I rapidly gathered the heavy scuba suit and the pressurized oxygen tank into my arms. I didn't waste precious seconds trying to pull the gear over my prison uniform right then and there… my auditory senses had just picked up the rapid, heavy thud of multiple armored boots sprinting down the stone hallway, heading directly toward the armory.
"More flies to the slaughter," I thought, a cold, nonchalant smirk playing on my lips.
I needed to secure the threshold immediately to protect my escape gear. Moving with agility, I sliced my palm open once more, letting a large cluster of rich, primordial fluid gather in my hand. Channeling my Blood Manipulation magic, I compressed the fluid into a volatile, unstable Blood Bomb and hurled it straight at the center of the doorway just as the shadow of the vanguard appeared.
"He's in the armory! Fire… !"
Before the lead knight could even finish his command, a squad of 10 heavily armed reinforcements rounded the corner and blindly loosed a desperate volley of steel-tipped arrows into the room.
BOOM!
The blood bomb detonated precisely at the doorstep. Just like the tactical distraction in the hallway, the kinetic blast dealt zero physical damage, but it unleashed a violent, high-pressure spray of thick, opaque crimson fluid. The heavy smear completely coated the visors and faces of all 10 incoming knights, entirely blinding them and disrupting their senses in an instant.
Sensing the perfect window of execution, I let the scuba gear drop safely behind a weapon rack. I bared my fangs, drew fresh essence from both hands, and manifested my twin, razor-sharp Blood Swords.
I glided into the blinded formation like a phantom.
SLASH. SLICE. SNAP.
My blades moved in a flawless, hypnotic dance of death, carving through their exposed neck guards and chest plates with clinical precision. Within seconds, all 10 elite guards collapsed into a messy, overlapping pile of dead flesh on the armory floor.
I wasn't about to leave such a massive banquet of high-stat life force behind. Standing over the pile of corpses, I raised my right hand and activated Blood Siphoning. My palm instantly turned into a high-powered vacuum cleaner for blood.
[Blood Siphon Activated Extraction Completed consumed 27 liters of blood]
Ropes of rich, dark crimson tore out from the knights' wounds, arching through the air and seeping directly through my skin to recharge my internal core. Within thirty seconds, all 10 bodies were reduced to pale, dried-out mummified husks, keeping my Blood to Mana Conversion peaking at an absolute 100% maximum.
WREEEEEE-BOOOOOM! WREEEEEE-BOOOOOM!
The crimson emergency alarms grew deafeningly loud. I could hear the distant, echoing commands of the facility's high commanders mobilizing entire battalions to barricade the main sectors. The Citadel was locking down completely, and the lower decks would soon be flooded with endless waves of high-stat reinforcements.
I scooped up my tactical scuba suit and oxygen tank, slung them tightly over my shoulder, and burst out of the blood-splattered armory. Moving like a streak of dark lightning, I sprinted down the final corridor, heading straight toward the first-floor exit that led out to the rocky, wave-battered island coast. It was time to plant the final catalyst, dive into the freezing depths, and blow this hellhole to pieces.
I bolted through the shattered first-floor exit, the freezing night air hitting my face as I surged out onto the craggy, wave-battered exterior of the Citadel. Moving with my unsealed agility, I cut a direct path toward the base of the fourth watchtower. This specific sector was defined by two massive prison landmarks: the heavy iron alarm bell to the left, and the sprawling, mud-slicked training grounds to the right.
The moment my orange jumpsuit crossed into the open perimeter, the automated defense arrays atop the watchtower whirred to life.
HUMMMMMM… BOOM!
The high-stat defensive mages channeled their pristine Light Magic, unleashing brilliant, searing beams of concentrated illumination directly down at me. They expected the radiant energy to disintegrate an intruder, but my master-level calculations were flawless. As a primordial vampire, standard Light Magic does absolutely nothing to my biological matrix… only the natural, celestial ultraviolet rays of actual sunlight can scorch my flesh. The blinding beams merely washed over my skin like warm water.
However, the spotlight perfectly illuminated my position for the archers stationed on the ramparts.
THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!
A volley of heavy, steel-tipped ballista arrows rained down from the sky. I dodged the majority of the trajectory lines, but a single, high-velocity arrow sliced through the air and embedded itself deeply into my shoulder.
SPLAT.
A sharp jolt of agony flared through my host body, but I didn't even slow my sprint. I instantly activated Pain Manipulation, a specialized auxiliary trait that allowed me to completely isolate my nervous system. With a mental flick, I muted the pain receptors entirely, reducing the traumatic injury to a minor, numb sensation.
I skidded across the muddy training grounds, arriving precisely at the primary structural fault line where I had covertly planted my ultimate escape catalyst: a massive payload of high-explosive industrial dynamite, deeply imbued and synchronized with my own volatile, primordial blood essence.
I stood at the epicenter of the fortress, my dark bangs whipping wildly in the ocean gale as the entire garrison closed in on my position. I raised my hand, a dark, triumphant grin cutting through the flashing red emergency lights.
Snap.
The friction of my fingers ignited the arcane blood resonance.
CRAAAAAAAA-BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The blood-imbued dynamite detonated with cataclysmic, world-ending force. A colossal pillar of deep crimson fire and shockwaves erupted from the base of the fourth watchtower, instantly tearing through the reinforced stone foundations, shattering the massive iron bell, and causing the entire western wall of the Citadel to violently collapse into the churning ocean below. The grand jailbreak had officially reached its explosive climax.
"Hey! The prisoner is escaping! He's at the edge… he's about to dive!" a high-stat sentry screamed from the crumbling battlements, his voice barely carrying over the roaring fires of the collapsing fourth watchtower.
"Loose arrows! Don't let him hit the water!" another voice bellowed through the smoke.
THWIP-THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!
A desperate, final volley of steel-tipped arrows cut through the crimson-lit night air, hissing past my ears and slicing into the rock around me as the garrison tried to pin me to the cliffside.
But their reactions were far too slow to match my mastermind calculations.
Clutching the tactical scuba gear tightly against my chest, I didn't give them another fraction of a second to adjust their aim. I launched myself off the jagged, burning precipice of the Citadel, leaving the screaming convicts, the mummified guards, and the collapsing fortress far behind me.
I plunged headfirst into the freezing, pitch-black ocean waves below, the dark water swallowing my silhouette instantly. The second I submerged, I was completely off their surface radar, diving deep into the abyss to equip my gear and begin the silent, underwater navigation through the sharks and the city's hidden sewage veins. I was officially out of their cage.