Chapter 23 - I spy...an ensnarement!
Scarlett felt something in her shoulder break as she hit the floor, pain shooting through her arm and sending a jolt throughout her body. Kat covered her body with her own as something flew into the carriage and collided with one of the walls with a loud crack at the same time as the carriage shook. From outside Scarlett heard the driver's yell as well as the agitated sounds of the horse. Then there was a moment of quiet as she listened to Kat's slow breaths before suddenly, everything moved.
Both she and Kat were thrown around as the whole carriage tipped on its side and slammed heavily into the ground. Scarlett landed relatively softly on the Shielder, but the impact still caused her to lose her breath as it sent another burst of sharp pain through her left shoulder. She felt Kat trying to get up from their current position lodged into one of the corners of the vehicle and slowly moved to let the woman free. The faint shimmering that Scarlett had come to associate with magical defenses such as [Mana Barrier] surrounded Kat as she stood up in the overturned carriage, looking up at the window where something had just bolted through. Her eyes then turned towards Scarlett. "I'm going out there," she said with a serious face. "Just stay here until I say it's safe. Alright?"
She didn't wait for Scarlett's response before jumping up and grabbing onto the window sill, smoothly pulling herself through it in one quick movement. Scarlett saw Kat jerk back as if something struck her, but the woman shrugged it off and soon disappeared from Scarlett's sight. Immediately after, explosions rang out from outside, followed by sounds as if the ground was torn apart. It seemed Kat had already gotten to work.
Scarlett closed her eyes for a moment to regain composure. Even with the effects of the original's traits helping her maintain her cool, her heart was still beating like crazy. And the pain in her shoulder was getting worse. Taking a few deep breaths, she tried to focus. This situation was so far removed from anything she'd ever had to deal with, but that applied to her entire life right now. Things like this are what she had been preparing for. Though it did perhaps say something about the original's personality that the first time she truly felt as if she wasn't in control was in a real dangerous situation. But she couldn't just lie here and waste time.
On unsteady legs, she used her right arm to stand up best she could. The sounds from the outside were raging on, and she heard a man's scream. Hopefully that hadn't been the driver.
She scrunched up her nose. Something smelled. Was that smoke? Her eyes scanned around the inner compartment of the carriage for the origin of the scent, but she couldn't find anything. Stumbling forward to the other end of the compartment, she leaned her back against the soft material of the carriage's seat. She tried to listen, shutting out the cacophony from the outside for a moment. There was a fire somewhere. She heard the low crackling from the back of the vehicle. And now that she knew where to look, she noticed small trails of smoke that were starting to find their way through the wooden boards next to her.
Crap. Could her [Pyrokinesis] and [Minor Hydrokinesis] deal with the fire once it reached her? Probably not. And by that point, the whole compartment might be filled with smoke. She had to get out of here.
She looked up towards the carriage door and the window that opened up into a wide blue sky from her point of view. The other side of the carriage was blocked, so that was her only way out. There was no way of knowing how long it would take Kat to finish the attackers, so waiting wasn't a good option. The window wasn't that much higher than her so she could probably jump to grab its edge like Kat had. But she wasn't strong enough to pull herself with just one arm.
Glancing around the space again, Scarlett's eyes stopped on the pouch of holding that had landed in a corner. She'd had it next to her while they traveled so it must have been knocked there during all the disarray. She moved over and bent down next to it. Using her right hand, she stiffly untied the rope that sealed the black bag's opening and reached inside. First, she brought out the [Wand of Fireball] and tucked it into her belt. She'd avoided bringing any fancy dresses on this trip and currently only wore the same clothes she'd worn when she first met Kat. After the wand, she brought out the rope she and Kat had used to descend into the Isolated Hollow back in Ambercrest, followed by a hook she'd made sure to buy along with the rope, though they hadn't actually had use for the hook itself before now. Occasionally throwing a glance upward to check for any danger, she set to work tying the end of the rope onto the hook. It was hard work doing it with only one working hand, and the carriage was slowly filling with more smoke the more time passed, but by making use of her feet and legs—in a manner that was decidedly unladylike, but which thankfully didn't seem to bother her much, perhaps thanks to the current circumstances—she soon had herself a means for getting out of here.
Standing up again, she had the pouch of holding tied to her side with the rope held in her hand. She then lobbed the hook up through the window and outside, then tugged at the rope. It seemed to have caught hold of an edge somewhere, just as she'd wanted. She moved so that she was right beneath the window and firmly tied the rope around her waist and rolled up part of the rope around her hand. Then she planted her foot on the carriage floor—which was now the wall—and slowly began making her way up by using the rope as a handhold like a mountain climber. It was incredibly tiring with just one arm—especially as her muscles were still a bit sore from all the climbing she did in Ambercrest—but before long she managed to make it up to the window. Peeking through it, she witnessed the disorder outside.
The dirt road was only about five meters wide and surrounded by forest on both sides, but all along the strip of road closest to the carriage there jutted out several person-sized walls of stone in an uneven pattern around the vehicle. Although most of them seemed to have been damaged in some way. About twenty meters back stood Kat, leaning out behind the cover of another stone wall to fire a spell of several flaming daggers towards a group of black-clothed individuals in robes with hoods. Every single one of their faces was covered by a golden mask. Judging from the ground between them and Kat, the woman had done a lot to force them back there. They didn't seem to have any problem dodging her latest spell though, some of them moving in behind the trees. It appeared as if Kat had already dealt with two of the assailants, however, as two motionless figures were lying on the ground close to her.
Scarlett couldn't really hold herself in this position for long so she was forced to climb out through the window—accidentally knocking her shoulder into its frame in the process which caused her to clench her teeth in pain—and stand on her knees on top of the toppled carriage.