Slave Traders

Loueras Elvedriel

I immediately looked in the direction of the noise. Augmenting mana into all my senses, I knew that we were not alone.

I looked back at the camp, and then around the entire area to make sure that there were no more presences. 

Grabbing my sword I slowly stood up, still focusing on the disturbance in the forest. I could not deduct how many were there, only that there was definitely more than one.

Furrowing my brows I made my way towards the area where I heard the sound, before…

Whiz, plunk!

An arrow zoomed past me which I noticed almost too late, and was barely able to react and dodge so it hit the tree behind me instead of right in the forehead.

'Good aim.' I thought to myself, now knowing that the culprits behind the disturbance were hostile. But we were still within the valley, a territory unofficially considered as part of Elvedriel. Why are we being attacked? Could it be that we are being mistaken for intruders?

But the answer came to me quicker than I could raise my voice to ask the attacker.

'The arrow…is not of elven craftsmanship.'

I grabbed the hilt of my sword and raised my voice, just enough for the attacker to hear, and quiet enough to not wake up the children.

"Who are you? Why are you attacking us?"

Making my way further towards the far line of trees where the arrow flew from, I saw four shadows emerging from the darkness of the night.

"I see that you weren't kidding when you said yer an adventurer. Sam's arrow should've hit ya right in between yer eyes!"

These were the four men we encountered before.

"Why did you follow us? What do adventurers such as yourselves get from killing a…you are not adventurers are you?" 

The realization struck me like a chord. I gritted my teeth in disgust as I stared these four men down.

"The four of you are slave traders." I spat.

"Heh, this guy gets it." The man named Coal chuckled. 

I examined this human trash. Ren and Coal seemed to be swordsmen, Sam an archer, and based off of what they said, Hart is the mage.

'Quite the versatile group they have, indistinguishable from an adventurer party.'

"Well, since Sam couldn't hit you I can assume yer quite skilled," Ren said while drawing his sword, "so let us finish this quickly. Those kids ye got there would go for quite the price on the market." He said while vilely liking his lips.

"Scum." I replied while drawing my own sword. A beautiful elven weapon, light as a feather, durable as the finest steel, and so sharp it would cleave through any armor. It glared beautifully in the moonlight.

"Oh ho ho! Fine weapon ye got there! Well I mean, elves do have quite nice swords. That thing's gonna go for a fair price as well!"

The four men began walking towards me, they moved so confidently as if they had already succeeded in their task. I did not respond. I simply stood there, sword at my side facing downwards. I won't even need to spare a defensive stance to get rid of these animals.

"Oi elf! You ain't runnin?"

"The ones who should be running are the four of you, lest you want your heads to be cleaved off."

The four men stopped in their tracks, and then Ren snorted.

"Pfft, look at hero here. Hey man listen, I get it you have to protect those kids, honor and shit, but you ain't getting outta here alive if you stay. I mean, it is four against one here, you don't really have any chances. So just skedaddle away while I'm being nice, and there will be no blood spilled today. Sounds like a plan, eh elf?"

I offered them no response, ignoring everything he just said.

"He aint movin?"

"Last chance buddy!" Ren continued. "I am a king level in the sword of light style, and so is my buddy Coal here. You saw Sam's abilities as an archer, and Hart is an advanced level mage of earth and air. You think you have a chance?"

"No, it is I who will offer you a last chance," I responded calmly, barely keeping it in myself to not rush and cleave their heads off this very moment, "retreat immediately, and do not follow us. I already find it disgusting that I do not plan to strike you down here and now, but I will let the four of you go. Human filth."

Ren gritted his teeth in frustration.

"Suit yerself, crazy piece of shit. Rough him up Hart."

"You got it boss," he said with a snide smirk as he stepped forward, "ready yourself tough ass!"

He began to chant, and I smirked. Ardiel did not even need to chant the majority of his spells, probably all of them at this point, and this human flaunts his power as a mage? Pathetic.

"Earth Stone Cannon!" Hart yelled as he formed a spherical rock in front of himself, and launched it at an incredible speed towards me. 

Just before he finished chanting, I augmented my body with mana. The projectile hurtled towards me, and hit me right in the solar plexus with a loud crack. This kind of spell is designed specifically to get through barriers, that includes walls, armor, mana barriers, and other similar enforcements. But from my experience as an adventurer, my fights against Ardiel, and my skills of body augmentation, made this spell just childsplay, and the projectile simply made a tear through my shirt, and left only a small bruise on my chest.

"Huh?" Hart stared at me with confusion.

"Oi Hart, yer sleep deprived or something?"

"N-no Ren. I'll try once more. Earth Stone Cannon!"

Again, he charged up his spell, and launched it at me. This time I infused more mana into my body, and the spell just shattered against my skin.

"What the hell is wrong with him!? Earth Stone Cannon! Earth Stone Cannon! EARTH STONE CANNON!"

The mage unleashed a whole barrage of the same armor penetrating spell at me, not to leave even a single scratch. I just stood there with a somewhat amused expression on my face.

'Ardiel would already be able to get through my defenses despite casting the same ranked spells as you are. And how are the children still asleep after all this commotion?'

"THAT'S ENOUGH YOU USELESS TURD!" Ren yelled at his companion, while gripping his sword.

"I will deal with this bastard."

Ren and Coal began moving up, while Hart's face was a mix of confusion and caution as he looked at me.

"I will teach you what two King rank swordsmen of the sword of light style can do."

I calmly raised my blade, causing the two to flinch involuntarily.

"Then I will show you what a Sovereign level practitioner of the elven sword style, and a King level fire mage can do." I calmly responded.

The two men halted in place, both looking at me with murder in their eyes.

"Bullshit." The man named Coal growled.

"You can test it out for yourselves at the price of your lives." 

It was perhaps pity for these lowlives, or simple amusement, that overshadowed my anger and disgust at these individuals. So I responded, still calm as ever, and watched the two in amusement.

"Sam, Hart, cover us from the back." Ren spat as he raised his sword, and readied himself in an attack position. Coal copied his leader.

I sensed a disturbance in mana around the two, they were augmenting themselves to prepare to strike. I augmented myself in return, and let out the pressure of my mana surge all around me. The two men paled, and their eyes widened. It was a technique to demonstrate one's mana power, and to induce fear into the opponent. I learned this from a powerful mage I encountered on one of my travels. He called it "Mana Force". Though I can't choke out the air from the lungs of my opponents with it like he was able to, I was still able to hinder their movement a little bit by making the air around them heavier, and making it harder for them to breathe.

The two men scowled after a few moments, going back to their senses and their murderous intent.

"I'll make you beg for death!" Ren cried out as he charged at me.

The man's charge was fast, as expected of a sword of light practitioner. The style focuses mainly on lightning-fast strikes, and defeating the opponent as fast as possible. 

He was aiming for a stab right into my chest. I brought up my blade and moved to the left, deflecting his sword to the right, and making his speed through in front of me. Now, I had Ren to my right, and Coal to my left.

"DIEEEEEEE." Ren yelled out as he began striking me again and again, swing after swing.

I began deflecting and dodging every one of his strikes. They were fast, and heavy. I had to give him that. The man was a King level as he claimed after all, and I could tell his claim was not a bluff.

I began my counter attack, deflecting his strikes and responding with my own. Little by little I began to overwhelm him, despite not even trying my hardest. The idea behind the elven style is a flowing battle. One strike flows into the next, one deflection flows into the next. Each movement flows right into the next move, not allowing the opponent even a moment to breathe. A practitioner of this style had incredible stamina and endurance, to continuously swing their blade without stopping even for a fraction of a second. 

The elven style was designed for overwhelming the opponent. A beautiful, elegant, yet deadly sword dance that cornered the opponent to their inevitable demise.

Ren's face began to grow more and more scared, as none of his lightning fast blows seemed to reach me, and he himself began to experience exhaustion from this battle.

"COAL, HELP ME!"

The other man engaged in battle, and now it was a two on one scenario. One Sovereign swordsman against two Kings. Both of them began attacking me in unison, their teamwork was surprisingly incredible.

As I was deflecting a swing from Coal, I noticed Sam and Hart standing, not knowing what to do. This was a fault in their tactic. The archer and the mage could easily hit one of their own teammates, so they refrained from attacking.

'Great, I only need to focus on two for now. And deal with the archer and mage later. Both are incapable in a close battle.'

Now I have become serious. I needed to get this battle over with. I had enough fooling around with these trashes, and they needed to die.

As Ren swung his sword at my neck, I ducked down while parrying his sword, spun on my foot, and slashed at his exposed stomach, causing a bloody gashing wound.

"GRAHHH." He yelled out in pain, clutching his stomach and completely disregarding his sword, and the opponent before him.

"BASTARD!" Coal yelled as he ran up towards me for a forward strike.

Still on the ground, I deflected his sword to the right, then reverse gripped my sword, and slit his throat while I stood up, letting the momentum of his strike do all the work for me.

He collapsed, also letting go of his sword as he let out deathly gurgles of blood, unable to yell or talk, just convulsing on the ground in desperation as blood gashed out of his throat. He was a goner already.

"You…piece of…shit!" Ren wheezed out as he picked up his sword in his right hand, while clawing at his wound with his left.

"DIE YOU BA…"

He was not able to finish his sentence, as my blade already chopped his head off. His body went limp that very instant, and lifelessly flopped to the ground.

Hart

I watched in horror as the elf suddenly slashed Coal's throat, and then decapitated Ren. It was as if the man was just toying with them for a while before finally deciding to kill them.

I stood there, frozen in place, unable to move as I and Sam beside me watched that monster slowly turn his head towards us.

He was nothing but a dark silhouette in the night, dripping with the dark shadows of blood from his sword. His dark figure only had those deathly, glowing green eyes that pierced right through my soul. It was as if a devil of the night descended to this world and began reaping the lives of its inhabitants.

I stared in horror at this man, and my whole body trembled with pure, primal fear. The fear of a prey before its predator, the fear of the condemned before their executioner. That's what this man was. An executioner.

I could only call the first half of their "fight" an actual fight, and believed that Ren and Coal would be able to win. How wrong was I at that moment. That elf was simply testing them before engaging in merciless slaughter.

"M-m-MONSTER!" Sam cried out with tears in his eyes as he loaded an arrow into his bow. But before he could fire, his head blew up into a million bloody pieces, and his lifeless body crumpled to the ground.

I was able to tell. That was the same spell I tried using against this devil. Except he actually worked as it was supposed to, while mine just broke when it came in contact with him.

"So…just one more left." He said, lowering his left hand with which he cast the spell. His voice was icy cold, and calm. Frighteningly calm. Like the slaughter he just unleashed was a normal occurrence for him. Like he had no regard for the fact that he was killing others. His tone was leveled, calm, and murderous. 

If he laughed, or yelled, or said that in any other tone, I would not be as frightened. But the nonchalance with which he said that made me cower in fear before him.

"S-s-spare me, p-p-please. I beg of you." I stuttered as I fell to my knees in despair.

"Spare you? Would you have spared me if I asked you the same thing? I think you were quite set on killing me back there. When those who you took as slaves begged you to spare them, did you?"

I could not answer, because if I answered truthfully, I would die, and if I lied, he would know about it.

"P-please." I mustered, almost whispering.

He looked at me for a few moments with those cold, bloodthirsty eyes. He swung his blade over his head.

"No."

Then…darkness.