4-18. The Warden's Domain
“Don’t struggle,” growled Waldo, unbuckling his belt. “You want your parents freed, don’t you?”
The girl shrank against the wall – as if he was some sort of despicable monster. After everything he’d done for her, she had the audacity to look at him like he was beneath her? The girl – he didn’t even remember her name – was the daughter of one of the prisoners outside. If he remembered correctly, they had been executed a few days before – but that didn’t matter. The girl didn’t know, which was all that was important.
He stepped forward, intending to grab her by the hair and show her precisely who was in charge. She needed to be put back in her place. She needed to understand who she was dealing with.
So many people regarded the apocalypse as some terrible calamity that had befallen humanity. But Waldo McArthur wasn’t one of them. Before, he’d been a powerless security guard. A loser who couldn’t even be trusted to carry a gun on the job. Now, though? He was a man of consequence and power. He was important. The king himself had said so, and his word was law.
Everywhere but in Waldo’s prison, at least. In there, he was the Warden. It was his domain, which meant that, in that expansive facility, even the king couldn’t rival his authority. Which made the little slip of a girl – barely more than sixteen years old – and her revulsion so much more irritating.
But that was fine.
He would show her.
He would show them all.
Or that was the plan right up until a monster out of nightmares erupted out of the shadows, burying its claws in his shoulder and aiming a horrifyingly swift bite at Waldo’s head.
He shifted far more quickly than a man of his size should’ve been capable of moving, narrowly avoiding the creature’s razor-sharp teeth as they snapped shut with the force of finality. Only then did Waldo remember that, in the prison, his authority was absolute.
After all, he was the Warden. The Divine System had given him that class, and he’d used it as it was intended to be used. Utilizing Strength of the Jailer, he wrapped his meaty hands around the monster, then levered it free. It left more than a few wounds behind, but he had potions for that. Ignoring his blood-soaked shirt, he heaved the monster across the room.
It hit with bone-crunching force, collapsing to the ground a second later.
Waldo advanced, intending to finish the creature off. But then, it shifted, transforming before his very eyes. The thing’s scales melted away, and its body morphed into the last thing he expected.
“You’re human?” he muttered. Then, as a short, bearded man with blonde hair pushed himself to his feet, Waldo grinned. “You’re human.”
“Good eye, asshole,” the man growled, ethera swirling all around him.
That would not do at all.
Waldo used Warden’s Shackles:
| Warden’s Shackles
| Create an affliction that rapidly drains a prisoner’s store of ethera. Only usable inside the Warden’s jail. Rate of drain based on caster’s level, Core cultivation, and Ethera attribute.
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