The hit against the leg of the beast from the discarded wagon wheel drew its attention to Victor and his small group. With its attention away from the first group it had been fighting, the group launched out with a full set of attacks. A few blades stabbed into its hind legs, some arrows were shot, with poor accuracy causing most to miss, and one woman coated her hands in two different elements, flame on her left and pure magical essence in her right, charging in to strike with an audible crash.

"What is this thing?" Victor cried out as he watched Dorun charge in to act as his shield.

Spreading themselves apart so the creature would not have a single large target to go against, Doliy yelled out but didn't seem to disturb any of the others around them.

"It's a slarib. A nocturnal beast who normally ignores people unless they go after its children. Even then only if you smell like the children. More than once specialized poacher has been able to get some of its kids. This is out of its normal behavior and I think it has something to do with that glow."

Spear held tight in both of his hands, Victor already felt out of breath just from what he had seen. His hands shook like when he had killed the man at the farm, but, he told himself, at least this was just a beast and not something he would have to feel bad about if he helped kill it.

"Does anyone have any clue how to deal with this thing?" he asked hoping that there was some common knowledge. Something like catnip or glowing blue icon like in a game that only those who could use magic could see.

"Nothing," someone from the other side of the slarib called out, "It is just a matter of killing it like you would anything else. Unless you got a way for the sun to start shining right now then we just have to outlive it."

"Its nose."

The words were softly spoken and Victor barely heard them, only noticing when they were being repeated that Alena was speaking.

"It has something weird in its nose. Some form of magic. Does anyone have a way to disrupt its magic? I don't know if that will beat it, but it's doing something to it."

This time her voice carried and a bit of murmuring started to spread on the outer layer of the fight. Another person had been badly injured, but Victor wasn't sure who as the body was flung a noticeable ways away.

Slowly the creature started moving towards a single person as the fight happened, stopping to get rid of whatever got in its way as the merchants were debating on if they should trust the woman's words about the nose.

"Fuck it," the woman with her fists coated in magic cried out, "It's better to work on an idea than argue over it. It's going after the girl from the lovey-dovey group. If we let it go after her I'll get in the way and break its nose."

The people who were in the merchants' group, except for the old man, complied with the woman's orders and backed away, leaving Dorun and Drelt, who both seemed to be barely able to stand must less defend, as the only thing between the slarib and its target, Ruuz.

As the slarib ran at its target, Victor threw his spear with all the strength he could muster. Having intended to hit it in the head it did indeed make contact, but with the creature's paw only to be smacked away casually mid-stride. Just a moment before it bore its way through the only defense it found in its way, the woman did as she said and blocked its path.

A two part punch found its way onto the beast's face with an explosion of flame, spread further by the burst of pristine magic her other fist provided. Soon its head started to catch fire in various places and it dropped to the ground rolling around, the purple coloring on it fading away into nothingness in the process.

Flailing on the ground, the slarib soon found everyone who wasn't injured attacking it, except for Alena. Most were only throwing things at it, but those who had confidence in their skills would attack it with anything they still had, using weapons that others had used before being disarmed and having to manage. Even Victor took his sword and, while he was very hesitant to get close, slashed at anything that was close enough to him.

Before long the beast eventually stopped flailing when Dorun brought his weapon down upon its head and cracked through its skull creating an especially loud cracking sound and puddle of gore where the head laid still.

When everything settled down the results weren't as terrible as expected, but there was still plenty of indication that a conflict had occurred.

From the merchants' side, one of the caravan guards had died due to blood loss when his arm was ripped off, two of the groups had serious injuries and many had minor ones. Of their carts, only one survived unharmed and another was harmed but would function, the rest were a lost cause that some scrap could be salvaged for possible repairs later. Also, a noticeable, but not overwhelming amount of merchandise was harmed in some way.

Victors group was let off a lot easier, likely because they were the smaller group. Dorun had the start of bruising and Drelt had a gash on his left hand, making it hard for him to do much at the moment. They were lucky enough that nothing was broken except for a tarp that was caught in the burst of magic and fire when the woman punched it the slarib in the nose.

Compared to the fight the rest of the night was pretty uneventful. Everyone slept, even those who would have been on watch, and in the morning the two groups talked about the situation with the body of the beast. The same man who approached them the night before spoke to Victor and Doliy for a while, until Victor just cut everyone off.

"Your group lost the most, your carts are broken and you lost a person. I say take some time and cut or yank what you want off of it and we will just take the rest, but don't cut it apart alright? I'd like to keep the last part in one piece."

The man agreed to the terms and before long the corpse was, partially, skinned with its fangs and teeth mostly removed. If not for the fact he wanted to get them out of there and to see someone with medical training beyond the basics, he would likely have taken more. Although he did claim that room for the new merchandise would be a concern if they took too much.

Waiting for everyone to leave Alena spoke up softly, looking at the rest of the group.

"We don't have the room for this. If not cooked right away it can rot. I say we just leave it and if not we should just cook some up and have a late start today........ but we should at least cut into its rear area because there is something in there."

"Something that was controlling it?" Victor blurted out in an instant causing everyone to stare at him.

"I mean, didn't someone say they are normally not too aggressive? Or was it..... I just....... surely it wouldn't randomly be violent right?"

Dorun put his hand on Victors shoulder, "Sometimes a beast just goes crazy. It is no different than when a normally calm and capable woman suddenly goes wild for a few days every lunar cycle."

Ruuz approached the slave and looked at Victor, "Can I hit him for that? I mean he was very rude so I can hit him right?"

A quick glance told Victor that neither of the other women were making any indication that this was too over the top here, but at the same time one of them was his property and the other was asking for his help. Ruuz was the only one who had no direct connection to him. In a way she could be said to be the friend of a friend.

"Not this time," Victor eventually replied, "If he says something like that again I'll let you though. I mean... you can't just...... eh, fuck it Dorun no saying insulting things like that about or that could be seen as against anyone in our group. We all need to get along and work together and having us all mad at each other will not help."

"Regardless of that though can anyone tell me if this thing's body is worth taking with us at all? I don't mind that it died for no reason, but just tell me now if it's worth it or not."

Doliy had finished pacing it while everyone else was talking, finishing her loop around it before speaking.

"Its fur can be used for clothing, some of its bones and the like can be used for various things if ground up. Of course, if there is a mana core in it then that will be of great value depending on its size. Something like this could have one that is bigger than our head if it developed one while it was still a child. Possibly, but unlikely, bigger than our torso even."

Her eyes switched from the dead beast and towards Victor, "Can you put it away like you did your spear, or is that something you can only do with your weapons?"

Drelt, having been on the side for a while, held up the spear that Victor had used in the fight. He held it towards Victor and pointed towards Victor's hand.

Trying to put the spear in Victor's hand a moment later, Drelt did a lot of hand motions that Victor couldn't really figure out. After enough of this had passed Victor was unable to help but sigh and put the spear down on the ground.

"Alright um..... Alena, Dorun, Drelt... I don't really want to give you orders, but... this is something I want to have kept secret for as long as possible. If having this corpse will be useful I'm going to bring it with us. The whole thing, not just what you can cook right now."

"That is why... you are all forbidden from telling anyone how I am able to do what I am about to do alright?"

Dorun smiled wide and brought his fists together, "I would never dare to share my masters' secrets. Even under torture, I will not let it escape my lips. Even if it means my death I will..."

Victor stopped paying attention to Doruns ramblings which continued for several minutes and instead chose to look towards Drelt and Alena.

Drelt simply nodded his head in his, always, silent manner. He touched his shoulder, then his lips and Victor thought he knew what the man meant. Something along the lines of how he will die before too long anyway and he can't even speak so there are no worries.

Alena looked at Victor with the smallest of smirks, "You let me keep my secrets so far even though if you pushed it... Anyway, we are all permitted to have secrets and if you let me have my secrets I should accommodate your request. And if you are truthful about letting us buy our freedom, and this does have a mana core, this beast's sale could be a good start to my funding."

Victor smiled a bit, then couldn't help but frown.

"I just wish I could be sure that all three of you would want this. You certainly seem like you're going to buy your freedom as soon as you can, but Dorun seems almost happy with it, and Drelt..."

The words were cut short as he looked at the man who he hadn't been able to help so far and, from what he had heard, it would cost a lot of money to deal with what was causing his body harm.

"If they aren't going to pay to be free don't worry about it. Just do what you promised and give them the money when you pay me. A lot of people who own slaves will lie to them to manipulate them and, if I am honest, I still have my doubts, but not many people would provide us weapons without basically making us go out and hunt for things. To risk our lives to pad their pockets."

"To be fair," Victor retorted, "I am putting you to work and I did say to fight last night."

"Oh stop talking," Alena said.

"Do you really think that when something attacks the camp in the middle of the night we will hold it against you if you want us to fight? Especially since you tried to fight."

Victor felt a bit better about what he was told and it showed on his face, at least until he heard the next part.

"That said you were next to useless. Maybe even useless until it was being swarmed. Although you were another body to distract it so maybe not completely useless. Just, it was obvious you didn't know what you were doing and haven't really fought before."

"I'd ask if you were some sort of noble, but if you are having money problems I doubt that's the case."

"Stop." Victor said to Alena, "I get what you're saying but please just stop. I never claimed to be a fighter. I also don't claim to be a mage, an archer, or a scholar. At least not in a way that matters."

Dorun nearly barked as he spoke, "Alena you shouldn't speak like that to our master. We are to make his life better not insult him. You should bow before him and beg for his forgiveness for how rude you were and hope he will let you off easy with only a light beating."

"Dorun," Victor said to draw the man's attention.

Dorun looked at Victor with a smile on his face and stood a bit taller as he waited for his masters' words.

"I really don't give a fuck about what she said. It's true alright. I can't fight and to say otherwise is a lie that might put us at risk later."

Alena interrupted. "To be fair you lied to us. We weren't aware that you had any sort of a spear. It still wasn't exactly useful but if you want us to do our best during a fight it would be good to know what we have to work alongside of."

Getting a bit tired of the conversation, Victor sighed and walked over to the beast, looking at it. Except for the blood and a few chunks of hide that had been removed in a hurry it was mostly intact. The claws were, largely, removed as were the teeth. He assumed that either it was because those parts wouldn't rot or because they held the most value.

Looking at the creature he started to think of what people would use. He knew organs were used as food in some parts of the world back home, that poison was used to create antidotes, and that nearly everything seemed to have some use. With magic, however, he started to wonder if that was more true or less true compared to back home.

In some games, you could use a creatures, eyes, toes, fat, and even teeth to make potions and poisons of various types, but in other games, nearly nothing on a beast was usable because of corruption, radiation, natural toxins, or a multitude of other reasons.

"Alright so if anyone wants to cut something off do it right now because I'm going to put this thing away."

His slaves looked at each other, a bit of uncertainty visible on their faces. Ruuz had the look of someone who was listening to someone brag about being great at something they were actually bad at while Doliy started to twirl a bit of hair around her finger, leaning in slightly closer.

Waiting for a moment, Victor extended his hand and where once was the majority of a slarib corpse, now only left blood, and minor bits of the body behind. The blood was dry and the pieces that remained were mostly smaller and, Victor thought to himself, likely to be taken by whatever scavengers this world had besides, or in addition to, crows and raccoon.

Doliy clapped her hands together as Ruuz was unable to help but show the shock on her face.

"That is amazing. Why didn't you just put it away when it was trying to kill us though?" Doliy asked.

Rolling his shoulders a bit, Victor suddenly felt Ruuz grab at him and start to try and pull at anything she could find, before Doliy stopped her.

"He has to have some magical item right? There is no way that someone with the magic to make something that big vanish wouldn't be well known as either a smuggler or a legit transporter." Ruuz yelled out.

"Look," Victor said with just a hint of irritation, "I don't know everything about this. I can't pull things in that are living or belong to someone else unless they give me their permission. Basically, it's sort of a big pocket and now that that guy is in it I can't hide my spear away."

Dorun roared out a laugh, "I knew my master was amazing. He would have to be or else he wouldn't have chosen me to be his. All the more reason I should never leave your side master. You may even store me away like you did that beast and then I will always be there for you if you need me."

"I can't put something away unless I own it and it's not alive. Unless I get permission and..." Victor started before he was interrupted.

"But you do own me, master." Dorun blurted out.

Victor pinched his nose, "Fine I own you. You're property as far as the law is concerned, but you aren't dead. If you fell to the beast I could store you away then, but I can't store you while you still live."

Alena spoke up as Dorun tried to think of a way to use his master's special magic, frustration slowly showing.

"So you can just kind of put things away for a while? Do you have to touch it or if you left something back home could you put it away and then take it out?"

Victor shook his head, "Sort of. I can only put away one thing and it has to be close. I don't have to touch it though, but I have to be close-ish."

"Then," Alena inquired, "Why don't you just use that to take away what's killing Drelt?"