Chapter 57: Tournament Interim (Part 5)

Arlen reacted instantly upon witnessing the explosion, rushing forward towards the panicking guardsmen. Taking advantage of their distracted state he cut them both down in seconds, coming to a stop before the front door before cautiously pushing it open slowly.

[Huh, guess they're all going to check out that explosion. Wonder what caused it...?] - Arlen

Reassured that his path was clear the young dragon confidently stepped through the door only for his nose to be assailed with the strong stench of blood. Something bad had happened nearby. Seeing no immediate indications of where the smell was coming from he made his way through the halls slowly, making sure to keep his guard up in case anyone caught on to his infiltration. Eerily the building was nearly completely silent with only the distant sounds of yelling above him but it was too far away for him to make out anything significant.

[Nothing huh... Is this the wrong place?] - Arlen

[Oh! Oh Goddess that explains the smell!] - Arlen

Making his way through the first floor the wayward Prince had finally found the stairs upwards and with it the first storage area. Unfortunately for his mission however the room was mostly empty with several large iron cages seemingly unused. Hurrying onwards he had found several more identical rooms, each with iron cages but no captured Demi's. Arlen had started becoming worried that he'd stumbled upon the wrong warehouse and was considering turning back while he was undiscovered but then he came upon something that erased any doubts about this being the incorrect place.

Bodies. Dozens of them. Demi's all with their faces frozen in terror and panic. The Prince, gagging at the cloying smell of death emanating from the piled up bodies briefly braved the spreading pool of red fluid to check on some of the less damaged individuals, hoping against reason that someone, anyone, had survived what looked to be a one-sided slaughter. Finding nothing alive he quickly retreated, noting the warmth still present on the rapidly cooling corpses.

[This was recent. I'd guess less than an hour since their death, damn!] - Arlen

[This... This can't be all of them, the number is too low... Maybe... Maybe some of them escaped, or they're still trapped in one of the other warehouses above me. Gurk! I better leave! The smell is getting to me.] - Arlen

Still gagging at the smell emanating from the remnants of cruelty before me the Prince found himself pondering the actual numbers he was seeing. It didn't make sense. From what little information he had been able to glean from the unwilling populace he'd gotten the impression that more than 2-300 had gone missing in total. This gruesome scene in front of him, while horrible, wasn't enough in number for him to give up on the rest as dead.

With that in mind he quickly hurried away from the scene of death, heading upwards.

[Burn Marks... Some kind of battle?] - Arlen

The last half an hour had been a hectic one. Arlen, on leaving the 2nd floor, had checked every single warehouse area on his way upwards. The task, which started out simple but time consuming, had taken a turn for the worse when he'd finally come upon the first resistance he'd encountered since he entered the building. The gang members, seemingly not expecting trespassers to come up behind them, had been completely unguarded. Taking advantage of their defenseless rear he'd easily taken out the first group with no trouble.

Unfortunately however his battle had attracted the attention of a further group of deviants who were more prepared. What followed was a near constant battle as he made his way through the fodder, cutting them down like a farmer to wheat. The problem was that no matter how many he took down there was still more to take their place.

And so nearly half an hour later the Prince had finally fought his way through nearly 3 dozen of the dregs of society. After cutting down so many of them Arlen was exhausted and he'd had to take several breathers on the way up. Luckily for him each individual was only slightly more skilled than a commoner but what they lacked in strength they more than made up for in both numbers and tenacity. He had to give them credit for their stubbornness if nothing else.

His battle, finally over for the moment, had led to what must have been the site of a difficult battle at least a few hours before as well as the apparent source of the explosion he'd seen from outside. Glancing around the room he quickly found another few corpses that matched the descriptions of a couple of those he was looking for, these bodies far more obvious in their cause of death.

[Were they caught in the explosion? What about the rest?] - Arlen

[Hmm?] - Arlen

The intrepid Prince, focused on his investigation, froze when he realized that several men had walked in from the far end of the room. Seemingly coming from above the 4 guardsmen froze at the same time as the Prince, obviously not expected to see a Dragonkin here and not sure how to respond to the new situation. Unfortunately for them Arlen was the first to respond, dashing forward to shorten the distance between them Arlen cut down the closest one while the rest fumbled with their weapons, too relaxed in their assumed safety to respond quickly to the threat.

Now if Arlen had met these individuals anywhere else he may have hesitated longer but the fact that they, as guardsmen, were this calm in a gang hideout there was only one conclusion. They were in on this operation, either in full or in part it seemed that the local guards were complicit in kidnapping a large number of their own citizens and selling them into what he could only assume was slavery as the end goal.

Using the momentum from his first slash Arlen immediately redirected his strike into the neck of the second man before following through with a downward swing that was blocked by the next guard. They had finally brought their weapons to bear it seemed. What followed was a flurry of strikes as Arlen overwhelmed his two opponents with his superior skill. This was only possible because he, as a Prince, had been trained in combat since childhood and these guards, local militia for the most part, were overwhelmingly weak.

The reason for this was Abelis, unlike Anguis, didn't have a standing army. Unlike his home country, with it's well trained military and centralized police force, this country used Provincial Rule as well as hiring out of the general populace. As a consequence while they could raise a far larger force than his own country each of their individual soldiers was poorly trained and equipped with their guards being only slightly more skilled than a run-of-the-mill pedestrian. The second consequence of this was a large amount of corruption and personal greed in the system.

Quickly finishing off said weaklings Arlen endeavored to get to the bottom of this conspiracy, as allies, seeing this countries name bastardized by greedy criminals with a little power.

[Tch! This is why local guards were centralized in the first place... Perhaps I should speak with Mother about having talks with King Nero concerning this after I finish up here?] - Arlen

With those thoughts in mind the Prince continued upwards, not realizing the true scope of what he was dealing with. Thinking that it was only a local conspiracy at the most he underestimated the real danger of what he was involving himself in.

[Hahaha! Did you see their faces!?! They were like, "Why? Aren't you supposed to protect us?" Hahahaha!] - Random Guard

[Yeah yeah! One of them even tried to thank me for saving it from the bandits! Hahaha! Fucking animal didn't see it coming!] - Walking Dead Man

[Hey do you know what they did with the rest of them? The ones they captured I mean.] - Random Guard

[Oh right, well I heard something about some kind of fireworks display for the tournament. I guess their being used for something related? Not sure what though.] - Walking Dead Man

[Hmm, maybe they're setting them up or something? Honestly I don't know why we don't just drive out those animals and be done with it! I'm tired of them stinking up our country with their filth.] - Random Guard

[I agree, and did you see that Monster that's in the Tournament?!? Back in my day we killed them when they got too human looking, I'm telling ya it ain't natural.] - Walking Dead Man

[Oh you lived in one of the outlying farming villages right? Now that's how the country needs to be run, none of this inclusion nonsense. We don't need to stinking animals to keep us safe!] - Random Guard

[Yeah yeah... Well at least we won't have to...! Gurk!] - Walking Dead Man

[Hey Phil why'd you stop talking? What were you going to...! Eck!] - Random Guard

Arlen had made it to the top floor of the warehouse about a quarter of an hour after killing the descending guards only to find the surface exit "guarded" by two blabbermouthed morons. It was through this he had learned of the fate of those he was following. Apparently they had escaped their confinement or their own power then fought their way to the surface only for those they believed were coming to save them to turn on them, capturing or killing the escapee's.

This was far too large for a Academy assignment, what with the far-reaching implications of a nearly completely corrupt city guard. Who knew exactly how far such rhetoric had spread through the ranks but a safe bet was that most, if not all, of the local guard were in on the conspiracy and the possibility that upper levels of government were in on the scheme was basically all but guaranteed at this point. Honestly, given how prevalent this conspiracy seemed to be rooted he'd be surprised if his Mother's spy's didn't already know about it to a certain extent. The question was why he hadn't been warned about it. Although his Mother had told him to be wary and trust no one he hadn't been told any real specifics of who to look out for which caused him to come to one conclusion. It was another of her tests.

Ever since he was a child, and especially after the whole Rose incident, he'd had many random trials thrown against him. From ethics to statesmanship he'd been randomly tested throughout his life to this point and while he was grateful for the experience it gave him he often wondered if his Mother was a bit of a sadist. Afterall he'd been told of his cousin's training from Uncle Robert and it sounded just as harrowing as his own.

Shuddering slightly at the thought of his Mother's test he continued listening in on the two guards as they spilled everything about what was going on. Unfortunately they had started walking his way while talking to each other so after hiding behind a crate he finished them both off before they could discover him, silencing them before they could raise the alarm. If what they had said was true he needed to get out of her as soon as possible which meant he could either go back into the sewers and find his way back to the surface that way or he could sneak past the patrols in the area and make it back to the Academy that way.

[Sneaking it is. I'm glad Mother had that captured thief teach me stealth skills in lieu of prison time... Didn't he say something about being called the Grey Wolf? Fox? Maybe Badger? Oh well...] - Arlen

After considering it for a while the only real choice was sneaking past the patrols, for one thing he didn't know how long it would be till his previous kills would be discovered. Assuming they hadn't already been found. So if he was underground when that happened all they would have to do is block off all the exits to the surface and while he knew he could eventually find his way out via the waterways it would take too much time and considering how large this seemed to be the only option was to make his way to the Academy as quickly as possible to inform both the Principal and his Mother of the new development.

It was worse than he thought, dozens of bodies piled up around the warehouse entrance that had yet to be cleared as well as nearly a dozen guards standing around as if the slaughtered innocents were beneath their notice. Nearly gagging at both the smell hitting his sensitive nose as well as the nausea from the sheer callousness of these supposed defenders of the law Arlen nearly lost control of himself. Barely holding himself back from leaping from his hiding place the Prince forcibly used a calming technique he'd picked up from a book in the Castle's vast library.

Breathing deeply several times the hidden Dragon noticed a strange box-like object in the soldiers hands that they seemed to be looking at. He wasn't sure exactly what it was but it seemed to be a mixture of mechanical and magical technologies if the energies coming off of it in a sort of pinging wave were any indication. Cautiously lowering his mana leakage to nearly nothing he noticed that the man holding the box seemed to get excited for a few seconds before confusedly scratching his head as if he didn't understand what had just happened.

Putting the strange reaction of the man out of mind he took advantage of the distraction said confusion caused to duck down a alleyway behind them, only relaxing when he was absolutely sure he had put a large amount of distance between them. Although he still couldn't relax completely given what was going on at the moment. Quickly bringing up his mental map of the city in his mind Arlen compared his surroundings to what he knew about the city and surmised that he was in the Industrial Section of the city filled with various factories and warehouses. Academy City, with no real direct access to water, actually used their extensive underground cave systems and carved tunnels as storage from what he was told with some of the easier to move goods being carted down to a small underground dock which connected with the river somewhere. He wasn't sure where though as it was kept secret for fear of invasions using it as an easy entrance into the heart of the city.

Keeping an eye on his surroundings as he slowly made his way through the abandoned streets he heard some yelling in the distance along with the telltale sound of metal scraping against stone and immediately hid inside a side building rather than confront said patrol. He'd noticed over the escape that for some reason the sounds from the patrolling soldiers was muted somehow, possibly with a spell of some kind. Maybe a weakened version of the Solitude Sphere? Whatever the case was he'd found that if you heard anything at all it meant the actual patrol was nearly right on top of you. He'd nearly gotten caught a few times until he figured it out.

[Now let's see what's happening...] - Arlen

Cracking the door slightly the Prince's gaze pierced the slightly foggy streets, trying to see exactly what was happening out there. What he saw was a petite Catkin girl, perhaps 6 or 7 years old, desperately running towards his hiding spot with resignation painted on her face. It was this face that made him act, the fact that she was not only expecting but prepared to die forced him to put himself at risk as he quickly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into his hiding place before shutting the door behind them.

[Quiet! If you want us both to escape you'll calm down!] - Arlen

Feeling her struggle against his arms he tried to calm her down while suppressing her released Mana with his own like he'd been taught, pulling her into his stealth skill enough to hopefully remain undetectable. The catkin, stopping her struggling, widened her eyes as we heard the muffled sounds of footsteps outside the door that he'd locked using a loose key nearby. Our hearts wildly beating from the stress of being found out we heard the group outside our hiding place yell at each other before hearing the telltale sounds of them moving away again.

[Phew.... Are you okay?] - Arlen

[Yes, you can let me go now.] - Moon

[First off do you know stealth skills?] - Arlen

[I do now let me go.] - Moon

[Sorry Sorry. Make sure to activate those skills when we leave. Now, who are you?] - Arlen