"Keep following."
"Just kill us already, you piece of trash," one of them spat, hatred evident in his voice.
Arthur stood just a few steps ahead, and though every instinct screamed for them to attack, they were powerless to do anything but obey.
Their rage had long passed the breaking point. They wanted nothing more than to rip him apart, to kill him in the most brutal way imaginable.
But they just couldn't.
Their powerful bodies, claws sharp as knives, and teeth that could slice through metal, they used to hold pride in those and yet, now these were very features that were now nothing more than useless.
That couldn't serve even the single will of them.
The silver slave collars around their necks made sure of that. One refusal, one act of defiance, and the collars would send out a mana-fueled shock strong enough to bring them to their knees, thrashing in agony.
No amount of willpower, hate, or resolve could break the hold of those collars.
Arthur glanced down at his own wristband, crafted from the same metal. It may not have been a collar, but it shackled him just the way a slave collar would, binding him to Enric.
Not that it bothered him much.
It was only temporary. Just until he completed his contract. "Bring me a live yeti, he says. Like they're easy to find," Arthur muttered under his breath.
Behind him, the seven slaves followed, silent but fuming, until they reached a familiar face.
The muscular thug and his crew.
No, now they were doubled the number he was familiar with.
"So, you actually managed to bring in slaves, huh? You worthless cripple." The thug sauntered forward, mocking laughter in his eyes, a stark contrast to the submissiveness he'd shown before.
"You lying bastard. There's no one in Volford named Arthur," he sneered, his fists clenched as he glared.
Arthur scanned the crowd of thugs around him. They were badly outnumbered, maybe around 100 or more so, but that didn't really matter.
As quality mattered more than quantity, after all.
Arthur glanced back at the slaves he'd brought.
"You wanted to tear apart some human flesh, right?"
"No, watching you suffer is more entertaining," one of the slaves sneered, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Arthur with twisted satisfaction.
In response, Arthur snapped his fingers, activating the slave collar.
In an instant, the slave dropped to his knees, writhing as a powerful shock tore through him. His veins bulged, his face twisted in agony as he crawled on the ground, gasping, "Stop it, you bastard!"
"Please, stop," another slave begged, watching his comrade's suffering. "Try it on me instead!"
"Yes, do it to me!"
The rest joined in, their voices echoing with defiance.
Arthur's gaze remained cold and unfazed as he looked down at the slave writhing at his feet. He pressed his boot down on the man's face, increasing the pressure as he watched the slave's more suffocating gasps.
"You bastard, you're gonna pay for this," one of the others shouted, fury boiling in his voice.
Letting go of the writhed slave, Arthur walked towards the one barked, with a cold grin, Arthur gripped the slave's hair tightly, yanking his head back.
"Listen up," he said, voice low and calm.
"This one here will suffer a fate worse than death. And you'll just stand by and watch because as you know you're all powerless to stop me, you were back then and you still are, nothing has changed,"
He leaned in closer. "But I'm not a heartless master. I'll give you a chance, kill every last one of those thugs, and when they're all dead, I'll stop this."
"You—!" The slave tried to respond, but another one placed a hand on his shoulder, murmuring, "For now, let's do as he says."
With that, the six slaves leapt into the fray, launching themselves at the hundred thugs without hesitation.
Though outnumbered, their savage strength and precision were unstoppable.
Before the thugs could even raise their weapons in offence... No, as they saw the savages their instinct already pulled to defence instead but it was already too late, as their heads were already rolling on the ground.
The muscular thug leader, clutching a fallen axe, charged toward one of the beastmen consumed in a fight.
He roared, swinging with all his might, but before his axe could strike, another beastman lunged from behind, tearing through his chest and flinging the two halves of his body in opposite directions.
Arthur continued to watch as the last of the thugs fell onto the muddy ground now drenched in blood.
'Damn, I didn't think they'd be this capable,' he thought, glancing over the bodies sprawled around him.
The hundred men were nothing more than lifeless decorations on the battlefield, painted red by only six beastmen.
'Humans are truly too weak,'
"Done," one of the slaves gasped, dripping with blood as he staggered closer to Arthur.
"Good."
Arthur allowed himself a small chuckle, then snapped his fingers once more. This time, the remaining six collapsed alongside the one already writhing in pain, seized by the collar's mana-charged shock.
The current was so intense that none of them could even scream. They could only stare, wide-eyed, at Arthur's cold, emotionless face as their bodies shook violently.
Soon, the shock shifted from yellow to a deep, sinister purple.
Their eyes rolled back, foam bubbling from their mouths, tears streaming down their faces as the final breath left their bodies.
One by one, they died, powerless and again betrayed.
For all their planning and their struggle to change their fate, they had only ended up powerless, betrayed again by the same beings they wanted their revenge from, humans.
Why? Why, was it so?
This was the question they died with and yet for Arthur it didn't matter, he had already learned the answer to it.
"It has always been unfair."
Arthur confirmed their deaths, then turned his gaze up toward the gleaming moon.
"We weren't so different, you and I," he murmured. "But unlike me, it seems you weren't the chosen one."
Just then, a blue screen materialised before him.
[You were involved in the deaths of 107 living beings. Do you wish to sacrifice their souls?]
With a flick of his finger, Arthur pressed [Yes].
"Maybe I am just another pawn for some higher being and again maybe I will end up the same way," he muttered, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.
"But that's only if I follow the path he set out for me."
☘︎☘︎☘︎☘︎☘︎☘︎
{A/N}
Hi again guys, the novel is finally vetted. And now I can start begging for those power stones.
So please, to enable me some features and motivate me to publish 2 chapters a day, Vote!
Question for today:
If you guys had the option to choose your summon's Racial Class like, Humanoid, demihuman, hetromorphic.
Then which one would you choose as your first summon?
Anyways thanks for reading and please comment your answers.
Peace out!