Massacre-1

It was a fine evening for Ben, he was going home after having a wonderful trip. The best part about the trip was that he didn't spend a single penny, and he was able to have a wonderful time as well. He drank a lot, gambled with some money that he borrowed from a friend, and was able to win it all back.

The best thing about this evening was the weather, there was a distinct smell of rain in the air, a cold breeze was brushing his hair as he traveled through a pathway surrounded by trees, and he had sneaked a little bottle of wine to the cart. This was the perfect evening for him.

I should probably look for an inn to stay, the sun is about to go down. I have some coins now, so maybe I should look for an inn that has a young wench who could do things for me, he giggled like the little girl from his thoughts.

It was then his train of thought was disturbed when he started hearing a noise from behind. He turned around to see a very bizarre scene. His friend was shaking wildly while he was sleeping.

Is he having a nightmare? Looking at the shaking figure of Adui, he wondered. He was tempted to wake him up, shaking like this was not normal, at least not amongst common folk like him. But he wasn't sure about mana wielders.

He knows that mana wielders have a different physiology than normal folk like him. While working as a carriage driver for Gizelle, he once saw a knight whose skin was deep blue like the ocean, Adui told him that this was the result of some sort of blood magic, even with the peculiar features no one minded the blue skin of the man, everyone acted as if this was perfectly normal.

Even Adui acted as if blue skin is a common feature.

Wait! This is different, there is no way that this is similar to having blue skin. He must be having a fucking seizure. I must save him!

Ben decided to stop the carriage by the side of the road and stop, but before he could do that, something heavy landed in the path of the carriage.

BOOM

The horses got scared by the sudden noise, he had to pull their reins pretty hard to make them calm down. As the dust settled down, he saw a giant piece of wooden log lying in their path, the most disturbing part was that the log was shaved from both ends, someone deliberately did this to block the road.

Before he could complete connecting the dots in his mind, he heard yells and screams from all around him. A bunch of people that were hiding in the woods came running toward him, one of them grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him down from the carriage.

People that surrounded him didn't waste a moment, as soon as Ben's body touched the ground, they started beating him. It is only after receiving 3-4 blows from a club and two kicks on his stomach did they stop. Finally, one of the men grabbed him by his hair and dragged him to the side of the road, and presented him to their leader.

The leader of the bandit group was a fat man, his belly looked as if he was pregnant with twins, and with his greasy hair and big smug smile, he looked as Ben as if they were long-lost friends.

"Hello, old man." Hearing the cheeky voice of the leader, Ben clenched his hands with anger.

SPLASH

He turned around to see that the bandits have dragged down Adui from the carriage as well. It was then he remembered that his friend was having a seizure before, he tried to get up and run towards him, but one of the men smacked him on his back as he tried. Now on his knees, he could only pray to the great Tibba that his friend was alright.

He only sighed with relief when he saw Adui getting up on his feet…

***

Adui wiped the mud off his face while staring at the people that surrounded him. "Oi! Let's go princess, boss is waiting." One of the men said while pushing him forward. With small steps and limping all the way, he made his way toward the fat man.

He and Ben stood side to side, the fat leader who had been sitting on a rock was grinning, "Welcome my friend to your worst nightmare! My dear friends." He then got up and took a giant ax from one of his men.

"We are the howling wolves. Have you ever heard about us?" With a deadpan face, Adui immediately answered. "No." He was pissed for some reason, and his anger was only increasing as he looked at the leader's face. While Ben's face became pale, he had indeed heard about them, the fat man noticed it.

"It seems the old man over here had heard about us." Adui looked at Ben's pale face and understood the situation.

After taking a round around both of them, the fat man came to him. "Now listen to me, stick man." His not-so-clever play on Adui's physique got some chuckles from his crew.

"You will hand everything that you have over to us. If we are satisfied with what you have, we will set you guys free. If not, then you guys will soon know the reason why we are called howling wolves. Understood?"

Although Adui was pissed, he decided to act in a civilized way. He spoke, "Listen. We are not.."

BAAM

One slap from the fat man and he fell down on the ground. Ben who leaped to see whether Adui was alright, also received a kick from the fat man. "Rats like you should know their place! I didn't say that you could speak maggot! " the fat man yelled…

Adui put his hand on his cheek, which was still stinging from the slap from earlier. At that moment in time he could not hear the chuckles of the bandits around him nor did he pay attention to the kick that Ben received.

His sole focus was on the stinging pain of a slap. He was a mana wielder, not a great one, but he still was a powerful individual, more powerful than most people around him, then why was he on the ground and they were standing?

He couldn't accept this, he was a Mage, and he may not have any combat experience, but he still was a Mage. Then why? Why was he this weak? It was then he started remembering the nightmare that he was having. Those taunts, those voices told him that he was trash, but he didn't accept that, he fought back in the dream.

If I can fight back in a dream, so why not in the real world? Adui's demeanor changed, his gentle eyes were now full of blood lust, without anyone's help he pushed himself up, he could do it now, after all, he had regrown his leg back.