Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

          Nirav impersonating as Jab carried the disguised Wrik on his back among the watchful gazes of the workers as well as the warders and soldiers. They were not just here for security reasons. Other than handling an invasion from the outside, they took care of anything messed up on the inside as well.

        "The doctors will take about 10 minutes to come," Nirav said, gasping for breath. "Hang in there, Pilt. You have a grown daughter, a family. Your time has not come yet. Hang in there.

        Fortunately, with their skills as actors, they had not noticed anything amiss. They needed to keep this way for an hour or two to safely escape from here.

        Carrying Wrik on his back, Nirav moved even below to a vacant storage room first. He laid the body on the cold floor first and heard a few footsteps coming this way. They should be the other colleagues bringing in the general doctor available on the mining site. Clearly, this sort of accident was nothing new. Even if people do not die each week, it was still quite frequent, and not to mention the other symptoms were quite regular. He had seen a few people die in this very room.

        Nirav had not spent any day where he did not see anyone coughing out blood. Though those were mostly slaves here for the wrong reasons, the examples of normal workers were quite a few as well. He looked around to find the device that record everything in the room. In this small storage room, there were three of those, recording everything. 

        The people entered the empty storage room which had been used for this sort of thing the long he works here. The others made way for the doctor, who turned out to be a round man in his late fifties. Unlike the workers, he was wearing a heavy white suit that reflected most of the radiation out of it. It was quite an expensive item. Expensive enough that House Rudyard had to spend quite a fortune just to equip the workers with full bodysuits.

        In the end, with the heavy 40% tax from the council and other spending, all they did was offer a little extra more wage to the workers. There was nothing for the slaves. What if they die? They were slaves, after all. If one dies, another would take his place. The society always finds it easy to make someone a slave. 

        The round man in full body suit rested his briefcase on the ground and went near the body laid on the ground. He put his arm on the chest of the dirty worker, as if trying to feel the breathing. He channelled his healing ability on Wrik, but abruptly the body started to shake. For a little shaking to heavy shuddering.

        "Ohh, boy," the doctor said and opened the metal briefcase. The first thing he brought out was a metal plate and put it on the heart of the body. The doctor pushed the plate and infused mana into it.

        The body shook further. And the shock wave pushed into the heart. Blood coughed out from the mouth and the doctor pushed it further. This continued for a little while and then finally the breathing started.

        "Safe for now," the doctor said and took out a vial from the briefcase. "Though I'm not sure if he will last more than an hour."

        He let it slip into the mouth of the ill one before standing up. Without giving anyone else another look, he left.

        The hall remained silent and the workers mostly had to leave for work. They left one by one, some giving a little nudge to Jab before leaving. Then another man came and entered the room.

        "Did he die?" the newcomer asked, seeing the body on the floor.

        "Not yet," Nirav said, and eyed the man, trying to ask what he was doing here. Though he could very much guess, seeing the pouch in his arm. That meant Anton had successfully got in. 

        "Well, for better or worse," the man shook his head and gave the pouch to Jab. "Someone delivered this to one of the garrisons to send it to him. Though it appeared it won't be much help."

        Nirav took the pouch and nodded. The man left, giving a last look at the man on the floor. Nirav sighed in relief and went to carry the body again. There was nothing in the pouch that could help them in any way, nor that they needed anything. What they needed was already inside the site. Just needed to collect it from the right place and the right people.

        He carried the body and kept on walking further down. He worked not directly in the mining but a little above it. mostly slaves and desperate enough people work in the direct radiation.

        "Grieving won't fill the stomach of your family," a loud voice called from behind as Nirav faltered on his walk, tears dripping down his face. The man that said the word was a superior in the white suit covering every part of his body like the doctor before. He was a superior who oversaw others. "Leave him to the burner to burn. It would save many problems for his family. Not everyone deserves a burying these days."

        A deep-rooted fury rose in Nirav, who was silent most of the time. Even though Wrik was not dead, hearing those words made him far angrier than anything else in the world. That was what they said to his mother when his father died, working in the mine. If not for Ryat, he might have the same fate of burning in one of those burners. But it was not a time to consume by the anger. He breathed heavily and soothed the anger. 

        "I will leave him near the burner," Nirav said, gritting his teeth. "His family will like to see him for the last time."

        "Do whatever you want," the superior said. "You have five minutes."

       . . .                                           

        Balat, in the dress of a warder, moved on the outside, whistling. His eyes looked around to see if there was anyone looking at him. He continued to whistle and walked towards the washroom, the outside first.

        It was not that big of a washroom where at least five thousand people were working. The one before him was only limited to people other than the mining stuff. The garrison and warders mostly.

        He went inside and checked if anyone else was present in there. He waited for the ones relieving themselves to leave, before putting up a small barrier surrounding him in a close toilet.

        The black shadow under his foot moved away and condensed, into a figure that appeared before him in an entirely dark suit and armour. Air released out as the figure opened the helmet. Anton breathed in and out heavily like he was underwater for a long time. Technically he was similar to being underwater where he could not breathe, but fortunately, the suit offered him enough oxyzen to stay alive.

        "If it was a few minutes later, I Might not be able to stand it," Anton said, taking in the seat in the toilet seat. Heavy gasps escaped from his mouth and Balat smiled at him. Even the oxygen was limited to the suit, and using any ability with maha mana needs far more air than normal. Couple with him being using the Shadow stealth and reinforcement ability for about an hour, all of that made him almost powerless.

Fortunately, they have enough time to rest in for now. All they got to do was set up the devices, while the others will do what's needed. Wrik will steal the item, Nirav will jam their system and all they got to do was open the teleportation path, which will lead them to safety, adding the fact they have to be in a two-kilometre radius for that. Every one of their people was linked with the teleportation, so there was no fear of anyone teleporting with them as well. It would only teleport the five of them. 

        "So, we are all in," Balat said and brought out three pouches from his robes—each one for a different person. He gave one to Anton, who collected it and opened the other and brought out large equipment of various sizes from it.

        "Set this up," he said to Anton. "While I deliver these two pouches to the others." In the other pouch, there was everything that Wrik needs from the godly bracelet to the new armours and other stuff. They could not get through from the security pass, so all they could do was to deliver it inside. 

        "Got it," Anton said, taking in water from the pouch. "I need at least half an hour of rest, though I try to assemble the pieces of equipment as soon as possible."

        Balat nodded and reinforced the barrier furthermore, before leaving. This was where they would set up the device that would help them with the teleportation.