**Authors note**
*Not enough death yet! Let the screams of every living creature sound!*
Vain and Athena got ready to put their plan into action.
After half an hour the Clump had already disappeared and finished the body it was dragging along since the sounds of crunching had stopped. Vain walked to the open vent and stood at the ready with his sword. Carefully watching the vent, Vain stood in front of it and waited, staring directly into the vent, Vain waited a good 30 seconds before he gave the signal for Athena to move on.
The vent was pitch black. This made it so Vain couldn't know if the Clump left into another area, or was waiting sneakily for the perfect moment to strike. The Clump appeared to really leave since even after passing the area nothing happened.
Vain knew that they had really just got lucky, so without letting down his guard, both he and Athena kept moving. After half an hour of silence, they saw a different group with five men and one woman.
"Don't move! I am human! Are you a house or a sword?!" Vain shouted at them, but he made sure to not be too loud in case he attracted the attention of something unwanted.
The other group appeared to calm down and the man leading the group yelled back, "I am a human! Are you a composter?!"
Vain also calmed down and moved closer to them in the hope to find out more about what they had experienced. Except when he moved closer, he noticed that the woman had her hands tied, and he also noticed that she was gagged. The other group also saw Athena and looked at her like they were going to pick a piece of meat.
Vain cursed and knew that he ran into the rare-ish case of traffickers.
True to what Vain knew the men all pointed their weapons directly at Vain and spoke to him condescendingly, "Kid give us the girl and listen our every command and you don't have to die."
Vain and Athena had talked about this situation and what to do if they encountered it to make it out alive. Vain acted like he didn't understand like he was new, "What do you mean? Please. We are both humans aren't we?"
Vain had also immediately ignored the tied-up girl's existence since she wasn't a threat and she would at most be a barrier that he needed to avoid. The girl looked at Vain with all her hope in case this new group would have a chance of saving her.
The leader laughed at Vain's supposed naive look, "Kid you are new so I won't hold it against you. In fact, I will even let you join my group here where you can be safe. After all, we aren't in our old world where morals matter. So join my human trafficking joint!"
The man made it sound like he was doing Vain a favor for letting him join them, as if what he was saying was the only choice. Vain was prepared and pretended to think about it for a minute before grabbing Athena's arm and spoke to the man, "Alright let's go!" Athena on the other hand pretended to struggle against Vain nearly screaming, "I don't want to! Let me go!" Since they were prepared, Athena had pulled out her melee weapon and Vain had grabbed that very hand.
The girl that had been tied up had also lost all hope in her eyes. She knew that it was truly hopeless to believe she would ever walk free after this.
The group laughed and felt like Vain had truly decided to join them. They looked at Athena with a lecherous look and some spoke, "Come little girl I will show you what it means to have a good time! HAHA!"
While the men were believing that Athena was already in their hands, Vain and Athena had reached into melee attacking range. They had understood that most people put too much reliance on long-range weapons, so most people don't even carry a melee weapon if they have not used it long enough.
Without a word the hand that Vain was holding Athena by was released and the hatchet flew straight into the skull of the nearest man. Vain also reached and pulled out his short sword and attacked the nearest enemy stabbing straight through his heart.
What Vain didn't notice was the expressions that the tied-up girl had. She, who had lost all color and showed a look of despair now had awoken with the sounds of the men screaming as they died one after another in an extremely short amount of time.
The men who still lived shot their crossbows at the pair that was slicing through their ranks, but as they shot too hastily, the crossbow bolts had missed, and instead, another man had been shot by his partner which caused him to squeal in pain as his shoulder had been shot. There were only two men who had guns which were the first two who died on first contact.
After seeing her captors being killed right in front of her, the girl that had been tied and gagged began to cry as she fell to her knees. Vain had forgotten she was even here and treated her like a pillar in the fight, like an obstacle.
Athena on the other hand didn't forget about the poor girl that was being trafficked. She walked up and cut the rope that bound her hands, and cut the gag that was tied to her head. After being given the ability to speak, the girl could only keep crying while looking at the ground speaking a soft thanks, "Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you..."
Athena gave a good hug to the girl as she let her weep. Vain on the other hand didn't know what to do at all. He simply got his bow at the ready and guarded the pair in case the fighting or crying attracts an enemy.
After half an hour Vain couldn't take it any longer and spoke, "I get you to need your time, but staying too long in one place isn't such a great idea either way. Speak to us as we walk. We can get to know each other and know what happened."
Although Vain spoke as politely as he could, he still got a cold glare from Athena as if he was the worst enemy they could meet. Luckily the girl was smart and slowly stood up, "Yeah. You are right. I just lost everyone I cared about. They gave me away as if I meant nothing to them. Even you strangers are nicer to me than they had ever been."
Athena kept her hand on the girl's back to comfort her. "It's okay to take your time and we will deal with it then. For now, why don't you start with your name, then you can tell us what is in the direction you had come from?"
"My name is Helen. As for what was in the other direction, I wasn't paying attention so I have no idea. All I could think about is how much I hated that I was abandoned and would be sold."
Vain showed a look of disappointment and sighed, "Alright let's just move and react to what we see. My name is Vain, and this little girl is named Athena. Athena reload your crossbow and be ready for anything."
Athena kept glaring at Vain, but still grumbled an, "Alright..." She then looked at Helen, "Either way Helen it is nice to meet you."
With that quick encounter, the newly made group of three took the guns and a crossbow for the new member of their group.