"Elyse!" Julian panted, as he finally reached Elyse. The flames grew hotter.
"Julian! I seriously thought you died!" she said, with relief in her voice. She had a smile on her face.
"You think I would die that easily?"
"Yeah...?"
"Ah, never mind. Let's get out of here. I know the best way to get out of here."
Julian grabbed Elyse's hand. That's when he noticed Ailen.
"Ailen? What are you doing here? I thought you were with the others!" Julian asked.
"I came here to get you, obviously! Come on already!" Ailen responded, gesturing for Julian to follow him.
"Haha! I found you, boy! Oscar isn't here to save you anymore!" the slave that attacked Julian before yelled. Fear shook Julian. His eyes were wide.
"Ailen. Take Elyse and run."
"What are you talking about-"
"Do it, god damn it! Just take her and run!" Julian yelled. Ailen sighed and nodded, throwing Elyse onto his shoulder.
"Hey! Let me go, god damn it!" Elyse whined, struggling.
"Hey, Elyse. Sorry that I couldn't ever give you my blood. Even now, I'm still not going to give you my blood because of my stubbornness."
"What are you talking about? When we get out of here, you can just give me your blood-"
Julian looked at her with a solemn face. The kind of face that said, "This is probably the last time I'll ever see you again." Tears fell from Elyse's eyes.
"Stop messing around... Julian. Come on! Just come with us!" Elyse said.
"You know it too, Elyse. This guy... he's strong. Oscar's restriction only lasted for seconds. Just... get out of here, already."
Ailen nodded, with a sad face.
"D-Don't you dare! Put me down! I swear I'll-"
"Goodbye, Elyse."
Ailen dashed off, listening to what Julian said. Then, Julian turned around to face that man.
"Let's just get this beat-down over with. I'd like to relieve some stress!" the slave said, cracking his fingers.
Julian regretted his actions a bit. If he had just gone with them, he would've been safe. Actually, that isn't true. That slave would've chased him down.
"Stop thinking about something else!" the slave said, as he punched Julian in the gut. Julian flew, landing on a nearby wall. He slowly got up.
He felt a constant ringing. It wasn't a sound, it was in his head. As the ringing intensified, so did the pain. Julian touched his lip. He felt blood.
"It hurts... it hurts so bad!" he thought, tearing up from the pain.
"Didn't I tell you not to be lost in thought?" the slave said. He kicked Julian in the gut, drilling him further into the wall.
"Keuk!" Julian spit out blood.
"Jeez. I don't think I'll even have to use a cast against you. How pathetic!" the slave laughed. He continued receiving punches until the slave realized that it wasn't safe to stay there.
"I'll see you... actually, I'll probably never see you again. You'll die here, hahaha!" the slave kicked Julian one last time before running off.
Everything hurt. His entire body screamed for help. He could barely move. In fact, he had to crawl out of the area. He found a river nearby and rested there.
"Ah... I'll seriously die here. Why do I have to be... so weak?" Julian cried, looking into the night sky. It was so beautiful. Such a beautiful world. It was so cruel to him, though.
He slowly fell asleep. He was harshly awoken by two kids stepping on his back.
"Ow! Ow! St-stop!" Julian yelled in pain. The kids stopped.
"Sorry, mister! We thought you were dead!" the boy said. Julian looked up, rubbing his back. The two kids seemed to be around 6. A boy and a girl, both of them with dark blue hair and black eyes. They had cat-like ears, indicating that they were demi-humans.
"Jeez... who are you kids, anyways?" Julian asked.
"I'm Avor, she's Lifi!" the boy said as he stepped off me.
"Do you guys have parents?" Julian questioned.
"We'll take you to our village!" they said, grabbing his hand. Julian was a little surprised by the sudden grab, but he didn't resist or anything like that.
After walking for a bit, Julian finally reached a village. It was fairly small, but the aura of the village was quite lively. He could hear kids playing and having fun.
"Excuse me... where am I?" Julian asked the nearest man he saw. A boy about the same age as Julian. He had dark brown hair that was slicked back and brown eyes. His hands were in his pocket and he was wearing regular attire.
"You must be a foreigner. You're in Venichian's outskirts."
"Right. Do you have a... map?" Julian asked, pretending as if he knew what Venichian was. The boy nodded, pulling a rumpled map out of his backpack.
"This is just... a map of Europe?" Julian said, observing the map even harder. From his knowledge, this was definitely Europe. Except, the countries weren't the same. Venichian was northern Spain.
"Europe? I have... no idea what you're talking about. But anyway, what's your name? I'm Saldair."
"J-Julian. I'm Julian."
Julian shook hands with Saldair. Saldair decided to show him around the village.
"This village is pretty nice. Nobody is discriminated against, which is why you'll see a lot of demi-humans here."
Saldair was not lying. The village was made up of mostly demi-humans, with some humans and elves in the mix.
"Thanks for this tour, Saldair. I'll see you later!" Julian waved goodbye. He walked around the village a little more, exploring. He turned a corner and a fight had been going on.
It was a crimson-haired boy. His hair was a mess and his eyes were dark black. He looked furious, grabbing a poor innocent boy by his collar. It looked like they were wearing a certain school uniform.
The poor boy on the other side was a black-haired boy, with black eyes. He looked pretty... basic, to be honest. There was nothing that stood out about him besides the horizontal cut under his right eye.
Julian intervened.
"Hey! You two should stop that-"
[Cast: Shadow Steps]
The black-haired boy's feet started to emit black and purple energy. He stepped into the air, drop-kicking Julian.
"Ow! What the hell?!" Julian yelled. The crimson-haired boy followed after, keeping Julian on the ground.
"You know what to do. Hand over all your money!" the black-haired boy said, with his whole demeanor changing. Originally he looked sad, but now he looked cocky and evil.
"I don't... have any money?"
"Stop lying!" the black-haired boy shook Julian to get some money out, but nothing came out.
"Jeez... I feel bad for robbing this guy. He's even more broke than us!" The red-haired boy said, with his head down.