'No.. no no, there's no way, are you kidding me— Fuck, I need to get out!' Syla desperately tried to forcibly break the chains that bounded her, but right before she was about to exert her strength, she heard a clacking sound on the side of the room, where the door that seemed to be the only way out was placed.
Creakk!!
Syla saw the door opening, dim light that came from a torch outside entered through the basement as a shadowy figure stepped inside, followed by another two.
'—Are they the one that captured me!?' Syla said in her mind.
As soon as the three figures went inside the room, they immediately glanced at every person that was chained.
"There's no time left, it's a shame that we can't capture one more person, but it's no longer important, we've got what we want." Said one of the figure who looked tall and muscular, his voice sounded rough and threatening.
"You managed to capture that demihuman you mentioned?" The other figure, one that looked fat compared to the two, asked the tall one about what seems to be directed at Syla.
"Yeah, she appeared in the adventurer guild as i thought." The muscular guy then walked towards Syla, his glaring eyes couldn't escape from her appearance as he crouched to take a closer look.
Syla also saw the face of that man, brown hair, a heterochromatic eyes of black and grey, sharp jawline, and lastly the obvious burn mark that covered around his right grey eye.
"Look at you— beautiful, perfect.. And alluring." The man said as he touched Syla's chin and raised her head. "You're quite unlucky, but i'd rather say it's a temporary curse– Because you'll soon be glad that i captured you."
Syla didn't talk back at any of the man's words, she only stared at him with hatred in her eyes, her eyebrows furrowed at the sight of him and her frown was almost intimidating.
"Don't do anything to this one, atleast in terms of violence." The man said before standing up again and turning his body at the two other men.
"Violence? You mean we can—" The last figure in the room, one that looked skinnier but also quite healthy, asked the man about the meaning of his words.
"When i say that she's perfect, i mean it– She'd probably worth over hundreds of golds, who would've thought that she was an A-Rank adventurer, it was a good idea to use reinforced chains rather than the ones from that geezer. We got a jackpot today." The muscular man said with a maniacal smirk as he turned his head towards Syla for the last time. "Have fun, think of it as your reward, and be quick about it– The mayor had already caught our smell, it wont be long before they found this place, carry all of these people towards the carriage outside the wall and open the secret passage."
The muscular man then grabbed something from his pocket, it was another glass vial with the same strange liquids inside of it, he left the room after drinking the vial and throwing the glass onto the ground.
The other two of his supposed subordinates watched him leave and closed the door, after his footsteps was no longer be heard, the fat one suddenly spoke.
"Does he ever get tired of drinking those.." He said.
"Let him be Han, he'd kill you if you try to make him stop." The skinny one reminded the fat one to not bother with their leader.
"Well, now isn't it the perfect time to savor our reward? A-Rank huh? You mean this girl is almost equal with Bruke? Should we do it together or taking turns with each other?" Han, the fat one, glances at Syla with his eyes, his heart was racing and he could feel his blood boiling, wanting to get closer to her.
"I need to open the secret passage first, wait for me you pig, we're going together." The skinny man said before walking forward, he arrived at the opposite side of the room where the door was and placed his palm onto the walls.
Syla then saw him casting some sort of magic to control the structure of the wall and melted the cobblestone, as the rock melted, a passage was revealed behind it that looks endless.
'Earth magic!?' Syla thought.
Before she could realize it, Syla was startled to see Han already standing right infront of her, she saw his grotesque figure and was disgusted, she raised her head to see his face, only to be met with a lust demon.
"You're so beautiful, I understand why Bruke wanted you so bad." Han said while smirking.
He crouched and stared at Syla's face, moving his head closer and breathing heavily right infront of her, although her eyes was obstructed by Han's hideous face, Syla still could see that his hands was about to grope her chest.
Unable to tolerate the humiliation any longer, Syla finally done with being helpless. In a fraction of a second, both of Syla's hand summoned fireball the size of a soccer ball and launched it directly at the wall, exploding the entire place up into pieces.
"H- Huh!?" The skinny man who previously opened the secret passage noticed the fireba in Syla's hand, however he was already too late.
BOOM!
.
.
At the same time, at the main street of Direwell's West District—
"Fuck, where the hell is that bastard.." A man in armor was frustrated at the lack of progress he made in finding the criminal's base.
Together with 3 other adventurers beside him, the man traveled through the West District, looking at every corner of the area with extreme caution.
"Wouldn't the criminal already knew that we're looking for them? They could've already left Direwell as we know it." A girl who was also inside the party and seemed to be the mage expressed her fatigue after she followed the man for a few minutes. "I don't understand why you thought we'd find it."
BOOM!
Suddenly, the party heard an explosion happening close to them, it was such a large explosion that the fiery smokes that came out was towering over the buildings around it.
"W- WHAT!? H- HEY! LOOK!" The man was shocked to hear the explosion and told the others to look at the direction where the explosion happened.
"T- That's the second one isn't it.." The mage girl responded.
Before the party could form a decision, they heard a shout coming from the other side of the street.
"QUICK! GO TO THAT PLACE!! MY GUTS SAID THAT'S WHERE THE CRIMINAL IS HIDING!" A muscular man with an axe in his hand screamed. He ordered all of his men that was behind him to follow towards the source of the explosion.
"We should go to." Another man in the party suggested that they should go too, his white armor and pauldron was similar to someone that Syla met a few days ago. As it turns out, that man was Gauss.
He temporarily joined a party to capture the criminal as he wanted the reward for himself aswell.
"Let's go." Gauss said.
"Right.. Everyone, quick! Go behind that house!" The man that seemed to be the party's leader raised his sword and ran straight into the explosion's direction.
"Agh! Wait! Can you go slower! Im not as fast as you think!" The mage girl complained once more, she had no choice for now but to follow her party.
.
.
Cough! Cough!
As the thick smokes gradually fades away, Syla and the other captives also began to slowly appeared again at the scene, the house that was above the basement got completely decimated as Syla's fireball were too strong for it, thankfully Syla didn't get buried among the rubbles, she barely survived with multiple injuries such as burned hand and head wounds.
Though her body survived, the same couldn't be said about her clothes, taken that it was just a normal piece of cloth, her shirt was burned into crisps by her spell, leaving Syla naked.
Syla looked above her head, glancing at the blue sky and the hole that was made around the basement, it was around 10 meters deep. Once she could see the rest of the basement clearly, Syla was heartbroken to see a hand being buried by the debris and rubbles beside her, that hand undoubtely comes from one of the captives that unfortunately died by her explosion.
"Y- You bitch!.. Kaghh!!" A groan was suddenly heard, cursing Syla as he struggled to not cough blood.
On the other side of the now destroyed basement, Syla saw the skinny man from earlier, standing up from the debris that had crushed him, she was surprised to see that he still had energy to get out of the rubbles, but it was no use as Syla now had broken free from her shackles, she can defeat him whenever she wants.
"Ptoo!" Syla spitted some of her saliva onto the ground and prepared her spells under her hand.
She was about to kill the man infront of her, when out of nowhere, an object fell from the sky.
Boom!
The impact made a loud bang, though it wasn't as loud as her fireball explosion earlier, Syla was startled by it. She gritted her teeth while holding the pain in her burned hand, as the dusts settled in, Syla was finally met with the muscular man from earlier, named Bruke, he stood ontop of a protruding rubble and looked at Syla with an intimidating aura that made her shiver.
"Hahaha.. You really fooled me." He said "Who could've expect that you'd be a mage, you're both a swordsman and a mage huh– You fucker, now you've really done it, i won't let you go with your limbs attached."
"Is that so." Syla responded, she thought she would be scared, but instead, what she felt wasn't fear, but rather a deep bloodlust that made her desire for revenge. "I also could say the same to you, how dare you stepped foot into this town– I won't let you go with your head attached."