“Pompous bastard… Why’d it have to be the one contract I accepted for us…”

The voice hit Tulip’s ears as each step brought a heavy echo closer and closer to her, it was a voice that was frighteningly familiar. It only took Tulip a few moments to understand why it was so familiar as the gruff tone became more recognizable as it got closer.

Markus, one of the two slavers. He was one of the reasons she was even stuck in this situation right now and now she could hear his voice approaching slowly and rhythmically. A soft golden light followed with the flickering light of a lantern giving away its source.

Tulip desperately turned her gaze around the room—trying to find anything to hide herself behind from the scrutinizing light that was rapidly approaching.

The miniscule amount of light that was cast into the room by the long shadows left dim light to reflect throughout the room, revealing the low shine of armor and weapons that sat inside the base of the tower. Along the further edges of the room from her she could also see a handful of cots, leaving her to assume the room was a guard house.

“Probably just a rat throwing trash around,” Markus muttered as he inched closer and closer to the corner. He was so close now that Tulip could hear his ragged breaths while he approached.

Thinking quickly she knew action would be imminent, she couldn’t move without risking being heard. She was holding her breath so tightly that her dry lungs felt like they were on fire, screaming for air while she held her breath in to give even the slightest chance for her to remain hidden.

Slowly she dared to push mana towards her finger, pressing just enough to ignite the power inside of the enchanted ring and pull out her sword. The cuffs on her wrists quickly began warming up but her mana receded so quickly that once her hand tightened it was little more than a slight, warm pain on her wrists.

Finally releasing the breath that was screaming to be let out of her lungs as slowly and quietly as she could, the lantern broke around the corner mere inches away from her face—so close that she could feel the heat bounding away from it.

She could practically count the hair on Markus’ knuckles from how close they were to her face. She desperately froze a halfway expelled breath from escaping her lips while Markus continued forwards, his posture uncaring and his eyes lazy as they didn’t even sweep near to the she stood in corner; She remained uncannily still while her eyes locked firmly onto the lantern that took another heavy step forwards into the room.

Markus was as silent as a corpse as he stood mere inches away from Tulip, she could feel her body shaking—her lungs were on fire, screaming for air as she desperately held in her breath. But slowly cold dread was replacing that burning fear as his head slowly, methodically almost, turned straight towards her.

Markus opened his mouth, a crooked smile filled with rotted yellow and black teeth settled on Tulip while she desperately held back a scream. She still held her breath in her lungs almost like she expected it to make him look away, like if she stood still for long enough he would just forget.

“Oooooh…” Markus muttered out with a horrible chuckle while his cracked lips spread just a little wider. “Come running straight to us huh? Well you’ve certainly gone and made my job so much easier,” Markus continued with a heavy, almost husky rasp to his voice.

Tulip’s grip on her sword only tightened—her already white knuckles threatened to tear open if her grip grew any tighter around the handle with the leather digging into her palms. Her entire body was shaking and finally her breath escaped her just to be replaced by one drawn in an instant after her lungs were emptied.

Her legs moved next; Slowly backing her away from the menacing figure of Markus before her. The lantern held in his hands gave his tanned skin an almost ghoulish look that was only exaggerated when it sat alongside his dull blue eyes, his balding head, and his rotting, toothy grin.

“What are you doing here?” She asked quickly with her heart racing nearly as fast as her mind while she searched for any way out of this situation.

“Oh I think that is quite obvious.” Markus smirked while he spoke. He held no weapons, only the lantern in his hand, and yet she felt like even with a sword in hand she would be utterly outclassed. “You didn’t think we could just let our little target go and run away did you?”

Her throat felt like it was locking up, choking her as she tried to muster any kind of courage for words.

She could feel the air shifting around Markus, his right hand that remained at his side slowly clenched into a tight fist while his entire body was tensing up, preparing to move. It was almost in slow motion in Tulip’s eyes as his arm began rising.

His arm twisted out as he took a powerful step forwards, the sound of his cloak whipping around hit her ears an instant before she was able to move. His fist went wide from his poor stance, leaving it to slam into the wall where she had just been standing as she moved back quickly.

Reflexes guided her into a stance, her blade held out before her in a low angle while her eyes went wide as her gaze fixated on the wall mere feet away from her now.

There was a crater punched straight into it, caved in around Markus’ fist, easily two or three inches deep and twice as many around. She could see what looked like a shining black tattoo crawling across his forearm while it was extended out for just a moment before it was hidden away behind his long sleeved cloak.

“What the?” She muttered out, the words escaping her without her realizing. How did he punch straight into the wall like that and not flinch? There wasn’t even the slightest hint of magic being used, it was almost like it was just pure, raw strength from his arm.

Markus just chuckled in response as he took a menacing step forwards, his legs looked almost heavy when he lifted them as he moved towards her with each exaggerated step leaving his legs to almost crash into the stone floor underfoot like a toddler trying to walk.

He raised his left arm slowly while his right receded to his side. The lantern held in his left hand began to swing upwards and around, at first the motion was slow and exaggerated and then in an instant Markus’ hand whipped forwards to throw the lantern at Tulip with inhuman force.

The lantern whistled through the air as she brought her sword across, barely batting it away with the flat of the blade in time—yet the momentum it impacted the blade with shattered the glass leaving wild sparks of hot glass to scatter through the air while the open flame slammed into the table nearest to her right. She could hear the roar of the fire hitting the dry wood, spreading quickly.

Her eyes moved around locking forwards as Markus came charging in with his steps landing far faster now.

He leaned in hard aiming a punch for Tulip’s gut, it should have been easy for her to block or parry—it was so slow compared to anything Lotus trained her against and yet when her blade moved down it felt like she was trying to parry a castle wall.

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His arm felt harder and heavier than any kind of stone or steel as it continued on past her blade leaving only his cloak to receive any sort of injury while his fist whipped through Tulip’s guard and directly into the base of her ribs on her left side.

She couldn’t even let out a yelp of pain as she fell to the ground with the wind thoroughly so knocked out of her that her vision went white for an instant, while the sound of Markus laughing sounded distant, like it was at the other end of a long hallway.

She was forced down to one knee while desperately trying to gasp in for a breath that refused to enter her lungs. It felt like an eternity with her heart aching, screaming for air almost as painfully as her lungs were screaming at her before her chest finally expanded again with a massive gasp of breath.

It felt like icy fire rushing into her body, burning its way into her lungs and through her body while her vision shot back to her with a painful high pitched ringing being left to greet her ears.

It wasn’t the first time Tulip had the wind knocked out of her, but she had never gotten used to the feeling. Her chest felt like it was on fire as she tried to shakily stand up and move back while in the same moment her eyes moved up to meet Markus’, bile was rising in the back of her throat as her stomach threatened to empty itself while she moved back.

“You’re still standing?” Markus sounded genuinely surprised, and more than a little annoyed as he spoke.

“How… How did you hit so hard?...” She found herself asking in response, she was utterly dumbfounded by the show of overwhelming force without the slightest hint of magic to back it up.

“Afraid that's a trade secret,” He answered with a smirk like that of a demon as he took another step forwards. His motions were slow and exaggerated, and yet so utterly overwhelming when they came in.

His left first moved in a wide arc towards Tulip, despite the slow speed she now recognized how much unnatural force would lay behind that strike as it approached.

She stepped back and to the right, avoiding the strike while Markus leaned forwards as if he was struggling to get control of his fist again. It was almost like fighting a drunken bear; Slow and exaggerated strikes accenting horrific physical strength that could tear her apart in an instant.

She looked around desperately for anything in the room that could help her—only the furious fiery glow that was emanating from the growing inferno of the table that had caught the lantern stood out.

Her eyes snapped forwards again, with the early semblances of a plan reaching her mind as she stepped back and around from another strike.

It was a stupid idea, and she knew it. There was no reason to even think that it could work but she had to try something to get out of here alive, and it felt like the only thing she could try without getting herself killed. Another step pushed her around, barely avoiding Markus’ fist as it was mere inches above her head as she ducked low, her sword moved up and across in response attempting any kind of a cut on his exposed stomach.

And all she got in return was the sensation of steel scraping against steel, his tunic was cut back but all that was left on his stomach was a thin white line like she merely scratched him.

She stifled an annoyed grunt as she quickly moved back from Markus while his arms came crashing down from both sides of her in a clear motion to try grabbing her.

She kicked backwards avoiding his grasp while the heat of the flame was ravenously licking at her back, so close that she could feel it on the edges of her hair. The heat was almost painful as she could feel the flame burning hotter while the room began getting illuminated even further.

She slowly put her blade in an arc behind her, she could feel the fire burning just below her hand, threatening to try and consume her while its ravenous hunger was rapidly starting to carry it along the edge of the room towards the other flammable objects nearest to it.

Her eyes met Markus’ as he just squinted at her, the brilliant light behind her was clearly blinding him while the light bounced off of his eyes. He growled and lunged forwards like a rabid beast clawing forwards with an open right hand to try and grab her again.

She turned her blade, the edge glowing faintly from the heat of sitting just above the lips of the burning table. The edge met Markus’ hand with a low searing sound as it simmered against his skin, his hand pulled back in an instant as the heat seemed to momentarily cause some pain to him.

Watching him closely, there was the faintest glow from underneath his shirt that seemed to almost fall in line with the odd tattoos on his body. Her eyes narrowed for a moment as she turned around with her blade swinging, the edge of it cutting deep into one of the simmering legs of the table before her free arm moved to grab it—tearing it free to hold with the edge lit like a torch while the rest of the table collapsed sending burning shrapnel along the floor.

Despite how painful it was to feel the burning on the still raw wounds she had no choice, using a small burst of mana that she pushed out brought wind rushing in with a heavy gust; The flame compressed down, the heat increasing while her teeth clenched down hard as she felt the hot metal of her shackles burning into her raw, open wounds with warm blood trickling out again.

She stepped around slowly to move away from the table while the fire illuminated Markus’ face slowly, showing hatred in his eyes.

“Just what do you think a little spark will do for you?” Markus spat out as his eyes settled on her again.

Desperately Tulip tried to back up—to get some distance between the two of them. Markus however wasn’t going to just let her move around anymore. He slammed his foot into the ground with immense force, leaving a crack in the floor while he lunged forwards with his right arm swinging wide to try and corner her back towards the fire.

She stepped around his swing with just enough space to avoid the strike as she shoved the torch forwards. The flame seared against his shoulder before she pulled it back to give herself some space from Markus. And judging by the way his body tensed up as he took several steps forwards away from the flame she could tell it had hurt him.

She had managed to burn a hole through his cloak and tunic, showing more of the tattoo that seemed to crawl across his entire body; There was a strange shine to it almost like it was a gem in the way it refracted the light, with its obsidian black shine catching her eyes for a few moments.

It had no real pattern to it either, as if it was just a series of complex lines and swirls instead of a piece of artwork that had some form of meaning behind it. The glow intensified from the tattoo as Markus turned hard with a leg raising into the air for a heavy kick, his hips turning as he brought it across sideways and aimed to collide with Tulip’s midsection.

With few other options thanks to how her weight was placed from how she landed, she shoved herself forwards with a kick off of her back leg, going under Markus’ kick before standing up with his leg directly above her. Her left arm with the torch in hand wrapped up to grab his leg above her shoulder between her elbow.

He was deceptively light for his size, and even more so for the weight behind his blows. Let alone the sheer strength he had over her alongside it all. As she straightened her legs to shove herself back up once again, attempting to lift him, her left arm and hand twisted. She shoved the lit flame of the torch into his stomach as she took another step forwards to force him off of any form of balance he had.

He let out a roar of pain as the fire burnt into his skin, the furious glow of his tattoos increased to such a degree that it was like staring into a lit lantern when looking at him. He tried to push back down with his leg but it felt substantially weaker than any of his other strikes, so weak that she was able to fight back against it, and even overpower it.

She let out a shout of effort as her heels dug into the stone, twisting as hard as she could with her torso, shoving the torch even deeper. She felt skin give in for an instant as the torch seemingly slid in before Markus let out a scream of pain.

His resistance gave out entirely as she stepped forwards further. Moving to throw him back into the flaming table with one last shove of the torch, for a moment she thought she could feel it hit bone.

The roaring fire was spreading quickly to the armor stands that sat near to it, and Markus landed directly in the center of the inferno.

As he fell back the torch was ripped from Tulip’s hands, it was stuck inside of his gut. The scent of burning flesh hit her nose an instant after his body hit the flames. It was so volatile that she almost felt sick. Desperately she turned her head away and started running as his screams began, her legs pumping to take her up the stairs and leave the inferno behind her.

If Markus was here then Andrew had to be somewhere nearby. Or at least she hoped that was the case as she ran headfirst up the stairs with her sword remaining tight in her hands, though she didn’t make it far before her lungs began screaming in desperation for her to take a minute to breathe again.