Rainen carefully moved through the tight hallway, his only light source being the few torches on the wall. He had given the scroll for the wisp to Henry.

He walked for what seemed like hours to him, the low light and long hallway had made it seem like he was getting nowhere. He had passed by a few cells but they were all empty. He went to check if anyone had been in there previously but there were no signs.

Upon seeing a door his mind sprung back into life. He placed his ear on the door, listening for any sounds on the other side. For a whole minute he listened.

Nothing.

Still, a nasty feeling still remained in his stomach. Cautiously, he opened the door, ready for anything behind it. On the other side was a large room. It was very well lit. He saw everything from the red carpet, to the multiple doors on every side.

*step* *step* *Step*

"..don't...okay?"

The steps and voices grew louder. He silently shut the door behind him and went into prone. He hid by the the slightly elevated floor that only required two steps.

Two people stepped into the room. One was a tall well dressed man with a few grey hairs. The other was a childish looking girl with redish hair, her attire was not one of a wealthy person going to a dance, it was closer to one of a rebellious teenager.

"But I wanna go dancing!" she said pouting. Her arms were crossed and she was glaring at the man.

"Now look here. I hired you to guard the area, not to play." he said firmly. "The appropriate funds have already been paid in advance. I expect you to do what we paid you to do, guard the area."

"B-but-"

"No. Go and do your job or I'll have to talk with Jackal." the old man waited for a reply.

"...Fine." her face was red, her eyes cast downward.

"Good." The old man walked back through the door that they came from.

"Old people are no fun... stupid Jackal. He said it was going to be fun. I'll punch that idiot in the face the next time I see him." she threw a few punches into the air.

Rainen waited patiently. The red headed girl started walking down the steps, Rainen held his breath.

"What am I supposed to do to kill time now?" she vigorously rubbed her temples while walking back and forth, her eyes were closed.

The old man earlier held incredible power in the underworld. He was the head of a large slave trading organization under the jurisdiction of one of the six Black Claws. The Black Claws were the major powerhouses of the underground.

The bans on the two races being sold didn't hinder him at all, in fact, it only spurred him on to his next idea, an auction. With the number of human and elf slaves possibly dropping, now was a good opportunity to rake in the money.

The people who came were other underworld dwellers and servants of nobles who opposed the bans. The man's name was Maverick Wallur, he had hired the members of the underground group "Krestfall" to guard the auction from any empire shenanigans.

One of those members was walking around aimlessly in front of Rainen.

"Mmmmmh" the girl was rubbing her head harder, her brain just couldn't think of anything to do. "UGH! I GIVE UP! I'll just take a stupid walk."

She turned around to walk after the old man.

Well shit. Rainen thought, he slipped out a smoke bomb.

The red haired girl stopped when she saw the figure laying down. She had not noticed him before.

"Who are you?" she inquired, finger on her lip.

Rainen slowly stood, letting out a fake yawn and stretching his arms.

"UUUUU. I was sleeping, don't you think it's rude to wake someone up?"

"Huh? Oh sorry-" she stopped herself. "No, wait. Who are you?"

"I'm a guard here, don't tell the old man that I was skipping out on my duty." Rainen said.

"I see, I feel bad for you kid. You sure got put under a snob. I wouldn't have taken this job if Jackal hadn't lied to me, uuuuuu." she held up her fist and cursed at the sky.

"Now that you woke me up, I've gotta get back to work." Rainen stretched his arms again. "By the way, where are the slaves? I was told to go there at around this time for my shift."

"Hmmm. They're down this way." she pointed to the door opposite of the way Rainen came.

"Gotcha." he started to move to the door.

Got out of that one. he thought.

As Rainen opened the door a thought occurred to her. Talking to this like minded guard would be a good way to stave off her boredom.

"Wait!" she yelled out after him.

"What is it? I gotta go or he'll yell at me."

"I'm coming too."

"Hah? What a pain, when I get there I'm just gonna sleep standing up. I don't want to be bothered."

A question mark appeared above the girl's head, she had only ever thought that Jackal was joking about sleeping while standing.

"Cool! Can you teach me how to do that? Someone I know can do it but the idiot won't teach me."

"Eh? I dunno..." Rainen scratched his head. The girl was helpful but is becoming a problem, he'd have to knock her out.

"PLEASEEEEEE!" she had her hands together and was kneeling.

"Well, if you put it like that..." Rainen gestured for her to stand up. "Okay, turn around then."

"Oh, thanks!" she spun around, eager to learn the art.

"Now don't move."

"Okay."

Rainen put his hand on her back and cast [Stun]. The girl fell to the floor.

"Now that that's over..." he turned to the door.

"Youuuuu!"

Rainen moved his eyes back to the girl. His face filled with confusion, he was sure that he had used the spell on her.

"What?" he tried to respond casually.

"You tried to knock me out! Those suspicious clothes and that attitude! There's no way the old man would hire someone like you! You've gotta be an intruder!" she pointed a finger at him accusingly.

Rainen was amazed that she had figured it out at all. The signs were obvious but she just started to piece them together.

"What are you talking about?"  

"Don't lie to me!"

she threw a fireball at him. He dodged it effortlessly.

"Well who are you to claim that I'm not a guard?" he asked this question with two intentions, one was to try and confuse her and the other was to get the name of the girl who had resisted his spell.

"Uh..." it was a slight success. For a moment she doubted her own authority but she quickly recovered. "I'm Maria, better known as the Flamespewer of Krestfall. Now w-"

Rainen took the initiative.

"My apologies." he changed his attitude and bowed. "I'm Nack of the old man's private guard."

He had said the first thing that came into his mind.

The girl scratched her head, she wondered if she had heard anything about the old man having private guards. It wasn't too uncommon for the people she worked for before to have them but the old man seemed to dislike being followed.

"I've gotta get back to my post now."

Rainen realized his mistake as he said that, why would a private guard go somewhere away from his employer? He hoped that Maria wouldn't notice his mistake, she did. Her face grew red as she realized that she had been tricked again, fire spewed out from her mouth.

Rainen rolled out of the way and flung two fireballs. She swallowed the two fireballs and spat them back out. He put up a barrier and deflected them. Two knives fell into his hands and one was thrown. Rainen appeared behind her and tried to put the knife in her side.

In the next instant she pushed herself away with wind magic, Rainen caught the flying knife by its handle.

"That's a strange teleport. I've never seen anything like that."

"It's som-" he threw the knife while talking.

Her barrier went up and the knife fell to the ground.

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"Jerk! Take this! [Fire Burst]!"

He ducked under the attack, his upper body almost touching the ground.

Two knives flew at her. They were rendered useless by the barrier.

More fire spells were flung at him, again he dodged with impossible twists.

Knives also flew at her after each blur of a dodge. The knives were imbued with mana this time. The first on hit causing a small crack, the second and third followed creating a hole for the fourth to fly through.

Maria dodged it by a hairs width, a small cut appeared on her cheek.

She wiped the blood away and took a great breath of air.

Rainen rushed in as she dodged the knife, his hands were charged with mana, fire coated them.

She released the fire in front of her blocking his way.

He appeared next to her and launched both fists.

She bent her body away from the attack and put all her mana into the body protection spell.

The impact of the punches launched her into the air, her body turning to land on her feet.

She held her side as she took out a dagger.

"Your good. I'm glad." she smiled. "It's been a while since I've fought someone as strong as you. Too many people rely on magic nowadays."

"..." Rainen said nothing, he lowered his stance.

Her expression turned serious, "Here I come."

Her movement was hard to follow, in an instant she had started trading blows with him.

Their small weapons clashed, cuts started appearing on both of them, but Rainen had the advantage with two knives.

She switched to defense and spit fire out of her mouth again.

Rainen shielded his face with small layered barriers.

A swift kick was delivered to his stomach and he rolled backwards.

Rainen, tired of the standstill, put his knives away and pulled out his staff.

Maria narrowed her eyes as she saw the new weapon.

"You sure have some interesting things." she said.

"..."

He started quickly thrusting the staff.

Each time Maria dodged the long pole would stop and swing at her, soon she was forced to block it.

He slowly pushed her back to a wall, the situation looked bad for her but her expression started to change.

"Hehehahahahahaahahahaha!"

Her hysterical laugh sent chills down his spine.

She caught the staff and pulled it.

His grip faltered for a bit and she pushed it, hitting his chest.

"Guk!"

With each strike Rainen lets out more grunts. He pours his mana into the weapon.

The staff turned into chains.

"What?" Maria stared at the new thing in her hands.

Rainen then turned his body as if he were throwing someone. The individual locks started transforming back and Maria, dumbfounded by what was happening, was thrown across the room.

"ACK!" she landed on her stomach.

"[Stun]!"

The little ball of light flew at her prone body.

Her body stiffens up and she goes limp.

He approaches her with care and pokes her with the staff. She doesn't make a single move.

"Haaaaa." he let out a sigh.

She suddenly lunged at him, she was faking it. The ring on her finger broke into pieces.

Dammit! She was using an item.

He held out his hand to block the dagger, it easily went through the skin. He stumbled to the ground and she took the dominant position.

"Ugh!"

With both hands she pressed the dagger with more strength.

Sticking out next to his knuckle was her dagger, his hand was shaking as he tried to keep the dagger away from his face.

He took out a knife from his bracer and aimed for her neck.

She let go with one hand and stopped his counterattack, the weapon inched closer to his face. He could feel the strength draining from his left arm.

He jerked his right arm free and dropped the knife opting for a new tool. A round black ball fell into his hands.

He moved to hit her in the head with it.

Thinking that the object in his hands was some kind of rock she moved to grab his arm again before he could hit her.

As soon as she gripped his forearm he let go and the black ball flew at her face.

*Poof*

A smoke bomb.

*Cough* *cough*

Maria went into a fit of coughing, her eyes were watering.

*Crack*

A sickening sound spread about the room. Maria fell from her mounted position onto the floor. Rainen had landed a powerful punch on her chin, knocking her out immediately.

He reached for the dagger that was lodged deep into his hand and shakily pulled it out. It had come very close to piercing his eye.

"I'll be taking some of this as payment for sparing your life." he said as he tore off a piece of her clothing to wrap his hand.

It was merely his excuse for not killing her. The healing magic that he knew would not be enough to close a wound that big so the cloth had to do.

He picked her up and tossed her into one of the empty cells he had ran across before, he confiscated her key and locked the door.

----------------------

The battle wasn't so tough at the start, it got bad when she pulled the dagger out. I think it might have been poisoned.

It's getting harder for me to move on. My left hand's lost all its power, I can't even feel anything with it. I don't think that the poison was meant for killing people.

I tried casting some healing magic and some detoxification magic but they barely did anything, as I thought, I need to learn more magic. I tied my arm tightly to stop the blood flow just in case, I'll take it off soon.

At my current strength I should still be able to take out a guard or two.

I can hear some whimpering now. I think that I'm getting closer. I speed up, I stumble a bit. I didn't think that I lost that much blood.

The guards ahead still don't notice me. I approach with my back against the wall. One looks to be resting. I rush in and shoot a stun at the guard, he falls to the floor. I grab the one resting and use leech. His eyes open as he feels the energy draining out of him.

After a little bit I stop and hit him with a stun. The leech did nothing for me, the small cuts have disappeared though.

"W-who a-are you?"

I hear a voice from the cell.

Stuffed inside are eight people, four female elves, two male humans, and two female humans.

"I-I'm getting you guys-uh," I feel weak. "Let's go." I finally manage to say. "It's this way."

I try using the wall for support but fall to my knees.

"I'll help you." One of the men supports me with his shoulder.

"T-thanks. It's up ahead, just-just keep going straight."

My consciousness is fading. I wonder how the others are doing.

-------------------

Anne walked for the whole time that Rainen was fighting. She had discovered nothing so far, only a few doors that led to empty rooms.

Henry had no luck either, the places that he visited beyond the door was filled with guards. He took each of them down but there were no slaves in sight.

-------------------

From what the old man, Maverick Railer, the organizer of the auction, knew nothing had gone astray yet. Everything was proceeding smoothly, too smoothly for his liking.

He never trusts a plan that is going on without an issue. This stirred him up on the inside. Right now he was in front of guests, he couldn't just leave them because of a feeling.

"Yalsal, Undor." he called.

"Yes?"

"What is it sir?"

"I want you two to go check up on the situation downstairs and report back to me."

""Understood.""

They both got up and headed through the same door.