Taylor ran for about an hour at top pace until a small town came into view. It was definitely a town and not a village as it was rather large and had only wooden walls to protect it, though the gate was made of stone and metal. Maybe they were only just upgrading? How odd.
“We’re here, she’s here somewhere” Atreus yelled over the wind.
Taylor only just now realized how fast he was going means slowing down was going to take a while. So instead of slowing down he hopped turning sideways and slid to a stop and set the elven child down. Walking up to the guards who were currently pointing spears at him he said loudly but not shouting “I’m here to find his sister, nothing else. Let me pass and I won’t cause any problems for you.”
They looked at each other seeming a bit intimidated. That confused him, he had never been all that intimidating. Looking at his arms he remembered all of the training he had done. He looked like Dwayne Johnson but elf. Yeah he’s be intimidated too.
He noted the lack of armor the guards seemed to have. They were in rustic clothing holding a shield and spear each. No leather or anything. He wasn’t sure if it was because they were being neglected by their lord or if their tech is just that bad. Thinking back on it even the soldiers in the kings palace didn’t have any armor.
Looking around he found a small rock the size of one of those personal water melons and picked it up in one hand. “This right here is your head if you don’t let me pass.” And he punched the rock strengthening it with magic and crushing the rock into many smaller chunks.
One of the guards dropped his shield and spear, “fuck this man, we do not get paid enough to die like this.”
The other guard looked at him, then at Taylor, then back and just ran into the town. Taylor grunted and went up to the remaining guard.
“His sister was taken, do you know where I might start my search for her?” He asked trying to sound nice but still growling a bit.
At this point the guard just leaned back on the wall, “there’s only two places she could be here. Since you both are elves I’ll assume she is too, so she’ll be a slave somewhere.” He pulled a small map out of his pocket and unfolded it pointing at a building, “that’s the slavers hall, she’ll likely be there. And if she isn’t, the only one nearby that has the money to buy them is the town governor. Her building is pretty obvious once you’re in the town it’s hard to not see it.”
“Give me your hand,” Taylor said holing his own out.
The guard looked perplexed but put his hand on the elves. Taylor covered his hand with his offer cupping it between his own and focused for a moment. Seventy nine protons, one hundred and eighteen neutrons, and seventy nine electrons. Do this a few million times or so and bam.
He pulled his hands back to leave the guards hand holding a large chunk of pure gold. “Wrap that up and don’t get any of it in your mouth nose or eyes. Pure gold can be toxic.” And he took off, picking up Atreus, toward the slavers hall.
A few turns later he reached the store, and for only a moment he couldn’t read the sign but it quickly changed to ‘slaves for sale’ he growled to himself and kicked the door, intending to knock it off the hinges. Unfortunately it seemed he put too much force in it and just kicked right through the door instead.
“Ah fuck” he growled and pulled his foot out and just simply opened the door. Inside was a rather empty shop with no light, the only lighting was from the windows, which also weren’t glass, just open air with shutters.
A man I’m his young twenties seemed unfazed by his entrance. “You’re gonna have to pay for that along with whatever you’re buying.” He says in a monotone.
“Where’s the girl” Taylor said in a low controlled voice still seething with rage.
“All the slaves are downstairs through this door,” he gestured to a door next to him.
“Do you own this place?” Taylor asked only a little less angry and feeling a bit silly with this guy being so calm himself.
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The man finally looked at Taylor’s eyes, “I just greet people and send them through the door man, I don’t do much else besides clean this place.”
Nobody as innocent as him had to die, so he just made his way downstairs. The stairs themselves were wood but once he got down the entrance room was stone. Around twenty or so feet ahead of him however it became a dirt tunnel that resembled a mine shaft. A man almost as big as himself stood up.
“Welcome, what kind of slave are you looking for? Work? Housework? Sex? Punishment? We have plenty of options. And plenty of races.” He said almost cheerfully.
The man was fairly well built and had a sword on his hip, but Taylor couldn’t feel any mana coming from him. He decided to play nice for the time being as he didn’t know how far the tunnels went and didn’t want to get lost.
“I’m looking for an elven girl, about five years old,” Taylor said, “she should look a little like this boy here.” And he gestured to Atreus who clung to his pant leg.
“Ah yes, her.” He said apologetically, “I’m quite sorry but the governor took her earlier today. Elves are her favorite. Though we never see them outside of her manor. But what a customer does with my merchandise after their purchase is none of my business frankly.”
“Well sorry to waste your time,” Taylor said and picked up Atreus to head upstairs. Surprisingly he didn’t follow and just sat back down.
Once back upstairs the man at the counter said “nothing to your liking huh?”
Taylor ignored him and left the shop ignoring the guy trying to tell him about having to pay for the door. He looked around and pretty quickly saw a large building that stood out. That must be the manor. He grabbed Atreus and took off that way as he glanced up to see Melody still high in the air waiting for a signal from him.
He hopped on the roof of the simple one story building that was the slave shop and used rooftops to reach the manor faster. Luckily once he did reach it he wasn’t at the front gate and simply jumped the ten foot high metal fence. He had never been more thankful for his increased athletic ability ones as he looked back and saw the sharpened tips on the top of the fence.
He looked at the front door and decided screw it, let’s go in with a bang. He entered mana synch and searched the manor quickly he felt a few maids and servants all over. Only a handful of what could barely be called armed guards and in the big room upstairs he saw.
He threw up suddenly and set Atreus down. Using magic he made a small dirt hit big enough for him to hide in the bushes in. “Stay here, I’m going to get your sister and anyone else being held here okay?”
Atreus didn’t like that he wasn’t able to help but nodded and stayed in the hut the older elf made for him. Once he was safely inside Taylor made some vines grow to cover it and cast en explosion spell at the front door, obliterating it and a good chunk of the surrounding wall. He was now properly pissed.
Running into the building he followed the path he marked in his head from the scan. Along the way two or three men with swords tried to stop him but he jumped over them, kicking the back of their heads snapping their spinal cords instantly. They at least got a quick death, he had no time to waste. He couldn’t dwell on the sickening crunch that came with the impact of his feet, not how their bodies crumpled to a heap on the floor so fast as if they were a puppet with its strings cut.
Ahead he saw the door to ‘that’ room. He steeled himself and opened the door. Inside was a woman in a long dress reminiscent of Victorian era gowns. She has shoulder length hair that was puffed up as if she was going to see Beethoven live. In her hand was a kitchen knife that was dripping with red blood and on the floor under her was a small body. The arms and one leg was detached.
The child was still breathing but just barely. The woman reached down and grabbed the last leg, a wide grin on her face, “this is what you get for being borne the filthy inhuman trash you are!” As she brought the knife up.
“NO!” Taylor shouted and hit her arm with his concentrated plasma spell, severing it completely while simultaneously cauterizing the stump.
He hand fell to the floor and the knife clattered away from the severed limb. She screamed, grabbed her stump and fell onto her side writhing in pain. Taylor didn’t care one bit, he was concerned about the girl. She had shoulder length hair, dirty blonde like her brothers and the eyes to match as well. She could barely tune her head, she was missing several teeth and her face was swollen. She tried to say something but it only came out as “helth”
Tears were freely rolling down Taylor’s face as he scrambled to put her limbs back up against her, “it’ll be okay, it’ll be okay, I promise. I’m so sorry.” He was shaking so bad he had to line up her leg a few different times before he could finally start to cast his healing magic.
“I’m here, it’ll be okay sweetie, daddy’s here.” He said half to himself at this point, a complete mess himself as he watched the arms and legs reattach leaving circular scars around where they were cut. He face shrunk as the swelling lessened but her teeth didn’t come back. She would have to wait for her adult teeth to come in.
A wave of relief came over the girl as she seemed to fall into a deep sleep as the spell finished. Taylor was a sniveling mess and he heard a loud snap come from behind him followed by a loud scream.
Turning around he saw Melody also with visible tears had her foot on the thigh of the governor, seemingly having snapped it. “All you damn humans, you can’t just leave us alone can you?!” She pressed harder grinding her heel into the leg and gauging her thigh with her claws.
Taylor came up next to Melody and pulled her back. She opened her mouth to say something but the governor spoke up first. “All you dirty beasts are the same! You can’t hold a candle to us humans so you need to gang up on us! Why if I had my way I would make it so-“
Taylor had enough and shoved his hand into her mouth, “if you can’t stop flapping your jaw, I’ll be taking it” and he ripped her jaw completely off leaving her unconscious from the shock.
He looked at melody who had a mix of shock and admiration for what he did. Taylor kicked her hand that was still attached and created a spear with magic and stabbed it through her hand pinning her to the floor. He then picked up the unconscious elf girl and carried her outside.
Once free of the building he turned to Melody, “burn it to the ground” he said just loud enough for her to hear.
With a nod melody released a great breath of flames that engulfed the entire manor. Screams Emanated from inside, and Taylor was fine with that. There were no other slaves he could sense. None that were alive anyway. He went and grabbed Atreus who showed concern for his sister until Taylor convinced him that she was okay now.
Melody grew to her full size and Taylor helped Atreus climb on her back and he climbed up still holding the girl. Together they started a much slower and calmer journey back to Gaia, and away from the humans.