∼ Day 23 ∼

After slowly coming to, I groaned in pain. I wasn't sure what it was that I was laying on, but it definitely wasn't pleasant. Cracking open an weary eye, I saw an unfamiliar sight. I was apparently laying on a thin layer of sand.

Propping myself up slowly, I immediately got thrown into a cough that ridd of most of the sand that had gotten into my mouth. Looking to the horizon, I saw the twin suns glaring their splendor upon the world.

Oh- yeah... I was jus- ARGHH.

As my memory was slowly coming back to me, I was suddenly hit by an intense pulse of pain that flared in my head and coursed throughout my battered body. Grinding my teeth, I had to strain myself no to yell out.

The phantom pains...

To my immense displeasure, the phantom pains induced by the sadistic gremlin hadn't stopped. It was like a headache, just multiplied many times over, which pulsed every now and then. I couldn't help but let out a grunt of pain each time a pulse of pain claimed my mind for a solid second or two.

Looking around, I saw a few of the other captured monsters awake or asleep resting against the wall, with the rest sleeping in the open chambers to the side of the building where we got our food.

It was first now that I realized that someone had apparently put my shackles back together whilst I was passed out, as my memories before passing out didn't recall anyone doing so.

I began moving towards the nearest building, so I could rest my back against it. The ones awake had already taken notice of my awakening, but they only looked in apprehension and pity at my limping form.

To my surprise, I could even still see fear and respect directed towards me hidden subtly in their eyes. I wasn't entirely sure if it was just my strength or something else that garnered their recognition, but I simply couldn't care less so I ignored it.

Slumping against the wall, I could only lay my forehead against the metal hunk of my shackles as the phantom pains continued to rack my mind and body.

As time went by, the phantom pains didn't lessen even in the slightest. I could only sit and wallow in the ever pulsing pain incapacitating me. But as each wave went through my head, the irritation I felt about everything only got magnified, slowly turning me into a flaming ball of anger just waiting to go boom.

Suddenly, around midday, the high-pitched creaking of a metal gate being opened rang out and caused my pain-induced headache to flare. Looking up, I had to cover my eyes from the bright midday suns, as their light was also enough to provoke my headache even further.

It was almost like having the worst hangover ever, whilst being in the hospital from just getting hit by a truck. That's how much pain I was in, and that's just the aftermath of Jeerbal's quick trip down to sadism land...

Anyways... using my shackled hands to cover the suns' rays, I saw a large entourage of orc guards following another but larger and more heavily armored orc that I hadn't seen before.

Suddenly drawing a metal shield from his back, he began clanging it with the butt of his weapon. Cringing at the loud and invasive sound, I had to restrain myself from lunging and tearing his head off to simply get him to stop making this god-awful sound.

"Come on! Everybody up!" - ???

Everybody who was already awake shared annoyed looks, and those who had been still sleeping were quickly rocked awake. Slowly everybody gathered together in front of the head orc guard, or at least that was what I guessed he was.

In the crowd, there were a lot of sleepy and annoyed faces. But those expressions quickly faltered as the ones closest to where I approached began to hastily create a healthy distance between us as they saw the clear annoyance, pain, and anger contorting my face.

Offhandedly I pulled up the leading orc to note his strengths as what had become a habit by now.

-Appraisal!-

Appraisal - Lo'gar

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "Lo'gar" STR 62 Skills ??? -Race- Orc VIT 40 Traits ??? -Sex- Male AGI 22 Titles ??? -Rank- E+ DEX ??? Resistances

-Level- 33/35 INT 15 Health 322/322 CHR ??? Physical Resistance ??? Stamina 122/128 WILL ??? Magical Resistance ??? Mana 0/0 MAG ??? Mental Resistance ???

Glancing over us all, the orc, Lo'gar, locked eyes with me for a few seconds before redirecting his gaze to the crowd while plastering a smile that reached from ear to ear on his green orc mug.

"It's time we get you ready... for the Mauling" - Lo'gar

As he said "the Mauling" his voice became deep and his smile turned sinister.

Time went by as we all filed into a row surrounded by the many orc guards. Leaving the yard of the "fodder" as they so pleasantly liked to put it, we're quickly met by the sight of a giant wagon that looked more like a cage on wheels than a wagon.

It was rectangular with thick wooden flooring and ceiling, only having thick metal bars surround on all sides, holding them up.

What else intrigued me was the giant beasts strapped to the wagon, like horses to a carriage. While the coloration of these beasts was a bit different from what I remembered, but these are definitely the same race as the swamp stowlers from back in my early days in this world.

There were a total of four of these massive beasts, and to be sure I appraised one of them.

-Appraisal!-

Profile: Stowler

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR 72 Skills ??? -Race- Stowler VIT 50 Traits ??? -Sex- Male AGI ??? Titles ??? -Rank- E- DEX ??? Resistances

-Level- 32/35 INT ??? Health 405/405 CHR ??? Physical Resistance ??? Stamina 312/376 WILL ??? Magical Resistance ??? Mana 0/0 MAG ??? Mental Resistance ???

Well damn... these are apparently of the same race without the "swamp" -not entirely sure why, but I guess they're named after the location or a particular strain of their race. Other than that, they're also a lot higher leveled than the ones I had originally seen.

I'm was quite surprised to see them here, but as their huge hulking bodies were almost made for carrying and hauling heavy things, it made sense since they're inadvertently the perfect beasts of burden. Not to mention the fact that they're also more than strong enough to protect themselves if such a need ever came.

The sheer size of the wagon and beasts barely allowed for them to stay on the paved path running up and down the mountain. Walking past the line of fodder, one of the guards opened a hatch in the cage while shouting for us to file in.

Well, at least we don't have to walk all the way...

Getting up and into the cage with wheels, I found myself a spot against the metal bars of the rather open cage on wheels, noting that pretty much everybody with me in the cage was steering well clear of where I was sitting. But I didn't mind as this headache pounding my mind to mush was more than enough for me to think about currently.

Suddenly wincing by the sharp noise of the head guard tapping the metal bars of the cage with the butt of his weapon, I could barely restrain myself from once again wanting to charge at him.

He's really getting on my nerves by now... is he doing this on purpose?

Before I could think any more of the horrible things I wanted to do to a particular green-skinned orc and gremlin, the wagon launched into motion.

The city was so enormous that we had to spend a good deal of the day just traveling down the mountain and into the city. The stowlers were big and cumbersome whilst they had to drag a heavy load of a wagon filled with more than thirty people.

So not only did we have to go slowly down the mountain, so we didn't begin tumbling down it, but also when we finally reached the city from the Mistress' property or domain we had to slow even further down.

This was mostly due to the massive crowds flooding the streets. It was apparent that I had severely underestimated the population of the city. It had to be at least double than what I had previously figured. The sheer amount of hobgoblins and other miscellaneous creatures everywhere was staggering.

It was actually quite interesting seeing how much the environment changed the further we go into the city. At the edges, the population consisted pretty much of half goblins and half hobs. They were obviously the inhabitants of the city's slums, as the buildings and their clothing was almost nothing more than rubble and tatters.

But the scenery and people quickly changed for each further step we took. Fewer and fewer goblins showed up, whilst the houses were cleaner and more well-built. Their clothing also underwent a massive quality change, to where they just wore what I associated with the medieval middle-class humans would wear.

I even managed to spot a few ragged humans, although each one collared. They were obviously slaves.

By this time, the twin suns had already hit the horizon, casting a dim darkness over the city. But I knew well enough that such little darkness didn't interfere with greenskin night-vision in even the slightest bit.

Even so, the city was also lit radiantly with torches and lanterns, that it surprised me that such a fire hazard hadn't been set the city ablaze by now.

While I had been paying attention to what I could whilst traveling through the city and wide but crowded streets, my annoyance, and irritation had only grown by each passing minute. Although I was happy that I didn't need to walk all this way, the wagon posed its own problems and drawbacks.

The constant and incessant bumping of the wagon driving over the rocky roads... Each bump sending a jolt of pain through my head, and by now I was just burying it in my arms to create as much stability I could, in hopes it would lessen my pain. But even that wasn't the worst part.

The damn greenskins screaming and hollering in the streets...

The thousands upon thousands of greenskins that flooded that the streets just had to shout all kinds of jeering, cheering, and catcalling as they saw us roll by.

They all knew what we were heading for, and they were coming to watch. The streams of greenskins were following us towards the colossal colosseum as they were apparently very excited for this "Mauling".

But with the constant bumping of the carriage, and the over-the-top noises bleeding in from all directions, I was reaching the end of my tolerance.

The sheer irritation, pain, annoyance, information, and hatred that had been building up ever since I was captured, was boiling at the edge... or... that was until-

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" - Me

In a sudden outburst, I bellowed from the top of my lungs. Accompanied by my surprisingly loud bellow was a wave of pure killing intent infused with rage and anger.

Everything turned silent...

By now, a large ring had formed around the carriage, as the pale-faced and heavily breathing hobgoblins had desperately stumbled over each other to get the fuck away.

Many had passed out cold and now laid unconscious on the paved rock of the streets, others had pale faces as they couldn't handle the pressure. Everybody's attention was directed now to a small figure residing within the wagon that had been rolling down the street.

That wasn't even mentioning the also pale-faced orcs, saurians, and beastkin that looked as if they were trapped inside a cage with a deadly beast, which ironically enough they were. Even the coachman, a simple orc guard, was startled into a stunned stupor.

The killing intent radiating off me in pulsing waves did no abate, even in the slightest. With my sudden outburst, I had inadvertently caused myself some more pain, but I didn't care as the sweet sound of silence was now ever-present.

There went a handful of seconds before, the terrified coachman stiffly returned to his job of transporting us. To my great pleasure, the rest of the trip was relatively silent as the many greenskins around dared not speak in the presence of such an overwhelming and deadly aura that flooded the streets from the cage on wheels.