Bam*

  Suddenly I was pushed to the ground.

  "Wai-"

  "Wow! You're trying to fool me with a fake name, kid? Especially when you're unmarked? You got guts for a slave", he said, tightening the grip around my wrists.

  I was genuinely confused this time. "Wha- What do you mean?"

  The man shrugged his shoulders. "Don't play dumb. It's hard to find a slave like you running around without a birthmark. We can sell you and make a massive profit. What do you say Haslow-"

  At that moment, out of nowhere, the white haired man drew his slender black sword from the sheath on his side. He looked deadly serious.

  "Let him be Garald. He's just a kid."

  Gerald looked dumbfounded. With a mixture of confusion and laughter on his face. "Oh you must be joking, Haslow! Not when someone like this walks in our path? It's not everyday you see an unmarked kid, you know. He doesn't have a black mark like us or a red mark like the market slaves. Which means he is up for grabs! Why miss this chance?"

  For a moment, there was only silence. No one made a move. But I could tell, they were communicating somehow. Slowly, from the hilt of Haslow's sword, blood flowed down his blade.

  He is a Weaver!

  “I will warn you only once, Gerald.”

  Gerald looked visibly shaken, seeing Haslow unleash his ability. “You don’t need to go that far, Haslow!”

  Haslow calmly replied, his face neutral. “I am the one who decides that.”

  Haslow swung his sword swiftly, splashing the blood on it like an arc. Gerald conjured a wall of stacked glass between us and Haslow. Blocking the blood from reaching us.

  Bang*

  Small but explosive bursts of red flame erupted where the blood landed. Most of the glass shattered.

  "Give up Gerald, I wouldn't hesitate to cripple you to free a kid.”

  Dust clouded over due to the flame bursts. Before the smoke settled, Haslow reappeared further behind Gerald who was still on top of me. Gerald called for his Daemon.

  “Meriar!”

  Immediately, from thin air, emerged a monstrous being between us and Haslow. The monster reminded me of Knube. Human-like but different. It looked strong with padded arms and legs, with a lizard-like head. His tail was scaly and rocky in texture, almost as long as his legs.

  Meriar deflected Haslow’s attack with his tail, but he lost a chunk of his tail in the process.

  “Glass Heart!”

  Gerald Immediately used his ability, creating a multi-layered flower shaped glass shield in front of him, which is behind Meriar. As soon as the shields formed, the padded areas on Meriar’s limbs turned silver.

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  “Bloody Death!”

  Haslow activated his ability yet again without waiting. He threw arcs of blood Meriar’s way continuously. The air was filled with bloody mist. Meriar blocked all the attacks with the pads on his arms. Haslow’s attacks did not seem to do any damage.

  “Haslow, why don't you listen to me my friend? We can choose a good master for that boy. He can be safe like that too.”

  Haslow ignored Gerald. With his call Haslow's Daemon appeared.

  “Rojak!”

  Rojak looks divine but fierce. He is completely different from Haslow. He looked like a red dog, with red fur and white stripes. Except, it appeared much more wild and vicious. With horns on its head, Its hunched posture made it look extremely cunning and menacing.

  “I was wondering when you were gonna let me dance, Haslow.”

  “Blood Borne Dance!”

  Rojak set his claws on scarlet flames. The size of his horns grew. There was no wasted moment. He ran towards Meriar like a beast, on all fours.

  “Eep!” Gerald squealed in fright.

  “Gerald, increase your defences”, said Meriar. Meriar was ready to brace Rojak, but Rojak was too quick. Rojak went for a triple slash attack with his claws. Surprisingly, Meriar held him off. Somehow the pads don’t take any damage from blood and fire attacks. But then, unexpectedly, Rojak ran around Meriar, directly attacking Gerald. Or rather the flower shaped shield in front of him. Right after he appeared in front of the shield, Rojak slashed his left arm with his right hand’s claws, spilling blood on the shield.

  Bang*

  Blood flames burst through the glass shield. Meriar caught up to Rojak and threw a kick. At that moment Haslow appeared, deflecting the kick with his sword.

  “Sorry Meriar.”

  Meriar screamed in anger. “Haslowww!!”

  Utilising this opportunity Rojak slashed the rest of the shield rapidly, breaking it completely. When this happened the silver sheen on Meriar’s padded limbs disappeared. Defenseless, he succumbed to Haslow's blade and its heat. That's when Haslow cut through him.

  Slowly from the wound, the rest of Meriar’s body turned to sand, and he crumbled. Gerald fell on the ground. He saw Meriar taken down in silence.

  Rojak said with a begrudging face, “Meriar’s gone and he cannot spawn back until an hour. What will you do Gerald?”

  Gerald gulped and looked down on the floor. “...You win. Do what you want with the unmarked”

  Haslow beckoned. “Let's go Rojak!”

  “Wait”, Rojak walked up to Gerald and picked him up off the floor. “If you ever speak of anything that happened here, I will come and find you. Haslow does not need to come for you. As long as he is alive, I can chase you down anywhere in the Severed Continents myself. Remember that.”

  “Yes, yes. I won't.”

  Haslow walked up to me slowly.

  "Come here, kid", Haslow said. Immediately I walked up to him. Haslow ripped a part of his cloak and wrapped it around my neck. This man is a proper fighter. He might be as strong as Waller.

  “Sir, why-”

  “Just call me Haslow”

  “What's this scarf for Mr. Haslow?”

  Haslow sighed. Pulling his armour and clothes aside, Haslow pointed to the base of his neck. A black mark about the size of a fist was there. It looked like a winged beast.

  “You don't have a mark like this. If people find that out. You will be in serious trouble.”

  Rojak jumped into the conversation. "In the Severed Continents all newborn babies are given a black mark as a symbol of freedom and belonging. If you don't have one by the time you're a year old, you're deemed as unwanted, making you open to being claimed. You can rarely find older, unmarked people, so they make expensive slaves."

  All this information started to give me a headache. I heard of many people from my town being taken away for different work when they do not meet the demands of the nobles. Usually they do not return to their homes. Maybe they are sold as slaves. Just like Gerald wanted to sell me.

  “It's not safe here. What's your name, kid?”

  “I'm Straak.”

  Haslow led us away from Gerald. “I’m Haslow, and this is my Daemon, Rojak. Look, I know someone who can help you, Straak. I was going to see them today anyway. We can take you there if you wish.”

  I'm not one to trust people easily. But for some reason I feel like I can trust these two really well. Not because they saved me or because they look like good people. I don't know. I have a feeling.

  “If you don't mind.”

  “It's not a problem. I'm going to take you to the District City to do that, but it's going to be through a rather… unconventional route”, he said. Rojak didn’t look particularly excited.

  I think less than half a day has passed since we started walking. I have not seen any people so far. Haslow is probably keeping us away from people.

  "Where are you from, boy?" The question finally came from Haslow.

  "You might know the place. I’m from the Mining Town of Fractis."

  Haslow was surprised. “Fractis? How did you escape that place?”

  I scratched my head.

  “Well, it's a long story. Before I escaped I was chased by a large burly man. So I had to fight him.”

  Haslow turned to look at me. I can imagine him thinking that I must be joking.

  “I'm a Weaver you see. During our fight I almost lost to him, but then Knube did some trick. Next thing I knew, I was in your cart, sleeping.”

  Haslow almost choked on the jerkies we were eating. Tasty things these jerkies are.

  “Me and Gerald were just there in Fractis. But the cart was thoroughly checked before we left. You could not have hidden unless you could become invisible.”

  I smiled in defeat. “My ability doesn't do that unfortunately. One minute I was on the other end of the town, and then I was in your cart. I myself am not sure what happened.”

  “It sounds like that isn't your standard ability. Can you call your Daemon? He's called Knube, I presume?”

  “Yes”. I tried to sense Knube or see if I could summon him somehow. “Knube!” I shouted his name like the others did in the battle before. He didn't come out.

  “Hm… I suspect you used Soul Revelation”, said Haslow after thinking for a moment.

  “What's that?”

  “Apart from the skills you and your Daemon have, you have a combined skill. It's usually the trump card people only use when they are in trouble. Your Daemon willingly sacrifices most of its source power, to manifest the ultimate skill for you to survive. Only problem is once it does that your Daemon cannot respawn for a day.”

  “Sounds very powerful.”

  “Well, not exactly. Because when your Daemon dies using soul revelation, the source power you have access to will be limited to a very low amount.”

  “Are you saying I can't even use my ability as I wish, when that happens?”

  Just then we reached the edge of the forest.

  “Yes. It's just like you said”, replied Haslow, just casually.