{Arthur’s POV}

The three of them were led down a long corridor, passing doors now and then. Eventually, the corridor ended and opened up into a lit expanse with cages. The cages were set into rows, with space to walk in between them. Arthur was reminded of the setup of a grocery store.

When everyone was inside the expanse the women who they’ve been following turned around and said in sync, “Look at your leisure, customers. If you take an interest in any product or have questions, we will be here. Thank you.” The humans bowed and stepped to the side.

Davit turned around to him and leaned in, whispering, “Now we wait and see if Caesar comes to us.” He flashed a smile and continued, “Blend in until then. Let’s split up, the three of us.” Arthur nodded agreeably, and Kaia hesitantly nodded after a moment as well.

Davit lazily saluted and headed leftwards. Kaia glanced at him as she slowly walked towards the middle.

He headed right, and made his way down a row, taking in all the details. The cages were medium-sized, only big enough for a person to stand in and maybe take a step. In each one was a humanoid, of various races and sizes. Other people were walking around, dressed in rich robes and speaking loudly with haughty tones as they judged the grim slaves. One old couple walked past Arthur, the man loudly whispering to the woman,

“-need one like that scaly over there. Our business needs more muscle…” Arthur tuned them out, not trusting himself to lash out in anger.

He turned back down the row and walked aimlessly, observing the area. Each slave was strangely silent, keeping their heads down. He soon saw why, when a high elf man in his row poked a human with a walking staff.

The human lashed out, throwing himself against the bars in anger and reaching for the elf, who backed away, chuckling. At the end of the row, two humans armed with clubs stood up from chairs and approached. Every head turned to watch as they hauled the struggling man out of the cage and dragged them down the row and went through a door on the right wall, the man kicking and hollering the entire way. When they left, all of the nobles turned back to what they were doing.

Arthur had never seen such casual callousness in so many people, and it grated on him. All he had to do was get his hands on Caesar, and this would become so much simpler. He grit his teeth and pretended to size up an elven woman, who was sitting on the metal bottom of the cage, knees drawn up and head in her arms.

He made up his mind. If nothing happened soon, he would rampage regardless. Sure, it would be inconvenient if Caesar got away, but it wasn’t the end of the world. He moved on to observe the next sullen slave…

{Caesar’s POV}

He double-checked the report for any missing details. The report had a detailed description of a cabin in the woods, with a family of elves and a human father. Three half-elf children, all healthy. His man sells them supplies sometimes in exchange for manual labor and coin.

He signed off permission for the smash and grab.

Caesar hummed lowly, calmly grabbing the next report. Brown-toned skin, big circle glasses, and casual clothing, he did not look like the stereotypical criminal overlord. Caesar was not a strong human. He wasn’t fast and didn’t do well with violence. But he knew how to do business, the right ways to talk with others. He knew the game, and every move was calculated twice over. And the most important thing of all, he had not a shred of empathy. He never understood others, and only acted in his interests. Caesar built himself up from a simple merchant to what he was now, and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t proud. Soon, he would be an unstoppable contender in the criminal underworld, and he didn’t plan on stopping there.

He looked over the report. Ah, his agents in Mirfield. He read it over, and his eyebrows perked up in surprise. An adult red dragon had set up its lair in the mountain near Mirfield, and was doing quests in exchange for gold? He read it over again, but the words remained the same. This was preposterous, why wasn’t this the first report at his desk? He would see to his lazy managers, but for now he had to deal with this.

As he was writing quickly, Pike opened his door and stepped inside. Normally, Caesar would have someone killed for essentially barging into his office, but Pike was an important piece of his, and that gave him some leeway. Caesar stood up and asked, “What is it?”

Pike pointed his thumb at the door and said, “Customer out there says they’re a new crime boss or something, and they have a proposal for you.” Caesar sat back down and put his hands on the desk. He gestured with them, saying,

“Are they genuine?”

“They sounded genuine. Not a rat type from the vibes I got.”

“Hmm. Bring Gnott in here, and then bring this crime boss.”

Pike nodded and left without another word. Caesar intercrossed his fingers and smiled a little. These amateur ‘crime bosses’ approached him all the time, coming into his office with swagger because they robbed a couple of small villages. He always loved to put them in their place, and at the same time putting them under his rule. He would enjoy this.

{Kaia’s POV}

She walked down the row, feeling very awkward. Nobles walked past her with an air of contempt and barely hidden disgust. Kaia looked at the slaves, some staring back defiantly and others looking broken. She had flashbacks to when she was forced to clean and wash for the nobles. She was regularly abused back then, mostly verbally. Old scars were being picked at here, and Kaia hoped this would be over with already.

She tried to find Arthur and spotted him. Confidence trickled back when she looked at Arthur. If her god said no harm would come to her, then that was that. She looked around for Davit and spotted him speaking with an old noble couple. When they finished, he parted ways with them. Kaia was startled slightly when Davit turned to her from across the rows and winked, a coin purse in his hand that he jingled before putting it back. She rolled her eyes and turned her back on him.

For the next few minutes, Kaia watched the nobles pick out whoever they liked and told the two women who had not moved a muscle. They would talk details about how they wanted to be transported, and then they would hand over money and leave. By then, the human named Pike returned through the right door of the expanse and approached Davit after spotting him. Arthur left his row of cages and started walking towards the two and motioned Kaia to follow him.

Glad to get back by her god’s side, Kaia scampered over and walked towards them. Davit was nodding his head to something Pike said and was replying cheerfully, “Great! Caesar will love my proposal, I’m sure of it! Come along, lackeys. Don’t keep Caesar waiting.” He winked at Arthur and gestured for Pike to lead. Finally, they could get out of this place! Relief was all Kaia could feel as Pike led them into the right door.

{Arthur’s POV}

The trio was led down another winding hallway, passing many doors and entrances along the way. He was sure he heard screaming behind one door they passed. After a minute of walking, Pike piped up and said, “This is it right here. Caesar’s inside.” Pike pointed to the door to their left. Pike knocked three times, and Arthur heard a faint “You may enter.” come from the inside of the room.

Pike opened the door and gestured for them to go first. Davit, Arthur, and Kaia entered single file through the door, stepping into an office. Two guards on each side of the room watched as the trio entered, most looking at Arthur. A regular-looking human with harry potter style glasses sat behind a clean desk. He smiled and gestured to a chair, saying, “Please, sit. Whichever of you is the crime boss I’ve been told about.”

Davit spread his arms and turned to face him, saying jovially, “Welp, here ya go! On a silver platter, just like promised. Good old Davit doesn’t lie!” Arthur nodded, replying,

“I suppose I owe you one.” Caesar motioned, and all of the guards, including Pike, drew their scimitars.

“What is the meaning of this? Explain or die.” Caesar turned kind to cold callousness in a heartbeat at their words, standing up and staring at them with a frown. Arthur felt his instincts acting up, getting the urge to gloat in Caesar’s face about his imminent death. Instead, he controlled himself and said with a steely gaze,

“Enough talk. Davit, Kaia. Kill the guards.” The four guards lunged at them from each side. One slashed at Arthur with a scimitar, who deflected the blow with his arm, the scales enhanced from his draconic magic. Arthur turned to one side and lashed his thick tail at the guard in retaliation, hitting him in the side and causing him to stumble. Arthur grabbed the guard and heaved, tossing them bodily at Caesar, who was in the process of rummaging in the desk drawers.

The guard hit the desk and sprawled on top of it, pushing Caesar away in the process. During this, Kaia had put the guard attacking her to sleep, and stabbed him twice with his scimitar. She sported a nasty-looking cut on her forearm. Davit had the two guards on his side on their knees, clutching their heads and staring at something unseen with obvious fear. He pulled out a dagger and stabbed them both in the throat, quickly killing them. Pike had held back from the fight and ran out the door at the guard’s death. “Oh no, you don’t!” Davit yelled and chased after him, disappearing out of sight through the door.

Arthur slashed the last guard with his clawed fingernails, who tried to scramble out of the way. He hit them, driving bleeding gouges on their face. Kaia cast a firebolt on the guard, which set his clothes alight. Arthur threw the guard out of the way and approached a cornered Caesar, who seemed relatively calm given the situation.

He grabbed Caesar and hoisted him up by the shirt. Caesar struggled, spitting out, “I have just above forty armed men in this area alone, and that’s not counting how many will come after you if you kill me! It would be foolish to continue this!” Arthur was quiet for a moment, and then let out a chuckle. And it was from his real voice, the chuckle deep and resonating, and rough all at once. Arthur leaned in real close to Caesar and stated, “Foolish? I’m not the fool here.” Arthur squeezed Caesar’s neck with both hands, before twisting violently. He dropped the dead human and turned to his minion, who was staring at him with awe. Arthur shook his head briefly to clear it. Stupid instincts acting up again. He turned back to Kaia and said normally,

“Come on. Let’s go back to the holding area. We will find Davit after securing the slaves.” Kaia nodded and they hustled back to the expanse.

They ran into a group of eight guards on the way, which Arthur cleared up with a blast of his breath weapon. The flames roared out of his mouth and incinerated the closest guards and left the remaining barely standing. From that point it was simple to bash the rest to death, Kaia pitching in with magic. There were no interruptions after that, and the duo made it back to the expanse.

The area was the same, except the nobles were missing and a group of guards was at the door that led to the outside. Arthur spotted the dwarves they saw from the cellar in the tavern, and a few faces from the tavern as well. All of the slaves in the cages were either watching the guards or were turning to look at Arthur and Kaia as they entered. One of the guards shouted out and pointed at them, and the group raised their weapons and let out war cries, running towards them.

“Kaia, get back and cast spells.” Kaia nodded and stepped back, already letting loose fire bolts at the faster guards. Arthur decided this form didn’t fit. What should he turn into? He could just turn into a younger version of a dragon, as this expanse was not big enough for his usual form. But what was the fun in that? Arthur turned into a tyrannosaurus rex.

Turning into another form he wasn’t used to or witnessed was a bit tricky, but details from both his childhood and his D&D knowledge couple with the magic helping him, he successfully turned into the huge dinosaur. The guards stopped in their tracks, wary of this sudden change. One of them shouted, “It’s an illusion! I saw this magic before!”

The man who yelled that charged, inciting the others to continue. By then, Arthur had worked out the kinks of the new form. It was relatively simple. There were two legs, a tail, and a giant mouth. Kaia had been pelting the men with fire bolts this entire time, missing a couple and hitting others. Already one had fallen from the barrage of fire bolts, clothes alight and burning their flesh.

The human ran towards him and swung at him with a shortsword, hitting his leg. It pierced, causing a little trickle of red blood where it was pierced. In retaliation, Arthur bent down and bit the man, pulling them up in the air and thrashing them around. He threw them away like a dog would a chew toy and charged through the group of guards, wreaking havoc on the startled group. There were twelve guards in total, and Arthur ripped through each one, the humans and dwarves not able to do more damage than hitting his legs with small wounds. He stomped on one, bit down on another, and thrashed his tail at a flanking guard all at the same time.

This battle was taking place close to the cages, about twenty feet from them. Arthur was careful not to disturb the cages, but the closest cages inevitably got tipped over in the chaos, and Arthur almost stepped on a single one while trying to stomp a fleeing guard. The last enemy died when Arthur stomped on them, biting down on the exposed head and torso, ripping them in two. He spat them out and changed back to his half-dragon form.

He observed the carnage and motioned Kaia to come help him in picking the cages back up, saying to her, “Well done. Let’s free these people now.” Kaia nodded her thanks and replied cheerily,

“Your kindness knows no bounds, Arthur! Let’s free them!” They heaved and set one of the cages back in place, the cage in question having a blood-spattered elven man. He looked to them warily as they moved on to the next tipped-over cage.

A question came to Arthur’s mind. Where had Davit run off to?