Kidnapped

Atlas let out a muffled groan, being trapped in a dark room was bad but being trapped in a dark room filled with corpses was a hundred times worse. And despite his irritation, he forced himself to comb through the corpses to see if he could find anything useful. Alya had joined him after trying to open the door a few times unsuccessfully.

So far he had gotten two pairs of somewhat decent knives, a total of four silvers and a weird vial filled with a strange purple liquid. After rummaging some more he found his box and opened relieved to find it's contents still inside.

Just as Atlas was about to call out to Alya, he heard the sound of footsteps and dived behind a pile of bodies, Alya seemed to have done the same. Hidden by the bodies, he watched as the door slowly opened revealing the flame of an oil lantern. It's holder was a large, bulky man with indiscernible facial features due to the darkness.

"Damned bastards, sending me to check on dead bodies. As if any of them are gonna wake up." The large man stopped in front of the corpse of a female child." Might as well enjoy myself." The man said in a lecherous tone. He slowly unbluckled his belt and grabbed the child's body.

Atlas frowned, he had two options now. One, he could sneak out of the open door while the man was preoccupied, two, he could kill the man and walk out. Without hesitation he chose option two.

He slowly crept out from behind the pile of bodies and walked towards the hulking man noiselessly. As he reached the back of the man, ignoring the wretched act taking place he raised two of his knives carefully placing one as close as he could and aimed the other one at the back of the man's head. In an instant he placed the sharp knife at the man's throat and the other traced along his eyeballs.

The man froze, " Who are you?!!" He sputtered nervously.

"Shhhh, I'm the one asking questions here." He put more force on the knife on his throat drawing blood making the man shiver.

"Where is this place? And who are you?" Atlas's cold tone sent shivers down his spine.

"This is a cave near Rusvil, it's a bandit camp, I'm one of it's mem-members but they forced me to join." The man said clearly afraid.

Alya came out of the darkness and said in a sing song voice. "I have a few more questions for you."

*************

A few minutes later, Atlas dragged the dead body of the large man over to the rest of the corpses.

According to the man there were about thirty bandits in the camp and their leader was an Magic Apprentice who was more than forty years old showing that he had no talent.

They had been hired by a mysterious woman to kidnap a girl that was traveling on the same caravan as Atlas. The rest of the passengers had been tied up and we're near the entrance of the cave. Alya nodded at Atlas as they both snuck out of the cellar, it was weirdly empty as they walked out. Even after walking for five minutes there were no guards or patrols around.

The sound of boisterous laughter and shouting reached their ears and the remaining bandits as well as their prisoners were revealed.

Several bandits were drinking near a large campfire, in the midst of it all there was a middle aged man who sat on a chair decorated with skulls his only defining features being his abnormal glowing tattoos.

As the bandits were celebrating, many people tied up on the floor glared at them hatefully, they were the people who traveled with the caravan.

Atlas stopped in his tracks as he felt his heartbeat slow down. Drinking and smiling with the other bandits was Otto who looked merrily at their prisoners. Atlas was shocked beyond words and lost his composure nearly walking out of his hiding spot.

'Deep breath, calm down.' Atlas thought quietly.

The bandit leader stood up and shouted, "My fellow brothers tonight we feast and tomorrow we sell the girl to that blasted woman and return with gold that we've never have seen before." He raised his beer mug and thrust it into the air and the other bandits followed suit including Otto. Any doubt Atlas had in his mind about Otto's involvement in any of this was wiped away from his mind instantly.

Atlas noticed barrels of what smelled like oil a few feet away from him and crawled towards it, yes it was definitely oil, highly flammable oil.

He dragged one barrel and motioned for Alya to drag another one leaving trails of oil as they walked. They had circled around the cave pouring oil on the wooden pillars stopping a cave-in, on the floor and on any flammable looking thing they could find. After they had spread the oil, Atlas grabbed a torch from the wall and threw it on the oil trail setting it ablaze. As the fire spread, the drunk bandits didn't seem to notice at all until a pillar that had been set ablaze fell on top a few of them directly crushing them instantly killing the five of them.

"Fire!!"

"Run away, the cave is on fire!!!"

"Ahhhh!! Help me!"

Panicked screams echoed across the cave as the bandits ran towards the cave entrance not even thinking about helping one another or putting the fire out.

The bandit leader, with his strange glowing tattoos tried to keep the bandits in the cave to put out the fire but failed miserably as they ignored him.

"Water Magic: Rainfall." The leader sighed and raised his hand chanting slowly, a ball of water was formed in his hand. It reached the size of a person before it shot up in the air and exploded into countless water droplets. The fire dampened a little but the leader couldn't put it all out with one spell.

'Fuck.' Atlas cursed in his head. 'If he puts out the fire quickly then they'll all regroup and we won't be able to escape.' With a determined look in his eyes he slowly crawled towards the bandit leader making sure to stay out of sight. He managed to get within ten feet of the man, but as soon as he took another step, the leader turned around.

"A little rat dared to enter my Mana Zone. It seems that you are the one who set fire to this place. You must Die." The bandit leader raised his hand.

"Fire Magic: Fireball." A round ball of fire emitting insane heat converged in his hands. From where he was standing Atlas could feel the heat of the ball of fire.