| Crisis (2)|

The carriage's black paint peeling and faded. It creaked and groaned as it rattled down the forest, its wheels bouncing over rocks and tree branches.

Inside, the carriage was dark and musty, the air thick with the scent of sweat, blood, and fear. In the corner, chained to the wall, was a boy, his fur clothes torn and bloody. His ragged breathing and the sound of the chains echoed through the carriage. The most defining feature on him is the white, hollowed-out wolf's head he wears as to mask his own, the eyes of which he has tampered with to allow himself vision while wearing it.

The person's eyes darted around the carriage, only to find a sobbing girl in the corner opposite to him. The chains held them firmly in place, and the carriage was sealed tight.

The only light came from a single flickering lantern that hung from the ceiling, casting eerie shadows on the walls.

As the carriage jolted over another bump in the road, the boy cried out in pain.

"Argh!"

The wounds on his body were raw and inflamed, there's a burnt wound on his arm and abdomen but it is healing slowly on it own.

"..."

The girl in the corner couldn't do anything in this situation other than despairing and sobbing silently.

Staring at the white wolf head on the boy's head, she would have found it beautiful if it wasn't strained with blood.

>BARK!<

>BARK!<

>AROOOO!<

The chained up boy's ear perked up upon hearing the hound howl.

"Shut em' up before they wake up everything in the forest!"

"Okay okay! Damn mutts!"

The sound of the slave traders were faint but being near the carriage, both the elf girl and the wolf boy heard it clearly.

>Ka-Clang!<

"RAAA!"

The boy yanked the iron chain that chained both his hand but to no avail.

"RAAA!"

>Ka-Clang!<

This time, he yanked even harder...but to no avail.

>Ka-Clang!<

>Ka-Clang!<

>Ka-Clang!<

The stronger he yanked as the time increased...Until,

"RAAAAAAA!"

>Crack!<

The chain that's been holding him down shattered.

He heed no mind to his wrist injury he received from yanking the chain. The first thing he did was to look at the tied up girl in the corner, holding her tears while looking at the menacing boy.

"Grrr!"

The boy was fuming in anger at the slave traders upon seeing that the girl was also kidnapped like him.

His first instinct told him to help the fragile girl and deal with those slave traders.

His fists clenched tightly as he walked towards the carriage door before swinging his right fist at the door with his mana imbued fist.

>BAM!<

There was a loud crack as his fist connected with the wooden surface, and the door shattered blown into pieces, splintering apart at the impact.

After punching the door open, he grabbed the girl's collar, jumped out of the carriage and placed the tied up fragile girl down softly near a tree trunk, hidden from the enemy's perspective. He didn't bother himself to untie her.

He turned back and found the leader boss looking at him with wide eyes.

"GRR!"

Seeing the leader who managed to take him down by unexpectedly throwing fireball at him the last time. The boy went on all four, like a predator ready to pounce at its prey.

"What are you doing there my bag of gold"

***

[Arthur Leywin's PoV]

After stirring up the forest hounds with a carefully thrown rock, I made my move as soon as one of the two on guard went around to the other side of the carriage to quiet them.

The one that stayed behind was sitting on a fallen log, fiddling with something in his hands while the other two were sleeping inside the tent. Carefully, jumping to a branch directly above the carriage, I prepared for my attack.

My first target would be the one that had gone to quiet the forest hounds first.

I dropped down with a quiet thud behind one of the slave traders. This man had a very lanky build. While lean muscles were visible, he didn't seem too strong and was only armed with a long knife.

Startled by the soft thud, lanky turned around probably expecting a curious weasel or rat. His face twisted into a mixture of surprise and amusement when he saw me, a four-year-old child in ragged clothes.

But before he had the chance to even speak, I lunged upward towards his neck. I infused mana into the blade of my hand, turning it into a sharp edge. This was called the swordless art in my old world but here it would be more accurate to call it a wind attribute technique.

He flinched back reflexively, his hands trying to reach where his face was to guard against the boy shooting towards him.

It was too late.

I take a quick swipe at the jugular, taking his vocal chord out along with his carotid artery. A stream of blood sprayed out of his neck immediately as I land behind him, supporting his lifeless body and gently placing him down to avoid making noise. Just as expected, the forest hounds that had just been calmed down by the Lanky jolted back awake at the stench of blood causing them to howl and bark.

"Ey' Pinky! Can't even calm the hounds...What the?!"

I had already picked up...Pinky's knife and was waiting for him at the back corner of the carriage.

While the other slave trader's attention was directed at the corpse of Pinky, currently being eaten by the forest hounds, I jumped out from behind and stabbed the side of his neck with the knife.

The hounds quieted down while devouring the two corpses. As I headed towards the tent to dispose of the remaining two in their sleep, a small explosion from the carriage ruined my plans.

>BAM!<

The explosion came from the carriage entrance, this gave me a bad feeling of something happening to the elf girl.

'Son of a...why now of all times?'

On cue, I heard the rustle of the tent as the two slave traders that were left had come out.

"Pinky! Deuce! What was that noise just now?! What the hell are you guys..." He barked, still half asleep.

I swallowed down the inappropriate urge to laugh at the ridiculous names of the slave traders, and hid myself behind a tree next to the carriage and infuse mana into Pinky's knife.

Sensing something was amiss, the two remaining slave traders carefully stepped around to the other side of the carriage where their eyes bulged upon upon witnessing their two former companions being eaten by the forest hounds.

Using this chance, I attacked the nearest one when his gaze whips back at me and instantly swings his short sword at my face.

Dodging the slash, I dropped low and dashed toward him, trying to get in the range of my knife. I swung, reinforcing more mana into the knife, landing a clean wound through his right leg's Achilles' heel.

"Gah!!" he let out a pained howl as he dives desperately out of my range before I could do any further damage.

"Boss, be careful! I think this brat is a mage," the fighter, whose tendon I just severed, cried.

I turned my attention to 'Boss' as he pulled out his sword from its sheath and lower into a defensive stance.

"You see all sorts of crazy things these days! Looks like a huge sack of gold just showed itself in front of us, Mike! I bet he'll get us almost as much as the elf and that brat mage," he let out a crazed chuckle.

These bastards didn't even care that I just killed their party members...and who is this 'brat mage' he's talking about? Is there more than the elf that he captured?

The leader's body glowed faintly as he reinforced his body with mana. As he advanced towards me, his lips curled into a confident grin on his square face.

Mike was out of the fight with that crippled leg, but this augmenter was going to be troublesome.

The augmenter or the leader suddenly jumped above me, his right arm poised to throw a punch. I could only guess that his only reason for not using his sword was to not damage his 'goods'. While I'd normally be offended, in this case, overconfidence made it much easier for me so I didn't complain.

I jumped back in time to avoid the blow strong enough to leave a small dent in the ground as I threw my knife at him. I used the same trick as I did with the conjurer I dragged down with me off the cliff but this mage was a more careful. He disrupted the mana string with his sword and grabbed my knife with his free hand.

"You...Have some cute tricks. Here's your weapon! Catch it!"

Shit.

***