The Arcane Guardians Chapter 68: Chapter 63: The Mad Badger

Read chapter 68 of The Arcane Guardians by Mercynarie on NovelPedia.

The man— No, creature— took his time to come out from his cell as if he had merely woken up from his afternoon nap. He obviously wasn’t going for a surprise attack, but Felix’s breath caught anyway. A tall spindly figure with overly stretched limbs. Facial features that were barely recognisable with black scales covering them. Golden light poked out where the eyes were supposed to be. Every fibre of Felix’s being screamed in horror and recognition. Gaius Matthiou was an Unending… somehow. “Oh, gods. Not again…” Marcia whimpered from Felix’s side. The deranged man grinned at Felix like a rabid ape about to gouge its victim’s eyes out. Felix motioned Marcia to get behind him. “Well, at least we got him out,” he blurted stupidly. “And he isn’t angry.” “Truly?” Marcia asked incredulously, physically stopping her body from trembling further. “Yeah, he’s just hungry. He wants to eat our souls.” “ That’s not any better! ” The siblings inched back slowly as though trying to calm down a wild tiger, but Gaius only continued prancing towards them like a predator intent on playing with its food. Felix’s mouth went dry as he detected a hint of playfulness in Gaius’ twisted mind. Oh gods, he’s dragging this out on purpose. It took Felix a few moments more to realise that Kleopatra’s staff was still glowing with magic. It took Marcia the next to figure out what just happened. “Fuck, that damn witch must’ve remotely deactivated the gaol security to get us killed,” she whispered from behind him. “Should’ve known the government had already transferred command to her staff when she came to us. We sprung her trap.” “Figured. It’ll be easier for her to manage the prison if there are hardly any inmates left too.” Felix tossed the staff onto the floor, and Gaius seemed to disappear in a flash. The psychic leaned back, barely dodging the man lunging towards him. He flung his hand to the side and sent Gaius crashing through the door out of the hallway instead. Commotion burst from outside. Felix and Marcia ran out, gawking at the chaos in front of them. Almost the entire prison was rioting; every prisoner was engaged in some sort of sick battle royale with their fists and makeshift weapons. The magic-nullifying collars on their necks were still active, but the guards had long fled from their posts. Felix's eyes darted around. There was no time to hesitate; he still needed to get one of the Solstices embedded within Gaius’ body. He closed his eyes, focusing his much finer psychic senses instead. It finally locked onto his quarry, who was already covered in blood. Gaius charged towards his next target with a flying kick, which was promptly caught with ease. A sickening crack filled the air as the inmate slammed his heel onto his thigh, snapping it by the hip joint. Normally, that would’ve been enough to incapacitate a regular person. But Gaius was far from normal, and in the worst way possible. Gaius laughed hysterically as though the pain merely tickled him before a fist collided with his mouth. Muffled sounds of giggling mixed with the sounds of bone crunching as the particularly skilled prisoner rained down a flurry of blows on his face. The punching abruptly stopped as the prisoner was sent flying forward from a kick to his buttocks. He rolled to his feet quickly and leapt up, aiming a knee straight at The Mad Badger’s chin. Gaius caught it with ease and pushed it back down, but the martial arts expert was not quite finished yet. He climbed on his opponent’s body immediately, preparing to slam an elbow into his skull. He was flung to the side instead. His feet whipped towards his opponent’s head less than a second later. His thigh was struck instead. Aggression possessed his gaze as he moved faster and began to unleash a full martial arts combo on the crazed man. Only to find his every move parried and dodged with ease now. Blood splattered from his throat as a sharpened edge found its way through the back of his neck. Gaius continued laughing and p