Despite being cornered by Duke Olyno, Victor had won Wanda's freedom. It was a pity he couldn't warn her about this, because at the same time as his battle with the duke was about to begin, Wanda was still imprisoned.
The dungeons were divided into three large floors. Of these floors, the second floor, where Victor stayed, was the quietest, and only prisoners with more lenient sentences stayed, such as drug dealers, illegal gamblers and so on.
On the other hand, the second floor was where the really dangerous criminals were kept, such as murderers, retired hunters who had committed any kind of crime and deserters from the city's army, as well as some unknown people who were clearly more dangerous than normal humans.
Finally, the third floor was only used on extremely special occasions. With metal walls and a single cage in the center, it was like a prison for monsters, but that night, the only monster locked in the cage was an elf with fine features, a slim body and blonde hair.
Wanda had both her wrists tied to the thick chains that bound them to the floor. The metal chair she was sitting on was unable to move because it was welded to the floor. In other words, unless she could use magic, it was practically impossible to escape.
The weight of the chains on her wrists was a constant reminder of the injustice she was suffering. She was sure that if she had kept in touch with her Guild members during the investigations, none of this would be happening, and she blamed herself a little for the whole situation. Her normally bright blue eyes were now shadowed by uncertainty and the frustration of being trapped.
With her head still down, she looked around the cell, observing the guards around her. There were more than a dozen archers, but they all lowered their bows after the warning signal and didn't look at her again. There were another dozen guards, this one with spears, but thanks to their stupid helmets, they couldn't see any distant details and Wanda was seven meters away from them.
So Wanda took a deep breath. She was frustrated, but she didn't take a deep breath just to do it, but to be able to move a small piece of metal that she had hidden during the initial search inside her mouth. It was only because it was too much trouble to hide that she had remained quiet until then.
Outside the cage, Commander Armek seemed busy with an urgent little meeting with the communications room. It was the perfect moment for Wanda to act.
Wanda raised her head, positioned the piece of metal on the tip of her tongue, concentrated her Den and...
"Atchim!" She sneezed, and the sound echoed loudly.
Obviously, everyone looked at her, and the guards near her cage looked serious. Even Commander Armek looked back.
"What? As well as being deprived of being able to move, am I also deprived of having natural reactions to all the dust in this place?" asked Wanda.
Wanda's gesture was not discreet, but no one in their right mind would have thought that a single sneeze would help her escape. For this reason, the guards looked at each other and shrugged, as did Armek, who turned his attention to the communication tube, through which he received information about the guards' movements and updates on the fugitive.
However, what they didn't realize was that Wanda's sneeze wasn't just a sneeze. She consciously positioned the piece of metal on the tip of her tongue and spat it out using the Den of Fortification. Her powerful Den, mixed with her natural physical abilities, caused the piece of metal to fly out at the speed of sound and sever a link in the chains of her right arm. The sneeze was her way of disguising the sound.
A broken link might not make the slightest difference to ordinary people trapped, but for an S-Rank, it was enough.
After a few seconds, Wanda began to pull on her right arm and as much as the chain tried to resist, it didn't succeed for more than a few moments.
"Hey, what are you doing? Stop right now!" One of the guards realized that Wanda had let go of an arm and ordered her to stop, which drew the attention of all the other guards near her.
Wanda ignored the orders and stood up. With her first free hand, it only took one punch to break the chains holding her left arm.
"Stop right there and go back to your place, prisoner!"
The guards pointed their spears at her, and the archers raised their bows again, but no one had the courage to take the initiative against her, who easily kicked open the cage door and freed herself.
When he finally realized what was happening, Commander Armek turned sharply, his glasses glinting in the light. His green hair contrasted with the frightened expression on his thin face.
"What? How did she get loose?" Armek shouted indignantly. "Hey, idiots, what are you doing?! Stop her immediately! She can't get away from here!
All the guards were trembling with fear of advancing against a Rank-S. They didn't want to be killed. So even with the orders of their superiors, no one acted.
Furious at his subordinates' incompetence, Armek pulled a wooden wand from his belt, pointed it in Wanda's direction and shouted a chant of magic:
"In the garden of Six Flowers, magic shines bright. Six colors, one chant, the world ignites!!!"
At that moment, everything in the room began to shake, and plant roots began to emerge from between the metal plates. From these roots, a huge plant rose, with six petals, each with a different color of the rainbow, and this plant was alive, so it moved and targeted Wanda. In the next instant, a huge beam of light shot out of the plant's stigma, as if it were a cannon.
However, the elf was prepared. With an agile leap, she dodged the attack and climbed into its cage. This movement was so fast that for the guards it was as if he had teleported.
"Ahh! It's so good to be free!" Wanda said, stretching.
Wanda felt as light as a feather. However, it wouldn't be so easy to escape from this place, even for her, because Armek's action encouraged the other guards and at the same time as the archers started shooting, the spearmen rushed to attack her.
Even surrounded in this place, Wanda smiled, just like her father used to.