If you are going to be posting a reiew please post it according to the story's quality not your biased opinion (you know who you are)

For those of you worried that I might drop this know that I am working on chapter Twenty Three and I don't see myself stopping any time soon. The arch will end in twenty three or twenty four, don't know yet. There will be notable changes in the next arch.

ALSO: "You think THIS is bad now? Give it a minute." o_o

Chapter Seventeen – Beware the Fury of a Patient Man

*** Leo Cazador ***

“Please don’t kill me!” the boy begged for his life choking as he did so. My hand was currently around his neck as both of his hands hung limply at his side, broken at the shoulder.

“Tell me…did pirates come here to this city?” I asked him. My eyes stared into his, I could see the fear in his eyes and smell the urine on his pants.

“This…*choke*…is a pirate port,” he replied. “They come to sell…*choke*…their goods here!”

“Did any of them have two mages?” I asked.

“Yes!” the boy’s eyes brightened as if he discovered something good. “Yes! Two mages, both girls, one was really young!”

My anger flared again, the walls of the two houses where I had cornered the boy suddenly cracked and twisted, the glass panes shattered. I closed my eyes as I attempted to regain my composure.

“Where are they now?” I asked gritting my teeth as the mana in me threatened to rage out again.

“The…the oldest one got sold,” the boy replied more meekly, his previous enthusiasm was gone. “She’s going to a small land in Nosavick. The other one is going to Turanta, a black market town in Bulbaria. No one here can afford to buy a desert elf.”

I dropped him and turned away, stopping to breathe deeply before heading towards the docks.

“Wait!” I hear the boy but ignore him. “There’s something else!”

I stop.

“A part of the crew is in the city,” the boy cried out. I turned towards him. “I’ll tell you where they are, but please, my arms!”

My eyes glowed fiercely for a moment, the houses shuddered, and what remained of their windows blasted apart. The boy’s arms were consumed in fire, but it was not to maim, the fire was green, the unrestrained wave of mana I poured into him was rapidly restoring his limbs to their proper and fit condition.

“The Turning Key,” he said with a pained gasp as his bones popped into place. “The Turning Key tavern, five of them are staying there! They are marked with a tower and flag tattoo, the mark of Morgan Castle!”

I had chosen the boy with reason, he worked in the auction house, if anyone knew of the comings and goings of any vessel and its goods it was the auction house. My next target would have been the auction master, but I wanted to attempt some level of covertness, but my next actions were going to nullify that effort.

Twenty four members of my crew were with me and they quietly fell in line as I made a beeline for the Turning Key, I had previously passed it so thankfully I didn’t have to stop and ask for directions.

Once inside I quickly discovered my prey having their noon time meal. They were merrily drinking beer and eating what looked like pork.

I nodded towards my crew to apprehend the six men, my men were upon them before they could react pinning them to the ground or to the table, wherever they managed.

“Those of you who do not belong to the crew of a certain captain Morgan Castle leave now,” I said to everyone in the tavern.

“You can’t do this here!” the bartender cried out. “Get out or I will call for the city guards!”

Taking a proper martial pose I took a step forward and struck, to anyone watching me it looked like I was practicing my punching by throwing a fist through the air, unfortunately for the bartender he was struck not by my fist as I was more than four meters away from him, but by the rippling force of concentrated kinetic force propelled by mana. The unfortunate man was blasted back, the bar he stood behind exploded into debris as his mangled body struck the back wall with enough force to partially cave it in.

The man coughed once and died.

This quickly prompted everyone to leave, save for my crew and my prisoners.

With simple spell crests I paralyzed the six men writing the seals in gold and crystal dust ink.

“Every one of you stand outside and make sure no one interrupts me,” I told the crew. With haste they left to do as they were ordered.

After the last of the crew left the tavern I sealed the doorway so that no one could come in or come out nor hear what would transpire in the next few moments. I sealed the stair way, the windows, the door into the back, and even the cellar door, then I reinforced the walls with a protective seal that they would not shatter easily.

When that was all done I undid the seals on all but one, that one I tied to a chair after cutting off his eyelids.

“You don’t know me,” I began speaking, infusing my voice with mana so that I could be heard as the unrestrained five darted around the tavern in vain trying to escape. A few tried attacking me but I threw them around like ragdolls making sure not to break them before it was time. “And in a few short moments you are going to wish you had not the chance to ever get to know me. As you are all about to die I am at least going to tell you why...why you are going to die.”

I turned to look towards the restrained one.

“You see,” I began. I erected a barrier around me so that I would not be attacked and interrupted before it was time to do the killing. This was done more for me than for them, I wanted to release some of the corruption in my heart. I never once considered myself capable of what I was about to do next, I guess knowing what it feels to be a father can change you. “A week ago you came to my home, my country, and stole from me. You stole a child of mine, a desert elf, I’m sure you know what it is that I am talking about. I know you did not do this to hurt me personally, but well I am rather hurt and I have come to personally deliver some of my pain to each and every one of you. Then I will go out and do the same to the rest of your people, before lastly doing something so heinous that if you knew what your captain is going to suffer you would drop to your knees right now thanking me that I am killing you now.”

I closed my eyes and steadied myself. Then I turned towards the first of my victims.

I lost control of myself, I let myself go, I let rage take over as I reached for the first man. He had his back turned towards me so he was unprepared for my attack. With my first attack I struck both his knees, I had moved with enough speed to create small swirling forces, infant tornadoes, with a mana enforced sweeping kick. The level of power I released tore the muscles in my hip but I had already shut off the part of my brain that controls pain and began healing automatically. My kick shattered my own shin as both of the man’s knees became no more than blood splatters on the wall and floor as he was mangled by the forces I exerted.

By the time my leg came back down to touch the floor it was fully healed.

I crushed his pelvis with a stomp with the very same once shattered leg, my foot went through his flesh and shattered the wood floor, caving part of the attic ceiling. Even the reinforcement seals could not handle the sheer brute power of my strikes. To end him I stabbed into the soft flesh of his belly turning my hand into a chainsaw via the power of wind. My hand then reached for his beating heart, I felt it go glub and dub at an incredible pace as my fingers closed around it.

Then…I yanked it out.

The other five looked towards me in horror, they had stopped moving as the screams began and ended, the witnessed the brutality of my attack.

As I made my way towards the next man they all began to run screaming and begging for their lives, for mercy. One even asked to be killed quickly. I quickly caught the next man by his left arm, I sunk my fingers into the pit of his arm and grabbed hold of the bones of his ribcage to use as leverage as I ripped off his arm at the shoulder. As I let him go he attempted to run, that was a mistake. My fingers cut into his flesh again as I dug out a spinal bone near his pelvis and tore it out. The liquid in his nervous cord would soon poison his body, but I wanted to be the one to kill him.

I unleashed a blade of wind severing the man’s torso in two, as the blood left his body I went for the next one.

This one I brutalized with punches avoiding fatal strikes until he was no more than a bloody pulpy mess, instead of delivering a quick fatal blow I stuck my fingers in his eyes shattering the bones of his eye sockets, slowly and methodically until I could reach his brain. This I crushed with my hand feeling the grey matter squeeze through my fingers like play-do.

The fourth died by electrocution, it was a slow death, I injected low wattage volts raising it slowly until the man’s teeth cracked from the strain of being clenched to tightly. Until his eyes bulged and exploded from their sockets, until his skin turned a bright red like that of a cooked lobster. Until, finally, his brain had cooked much like an egg.

The fifth, this one I injected with a massive pool of mana before setting him on fire, the mana would feed the two crests on his body, one was healing him while the other was burning him alive. I watched him flail, run around, and even throw himself face first trying to break his neck with a fall. This went on fire a while.

The sixth, and last, witnessed the horror as I propped him up on a chair, I also took a seat at his side as we watched the show.

Eventually the mana ran out and the man began to burn earnestly.

After I unbound the man I healed his lids and prepared to bare judgement on him, but there was no need. The man’s eyes were glazed over, there was nobody home, the horror had been too much.

“Stand witness to my wrath then,” I said though knew the man would not hear my words, he was dead to the world and its hardships.

I went from corpse to corpse reducing them to ashes, before repairing the tavern.

I turned to leave as my task was done.