Chapter 11: Captured

After hearing the screams of different people that didn't stop after minutes, Henry quickly stood up but before he could take a step, Greg already pulled him back to the ground.

" Don't stand up." Greg whispered as he held Henry to the ground.

" Why?" Henry asked as he stopped struggling to get on his feet.

" Just shut up for now and hope they don't check this place." Greg said in a low voice and Henry kept his mouth shut, keeping his questions in his mind. Things were really confusing for him, they were eating minutes ago and now, they are laying on the ground hoping not to be found.

Ten minutes later, Greg stood on his feet and he pulled Henry up to his feet.

" What just happened?" Henry finally asked while Greg packed his belongings.

" I will tell you as we move, now just pack up!" Greg responded as he undressed, removing his full armour before changing into plain clothes.

" Take this and wear them, your clothes would surely attract attention." Greg said as he threw clothes at Henry, Henry didn't retort. He just took the cloth and he put it on after removing the one he had on. After changing their clothes and disposing of the old clothes, they started moving out of the forest, heading to the desert where Henry's space ship was destroyed.

" Now we are moving, tell me what happened." Henry as they walked.

" Those screams we heard belong to helpless people that are already slaves already." Greg said nonchalantly.

" I don't understand." Henry said.

" They were captured by slavers. Slavers are people that capture humans and other races before selling them." Greg said.

" What? That exist?" Henry was surprised that something like that existed.

" Sadly yes." Greg responded.

" Why are the empires and kingdoms not doing anything about them?" Henry asked.

" The empires and kingdoms can't do anything because they actually need their services." Greg said honestly.

" Really? You should be protecting people, not buying them." Henry blurted out with anger.

" Things don't work that way around here, kindgoms and empires need slaves for building structures, they can't force their citizens. They also need them for entertainment purposes." Greg cut himself short before sighing.

" Entertainment?" Henry repeated.

" Yes, although I am not happy with it, I don't have a choice, I have no power. Some slaves are turned to gladiators and they entertain, the kingdom makes ton of money from this."

" I am actually surprised that things like this are actually happening." Henry responded, he realised that the state of Taintron is worse than Earth, at least gladiators don't exist on Earth again.

" Unfortunately, that's what is happening, this world only favours the strong." Greg said.

" Why did you change out of your armour?" Henry changed the topic.

" We don't need more attention, my squadron is very popular in this desert." Greg said before chuckling. Minutes later, they already exited the forest, getting inside the hot desert.

" Do you have any weapons?" Henry suddenly asked.

" No, DreamFrye ruined everything."

" That guy is really strong." Henry commented.

" He has an extraordinary weapon." Greg simply responded.

Suddenly an arrow whistled past Greg's ear.

" F*ck! Run back into the forest!" Greg shouted as he headed into the forest with Henry running beside him.

" Slavers?" Henry asked.

" Yes, we are in big trouble." Greg shouted with a huge frown on his face.

" Can't you fight them?"

" You don't really know anything about slavers." Greg shouted back as they finally got into the forest, he was surprised that Henry was able to keep up with him. He thought he was just a weak stranded man, maybe the new ability in his body strengthened him. Henry was also surprised that he ran this fast, he couldn't run like this hours ago.

" I don't see them." Henry shouted.

" Don't stop running!" Greg shouted back before loud buzzing sounds were heard. Henry looked up and he saw fifteen men with weapons standing on things that look like skating boards.

" They can fly!" Henry shouted with horror all over his face.

" Yes, keep running." Greg said as they kept running while the men kept chasing them with flying boards. Greg suddenly fell to the ground when a spear hit his back but he didn't suffer any wound because he already turned the place the spear would hit to metal. His ability is to turn any part of his body to hard metal so his ability is mainly defensive.

Greg couldn't stand up quickly before a club hit his neck sending him back to the ground. Henry was already far ahead but when he saw that the slavers had already caught Greg, he stopped running forward and he ran back to help Greg.

" No, keep running, you this fool!" Greg shouted but Henry ignored him as he ran towards him. A slaver saw Henry running towards him and he dived with the flying board towards Henry. The board hit Henry's face and he fell to the ground moaning as pain flushed his face. He couldn't even throw any attack before he was taken down, he underestimated the flying board speed.

" You fool." Greg muttered as the slavers took Henry and they brought him beside Greg after chaining the both of them with special restraints. They placed both of them on their knees and the slavers waited for someone. Minutes later, a man with dozens of slavers behind him appeared.

" Master Benedict, we caught two men." One of the slavers said as he bowed slightly.

" Good, pack them up, we are leaving for the canyon." Benedict said as he turned to leave but he suddenly turned back to face Greg.

" I almost didn't recognize you old friend." Benedict said as he laughed loudly.

" It's you, it's really you." Benedict said as he walked towards Greg that frowned slightly.

" We are not friends." Henry said slowly.

" Yes, we are good friends." Benedict insisted.

" I remember when you captured me with your men and you tortured me to give you trade routes. You later released me but that was because your colleague wanted me alive."

" How the mighty hath fallen." Benedict said with a weird intonation.

" Now that I have captured you, I can already imagine the amount of money I will make from selling you." Benedict said with a smile.

" Who doesn't want the great commander Greg?" Benedict said before making a crazy chuckle.

" Pack them up, we are leaving." Benedict said as he turned serious then he walked away as they took Greg and Henry with them.

" Why did you come back?" Greg asked.

" I had to."

" You had to?" Greg repeated.

" Yes, you saved my life, you don't expect me to just leave you, do you?" Henry responded and Greg didn't say anything again as they were dragged into the desert.

As they walked, they saw from afar a large ship floating in the air with slavers tents around the ship.

" Like I said, this is big trouble." Greg said slowly as he looked at Henry.

" What's that?" Henry asked, referring to the ship floating in the air.

" A transport ship was created to take large amounts of soldiers but these guys repurposed it." Greg responded as they neared the ship. They finally got to the ship and the slavers put both of them in the ship and the ship took off to the canyons.

In the ship, Henry saw that the slaves on the ship were in thousands, huddled together. But there were more slaves on the flying ship and Greg even said that he had noticed about six men stronger than him. The good news is that they had bad weapons, but the ship is made of a very strong material that anything less than legendary weapons won't scratch it.

" So I should stop hoping that we will escape?" Henry whispered.

" We still have chances left." Greg responded.

" Tell me about it." Henry said as he moved closer to Greg.

" This ship can't enter the nine canyons because that territory belongs to the Navas kingdom. Navas had already banned the use of flying ships in their territory and the moment they saw any ship, they would come running to destroy it. So these slavers will have to make us walk through the canyons and that's our only chance of escaping."