Chapter 22: Product
Murmurs around the group began about the two.
"He's saying he fought the breakers and survived? A child? I don't think he's telling the truth."
"The kid doesn't even look like he'd be worth ten purple coins if you sold him as a slave. How'd he manage that?"
"Looks like the old man did all of the work…The kid can't be that strong right?"
Quann continued, this time with more conviction.
"I'm telling you guys! He probably just bashed his head real bad and is struggling to remember certain parts!"
As Teus watched Quann reassure everyone, he violently bit the inside of his lip.
"Just my luck to get caught up in something like this! Can we even trust them? Mister Fluff and Puff's life is on the line and these guys are our only hope! If he doesn't get medical attention soon, it's over…! Maybe if we just go along with it for now everything will be okay… I mean technically, we're criminals too, this might not actually be so bad…"
Quann turned to Teus and the old man one more time.
"But seriously though, what went wrong with your mission? We can do everything in our power to help you out now, but the commander will be really mad if he finds out that you haven't collected any product. What happened out there?"
Teus fought the urge to smack his own forehead with the palm of his hand.
"Crap! We don't have time for this! What do I say? What's this product they keep going on and on about anyway!? If only I knew what product they were looking for! Maybe I can get some clues if I dig deeper and figure it out, who knows, I might be able to help them get more. That way, it's a win-win! Yeah, that's it, maybe we can work together!"
Interrupting his thoughts Teus heard the muffled noises coming from the carriage. Noises that sounded desperate, noises that sounded afraid… he heard noises that sounded like people.
The surrounding crowd looked unbothered, not even batting an eye at the sudden commotion, almost as though they'd learned how to tune it out.
Teus' eyes snapped open as he swung his head over in the direction of the carriage. The cloud of dust was thick but quickly dissipating. The sounds became more clear, what was resonating throughout the camp were muzzled cries for help.
As his gaze pierced through the fading dust, Teus saw a elderly man with a rotund shape. He had black hair, carrying streaks of gray, tied up in rope securely restricting his wrists together and with cloth wrapped tightly around his mouth. Next to him was a young woman with blonde hair, who was in the same situation. Both looked at the child with tears flooding their eyes.
This moment haunted him.
Teus instinctively took a couple steps back out of shock. His face was etched with an expression of being repulsed.
Quann firmly grabbed him by the shoulder before he could back away any further. His next words were said as his focused glance struck right through Teus.
"Hey, you didn't answer my question. What happened with your product?"
Teus grit his teeth and his eyebrows were furrowed at the question.
Quick to pick up on Teus' change in demeanor, Lewis pointed out the obvious.
"Take a look at his eyes Quann, I don't think he's part of the Barracuda tribe afterall. The boy looks…angry."
As horrifying as the scene was, the one thing that slowly managed to consume Teus being in this moment, was rage. He looked at all the indifferent faces around him before a faint snarl formed across his face.
"The…product…?"
The words barely escaped Teus' mouth with an indignant grunt.
"These people got stripped of all their worth to the point where they just see them as 'product'... that's disgusting!"
Quann's voice was resolute.
"I'm not gonna ask you agai-"
A sudden heat caused the axe wielder to cut off his sentence in the middle.
The seal on the back of Teus' neck began to sizzle in a familiar searing pain. Soft blue embers, seldom in number, flew from the boy's body as his infuriated glare pierced through the small flames and directly into Quann's soul.
"...Yeah, nevermind…There's no way in hell that I'm working with these guys!"
Quann felt Teus grab him by the wrist before he noticed a palpable change in the atmosphere. Teus spoke with volition.
"If that's what you call product…"
The boy grabbed Quann by the other wrist and swiftly pulled his weight down, yanking the bulky axe wielder's body forward before he flung him in the direction of the rest of his crew. All Quann heard was the voice of Teus yelling.
"...Then I'll make sure you're all out of stock!"
Within seconds Quann's body was in the air, upside down and hurtling towards the people. To make matters worse, he saw the receding silhouette of Teus as he felt himself falling. His mind struggled to process.
"What the hell just happened? Did that child just fling me?...Like a toy!?"
Quann's body hit the rest of the crew causing a loud thud. A good amount of people fell to the ground kicking up another cloud of dust. Without delay the standing crew members began to rush into the fray, darting towards Teus with their weapons drawn.
Despite the situation, a whimsical smirk began to tug at the corners of Teus' lips.
"Okay good, my hypothesis is proven!"
The thought had been lingering in Teus' mind that if he couldn't manage to control his power after leaving Thorinhil, Mister Fluff and Puff would still have to put his life in danger to save him. And situations like this would only repeat themselves.
Or worse, he and Mister Fluff and Puff would die and all of everyone's efforts would have been pointless.
His body was still in an extremely damaged state, but he remembered the words of the captain. To use a dragon core you must have the necessary resolve and the intuition in order to tame the beast within. His instincts were telling him that his intuition was key in this moment.
"My body still hurts like hell! If I use the full force like I did in Thorinhil, I'll drop dead before I know it, not that I'd be able to pull that off anyway. So what I need to do is just give myself the smallest sliver...!"
Teus' attention was quickly drawn in by an incoming assailant.
A raging spear wielder bolted towards Teus, the man's arms in the air preparing for a huge strike to come thundering down as though to cut the child in two. But before he could react a faint blue light zipped in front of him as Teus plunged his elbow deep into the opponent's stomach.
"...It's kinda hard to explain when I think about it. But to use Galmarion's power, it feels as though I'm accessing it through loosening a faucet. If I overdo it, it'll flood throughout my body and I won't be able to recover, but if I loosen it just enough… I can just barely manage the power seeping through me!"
The spear wielder let out a groan in agony before he keeled over in pain, quietly dropping to one knee. Teus made sure to kick him back into the raging crowd in order to maintain distance between them and Mister Fluff and Puff. His gaze grew fierce as he charged into the irate mob.
"And that pinch of power is all I need to deal with scum like them!"
The next opponent was a long sword user. Echoes of his time spent in the abandoned dungeon swirled through Teus' brain.
He immediately knew the counter.
"The long sword is good for versatility and leverage for high power swings… but one of its weaknesses is that it struggles to provide low angle defense!"
A thrust shot forward aimed at Teus' head as the swordsman lunged in his direction. Pushing his feet deeper into the ground Teus dashed towards the attack before quickly sliding himself on the ground to position his body below the incoming warrior, swiftly evading the point of the blade. With a quick and deliberate motion, he kicked the swordsman's lower leg.
His foot burst through the bone and made the sword user's knee bend backwards as he yelped in pain.
Another body dropped to the forest floor as Teus quickly scrambled to get up, eager to dismantle the next adversary.
A swing of another blade nearly split open Teus' head had he not dodged in time, the boy quickly rolled over to his side to evade the blow before he took a leap back to create distance. As his feet skid across the dirt he got a good look at the next attacker.
Quick to pursue after him was Lewis, he was an opponent who arrived with a set of dual daggers. Teus' mind wandered for a little bit.
"Dual daggers have the weakness of range! He's probably really good at close combat. So I need to stay away from him and those daggers…which is such a shame, they look so expensive. If I ever found those back in the cave I would have made so much money…"
Lewis' words brought Teus' mind back to the battlefield.
"The commander won't be pleased if he found us losing to a child? Let's make up for it with extra product!"
Teus scowled at him.
"That sick jerk! He doesn't deserve such a nice weapon!"
Then he grabbed the swordsmen with the broken leg and threw him in Lewis' direction. The body slammed Lewis as he was sent tumbling across the dirt. Teus gave a quick, affirming nod at the unfolding scene.
"I think that oughta hold him for now…"
Two arrows whistled through the air, passing Teus without giving him enough time to react.
One flew a few inches away from his temple, and the other just grazed his cheek, causing drops of blood to roll down his chin. He quickly spun his head in the direction of where the arrows had come from to find Synthia's menacing gaze acutely ridiculing him.
"Crap! I have to watch out for her! The weaknesses with arrows are close range combat and accuracy, but she looks like she has a good aim. If I stay in one spot for too long I'm done for! If I can finish up with all these guys I can save her until the end, then maybe-"
But before Teus could finish his thoughts a loud thump in the distance caught a hold of his attention.
His eyes widened as he saw a large hulking figure running towards him carrying an axe. An enraged Quann furiously rushed at Teus. Within a matter of seconds he closed the distance.
Thwoom!
A crack split apart the ground as Quann swung his axe down. Teus just barely managed to back away from the attack directly in front of him. The dirt that was kicked up blocked Teus' vision for a few moments. Beneath everyone's feet the ground began to shake a little. Teus lost his footing as he began to slip backwards in a fall. He was completely vulnerable for an instant, and an instant is all that Quann needed. Thoughts spun around his head.
"Damn it! He's strong as hell, he brought that axe down way faster than I expected! The good news is that the weakness with a battle axe that size is for him to pluck that thing out the ground and swing again, it'll probably take a while. I'll use that moment to-"
Fwoosh!
Another blow just barely missed Teus again smashing into the dirt ground, this time to his side. The blast sent up small and large chunks of soil bursting into the air. Teus quickly understood the strategy.
"He's using the fact that he's incredibly strong to compensate for the weapons weaknesses. Not only is he able to blind me, since I can't see a thing with all this dirt flying around. The shaking ground makes me get off balance and he keeps me in one spot. Making it easier for that arrow girl to get a good aim at me while I'm distracted…This is bad news!"
The blue embers emitting themselves off of Teus' body left a trail ablaze as he darted backwards in his attempt to create a gap in space between the two of them.
"Crap! What do I do?"
He saw Synthia readjusting her aim to his new position and the gigantic scarred bird behind her. The beast was watching his every move almost as though waiting for its time to strike. A subtle flare of white seemed to be accumulating in an aura around the creature, in a similar fashion to how the blue embers were surrounding Teus. The bird's already glowing horns were now shining in a brighter yellow than before as a sphere of energy was beginning to shape around its open beak. This made him raise an eyebrow.
"...What the hell?"
He had no idea what the creature was doing, but if he had to guess, he assumed it was preparing an attack just for him if he was unfortunate enough to not finish this quickly.
His line of sight was quickly redirected to Quann who was now running towards him again. The other members had also seemed to have gained their morale back from watching Quann push Teus back. To make matters worse a couple drops of blood left Teus' nostrils and the pain in the back of his neck grew more severe, causing him to stagger slightly.
"I've been in one place for too long, I got to make more distance…"
He shuffled his feet backwards but the rear of his heel hit something. It felt like an arm.
Teus grimaced at the sight of Mister Fluff and Puff laying almost motionless behind him, still battling to breathe.
The sight made him clench his jaw.
"Damn it all…! It's not like we can run anyway. I'm gonna have to use a little more…"
He ducked down and got into a lunge position before his feet propelled him forward, the blue flames dancing in the air as he went. Teus darted towards Quann, who was quick to strike. But in the split second that it took him to raise his arms in the air for another swing, Teus took a step into his space.
With more speed than before, a solid punch landed on Quann's elbow, making him lose balance while the axe was above his head. Taking advantage of the moment, while he was still upright and unstable, Teus struck the axe wielder's chest with his palm and sent him toppling over to the ground again.
"Grahk!"
Quann's yelp was visceral, but he was also quick to attempt to stand. Teus placed his foot on his sternum.
"I figured he'd be hard to put down. I'll have to use my strongest technique…Twin Dragon's Arrow!"
Without a wasted second, the boy leaned into Quann's face and raised his index and middle finger, both carrying a faint blue flame on each tip before he ruthlessly jabbed them into his eyes, a sweltering heat burst forth.
In an instant, a gut wrenching scream left the axe wielder's mouth while he felt his eyes boil.
The sounds of the raging mob moving towards Teus quickly enveloped any screaming that Quann could muster. However once the people got closer, their morale seemed to take a turn for the worse. Wincing faces at the gruesome scene began to form amongst the crowd. He could sense it, though they may be rushing towards him, he could feel their hesitation.
Whilst thinking of how to deal with them Teus remembered one specific detail he saw back in the dungeon.
"...Whenever there would be a large chunk of scattered skeletons spread out away from the fight. I always thought that they were afraid and that's why they ran away, making it easier for the dragon to win because there's less people to fight it, but I wanted to know what specifically would make them run…"
He then leaped back to where Mister Fluff and Puff was and grabbed the hilt of his sword.
"...But after watching Quann just now. I think I get it. These people seem to rally behind him because he shows overwhelming strength. I bet the reverse is also true…"
A sudden burst of blue aura began to surge from Teus as he grinded his teeth against each other and pulled with all his might to carry the big and bulky sword. The blue flames around him began to glow more fiercely as he immediately sweat profusely in an effort to hoist the blade over his head.
"...I bet if I show a display of power so great, in one blow, everyone here will freak out!"