Merchant Of Yliaster

Tom watched from his cage as they travelled towards the mountain hideout near Kralor. He heard from the bandits that he would be sold in the city soon. He found himself not caring, still gripped by the unreality of it all.

He was just an apprentice carpenter, working under his father yesterday. Now, he would be sold as a slave, and who knows how he would spend the rest of his life.

Their village used to be one of the few villages that survived the initiation, as they could hold back the beasts thanks to some retired soldiers gaining levels fast enough to contend with the beasts. But turned out that they couldn't survive the humans.

Bandits killed everyone showing resistance, and old people were killed too, due to them not having a monetary value. Young girls were kept unharmed, for harming them would lower their value, unlike older women, who faced a terrible fate.

Tom was happy for the first time in years about his mother's early passing. His father was killed in the battle. He was spared due to his age, as a child in puberty fetched a good price. In a world like this, Tom was really starting to doubt that the gods actually existed.

He listened to bandits speaking in front of the carriage they were on. "Some of the parties stopped sending messages," a bald man wearing leather armor drenched in various bodily fluids said. He looked scared for some reason.

"They are probably busy with the women," the man beside him said as he smoked an awful-smelling pipe. The man only had one eye, and one of his eye sockets were empty like someone cleanly sucked his eye out. He was wearing iron armor with an axe strapped on his back.

Tom knew better than to observe them with the skill. A couple of others already tried that, and what happened after wasn't pretty. His attention was momentarily pulled to the forest. He could swear that he saw a green light for a second.

A couple of seconds later, a man got out of the forest, carrying a rabbit in his hand. Tom guessed that he was one of the bandits. The man gave him a weird feeling, but he couldn't place the reason.

"Bor! All that time, and you caught just a rabbit?" the bald man shouted at the new arrival. The man, whose name was apparently Bor, just threw an empty glance at the bald man, making Tom realize what was wrong with him. The man had an absolutely blank face, completely devoid of emotions.

Soon, the man was near the convoy, and he stared around like he was seeing them for the first time. Tom made eye contact with the man for a moment, and froze for a second, his mind blanking. The next feeling he felt was an unexplainable feeling of security.

"Hurry up, give it over." The bald man came near him and pushed the man violently, or at least he tried to. The next thing that happened was something Tom never expected to happen.

As the bald man's hand approached Bor, the expressionless man suddenly moved and bit the bald man's exposed neck. Tom could see a spurt of blood shooting out as the man's jaw clamped with a strength no one would expect from a human.

"The fuck-" Bald man managed to say, before his voice turned into a gurgle as blood came out of his mouth. To his horror, Tom could see that Bor still didn't have an expression as he pulled back his head with a jerky movement, ripping out the bandit's throat.

The other bandit with the missing eye just now realized what was happening due to the scream of his friend. He drew his axe and walked towards Bor. "Bor! What is the meaning of this? Have you gone insane?" the man said, but it was apparent that even he was shaken by the beastlike attack from the man.

Bor, though, acted like he didn't hear the question. Tom watched as the man bent down and picked up the bald man's sword from the ground. His movements were completely unnatural as if he was learning how to use his body at present.

Tom could hear other bandits approaching, and the one-eyed man seemed to gain some courage due to this fact. He took a step forward and slashed his axe towards Bor. "You brought this upon yourself!" he shouted, and Bor just apathetically looked at the man before swinging the sword to meet the axe.

The swing was completely wrong, and the technique was somehow even worse than nonexistent, but something unexpected happened. The sword met the axe, and the axe was launched back towards its owner like it was hit by a speeding train. The one-eyed man's eye opened widely in shock, before he and his axe were thrown away like a ragdoll. Tom could see that the man was just flying due to the momentum of the axe, though, as the axe just divided him in two before smashing into a tree.

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Simultaneously, Bor's arm burst into a mist of blood, completely disappearing with a sickly sound. The man looked at him curiously before turning towards the newcomers. Around ten bandits guarded the convoy, and Tom could see that, apart from the one who was riding the carriage away from the battle, all of them were here.

They, though, were quite clearly scared to death, as they were just staring at the blood-drenched expressionless man, not quite understanding how he could be so unbothered by his arm exploding into gore.

The said man didn't seem to care about the stares, and with his only hand, grabbed one of the wheels of the carriage before pulling on it. Tom could see vessels pop on the man's arms as he pulled, and the wheel came off cleanly. Bor, without giving the others any time to understand what he was doing, threw the wheel towards the closely huddled group, his other arm bursting into a blood mist too.

The wheel moved at breakneck speed, and Tom couldn't even see it after it left Bor's grip. Four of the bandits suddenly turned into four pairs of lower bodies, their upper bodies vanishing as the wheel continued on its way, disappearing into the forest.

The other bandits froze for a second, not comprehending the situation. Everything happened too fast for them. One of them, far from the still-standing lower bodies, managed to utter a scream before running towards Bor with his sword drawn. This was a particularly young bandit, Tom could see, and he was moving due to his fear instead of freezing with it.

This made the others wake up too, and they were soon charging the man as a group. Bor, now missing both of his arms, stared at them blankly. The first man to reach him was the young one, and he swung with the ferocity of a dying man. The sword was neatly buried into Bor's side, and for a moment, everyone was surprised by the attack connecting.

Their hopes, though, were proven wrong, as in his happiness over managing to kill the enemy, the young bandit failed to see in time that the enemy was far from dead. Bor's jaw clamped for the second time this day, and the bandit's neck was ripped out like his senior. As he fell to his knees, the bandit had a look of disbelief in his eyes.

This, though, didn't last long, as Bor kicked the man, his leg blurring as it moved with a speed surpassing what was humanly possible. It connected with the young bandit's iron armor, releasing a loud gong, and the man was launched towards his confused friends. The bandits were standing still, as they thought the fight was over just a moment before, so three of them couldn't escape the oncoming body.

The impact was hard to describe, and four people participating in it was even harder to. There was an explosion of blood for a moment, and Tom felt drops of blood land on him with a speed that made him feel pain, and a ball of gore flew into the distance, leaving only a single bandit remaining. The man was frozen from fear, his pupils shaking like he was in shock.

The man couldn't really be judged, though, as in front of him, Bor still stood on one leg, still expressionless. His eyes were completely red, as his body was ruined beyond belief. Tom watched as he hopped to the frozen man on one leg, but despite the comical nature of the movement, nobody laughed.

Tom watched as with a final strong hop, Bor's body crashed into the remaining man, his last leg disappearing behind him, followed by the last man and the rest of his body as they crashed uncontrollably into the supply carriage, immediately throwing it sideways.

There was a couple of seconds of silence, as watching slaves couldn't comprehend what had happened. After that, Tom started to hear terrified cries coming from the cages beside him, people crying due to a variety of complex emotions. Tom, too, felt those emotions as his humanity fought with the satisfaction he felt after he saw the cruel end of the bandits.

The only reason Tom was so calm was due to the immense feeling of security the man gave him, still lingering in his mind.

A second later, he once again saw the familiar green light, making him remember that everything that happened to the bandits was preceded by this light. A small green bird landed at the front of his cage, and Tom could somehow understand that it was trying to find a way to get them out of their cages.

"Chirp!" The bird said, and Tom was surprised that he could understand what the bird was trying to say. It was trying to tell him that it would be back in a second.

The carriage they were on was moving with an increasingly faster speed for the last minute or so, as the man driving it was probably trying to escape the reason for his friends' demise, but the carriage abruptly stopped a few seconds after the bird left.

Tom was alarmed for a second to see that a bandit was approaching his cage, but his alarm turned into relief after he saw the blank look on the man's face. He didn't know how, but he could tell that the bird was controlling people.

Ultimately, though, the bird still didn't know how to open the cage. The concept of keys was probably foreign to it, and even if it wasn't, it wouldn't be able to find the keys, as they were probably on the non-existent bodies of the bandits.

The bandit, or by proxy the bird, stared at him before gripping the bars of the cage. This close, Tom could see smoke rising from the bandit's body for a moment, as his body exerted a force beyond its capabilities. Bars twisted like they were made from straw, and the vessels on the man's arms popped, drenching him and Tom in blood.

He got out of his cage, dazed from the surreal encounter, and glanced at the numerous cages inside the carriage filled with children and women. He really hoped that the man's body would last long enough to free all of them.

He smiled. Maybe those gods existed after all.