Chapter 54 – A Bloody Knife

 

“Fuck!” the hunter screamed as water splashed across his naked body.

The atmosphere of horniness that had permeated the playroom like a thick fog vanished in a moment. Jae gasped in surprise, soaking wet from the splash of the bucket.

“My apologies, sir. I was tr-” K’rra started, but was interrupted when the hunter lashed out in the dim light, grabbing her by the throat.

“What in the void are you doing, girl? I’ll tan your ass crimson you fucking slag!” the hunter screamed while lifting K’rra by her delicate neck.

“Red! Red! Red!” K’rra tried to croak out as she was being lifted and choked. Her cries were reduced to hoarse whispers as the hunter shook her violently.

“Hey!” Jae called out, trying to stand and pull her jumpsuit up to her hips.

“There’s more cock waiting for you once I take care of this bitch,” the hunter said while shoving Jae away from him back onto bed.

Jae let the push drop her to the bed, then bounced up off it, ducking under the hunter’s arm. She hooked her own arm across his throat as she stepped past him and kicked back behind his knee. The hunter tumbled to the ground, releasing K’rra as he went. When Jae turned around to face him, he was already coming up off the ground with fists up, ready for a fight.

“This is the thanks I get for slipping you some sweet dick?”

Jae lashed out in a fury, striking him with repeated blows until he crumpled. Seeing the violence, multiple slaves called out, “Red! Red! Red!”

The voices and all sounds died in an instant as K’rra turned on the sound dampener. It was unnaturally quiet, although Jae could hear her heart beating. K’rra reached out, grabbed Jae’s hand, and dragged the Fury to the rear exit. 

An attendant stepped in front of them, mouth moving as they asked a question. The confused attendant then tapped their ears, trying to figure out what had happened. The sound returned once K’rra and Jae slipped out the exit. 

In the hallway, K’rra deactivated the dampener, and sound came spilling back all around them. The commotion in the playroom was cacophonous.

“This way!” K’rra yelled as she raced down the utility hall. Jae tried to keep up but was busy pulling her jumpsuit up to cover her chest. Just thinking about what had happened in the last few minutes made her blush to her very core.

K’rra waved from the frame of a service stairway, “The dungeon is just one floor down.”

As Jae moved past her into the stairwell, K’rra tossed a distraction drone down the hallway, trying to back it around a corner. The marble-sized orb floated through the air, emitting whispers that sounded like a hushed conversation. When she ducked into the stairwell herself, the attendant came out through the playroom door, still looking confused and marching toward the noises.

The two dashed down the stairs and spilled out into a staging room for the dungeon. A vast variety of racks and stockades for every species imaginable lined the walls several deep. A wall of lockers ran along one side of the room, some open, showing various bondage costumes and harnesses.

Several leather-clad sentients of differing species and sexes looked up from the conversation they were having near the double doors to the dungeon itself. K’rra reflexively went into protocol mode, curtsying before she realized that marking herself as a slave would limit her ability to travel through this area. Jae followed in wide-eyed horror, trying to take in the many instruments of torture and delight.

The lights here were dim, flickering crimson bioluminescents cast dancing shadows mimicking many human tales of hell. 

A tall, severe-looking human wearing crisscrossing leather straps and a black bob haircut snarled, “And what do you think you are up to, slave girls?” 

A human man showing off his pierced nipples, leather cap, and studded codpiece, and a wolf-like alien on its hind legs with dual floggers thrown over each shoulder, turned to look at the intruders.

“We’ve been sent to ensure the safety of our Lord’s most valued prisoner, Indy-Ra.” K’rra made up on the fly.

“Surely I must be dreaming…” Fury Jae said absentmindedly, still staring at the rows of restraining devices. “There really is a hell.”

The woman barked, “Slaves? Come for the Lord’s prize? Unlikely. Get on your knees, Now!”

K’rra fell to her knees, the implants threatening to sting her if she failed to comply. Jea ignored the trio, still fascinated and lost in thought.

“Are you deaf, slave girl? Your mistress gave you an order.” The nipple pierced man said.

“I expected a serious fight… Only to find actors guarding the cage,” Jae turned to the trio. “How you’ve kept her here is a mystery I’m dying to discover.”

The man with capped nipples strode at Jae, curling his fingers into meaty fists. “Your mistress gave you an order-”

His demand died unsaid as Jae delivered a knife-hand blow to the center of his chest. The force of it cracked his sternum and sent him flying backward in a heap, laboring for breath.

The Volgarian dropped to all fours, looking even more wolflike, then sprinted and leaped at the Fury. Jae dropped to all fours herself, letting the beastman pass over, then snapped a kick up into his torso, sending him sprawling with a yip. She recovered back to two legs with ease and strode towards the sputtering woman.

“Stop, Now!” she screamed while pointing a control wand at Jae, “I’m warning you!”

Jae snatched the wand out of the woman’s hands while backing the domanatrix into a nearby Andrew’s Cross, “K’rra, how do we use this on her?”

K’rra jumped to her feet and joined the Fury, “We don’t have time. She was a slave once, too…”

“And you torture those who were just like you… Pathetic.” Jae sneered. K’rra worried that the Fury was delving too deeply in her emotions now. The stoic veneer that all Furys adhered to was completely missing. 

A part of K’rra thought it was no different than her own journey, from a world of intellect to one of pure feeling and carnality. She pulled on Jae’s arm. “We have to go.”

Jae followed the slave as they pushed their way into the dungeon itself.

Bioluminous artwork in the shape of many layers of flames decorated the small auditorium. The overhead lights were out, but there were participants strapped to or milling about some of the racks.

“This way,” K’rra whispered to Jae, “The long-term cells are at the far end, and they have a staff of regular guards.”

They passed a rotund human man hanging by his wrists from a suspended bar. A bright red Wotin woman in black leather struck him with a flogger, “Who’s been a bad mayor?”

The two drew almost no attention as they moved through the torture room. Jae took everything in with disdain, strutting across the room even though there was an air of uncertainty in her eyes. The mission at hand gave her an avenue to push thoughts of what had just happened out of her mind. She forced herself to concentrate on the rescue.

“This is it,” K’rra said. A thick security door stood in their way. 

K’rra observed the control panel, then waved her datapad over it. 

“Can you hack it?” Jae asked.

“No need,” K’rra explained. “With no power, there will be a manual release-”

Jae ignited her Blade and shoved it through the control panel, then turned, pushing it through the door itself. There was a pop, then a hiss, and the doors slowly slid open.

“Who goes there?” A man called from inside.

With WaveBlade still lit, Jae strutted in. K’rra heard blaster shots and the distinctive swing of a WaveBlade, more shots, a small explosion, and then quiet. When K’rra peeked in, there were bodies on the floor and a reception desk that had a burning gash sliced through it. Emergency lights lit the floorboard, casting a shallow light.

“Which cell?” Jae asked.

“A guard might have helped with that.”

“No matter, I can find her,” Jae said as she walked down a hallway with a dozen numbered doors. She held up her hand at each door, focusing on sensing something imperceptible. 

At the last door at the end of the hall, she flicked her Blade through the wall next to the door until the hydraulics ruptured and the door slid open. Jae rushed in, and K’rra followed, using her datapad as a makeshift torch. Indy-Ra was covered in dark bruises and criss-crossing slashes. Just at a glance, K’rra could tell the woman had suffered a grotesque level of physical abuse. That she was comatose was a blessing.

Indy-Ra lay naked on a slab set in the wall. 

“Indy-Ra, we’re here to rescue you,” Jae said as she rushed over to the slumbering Fury. “Indy! Indy!”

Indy-Ra didn’t respond. Her chest moved, showing that she was still alive, but there was no other indication of life.

“Step back,” K’rra said as she tapped furiously at the datapad. She scanned the sleeping woman and reviewed the vitals that were displayed. “She’s comatose, vitals stable, heart rate and breathing normal but labored. There’s no indication she’ll wake any time soon.”

“We have to get her out of here. You take the head and I’ll take the feet. If we run into trouble, I’ll need to drop her to fight it off. We need to get out and get back to the ship.”

“No,” K’rra said. “I can’t leave. Kaster is still here. I have to find him…”

*****

“To me!” Hol Vydon yelled. “A hundred large to anyone with me!”

Struggling to breathe, Kaster looked up. He’d made it to the top steps of the dais and fell back down to hands and knees. Vydon was deeper in the audience room, gathering forces, somewhere beyond the ridiculous throne. In the darkness behind him, he could hear the whirring of a WaveBlade as it cut through things and blocked blaster shots. Through his Focus, he could feel the ripples Kae made. She was panicking and broadcasting fear, struggling to defend herself with the Blade. She was dodging from cover to cover and trying to get close enough to trained bounty hunters who were taking well-aimed shots at her. With every moment, she was being lured away further from him.

“Kaster! We have to run!” she screamed from behind him. He could feel temptation gnawing at her. This was not the type of fight she’d trained for. Every moment drained her resolve to stay. “Kaster!!!”

He pulled himself up to the top of the dais, struggling to breathe. Closing his eyes, he focused on the cut diaphragm. Like waves in an ocean, he pictured it flexing and relaxing, helping to push air in and out of his lungs. With great effort, he created a compartment in his mind to repeat the thought on an endless loop. Breathing came easier now, but was still labored with internal bleeding.

Pushing himself up, Kaster got to his feet. It was then he realized he couldn’t remember where his WaveBlade was. He turned to look down the steps, spotting it lying at the bottom of them in a pool of his blood. He must have dropped it after cauterizing the wound.

“Hold! Don’t kill him,” Vydon yelled from the dark. “He’s mine.”

Kaster lifted his hand, wanting to call his sword, but there was nothing left. He staggered, turning back to the voice of Hol Vydon, watching as the warlord strode with a full entourage of rough, armed men surrounding him. 

Vydon, sensing that Kaster was not at his full capabilities, advanced ahead of his men. 

Without a Blade, Kaster knew he could not defend himself. He turned to go down the stairs and tripped over feet, tumbling painfully down them and into the pool of his blood. The searing pain in his chest made him want to scream, but there was no breath. When he looked down, he saw the fall had reopened his abdominal wound, and blood seeped out freely. With the greatest of effort, he rolled onto his back and watched as Hol Vydon descended the stairs, coming straight to him.

Kaster pushed with his feet using every remaining bit of strength he had left. He slid a few feeble centimeters, nothing more. He could no longer feel Kae’s presence, fear had gotten he better of her, and she’d obviously fled.

Hol Vydon paused and bent down. He pulled a combat knife from a severed hand, the very weapon that had cut through him earlier. Hol Vydon inspected the bloodied blade, looking very satisfied with himself. He descended the last few steps to stand over Kaster, the bloody knife in hand at his side.

Kaster held up a hand, trying to force Vydon away by sheer force of will. Vydon took the gesture as one of surrender. 

“Oh no Hunter Kaster. You steal my property, kill my employees, sully my home, and pervert my slave.” Hol Vydon held up the dripping knife. “And for all that, for all that Arrogance! You will die slowly. Years! Years if I can help it.”