Chapter 33 Stuck Between A Rock And A Hard Place.

[WARNING: THIS CHAPTER IS CONSIDERABLY DARK, AND NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART]

***

"Fuck"

Arvell was quite irritated with this current development.

'Why did they need to come now? The current situation is troublesome enough on its own!'

First, they had to deal with a beast stampede because the rank 6 beast woke up, even though it was supposed to be hibernating.

Then they had to deal with a bored rank 4 beast who saw them as amusing prey.

And now slave traders?

Were the heavens screwing with them?

Arvell felt a murderous gaze emanating from his side and saw Zen glaring at the group with unconcealed rage.

He was clenching his fist tightly enough to cause his knuckles to go white.

'It's not easy to overcome that kind of hatred. He was kidnapped and abused by bandits himself. While they weren't slave traders per se, they still acted like ones,' Lykos explained, 'Imagine how you would feel to see all of the people who shunned you, humiliated you, and tried to kill you for having no mana?'

Hearing this, Arvell understood where Zen was coming from.

Even so, fighting this group with their current strength was suicide.

He would need at least a week to properly stalk them and poison them.

To gather the ingredients for the poison would take another two months.

Arvell could only execute it when their guard was down as well.

None of which were possible now.

Furthermore, even if he managed to kill all of them, there was still the rank 4 beast he had to worry about.

'Wait…'

Arvell began analyzing their current predicament and smiled eerily.

'This might just work.'

Lykos mirrored his smile.

'Oh? Things are going to get interesting!'

Arvell placed a hand on Zen's shoulder.

"Zen, I have a plan"

Turning to his side, he informed Zen of his plan.

Hearing his plan, Zen looked at Arvell as if he was crazy.

"Are you mad? That's too risky!"

Arvell sighed.

It seemed Zen didn't grasp the full severity of their current situation.

"We are stuck between a rock and a hard place. We have only one way to get out of this alive. And it's through this."

Zen paused for a moment before nodding his head.

"I'll trust in your judgment. I hope this works."

Arvell chuckled lightly.

"If this doesn't work we can just consider ourselves already dead."

***

"Fucking hell! Why is the rank 6 beast awake now? This shouldn't happen for months!"

A pot-bellied man with an eyepatch complained.

"I don't fucking know! Maybe some fifth circle hotshot was dumb enough to challenge that monster? I lost my arm to those damned beasts!"

His companion next to him complained while looking at the stump he used to call his arm.

It was covered in a blood-soaked rag.

"We lost so many of our men. Gen and the others are probably beast shit now."

Another man grumbled.

"Haah," the potbellied man sighed, "we had to babysit these bitches too. Too bad we can't cash in on the men we brought."

"Those men weren't worth much either way. Them serving as bait at least bought us some time." The man with the stump chimed in.

His words seemed to bring one of the captured girls out of her daze, and she began sobbing audibly.

"Daddy!"

The potbellied man looked at her with an annoyed gaze.

"Right, wasn't this bitch related to one of those shits we used as bait? I reckon it was her dad?"

"Yup. Had his head bitten clean off?" The armless man smiled.

Even if he lost his arm, it was still better than dying.

Taking pleasure in their misery made his pain feel more bearable.

If only slightly.

One of the men walked up to the girl and punched her in the gut.

"Shut the fuck up! One more word and I will send you to join him!"

The girl spasmed on the ground in pain desperately clutching her stomach.

However, she desperately suppressed any noise.

She knew it would only result in more physical abuse.

Seeing the girl shut up the man grumbled.

While he was thankful he didn't have to hear her annoying screams, a part of him wanted her to squeal a little more so he could vent his frustrations on her.

Too bad this girl had learned a thing or two in the time she had been abducted.

"Coril, don't beat up the merchandise too much. We still need her to sell."

"Yeah, yeah I know. If anything, this will make her more obedient to her future owners."

Suddenly one of the other men licked his lips and approached the girls hungrily.

"Hey boss, why don't we sample them? We risked our lives to bring these bitches here, the least they can do is to compensate us!"

The potbellied man originally wanted to say no, since it would decrease their value.

However, he wanted a way to vent out his frustrations as well.

Might as well make his merchandise useful.

"Fine… But don't break them too much. Remember they need to sell, so no lasting injuries," the pot-bellied man smiled eerily, "but a little rough play is ok. As long as it can be healed with healing magic, you can do whatever you want to them."

The men all started cheering, while the woman looked at the hungry men fearfully.

They were kidnapped.

Their husbands, brothers, friends, and sons were all used as bait.

Now they were going to get raped and abused.

What did they do to deserve this?

One of the women quickly grabbed a pointy rock and tried to plunge it into her throat, but one of the men grabbed it from her and threw it across the room.

"Dumb bitch! If you die how the fuck can we sell you?" The man who grabbed her looked at her ample assets and licked his lips with a perverted grin, "Don't worry I'll make sure to properly discipline you myself!"

The man's grin sent shivers down the woman's body.

She wanted nothing more than to get away from here, from them.

Even if she had to kill herself.

However, she wasn't even granted that option.

She looked at the man defiantly, and a trickle of blood spilled down her cheek.

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The man hurriedly grabbed her and pried open her mouth, only for a small pink piece of flesh to fall into his hand.

"Boss we got a problem! This bitch bit her tongue!"

The potbellied man sighed.

This wasn't the first time something like this happened.

Luckily they had a contingency plan.

"Feed her a potion."

"But boss, those are incredibly expensive!"

"Her body can fetch us a high enough price to negate the costs. Just make the bitch pay for this."

"Yes, boss!"

The man grabbed a potion and forced it into the girl's mouth.

She tried to spit it out since she knew what kind of fate awaited her, but she was forced to drink it by the man.

The bleeding in her mouth decreased, as the stump that was previously her tongue left slowly healed over.

It was the worst-case scenario.

She failed to kill herself, and she even lost her tongue for good.

Tears began streaming from her eyes.

'Do I have no hope? Is there nothing I can do to escape this hell?'

Sadly there seemed to be no escape.

She was going to get raped and then sold.

Her new 'master' would probably beat her and degrade her, until she became an empty shell.

'Someone… please save me…'

The other girls also had defeated expressions etched on their faces.

They had no hope.

No way to escape this hell.

In the past they would look at captured Vispian slaves with contempt, thinking that it was proper that their citizens were slaves.

However, experiencing it themselves let them realize just how harsh being a slave was.

Some wished that they could have treated those slaves a little kinder, but it was too late now.

It was their turn to be on the receiving end.

Just as the men were about to start stripping their captives, a black-haired youth popped his head out of a nearby tunnel.

"****! CALL THE GUARDS!"

The entire area went dead silent as everyone looked at Zen with eyes not hiding their blatant confusion.

Zen pointed to the pot-bellied man.

"Have you no shame? You look old enough to be some of their fathers! Having illicit sexual relationships is bad at your age! Can you even 'get it up?' at your age? Do you use pills perchance?"

The potbellied man spat out an arrow of blood.

Zen's quip seemed to hit the nail right on the head.

The potbellied man did have issues 'getting it up' as Zen pointed out…

He also may or may not have purchased some special pills to help in his little issue as well…

But how did this kid know this?

Did everyone know?

The pot-bellied man warily looked at the other men in the room who were staring at him with their mouths agape.

One of the women even stifled out a small laugh.

First, they were going to be raped, and now they got front-row seats to a standup comedy?

What was going on?

The potbellied man's face flushed with anger as he looked at some of the nearby men.

"What are you just standing there for? Go rip that kid limb from limb… No, wait." The man forced himself to calm down and think rationaally, "first, capture him and find out how he knew about this tunnel. It should be only known by those of the underworld."

While he was fuming at the kid's provocations, he still had to know how a kid, who looked no older than thirteen knew of this place.

More importantly, how did he even get here?

Their group barely got here in one piece!

He had to capture the kid before he alerted any of his companions.

If they managed to get here, they were probably strong as well.

The potbellied man joined the group running towards the kid.

He was the one called out for using 'performance enhancing' pills after all.

"Nice chat! See you later!"

Channeling his wind magic to make himself slightly faster, Zen ran back into the tunnel as fast as he could.

***

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