Luffy and Ludo's Arc

Chapter 6 of 11

The six guards rose fast, spears scraping off the low table. Luffy and Ludo stood in the open doorway with nothing behind them but the empty hall. No cover. No time. The nearest warrior lunged, and Luffy twisted aside just as the spear tip nicked the doorframe. Ludo grabbed the door's edge. "Inside," he hissed. "Not the hall." It made no sense to Luffy, but the twins never doubted each other. Both cats sprang into the guard post itself, past the swinging spears, in among the dogs. Close quarters killed the spears' reach. The warriors could not aim long weapons at enemies pressed to their chests. Luffy flowed under a jabbing shaft and drove a heel into a guard's knee. The dog buckled. Ludo flipped the low table on its side and shoved it into two more, pinning their legs against the wall. Max hung at the threshold, frozen, gray fur puffed with fear. "Max, the far door!" Ludo shouted. "Open it! Give us a way out!" Max swallowed and ran for the second red door beyond the table. He wrenched the handle. "Locked!" "Key!" Ludo tossed the gold key across the room. Max caught it against his chest with both paws. A guard broke from the tangle and swung a fist at Luffy's head. Luffy ducked, then rammed a shoulder into the dog's gut and sent him crashing into the table pile. Max jammed the key into the far lock. It turned. The door opened onto a narrow stair, dark and empty. "Here! It goes down!" The twins backed toward him, staying tight together, keeping the wrecked table between themselves and the guards. Two warriors had regained their feet. One grabbed a fallen spear. Luffy threw his last pick. It bit into the dog's paw, and the spear clattered down. "Go, go!" Ludo pushed Max through the doorway. The three tumbled onto the stair. Ludo hauled the door shut and turned the key hard. On the far side, fists pounded the wood. Muffled barks rose. The lock held. They stood in the dark, chests heaving. A single lamp flickered somewhere below. Max pressed the gold key back into Ludo's paw. His hand shook. "You saved us again. I don't deserve to run with you. I miscounted. I nearly got us killed." Luffy gripped his shoulder. Ludo studied the stair falling away beneath them. "You didn't. That fight taught us something. The scroll room isn't up here at all." He pointed down. "Those guards protect a stair to a lower keep. Nobody guards a broom closet like that." Max lifted his head. "Below. Then we count doors from the bottom." But the pounding behind them changed. Wood splintered. A hinge screamed and gave way. The guards were breaking through, and now the whole fortress knew exactly which stair the thieves had taken.