Chapter 6 - An Ugly Combination

‘Huh?’

His body felt rough as it dragged on the uneven ground. Occassionally, he would bump on rocks that molded his body into an ugly shape. It was definitely not a fun experience. One thing was for sure, he wasn’t moving because he wanted to. Something kept dragging him, and it paid no attention to his physical state.

‘F*ck, why are my hands tied? Am I in a fucking sac?’

As he tried to make sense of his situation, his sensitive hearing picked up on something.

*Neigh*

It was the sound belonging to a famous animal that he was familiar with.

‘A horse. Well, that explains the callous disregard of my body. Those damn hunters–or is it more accurate to call them adventurers?!’ cursed Seth.

The peculiar sounds he heard didn’t belong to only one horse. There were many sounds coming from around his left, his right, his front, and his back.

As for the exact number of the horses, he couldn’t determine it.

The horses were too loud for him. From his auditory perspective, each individual neigh clashed together, creating a sort of perpetual singular sound that kept going on and on.

Processing the sound wasn’t so simple for him. Seth attempted to block his ears. He thought that would stop the noises, but it didn’t help. Instead, the noises became louder and louder.

He groaned in pain, as he couldn’t help himself.

“Well, well, well. Looks like one of them is awake,” the voice of a human reached his ears.

Seth used that voice as his focal point.

He disregarded the horses and focused on only human sounds. He discovered the breaths of many humans in his vicinity.

‘The warriors are about six… that doesn’t matter. Why did they capture me?’ thought Seth.

The same voice said, “We have been on the road for hours. Why don’t we take a rest? The night is about to rise. We could use this time to play with our captives. Just like old times, kekekeke.”

Seth heard the same man lick his lips, creating a disgusting sound.

“Droggo, control yourself! The last time you proposed something like this, we ended up returning with one less captive!”

“Hey, that was a mistake. Who knew the foulblood would be so fragile?!”

“Whatever. What do you think, Diggory?” said an exasperated voice.

Silence ensued afterwards.

It seemed like all the warriors waited for this Diggory to speak, as if he was their leader.

Finally, a deep voice addressed the situation, “Droggo is not wrong. Night is almost upon us. It would be dangerous to continue moving. Let’s set up a tent in a quiet place. As for the slaves, you can do anything to them, just don’t break them. Do you hear me, Droggo?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Yes. yes. You are the boss,” sighed Droggo.

“If a single one of them is dead, I will feed your head to wild dogs!” Diggory sparked fear in the hearts of the group.

Seth could feel their tense breaths.

‘Sure enough. He is their leader. The man that clashed with the forsaken howler.’

Soon, various noises reached Seth’s ears.

The horses stopped after a while, and the warrior groups began setting up what Seth imagined to be a large tent.

Diggory ordered, “Gillian, get the slaves!”

“On it.”

A few seconds passed, and Seth was greeted with evening light as the sac he was in opened. The first thing he did was look around.

Tall trees. Lush grasses. Insects sounds. The scent of nature.

‘There is no use running. I know nothing about my location. This seems like a forest. The warriors tied my legs and hands. I can’t even walk properly, not to talk of running.’

The woman Gillian was a brown-haired female with an average appearance, but she was still beautiful in her own right, especially when she wore her light armor outfit.

She looked defiant, like a gang member. Seth stared at her for a brief second. As Rhazien Az Morgen, he had chanced upon many beautiful women. He wasn’t the least enchanted by this Gillian.

Seth focused on the others.

‘I was right. They are six. Hehehe, I’m too good,’ Seth took pride in his accurate analysis.

He already knew three of them; Droggo, Diggory, and Gillian. The three others comprised two men and one woman.

Gillian caught his intense stare.

A twitch formed on her face as she kicked him to the ground.

“What do you think you are looking at, foulblood?! Fucking bastard. How dare you think you can look at us?!”

She stomped her feet on his head. Seth’s face planted into the green grass as some grasses sliced his skin.

Following her words, Gillian grabbed his neck.

She stared deep into his eyes and insulted, “If you do that again, I will cut one of your eyes. Diggory doesn’t mind if you are missing some part of your body–”

She noticed ‌a chuckle appeared on Seth’s face.

Tightening her grip, she barked, “What do you find so funny?”

“I had thought to go easy on you because you are so damn ugly. Who knew you also have an ugly mouth? This is not a good combinati-”

Before he could finish his words, Gillian punched his guts.

Blood seeped out of his lips. It trailed down his chin, but Seth stopped it with a single lick.

Gillian punched his guts once more. She gave him one angry stare before dragging his body into the tent. Inside the tent were many people like him- ‘slaves’. That was the word used by the warriors.

A look of shock donned on Seth as he realized that all of them were strangely looking. They had smooth hair and creamy skin. Their sharp eyes seemed to penetrate everything, but it was dimmed to the extreme, perhaps due to their current situation.

‘Their ears. Its pointed, like the elves in fantasy stories, but something is wrong. What is it?’

There was something strange about this situation. The hunters acted hostile towards him for no reason. No, there had to be a reason.

Seth looked around to find pieces of the grand puzzle. He wasn’t used to brainstorming so it took him a few seconds to find one major clue.

His fellow slaves’ pointed ears came to two distinctive lengths. Only a quarter of them had long, pointed ears. The others had normal ears, albeit pointed.

‘I see! Some are elves, while the rest should be half-elves! How interesting?! But I’m a vampire?’

Seth dug into his memory as Rhazien.

Rhazien had come across many races. His memory recognized these slaves as elves and half-elves. However, he was none of the two.

He was a vampire.

Digging deep, he found something. ‘Sometimes, a vampire can be mistaken as one with Elven heritage. However, only fools would make that mistake. I guess I’m dealing with fools here.’

Someone pushed him to a corner of the tent.

It was Gillian. She was annoyed by Seth’s words and made it her mission to give him the worst experience.

She said, “Droggo, this one is feisty. I’m sure you like that type.”

“Oh, Gillian. You know me best!”

Without wasting time, Droggo grabbed Seth and left the tent.