The stalkers consisted of seven people whether they were all a group or had separate agendas made no difference. Sunlight began to fade and we were still a decent distance from the hotel. 

Along the way, I thought about possible scenarios. Should I wait for them or act first? My mood led me to the latter with a turn into an alleyway to confront them head-on.

“No-mage filth, to think you’d make things easy for us.” Appearing from the corner six guys blocked off the exit. The one in front raised his hand. “Hand over all your money if you don’t want to die.” The other five activated their magic, ready to fire.

Eris gave me a weird look when I stopped her from taking a step forward. I tossed out three gold coins, the rest the money that I brought along. “Here the money.”

“Where’s the rest?” The one who picked up the coins shouted. “Brat must have a death wish!” Another exclaimed.

“That’s all my money, may I leave now?” I replied with a monotone voice.

“Fine, leave. But your slave stays behind.” The front guy smiled crookedly as he inspected Eris.

“I gave you a way out. I tried.” I mumbled under my breath walking towards them to leave.

“What a useless master you had, little girl. We’ll take care of you from now on.” The gang of thugs paid me no attention as if I were dirt on the ground. Their stares lingered all over Eris. Filthy and disgusting thoughts no doubt.

Before I could pass them to leave, I was stopped by one of the thugs. “He said you could go, but I didn’t.” He looked down at me and tried to push me onto the floor, only to be avoided and punched onto the ground. Blood coughed out of his mouth as the others shouted. I didn’t really catch all they had to say but saw their magic being fired off.

No holding back now, weaving in and out and hitting every thug with my full strength. The splatter of blood painted the grimy alley walls a darker shade of red, as each of them laid groaning in pain. After retrieving my tossed coins, I knelt down next to the lead thug lifting him up by his neck. My arm extended pinning his body to the wall as I asked Eris to come over. 

“Heal him for me, please.” Eris healed the thug without any objection. I waited until he fully realized his situation. A stream of profanity spewed with a punch to the gut in kind. This shut him up, but not for long. “Brat, you’re dead when we get out of here!” His eyes glared as if wanting my head on a stick.

“You were never going to let us go from the start. Did you think I’d happily accept my death?” I punched him again to stop his squirming.

“I’m going to kill you!” The guy repeated his stance unwilling to repent nor show any signs of being in the wrong.

“You leave me no choice then.” Before he could respond I snapped his neck and watched his body drop. I went over to finish the job for the rest of the thugs, then looked back at Eris.

“What are you doing?” She was searching through the first guy I killed collecting his belongings. Moving on to the next one until she rounded up everything to show me.

“They don’t need it anymore, so I’m taking it.” So deadpan as if it was common sense to do so. I looked down at her and sighed. I wondered at first if she would judge me, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Why should I even care if she thinks badly of me?

She held out her palms with all the belongings and waited for me to take it. I found it strange that all together they had a sizable amount of gold coins. I wondered why or how they got all this and what they needed it for? Since everything was paid for through the government’s system what was the need for pocketing gold coins? 

It didn’t take me long to think of a few ideas as to what they used it for. The total was around thirty gold coins and two scrolls. I took the scrolls from her hand and noticed they were one-time use magic abilities. One was a low-tier two-star lightning strike and the other a mid-tier four-star defensive shield. I’m glad they weren’t expert-tier scrolls since those were instant casts and would’ve made things difficult earlier.

“Brilliantly handled, Sir.” A fellow dressed in a black overcoat clapped softly as he approached us. He didn’t look like a part of the thug’s group, must be the other person tailing us. The man smiled and spoke again, conscious of the fact that he put me on guard. “Easy, I’m not with them. I’m looking for a possible customer and it seems you qualify.” His thin tall stature loomed as he handed over a business card.

[Slave Trader] - Marcus Regulas.