Chapter 82
Until she was 5, Mellis' life was relatively calm. Yes, there was little food, her parents often worked and were very tired, but they devoted enough time to teaching her the language and the tricks of life in the slums. When her parents were at work, her grandmother with white ears or good neighbors looked after her, sometimes she walked with other children under their supervision. It was very difficult to live in the slums, because of which everyone tried to rely on each other and help when necessary. She admired this very much, people instead of rushing at each other, united to overcome difficulties together. This gave her great hope for the future, that the world has not yet completely rotten.
After five years, life became more difficult. Mellis stagnated in many skills and began to really work with her mother, sewing fabric, cooking, molding dishes and so on. She was good at it, so she helped her mother a lot, for which they were paid more by slave traders. Sometimes she even went to slave factories and worked in them, it was very creepy and scary. But the slave traders did not pay attention to her, she was a weak, dirty and stupid child who only knew how to do a couple of things that her mother taught her. That's how she was seen and she never complained about it, that's why she maintained a very ugly and stupid appearance, the desire to buy her from any slave trader disappeared instantly.
So she lived in a relatively familiar and difficult life, at first she cried and complained to her mother very often, receiving her consolation. But she could not do it often, no matter how unfair the world was, she could not see how hard it was for her parents to watch her cry. She saw in her mother's eyes how she reproached herself for the fact that Mellis worked with her and suffered, but she simply could not do anything. Her father did not want to see this either and distanced himself from her because of this, Mellis felt how painful it was for both of them to experience this. They did not care much that they were formally slaves, they were gnawed from the inside for the fact that they doomed their daughter to this. Therefore, Mellis tried to do everything to improve their mood, but this had weak success. She was a good daughter and for this her parents loved her very much, when she said that they were not guilty of anything and that she loved them very much, they only felt more guilty. So Mellis decided to never prove how good parents they were and that they were not to blame, but she did not stop saying that she loved them.
The first serious problem appeared when Mellis was 8 years old. There was a famine in the slums, because of some reason food became twice as expensive and continued to rise. She did not know the reason and the slave traders did not talk about it on purpose, carefully hiding it. At first, it did not affect Mellis's family, with her help at that moment they could afford to eat normally every day, even at such prices. But then the food began to become even more expensive, and given that they were beastmen and they needed to eat more, and if the parents used all their physical strength, this required even more food. After a month, food cost a fortune, but what is more important, there was simply no more of it. Therefore, they lived on the last reserves, her father began to go hungry, and with him her mother in order to give all the food to her, although Mellis was strongly against it. But her parents did not listen to her, they only cared about her eating well and growing up healthy.
Towards the end of the famine, father became very ill, despite his high stats, the symptoms were typical, malaise, weakness, headache, bad skin, loss of muscle mass, etc. This clearly indicated the effects of the famine, and he managed to work during this time, which led to everything. It was hard, she and my mother had to work more and ask neighbors for favors to get my father back on his feet. It took several months for him to somehow recover and return most of the lost stats, but they managed.
Then the years passed, famine began to happen on a regular basis every winter. The slums withered even more than before, everyone tried to feed their family, so the conditional security ceased to exist. Everyone behaved more aggressively, the animal nature due to fear and despair began to prevail over reason, there were often cases of robbery, robbery and murder, but they were mostly ignored. Although the city guard could solve the crime, they did not consider it necessary, perhaps they did not care, and perhaps they deliberately tried to raise general anxiety. This led to the fact that after a few weeks after the first crime, they became the norm.
For the Mellis family, it didn't change much, they were never a target among gangs, or other slum dwellers, because everyone knew how poor they were. But the famine didn't really affect them much, yes they ate less, but they learned from their mistakes. After the first famine, they began to diligently hoard food, which is very difficult to spoil, and put it in the most inconspicuous place. That's how they survived her 9th, 10th and 11th years of life. In 12th, things went very badly.
***
Mellis was 12 years old when these events began in early winter. This year was particularly harsh, with very low temperatures of -40 degrees and below, with strong snowstorms and even a few weak mana storms (a storm or snowstorm in which mana significantly amplifies a natural phenomenon). This year, Mellis' family also stocked up on food and everything they might need to survive the winter. Despite severe hunger and numerous conflicts in the slums, they lived well. Until, at the end of winter, three masked men with homemade weapons burst into their house.
At that moment, Mellis, along with her mother and father, were sitting in the only small room, talking near the burning stove. There was a loud noise, a bang, and the door to the house swung open. Three people quickly ran inside, their appearance indistinguishable, and the characteristics of the beast race well hidden. One quickly closed the door, propping it up with a piece of wood in his hands, blocking the spread of sound. The others quickly surrounded them, shouting and threatening with sharpened metal rods.
For Mellis, it was very fast and unexpected, the first time she saw people who really used their high stats. The movements of these people were very fast and agile to her eyes, the way they swung their weapons was too simple, as if they were holding wooden sticks in their hands instead of metal rods. Her beastman instinct screamed at her about danger.
Her mother quickly picked her up and stood behind her father, who stood with his arms outstretched and examined the attackers for vulnerabilities. Her parents were very scared, their hair and fur stood on end, they even began to growl and hiss quietly, showing their teeth. Mellis's fur also stood on end, she was in complete shock and panic, not knowing what to do at all, she assessed the attackers. They were all of the usual races and classes for slum dwellers, a level slightly lower than her parents, but this did not calm her down at all.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
While she was thinking frantically, the attackers began to swing their weapons violently, trying to force her father to retreat. But he stood his ground, not taking the bait. This greatly angered one of the robbers, and he really hit her father with an iron bar. It was so fast for Mellis's eyes, almost unnoticeable, but thanks to the [Analytical Thinking] skill, she could understand what was happening, although she had not noticed this feature before. Her father deftly raised his hand and blocked the blow, since the attacker had more stamina than strength. But for her father, even such a blow was painful, a bruise was immediately visible on his arm.
"What are you doing?! You need to stab them, why did we sharpen them?" One of the robbers shouted and delivered a piercing blow and Mellis' heart froze in fear.
The father had to give in slightly to dodge, after successfully dodging, he tried to grab the rod, but another robber's blow prevented him, and then another one followed that pierced his left forearm. Mellis tightly closed her eyes after the blow and prayed that everything would be fine. The robber who struck the blow laughed loudly and spoke with anger in his voice.
"Aha-ha-ha-ha! Give us all the food, otherwise we will kill you and then your wife and daughter! You don't have time to think!" He said, delivering another blow.
Her father ducked and didn't answer, and from behind Mellis couldn't see how his gaze darkened. Her mother, standing behind him, pulled her to her feet and quickly whispered.
"Hide in the basement, dear, don't worry about us." She said and pushed her towards the entrance to the cellar.
Mellis was very scared, but she trusted her parents, so she quickly ran to him, not paying attention to fear and the robbers who tried to stop her. One of them tried to hit her with a rod, but her father kicked him away. So fast and with such force that Mellis felt like she was pushed forward by the air. In response, the other two hit him at the same time, he was able to catch one rod with his hand, and the other stuck in his leg. Her mother also attacked at this moment, she used the jerk technique to stun the first robber and protect her daughter. She quickly rushed forward, to which the robber could not immediately react and instantly struck him in the neck. From this, the robber hastily tried to retreat. Her father, seeing that everything was going well, pulled the rod that he managed to catch and tore it out of the robber's hands. Mellis did not see more, as she opened the lid of the cellar and climbed inside.
Morgan, seeing that his daughter had climbed into the cellar, growled quietly, the sharp teeth that distinguished him from a human became visible, frightening the robbers. He immediately rushed forward demonstrating all his strength, the old wooden floor under his feet broke from the applied force, scattering wooden fragments. He swung the rod and tried to hit the robber closest to him, but he managed to retreat using basic endurance manipulation. Alice also attacked at that moment, using a dash, but was no longer able to surprise the enemy again, he simply slightly changed the distance and hit with the rod, not letting her get close. Rubbing his throat, he spoke in a quiet and broken voice.
"You'll pay for this, bitch." He said as the gunless robber pulled out a rusty knife.
After his words, the robbers attacked simultaneously, two tried to hit Morgan, he blocked one blow with a metal rod and tried to catch the knife with his other hand, but was not fast enough, which is why he almost lost a finger.
The third robber attacked Alice, he also used a dash, striking with the rod like a short spear. She managed to dodge the blow and hit him with her hand in return, cutting his fingers. The robber retreated, looking at his hand, he clenched and unclenched it, feeling that the cuts were not very serious.
"That's weak." He said, almost inaudibly due to the damage to his throat, and attacked again.
Alice and Morgan tried to dodge the blows and not allow damage, but it was hard. At first, they went about the same, dodging and delivering their blows, time after time. Morgan was even able to catch the opponents by surprise, he kicked the man with the knife and broke his arm, but paid for it with a second deep wound in the thigh. Alice did not suffer any injuries, unlike her husband, she was faster and could quickly dodge, but in return she was weaker, her blows were not fatal and each time it was necessary to choose the right target in order to cause at least some harm.
Seeing that there was a relative balance in their confrontation, the robbers became more aggressive, they no longer had the goal of finding food, after all the blows and injuries, each decided that he would kill this family. Therefore, in the hope of quickly ending everything, the strongest robber rushed at Morgan, he pierced his leg with a rod and tried to hold him with his hands. Morgan could not maintain his balance and fell to the floor, pressing it with his weight, which made it even harder for him to get out. Without thinking, he began to hit the attacker hard with his hands while he tried to hold him, the blows were so strong that they made a loud dull sound.
The knife-wielding robber tried to come and hit Morgan very quickly before he could free himself and kill his partner. He hit him several times in the arm because he couldn't get close enough to hit him in the neck, having gone around him, he dealt him a few more blows in the back. When Morgan threw the attacker off and tried to get to his feet, he received several more knife hits in the body area. Father Mellis dealt the last blow to the man hanging on him. After all the blows, the man looked like nothing more than a sack of meat, the last blow broke his neck and brought a death notice and a new level. Throwing his free glasses into his constitution, he raised his hands to strike, even this was incredibly difficult for him, he felt like he had lost a lot of blood and his life force was burning out, many deep wounds hindered his movements.
Looking around the room, Morgan realized that the man with the knife did not dare to attack, and the man who fought against his wife, during this time lost one eye and could barely fight her off. Gathering his last strength into a fist, Morgan pulled the rod out of his leg and used the jerk technique. But not as the man with the knife expected, instead of attacking him, he pounced on his wife's opponent, from a blind spot. He moved not much faster than before due to injuries, but the surprise was enough to deliver one significant blow to the head. The man did not see him and reacted only to the sound, he tried to move away but it was too late. From his blow, he crashed into the wall, his head was deformed, a lot of blood and clear liquid began to flow out of it, a few seconds later a death notification came.
The last man tried to run away, Morgan didn't have the strength to stop him, but his wife quickly rushed after him. A lucky blow from her side to the legs, made the man stumble and crash into the wall, dropping the knife. He couldn't think of anything better to run further, his wife quickly picked up the knife and caught up with him, stabbing the knife into the man's neck, instantly killing him.
Morgan slowly sank to the floor, his strength completely leaving him, his wife immediately ran up to him, loudly saying something. At that moment he couldn't hear her, which he deeply regretted, but instead he spoke himself.
"I love you and Mellis, go see Hild, he owed me." He said, slowly losing consciousness.
He saw how desperate Alice was and her bitter tears, but he could not do anything, he reproached himself for this, but did everything in his power.