With a bitter feeling still in his heart Fay returned to the mine. He stood at the top of the mine entrance, staring into the darkness below. That moment where the slave was whipped to death and he could do nothing replayed over and over in his head. He didn't quite understand his own feelings, he had killed magical beasts before and heard their cries of pain yet it never fazed him before. Witnessing the death of that slave had shaken him yet he didn't know why.

While still pondering over his own feelings he jumped over the edge of the hole. The air beat against his face as he dived through the darkness before landing with a splash into the lake below. After walking out of the water, ignoring his dripping wet clothes, he walked straight into the house with a solemn expression on his face.

Pax walked into the hallway to greet Fay in the hope that he had calmed down. Instead Pax was met with a sopping wet Fay who was donning an intense frown. Pax put his hand on his forehead before asking with a calm tone: "What happened to make you so unhappy now?"

Hearing Pax's voice broke Fay's stream of thought. However in response to his question Fay told him what he had witnessed and how it made him feel without quite understanding why. Hearing Fay's story Pax walked to the front door before pausing and without looking back asked: "Well are you coming or not?"

Fay froze up a little before asking: "Wait where are we going?"

"Where are we going? Let me tell you this Fay, if you feel something is wrong then I equally believe so, let's get going." Pax said this with a large smile before he left the house and transformed into his true form. 

Fay rushed out of the house after Pax then jumped onto his back. Pax spread his Royal Wings then with one flap the wings kicked up dust, they were already outside. Fay pointed off in the direction where he saw the camp earlier, it was still nighttime so it was unlikely they had moved anywhere. 

Hovering in the air silently above the slave merchant caravan was Pax and on his back was Fay, whose white hair and green eyes stood out in the night. Pax wasn't quite in the mood to make this a drawn out fight or let Fay get hurt in any way so he swooped down into the middle of the camp. Landing with a thud that caused the earth to shake and dust to fly up.

When Pax first started to fall down all of the people looked up because he was so fast he caused the air to let out a deafening whistle causing the people in the caravan to hold their ears. What followed after was the ground beneath them shook as dirt flew up and formed a clouds in the air. Amidst the suffocating cloud of dust all they could see were two pairs of eyes that seemed to pierce through everything, one pair was bright purple while the other was neon green.

Three of seven slave carts toppled over as the earth shook and they panicked. They were like a herd of animals startled by a loud noise. Some slaves were suffocated under each other as they squirmed to be free yet could not do to the bars holding them in. Their screams and howls as they clawed at each other for air pierced the veil of dust that hung in the air. 

Some people closer to those eyes could clearly hear a youthful voice say with a hint of urgency: "You have to free them, I don't want them to die because of us."

As if responding to that voice Pax's large shadowy figure walked through the dust. Some members of the caravan felt their blood run cold when they saw his large silhouette in the cloud of dust. Every step of his foot was like a war drum as he approached the slave carts. 

With a few casual swipes of his paw the bars on one of the cages were sliced clean off causing the slaves to pour out. They had fearful looks on their faces as Pax walked away. This scene repeated two more times before Pax freed the slaves from the other wagons. The with broke everyone out their daze as he spoke: "Go, you are now free."

The many slaves that were now freed from the cages scattered and ran off into the grassy plains. They would rather die free in this wild place than die as slaves in Klyde, the capital city of the empire of Lance, where they would work until death.

The dusty clouds began to disperse displaying Pax's dark figure and the young Fay hunched down on his back like a crouching tiger. The other humans came to their senses once the dust was gone. The many mercenaries were the first regain their senses. They recognized they couldn't escape, they all heard that voice earlier and knew they would die if they didn't fight. The mercenaries surrounded Pax and held their weapons in a ready position. 

Directly in front of Pax stood a tall sturdy individual. The man was bald and his left eye was missing and in its place was an ugly scar. He didn't wear heavy armor like the other mercenaries instead he wore plain leather clothes and he held a bullwhip in his right hand, it was the man from earlier. Seeing him Fay felt an intense rage but at the same time he felt respect because he could sense this person's domineering aura.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

As the mercenaries were surrounding Pax and Fay the slave merchants escaped. Pax acted like he didn't notice them as he looked at the man with the powerful aura in front of him. The man began to bark orders to the surrounding mercenaries: "Make room! They are likely Dragon Class beasts, if you stick together like that they can merely kill more of you with one strike!"

The mercenaries hearing this felt their hearts go a little cold upon hearing 'Dragon Class', they instantly complied with the order. They backed up slowly so each mercenary was about twenty feet from where Pax stood. That's when Pax began to laugh as Fay hopped off of Pax's back. Pax was surrounded in a purple fog as he transformed into his human form. He had a large smile on his face when he spoke: "I want to finish this quickly."

Pax at that moment casual waved his right hand for emphasis, if you looked closely you would notice his figure flicker for barely half a second. A mercenary to his right suddenly fell down with large hole in his chest. To some onlookers Pax's hand just waved then but a second later he was holding something round and about the size of a fist. This was that mercenary's core center, the source of all human cultivation. The core center glistened in crimson glow under the moonlight looking like a red gem.

Pax held the core center up to his mouth with a chuckle before taking a bite out it like it was fresh fruit. Everyone heard the crisp crunch as he bit into the core center and their faces went pale. He had a light smile as he wiped some blood from his mouth then with a certain aloofness said to Fay beside him: "You want a bite? Unlike us who have the natural essence spread throughout the body most humans have it all in their core center, it should help you advance in cultivation."

Fay nodded a little as he took the core center from Pax's hand. Fay looked at the core center in hand and noticed the outside of the core center was like a shell about a half inch thick. The inside of core center was a deep blue viscous fluid and he could feel the concentrated natural essence in this substance. Fay sensing this stuffed the bloody core center in his mouth and chewed it with a crunch. This was the first time Fay had ever eaten a human. 

Fay felt the natural essence from the core center seep into his body from his stomach, his cultivation immediately leaped up to the peak of the first rank. One has to remember that the average warrior is about as strong as a rank three or four magical beast. And although Fay didn't know this at the time a subtle change happened to his body. The natural essence refined by a warrior has their body's elemental affinity although it is often muddled between several elements, which was now becoming part of his body. 

Seeing Pax and Fay share the core center like it was just some insignicant snack several of the less hardened mercenaries began to throw up. The mercenaries in general all had solemn expressions as they looked at the too in front of them. Most of them had the same thoughts as their eyes hardened, We are just a snack to them. The leader of the mercenaries with the whip in hand seeing his comrades expressions stepped forward as he said: "I'll be your opponent for now beast, leave them be." 

At 'leave them be' he snapped his whip in front of him. That snap was more to get the surrounding mercenaries' attention than to threaten Pax. He took a deep breath before he spoke once more: "I, Colenus Shyne, challenge you beast." 

Pax smiled as he told Fay to back up a little before responding with a little enthusiasm: "I, Pax the Royal Wing Tiger, accept your challenge... human."

Once he heard 'Royal Wing Tiger' the captain of the mercenaries face went slightly blank as he thought to himself, I sure have shit luck. He knew well that the Religious Order of Krain had documented eight active Phoenix Class magical beasts on the entire Kiya continent and one of them was given the name Royal Wing Tiger. He also knew in recent years the religious order has been adamant about sending expeditions to subjugate the beasts going as far as to offer some of their sacred treasures for the hero that can defeat such a monster.

Colenus readied himself because he knew that if even one of the the strongest forces of the continent were wary of such creatures then he had little chance of survival by himself. His right hand clenched the handle to his bullwhip as a drop of sweat rolled down his face. He was was in a relaxed stance when he step forward, prepared to die. He just needed to stall for time, at least enough time for the others to get away.