One Day Later:
Flinching just the tiniest bit, two almost silent shots rang out and two thuds were heard as my prey crashed down onto the forest floor.
In between the time that the shots had rung out and the sound of the "thuds" of the bodies hitting the forest floor, my gun had already been put back in its original position on my back, as if it had never been moved in the first place.
Pinpointing where the birds had landed, I started heading off in that direction, but then, I heard a peculiar noise.
"Click Clack, Click Clack, Click Clack..."
Knowing that that was the familiar sound of horseshoes hitting the ground, I slowly snuck up on the sound, using the movement technique that I had learned from Saria.
And the scene that I saw shocked me.
After all, who would have expected a human carriage in the middle of the forest mostly dominated by elves?
And, judging from the low quality of the carriage and by the fact that it had no windows, I could tell immediately what type of carriage it was.
You see, it was almost definitely a slave trader's wagon.
Coming to this conclusion, I decided that it wasn't really my problem because there was almost a 100% certainty that the rangers in the elves' fighting forces would be able to track down the wagon and annihilate it.
Yet, there was something that was stopping me from leaving the slave traders be.
Thinking about it for a while as I continued to trail the slave traders, I finally figured it out.
'That familiar energy... she's in there."
And, as my consciousness knew that it couldn't leave her a second time, I started planning out my strategy to rescue her.
Well, it really wasn't a strategy, as it was literally just, "Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot," until all of them were dead.
Yep, it was just that easy.
So, I followed the slave wagon until they stopped to camp for the night, before finding a nice vantage point to kill all the slave traders from.
Activating my mask so that it covered all of my face in a completely circular disk, with just pin-points for my eyes to see from, I brought the only gun I had up to my right eye.
You see, the gun that I was given for my exam was actually a heavy sniper rifle that weighed more than 30 kg and was longer than two katanas put end to end.
It was absolutely impossible for the normal person to use, but, with my experience and past year training with my Master, I could easily wield the gargantuan gun.
Of course, I wasn't wielding it because I preferred it, I was wielding it because Master had known what my least favorite gun to wield was, so she had made it my only weapon for the test.
She had even banned me from making other weapons, as she knew I was completely capable of doing that.
After all, I was a guy that actually did love snipers, as they were my favorite gun type and my favorite weapon in general as I would unconsciously reach for them whenever I was asked to pick a weapon, but a preferred extremely lightweight ones.
As for this heavy one, although it held more power, in my eyes, it was just a disgrace to the sniper family which emphasized speed and hiding abilities.
Anyways, it only took me a second to figure out where all the slave traders were before I quickly shot 5 bullets in quick succession, my arms moving by themselves as they loaded each bullet in, in less than a quarter of a second per bullet, as I completely demolished the slave traders.
Hopping down from my tree, I quickly ran to the multiple tents that the slave traders had set up.
You see, although I couldn't see exactly what was happening in the tents, I was pretty much able to sense the positions of the slave traders from their heat signatures.
Sweeping through the tents, I found nothing of interest, and so I broke the lock on the back of the wagon and opened the gate only to find myself looking into a deadening darkness.
The way that these slave traders had been treating the slaves... was just downright atrocious.
Seeing the elf children in varying degrees of dilapidated states, my emotions flared up for a second before I regained my composure and started freeing the elves from the chains that had bound them.
But, even after I unlocked all of them, none of them moved as they all stared at me with blank expressions on their faces.
Well, all of them except for one.
"Guys... this kind young man has saved us, so let's hurry on and not take up any more of his time."
Hearing the voice of their princess, the elf children immediately got out of the carriage and just stood there in random positions in the clearing that the slave traders had been camping in.
I climbed out of the carriage after them, and realizing that I had forgotten to cover up the bodies of the dead slave traders who had had their heads blown off in an explosion of gory blood, tissue, bones, and brain matter, I quickly moved the tents around to cover the images before they were engraved into the children's minds.
Seeing my actions, Faye nodded her head in thanks, as she quickly ushered the kids into the forest, giving me an apologetic look.
I just nodded back in understanding, as she needed to get those kids back to the elf city as quickly as possible to treat their mental states, or they could suffer from PTSD or something similar for the rest of their lives.
But, before she fully left, I threw something at her.
As the silver flashed threw the air, she sensed it and immediately caught it.
Looking at the necklace for a second, I explained to her why I had given it to her.
"Remember that you owe me one." I said, before taking out my own necklace that had been hiding under my shirt, and showing it to her.
Again, she just nodded, never one to talk out loud unless absolutely needed, and after that, she disappeared into the forest.
I actually trailed them again after they had thought that I had left, all the way until they met up with the rangers.
Phasing away after making sure that they were safe, I let out a sigh that had been weighing on my lungs for the past few hours.
'Now, let's just hope that that favor is enough.'