civilwarnovels Chapter 4632 Desperate Escape (4)
Chapter 4632 Desperate Escape (4)
Chapter 4632 A Deadly Escape (Part 4)
The faint, flickering firelight by the door cast an ochre glow that shifted between light and shadow throughout the room. The profile of the man leaning against the wall, his head bowed, was reminiscent of a mountain peak in the final moments of sunset, illuminated by the firelight. His straight, sharp eyelashes fluttered slightly. The instant he opened his eyes was like a storm raging in the room.
He regained consciousness, looked up again, and then let out a soft inhale. He turned his head to look at his right collarbone.
He coughed lightly twice, tilted his head back, and pressed it tightly against the wall. He reached out and fiddled with the chain on his collarbone ring. A sharp pain shot through his right shoulder; every branch of his dense nerves screamed, but he only blinked.
After a while, as if remembering something, he suddenly smiled. He turned his head and looked up at the other side of the bed, then turned his face back to look at the firelight. Then, he felt his way up the iron chain and traced the general outline of the collarbone ring with his fingers.
Without a doubt, this is a torture device, not a decorative item used to express individuality in some punk culture. The metal ring, about two fingers wide, is completely sealed and fits tightly against the collarbone without any gaps. It is absolutely impossible to pry the ring open by any means. The chain and the metal clasp are cast in one piece without any gaps, and are equally impossible to open.
Touching the edge where the collarbone ring met the skin, his fingers didn't stop exploring. Instead, they continued inward, applying pressure towards the upper joint, causing his body to shudder violently. His fingertips had pierced the wound.
Move inwards and downwards until you reach the back of the collarbone ring, then explore to the other side to find the metal ring embedded in the bone. Because the collarbone gradually rises from the inside out, the edge of the ring near the shoulder wears a groove into the collarbone, which happens to be the narrowest part of the collarbone.
The moment he pulled his finger out, his body trembled again. He wiped the blood from under his clothes, clenched his fist, pressed his index finger against the lower edge of his collarbone, and inserted his thumb into the wound, feeling his way inward until he found the groove on the outer side of the collarbone ring where it had been worn down.
Extend your index finger forward, pressing it against the outside of your collarbone. Insert your thumbnail into the groove and pull it upwards forcefully.
"Uh!!!!!! Um..."
Sweat dripped from his forehead, and then his whole body felt soaked. After the opening was widened further, he changed his position, inserted his fingers into the wound below, used the muscles in his right arm to lock his shoulder, and used his left hand to pull upwards along the groove.
click!
The bone was cracked, but not horizontally; it was diagonally cracked inward from the groove. This is the case for most fractures. He had to reach in again, pinch the collarbone on the side with the clasp, and pull it outward little by little until the diagonal crack became larger, and then bend it downward.
"Well!!!!!!"
Click.
The two vertebrae of his collarbone were finally completely dislocated. Blood and bone fragments flowed from the widened wound. He tried to push the buckle with his hand, but couldn't budge it, so he continued to exert force until the two vertebrae of his collarbone were completely separated. He used his fingernails to wedge the bottom of the buckle and pushed it sharply to one side of his shoulder.
Click! Clang!
The clasp finally came off, and the chain slammed against the wall. He sat there panting, and after a long while, with trembling hands, he pushed his collarbone back in, and could even barely lift his right arm.
He then used his unaffected hand to support himself as he stood up, inspected the bed frame, and looked under the bed. After spotting the pull rod under the bed, his eyes fell on the bed leg. He crouched down to examine it carefully, found the key and the notch, and then kicked the bed leg hard with his foot.
Bang! Bang... Bang!
Click!
Whoosh—!!!
Muddy water gushed out. Soon, faint breathing sounds came from the opposite room, followed by loud cursing.
"What the hell is going on! Why am I in the water?! Anatoly! Anatoly! Where are you?"
“I’m next door.” Anatoly’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He wiped the sweat from his brow with the hem of his shirt, then walked over and squatted down to examine the wall. His index finger quickly touched the loose brick. After standing up, he kicked it twice. With a bang, the brick flew away.
"Ouch!" Lucifer screamed, "What are you doing!"
“Get out of the way,” Anatoly said.
"I can't get away!" Lucifer tugged hard on the chain. "I'm chained. There's a lock here, do you have the key...?"
Clang! Anatoly threw the key through the gap.
Lucifer fumbled to unlock the chain. Anatoly peered through the gap, but then noticed the crowbar beside Lucifer.
“Give me that thing.” Anatoly pointed to the crowbar.
Lucifer seemed to have just noticed the crowbar, picked it up with some surprise, examined it, and then said, "So I should have used this to save myself? But I didn't even see it..."
“Give it to me first,” Anatoly emphasized.
Lucifer pushed the crowbar through the gap. Anatoly hooked the hook of the crowbar onto a brick, then pried it off with a sharp pull. Then came the second, the third…
“Wait,” Lucifer shouted, “you’re not going to tear this wall down, are you?”
“I checked, this isn’t a load-bearing wall,” Anatoly said. “Stay away, or you’ll get hit.”
Lucifer opened his mouth, clearly wanting to say something, but then, with a bang, another brick flew over. He nimbly ran to the corner opposite the room.
Anatoli didn't pry bricks off with brute force; he used technique. He first positioned the crowbar correctly, then used leverage to bring the brick down. While it might seem more complicated than simply smashing, it was actually very efficient. Even in the gaps between uncorroded bricks, as long as the crowbar could get in, it could be pried off.
It was clear that Anatoly was extremely skilled with the crowbar, even to the point of being a master. Lucifer couldn't help but ask, "How do you know how to do this?"
“Because I can’t just conjure up a house out of thin air,” Anatoly said as he worked. “Building a house requires bricks, and new bricks are expensive, so when you move, you have to dismantle the old house completely and take it with you, including the walls and stairs.”
“Oh,” Lucifer could only say. “Well, I didn’t expect you to do this. I’ve never seen you do this kind of work before.”
“Ha.” Anatoly chuckled. “How do you think I escaped from the dungeons of the lava mountain? By chanting magic?”
Lucifer wasn't familiar with the place name, but the mention of dungeons reminded him of a time when he sent men to hunt down Anatoly and the Soviet squad in Hell. It seemed to be a Balrog force under Azazel who had cornered them in a dungeon. However, they eventually escaped.
When he first heard the news, he just cursed Azazel for being useless. But by then he had already failed multiple times and didn't really want to think about how those guys got away.
"So you dug it out?" Lucifer asked.
“That’s right.” The bricks that Anatoli had pried off were scattered all over the ground, and the hole had been widened to the size of half a person.
“But it’s very hot there, and there’s lava,” Lucifer said after thinking for a moment. “Didn’t you dig up any lava?”
“Almost. There was one time when lava did flow out of the tunnel, but we quickly blocked it. After that, we learned to identify where the lava was and wouldn't dig in that direction.”
“That’s amazing,” Lucifer exclaimed. “That’s an ancient dungeon. I bet even Azazel has ever been inside. If he had, he probably would have gotten lost.”
Bang! Another brick was pried off. Anatoly stepped back a little, assessed the size of the opening, and ducked inside. The opening was just big enough for one person to pass through.
Anatoly froze the moment he saw Lucifer after crawling through.
"How come you have wings???"
Lucifer flapped his wings: "How could I not have wings? I'm an angel."
“I know, but this instance doesn’t restrict abilities…”
“Yes, I can’t use my superpowers anymore,” Lucifer said. “But my wings are my organs, just like your heart and lungs; they were there when you were created. You can’t just enter the game without your heart, can you?”
"I thought everyone would be confined to human form."
"Then how do those animal-shaped superheroes get in?"
Anatoly was speechless.
Lucifer explained, “The copy that restricts abilities doesn’t force everyone into human form. That would make it impossible for other races to exist. To be precise, it turns them back into their most primordial form. If they were cats, they’ll be cats; if they were dogs, they’ll be dogs; if they were angels, they’ll be angels. Of course, Bruce is an exception; his wings weren’t originally his.”
"But you can't fly."
“Yes, because I didn’t fly with wings,” Lucifer said. “When God created angels, He gave them wings, but not so that they could fly. Wings are just for decoration. We fly with superpowers. Without superpowers, we can’t fly.”
"Why didn't I turn you back into the first ray of light?"
“Mystical entities are not allowed in the restricted-ability instance,” Lucifer said. “If a mystical entity wants to participate, it must sign a consent form to participate in the game in a realistic form that is closest to its original form. That is my realistic form.”
Anatoly sighed softly, waved to him, and said, "Move aside, let me see if there are any clues here."
Lucifer nodded, and just as he was about to step back, he sniffed lightly: "There's a smell of blood. Are you injured?"
“I was just tied to the wall too,” Anatoly said briefly. He quickly spotted the drain in the ceiling, reached out with his crowbar, and found it difficult to insert the crowbar all the way into the drain. So he went over and picked up a brick.
He waved to Lucifer, signaling him to step back, and then threw the brick upwards with all his might.
boom!
Clang!
The brick and the key fell down together. Anatoly stepped forward and picked up the key, but Lucifer kept staring at his barely moving right arm.
"You injured your arm?" Lucifer asked. "How did you get hurt?"
“It’s broken,” Anatoly said. He took the key, went to the door, and tried it. It opened, and he stood there for a moment, then exclaimed in realization, “So the normal procedure doesn’t require breaking the collarbone?”
"What?" Lucifer didn't quite understand what he was saying.
By this time, Anatoly had already stepped outside and found himself in a closed corridor with a large door that needed to be opened. So he went back into the room he had been in.
Lucifer went in as well, and subconsciously began to observe the things in the room. Then, when he saw the blood-stained collarbone ring, the feathers on his wings bristled.