At the same time at home, Miranda was sitting on the couch thinking about what she had done, it was all she had done all day and it was playing on her conscience.

*Knock *Knock

Who is it? Is he back already?

She got up and walked towards the door.

As she opened, she was met by a stranger in black robes obscuring the view of her face and body parts.

"Don't close the door on me" the stranger said.

It was a woman.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Miranda enquired.

"Who I am doesn't matter right now, what does matter is your safety, do you even know who it is you are staying with?" the woman asked

"What do you mean?" Miranda asked with a confused look on her face.

"You don't know............. it is imperative that I tell you, everything so far that's happened since you met that boy is a lie" the woman responded.

"So where are we going Zerbia?" the boy asked as they walked through the street, exiting it and arriving at the main road.

"We have to head to the town square and then I'll lead you to them "Zerbia responded.

They made their way to the town square and Zerbia stopped walking and he could be seen thinking.

"We're going left if I recall correctly," Zerbia said upon making up his mind.

It was the street which was located near the inn.

They entered the street and kept walking continuously for around 20 minutes, passing multiple streets on both sides of the roadway and as they navigated further, heading deeper and deeper towards the western border, women could be seen on the sides of the street approaching men on the roadway.

Looking to the far right of the roadway, one building stood out more than others it was a one storey brown building made of brick with an open gable roof composed of metal sheeting, windows to the building's side and not the front and a black door to the front of the building facing the roadway.

Zerbia began to point at the building.

"That's the place, it's a "clothes" store, that's the front they use,head inside and talk to the man at the counter and say "Sò quì per un schiavu" he'll take you downstairs to the traders.................when you pay for the girl, ensure the contract gets transferred to you and you'll become her owner"

"Her owner? I don't wanna be her owner"

"See the problem with tribal people is that they aren't citizens of any city so as a result if they get taken and are sold into slavery, no city records can prove them being a citizen and as a result they're up for grabs"

"What kind of bullshit is that"

"It's how the world is Sir, as sad as it is, it is what it is"

"I see"

The thought of that made the boy's blood boil a bit.

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, I'll be fine"

"What if they get violent and decide to rob you instead of carrying out the transaction?"

"I'll deal with them"

"You don't even have a weapon on you sir"

"Doesn't really matter to me, go deal with the school, we'll meet up in the inn by the square"

The boy made his way over to the building and entered.

As he looked inside, all he could see was female clothing, ranging from dresses of various kinds to skirts and tops on multiple racks mounted on wooden rows. Multiple women were located around the room looking at the various assortment of garments and gossiping, for a store it was pretty loud.

Looking directly ahead of all the clothing, a large wooden table could be seen, made of what looked to be teak with a short fat man, dressed in a brown short sleeved tunic with a pair of black pants made from what seemed to be cloth sitting behind it on a large wooden padded chair reading something on a piece of paper. He was the shopkeeper.

The boy approached the man in the chair, "So qui per un schiavu".

I think I said it wrong but he gets the drift

The man raised his head and observed the boy, he could see that the boy was carrying a money bag. He looked at a woman to the far right of the room.

*Clap *Clap

With two claps, all women to the right of the room exited the store and the remainder of women to the left spread out across the room staring at the boy.

"Come with me" the man growled as he got up from the chair. He seemed to be displeased as he had to get up from sitting.

Making his way to the center of the room, the man pushed a wooden row to the side as if it were nothing and a trapdoor could be seen beneath it.

It was perfectly camouflaged into the wooden floor and to the average eye, people would not have noticed it but the boy could see it clear as day, it was due to the extremely fine lining in the wooden floor. It was linear spreading throughout all the boards but then they just randomly stopped at that specific square area.

A small dent could be seen on the floor and the man stooped down and using a long nail on his index finger, he stuck it into the dent and raised it.

A small thin piece of wood, rectangular shaped was removed and a black metal handle could be seen behind it.

The man grabbed the handle and pulled it upwards, lifting the door with a staircase being visible, spiraling downwards.

Entering, the man descended, in the time that he was down there, he was under surveillance from the women in the shop.

He began to assess the room using subtle glances, there was only one entrance and that was also the exit, the windows were barred with metal on the inside so there was no possibility of exiting through there.

He casually smiled and began looking at the women. He began to do a headcount and he casually checked for weapons. 10.....no 15 the number was far too great for him to take on alone at least without a weapon.They were unarmed from what he saw, but that was based on mere speculation.

The man ascended from the staircase and began to look at the boy, "Down you go".

The boy began to make his descent.

It was a spiral staircase made of what was presumed to be stone, illuminated by candles attached to the walls, the temperature in the staircase was so hot that it made the boy break a sweat.

As he reached the bottom of the room, it was fully illuminated by candles, the room was relatively big and clean with the walls painted fully white, it was an oddity,there were no air pockets for air to enter the room and it made no sense to the boy as to how people could stay down there for extended periods of time.

There were 3 brown couches, presumably made of what looked to be cloth, two 3 seaters along the left wall and one two-seater along the right wall.

Straight ahead of the room was a man sitting behind a large wooden executive desk with a large black leather padded chair and a wooden chair to the front of the desk.

I feel sick already

There were 5 men total, 3 sitting on a couch to the left and 2 on the couch to the right. They were of varying statures, all of them dressed in tunics of different colors, different pants, and boots.

Three of them looked to be skinny, one looked to be fat and one looked to be highly muscular.

The only thing they had in common was the fact that they were all armed, they made no effort to hide this, 3 long swords total on the muscular man, the fat man and one on one of the skinny men. The remainder had daggers strapped to their waists.

All eyes were on the boy.

Straight ahead of him was a man seated behind the desk, he looked different from the rest of the thugs.

The man was wearing a brown shirt, black dress pants, and a black leather dress shoes. There was no proper way of assessing the man's stature as he was sitting and the boy couldn't tell the man's physique either as the clothes he wore were baggy. He seemed to be the slave dealer.

The boy walked over to the desk, pulled the chair, took a seat and looked the man in the eyes with a glare.

The air became tense and the man began to stare at the boy.

"Have you no manners?" the man asked.

A slave trader speaking about manners to me?

Slave traders pissed him off as he was sold off as a child and the thought of selling and purchasing people made him sick to the bone.

"You're a slave trader, I don't need manners to speak to you" the boy responded in a condescending tone.

Staring at the boy, the man made a quick glance to the left side of the room.

"Fair enough, so what are you, a noble?" the man enquired.

"Do I look like a noble?" the boy responded.

The man began to inspect the boy.

"No..........you come here alone?" the man asked.

"Yes" the boy replied casually.

"You do know where you are right?"

"Yes"

"You know what we do?"

"Yes"

"Are you not afraid of being here alone?"

"Do I look fuckin afraid?"

"You're a pretty disrespectful son of a bitch aren't you for someone who ain't even of high class" the man told the boy, bending his head downwards.

*Tap *Tap *Tap

"Is that so" the boy said with a smirk on his face as he could hear footsteps behind him.

Immediately the boy got up and turned around to see the muscular man behind him.

"Typio, deal with this piece of shit" the man instructed.

Piece of shit huh

As Typio went for the sword on his waist, the boy quickly punched the man in the throat, grabbing the hilt of the sword he let forward a kick, pushing the man to the ground and effectively pulling the sword from the sheath.

It was instantaneous, the boy quickly jumped on top of the man and took the hilt of the sword and bashed it into the man's skull, leaving him unconscious.

As he got up, he could hear the sounds of the rest of men drawing their weapons whilst on their feets surrounding him.

*Squish

Taking the sword the boy drove it into the unconscious man's throat, impaling it to the ground and killing the man.

A slight sensation ran across the boy's throat as if he was being slightly choked.

Should I start on the rest of them...........

The men in the room could be seen frightened.

Could be more that I don't know about, if I kill all these men maybe I won't even get her contract, I don't know what I have to do to transfer it to me

Walking over to the desk, he saw the man on his feet in a look of shock and the boy took a seat on the chair as he once did before and crossed his legs.

"I apologize, can we do business now, I really don't want to have to start on all of you in this room......... let's just do business," he said with an intimidating look on his face.

The man at the desk took a second to compose himself and then he waved his hand downwards and the rest of the men took a seat.

"S-So sir, w-w-what can I h-help you with?" the man said in fear.

"I'm here to buy the slave associated with this blood, a crucis semino, of course, I'll pay for the slave," the boy said as he took the blood vial out of his pocket and placed it on the desk.

"A-A crucis semino?"

"Yes, how much? I'd like to leave here on good terms, I'll compensate you for the slave and the man's life I just took. Since you people treat others as livestock just add it to the bill" the boy said with a hint of aggression.

"A-Ah okay sir," the man said as he opened one of the drawers in the desk.

There were 7 contracts rolled up and tied within the drawer.

The man removed all contracts and placed them on top on the desk and unrolled them.

As he unrolled them, there was a blood vial associated with each contract rolled up with it.

Looking at the contracts, it was all in a foreign language, he couldn't even tell which one was Miranda's.

Opening another drawer the man took out a small steel bowl and grabbed the blood vial the boy had put on the table.

He opened the vial and emptied all of the blood into the steel bowl and began to chant in a foreign tongue.

The blood in the bowl began to sizzle and boil.

The man opened one of the blood vials and put a drop of the foreign blood into Miranda's sizzling blood.

A red steam evolved as it made contact signifying the blood had evaporated.

The man closed the vial and moved on to another.

After 4 more attempts, the man was on the 6th vial.

As he opened the vial and put a drop of blood into the bowl, the boiling blood immediately cooled and all sizzling stopped, there was no red steam from this attempt.

"T-This is the one" the man told the boy.

As the man looked at the contract, for a second the man's eyes opened widely.

"How much for the transfer?"

"W-Well sir for y-you it'll be let's say 1400 drachma"

"I'll give you 2000 and that'll be for the man too"

"You're a very gracious man, thank you"

"Stop suckin my cock and let's move on"

The boy tossed the bag filled with drachma on the table.

"Take 2000 out of there then gimme back the bag, take even one more than the 2000 out and I'll take your head," the boy said with a grin on his face.

The man's face turned cold as he checked the money and around 15 minutes later he was done and passed the bag back to the boy.

Turning the contract to face the boy, it could be seen that there were 3 boxes positioned into the form of a pyramid, with the box at the right having a bloodied fingerprint which presumably was Miranda's.

The man looked at him, then pricked his finger and placed a fingerprint at the bottom of the contract in the left box within one of the boxes and then instructed the boy to do the same in the box to the top of the pyramid.

Putting his finger in his mouth the boy bit off part of the skin on his thumb and made a fingerprint in the box at the top.

"That's it, i-it's in your name," the man said as he rolled the contract up and passed it to the boy.

"You sure that's all? Don't fuck with me right now"

"That's it, I swear"

"Thank you very much, it better be it or else I'll be back for every single one of your heads," the boy said with a smile on his face as he gratefully accepted the contract.

The boy got up and turned around and began to walk towards the staircase.

He could see the men were on their feet and on edge.

"Sit the fuck down, you people are an eyesore," he told the men aggressively as he continued walking past all of them.

As he stood directly in front of the staircase he turned around.

"Hopefully this is the first and last time we'll meet, pray you don't meet me a second time," the boy said as he threatened the men then proceeded to walk up the stairs.

The man on the outside could hear the sound of the footsteps and he opened the door to let the boy out.

As he exited the staircase and emerged into the shop, all eyes were on him again.

He paid no attention to them and walked out the front door as if nothing had ever happened.

Making his way through the streets the boy made his way to the town square and entered the inn.

It was crowded and loud with people shouting and laughing.

He walked over to the bar counter and took a seat on one of the stools and looked around the room for Jaime.

Jaime and his wife were nowhere to be seen.

Just sitting there, the boy stared at the wall for around 20 minutes thinking about what had happened and how he killed the man.

It didn't play on his conscience one bit.

"Sir, I got through with the school," Zerbia said as he placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and then took a seat next to him.

"Ah, that's good, what'd they say?"

"They're excited at the prospect of her joining and they said that she can start going to the institute from tomorrow if she wants, they placed a lot of emphasis on how much they wanted her"

"That's nice to hear, I got through on my end, this is the thing right?" the boy said as he passed the contract to Zerbia.

Zerbia opened the document and began to inspect it.

"Yes sir this is it, did you have any troubles getting it?"

"No...............not really...............you told me that as long as she isn't a citizen of a city she'll basically always be vulnerable to becoming a slave right?

"That's true, but this contract here makes you her owner so as long as you permit it, she's free"

"I don't want to own her, can you make her a citizen?"

"You said she was a mixed between a human right, if that's the case we can make her a citizen through her father's side, he must have been a resident of a city, we'll have to burn this contract directly before we go to register her"

"When can we do it?"

"Whenever you want, if you want we can do it early tomorrow morning I'll pass for you and the girl before you depart"

"That works for me, whatever she decides, I'll atleast decide to do this last thing for her"

"Here's the contract, keep it until I pass for you two in the morning" Zerbia said as he passed the contract back to the boy.

"Keep it, it makes me sick to think I own a person" the boy told Zerbia as he refused to take the contract.

"Are you alright sir?"

"I'm fine"

"Well tomorrow it is, I'll be there for you both at the break of dawn"

"One last thing Zerbia, how do I reach Orphasus?"

"Orphasus.......to reach there you'll have to pass through the fallen city of Kólasi and go through the eastern border and head through that pathing and in about 4 days time you should reach"

In the end seems I have to go back..........

"Thank you Zerbia, I'll find a way to message you as to when the funeral is for you to come"

"The members of the association won't allow an outsider like me to the funeral sir"

"I'll make them let you in, I am his successor, after all, it's my right to decide who's present at the funeral"

"Thank you so much, sir"

"That's that, goodbye Zerbia, until tomorrow" the boy said as he got up and exited the inn.

Upon exiting the inn, coldness permeated the air and the sky could be seen getting dark as if night was about to fall.

Time to head back

He made his way through the darkened city and exited through the northern gate heading back to the house.

Since he had entered his old home an underlying gut feeling ran throughout his body and it never left through the day.

As he walked through the grassy plains with the moon slowly rising, the memories of the past kept resurfacing no matter how many times he tried to ignore it.

They refused to go away.

As he approached the house he could see that the inside was illuminated from the candles.

He knocked on the door and Miranda came and opened it quickly.

As he entered he threw the bag of money on the couch.

"I have to talk to you about something," he said as he walked past her and went upstairs.

She could tell something was off, the air was tense and she felt slightly scared from the aura he was emitting.

As he entered his room he shut the door and jumped on his bed.

Should I really ask her to come with me, I think she'd be better off without me.............I don't even know anymore

The memories hit him again and again, in a vicious loop ranging from his childhood to the events of Kólasi.

After around 10 minutes he got up from the bed and changed into brown leather pants with a long sleeved gray tunic and tossed his shoes aside and headed downstairs.

I should calm down, the past is the past

Upon descending the stairs, he could see Miranda sitting on the couch.

He walked down and took a seat on the couch adjacent to her's.

"If I told you that tomorrow you wouldn't be staying with me anymore what w-"

"YOU KNOW YOU'RE A FUCKIN PIECE OF SHIT, I TRUSTED YOU BUT IN THE END IT LOOKS LIKE SHE WAS RIGHT, YOU'RE JUST LIKE THE REST OF THEM, NO WORSE" Miranda shouted angrily interrupting him.

"What the fuck are you tal-"

"GET OUT HERE BOY"

"DON'T MAKE US HAVE TO COME IN THERE FOR YOU"

Men could be heard shouting from the outside.

He quickly walked over to the window and pulled the curtain a slight bit and took a peek outside, there were a bunch of men outside, 11 of them total and within the crowd was the shopkeeper and the dealer who transferred the contract to his name, all of them armed with daggers and longswords.

Observing all the men, they all had different statures and sizes and he could see that they had no sort of body armor on and they were wearing casual clothes such as tunics,shirts and different colored pants etc.

One of the men looked familiar but his brain couldn't recollect where he was from.

For fuck's sake

"Go upstairs in your room and lock the door Miranda" he told Miranda

"WHO ARE THEY, YOUR ASSOCIATES?" she asked shouting angrily

I don't have time to deal with this bullshit right now, this'll have to wait

"Please just shut the fuck up and go upstairs and lock the door Miranda" he said angrily.

She got up and ran upstairs crying.

He walked over to the kitchen and picked up a small butcher knife and put it into his left pocket then he opened the door and headed outside.

"What do you want?" the boy asked calmly.

"You think you can come into our place of business and disrespect us like tha-"

"I don't think I can do that, I did do that " the boy interjected.

"See what I was talking about from before" the slave dealer told the men.

"We can see you don't value your life much, but what about the girl on the inside hehehe" one of the men said as he walked up to the boy.

"I suggest you shut the fuck up right about now, I'm in a bad mood already, don't piss me off any further" the boy said as he warned the men.

"Learn to count boy, you really think your threats can work on us?"

"I think we'll take turns fuckin her and make you watch before we kill you" the man said as he grabbed the boy by the collar.

*Splurk

"Over my cold dead hands"

The boy quickly pulled the kitchen knife from his pocket and rammed it up the man's jaw, driving it straight into the skull.

As the man fell to the ground, the boy picked up his dagger and began to walk towards them.

"Let's get started"

He had lost it.

As he slowly walked towards the men.

The men assumed a formation, five to the front, four to the middle and one to the back and began to charge at him with their weapons drawn.

The front five comprised of 4 men and the shopkeeper to the right.

The middle part was composed of 4 men side by side and the last layer was the dealer alone.

Picking up the pace the boy began to run towards the men with the dagger in his hand.

Looking at their formation, he could see that the shopkeeper was lagging a little bit behind the rest of the people.

Running in a linear motion making it seem as if he was going to attack the middle man, he quickly shifted to the right, digging into the dirt with his left foot he pushed off.

Grabbing the shopkeepers head midair, he bashed the man's face into his right knee, knocking the man unconscious and as the body fell to the ground, he rolled off to the far right, evading the downward slashes directed at him.

As he rolled on the grass, he immediately got up.

On a quick glance, he could see that their formation had been broken.

Sprinting forward, one of the muscular men began to charge at him, as the man swung his sword to perform a horizontal strike at the boy, the boy quickly ducked and made it to the back of him, and in turning motion with a backwards thrust he shoved the dagger straight into the back of the man's skull and kicked him to the ground, effectively removing the dagger.

He continued running towards the pack of men, he could see that one of the skinny men was not as close together as the rest of men and he leapt into the air, striking in a downwards motion with his dagger.

The man blocked the attack with his dagger but the daggers strike was meant to have been a bluff in the first place, the true intent was the right arm which was now coming at the man's face.

In the dagger strike that the boy performed before, he had put in a great amount of force, forcing the man to reinforce his arm with the other to take the magnitude of the blow, he had no way of blocking the right fist that was coming to his face.

As the boy's fist made contact with the man's face, he could feel something break, it was the man's nose.

As they both fell to the ground with the boy mounted on the man, he quickly took the dagger and drove it into the man's chest, he could hear the pitter patter of the grass moving behind him as a man charged towards him and he launched his right leg backwards, performing a back kick and causing a gap.

As the man coughed up blood and his life drained from his body, the boy tried to pull the dagger from the man's chest but it refused to come out, there was no time for him to reach for the man's dagger, which fell to the side of the body, the men were already breaching the gap he had caused and the boy quickly performed an evasive roll in a backwards manner to evade the men behind him, ripping some of the grass from the soil with one hand and some of the dirt into the other.

He rolled a short distance of about one meter towards the forest's direction and upon feeling his foot make contact with the ground he pushed up, pushing him into a standing position and ran to the forest's direction, causing a gap of about 20 meters.

*Huff *Huff

I'm making too much unnecessary movement

He took a second whilst the horde ran towards him to catch his breath.

7 more

All 7 of the men ran towards him at a high speed in a horizontal line.

Targeting one of the muscular men to the far left, the boy ran towards the man.

As he drew closer to the man, the others got the drift of what was about to occur and 2 of the men shifted to the side to protect the man and provide an opportunity to take the boy down.

It was three to the left and four to the right.

The three men charged faster than the other four causing them to lag behind.

As he ran towards the pack of three, he squeezed the dirt in his hand forming a solid ball and threw it at the thin man to the right and threw the grass at the man to the left hoping to blind him.

As the dirt made contact with the man's face, the man backed away slightly trying to dodge the boy whilst swinging his sword frantically, however in the manner in which he attempted to back caused his right leg to fully lock.

Noticing that the man's leg had locked out, the boy launched a powerful thrust to the man's kneecap shattering it to pieces.

As the man screamed in pain, the dagger dropped from his hand.

Catching the dagger, he shoved it straight into the man's stomach, but then he realized he had made a grave mistake, he had put one second too long into the kick before, messing with his movement efficiency and the man to the side of him was unfazed by the grass.

He could feel it running down his left abdomen, his blood.

The man to the left had thrust his dagger deep into the boy's left abdomen.

Kicking the man on the left to the ground, he couldn't avoid the next strike either, as the muscular man swung his longsword in a downwards motion aimed directly at his head.

He shifted his body slightly to the left and kicked off the dirt propelling him forward, causing the part of the blade closer to the hilt to make contact with his clavicle.

This reduced the power of the incoming strike and prevented it from cleaving through bone and the sword only cut through the tunic and skin.

As the man's mouth opened wide upon seeing this, the boy stabbed him in the eyes with his fingers, blinding the man.

The man screamed in agony as he dropped his sword and the boy quickly shoved both hands into the man's mouth, grabbing the jaw and the teeth on the roof of the mouth, he pulled downwards snapping the man's jaw out of place.

Then in the speed of light he quickly went over the man who he kicked down previously before and punched him in the throat shattering his windpipe.

4 more

The four men had stopped their charge and watched in fear as to what the boy did to the men.

Seeing that they had stopped to look at him, he quickly bent over and picked up the man's longsword and continued the charge. The dagger was still in place in his abdomen and if he took out the dagger from his abdomen he would gush out and the fight would be over.

He was damned if he pulled it out and he was damned if he didn't, it hurt a lot but he had no choice but to fight through the pain.

One of the men upon seeing this decided to take the initiative and fight the boy head-on, as both men ran into each other the boy jumped into the air and mustering his might he performed a strong thrust at the man.

Oddly, the man didn't defend instead he seemed to have given up his defense for offense, he was confident and he aimed to swing at the boy.

As the blade grew closer to the man's body a light blue aura manifested itself around the man, pushing the boy back, rag dolling him backwards and causing the sword to fly out of the boy's hand and within that split second before he was rag dolled the man had managed to land a strike horizontal on the boy's quadriceps of his right leg.

It pushed him back around 10 meters and the boy fell flat on his back.

There was no time to rest and he got up immediately.

This was the aura thing the blacksmith had told him about and he had no idea of what to do to deal with this man.

The man watched the boy and smiled at him whilst the three men to the back of him laughed.

Dagger's behind him..........

Feeling some blood leaking from his nose and running down his face and dripping from his chin, he collected some of the blood into the palm of his hand and then put it into his mouth and ran towards the man.

The man seeing that the boy was unarmed, mounted a charge and ran at the boy with the 3 men following from the back.

Running in a stooped position lowering his center of gravity, the boy ran at the man.

As the man smiled and swung at the boy with a cross slash, the boy jumped forward doing an evasive roll and rolled past the man completely evading the strike and he moved on to the other three.

As he quickly rebounded from the roll, he ran towards the three men, he quickly picked up the dagger which fell to the ground from one of the men he killed before with a reverse grip and ran to the other three.

Directly in front of them, he could see that one of them was attempting to do a vertical slash whilst the other attempted to do a horizontal slash to cover all angles to prevent him from dodging.

As the man's sword hit the peak and began to descend in a downwards motion, the boy took his spit mixed with blood and spat it into the man's eyes and kicked the sword out of the other man's hand.

The man's eyes began to burn as the blood entered and the boy quickly took the dagger and slit the man's throat and then drop kicked the unarmed man to the ground.

Upon seeing the seller alone, he chose to ignore the man who had just fallen to the ground.

He rolled forward then rose up and went straight at the man.

*Whoosh

Something went past him but he failed to notice it.

With a backward stab, he thrust the dagger at the man only to be met with a blue aura manifesting itself which pushed him back.

"He's not the only one who can use magic you know" the man said with confidence.

As he was pushed back, he landed directly next to the man who was unarmed on the ground which he had dropkicked and took the dagger and rammed it straight up the man's jaw and he quickly pulled it out and stuck it into the man's heart, busting through the chest cavity with blood gushing covering his hands.

Slowly getting up with his back faced to the man, as he turned to face the man, all the man could see was the boy smiling at him.

He was enjoying it.

Wait........something's off

Looking quickly at the back, the other man with the aura couldn't be seen.

However, the door to the house was opened.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH" he could hear Miranda scream

FUCK

It was just him and the seller now.

How the fuck do I beat this one..................................Maybe.......................it's worth a try......................better fuckin work

He pulled his left cheek between his teeth and bit down on it subtlely causing the inside of his mouth to slowly fill with blood and kept his mouth closed.

Picking up the dagger, he ran at the man and as he was directly in front of him, he threw the dagger at the man, as the dagger bounced off, he pushed off with his left foot and entered the air at an angle and launched a downwards punch with his left arm.

As the aura bounced the boy off, the man took his sword and drove it into the right side of the boy's chest.

He fell to the ground and as he lay there, blood began to leak out of his mouth and he began to cough.

He was immobilized and laid there on the ground with his eyes getting droopy and his hand's trembling.

"All of my men are FUCKING DEAD...................I want to make you suffer, all that's left is to rape the girl before we kill you.....................no, I'm going to kill you now, but rest assured I'll deal with the girl hahaha," the man said as he laughed and walked over to the boy's body.

Upon closing in and standing over him, the man looked at the boy's body and as he went to pull the sword out of his chest and finish the job, he could see something was off.

The sword wound hadn't been fatal, the sword was stuck into the bone, at the last minute, he had shifted his body slightly to ensure that the wound wouldn't have been all that fatal and would stick in between the ribcage of his upper chest.

The man's face went cold with fear as the boy dropped the possum act and used his foot to hook the man's foot and bring him to the ground.

As the man fell to the ground the boy quickly pulled the sword out of his chest, quickly got up and jumped on the man, launching the sword at the man's gut at a blinding speed.

It penetrated the man's body and he gave a loud scream.

What was different that caused it to go through this time?......................................I understand now..............he lost his composure

"Thank you, you've taught me something new today," the boy said as he looked at the man's body as the life drained out and the man coughed up blood in his last moments.

He got up and walked over to a man's body and picked up a dagger and looked at the moon in the sky with his mouth covered in blood.

I'm done living in the past

His body had forgotten that there were even wounds and he had forgotten that there was a dagger plunged into his abdomen, his chest was bleeding along with his shoulder and leg.

All the pain washed away as his mind refused to acknowledge it and looking at the bodies only one feeling ran throughout his body, it was the pleasure he got as he recalled when he heard them shriek and scream before they died.

For the first time in a long time he felt as if all of his problems were gone.

It lifted his mood from earlier on in the day. Then he recalled that one had made it out.

He could feel something building up inside of his chest and he let out a fierce scream which could be heard even within the forest.

"Just one more huh, he'll use the girl as a hostage most likely, how do I deal with him" the boy said to himself as he turned and looked at the house.

*Cough *Cough

He could hear the sound of someone coughing but who was it.

Looking around for the source of the coughing he could see it was the shopkeeper he had knocked out earlier.

As he walked over to the man laying on the ground he began to think about the ways in which he could definitely break someone's composure and by the time he had arrived standing over the man, he had finally thought of a way.

"Gonna be needing some things from you people," the boy said as he thrust the dagger towards the man.

"PLEASE, DON'T DO THIS" Miranda cried with the man's sword against her neck.

"Shut the fuck up bitch, we wait here until one of them come's up, if your man comes up then you're my leverage, if not.......................we'll see what happens," the man said as he sniffed her hair and began groping her breast.

*Thud.............*Thud........................*Thud

They could hear something being dropped outside the door.

"WHAT IS THAT" the man shouted upon hearing those sounds.

*Creak

The door slowly opened halfway and the boy made his entrance with a brown tunic in his hands carrying something within it like a bag.

"Still alive huh" the man said upon seeing the boy.

"I'll leave you with a choice, walk out of here right now and I won't harm you or choose to remain touching that girl and I'll take your head" the boy said as he glared at the man grinning.

"You aren't in a position to be making demands, we go with what I say" the man said.

"Funny, your friends said the something similar to me before if I remember right, I took some stuff from them to give you as a present," the boy said as he tossed the tunic "bag" to the ground.

As the bag hit the ground, it spread open and the hearts of all the men within it fell to the ground leaving blood all over the floor.

"I did this in a couple minutes, you really want to hurt the girl? Then do it but remember this, I have all night and trust me you don't want to see what I can do with that much time on my hands if anything happens to her" the boy said with a sadistic grin on his face.

*Blurrgggghhhhhhh

The man began to vomit on the side and his sword shifted a little causing a small knick on Miranda's neck.

What the fuck did I just tell him about hurting her...........

Fear consumed the man upon seeing the hearts of all his comrades on the floor.

"I-If I let the girl go, what reassurance do I have that you'll let me out here alive"

"You have my word, I promise you'll make it out of the room alive"

"Alright then, as you can see, I'm putting my sword on the ground," the man said as he dropped his sword to the ground.

The man slowly walked out towards the door to exit the room whilst maintaining eye contact with the boy to ensure he didn't try anything.

"As I said before, I won't harm you" the boy said smiling.

As he grabbed the door and opened it and slowly backed out whilst looking at the boy, he tripped on something.

Upon falling to the ground, the man could see that it was the heads of all the men were cut off and some looked as if they had been ripped straight out the body and were laying on the ground in a pool of blood.

As he looked up at the boy inside the room, all he could see was the dagger flying from the boy's hand.

It went straight through the man's eyesocket killing him.

"I said I wouldn't have killed you in this room, I didn't say anything about the rest of the house" the boy said smiling as he turned and began to walk towards Miranda.

She looked shocked to the point where she looked like a corpse whilst standing.

As he looked at her his smile vanished and his body filled itself with concern.

"Miranda, you okay?" he asked as he walked closer to her.

She gave no response.

"Miranda, are you okay?" he said as he extended his bloodied hand towards her.

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME" she shouted upon looking at him whilst launching a kick to his gut pushing him back.

The fuck...

She walked backward until she met the wall then she sat against the wall whilst holding her knees.

In all her time with him, this was the first time she had seen him smile and he seemed to be unfazed by what he had done to the men.

"I see you for what you are now............you're a fiend.............no a monster, how could I have even thought in my mind that I could have possibly begun to love something like you" she winced at him with disgust and a traumatized look on her face.

He could see his mother as he looked at Miranda they had both looked at him the same way.

His chest felt heavy.

Huh..........even her, If this is what people see me as then that's that

"I thank you Miranda..........I needed a reminder......................I've gotten your freedom, you should be safe now, do what you please..............." he said with a sad smile.

As he turned around he could see to the far right was the xiphos he had bought awhile back, on the ground up against the wall.

He walked over and picked up the sword and looked at it.

In the end you are the only thing I can say will always be at my side..................Let's go

Exiting the room, the wounds were finally starting to pain.

If I remember right, there should be some coals on the stove right now

Limping downstairs he made his way to the stove.

He pushed the pot to the side and upon seeing smoldering coals, he dropped his sword to the ground.

Taking off his tunic, he wrapped his right hand with it and looked at the wounds on his chest and shoulder and the dagger plunged into his abdomen.

Quickly he pulled the dagger out of his abdomen and blood began to gush out, he was right, if he had taken it out in the middle of the fight he would've definitely died.

Using his hand which was wrapped with the jersey, he shoved his hand into the smoldering coals and put it on the wound.

"AHHHH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE" he shrieked as the coals burned his flesh.

It worked though, it cauterized the wound, then he repeated the process for his shoulder and chest.

Unwrapping the burnt jersey around his hand, he put it back on over his body and then picked up his sword.

The wound on the leg wasn't that bad that it would need to be treated like this, he could manage with it, it was shallow.

Limping over to the couches he picked up the bag filled with money on the couch and exited the house.

Upon exiting the house, he slammed the door shut and looked up the moon.

Guess even this kind of life isn't meant for someone like me...............................I'll spend the night in Mephisto then leave at the break of dawn............................I'm coming for your funeral, Gudrun..........................

At the same time, prior to him leaving the house, Miranda was caught up in her own problems.

As soon as the boy had left the room, Miranda sat on the ground traumatized as to what she had just seen.

She could hear his footsteps as he slowly descended the staircase.

Looking straight ahead through the door, she looked at the man's corpse with the dagger impaled through the skull, the longer she stared at him, the more a sense of familiarity came over her.

She finally realized who the man was, it was the man who had a part to play a part in her tribe's demise, the same man they had previously seen in the inn prior to living here.

The more that she thunk about it, the more the boy's words echoed in her head "I've gotten your freedom, you're safe now". She glanced at the man's body once more and her common sense was finally coming into play.

If this man was a member of the slave traders then that would mean............he didn't sell me and he did all of this for................me

Things weren't what they seemed.

She began to remember how the boy entered the room and how he left, and one thing stood out to her the most, she could remember him being injured and all the things she told him and the way she reacted to the situation.

What the fuck did I just do

Getting up she ran towards the door to head to him, realizing the mistakes she had made.

*Snap of fingers

"Damn, he really went off didn't he, like woah............... also, where do you think you're going?" the woman in black robes said as she walked through the door looking at the hearts on the floor.

"YOU" Miranda shouted looking at the woman.

"Yes, it's me.............Bravo, I heard everything from the other room and I must say, you don't disappoint................... don't bother screaming by the way, I put up a barrier in this room the second I entered, he can't hear you no matter how much you scream and shout ,you're not leaving this room" the woman informed Miranda

"WHAT?" Miranda shouted in confusion.

"I knew he was gonna be fucked up after he left Mephisto and came back here but damn girl the way you reacted to the situation despite him saving your life, I was just like...............wow" the woman said in a mocking tone.

"I HAVE TO GO TO HIM" Miranda shouted

"Do words just pass through one ear and exit through the other?" the woman asked.

Miranda began to run towards the woman to run past her and exit the room.

"One step past me and I'll kill you, it's as simple as that" the woman said seriously in an intimidating tone.

She'll kill me?

She stopped in her tracks in the center of the room as fear overtook her body.

"Haha, I find it so funny, if I had told him the same thing he would've run past me in a heartbeat without hesitation just to help someone out"

"W-W-What d-does that mean?"

"Just because I said I would kill you doesn't mean I actually would, you could've run past me and taken a chance if you valued him, you're the polar opposite of him, selfish, arrogant, brash and you think your life means something, that it has some kind of worth but I'm sorry to disappoint you honey, you are legit shit in this world..........he on the other hand although he doesn't value his life, we all value it"

.................

Miranda ran up to the woman and tried to run past her only to be slapped down to the ground.

"Unfortunately, the chance for that is gone now, I really will kill you now if you decide to try anything now"

As Miranda fell to the ground she began to think about what the woman had told her earlier in the day.

"Just tell me, was anything you told me before true?"

"Not a single thing........................ I played on your insecurities and the fact that you knew nothing of his past and fed you so much bullshit about how he was a slave trader baiting you and how he killed people for fun and played a part in what happened to Kolasi......................... I wanted to crack up in the middle of the whole conversation earlier watching how gullible you are.......................... in the time you spent with him I like how all your trust and faith in him was shattered by just a stranger like me..........................in fact, what he's been through makes your problems seem non-existent,he's had it so rough and I feel both happy and sad for what I did to him today"

"Why.............did you do it?" Miranda asked as she began to cry.

"That boy....................we need him................I need him..................can't watch as he wastes his life away living passively with some bitch like you, when he heads to town to stay the night, we'll be the hands that help lift him up, see right now he's like a newborn baby up for grabs, he doesn't know the world for what it truly is, he can be molded into anything right about now.................this world is gonna be in for a shitstorm soon depending on who gets him first"

On who get's him first?

*AHHHH

They could hear him scream downstairs as he cauterized his wounds.

"PLEASE, LET ME GO TO HIM, HE'S INJURED" Miranda begged as she grabbed the woman's robe.

"You didn't care about that before, sit the fuck down bitch, if it was life threatening I would've stepped in, he'll be fine" the woman said with certainty as she shook Miranda off.

Miranda sat on the ground in silence.

"What are you going to do to me?" she asked.

"I've been thinking about it, I won't do anything to you, he's finally gotten over his self-pity and hatred killing you would just make him hate himself again for leaving you and you dying as a result of that, I'll just wait here and make sure you don't do anything for the night and at the break of dawn I'll be gone and you can carry on living your meaningless existence once more" the woman informed her.

*Slam

They heard the door shut downstairs as the boy exited the house.

The woman waved her hands and the door in the room sealed shut and she ran over to the window and looked down watching the boy as he stood in front of the house.

"And there he goes, he should be heading to the city for the night now" the woman said happily.

Miranda rushed over to the window and began to bang on it trying to signal him.

"Yeaaaaaaa, that isn't gonna work, all he can see right now from the outside is just an empty room with candles lit and he sure as fuck ain't gonna hear you," the woman said in a condescending tone.

As they both looked down at the boy and he turned right and began to limp towards the city.

*AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The voice associated with the loud scream was deep and deafening..........................primal and fierce and both women fell to the ground grabbing their ears trying to muffle the sound.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT" Miranda shouted as she got up and looked through the window.

"NO" Miranda screamed as she frantically began to beat on the window upon looking through the window.

Looking straight into the forest she could see the red eyes which haunted them from before.

Upon hearing Miranda scream with a look of shock on her face the woman got up from the ground and peered through the window.

"No no no no no, w-w-what the fuck is he doing here.................what does he even want with him [the red eyes looked up at both women as if it could see through the barrier then went back to making eye contact with the boy] calm down, calm down in the state he's in he won't go for him, with those injuries he has he should know he can't take another fight right now, he should just ignore it and go to Mephisto of his own choice" the woman said fearfully as she began to tremble.

She was wrong.

Looking at the boy they could see him looking directly ahead, making eye contact with the creature in the forest.

They made eye contact for about 30 seconds before the boy dropped the money bag in his hand and walked over to one of the dead bodies and picked up a longsword with his right arm and his xiphos in the other and began to limp towards the forest with a grin on his face.

"DON'T DO IT" the woman shouted in an outburst.

"DO SOMETHING, YOU CAUSED THIS, TAKE DOWN THE BARRIER" Miranda shouted at the woman as she banged on the woman.

"I-I-I can't, if I-I take it down the boy will know what's happening here. I-if a-anyone steps i-in right now and s-stops the boy from going off his free will, he'll rip t-t-through the city barrier and slaughter everyone in this city starting with both of us first for what we did to his prey, chances are he heard everything s-since the boy h-h-had entered the house" the woman said frightened.

"WHAT, IS IT REALLY THAT STRONG?" Miranda shouted as she cried.

"Strong doesn't describe that, I think the word strong originated from that thing..............we have no choice but to watch, it seems calm right now and only wants the boy and chose to ignore us,I don't know why but if it's to fight, start praying, only a God can stop that thing from killing the boy once he enters the forest"

They both looked on helplessly in fear for their own lives.

The boy stopped limping and both his back and legs straightened up and began to walk straight as if he was fine, ignoring the pain and holding both swords even tighter than before.

Before they knew it, he had entered the forest.