape by flying away.