"Fly is a fly no matter who gets caught!"
A Chinese man said after an American woman pointed toward a big Chinese paper lantern floating above her. Inside it was Mike and Bell trapped.
Shy Cliffhanger Ross was back in the Color Kingdom after Jett Amadede teleported everyone from the moon to the Color Kingdom, even those not from the country. After landing on the ground, she looked at her body to see if she was seeing a dream.
"Am I dreaming... Pitch me to wake me up!" She told her best friend, who was beside her when they teleported.
"No, no, Shy. You are not dreaming. Al-all that was-was-was very re-re-real."
"Shit! What happened to my husband and brother? I hope they are okay!"
At the biggest prison inside the Nightcore Empire, James Ross, Samuel Cliffhanger, Tim Skyfather, Junon Acadia, and the other gladiators are unfairly trapped and cannot leave.
Flow users couldn't use their powers to escape from the cell because their legs got cuffed with something called "Anti-Flow Cuffs." Making Flow users useless when it's tied to them.
Ross wakes from a plate smashing to the ground; the food inside spills everywhere, and the guard says, "Don't care how many people here are hungry. We only have one food for you guys, so grab it quickly before anyone can, and please don't fight over the food."
However, the guard gently puts water from a glass bottle on the ground and softly leaves.
Someone grabs the spilled food from the ground and eats it. "You should eat the food quickly, James."
Ross recognized that voice, Justice, "You are in here too?"
Justice slurped the goop in his face and said, "Not just me. There are other gladiators in here as well."
Ross looks around and sees Lambert and Deila in the cell with them. Lambert, "You were on your beauty sleep. We were finding a way to escape this shitty place!"
"Sorry, I don't know what's going on. Why are we in this place?"
Lambert got angry that Ross was asking that question when they were trying to escape from the jail, so with anger came a slur, and a big argument started! They would almost kill each other if the Anti Flow Cuffs and Delia weren't there.
"Stop it, Lambert! A guard is coming!"
Lambert stopped after he heard Delia. Ross stopped when Justice kicked his legs, making him fall.
"Are you guys fighting over food?"
"N-n-n, sir. We aren't. Go on. Go On your day, Mr. guard." The guard left after hearing what she said.
"If we didn't stop you two. We would be in so much trouble in this unknown land, so be adults and talk to each other. And how many times have I told you, Lambert, to stop being racist?"
Delia said to Lambert and James.
From that, Lambert apologized to Ross for provoking him by saying something racist, and Ross noted that he was also sorry, but he was still salty about the man saying a slur.
***
Justice changes the topic by saying, "None of you notice the outside looks very dark?"
"Now you mentioned it. The guard who came here was holding a lantern, too, and it's a very quiet place without any noise coming from outside," Delia said.
"The outside is very much in darkness. Only light sees it inside our cells."
"Doesn't matter; we need to escape from here as soon as possible."
While they had the plan to escape, a guard interpreted them by saying, "From the command of his brilliance of the motherland, the poor James Ross is going to meet his intelligence with force."
After the guard stopped reading the latter, he forcefully dragged James out of the cell. James wouldn't move like a magnet and said, "You are not going to force me to move."
Without any hesitation from the guard, he pulled out a gun, pointed it toward Justice, and said, "As I said, you have no choice in the matter. I will kill your loved ones if you don't come with me. We know where your sister lives!"
A banging sound went off, and the guard said, "This was a warning. If you do not follow what I say."
The bullet went through Justice's hair, smashing into the wall above his head. Ross instantly said when he saw that, "Okay. Okay, okay! I follow you. Where to?"
They went further from the cell. Outside was completely dark, without any lights shining from anywhere in the prison besides the cells, which were too far away to see anyone in. Ross needed help to see where he came from or the places he was going to.
Deep darkness covered them. Only the light from the guard's old-fashioned lantern shone, which barely helped him. After leaving the prison by the stairs, they reached outside.
The prison was underground on a mountain, on the button of Nightshine Citadel, which the Nightcore Empire's Emperor calls home. It is the biggest castle in Armora.
A different guard, with blindfolds in their hands, was waiting for them at the prison exit. When they arrived, they said, "At this point, it becomes a secret for your eyes."
The guard went toward Ross to blindfold him by covering his eyes, but James choked the guard, started to lose breath, and said to the other guard, "I would let your friend go if you take off my handcuffs and give me the keys for other cells!"
The guard was getting choked, breathing heavily, "Do-do, as he says—?!"
A banging sound of a bullet went off, going through the head, killing them.
"What kind of heartless monster are you killing your friend like that!"
The guard calmly said, "It doesn't matter if it's a friend. A guard should always be strong in Nightcore Empire!
If I didn't kill it, someone else would do it anyway, and also, did you forget we knew where your sister, Shy, lives?!"
After hearing what the guard said, Ross charged toward his enemy. Bullets flew toward James, and he blocked the pellets by using the handcuffs' middle chain, making it squish like a pancake without the cuffs getting damaged.
'These handcuffs are strong if these bullets don't damage them.'
The guard pulled the trigger once again, but it was empty. He needed to reload, but he had to do it quickly before Ross reached him.
"Hurry up! Hurry up! Hurry up!"
Unfortunately for him, Ross grabs his neck, making them drop down to the ground. Ross was on the guard's body and said, "If you do as I say, you will not die from my hands!"
"I-I don't-don't want to die... Die. I would do as y-you say Say."
"Free me from these handcuffs first, and give me the keys to my friends' cells."
"I-I would do... Please do it. B-b-b-but first, can you get off me?"
James threw himself from the guard split second after seeing the knife approaching him from his right side. However, in those seconds, the weapon still connected with his body. For the first time in a long time, his body bleeds without the nanobots' involvement in protecting him.
'Fuck! I forgot how pain feels like!'
He was bleeding from a knife wound without being able to cover it with some cloth because his hands got tied in handcuffs.
The guard who stabbed Ross stood up and said, "Hahahah, did you believe I would help you?"
"I guess I have to be an actor from now on."
The guard splattered Ross's blood on the ground and ran forward to Ross. With many knife swings, they flew through James's head, non we're hitting.
"Why are you moving your head so much? Let me kill you."
"Unlike a minute ago, with your cheap attack, you would not hit me again!"
After saying his message, his right kneecap gives the enemy memories of his childhood after getting struck in the chin. The guard dropped to the ground, knocked out.
'I need to help them escape before finding a treatment for my wounds.'
Ross went to the guard's body and tried to find the keys to his handcuffs and the prison cells. He didn't see keys from the guard.
'How do I get freed from these cuffs?'
A clomping sound was nearing Ross, and at every second, the ground shook to the point it felt like Armoraquake. Step by step, it revealed that a giant was making those heavy footsteps.
"Oh, that puny human failed! Fine, IO will be the one who brings this tiny man to his highness, Jupiter!"
IO the Volcanic Galilean, a giant 40 feet tall, on its body, volcanoes of any height call it home. On its hand, it has a gigantic mace club made with land made of lava.
"IO, Smash!" The giant swings his club into the ground toward James Ross, which breaks the handcuffs, and James avoids the attack.
'Shit, that was close and lucky.' Ross thought.
A crater with a lava pool was created by swinging into the ground from the mace. James Ross was freed, making his Flow now easily accessible.
Would his powers be enough to defeat the giant, or would not be enough force to defeat the giant?
To be continued.