“Well look what we managed to find fellas? Our cute missing elf has gone and made a little friend, and he’s a beast tamer. You know what they say, the more, the merrier, am I right fellas?” The largest man said with a toothy grin, clearly the leader of the group of criminals. At first, I wondered why he thought I was a tamer, but I realized he must be assuming that after making a quick glimpse of the bears beside me and the dog over in Elendria’s arms.

The man was Caucasian, about six and half feet tall, completely bald, and was missing a good chunk of his upper right ear. He had a horribly broken nose to go along with his mouthful of missing and crooked teeth. The man was covered in scars from head to toe, and everything about his appearance was a clear indicator that the man had lived a life full of fighting. He snickered as he came out from the bushes, and he easily swung his giant club through the air like it was the weight of a toothpick as he coldly regarded us. As he made his approach over, I could make out the shape of a black tattoo on his right bicep that looked like the number nine. The rest of his cronies laughed in response to his provocations, except for one Asian man who seemed rather out of place in the back of the crowd.

“I assume these are the slave traders that you we’re talking about?” I asked Elendria, but her confident attitude from before had completely disappeared. She was clearly frightened by the appearance of the group, but even more frightened by the silent man in the back. Elendria struggled to say whatever she was thinking, but she eventually found the strength to whisper something to me so the others couldn’t hear.

“The big one might be the leader, but the guy with the straw hat is super strong.”

“Oh yeah? What makes you say that?”

“Just trust me, okay? I’ve seen him in action.” I silently nodded my consent back to her and she slowly regained her composure as the men started to bare down on us. In times like this I knew that I should have been focusing on the leader, but the man in the back continued to completely capture my attention after Elendria’s warning, and I could quickly tell that she was dead on with her assessment.

Seriously, I have to fight this dude?! Look at him, did an extra just walk off the set of a Kurosawa film or something? The Asian man had long black hair that was pulled back tightly into a ponytail and had it tied up with a simple rope string. He wore a dark green kimono with a strange floral design, and little white and red flowers had been stitched into the fabric along the Haori. His straw hat was tied around his neck just under his chin and the number fifteen was tattooed on his forearm in onyx black ink just like the large white criminal. The man had a katana strung on his back and fiddled around with a pipe in his hands, completely unamused as he watched us carefully from a safe distance. He casually struck up a match and slowly lit the pipe, taking a large puff before calmly exhaling.

The man seemed completely disinterested in what was happening or what the rest of the gang was doing, but something told me his behavior was just an act. Something told me if we lowered our guards too far, he would make us pay for being vulnerable. The two of us made eye contact for a moment, and what I saw confirmed my doubts. The man’s eyes were the same as The Gilly Monster, ferocious and completely focused. He wasn’t actually disinterested in us. No, this felt more like the man was patiently waiting for an opportunity to rip us apart. Yeah… there’s no questioning it, that guy’s the most dangerous for sure…

“Judging by the matching tattoos, I’m guessing you guys are part of some criminal organization. Am I correct?”

“That’s right. So, the girl told you about us, huh? No matter. Unfortunately for you kid, nobody, and I mean nobody, gets away from Black Century. The question is, will you come quietly, or will I have to smack you around a bit first?”

“Careful Jobe, you know what happens if we accidently damage the merchandise, right?” The swordsman finally spoke for the first time and fear flashed in Jobe’s eyes for a moment before he stiffened back up. Interesting, it doesn’t seem like either of them are actually in charge… I think I can use this…

“So, neither of you are the leaders huh? That’s too bad. I would have loved to talk to that person instead.”

“Shut it, pipsqueak. Can’t you see the men are talking?”

This Jobe fellow may have told me to be quiet, but he didn’t exactly claim that he was in charge either. Interesting… but sorry Jobe, I can’t afford to not be a part of this conversation. I pretended like Jobe didn’t exist and directed my question at the Asian man. “Can I ask what you’ll be trying to do with us?”

“Oy! Didn’t I just tell you to shut up?!”

“You might have, but that doesn’t mean I’ve got to listen to you right? I mean you acting like you own me when you haven’t even captured us yet! Didn’t they teach you how things are supposed to work at slaver’s training or whatever?” I sarcastically barked back at Jobe and he scowled, making me regret the tone I chose, but not my words. I thought that Jobe would lose it and swing at me, but instead he just laughed it off with a deep booming laugh.

“Hahaha, this kid’s hilarious!” Jobe said with a booming laugh that echoed throughout the clearing. “I think I like you, shorty. You’ve got the fighting spirit. Being someone who also loves a good fight, I can see it in you as plain as day. I’m really going to enjoy beating that spirit out of you, that’s for sure.” He said, with a confident grimace.

“What are we doing waiting around then? If you're so tough, Let’s get started.”

“Damn, he’s feisty, isn’t he? Although, it’s too bad, you’ll definitely be changing you’re tune when we get you chemically castrated at the slave quarters in Nygaurdia. Personally though, if I was them, I’d probably leave you the way you are now. You’re much more fun as is.”

So that’s where they’re taking the slaves... that wasn’t really the information I was fishing for, but it’s useful– wait, chemical castration?! Uh-uh. Nope. I’d rather die than lose my package! F*ck me, if I can’t get away from this, I’ll just have to figure out a way to convince them that I’m more valuable alive than being sold.

The bears seemed to sense the change in the conversation and moved into a better position to fight off the advancing slavers, but I honestly didn’t want them getting involved in the fight. I decided that I’d order them to protect Elendria instead, issuing the command to them quickly so they wouldn’t get too close to the danger. The mom had barely more than half of her HP left after the fight with the Gilly Monster, and the cub was only level six. Throwing the two bears into this fight would basically be like essentially sacrificing them. Even if my side was lacking in numbers, I didn’t want to take a risk with losing the bears.

“Oh, you stopped ‘em from attacking me? Are you sure that was wise?” The large bald man named Jobe said with a chuckle. “Don’t tell me, you actually think you can beat me one on one? You got a death wish or somethin’, punk?” I really didn’t like how condescending the man was or the way he used his terrible slang, but Jobe had a point. Based on my appraisal, the bald man was over level twenty, and compared with my own level I really didn’t have much of a chance.

This obviously wouldn’t be the same as fighting the Gilly monster either. Beasts generally don’t have the capabilities to come up with strategy or battle tactics on the fly. The main difference between fighting people and beasts is intelligence. Creatures generally only have two options when confronted, they either fight to the death or flee to safety, but humans are capable of much more. That distinction could lead to major trouble for me if I wasn’t too careful, but I’d be counting on that fact this time if I was going to achieve victory here.

Unlike our animal counterparts, people can use logic instead of instincts or emotions to dictate our decisions and actions, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have our own vulnerabilities either. When my father had worked as a stockbroker, he used to come home and explain the importance of the Fear/Greed Index to me, which I realized could be applied to all sane human-made decisions and not just financial ones. The three main factors that generally impact what a person decides to do are fear, greed and confidence.

For example, let’s say someone offered you a million dollars and all you need to do to receive the money is beat an extremely old man in an arm-wrestling contest, but there’s a catch. If you lose the contest, you’ll actually have to give up a million dollars instead. Clearly, there are several options here depending on what category the person falls under. Most individuals think to themselves ‘This isn’t worth the inherent risk’ or ‘the amount of money gained makes the inherent risk worth it’, whereas other people could lean towards ‘I’d easily beat this old man in any strength contest’. The fear of the risk, the greed of the reward, and the confidence that the desired outcome can actually be accomplished. It wasn’t a perfect system for assessing behavior, and obviously there are outliers. These are the people that would do something completely unexpected, but that was usually due to those people being stupid or insane. In other words, if surrender is a viable option for a regular person, they’ll take it, but only if that person feels like it’s their best available option for survival and not worth the risk in the first place.

Now let’s take Jobe and plug him into the same example. Depending on how well you really know someone (again, assuming that we’re talking about a sane individual here) you could easily determine what choice they would make in any given situation using this formula, and Jobe was practically an open book, so he was pretty easy to judge. Even if the person Jobe was actually fighting was me and not some imaginary old man, I was pretty sure that Jobe would be the sort of person to favor greed over fear, specifically if the situation called for combat or violence. Obviously the man was confident in his abilities as a fighter, so I just had to manipulate the situation to seem like he’d be the one who’d benefit and hopefully everything else would fall into place.

Now back to the matter at hand, people have several options depending on the given situation; but they almost always take the easiest, most beneficial and least painful option. If I wanted to win this fight, I would need to convince Jobe that what he could gain from this fight wasn’t worth the risk by manipulating the situation into my favor somehow. I need to somehow convince him that there’s more to gain from surrendering than capturing us, but how? He clearly values a person’s fighting ability, but I wonder what’s most important to him…

I took a look at the men who surrounded me and was able to make an important distinction. Good… that’ll work. I tried to wipe the slightly evil smile that spread across my face before anyone noticed. For this to work and for us to survive, I would need to exploit the slaver’s and manipulate them into doing what I wanted, but first I needed to balance the scales of the coming fight a bit first.

“You’re probably right about me not being able to beat you, which is why I won’t be the one actually fighting you.”

“What, chicken out already?” One of the slaver’s chimed in from the back, causing another chorus of laughter to erupt from the peanut gallery of criminals.

“Haha, no, I’ll be leaving the overgrown baldy for my main man Salix. I’ll be fighting the rest of them instead, if that’s okay with you, Salix?”

“Gladly, boss.” A familiar voice said from the bushes behind me, and the bandits jumped in surprise. Like a ghost in a horror movie, Salix quietly emerged from the brush with both of his swords already drawn, clearly ready to bash some heads in once the situation called for it. Salix had actually arrived a few minutes earlier, but I had asked him to stay back and hide for a bit while I tried to gather some information from the criminals.

“It’s a f*cking Chimera Ant!”

“What the f*ck is it doing out here?! We’re miles from the Shifting Sands!”

I ignored the slaver's confusion and turned towards Salix, giving a quick nod to acknowledge him. “Thanks for coming so quickly, any trouble with the other stuff I asked you to do?” I whispered once he finally stood next to me.

“No sir. Terrix is pulling the carcass of the Gilly Monster back to our base. I still don’t get how you took that thing down without any help…I’m starting to think you’re the real monster skulking around in these woods.”

“Hilarious. And the others?”

“Rylix and Gerrix are on their way here as we speak.”

“Good. Now-”

“Did he just say Gilly Monster?!”

“No way could that kid take down a Gilly, they’ve got to be lying!”

“I don’t care what you idiots believe. You can come see the carcass if you’d like.”

“Bullshit!”

“Jeez, I guess that didn’t work…” I said while feigning my disappointment. “Back to it then. Hey Salix, do you think you can take the big guy?”

“Yes, my king. I will gladly destroy any who dare harm or take up weapons against us, and besides, compared to Gerrix this man might as well be a pupil larva.”

“Oy! You’ll pay for that!” Jobe shouted at Salix, but I just ignored him.

“Thanks Salix but try to remember that I’m not a blood-thirsty individual. In general, try to only kill the people who won’t surrender, okay? They’re hiding something important so we're going to need to interrogate at least one of them. Also, I think they can be useful to us.”

“Really? Then I will do as you wish, sir.”

“Seriously? No ‘My King, you don’t know the danger you’re facing’ or something along those lines? I thought for sure you’d be completely against this idea, then knock me out and bring me home. You don’t doubt me at all?”

“Obviously I do, but I also know that you’re stubborn beyond belief just from working with you this past week. Even if I yelled, you would most likely not listen to reason anyway. Might as well see if we can turn this situation to our favor.”

“And if we can’t?”

“If we can’t, I drag your ass back to camp so fast you’ll have rug burn on your tush for at least the next two weeks.”

“That sort of thing is exactly why you’re my favorite subordinate, you know.”

“Here’s hoping things stay that way.”

The slavers had obviously not expected a chimera ant to just appear out of nowhere, but I think they were more surprised that a chimera ant and a human were exchanging friendly banter like it was just another regular day. The fact that the Chimera Ant would be taking orders from a human teenager didn’t make sense to any of them either. They quickly drew their weapons and traded their earlier smiles for scowls, clearly finished underestimating the strange pair in front of them. Only the bald man reacted differently, and for whatever reason seemed pretty excited by the sudden appearance of a new enemy. He had a crazy smile on his face as he confidently strode out to meet Salix. “Whoa, hold on there, ant boy. Did you say king? Like you actually serve this little runt?”

“That’s correct.”

“Huh, well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. I figured there was something about him that made the boy seem unusual, but this is a new one even for me. You really think the kid is worth serving then?”

“I do.”

“Well, I can tell that you mean business. I can also see that you’re pretty skilled at combat. Too bad. The bonus we’d get for bringing in a king is well worth the trouble. Today’s the day you die, insect.” The criminals had no way of knowing that this was actually the moment I had been waiting for the entire time, though.

“You seem pretty confident in yourself.” I said sarcastically as I cut into their conversation. “Care to make it interesting?”

“Oh? What do you mean by that?”

“It may not look like it, but I’ve got the blacksmithing talent. I’m definitely not the greatest smith in the world, but I can confidently say I can make you something way better than that wooden club you’re holding. So, here’s what I’m proposing; Salix and I will fight all of you, just the two of us. If we win, you all join me as my subordinates. If we lose, I’ll make whatever new gear you want as your slave until the day I perish. What do you think? Are those terms acceptable? Or are you just a wimp masquerading as a gorilla?”

The bald man just snickered at my insult like it was nothing and waved it off without a second thought. “Got any proof that actually shows you’ve got any talent, kid?” I pulled out my own katana, and the eastern looking man finally dropped his uninterested expression for the first time as he stepped forward. The bald man looked at him and the two men whispered something. Eventually the bald man reluctantly nodded and the Asian man turned to approach me.

“May I?” The man asked me without any malice or killing intent and seemed generally curious about the quality of the sword I was holding. Obviously handing your weapon to an opponent would be stupid, but there was something about the way he behaved that felt oddly respectful and sincere, so I relented despite a small verbal protest from Salix.

“Sure. Be my guest.” The man took the sword from me and drew the blade extremely slowly in perfect iiado form. He then turned the blade over, and carefully examined every inch of the sword until he was satisfied. When he was finished, the man gave me a rather peculiar look, then closed his eyes and nodded. He then handed the sword over to Jobe, who took it with a grunt and began swinging it around to test its weight. “Not bad,” he said with a small smile.

“That’s quite an understatement. The sword is beyond exceptional.” The samurai looking man muttered while rubbing his chin deep in thought.

“Why don’t we just take him hostage and force him to make us new weapons? I don’t see why we need to take a risk-” One of the cronies cut in.

“Are you a dumb ass?! Who says he’ll make us anything even remotely good if we force him too? Captives generally don’t help their captors. Get that idea through your thick skulls, morons. With me fighting, who says it’s even a risk anyway? Do any of you really think they can win?”

“He’s right.” I said as convincingly as possible, trying to push the idea of just jumping us out of their minds. “You can try to take me hostage, but I’ll never make you anything close to the quality of that sword if I’m working against my will. So, what do you say? You guys in?”

“You’re definitely speaking my language, shorty.” The slavers came together for a moment to have a discussion. After a few moments they broke off their huddle and Jobe gave me their answer. “Fuck it, let’s do this.”

“That’s great, but I’m going to need everyone’s consent here, not just yours. We got a deal?” The slavers looked at each other and had a silent conversation that lasted only a few seconds. Their greed had already made up their minds as soon as they saw the katana. “We’re in.” they all said in unison.

“You have my word that we will honor the agreement no matter the outcome.” The Asian man added.

“That’s great, but the word of a criminal doesn’t mean a whole lot to me. Is there anything more binding we can put in place? Like a contract or something?”

“We’ll swear on the one known as Callous, the god of diverging paths. If we break our word in his name, he’ll punish us with a path in life that leads to only suffering and misfortune. Does that suffice?”

“Is that true?” I asked Salix.

“Yes, my lord. The gods of this world can be…quite fickle, for lack of a better word, and Callous is known to be one of the most unforgiving new gods to come into existence.”

Well, that’s good to know, Salix. Thanks for telling me that. NOW. Jeez…I’m lucky I didn’t do anything to piss any of them off… Third note to self, don’t get on the bad side of the gods.

“Good. I wouldn’t want anyone trying to weasel their way out of this after I’ve wiped the floor with you. Now let’s get started, shall we?” Each of us swore on the god named Callous and I felt more comfortable knowing that both sides would at least have to adhere to the agreement.

“Whenever you’re ready.” I said as I drew a knife with each hand from my belt. I hadn’t been practicing with Gerrix for the last week for no reason. In fact, we had a few strategies worked up for my skill set that I couldn’t wait to see in action. I could feel my adrenaline spiking rapidly in preparation of what was to come, so I tried to take some deep breaths to help settle myself down. The Asian man stepped forward until he was in the middle of both groups while holding his hat in his hand. “When my hat hits the ground, we’ll begin.” The Asian man waited for the wind to subside, then tossed his hat up in the air. It slowly floated down until the rim hit the ground and the fighting began immediately. The man named Jobe charged at Salix with a war cry somewhere off to my side, but I didn’t have the time to worry about him now. The rest of the slavers had slowly begun to form a circle around me, and I knew I needed to act quickly before I was surrounded. In the martial arts classes I was forced to take by my father, I was taught to always grab the initiative, even when you were surrounded by enemies so that’s exactly what I did. “Space Magic: Blink!” I shouted and teleported behind two of the slavers who were more clumped up than the rest.

“Wha-” The first of the two men barely had the time to shout before I ripped out both of their Achilles tendons, on their left and right legs respectively from directly behind them. The two men toppled over into the dirt with a thud, screaming in pain and rolling around, clutching their injuries while blood leaked out all over the forest’s canopy. I heard Elendria cry out in surprise from what I did, but I didn’t have the time to pat myself on the back. I quickly cast appraisal and saw that I had added a bleed stack and a fear stack to the two injured men, as well as a cripple status effect that apparently prevented them from using their injured limbs. “If you want to live, don’t move. Got it?” I said as I gave the two men on the ground below me a big evil smile.

“Did you see that?! He teleported!”

“He must be a space mage goddammit! Why the hell is a spatial mage carrying around a sword and daggers?”

“Who cares?! That asshole took out Jimmy and Ungur!”

“Don’t panic.” The swordsman calmly shouted from behind them. “Their injuries aren’t fatal and they’ll be fine. We don’t know our opponent’s abilities so do not underestimate him. Just because he has the appearance of a child you all made a dangerous assumption. If you want to get out of this alive, keep your wits about you.”

“Yes sir!” The two remaining slavers shouted in unison. Damn. I was hoping that would crush their morale and send them into a panic, but the samurai regained his troop’s composure incredibly fast. “I guess I’ll have to get serious myself. Space Magic: Blink!” This time I was planning on disabling the slaver on my left, but as I reappeared from the spell the samurai was there instead, ready for me with his sword drawn above his head. I could sense his bloodlust and instinctively retreated, but I threw one of the knives I was holding as I jumped backwards.

“Space Magic: Relocate!” The knife I had thrown at the samurai vanished from mid-air, and suddenly appeared behind him. The samurai may have been fast, but he couldn’t dodge an attack that he couldn’t see or predict. The knife hit him directly in the back and the samurai coughed up blood, but he didn’t falter for even a moment. The fact that he could predict my movements even with space magic is crazy…he even kept me from thinning out the numbers any further. What level of perception does a man need to obtain to do something like that?! I was starting to regret being so cocky.

I couldn’t help but be impressed by the samurai as I moved back to the middle of the encirclement for a momentary pause. I may not have achieved what I set out to from the beginning, but I had only shown them space magic so far. I have several other tricks that I could rely on in this situation. “Dark Magic: Black Tendrils!” A group of disgustingly slimy black tentacles shot out of each one of my fingers towards my enemies. They tried to get out of the way, but the tentacles seemed to have a mind of their own as they adjusted their paths to keep gaining on their targets.

“He has dark magic too?!”

“What the fuck are these things?! They won’t stop!”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“If it won’t stop, just cut this crap to pieces!” One of the slavers said as he tried to swing his hand axes down into the tendrils. “No Griza, don’t!” The samurai shouted at his friend, but it was too late. Black Tendrils was a spell that sent sentient black tentacles after targets like a bunch of slow, wriggly, heat-seeking missiles in an effort to pin that target in place. It was a useful spell but had way too many flaws to be used consistently. The tendrils may have been effective, but they didn’t move very quickly. The tendrils were also dependent on a mana source, so they only lasted for a short period of time if they didn’t find a target to latch onto. The good news was that the living tentacles were practically indestructible and were extremely hard to get rid of without using some sort of light magic.

Now, the smart thing to do when someone uses this spell against you was to avoid the tentacles as long as possible until the spell ended, or have a healer cast an area of effect light magic spell to disperse the dark magic, but this slaver was clearly not aware of any of that. The tendrils moved like they were sentient, suddenly retracting around the slaver’s swing with ease as it wrapped itself around the slaver’s arm in one fluid motion, locking him into place.

He tried to struggle against the tendrils, but they refused to let go of their target and I wasn’t going to let a golden opportunity like this slip by. I ran over to the slaver who was wrapped up while the others were still dealing with avoiding their own tentacles. I opened my arms like I was about to give the man a giant bear hug. “Lighting Magic: Thunderclap!” I clapped my hands together resulting in an extremely loud boom that caused a visible shockwave to echo through the air.

The sound waves didn’t have to go very far to hit their target, considering my hands were right next to the man’s face. The man’s entire head seemed to vibrate with the shockwave, and he collapsed to the ground with foam leaking out of his mouth. Oops… might have over done it that time. I quickly checked his pulse to see if I killed him before I continued and was pleased to find the Knocked-Out status effect listed in his current conditions. That left just two more for me to deal with, but I had dealt with the first few so easily I was starting to get cocky.

Metal suddenly wrapped around me, and I realized that the other slaver had thrown his ball and chain when I wasn’t looking. It was my turn to be stuck unable to move. I was worried at first, but a realization dawned on me that made me laugh sinisterly. “I’ve got you now punk!” The man happily yelled, clearly already celebrating their triumph at my capture. “You should have never taken Black Century so lightly! That’ll teach you to never mess…with…us…wait, why are you laughing?”

I had just finished using earth magic to ground myself when I started chuckling indiscriminately, making me look like a mad man to the people watching. “Why am I laughing? Seriously? You don’t know? We'll let me teach you a simple physics lesson that even young children should learn. What happens when you send electricity through metal?”

“Wait-Don’t!” The man desperately tried to drop the chain, but he had looped it around his arm to tighten the tension on me.

“Too late! Lighting Magic: Zap!”

“Huh? -AGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!” The slaver suddenly screamed as the electricity passed through his chain into his skin, making a horrible hissing sound and causing his hair to start smoking. I took a bit of damage myself but using the earth to ground myself had dampened the voltage that coursed through my body. I suddenly could smell something that reminded me of barbeque chicken and my stomach growled involuntarily. The man eventually did drop the chain right before he collapsed himself, falling to his knee's unconscious but still somehow remaining upright.

“Finally. It’s just you and me. Mono a mono.” I confidently said to the samurai as I turned to face him.

“Indeed. It seems facing me alone was always your true intention.” The samurai muttered back.

“Smart of you to notice.” I said as I drew Last Resort from its scabbard and stood to face him.

“After that display of magic, I thought you’d just end this. Are you toying with me?”

“Who me? What gave you that idea?”

“Sarcasm is the coward’s weapon of choice. So, you’re actually going to fight me with a sword huh?” The samurai’s demeanor changed, and I could suddenly sense the blood lust permeating from his body. “Are you perhaps looking down on me? You sure that's a wise decision, boy?”

“Probably not, but I personally believe a good daimyo fights alongside his samurai and doesn’t hide behind his men. If I ask anyone to go to battle for me, you can bet I’ll be right there to hold a blade next to them. Be it a human, an elf, or demi-human, I will always support my comrades.”

“Good answer. It appears my future is in good hands then. Shall we begin?” The samurai said with a wicked grin that stretched from ear to ear.

“I thought you’d never ask.” I said with a matching smile. “But before we get started, does the phrase, ‘the house always wins’ mean anything to you?”

¤  ¤  ¤

“Fuck it…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I give.” Jobe said as he lay on his back, completely exhausted from fighting Salix for the better part of ten minutes. Both looked worse for wear as each of them were covered in cuts and bruises, but Jobe’s stamina had given out before the Chimera Ants had. He barely had the energy to stay awake, let alone swing his heavy club again. “I’ve got to ask, where’d you learn to fight like that?”

“The soldier chimera ants base their hierarchy on how talented an individual is in combat. I’ve been training myself every day for the better part of the last twenty years to continuously move up the ranks.”

“Huh…Lucky you.”

“What do you mean by that?” Salix curiously asked.

“For humans, most of the time the people who give promotions only care about what family you’re from and how much ass you can kiss.” Jobe said while he puckered his lips in a kissing motion to demonstrate.

“That sounds like deliberate sabotage. Who has the patience to climb an awful system like that?”

“Not many, that’s for sure.”

“What a waste of talent. Considering how skilled you are, you would have been at least a battalion commander if you were a chimera ant…” Salix said as genuinely as possible.

“Well…thanks, I appreciate that.”

The two men sat there in silence, listening to the wind blow through the trees as they recuperated from their injuries when Jobe finally broke the silence. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Do you think things will be the same under the kid?”

“Honestly… I don’t know. But I do believe that he thinks differently than the others of your kind that I’ve previously met. I obviously can’t say for sure, but based on what I can see, the boy cares far more about skill and talent than something as silly as lineage. His values seem to be in the right place. Give him a chance and I’ll bet he surprises you.”

“Seriously?”

“Salix is right, I couldn’t care less what family you’re from.” I cut into their conversation as I came out of the bushes with the samurai behind me.

“You lost too, Kenji? Damn, we really never actually stood a chance, did we?”

“I wouldn’t say that necessarily…”

“I’d call it more of a stalemate than anything. I was running low on mana and Kenji was running low on stamina. He may have surrendered to me, but it was a pretty close fight.” The blood he had lost from that knife I hit him with earlier had sapped his strength to the point where the fight was ultimately decided. That didn’t stop the two of us from exchanging multiple strikes to test out the other’s resolve, though.

“Please don’t sugar-coat it, kid. It only makes the wound sting that much more.” Kenji said with a small chuckle.

“Fair enough.”

“How’s everyone else doing?” Jobe asked Kenji as he tried to pull himself into a sitting position.

“The boy knocked out Ungur and Griza. The two of them haven’t regained consciousness just yet, but don’t have any injuries. Vignis and Gonro are fine but crippled for now. They’ll have some trouble walking with their damaged Achilles tendons until they get a healing spell or a potion in them, but they’ll both live.”

“Are you kidding me?! That’s ridiculous! Are you telling me that this boy could take on five members of Black Century without breaking a sweat?!”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“And I thought nothing could surprise me anymore. It’s almost unreal.” Jobe said seriously before breaking out in a hearty laugh.

“Tell me about it, but there’s no denying the facts.”

“Hey kid, I know this went exactly how you wanted, but why would you want a bunch of criminals to work for you anyway?”

“No offense to Salix, but in all honesty, I’d feel way more comfortable with a few humans around. I also know that people take to crime for many reasons. If I thought any of you were hardened criminals, I would have killed you on the spot. Take you, for example. I can only imagine why a knight such as yourself would be working for an organization like Black Century.” I had appraised the slavers when they first showed up and was surprised to see that Jobe had the Knight class. I figured something in his past must have forced the knight to turn to crime and that he probably was a decent person, but I didn’t want to pry.

“Damn, so you have an appraisal skill too? I guess there’s no hiding anything from you, huh? Just know that I haven’t done anything worthy of being called a knight in a long time, kid.” Interesting. I wonder what happened…

“I’d like to hear more about your past, but now isn’t the time. Judging by your change in attitude, I’m assuming you guys will serve me?”

“Fuck it, kid. I haven’t served anyone in almost ten years, but you’ve piqued my interest. You also kept your end of the bargain, it's only fitting we adults do the same. We’ll serve you.”

LEVEL UP!

Due to the number of followers recruited, your level has risen by one!

15 followers needed to meet requirements for level four.

HP Increased to 1500.

MP Increased to 2400.

Stamina Increased to 150.

HP, MP, and Stamina fully restored.

“Hey Salix?” I cut in during a lull in the conversation. “Where’s the elf girl and the bears?”

“Right here!” Elendria yelled with a bright smile as she and the two bears burst through the bushes on my left. She was riding the momma bear while holding Lucky in her arms and the cub was following close behind them. “That was amazing, Adam! I only got to see bits and pieces of the action from the bushes, but your magic is incredible!” Elendria said as she suddenly leapt into my arms.

I instantly reacted and caught her as carefully as possible, but she wrapped her arms around my neck and we almost tumbled over. I couldn’t help but notice that she smells like daisies and her hair was super soft…Oops. I might have got distracted there for a moment… Hold on, wasn’t she like, being super bitchy to me twenty minutes ago? What the hell happened in that time to make her change this drastically- oh right... I guess I have saved her life twice now. “But what did you say to the man at the end-” she tried to ask me, but I clapped my hand over her mouth as quickly as I possibly could before the others heard. That was close…too close.

“Um…thanks, I guess?” I replied while trying to change the subject. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure! What’s up?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but what’s with you all the sudden? Are you under the effects of a charm spell or something?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re being really nice to me for some reason. It’s freaking me out-” WHACK!

“Ouch!”

“Are you thick-headed or something? Who talks to a lady like that? Honestly, whoever raised you should have spent more time teaching you some manners and less time making you a walking magical arsenal.”

“Fair enough.” Why do I suddenly feel like I’m being lectured by my mom?

WHACK!

“OUCH! What was that one for?”

“You were definitely thinking something rude.” Can she read minds?! I tried to hide how flustered I was (mostly because I didn’t want to get slapped again), but luckily someone bailed me out from another whack just in the nick of time.

“Elendria! Is that you?” A male voice I didn’t recognize shouted from off in the distance. Suddenly a badger demi-human, a raccoon demi-human and a male elf burst through the bushes on my right.

“Thank the gods, it is!” The one elf began to run over but stopped when he realized that she wasn’t alone. He dramatically drew his weapon as he approached us, which was a quarterstaff that he had in a sling on his back. “Who are you people? Are you the slave traders who took our children? Speak! I clearly must be correct, considering the fact none of you are brave enough to speak up-”

WHACK!

“Ow! What the hell, Elendria!” Wow, this girl really loves hitting people…

“Settle down moron. You’re assuming things that you know nothing about, Kyjil. As usual…”

“So, these aren’t the slavers then?”

“Well sort-of. I mean some of them were slaver’s but-”

“I will destroy them!”

WHACK!

“Ow!! Why do you keep hitting me?!”

“Can you hold your horses for just a second?! The situation’s actually pretty complicated, so I think it's best that you don’t blast anyone with your magic until we’ve had a chat, okay?”

“My King! We’ve arrived!” Gerrix shouted as he and Rylix also came into the clearing from just behind me. Fantastic… now it’s a party.

¤  ¤  ¤

“So, this boy saved you, and the chimera ants are his subordinates?”

“That’s right.”

“And the rest of the humans are slaver’s then?”

“They were slavers, but not anymore. They’ve all agreed to serve Adam from here on out.”

“But they took- Never mind.” Elendria had raised her hand like she was going to throw another slap and Kyjil promptly stopped talking. Well, she’s clearly trained him well…

“I understand how you feel. In fact, I definitely feel the same way. That being said, I don’t think that getting revenge will help us at all, not when we have so many other issues to deal with. We have to face the facts. What we need right now is someone who knows where the slavers are hiding and has the strength to free the rest of the captured elves. You know that we don’t have any soldiers left. Therefore, I won’t tolerate you doing anything to these men when we need Adam and the other men’s help.” I listened to their conversation but didn’t interject, as I didn’t feel it was my place. After all, this was an issue for the elves to discuss. Any outsider’s opinion most likely would not have been very welcome, but I couldn’t just be silent either.

“I- I get it, okay?! Just stop hitting me!”

“I hate to interrupt, but considering the fact you’re making plans that revolve around me without asking, don’t you think I should know what’s going on here first?”

“It’s a tad bit complicated. We High Elves used to live in the great forest on the northern continent under the demon lord Kerdel, but had to flee from our lands once the great demon wars found its way to our doorstep.”

“The great demon wars? What’s that?”

“It’s hard to comprehend if you don’t have any understanding of demonology, but I’ll try my best to explain. The northern continent is split up into thirteen areas, each ruled by a separate demon lord. In the beginning, these demon lords could not find common ground and constantly attacked each other, causing mayhem for the people who lived in that area. After many harsh battles and the death of hundreds of innocent lives, the demon lords came to an agreement that led to us all living in peace for many years. That was until Belial took over his father’s post.” Elendria said.

“Who?”

“Belial, the lord of the stars.” Kyjil said while rolling his eyes like it was the most obvious answer in the world.

“Belial was never satisfied with the area he inherited from his father and was always looking for a way to acquire more land than what he had. He preemptively attacked his neighbors in an attempt to steal territory but was ultimately unsuccessful. Unfortunately for the rest of us, what followed was a chain reaction of demon lords breaking their respective pacts and fighting wars against each other. Our home also came under attack and our leader decided to have the citizens evacuate. My father was in charge of the scouts, and they obviously wouldn’t have much use in a siege, so my father was ordered to lead the evacuation.

Roughly three hundred of us were forced to flee here to the southern continent, but our nightmare didn’t end there. Our passage was a terrible journey. We were constantly under attack by demons or monsters, had to cross miserable landscapes, and faced an epidemic that wiped what was left of us right out. The fifty of us that still lived had been trying to survive in these woods for the better part of a few weeks when the last of our supplies had begun to dwindle. A few elves and I were sent out by my father further into the forest than we’d previously had gone to find food for the others, but we were captured by slavers and brought back to their camp instead. It was there that an evil woman put slave crests on us so we couldn’t disobey her orders.”

“Who’s the woman?” I asked Jobe and Kenji.

“Nasty piece of work, that one. Her name’s Geruda, and all you need to know is she’s a stone-cold icy bitch who’s never had a heart as long as I’ve known her, which hasn’t been too long if I’m being honest. She’s a crest mage, and a nasty one at that. Never understood why they called themselves mages. They're more likely to punch you into oblivion then hit you with any spells, after all. Anyways, she can use those crests on her allies or foes, making her a real tough cookie to crack. Showed up a few months ago and was quickly elevated to a leadership position. In Black Century, she’s the eighth highest ranking member.”

“She’s strong then?”

“Kenji and I together wouldn’t last two minutes against her kid, but she isn't just strong. She's just evil, plain and simple.”

“There’s something else you should know about her. Geruda is like…us.” Kenji added quietly so no one else could hear while giving me a sad look.

“You mean like a competitor?” I whispered back to him.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.”

Great, that really complicates things… “Do you know what type of player she is?”

“Based on her personality, I’d be willing to bet that she’s one of the flop cards. That’s not all. One of the slaves we captured is also most likely a competitor as well.”

I thought about the story I just heard and realized that a part of it didn’t make any sense, and I had to satisfy my curiosity by asking. “Hey Elendria, how did you escape if the woman put a slave crest on you?”

“That was easy. She didn’t realize that I’m also a crest mage.”

“So that’s how you did it…Geruda will be so f*cking pissed, hahaha.” Jobe muttered from behind me. I shot a wide-eyed look in his direction in an effort to shut him up and urged Elendria to keep talking.

“I pretended like I was utterly helpless for the first week so the men would let their guard down around me, but I could have gotten rid of the crest whenever I wanted. I waited until the middle of the night and managed to sneak away in the darkness while most of the slavers were sleeping.”

“What about you three?”

“Once it became clear that something had happened, Elendria’s father Elan sent us out to look for the missing elves. There aren’t many scouts left in fighting shape and the ones that can still fight are needed to protect the group of refugees, so we volunteered to go out looking instead.”

“Speaking of which, will the three of you introduce yourselves? It’s kind of awkward for everyone else when I’m the only one who knows who you are or what to call you.”

“As you may have surmised already by our earlier conversation, my name is Kyjil Latfern. I’m an apprentice water mage. The badger’s name is Hugo and the tanuki behind me is Kreedy. The former’s a fighter and the latter's an artificer.”

“An artificer? What’s that?”

“A person who makes and uses devices or inventions instilled with magic. It’s a class that combines the best of science and magic into one little powerful package.” Kreedy proudly explained.

“Wow, really? That’s gotta be pretty useful!”

“Do you really think so?!” Kreedy said as she suddenly jumped in front of me with her eyes sparkling. Her excitement was palpable, to say the least but I didn’t care. Kreedy was the first person that made my dream of combining my world’s science with this world’s magic actually seem possible. Showing some excitement might make her more acclimated to possibly joining me, and I desperately wanted to recruit her.

“For sure! I’d love to learn how to do that myself.”

“Careful lad, goad her on like that and she won’t stop talking to you about magical mechanisms for hours. She’s a wee bit on the eccentric side.” Hugo interrupted with a voice that sounded like a thick Scottish accent.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what are the two of you doing with a bunch of high elves?”

“We’re adventurers who decided to settle in Elvengard when we retired a few years back. Because we were citizens with fighting experience and have experience traveling all over, we offered to help escort everyone to the southern continent with the scouts.” The two proceeded to tell me about their lives for a while. They had apparently been a team for almost a decade before they decided to retire. A third member of their group was a healer by trade and was nearby helping the injured elves recover from their rough journey.

“Enough ‘bout us, what’s your name lad?”

Did I really forget to introduce myself? I guess all of this new information I just received caused me to forget my manners. That’s embarrassing… my father would have scolded the shit out of me if I pulled that crap in front of him. “I’m sorry for being so rude. My name is Adam, Adam Vegas.”

“PFFFT!” Elendria who was in the middle of drinking from her canteen suddenly did a spit take that was practically straight out of an old comedy.

“Did you say ‘Vegas’? Are you perhaps related to Victor Vegas?” The badger asked.

“Yes, that’s right. Why do you know him or something?”

“Holy-”

“Shit.” Both the beast-men spoke at the same time and looked at me more respectfully than they had earlier. The way they stared at me kind of felt like I was a specimen under a microscope, and I could feel myself getting rather uncomfortable from the way their stares penetrated me. The elven group began to whisper to each other, and I could make out small parts of their conversation.

“Do you think it’s really possible?”

“I’m doubtful, but you have to admit that he sort of looks like him.”

“This could be the break we’ve been waiting for-”

“Hey Adam, do you have a girl-friend by any chance?”

“Elendria!” Kyril practically screamed and looked absolutely horrified.

“What? If he is who he says he is, then-”

Seriously? Another conversation about me while I’m still here? Not wanting the conversation to continue, I interrupted them with my own question. “Hey Elendria? How many slaves would you say you saw?”

“About twenty, give or take a few but we personally only care about getting the other high elves out of there.” Wow. That was cold of her to say out loud, but I understood that this was an extremely risky task and freeing the others might limit their chances of successfully escaping with their kin. That being said, I wasn’t going to put myself or the chimera ants at risk without gaining something for myself in return and I had just the thing.

“Do you mind if we take the rest of the slaves then?”

“I’m sorry? Why would you want the slaves?” I could tell I caught her off-guard with my proposal, but she quickly gathered herself and nodded her confirmation after discussing it with her allies.

“Good, then we’ll help you. What about the number of slavers?” I asked Jobe and Kenji.

“There were sixteen of us total.”

“Damn, that’s a lot.” We’ll need to come up with a plan or we’d never get them free. “At least we have the element of surprise.” Or so I thought, but Kenji and Jobe shared a look that I wouldn’t exactly describe as confident.

“What is it?”

“Yeah, about that…”

“Out with it.”

“There were seven of us sent out to find the elf originally.”

“Oh right, I totally forgot about that. We sent our scout; a thief named Perceval, back to the main camp to warn everyone that we we’re going into combat.” The slaver named Gonro added as he tightened the bandage on his leg.

“Shit.” If the person in charge was smart, they would realize that Jobe’s group hadn’t come back yet and begin trying to flee with the captives before they were inevitably caught. “That means we don’t have time to figure things out. We’re going to have to go right away or the chances we recover the slaves will be significantly lower.” I looked around at the group of people assembled in front of me. Salix was nursing his ribs and honestly didn’t look like he could go another round. Most of the ex-slavers were still knocked out or too injured to fight, minus Kenji and Jobe. I also didn’t know what kind of combat capabilities Elendria’s people actually had either. There are just way too many variables to account for…

“Okay everyone, here’s the plan. We’re going to split into groups. I’ll lead the team that goes after the slavers, but we’ll need another team to go tell the rest of the elves what’s going on. I’d also like to have the rest of the elves brought back to the base.”

“What?! Why do you want the elves?” Kyjil asked me angrily, suspicious of my intentions.

“You said that you’re low on supplies right? We have food, water and shelter. I’m willing to offer assistance, but if you don’t want our help then that’s fine with me.”

Kyjil grimaced at me, but relented. “No, I’m sorry. Thank you for the offer. Elendria seems to think you’re different from the other humans, so I suppose I should at least give you the benefit of the doubt for now.”

“Great, then you can lead the second team. I want you to take Rylix and Elendria with you. Her father should know that she’s okay and Rylix should work as proof that you ran into us.” Of all the chimera ants, Rylix also was the most intelligent and least likely to start a fight for no reason either, but I kept that thought to myself.

“Salix, I want you to take the bears and the knocked out individuals back to the base. Please keep an eye on them for me. Then I want you to use the minor healing salves Rylix made on yourself and the two with the torn Achilles tendons so they can walk again. Also, Tell Ferrix and Terrix to drop what they’re doing and gather more wood, stone and food immediately. If any of the ex-slaver’s wake up or can walk again, have them help out until we get back. Got it?” I said to Salix as I handed him Lucky.

“Right away, boss.”

“Good. The rest of you are coming with me.”

“Look Adam, we do have to help you now that we swore ourselves to you, but I still need to ask you something as a former member of Black Century. I’m not saying they don’t have it coming, but if possible, can you give the men a chance to surrender? I doubt that they all will listen, but there are good people like the Hodge brothers and Perceval in the group.”

“What do you mean by good people?”

“A few of them are people who have been pushed out of legal work due to their inherent circumstances in life just like you thought, including me. As criminals, we may have done things that we probably shouldn’t have, but that doesn’t mean we don’t feel remorseful for our actions or don’t feel a sense of camaraderie for each other. I’d hate to see any of the good ones die here.”

“I’m not a monster, Jobe. You have my word that anyone who surrenders will be treated the same as you were. That being said, I will make a point of making an example out of the idiot’s who don’t choose to drop their weapons. Does that work for you?”

“Sure does, hahaha! I’m assuming you heard that, Kenji?”

“I did, you big galoot. You know what that means, right?”

“It’s head-cracking time!” Jobe cheered and Kenji gave him a knowing smile as the two high-fived each other.

“Ah, finally! I have been waiting for an opportunity to display what I can do, my liege. I promise that we will defeat them.” I could always count on Gerrix to be raring to go.

“You want us to come too?” Hugo asked.

“If you don’t mind that is. We need someone the high elves will trust and we’re pretty short-handed right now. Having the two of you along would be a huge help, especially with your experience adventuring.”

“Oh, you're a sweet talker, aren't you? That settles it, this kid’s going places. I like him already.” Kreedy said with a smile.

“We’d gladly accompany you, lad.” Hugo added with a small chuckle.

“Considering how much Victor did for you, it’s about time you returned the gesture, am I right Hugo?” Kreedy threw in nonchalantly, while she coyly elbowed the badger in the ribs.

“You knew my father?” I had guessed as much during our conversation earlier but didn’t want to pry.

“Aye. In all honesty, I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.” Huh. Mental note number four. Make sure I probe Hugo for information about that topic later.

“Well then, I’m glad to have you with us. Now let’s do this!”