NOVEL FROG Chapter 108: The Risk
With Frost ahead of them, Indie and Kiwy ran straight to the castle exit, but Spook was already gone. They only found Groovy and Bones clearing the left side, but there were no traces of the enemy, not even the dungeon, where Kiwy checked briefly right after. Reaper and Freak had run off to the main road, with Daishi and Voodoo teleporting outside as well, but as Frost had jumped off to the garden, he managed to see Onyx getting up and grabbing Scarecrow’s body to put him back together before running. Frost chased after them, but as he reached the broken statue, he came across Indie and Kiwy. After looking at them for a second, he looked back to see only purple dust in the air, indicating Spook’s sudden exit.
–Did you see them?– Frost asked in despair as he stepped outside and found no one in the street. Reaper and Freak had gained too much distance on them and disappeared around the corner, and not even a trail of blood left behind led them anywhere.
–No, they are gone…– Indie replied with disappointment but stayed alert, hesitating to look at Frost as he got frustrated and tried to keep running after letting out a sigh and looking around frantically.
–Hurry, they must still be in the city. We won't let them escape unharmed…– Frost ordered urgently, turning to Groovy and Bones as they left the building. But while they followed him without a question, Kiwy stayed behind with Indie, who was reluctant to join after seeing Spook disappear in thin air. She kept looking back, noticing that some of the fire in the hall had reached the windows and started burning the roof, and after some consideration, she chose to prioritize the safety of the people still inside.
–No, we’ll go. You two go back inside and grab as many people as you can. We’ll warn the others about the fire, so just try to get everyone to safety– Indie said to Groovy and Bones before they got a chance to leave. They stopped running, and even with Frost trying to dismiss her, they listened and followed her order, running back to the burning castle without weapons to carry all the unconscious guests out before it was too late.
The decision relieved Indie of some of her worries, allowing her to run with Kiwy and Frost down the road, but the latter was left with a bitter expression of disapproval. Regardless, Frost hurried up and quickly reached the upper-class district, where he noticed that people were panicking in an attempt to get to safety on higher ground as all the citizens further down ran for their lives. People avoided the church, which caught Indie’s eye, but as the stampede blocked her path, she couldn’t make much sense of it and resorted to stopping a fleeing citizen to question him.
–What is happening? Did you see where they went?– Indie asked in confusion but tried to force an answer out of the citizen as he held him in place. But since the people were too scared to stop running, the civilian resisted and broke free before continuing to run. Everyone completely ignored her and Kiwy, but on the contrary, Frost already took this as a sign of the enemy still being near. Instead of running to the church, he kept running down the road, and once he reached the market, he realized that Spook was truly gone, and he couldn’t even stress over it since there was another threat they had to face.
It only took them one glance at the gate to see that the city was under attack, as down at the bottom of the mountain, the streets were emptied, leaving only the rest of Crisis and the guards defending a cracked gate. It seemed like they were blocking it at first, but they were preparing for it to open to fight off the enemies behind since the gate had been punctured multiple times. On top of that, the omens began shooting through the cracks of the gate to scare off anyone that tried to approach, which made it harder for the guards to stay in place, but they appeared to have their hands busy with something else in the meantime.
The gate would inevitably break, so Tricky, Nitro, and Candy used the little time they had left before the enemy breached the city to execute Nitro’s plan. They were pushing the same float used in the Sunrise Festival out of the barn closest to the gate. It looked a bit different, a bit more sturdy and heavier, as all the flowers and decorations from the side had been swapped with metal sheets and scraps to reinforce its structure. The improvements meant it was significantly heavier than before, and it was clear they couldn’t move it by themselves, so they resorted to the ten guards left to help them push its wheels from inside, but even then, they struggled to move it.
–Why did you think this was a good idea?– Candy asked Nitro nervously as her arms could barely hold any more weight, getting tired soon like Tricky, who strained her arm from pulling the float towards the gate. They had already gotten it out of the barn, but they were only halfway to the gate and were running out of time, putting more pressure on Nitro, who stayed silent and tried to push harder.
–And why did you steal all of these things from my workshop, you thief?? I can’t believe you kept this hidden for so long!– Tricky exclaimed in frustration, trying to get a look at Nitro to vent all her anger, but he just looked away in embarrassment.
–I already said I was sorry! This isn’t the time to argue, just keep pulling!– Nitro replied anxiously before running to the other side to help Tricky pull using his back, which she imitated. But in the process of guiding the guards as they pushed the float into position, they turned around to see Frost, Indie, and Kiwy running to their aid. Frost was the first to approach, but Indie stayed next to the gate to begin shooting back at the omens trying to break in, though she could only slow them down a bit as the wall kept crumbling naturally.
–What is going on here?– Frost asked in bewilderment, stopping in front of his teammates to try to figure out what they were trying to accomplish. But before getting an answer, Candy peeked out of the float and immediately turned ecstatic at the mere sound of his voice. Without thinking it through, she let go of the float to run at him, putting more weight on her sister and Nitro’s back, as well as almost crushing the guards inside with her sudden movement.
–Finn! You are alive!– Candy squealed in joy as she tried to hug Frost, who stopped her right before she could wrap her arms around his shoulders, grabbing her by the forearms to keep his distance away, though that didn’t stop her from trying to nuzzle up to him.
–Where is the princess?– Frost asked with the same bitter but rational demeanor, staring closely at Candy to get a quick answer, which only made her turn slightly nervous.
–She is safe, I kept her safe… I did what you asked me, a-and I…– Candy replied haltingly, even turning timid the more she talked, and it was to the point that she tried to cover her face and seek comfort on Frost’s chest and arms, but he prevented it. Instead of hugging her, he dismissed her by gently pushing her to the side and quickly heading over to the float to help his teammates.
–Good… Now are you sure this is strong enough to block the gate? They will still climb it. We need more manpower– Frost replied concisely before turning to Tricky, who finally stopped insulting Nitro for a second to respond to his doubts.
–This is all we have! We just have to keep them away and pray they don’t break through…– Tricky replied anxiously, becoming jittery as she tried to hold on to the float. Now that Frost was lending his strength, she and Nitro were able to let go and take a small break to rest their arms, as he could seemingly carry as much as the ten guards, though that didn't stop the stress.
–No, that’s not the plan! We are going to blow them up with this thing– Nitro disputed as soon as he and Tricky let go, getting impatient but more excited than irritated to enforce his plan. But his statement only ended up confusing Tricky, Candy, and Frost, with the latter completely ignoring him to focus on pulling the float to the left side of the gate, right next to the guard tower.
–What are you even talking about?– Tricky asked with increasing annoyance and skepticism, but she only got a dismissive gesture from Nitro at first as he scoffed at her question for a brief moment before revealing the specifics of his plan.
–I filled this thing with explosives because I knew I wouldn’t get to use them, so we just have to blow this up at the bridge to stop them from coming…– Nitro confessed proudly and with an almost pompous tone, playing clever as he gave the float a few pats while Frost and guards placed it in front of the gate. But his confident attitude only appeared to irritate Tricky more, especially due to the little shame he showed for having stuffed the float with his explosives.
–Are you nuts? How are we going to do that?? We can’t just blow up the bridge!– Tricky yelled at him with rage and disbelief while Frost began thinking, having a hard time focusing with all the screaming, which prompted Nitro to do the same while his teammates watched.
–Well, if you have another idea, I would love to hear it!– Nitro retaliated with hostility after failing to think, but his response left Tricky speechless and unable to keep arguing, apart from a dubious look that started making him anxious.
–No? Then this is our only option, so shut up and follow the plan!– Nitro added bitterly, now turning slightly anxious as he tried to ignore Tricky’s worries to continue the plan. The latter was left insulted, but before he walked away, she tried to grab him, and that’s when Candy got in the way to prevent a fight between the two.
–Wait… We can’t push this thing fast enough. If we open those gates, we will be dead in seconds. Let’s just use it to block the gate and think of another plan, right?– Candy intervened after staying back and quiet for a while, but she was still hesitant to speak as she addressed Frost for the most part. He was able to maintain his composure and remain focused, but as Candy hoped for a sensible response from him, Frost only turned to her and the rest of the squad, and with the most resolute expression, he explicitly rejected her suggestion.
–No, we’ll just have to risk it…– Frost denied with a convinced, tenacious, but slightly tense tone, staring at the gate in distress, but he had already made his decision to face their enemy head-on. Nitro was elated to hear his support for his hazardous plan, but even he wasn’t fully convinced and became intrigued by how Frost would be able to make his plan come to fruition. Indie looked at him, and while Frost seemed to have a few other ideas to change their approach, he didn’t share them with the team and just prepared the float now that the guards had placed it in the middle of the gate. After turning around, Frost left the rest of Crisis waiting anxiously for him to come up with the next step and find out if they could make it out of their situation alive.
Similarly, Ace and Chappy were facing death as well, though it was more indirect, as they were relatively safe while Saint was being strangled to death. They gasped in horror as they could only watch their friend’s body become limp from Savage’s chokehold, who laughed with contempt as he felt his victim’s life draining in his arms. But Saint only remained still for a brief second, losing consciousness as both Scrap and Savage were caught off guard by the large structure above them collapsing.
The conveyor line was falling directly on top of them, forcing them to run away. But after leaving him on the ground, Saint suddenly regained his full strength, or at least enough to grab Savage’s leg and not only keep him in place but drag him back to prevent Scrap from crawling out of harm’s way. With both of them right underneath the falling beams and metal platform, Saint made sure not to end up like them by rolling to the side, barely dodging the collapse as the conveyor line brought everything down with it, including the railing and part of the shaft.
While not all of it crushed Scrap and Savage, they were trapped under the beams for a good while, and since they were still conscious, they immediately tried to squeeze out of their position to grab Saint, but he was already out of their reach. Taking advantage of the cloud of dust from the structure collapsing, Saint grabbed Savage’s shotgun and Scrap’s pickaxe before running straight at Ruin from behind. She was just turning around to see what all the commotion was about as her teammates warned her.
Ruin blocked the pickaxe, grabbing it from Saint’s hands, which she tried to use against, only to get smacked in the face by the shotgun since Saint didn’t know how to shoot it properly. She was only knocked out momentarily, but it didn’t matter because Saint had single-handedly defeated three out of the five members of the antipunk squad. He let go of the shotgun but held on to the pickaxe since it was the only one he could handle. And now that he was reunited with Chappy and Ace, they could easily fight off the twins blocking the door.
However, their opportunity was cut short when the gunfire resumed, and this time, they were shooting even more at the roof, using bows to reach further and hit their cover spots. The rookies couldn’t stay behind the low fans, and since more antipunks were coming through the broken conveyor line, this time armed with rifles, they could only run. The enemy began shooting through the smoke blindly, giving them some time to run, but Saint, Ace, and Chappy could only climb to the part of the furnace room that wasn’t destroyed, which was only a small portion next to one of the tall chimneys that was half blown off.
–What do we do? They have us pinned down!– Chappy exclaimed in panic as the three took cover behind the chimney, peeking out of the corner to see that the antipunks had taken over the roof. It seemed like they had freed Scrap and Savage, with the other members recovering quickly. Saint assessed the situation, though he struggled to come up with an idea since both Chappy and Ace started losing their composure. But the latter became more concerned by the sight of the Heartaches running away from the factory through the right side of the quarry, already reaching the first layer above ground to head for the mountains up north.
–Wait, are they already leaving without us??– Ace asked in shock, even offended as he saw Shade and Zoey leaving them behind, with Chappy turning to see the rest of the team escaping and almost fainting. But unlike them, Saint was actually relieved, and while it was a little daunting to be all alone, he was able to calm down.
–It’s okay, that’s what we wanted. We just need to find a way down here…– Saint responded in a genuinely satisfied manner, remaining optimistic, which did give his friends some reassurance, but at the cost of them losing all hope in themselves and getting out of their situation.
–And how do we do that? We’ll just have to hide here for the rest of our lives!– Ace asked in frustration before completely losing it and breaking into a sort of crying laughter. He tried his best to keep quiet to not alert the antipunks near them, but since they were already searching for them, they had already cornered them since they blocked the other side of the roof, guarding both sets of stairs as well as the conveyor line.
–Let’s knock this chimney over, that should do it…– Chappy suggested as he became hysteric as well, looking for options to escape hectically while running out of breath. But as Ace only ignored him at first, he had to step in when he noticed that Chappy was actually trying to push the broken chimney in hopes of knocking it over the roof to hit the antipunk army below.
–Did you lose your mind? We can’t do that!– Ace scolded Chappy with increasing frustration and dread of his own, opposing any options Chappy brought up. But while they argued, Saint put more thought into his ridiculous suggestion, and while he wasn’t too convinced, he called for their attention when he came to an enlightening realization.
–Wait, no… Actually... We might have to risk it. Just stay there…– Saint ordered with hesitation, which didn't inspire much hope, but he put more trust in his resourcefulness to act quickly on a new escape plan. Ace and Chappy were left dumbfounded and watched as he thought of a new plan on the spot, but their worries quickly came back when they saw what he was up to.
Taking a peek at the enemies on the roof, Saint noticed that more and more were coming through the conveyor line. But after looking down at the quarry, it looked like the antipunks were rushing inside from the front and left sides, so the team had successfully kept them away from the right side of the factory. With all of their forces gathering very close to them, it would be harder to get down and make a run for it, but if they managed to get away from them, they would only have to worry about the heavy artillery far behind. Those stood out the most, as the catapults and ballistae were very limited and reserved their ammo carefully as they had stopped shooting for a while by now. But as they were still capable of attacking them from long range, it gave Saint an idea to use them in their favor.
The heavy artillery just so happened to be aiming at the roof since they had already torn down everything in their direct line of sight. They were idle, waiting for a target to show up, so Saint began trying to get their attention by stepping out of cover and standing right in front of the chimney, facing the antipunk army below. Ace and Chappy tried to stop him, but before being able to grab him, he was already out in the open, fully exposed, and letting himself become the target of all the antipunks on the roof. With nothing to do, Ace and Chappy stayed covered but were then startled when Saint began slamming the pickaxe into the metal of the chimney, making a loud, distinct noise that caught everyone’s attention.
–What is he doing?– Chappy asked with fright and concern, but he didn’t get an answer from Ace as they both jumped from the noise of the bullets being fired in their proximity. The antipunks on the roof opened fire on Saint, who kept yelling louder as he continued hitting the chimney with the pickaxe. His screams led Ace and Chappy to expect the worst when they peeked out, but to their surprise, his friend hadn’t been gunned down yet.
To their surprise, Saint returned to their cover spot after he had just left the pickaxe hanging on the chimney to give them something to shoot at. He had already chipped away a good chunk off the chimney, but it wasn’t near enough to puncture it fully, only to create a dent. But as the enemy couldn’t see their target very well, they kept firing until they eliminated any threat, shooting holes through the chimney and dealing more damage, though it also forced the rookies to move from their spot.
Unaware of what they were shooting, the antipunks on the ground eventually noticed that the ones on the roof were focusing their fire on their chimney, and without questioning it, the rest decided to join in and help out. Even Panda noticed that the enemy was now trying to shoot down the chimney above the furnace room as he stayed next to the shutters, waiting for the fire to settle down. A lot of the attention was drawn away from him and Cookie, but with more antipunks charging into the building, he only worried more as the chances of the rookies returning became slim.
–I WON’T SURRENDER!! YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!– Saint yelled at the top of his lungs while Ace and Chappy continued to panic at the fact that he was giving away their location. But with them lying prone on the ground, trying to stay closest to it to avoid all the bullets flying right above them, Ace and Chappy stayed behind Saint and eventually realized what his plan was. They began screaming with him, even getting some enjoyment out of it as they continued being shot at without taking any damage. They cracked a few nervous laughs but used all their energy to keep screaming like they were about to die, which convinced the enemy of their desperation.
But while they stayed safe behind the chimney, they soon had nothing to cover behind, and with the antipunks nearby now trying to climb up to their position, their laughs turned nervous, and their screams didn’t appear to be faked anymore. All of the attention they had garnered led to the antipunks concentrating all of their firepower on shooting at the chimney, including the artillery. The soldiers controlling the catapults kept aiming at the roof, but they couldn’t shoot since their teammates were there; the same was the case with the ballistae, until one of them lost their patience after seeing everyone struggling to kill their enemies when they were right there.
To end their pesky problem, one of the ballistae disobeyed the rules and shot a bolt directly at the chimney, hitting the side, right next to where the rookies were hiding, as well as a few feet away from Trash as they were about to attack. And while the bolt didn’t hit anyone, it went straight through the chimney, perforating the metal structure and causing enough damage for it to slowly collapse to the side. The chimney caved in so quickly that all the antipunks lined up to surround the rookies couldn't run away once it began falling right on top of the roof.
–WATCH OUT!– one of the twins shouted moments before he and his teammates were crushed by the tall chimney falling diagonally towards the collapsed conveyor line, creating a trap for the enemy that they couldn’t escape. The only way out was below, so they were forced to jump off the roof to save their lives and not get crushed, though they ended up landing on top of their own teammates. Trash retreated as soon as they landed, but the rest of their army wasn’t too lucky.
The antipunks scattered, all while Saint, Ace, and Chappy watched from a safe distance as another big cloud of dust allowed them to run away unscathed. They didn’t hesitate to hop on the fallen chimney and run through it, even though Chappy almost slipped and had to be grabbed by Ace. But as they ran past the antipunks on the roof while they were dazed, with most of them dead, the rookies reached the other side where they came from, which had now become a big pile of rubble mixed with antipunk corpses.
They did have to cross the destroyed conveyor line, where they found a few remaining soldiers that he had to take out, but it wasn’t an issue since they were disoriented. With everyone else trying to get out of the roof, Saint led his friends to the stairs, and they were allowed to walk freely to their exit, going downstairs to reach the diner directly. But just as they joined Cookie and Panda, they found out that they had walked into another seemingly unescapable situation.