Chapter 20 - Threat

...

The men chatted and laughed among themselves as they slowly walked back to their campsite. Even if they were acting all friendly, but as soon as it came to enjoy the 'goods', the façade would fall apart. All of them wanted to have the first go before anyone of them.

As they approached near there though, sounds of metal colliding and angry shouts were becoming more and more audible. The bandits stopped chatting and rushed over to the campsite.

What they saw there though, turned most of them absolutely scared stiff. Their familiar place had turned into a field of carnage. Terror creeped up their hearts upon seeing the sight in front of them.

A slim figure was dancing among the array of swords being flung at it. The figure was perfectly hidden in black clothes and was battling their fellow men.

As they turned their vision to those around them, they discovered that most of their fellow bandits had already fallen victim to the person's attacks as the bodies were lying everywhere. Most of them had cuts across their wrists or their throats, indicating the deaths to be from either bleeding too much, or being unable to breath at all.

The slim attacker was using a pair of black daggers as it's body moved in a strange pattern. The movement seemed effective though, as it was avoiding all the attacks being thrown on itself. On the other hand, it's daggers were busy continuously giving fatal wounds to it's opponents.

As they tried to spot their leader for help, they were somewhat surprised by the fact that he was missing from their campsite. Their leader was too cautious to stay there and defend them while someone wrecked his team. He was too heartless to care about them, as they were easily replaceable.

In the end, they concluded that their leader of the bandits had already ran away, abandoning them to their cruel fates as the attacker kept on bringing down the curtain of death over all the opponents around it. In the small fire of the campsite, the slim figure seemed almost unstoppable as it kept attacking them.

One of the more courageous bandits among them tried to use the skill 'Stealth' to land a sneak attack behind the figure. In the middle of his try though, he found a dagger approaching his throat. Surprise was evident from his face, however it was too late for him to evade it as he soon found himself cut by the dagger instead.

A chill ran up the surrounding bandits as the desire to survive outweighed the desire for revenge. In the end, as they all ran away in different directions, hoping to be spared from their uneventful demise.

None of them wanted an early death anymore, as the rowdy campsite soon became deathly silent. The bodies lying around were quickly losing their warmth as the blood coated smell drifted around in the air.

After the figure looked around itself and found no more enemies to itself, it turned towards the campfire, and swiftly ran to it. .

There lay a woman, bloodied and hurt. Her pitiful body was partially naked, with her lower clothes discarded into a distance. Vile fluids covered her body in all possible places as her prone body lay there helplessly.

The woman seemed of respectable origins from her classily designed clothes, however her beauty turned out to be a curse for her as the demons didn't even spare her from ruin. Her body had already lost all the strength to resist anything. Even living seemed like a very tough task for her as her will to live had been eroded and damaged beyond repair.

Her breathing itself was turning shallow, as her eyes kept staring at the dark clouds above. Her eyes filled with so much pain that she didn't even know who to voice it to. She lay there looking at the skies above and wordlessly communicated the pain through her eyes.

As soon as the figure reached the woman, it drew it's hood back and unmasked itself. The face underneath belonged to a peerless beauty, however the beautiful face was currently being ruined by an expression overflowing with panic. The beauty helplessly cradled the exhausted woman within her arms as she tried to speak to her.

"M-Mistress! It's me, Tanya. You are not doing well at all! Why did you have to leave without telling me! Did you think that I would have betrayed you too?"

The woman seemed to have come out of her soliloquy, as her lifeless eyes slowly turned to the girl holding her.

"T-Tanya..."

Fresh tears fell out of the woman's eyes as they became more focused. Her hand tried to reach out to the girl, but the effort seemed to have been too much for her as her hand fell back down.

The girl quickly clasped the woman's hand within hers as she held her own sobs back.

"D-Don't worry. I don't blame you anymore! Don't give up, please. I will take you to a physician now... Just hang on till then!"

Tears started to run anew on the woman's face as the sadness and pain within her exploded. Even in such a situation, the woman tried to speak something to the girl.

"Ilma... save her please. F-Forget about me.."

The girl became shocked before she scanned her surroundings. She then turned back to look at the woman as extreme dread covered her face.

"Mistress, where is the young miss?! Did they found out? Did something happen to her?!"

The woman tried to point towards a direction with her hand as she struggled to lift it towards there.

"They... took her.. over there.."

The poor woman couldn't keep up anymore, as she quickly fell unconscious. That seemed to have done something better, as she found a break from the constant reminder of her tragic present. The pain, the weakness, the despair, they were unable to encroach her mind any further.

The girl's body trembled in anger and rage. She stood up and carried the woman over to her horse. After making sure that the woman was securely on it, she rode the horse away. Her heart prayed to the gods that she had abandoned all the years before.

'Young Mistress.. please be safe..'

...

After reaching a clearing, Malisa got down from the horse, bringing Jia Chin along with her, as the two started to walk a path among the desolate jungle.

The terrain was absolutely unsuitable for travel. However, both Jia Chin & Malisa were very experienced in such things and the two walked around for a while more.

Finally, the two stopped as they stared at two old men casually standing beside a huge boulder. The two smoked so care-freely, as if they were some drug addicts hiding in the woods to smoke a joint or something.

Malisa, however knew how capable the two seemingly frail men really were. She went towards the two and stood at a certain distance apart. Then she moved her left leg in a certain manner, drawing a pattern on the ground.

The two men nodded at her and got up to approach that huge boulder. The two frail men surprisingly pushed the boulder aside very easily. As the boulder was pushed aside, the entrance downstairs was revealed to both Malisa and Jia Chin.

Jia Chin's curiosity was getting becoming even more about the auction house. It's secrecy had piqued his interest. He then began to follow his sister-in-law downstairs.

The stairs led to a hallway lighted up by fire torches at both sides, creating regions containing both the light and the darkness. The two kept walking until the hallway opened up into a huge drone like structure.

It had multiple entrances that led to different sites. Each had many guards stationed around them that guarded the place and informed the visitors regarding any queries that they had.

Malisa went to one of the guards near an entrance of a tunnel and spoke to him,

"Excuse me. I would like to know about the auction timing today. And what is the amount of the entry fees this time?"

The guard bowed slightly towards Malisa and spoke,

"I'm sory. We held one just the other day before. The next auction will be scheduled at a later date it seems."

Malisa didn't expect such a thing to happen and bit her lips in frustration.

"I see.."

Malisa would have normally walked away by herself and left for home if this was the usual case. Of course, it wasn't this time around. Her gaze turned to Jia Chin who she had dragged way across the dangerous regions, and to go back now so easily seemed like a very heartless thing for Malisa to do. Although she didn't care about the others, but her care for her family was absolutely genuine.

She contemplated about something and mumbled something to herself, after which she turned to the guard again and spoke,

"If that's the case then... i-is the Silver Lady present today? I.. would like to have a word with her."

The guard looked visibly downcast, as he spoke to Malisa,

"Hah... Mistress doesn't takes unscheduled meetings. I am afraid That I cannot help you with this matter."

Malisa knew that meeting the owner of this auction site wouldn't be so easy. However, she had way to del with this too.

Malisa took out a token from her bag and presented it to the guard and spoke,

"Please pass my message to her then. If you show her this token.. s-she would recognize me immediately."

The guard looked at Malisa in a new light, since the women that dared to know the owner personally would never volunteer to meet her like this, unless they also had some rather 'specific' interests.

"Hah.. alright then. I will do what I can. A real pity though..."

The guard didn't elaborate his disappointment any further as he walked into a distant tunnel. It wasn't long before he came back running though, as he clamored to reach the two of them and saluted her stiffly as he spoke to Malisa.

"A-Apologies for my ignorant behavior, esteemed guest! Mistress has permitted to let you meet her. However, I am afraid that she had instructed me to bring only you there. Your companion would have to wait for you outside."

...

A/N: Whew... life's good, man.