A scene began to play out in front of Jason. At first, there was nothing but bright white light surrounding him. Then a large door made out of frosted glass appeared before him, a large shadow was looming behind it.
Against everything that was going through his head, instead of running, he began reaching out for the door's bronze knob. However, as soon as he touched the knob a giant crab claw smashed through the glass and hit him in the stomach.
He awoke yelling in fear and pain, "NOT THE CRAB!"
"What are you yelling about, you filthy brocata," Jess said sharply.
Jason began looking at his surroundings and discovered three things. First of all, he was hanging upside down. Secondly, he was in a cellar, and after that, he realized that the one who had knocked him out was Jess. He realized that it was Jess because she was still holding the wooden plank.
"Why... why am I hanging upside down? why did you knock me out? Where are we? What's..." Jason was cut short by the pain of a wooden plank slamming into his stomach. Winded, Jason gasped for air trying to catch his breath.
"Enough questions you bastard royal!" Jess yelled and tried to smack him with the plank in the stomach again; except this time he was ready for it. Jason remembered his hero training, and how he was once tested in a scenario like this.
It was a test in which he was tied tightly to a tree and interrogated by a man with an aluminum baseball bat. This test was meant to simulate being captured by a villain. In any case, it was helping now; especially since his hands weren't tied together this time.
As Jess's plank came closer to his abdomen Jason raised the upper half of his body and grabbed the plank with one hand. He then pulled it out of her grasp and threw it to the side. Jess then tried to knee Jason in the chest only to have him grab her leg and push her away causing her to fall on the cold stone floor.
Jess stared in awe at the man who could fend off an attacker while hanging from the ceiling by his feet.
"You're more than just a royal... you... you're a knight. I can't believe this, I better raise your price," Jess mumbled to herself.
"I'm not sure what you're mumbling about, but you better let me go or else..."
"Or else what, you'll untie yourself while hanging upside down," She said smiling.
"Maybe I will," Jason smirked, "I mean I doubt it's impossible."
After hearing this Jess's face lost its color. Based on his little performance earlier she couldn't be certain he was joking. Despite that there was nothing she could really do at the moment, realizing this Jess decided it would be better to leave for now. However, before she got completely up the cellar steps she said something that both confused and chilled Jason.
"I wonder how much the lizardmen will pay for this disgusting brocata."
"Wait!" Jason shouted "what do you mean lizardmen..." but it was too late Jess had already left the cellar. "Damn it."
Not knowing what else to do Jason began trying to get out of the binding that was tied around his ankles; however, he soon realized how useless this was. He didn't have the strength to pull his upper half up and untie the rope, and it had been obvious since he woke up that wiggling his feet out was not an option. It was simply tied too tight.
After giving up on escaping, Jason decided that the best thing he could do in this situation was to train. In order to do that Jason pressed his hands on the floor and began to lift himself, then when Jason had stretched his arms as far as possible he slowly went back down. He started repeating this, counting each time he came back down.
"1...2...3...4..." Jason began thinking about how he had become a hero. "12...13...14..." He remembered how he was nothing but a procrastinating loser. "24...25...26..." He remembered the day a random level ten villain took his sister from him as he cowered in a corner crying. He remembered his sister's cries as she was stabbed in the chest by a spike of ice.
"57...58...59...60..." Jason stared at the small wet spot on the floor below him, he couldn't tell if it was made of sweat or tears. He was then dragged back into his thoughts. Jason then remembered his training with his master, a large man who had once been a notorious villain. He remembered the screams of the man who had taken his sister from him, and finally, Jason remembered the promise he made to himself and his dead sister. "113...114..." He remembered his vow to always protect those who needed protection, and to make those who hurt others pay. "129...130...131."
He stopped after finishing his last drop-down because he heard the sound of a door opening. "I will keep my promise, Kathy."
As Jason watched the corner which Jess had gone around the last time she left, his heart began to race in anticipation. Then Jess came running around the corner with a large knife. She had a cut on her forehead and her once green shirt was a strange mixture of green, brown, and burgundy. blood.
Jess ran up to Jason's hanging body and began to cut the rope around his ankles.
"What happened? Jess, what's going on?" Jason was now concerned by the look of desperation he saw in Jess's misty blue eyes. Then the rope snapped and Jason dropped head first on the floor. Not caring Jess turned back towards the way she came and put her knife away in a holster on the left side of her waist.
"We gotta get outta here, " Jess said turning around and looking at Jason, who was now standing and rubbing his head.
"Hold up what's going on? Why do we have to get out of here?" Jason asked while keeping an eye on her knife holster.
"Why do you think?" Jess said like it was obvious, but after seeing the confusion on Jason's face she continued, "you must have been one real sheltered kid to not know about lizardmen. That aside, lizardmen are known con-men. They trick and steal whenever they can, and I decided to sell you to them..."
"Wait," Jason interrupted, "leaving out how you were planning to sell me to them, what gave you the idea that you could make a deal with known con-men."
"I thought they might try something, but I only expected them to bring three, maybe four guys," She answered, "What I didn't expect was one of them being a warlock."
"Oh, that makes sense of course you wouldn't... expect...a...warlock," Jason trailed off as the realization of what she had just said hit him like a brick, "A warlock!"
Then an explosion shook the cellar and a door flew out from around the corner.
"Little Jessie," a raspy voice said from around the corner. Then a foot appeared except it wasn't a human foot. It had to be at least two times too big and it only had three toes, it was covered in purple scales and had three sharp claws. Then from around the corner, the thing that appeared could only be described as a lizardman.
It was at least six and a half feet tall, if not taller. It was covered in purple scales and had sharp eyes and a pointed mouth. It had things poking out of its head that were more like needles than hair. It wore a gray robe and nothing else. No weapons, Jason noticed, but after taking a look at the five sharp claws on each of his hands he realized he was wrong.
"I take it you're the warlock," Jason said trying his best to look confident, but due to the loss of color in his face, failed.
"That's right chinatach, and you must be the knight, Henn," The large lizardman said almost amused by the underwhelming creature he saw before him.
Jason glanced at Jess who was even paler than him, he could tell she was terrified, if not because of her face then because of the way she was shaking. It looked to him as if Jess was standing in a blizzard, and it seemed that the lizardman had noticed as well because he started talking to her.
"Don't worry cunvalka," he said calmly, "Tell you what, if you promise to have some fun with me after this, I won't kill you."
After hearing this Jess collapsed on the floor and started sobbing. Seeing this Jason once again remembered his promise and glared at the supposed warlock. He would protect her.
Even though he hadn't forgiven her Jason still felt that at this moment his grudge didn't matter, he was a hero after all. Then Jason realized that this wasn't the world he knew. Jason's world was full of villains with superpowers, not lizardman warlocks. So, he would need to be a new man in this new world, and that's exactly what he would become.
"Warlock!" he yelled making the lizardman snapped his attention toward him, "You shouldn't have said such a thing to such a beautiful woman while in my presence. Now you will die by the hand of the great knight, sir Henn."