5 Chapter 5

The next day passed in complete silence and the gloominess could be perceived in the air.

Nor Sal nor Edward wanted to speak.

"What can I do now?" Sal's mind was working to solve his predicament but only one two ideas were somehow good.

"Or I kill him tonight, or I escape." He didn't really know the exact functions of the Slave Contract, but both solutions had their strong points. "If I kill him there is high possibility that I will be free, but…" It seemed too good to be true. "…but if slave contract could be undone just by killing the owner it would be really too easy. Probably I will die with him."

Edward was resting with closed eyes just a few centimeters away from Sal. Sometimes he would open his eyes only to look on the road and on the thinking boy next to him. "What is this brat thinking about? Hopefully he wouldn't try to kill me tonight. Considering that he has these two madmen bloodline it's not impossible." He closed his eyes. "Well if he did so, both of us would die, but I'm not very eager to be killed yet…"

Sal frowned. "That old geezer probably thinks that I didn't notice all the times he looked at me." Than he also closed his eyes. "It's settled than. Tonight, when the old man is asleep, I will try to escape. It should be still better than doing nothing…"

[…]

The day passed quickly, and the sun was already submerging under the horizon.

-"That's strange…" – muttered Edward observing something near the road.

Sal also looked in that direction and saw a black tree. It was without leaves. The bark was withered and dry and the branches were bizarrely contorted.

Sal couldn't help but ask. –"What happened to that tree?"

-"I'm not sure but…" – The more he thought the gloomier he became. – "It's probably some type of magic corruption. Maybe death magic or something similar."

-"Death magic…"

Edward stopped the carriage near the road. –"We will spend the night here. Prepare the camp, boy."

Meanwhile he went near the tree to examine it closely.

"Yes, definitely death magic…Ah! And what is this?" From a closer inspection he noticed some white lines on the tree bark. He wasn't a mage, so he couldn't tell what the white lines where, but there was something dangerous about them.

[…]

The sky was already black, and the moon was covered by a thick layer of clouds. Two lying silhouettes were visible near the already spent campfire. A slight rhythmic movement proved that they were sleeping.

Suddenly Sal opened his eyes and slowly, without producing any unnecessary noise, stood up.

"It's time. The Old Bastard is sleeping…Hmm?" Some strange sound attracted his attention. He turned his head in the direction of the dead tree. It was glowing with a ghostly white lite. There was no wind at all that night, but the branches were still moving. "What…" An expression of curiosity was substituted with one of resolve. "Well, I don't care. I need to escape."

Thinking that he moved for now along the road. "To return home is not a possibility because my parents probably knew about the old man's intentions, but he will certainly think that I went precisely back in the direction of the Red Forest Village."

As he was going near the road the strange dead trees became more and more frequent. Sal didn't particularly care and strictly speaking he could do anything about them.

After some meters dead bushes started to appear and the earth seamed scorched and without life as all the vegetation here.

Suddenly Sal heard some sound form the road. He moved behind a tree and looked over.

His breath stopped for a moment.

In the middle of the road there was a man lying. His lifeless eyes were wide open. Around him he saw three large silhouettes which he recognized as wolfs. Not some normal ones but a much larger species. From where Sal was hiding were audible sounds of chewing.

*Crack* With a forceful head movement one of the tree beasts completely teared one of the dead man's arms.

Some blood spurted around.

In this moment a ray of moonlight pierced through the cloudy curtain which was covering the sky and illuminated the three animals.

"AH!!!!"

Sal cried out horrified. These already weren't animals but monsters. The dark bodies hadn't any fur, but only rotting flesh was covering the gray bones, visible in the points where the rotting meat fell off.

Two of the wolfs, who were probably fresher, had some white and fat larvae wiggling inside their heads and some were crawling out of the already completely empty eye sockets, and falling on the man's body.

When Sal screamed all the beasts immediately turned raised their heads looking in his direction.

They couldn't see him, but once alerted, they could sense his presence. They could sense his living body.

Sal immediately turned around and, forgetting about everything ran back, towards the carriage.

It was the only place where he had some chances to survive.

Dead trees were denser than before, and the branches were leaving Sal, who was running madly through them, with a lot of small cuts and scratches.

After some seconds he heard something breaking through the trees and high speed. He turned his head for a moment only to see and open giant jaw quickly approaching his face.

Everything slowed down for him.

"I don't want to die…" He thought.

-"…AND I WON'T!"

A transparent coin appeared from thin air with only a small part of it filled with a golden substance.

The spiritual coin interrupted the wolf's pounce and he bit the solid part of it.

Some of its teeth immediately broke and its massive body fell on the ground. Sal, meanwhile, was already near the carriage.

-"EDWARD, OLD FUCKING MAN, WAKE UP!"- Screamed Sal.

Some discontented muttering could be heard from inside. –"What's the matter…? Damn it, I told you not to call me old man…Just let me use the contract's power to punish you, brat…"

-"Undead monsters…"- he was catching his breath –"Undead wolfs are coming here!"

Edward stopped immediately and completely woke up. "What…? How many?"

-"Three."

The old merchant furrowed his brows. -"Not good."-He hurriedly reentered the carriage.

-"Here, take this."- Sal caught a short object. It was a dagger. Edward was holding a short sword in his right hand.

-"It has a small light magic enchantment so it should be able to harm these creatures."

After a few seconds a sound appeared from the wood and the next moment the undead beasts appeared.

One had a dislocated jaw which now was hanging only by a tread of cartilage. The spiritual coin was too hard to break.

Edward suddenly raised his hand in the air, and something started shining.

"AAAAAAAAARRGG!" – a human scream pierced the stillness of the night.

The biggest wolf jumped in exactly same moment Edward raised his hand and ripped off his whole arm.

But the object that the old merchant was holding shined even brightly before completely covering the animal in the white light. After a moment only a small amount of cinder remained of the undead monster.

-"Now…it's two against two." – Said Edward holding what remained of his left arm. –"Boy, one with the broken jaw is yours and I will fight the other one."

Without waiting for an answer his slashed with his sword towards the wolf. Animal immediately jumped back before trying unsuccessfully to bite Edward's leg. They continued their dance of slashes, lunges and bites.

Sal's wolf was more cautious after nearly completely losing his lower jaw.

The boy set aside his worries for now. "I need to kill it, or I will share the corpse's from before fate."

He concentrated and a gray radiance appeared around his body. "At least it offers some protection." He was also very careful and only observed the beast.

Suddenly the animal jumped forward and hit the hand Sal was holding the dagger. "Damn!"

He avoided the clawed rotting paw but unexpectedly the wolf directly slammed Sal with his massive body.

Sal was sent flying and crashed against the carriage. He let hold of the dagger during the collision and it landed some meters away from him.

*Kough*

Some blood leaked from the corners of his mouth when he stood up again. The wolf was still somehow wary. The animal still remembered the golden coin that couldn't be bitten through.

"What to do…?! Without the dagger…"

Sal'a'Zar's thoughts were a bit chaotic. "I'm done for…No, I can try the…Yes!"

He made a Spiritual coin appear before him, but the wolf waited only for this and with a burst of speed darted towards him. The animal was only afraid of the possibility of the coin surprise appearance. Once it appeared it wasn't difficult to kill his prey easily.

[Gold Manipulat…]

The wolf was already before him. "It's the end." It was his last thought.

Suddenly a loud voice sounded in the camp.

-"[Transmutation - Dilution]"-

And both the animals disappeared like if they never existed.

A young man was standing on the roof of the carriage coldly overlooking Sal and Edward.