X took several deep breaths of fresh air, free from the confines of Dureld Dungeon. His heart filled with glee, though his neck hurt from constantly gazing up at the blue sky. Alone in the vast openness outside, new and exciting adventures awaited him.

Despite not spotting any humans tailing him, he had deviated from the main road to derail any possible pursuers. The weak elf tried to avoid further incidents since his debilitated condition carried a heavy penalty on any type of encounter. By noon, he slowed his horse's pace while he pondered his options. Silifran didn't tempt him enough, especially after facing its authority figures and shady characters hiding in its cloaca. Worse, X had completely lost his sense of direction as he aimlessly roamed through the desolate forest. His hungry stomach’s roars grew louder, and his body craved water. He spent a lot of energy in the last several hours and had nothing to nurture him back to full health.

Evening arrived while X stubbornly clung to his horse, refusing to dismount even to relieve himself. Inside his malnourished head, he couldn’t form a coherent plan and desisted. Instead, he kept riding towards an uncertain tomorrow, his self-doubts sapping his remaining energy. The coming hours would be critical, and although he remained unsure of his next move, he was prepared to improvise for as long as he could.

"I'll... come up with something soon enough..." the redheaded elf whispered.

[Your emaciated mind's too far gone to try that.]

X clutched onto his horse's neck, no longer having the strength to ride straight.

The mirage walked alongside them.

"Losing faith? I've improvised my whole life... lives. I can surely do it for a few more hours."

[If you could see yourself in a mirror, you would understand your situation.]

"Ah, you’ve got a point... somewhere in there."

[You should get off that horse and search for food.]

"Now you're worried about me? How strange of you."

[Are you that scared?]

"I won't get down from this horse, oh no. I know I won't be able to climb back. Begone, demon servant."

[I'll leave, but not because you told me to. You're too boring right now.]

"Yeah, sure... whatever you say."

His body fought to stay awake, his heavy eyelids drooping shut. Fear gripped him as he worried about falling from his horse, but he was powerless to resist. Eventually, he succumbed to a deep and restful slumber.

Morning arrived, and to his surprise, he was still astride his horse, which had also stopped to rest. "Freaking yeah! Lucky me I'm light..." But his hunger and thirst persisted, and his dry lips stung every time he opened them. He began his aimless journey once more, too anxious to stay in place with beasts roaming in every corner of his mind.

Before midday, he heard distant noises coming from the woods. He wasn't sure if those were real or a figment of his depleted mind.

"Ah... what are those noises?" he questioned aloud.

It didn't matter anymore. In his state, he welcomed anything. A minute later, the noises subsided, and his horse came to a stop.

"Hey, you... Go on."

The horse lowered its head and began to drink from a stream that crossed their path.

"Is that...?"

In an instant, his worries dissipated, and X dropped down from his horse, splashing water in every direction. He drank as much as he could.

With one necessity off his list, X lay back in the stream, letting the water flow around his body. He dozed off as his depleted reserves began to replenish.

"Eh?" A nearby racket roused him from his slumber, and he raised his upper body. Silence. "Maybe it was my imagination."

The redheaded elf heard those eerie noises again and decided to leave without finding out what made them. He took a final sip of water, but his tongue was met with a familiar metallic tang. X noticed that the water had turned red. Blood flowed down the stream. This signaled him to leave immediately. He rushed to his horse, but as he had suspected, he couldn't climb onto it. In addition to his frail constitution, his lack of sustenance caused his arms to ache, making it almost impossible for him to pull himself up into the saddle.

"Oh hell! Come on!" he cried out.

The sounds grew louder, and shouting came after.

"Crap!" X’s body fought a losing battle. His arms gave out every time he attempted to pull himself up.

Suddenly, nearby voices reached his pointy ears.

"Don't woof!" shouted a figure in the bushes.

"Them fuckers are here!" yelled his partner.

"Run!" exclaimed a third small being.

A gnome, a dogoon feralis, and a man ran towards X.

"Who's that—? A horse!" yelled the man.

"Woof it!" A glint of hope shined on the trio’s eyes. "The arf is this woof?" asked the feralis.

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"Who cares, take his horse!" shouted the gnome.

The feralis shoved X to the ground and hopped on the horse, followed by the gnome. The man also tried to mount the horse, but there wasn't enough space.

"Woof! Arf's only woorfom two!" yelled the dogoon feralis.

“Don’t fuck with me!” screamed the man at his partners.

"Hey, that's my horse, you slimes!" X shouted at the trio.

“Was, bastard, finder keepe—” The gnome didn't finish his sentence before a magic missile hit him, severing his head.

"Woofckl!" screamed the dogoon.

The horse galloped away with the feralis on it, leaving the man behind trying to catch up with it.

"This is not good." X took off in the opposite direction of the magic and observed other sentient creatures running in fear. They shouted, glancing at their backs.

"Where are they?" yelled a half-orc.

"Mieww can't myaan them!" shouted a kinkat feralis.

"It doesn't matter now, run!" screamed a gnome.

Amidst the mayhem, X spotted the unmistakable armor of elven troops. They pursued any creature that crossed their path, shooting arrows and casting spells at anything that moved. The elf quickly dropped to the ground and awkwardly crawled his way out of harm's way. He watched as both fleeing creatures and elven soldiers, some on foot and others mounted, rushed past him.

"Yes... go on," whispered X.

After the last members of the stampede thundered away, silence descended upon the land. X let out a sigh of relief and continued crawling until a pair of boots appeared in front of him. He slowly lifted his head to look up at their owner.

"Mister Ekk's, what a surprise! And what a situation to meet you again. I think I didn't tell you last time how odd it is to see a redheaded elf around these parts.” The elven female soldier forcibly removed X’s rags covering his crimson hair. “And by strange, I mean never in my life. And yet, here we are.”

Silifran's main gate captain stood in front of X. He immediately recognized her as the one who had interrogated him.

"You know how things go with these lessers," said X.

The captain stabbed the ground next to his head with her sword. "Let's cut the crap. You don't think we know who you are?"

"Eh?" His heart skipped a beat.

"You're with the Lanaen Band, and you were seen with their assassins.”

The redheaded elf remembered the night at the gates. "Then you're the ones getting bribed!"

"Bribes? This fellow elf is crazier than we thought.” The captain scoffed while looking at her two subordinates, who nervously smiled back, before she stared down at X. “We've been following the Lanaen Band and know they entered Dureld. You included. But we won't speak here. You'll have to wait until we're in Silifran."

The elves gathered the sentient creatures they had caught and arranged them in a line around the carriages. X soon realized whom they had hunted: bandits, outlaws, and outcasts. Wounded and bloodied, they all awaited their fate. After an hour of rounding them up, the elven troops proceeded to gather the dead bodies into a pile. They talked among themselves and left the captured undisturbed but guarded.

Suddenly, a bloodied elf ran towards them, shouting in elven.

"Kyl’sin enhain!" exclaimed the elven soldier.

“Ler’luaa muk, Jerlun?!" questioned the captain.

"Fer’eros la gutt’er galim!" yelled another soldier.

"Damn it! Humans are here! Galimat eku’un tea! Para’li le’sei la!" ordered the female captain.

Arrows rained down on them the moment she finished speaking. One of the beings beside X took an arrow to the chest.

“Hell no!” he shouted.

“Run motherfuckers!” a man screamed, stood up, and rushed into the woods behind them.

Every bandit seized their chance and fled in the midst of chaos. X was no exception and turned south, trailing two other creatures. The fight erupted across the entire area, but he didn't witness much of it. He focused solely on the path ahead, falling behind the others. Eventually, he found himself alone again, with the sounds of battle still echoing in the distance. His head surveyed his surroundings, attempting to figure out the best path to freedom, but every direction he turned looked the same.

The redheaded elf struggled to focus, his exhausted body pushed to its limits, limping along. Disoriented, he stumbled into a ravine, falling down and landing in front of a human squad. Before he could speak, a catchpole was wrapped around his neck.

“Ah! Darn it!” complained X.

“Come here putrajado!” ordered the human soldier holding him with the catchpole.

“Where the hell did this one come from?” asked another human soldier.

“It fell right into my feet,” replied his partner.

X was herded towards a group of other captured beings.

“Hey, get it away from me! It smells like it died and came back!” exclaimed a nearby soldier with a disgusted face.

“These ones are low-level putrajados, sick and diseased. What a horrible haul!” spoke a spotter on top of a carriage.

“Not good, but safe,” X's handler retorted.

“I want an elf!” spoke a gray-haired soldier as he got down from the front carriage.

“Here’s your elf,” said the soldier leading X as he shoved him into his companion.

“This sick shit? No! I want the elf captain and her curvy body,” retorted the gray-haired soldier, recoiling.

“Then go get her back there! I’m good with these.”

“Nah... too much risk, I’ll have better luck next time.”

“Keep it up, Karran, you’re only a decade late,” sneered the spotter at the old soldier.

The human squad laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, but you’ll see,”retorted Karran.

“You always say the same shit. Always the same. Ten years,” spoke a witch.

“I have standards, Sereli, unlike you, witch,” spoke Karran.

“Standards? Your feralis say otherwise,” replied Sereli.

“Oh sure, and your orcs yell normalcy, ain’t it.”

“They don't. I like them big you know. Not that you’d know anything about that,” said Sereli with a wide grin on her face.

More laughter echoed through the woods.

“But these putrajados do seem specially putrid and rotten,” commented the spotter.

“Someone will buy them. What for, who knows and who cares. Gold’s gold,” said the soldier handling the redheaded elf.

X's captor shoved him into an open carriage, his hands cuffed. He was sandwiched between a feralis and a dwarf, both of whom sat with their sad faces staring at their feet. The soldiers loaded their other captives and took off at a breakneck speed.

The redheaded elf glanced around and saw the defeated and hopeless expressions on the faces of the other sentient creatures. For a brief instant, those languid faces made him doubt he had it in him to do it all over again and find a way to escape. His elf blood boiled, and his anger rose, threatening to burst out. He spat out his weakness and safely cursed the demon-gods for screwing him over because, in that moment, he fully realized the extent of their treachery. However, he quickly regained his focus. X knew what he needed: rest and a way to release his rage.

He gritted his teeth and let out a furious scream. "No way! This can't be happening again! Fuuuck— Arhg! You demon-gods! Aaarghh!"

-- END OF VOLUME 2 --