Kyrion made his way to the well and placed a hand inside. His mana infused the water killing any bacteria and waterborne viruses. He then pulled out all the trash and gunk and disposed of it. Finally, he purified what remained just to be safe.

“No leeches in the water. So, where did they come from?

Kyrion made his way to the town hall, an unconscious child in his arms, passing by the local militia. One of which smelled a bit funny. They didn’t even try to stop him.

A secretary sat at a desk before a set of double doors. “H-how may I help you?”

“Why do they even have a secretary? This place is as backwoods as it gets.”

“I’m the mayor’s daughter. Why do you have a child in your arms.”

“Ah. That makes sense. Her parents were killed by a leech monster and she was a soon to be victim.”

“A monster? Here?”

“Yes, that’s why she looks so shriveled. She’s dehydrated and in need of some rest. Since I’m a child myself, I’ll be placing her in your care.” Kyrion tried to pass his responsibilities onto someone else.

“Uh-huh. And I’m a monkey’s uncle.” The woman eyed Kyrion with a look of suspicion.

“But you’re a girl. You can’t be an uncle. Also I’m only fourteen.” Kyrion said with an innocent look on his face.

“I see. Are you Kyrion Mosely?”

“Yes… How do you know?”

“We received a letter weeks ago saying that you were coming this way. We were expecting you.”

“I see. Does this girl have any family?”

“Her uncle on her fathers side left town years ago and found himself killed by bandits and her uncle on her mothers side left the country years ago to become a vagabond.”

“I see. You seem to know alot about this girl’s family.”

“Small town I hear all the rumors.” The secretary said.

“So she had no family. Is there anyone here who could take her in?”

“No. Alot of families here don’t have to room or the means. Mine included.”

Kyrion raised an eyebrow. “I see. Can I leave her in your care for a minute while I meet with your father?”

“Sure. Just sat her in a chai….”

Kyrion produced a twin bed setting it up in a corner. He then placed the girl on top with a blanket. Next, he set a nightstand with a bowl of oranges sitting on top of it. He then produced a full water pitcher containing water and sliced lemons inside.

“What?”

Kyrion then placed two glasses on the nightstand.

“Make sure she gets some water when she wakes up.” Kyrion entered through a set of double doors.

“O-k…”

“Greetings, you must be Mr. Mosley, take a seat.”

“I prefer to stand, and don’t call me Mr. I’m not that old yet.”

Kyrion looked down at the small chair.

“Well then. I’ve been told that, you came here to take care of a few of our problems. Quite a few monsters have been headed our way as of late and causing problems. There have been quite a few sightings of violent monsters. Etrevonia is too busy preparing for war and martialing resources for the inevitable fight to come. So Drisil offered to pick up some of the slack and here you are.”

“I see. Well then. What do you need me to fight?” Kyrion asked.

“A swamp troll has taken to the nearby forest and has begun attacking any who enter its territory. A few deaths have already occured, and trade has all but stopped because of it. Next is the Flame Pterodactyl has been flying around and snapping up livestock and caravans.”

“Anything else?”

“I heard that the Millers need help with….”

Kyrion interrupted. “The Millers are now dead. A monster had snuck into their celler and turned them into undead. Only the child has survived.”

“Oh… I see. Thank you then. Will the young one?”

“She just needs some nutrition and rest,” Kyrion said with the conciseness of a professional healer.

“Are you by chance a healer?”

“Mostly a healer. Fighting is a secondary skill I have.”

“I see. Well then, what do you plan on doing with the child.”

“I’ll leave her in your care. Duh. Do you want me to take her with me to monster dens?” Kyrion said as though it was the only logical option.

“She’ll be seen as an outsider and potentially sent out of the village. By no fault of her own.”

“Ugh...I see. Bad luck and all that. I’ll come back for her after I take care of these monsters. Do you want their heads as proof of completion?” Kyrion asked.

“A troll head will be a bit tricky as its regeneration would make it grow a head from the decapitated body and a body from the decapitated head. You need to use fire to kill it, or so i’ve been told.”

Kyrion squinted. “So I need power I don’t have, to kill a creature I need to kill… Guess I’ll go for the fire thing first.”

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“Do you need any assistance? The mayor asked.

“What can you give me?” Kyrion asked.

“I have a few militia….”

“Nope, I’m fine. I’ll take on the monsters alone.” Kyrion interrupted.

“I look forward to some good news.” The mayor stood and bowed.

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Kyrion left his sleeping ward in the town hall and, moments later, the town. His body started to feel the strain as he hiked down the supposed road where he would fight the wannabe dragon.

The road wasn’t well paved, so Kyrion decided that he might as well build one out of the raw materials nearby. This slowed his pace, but each step led to more of a paved road.

It was well past noon when Kyrion noticed a small bird flying toward him.

“Caw!” The creature bellowed as a stream of fire came out of its mouth.

“That’s no bird.” Kyrion stopped building his road and summoned a stone wall to block the attack.

The fire slammed into the makeshift wall and destroyed it. There was nobody behind the wall.

“Caw?” The Pterodactyl was confused as it landed on the side of the road. It looked left and then right, but there was no one there.

The dinosaur began to summon all the flame it could when a fast-moving projectile came from the ground and impaled the creature’s mouth resulting in the conjured fire losing its exit point. However, the creature’s fire continued to build and build until an explosion echoed across the plains.

Kyrion’s head rose from the ground moments later, looking left and right. He then pulled himself out of the dirt.

The severed head of the Pterodactyl rolled on the ground.

“I was going to eat that.” Kyrion looked at the incinerated remains of the creature.

He then picked up the head and threw it into his domain.

“Now I just need to find that troll. That explosion gave me an idea.” Kyrion created an intersection in his trail as he started heading due north.

Trees began to rise as he traveled, and with an exertion of mana, he moved the plants out of the way by shifting the earth to better pave the road he was building. This action was the most mana-intensive feat he’d done that day, and still, he had a lot more to give.

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A caravan of three carts was headed down a dirt road that passed through the forest. The road had been marked as too dangerous for propper merchants. The thing is, these people were not proper merchants.

The carts were waylaid by a large creature with a big mouth, green skin, and an uprooted tree used as a makeshift club.

The first cart flew off the trail and flipped over the driver’s head, being pulped as the force through him through a few trees.

“Raa! Num num’s smell many… Hungry feed!” The troll picked up the dead merchant and tossed it into its mouth, swallowing them whole.

One of the merchants stopped their cart, and two warriors in the back brought out a string of people tied together on a rope. So many of them were women and children. A blank look could be seen in their eyes. The few men present were injured, some of which had a recently amputated hand tied around their necks.

“Eat them and let us pass, oh honerable troll. This is our tribute. Let us pass and you can have all of them.”

“Num num’s skinny. Will need to eat lots of them.”

“W-we can spare more if you wish, there are some in the cart you knocked over as well. Yes, very nummy, yes?” The merchant was rubbing his hands together.

“Fine. Give snack now then I let go to bring more num nums.” The troll stated assuredly.

“Yes. Boy’s you know what to do.”

The slaves started getting pushed forward.

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Kyrion arrived at the scene with horror in his eyes as he saw the state of affairs. After the carriage had gotten knocked over, Kyrion wanted to gather information before acting. However, he didn’t expect the troll to eat the first driver. Nor did he expect the merchants to be slave traders.

“So… Kyrion…I could end this for you very easily.”

“Psycho…This is a forest, in a place like this my powers are at their finest. I will stop this myself. Well not fully by myself.”

Kyrion opened his domain and let a total of six four-armed bucks out, each creature holding an arsenal filled with various weapons.

“What are we building today master Kyrion?” The leading buck stated.

“I’m fighting a troll. I need one of you to provide me with a spark when I give the symbol.” Kyrion raised his hand and mocked, snapping his fingers.

“Got it.” One of the bucks put away their axes and pulled out a compound bow.

“Good. The rest of you get the women, and children out of here, the men with weapons are to be subdued if they interfere. I want one of you on each cart, the rest I want you to assist where you see we need help. No killing, If you can help it.”

The bucks nodded in understanding and began to skulk.

Kyrion’s presence wasn’t noticed as he casually stumbled in front of the troll. He casually looked around the area with an apathetic gaze. Despite his anger, Kyrion kept calm and bored. Emotions were a liability in situations like this.

A kid with black hair and a set of heterochromatic eyes where one appeared green while the other blue had locked eyes with the older boy. Both seemed to widen with confusion.

Kyrion’s right eye twitched as he put a finger over his lips. He was standing right before the trader, yet he was unnoticed.

Kyrion casually poked the lead merchant on the temple and walked away, moving towards the guards.

In the time it took for Kyrion to make it to the guards, the leader had fallen to the ground, and his eyes rolled up in his skull.

The two lightly armored guards near the slaves received a pinch to their jugulars and found themselves fading to black.

“What go on!” The troll looked down at the people who started to pass out.

A crash echoed from the third cart as the guards were knocked unconscious. The driver was dragged by his head. Kyrion couldn’t hide the obvious, and he didn’t want to.

“Hello there mr.troll I have a proposition. Leave this territory and never return and I will let you continue your simple life.”

“Hey let me go!” The man being held by the top of his head struggled only to feel something start to squeeze down.

“I big you small. I strong you weak. Why I listen to small weak num nums?” The creature bellowed as it brought down its tree on the bored-looking red-haired boy.

Kyrion laughed as the tree hit his head, his hand raised above to catch it.

“You just lucky.”

Kyrion pushed the tree back at the troll knocking it off its feet.

“Maybe. Maybe I’m stronger than you. Sadly you chose the wrong answer. So let’s play a game.” Kyrion pulled out a small red pepper and held up the human he held in his other hand.

“One. One of these things can kill you when you swallow it. The other will force me to kill you if you try to eat it.”

The troll stood back up and growled. “I eat you!”

Kyrion sighed, flicking the pepper into the troll’s mouth. The slaver in his hands was thrown into a cart, his consciousness forced out of him.

The troll coughed and then hacked as it nearly choked on the thing. “Well then I’m done here.”

Raising the trunk again, the troll tried to slay the small cocky human.

Kyrion stepped to the right and raised his hand to snap a finger. An arrow holding oil coated the troll. Bringing his fist into the troll’s solar plexus, his fist punched through the monster breaking the pepper in its gullet, causing seeds to open up and spread around inside its body.

The troll bellowed as the broken bone repaired itself, pressing against the ground it then charged toward the red-haired human. A frenzied rage in it eyes.

Kyrion moved forward into the troll’s back right leg and kicked it, snapping the bone of its shin with an ease that seemed unnatural.

An elbow came down onto Kyrion’s head, connecting head-on. Knocking the red-haired boy for a loop, forcing him to back away from the fight to heal the near concussion.

“No dead?” The troll looked dumbstruck as its stomach began to turn purple.

“Now I know what it feels to fight myself. Is your regeneration limited?” ‘

“Die!” The troll charged at Kyrion again.

Kyrion spun, his foot connecting with the chin of the creature, using his healing mana to seal the creature’s mouth shut and moved to rip open the wound with its fingers, the tree falling to the ground.

Kyrion moved behind the troll and poked it in the back of its neck, sealing its movement.

“Mmmmhhhggg!” The troll.

Kyrion raised his hand up again as he stepped away. Snapping his fingers to call for a fire arrow to light the oil-slick troll.

The arrow pierced the troll’s stomach, coating it in a purple and green flame that burned the creature inside and out in moments. All that remained by the end of the burning was a spherical core.

“Gross.”

“Amazing. You’re like a real hero!” Said the odd-eyed boy who had been watching Kyrion fight the troll as his people were led somewhere safe.

“A what?” Kyrion’s sour mood seemed to fade as his pride seemed to inflate.

“A hero! Like the one in the stories.” The boy let out a gap-toothed smile.

“A hero you say. I guess I am in a way. Would you lead me to your injured? When did they lose their hands?”

“This morning. We were just headed back from the underground dungeon. It’s where they take us to work for weeks on end before taking us back to the camp.” The boy brought Kyrion to the men with their left hands tied around their necks.

“Where is the camp?” Kyrion asked as he disinfected a hand, clearing it of bacteria before connecting it to the stump. A flood of life mana bound bones, muscle, nerves, and tissue back together in moments.

“Agg!!!” The man he was healing screamed in sudden pain as he could suddenly feel his hand again.

“Hey, I can move my hand. It feels funny, but it’s back. What are you?” The older man looked at the red-haired boy who was pulling out a blue pomegranate. The boy then broke it in half.

“Limbs take a while to settle. Eat some of these to get your blood flowing properly. Pass them to the others when I finish with them. Limb reattachment takes a bit of mana.” Kyrion moved on to the next person. The odd-eyed boy followed right behind him.

After healing everyone up and chaining up the slavers, Kyrion continued his conversation with the kid and some of the older people in the group.

“We were taken from our homes in Lodrim by the empire and enslaved. I don’t know where we are now.”

“Slavery is illegal in Etrevonia so you know. Something isn’t right.”

“I thought we were in the Beast Blood empire.” An older woman scowled.

“Currently you aren't, but we are close. It seems monsters aren’t the only refugees.”

“What are you going to do with them?” One of the former slaves asked Kyrion.

“Nothing. Take them to the authorities and let them take care of it.”

“You aren't going to kill them?” A number of them started to look manic.

“Killing is a weakness, it’s the easy way out. It also isn’t my job to be judge Jury and executioner since none of this had anything to do with me. I don’t kill people and will only kill monsters if I have too. Now you all are invested in the lives of these people if you decide to get your own vengeance, I won’t stop you. Many of you were wronged and had I not been here chances are you’d have been eaten by that troll. It’s up to you if you want to become like those who captured you.”

“So you won’t….” Asked one of the younger men.

“Ohh sorry I have a Golian bear to slay. I’ll be back in around three hours.” Kyrion left to let them decide what they wanted to do.