Savage

Ela was dragging the man rather forcefully in the direction he was pointing, while I trailed behind. Ela was gritting her teeth.

"Since when did a lowly slave trader become so bold as to take people right from the house?"

The man was trembling.

"Wh-What? All the slave traders are doing that, not just us!"

Wait, what?

Ela's frown deepened.

"These people believe they can do whatever they wish simply because we are preoccupied with different issues?"

The man put out his palms in front of him as if to defend himself.

"N-No! They were going to die anyway! There isn't enough food for them, if we can capture them and fill our own stomachs, we are only saving people."

Ela raised the claw that was not holding the man and was tightly clenching her jaw. The man started shaking and closed his eyes. I hastily put my hand on Ela's shoulder.

"We still need him to find the base."

Ela slowly lowered her claw and took a few deep breaths. The man was doing the same thing as he slowly opened his eyes, though also shaking. Ela looked the man dead in the eyes.

"Bring me to your association."

The man hurriedly nodded and pointed in a direction.

It was cold as we walked, but I didn't cast the fire spell and simply followed behind Ela.

The man pointed towards a rather large house and let out a sigh of relief.

"That is the house, can I go now?"

Ela froze. She slowly turned her head to me.

"How should we deal with him?"

...How was I supposed to know?

My eyes traced the scars on his body. The man himself was very skinny, though not enough to see clear marks of his bone.

What if he decides to capture more people as slaves?

Then releasing him would be a bad idea.

But...

"I guess release him if he agrees to not do slave trade anymore... if he doesn't stop then..."

A vision of the slave traders slowly beating a boy to death appeared.

"Kill him."

My brows were furrowed and there was a frown etched on my face. Ela nodded and let him go like she was putting away trash.

The man ran away hurriedly, turning his head to look at us, before running away faster.

Ela let out a deep breath.

"You are going to have to hold me back from charging in there."

Forcing a laugh, I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Well, we have to do this properly right?"

Ela's breathing calmed.

"You are correct, what is the approach you believe is best?"

...I didn't think that far.

Thinking of the man that was so desperate to run, I imagined the people behind this would try their best to escape. They may try again if there wasn't any explicit warning.

"We don't want any of them escaping right? I think a plan that cuts off their exits would be good."

Ela rubbed her forehead with two fingers.

"Yes... how should we deal with the ones we find?"

...Why can't you come up with this part?

"I think we can find some way to restrain them to deal with later and if they try to run... we might as well kill them."

My fist clenched. Ela looked towards the house and sighed.

"Then let us make a plan."

...

Despite my attempts at asking for suggestions from Ela many times, she sent the question right back to me. In the end, this was a plan mostly by me.

My foot was at the door, fist ready to knock.

So how was I in this position despite making the plan?

The answer to that was my lack of conviction in being shameless. Upon laying out the plan, Ela would ask me who would be in charge of what. In the end, unable to thicken my skin, I took the position of bait.

Knocking on the door, sweat would have fallen from the head if it wasn't so cold. My body was wincing in pain, complaining that I stuffed so many firebolts and elementary ice spells, 'Encase'. There was Alyx's spell and a healing spell too.

A man opened the door just a crack, so he could see outside. He had black hair with some white hair mixed in, and a beard.

"What?"

Smiling, my hand scratched the back of my head. It was a little more painful since my nails dug in a bit too much into my scalp.

"Sorry, I really need a place to stay. Do you have any spare rooms? I cannot pay now, but I will make sure to get it to you quickly."

The man stared at me for a while. Eventually, he opened the door. I was able to see he had many wrinkles on his body and a frown that seemed to be carved in his face. He turned around but never looked away from me.

"This way."

My feet fell on the squeaky boards and walked up to his back. He kept his eyes on me and did not go forward.

"Go on ahead."

I raised my eyebrow.

"I don't know where the rooms are..."

The man froze.

"Ah... just walk ahead of me, I will tell you where to go."

This was going to be inconvenient...

But now wasn't the time to stir up conflict.

"...Ok."

From squeaky floorboards to missing floorboards the man told me the way to walk through the rooms. The smell was unpleasant, though I expected that.

The man was always standing right behind me, so it would be hard to see him. We reached a tarp. The man stopped walking.

"Stop here, open the tarp and choose one of the empty rooms."

Upon turning around, my actions seemed to startle the man, he took a few steps back. I maintained a shaky smile.

"Thank you, I would like to give you a gift, please hold both of your hands out for it."

The man slowly walked forward but did not put his hands out.

"There is no need."

I dismissively waved my hands as I was trying to calm my shaking legs.

"Haha there is no need to stand on ceremony, I am the one that is staying in your room after all."

The man's eye twitched, but he still slowly reached out both his hands. My hand was clutched and slowly went to his outreached hands.

Suddenly, ice cased both of his hands and nearly got on his elbow. I thought of this method of restraint when the eagle got its wing trapped in ice.

The man's eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth.

"Mage!"

The man started to break out in a sprint, awkwardly holding his encased hands in front of him. My brows furrowed and my eyes narrowed.

"Stop if you don't want to die!"

There was suddenly creaking all over the floor above me. The man in question did not even pause and I cast a firebolt.

The firebolt exploded on the man's back, charring it. He fell down face-first and no longer moved.

Despite this being the first time my hands were personally bloodied from another human, there was no guilt. There was no mistaking it, he was involved enough to know what he was doing, not to mention, I warned him.

My memories of being captured were no longer suppressed and they were painfully reminding me of what I had experienced.

There were many footfalls above me, sudden, and rushed. Rushing towards the front entrance, I saw there were many people, not in the best clothes, trying to run out the front door, cursing as they went.

"If you try to walk out that door you will die!"

Some of them heeded my warning, while others simply pushed and shoved further into the door.

I started to let loose a couple of firebolts, feeling my body tense up, but it seemed sturdy enough to handle this.

Not everyone at the doorway was hit, some escaped while others collapsed to the floor.

The people who decided to stay started to look towards the doorway and then to me. In the end, some people took off for the doorway.

Before they even got close there was a loud scream coming from outside.

Ela was standing outside, blood covering her claw. After glaring at the people inside, she flew back up.

The people trying to run suddenly fell, with their legs shaking. I frowned.

"Put your hands together and in front of you and do not leave this house."

The people slowly raised their hands, trembling the whole time. Starting with the person closest to the door, my hand would go near theirs and encase them with ice.

It did not take too long to get through everyone, though my sides started to ache.

I rushed out the front door. My eyes scanned to see if Ela was in the sky. She wasn't.

My eyes closed. there were faint clashing sounds coming from behind the house, prompting me to run there.

Ela was fighting with a man. The man was burly and was holding onto a sword. He launched a firebolt at Ela, which she dodged.

He would slowly cast the firebolt spell while fending Ela off with a sword. Although Ela was in no danger, she was having trouble finishing him off.

Ela's claw would swing at him and be caught on the sword that the man swung.

I prepared to launch a firebolt at the man but realized that with how they were both moving, not only would it be hard to hit the man, I may hit Ela instead.

Quickly preventing myself from finishing the spell, my instincts were telling me to charge in. My head shook violently, dispelling these thoughts.

Ela... didn't use magic, so...

There was a gentle tug at the tips of my fingers, sending it towards Ela and the man.

When it hit, the man was in the middle of casting the firebolt spell. The mana forming the spell suddenly vanished. He clutched his head and screamed in agony. He had dropped his sword and had his tightly shut.

Ela finished him off and there was now a corpse in the snow.

"Thanks..."

Smiling with a twitch at the corner of my lips, I hurriedly nodded.

"Yes, let's go back, in case they have run away."

Upon reaching the front, there were many footfalls. There were some people in ragged clothing running away without ice encasing their hands, while some people with ice encasing their hands were behind them. It seemed that there were still some people inside that rushed out.

Ela rubbed her forehead.

"How do we handle this situation?"

There was something savage at the bottom of my heart that awakened. With an expressionless face, I cast countless firebolt spells and sent them at each person running.

None of them were able to dodge. After a sigh, my eyes scanned the inside of the house. Nobody was inside, they all decided to run.

My legs were shaking and my body was numb.

Ela was looking at me, blinking quite a few times. She opened her mouth, about to say something, but closed it again.

My head shook.

"We already gave them so many chances. Since they didn't listen before, what is the point of trying to convince them later? Especially when many were about to get away if we did not act."

Ela bit her lip and slowly nodded.

"You are correct..."

Heaving a large sigh, my shaky legs stepped into the house.

"Come on, we still have to free the other slaves."