74. The Victims
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I don't normally do content warnings as the entire story is marked for content, but i just want to say that this and the next chapter will be a bit rough compared to the others so far in terms of potentially disturbing content.

As L stepped over the wreck of the shed door, the sounds of battle assaulted her ears. She quickly began to retreat into the trees, hoping to find someplace to hide the sleeping Eika before she and V died, to be honest she was somewhat surprised they had not already perished. By the sounds of it, V was engaged in quite the pitched battle. She ran quickly but carefully through the woods, she triggered two traps, one spear trap which she dodged, and one razor wire type of trap that she took some damage around the legs from. Eventually she found a large dead tree with a hollow. She placed Eika inside, barely fitting her inside. Even though Eika's ears where still sticking out, this was the best she would be able to find at the moment, hopefully Eika woke up before the slavers found her. Although, considering she was still not dead, she wondered if V had found a way to flee from the camp. She considered her next course of action, continue to run with Eika? Or travel back to the camp to see if V was still fighting? On one hand, if V had fled the camp, returning would only even further delay them finding each other. On the other hand, if V fled, the camp would probably be mostly empty, she doubted they would just let him go without chase. She might be able to find a sword there and clear the rest of the camp out. After a moment’s hesitation, she decided it was best to try and kill as many slavers as possible. They were clearly a blight on this planet, although from what she overheard this was not their main encampment. Even so, the more of them that left this world the better for everyone.

When L returned to the camp, she was unprepared for the sound issuing forth from it. The sounds of the dead and dying, en masse. She cautiously hid behind one of the outer sheds and peaked over the side. V was standing among a field of carnage. A dagger was sticking out of his back, and it looked like he had taken numerous other wounds, but he had successfully killed everyone in the camp. As L examined the bodies a little closer she realized that no, actually many of them were not dead, just damaged in a way that incapacitated them. Broken legs, broken spines, broken collarbones, V had inflicted the perfect amount of damage on his foes to incapacitate them while leaving them alive. As she looked, perhaps foes was not the correct word, they looked more like victims. As for V, he had smashed open one of the other sheds and found the rope they used to bind prisoners and was binding the still living individuals. After a moment of hesitation, L called out "Is Luna alive?"

V's attention snapped toward her; L felt the killing intent in his gaze but it faded after a moment. "Uh... I think so. She is badly beaten. If you think you can manage it, grab one of these swords and try to find the ones still in the trees that have not returned yet." L nodded, that seemed sensible enough and V was apparently still using her weapon, which she had mixed feelings about. However, she was still a little concerned. The only time V had displayed such extreme destructive ability was when Eika died, and he was uh, not sane. As she looked for a sword, most still wielded blunt weapons, she asked V "Why are so many of them alive?" First, she truly wanted to know. Second, she was hoping she would be able to judge V's mental state with further conversation. "We need information. At-least one of them should know something helpful. When I was sneaking in with Luna, we overheard them talking. Someone hired them to assault us, and more specifically, Luna. Although to be honest, without knowing more we might have to assume that they where just been sent after Luna, but whoever sent them knew it would involve fighting us as well..." L nodded, if that was true, it was important to learn who targeted them, and if they should expect this group to continue targeting them after wiping out one of their camps. "Besides, I’m in a really bad mood. I’m going to make sure they understand the error of their ways before they die." The tone of V's voice concerned L a bit, but he had long term planning, reasonable goals, and the ability to converse and explain himself. She was fairly sure he was not out of control like before.

L picked up one of the swords and headed off into the forest. "Careful of the traps!" He called out as she left. V quickly bound the captives that would survive their immediate wounds. Some of them were conscious, some were not. He moved them a few feet away from each other, in a semi-circle around the center of the camp. In the center, he placed all of those who would not survive their wounds. "You can watch your comrades die in slow agony. Sure, you could close your eyes, but I suggest you watch as much as you can. You are going to need a pleasant memory to hold onto, the memory that death will come for you eventually." V gathered up their weapons and moved them inside the shed that L and Eika had been captive. With this many living prisoners, it was probable they would crawl around in the dirt a bit, trying to free themselves, no need to leave their weapons within reach. He then checked Luna, and removed the rope that had been half tied around her wrists. She seemed alive, but her breathing was shallow and she was badly beaten. He took her and placed her inside the tent where he found L's weapon. He gently set her down on a pile of cloth, there was nothing he could really do for her at the moment, she was not bleeding or damaged in a way he could bind or fix. V went back to the wooden shack he found the rope in, it seemed to be a generic supply shed, he gathered everything that was burnable, but not valuable or useful to him. He had yet to check the other shacks or tents, he was hoping that they would have something good to loot. And maybe even some information on this group of slavers. He stripped the dying, and adding their clothes to the pile of burnable items. He found some coins in their pockets as well, which he helped himself to.

Hearing a noise from the trees, V prepared to fight, but it was only L. "I found a few of them, but I got tangled on one of the razor wire traps again, I think the rest of them fled the area, word of their camp's... destruction must have been passed between them in some way." V nodded, L was still naked, as clothing had not been at the top of the priority list at the time. As V looked at her a moment too long, she quickly moved behind one of the tents. Now that the adrenaline was fading and the "crisis" element to the situation was winding down, she suddenly became embarrassed. "Ah. sorry. I’m sure there are some clothes in one of these tents that will fit you. I put your sword over there, you can grab it whenever." As L responded from behind the tent, she felt embarrassed. "Right, I'll check the tents while you uh... do whatever it is your doing." L was aggravated at herself for being embarrassed. She was a warrior, and a warrior's body was not an object of embarrassment. In her previous life she had bathed with the male soldiers and royal guard in lakes and rivers, sure she had to strike more than a few of the men who gazed overlong at her, but she was never embarrassed. She must be losing some of her edge in this accursed world. She angrily tossed the first tent she entered. It appeared to be where the men slept, so she moved off to another tent. Despite her best efforts to ignore V, she could not help but hope he did not gaze at her as she went from tent to tent.

Luckily, V had other things to occupy his mind. Besides, he was convinced that L would kill him if he looked at her unclothed again, so for the time being he did his best to work with his eyes to the ground. It probably would only anger her more if he mentioned that even with the various wounds she had accrued, she was still quite striking in form. V punched one of the prisoners in the face as he passed. The man whose nose was now broken muttered "why...." as tears filled his eyes from the new pain. V shrugged "Sorry, just felt really worked up. Hold onto that feeling though. It will bring you comfort in the future. You will look back and realize that this pain is not so bad.” V piled everything together, also finding their stock of firewood. Which as he hoped, was rather expansive as this was meant to be a semi-permanent camp. Now to get the fire going. V worked for some time on the fire, he had learned that in a world without lighters and starters, it was way harder to start fires than the movies always showed. However, he had gotten fairly competent at it. V continued to build a massive bonfire as L searched the tents.

The second tent she entered appeared to be the women's sleeping area. She searched for something that would fit her, after a few attempts she found some clothing that mostly fit. The shirt was a bit tighter than she would have liked, but she did not see anything better. She walked out of the tent and over to V. There was only one reason to make a large fire like this that she could think of. "Do... do you really think burning them to death is necessary?" Even though they had ambushed them, and mistreated her, L was still relatively unwilling to torture the camps inhabitants to death. V shrugged "They will only burn to death if they are lucky." L did not really like the sound of that, she was unsure if she should push the issue or not. "Just... do no more than is necessary." For now she would wait and see how this played out. It was not her place to tell her leader how to treat prisoners, especially ones that were not even really prisoners of war. As a warrior she understood the necessities of ambushing your opponents, and slavery in this world was mostly legal, but capturing people on the road was not. They deserved to be killed, but burned to death... or worse was a bit much in L's mind.

V finally got the fire going and stood up. "Let's check on the other tents and shacks while we wait for the fire to grow." L nodded, that seemed sensible. Perhaps they would even find some sort of information that could convince V to go easier on the captured members of the camp, the location of their main camp, or maybe simply even who hired them. The shack they broke open was full of foodstuffs. V noted that they should pack it up using their item storage before they go back to their camp, it was a little tedious, so he would get to it later. The next was a shack of various supplies, including backpacks, a set of leather armor, and L’s old clothing, which she took. As they began to search a tent L suddenly spoke up. "Should I get Eika? I stashed her in the forest because I thought we might die." V shook his head "No, leave her there if she is safe, I don't want her to have to see the fate of her captors. We will simply tell her they died fighting us. If Luna wakes up, I’ll have you take her and Eika and start the journey back to our camp without me." L nodded as they tossed the next tent. As far as they could tell, inside was materials for enslavement and enslavement magic. They saw a few dredge collars, as well as some type of bottled reagents neither of them could identify. They came to another tent, it appeared to be another place to sleep. L furrowed her brow "I suppose this must be where the officers slept, I already found the male and female tents... although I suppose they are more like pavilions due to their size." V sniffed the air; a faintly sweet scent was in the air. L came from a country with an army, officers might exist there, but in a group like this V knew that no one in this camp would be sleeping somewhere separate. No... this place was for a different purpose.

The next shack was close by, and a bit bigger than the rest. V kicked the door in, but a bit gentler then normal, he had a suspicion as to what they were about to find. L on the other hand was completely unprepared. It's not that she was naive, she simply did not think in the same way as the darkest levels of society, and would not have realized what this shack was for. Inside were six women, and two men, none of them had clothes. One of the women, a catkin by the look of things, was laying there unconscious and badly beaten. One of the men seemed... partially conscious, he appeared drugged out of his mind. By the look of things, V suspected they had used some mix of drugs and aphrodisiacs on him. The other five women huddled together in terror, as the remaining man seemed to be trying to stop his friend from choking on his own tongue as his head lolled around. "This...." L could not even formulate words for a few moments, so absolutely appalled. She could tell by their bodies that none of these people were warriors of any type. Probably simple people taken from their homes and families. A warrior takes certain risks, if they were captured it was their own weakness to blame, but this... L felt somewhat sick. V began to move into the shack, but one of the women shrieked, while another threw herself toward him. "Please take me! Please no more for the girl!" V had noticed that one of the women seemed quite young. She appeared human, V had no idea if she was ok or not, she seemed somewhat zoned out, perhaps the trauma had caused her to check out of reality. The woman who threw herself at V's feet was a rabbitkin, although she was missing one ear. "I'll... get the men out of here, you should tend to the women." L nodded slowly, coming to terms with the fact that they simply were keeping people here to use their bodies. "This is beyond the pale."

V slowly moved toward the two men, the one who was aware of what was going on still recoiled some at his approach. V assumed that the women and men had mostly been assaulted by the other gender, but that was not a certainty. "We need to get you out of the shack. Your captors are dead, or mostly dead. I know it’s hard but you have to trust me." The man tried to speak, but his tongue had been cut out. V grabbed the drugged man and started carrying him out, his friend hesitated for a few moments before following. V took him to the male's sleeping tent. "Find something for you both to wear. I’m going to find some water." V quickly found the shack that held barrels of water and rolled one over to the men. "Wash yourself and your friend of the filth you have been exposed to before you clothe yourselves. Also, your friend needs to drink a lot of water if he is going to survive." V was not actually sure if that was true, but if the man had been overdosed in some manner, a ton of water could only help. L had struggled to move the women to the other tent, they appeared considerably more traumatized than the man. V moved a few barrels of water over to the entrance of the tent and told L from the outside to let them wash themselves, it should help them a little in the short term.

V walked over to the prisoners and stripped them down as well, throwing their clothes into the growing fire. He grabbed one of them and shouted to the rest "You are somehow even worse than I had originally believed. May the devil have mercy on you, because I will not be showing any." He began to beat the prisoner he had grabbed. Being beaten to death was not the worst way to go, but V knew that it caused a lot of sound and tears. Useful to terrorize the ones still bound and awaiting their fate. As V was carrying out his grizzly work L left the tent and walked over to him. The man he was beating was only half conscious at this point, "Please...." L looked down upon the man with eyes of ice. Her expression was as pitiless as the frozen tundra. "You have thrown the laws of society and basic humanity aside to suit your own desires. They will not protect you when you beg for their protection." L watched as V beat the man to death, no pity or remorse were in either her nor V's eyes as they watched the man die. "I don't know if the drugged man is going survive." V reported to L as he threw the dead man next to one of the other bound prisoners. L shrugged "I don't know if the catkin will survive either. She was beaten quite badly. They supposedly had ways to heal physical wounds, but I don't know if it was one of their abilities, or something else." V laughed "There is an easy way to find out."

"I need some information in order to save your victims lives. I'm willing to let the one who helps me free. A life for a life and all that." A few of the veteran's stayed silent, but one of the newer members cried out "Yes please, please I’ll show you!" V smiled and nodded "Smart lad." he unbound the man. "We need to know how you intended to heal this woman before selling her off." he gestured at L. "Yes uh... yes..." The man's ribs had been broken and he found it hard to talk between the pain and the horror. "That tent. I’ll show. you." The man stumbled as he led them to a smaller tent that they had yet to check. Inside were well made wooden crates. The man indicated to one of them "Inside there are a few glass vials. The blue ones neutralize poison and stuff, and the... the green ones heal small wounds. You will have to use more than one on the catkin, if that is who you’re trying to save." V nodded, gently breaking open the crate. "And in that crate is some of the gold we stole from a passing merchant, we were supposed to send it off to the boss with your uh......uh...... friends in the morning." The man’s voice wavered in fear. "That one has our magical items in it, but I don't know how to use them, I’m sorry!" V nodded "Thanks, that was surprisingly helpful." V took the man outside of the tent, and to the far side of the camp, out of view of his companions. "Thank you so much for this, I’ll quit, I’ll be a good person! I swear!" V nodded and stabbed the man through the neck. "You are now free from the horrors of this place; enjoy whatever fire you now face."

 

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