For the next month, Dreiki worked closely with Rixam and Gornax to hunt down and mark each hideout stationed around the city. As he already knew the slave trade was big in Kul Creek, so their security was everything he had heard about and more.
They dressed as guards to deter anyone who got too curious. Money was exchanged for child servants, some with brands and others without. They tracked everyone they could. Dreiki had even needed to allow himself to be captured just to get inside some of their bases.
He hated what he saw there. Children who had lost all of their hope. Children younger than him who had been afflicted with despair and horror beyond his imagination.
He spared the poachers no mercy. One by one, the hideouts went silent. One by one, they found their dungeons emptied overnight of every last slave they had trafficked.
One by one, they were slaughtered for their sins.
The ancient arena Gornax and Rixam had found was a useful place to put the rescued children while Luna and Ezo worked on tracking down their relatives. It was such busy work that Dreiki rarely saw her while he worked with the others. She seemed driven, but… distant.
Dreiki got used to the name Argo. He had not yet told Rixam and Gornax his true name. He wanted to, but Savekio had advised against it. There was power in a name, and that was power their enemies could use to strike at them if they weren’t careful.
When everything was finished in Kul Creek, Dreiki planned to tell them if they chose to continue following him. He hoped they did. The two of them were the older brothers he’d never had. Rixam was an honorable sort who carried himself with duty over pride. Between his fiendish qualities, his scar, and his impressive size, he boasted an incredibly intimidating appearance. Something which he turned off completely whenever it came to dealing with children. He knew when to be stern to keep the peace, and when to be gentle and free to maintain hope. He was a xio who valued freedom as the greatest virtue, and the most compassionate gift.
Gornax was a jolly giant who always seemed to know what to say to get someone to let their guard down around him. He was charismatic in a different way from Rixam. Where Rixam was a natural leader, Gornax could turn almost anyone into a good friend. The children they rescued loved to use his arms as a jungle gym, and he would often be seen tutoring anyone who wanted to learn to use their magic better.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
And yet, even he couldn’t get through to some of them. Dreiki knew it hurt him to see the children who were mere husks of their former selves. The jovial and happy Gornax hid beneath a deep seething hatred for the poachers that he never showed to anyone until it was time to fight.
For Rixam, the sight was something that pushed him out of their home base quite often. He often remained at arms length for most of the children even if he still protected and cared for them.
As more and more children found themselves in the underground of Kul Creek, a question had formed in his head.
What happens when they have to leave?
It was a question Savekio had answered for him one night. The point of finding a guardian was to allow them another chance. However, they could not afford to stay in Kul Creek for very long. They couldn’t take this many children with them, and there was far more important work to do outside of Kul Creek.
The larger their group became, the slower they would have to travel, and the easier they’d be to discover. For all the work they had done in the past month, it was only one head cut from monstrous hydra in the end. What was important now is making sure two heads didn’t grow in its place. And for that, some children would need to be left behind, or worse, put out of their misery.
At the very least, any child they did not find a home for could live in the ruins beneath the city. But there would come a time when that difficult decision needed to be made.
Unfortunately, their goal was not to put an end to The Jackal yet. It was only to do as much good as possible on their journey to Mt.Arukuniir. It was to give Dreiki the experience he would need when he inevitably challenged the urban legend without Savekio over his shoulder to help.
Even if Dreiki could justify it logically, his heart still ached to know that he could not help everyone. Even those who were strong like Rixam and Gornax could be crushed like ants beneath the boot of The Jackal’s weakest elites.
For now all Dreiki could do was get captured, liberate the children with the help of Rixam and Gornax, and leave the door open for Savekio to clean out the poachers. Rinse and repeat until they try to run like rats in the night.
The hallmark of any Venator Knight was their unmatched speed, and brutal lethality as they blitzed through the battlefield uncontested.
There was no greater example of that, than the former mentor of those knights. Those rats could not run fast enough to escape what hunted them in the pale moonlight. Dreiki could only marvel at the idea of what Savekio looked like in his prime. Perhaps it was something to ask his mother the next time they met.
Savekio used everything to his advantage, including specialized items Ezo had delivered on his back the first night they arrived. Magical equipment which obscured his features and allowed him to make every poacher’s corpse disappear without a trace.
When the other branches of The Jackal’s operation caught wind of the silence in Kul Creek, they would only know the name ‘Loktiir the Gray’ carved on the walls of their former bases.