Meanwhile, the situation inside the inner part of the ice cream store was far more intense.
Kian stood in the center of a massive, damp space. It was a hidden stone basement. Surrounding him were scary-looking men carrying weapons.
On the far side of the room, Kian saw something completely horrifying. A huge iron cage sat against the wall, holding dozens of men and women inside. Their hands were tightly chained together. Their ages were around their twenties to thirties, and their faces were pale with exhaustion.
Kian immediately realized what was going on and exactly what kind of place he had entered. The scary men slowly turned their heads and looked right at him.
I'm dead, Kian thought. I stumbled inside a criminal syndicate's base.
The scary men stared at him.
A huge, scary-looking man with a black eyepatch spoke up. "What's this?"
"A kid?" another man asked with a cruel laugh. "How did a kid enter here?"
"Are we selling kids now?" a thug with a scar chimed in. "I thought this was the other syndicate's gig? What's the name of their group again?"
"Obsidian Vipers," another man answered.
"Yeah, that's the name of that group," the scarred man nodded.
The man with the eyepatch crossed his thick arms. "I heard kids these days have a high price in the black market. Sick nobles from far away continents are willing to buy a kid for fifty thousand golds."
"Fifty thousand?" the other man gasped. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah," the man with the eyepatch chuckled darkly. "But they have to undergo a series of experiments first before we can sell them."
"Yeah, but they have to undergo a series of experiments first before we can sell them." He looked down at Kian with a predatory grin. "Should we sell this kid to the Vipers?"
"Hahahahaha!" The thugs erupted into sinister, unison laughter.
But then, the door at the top of the stairs was violently opened.
CRACK-BOOM!
When the scary men turned around, to their absolute horror, dozens of knights barged into the basement with drawn swords. The men and women in the cage heard the loud sound and stared in pure disbelief. They had already lost hope a long time ago.
When the little boy came down the stairs, they thought he would simply share their terrible fate. But a few seconds later, several knights poured into the room. The prisoners could barely believe their eyes. They were saved on the exact day before their scheduled shipment.
"What is this place?" Reynald mumbled as he descended the steps. He saw the iron cage where the chained captives huddled together. The knights behind him gasped in shock before their faces twisted into absolute fury, shouting curses at the thugs.
Reynald scanned the room and saw a banner hanging on the wall—the symbol of a famous, elusive criminal organization.
"It's the Wyrmshadow Conclave," the knight beside Reynald stated grimly. "They're notorious for kidnapping men and women and making them labor slaves in a coal mine. The King and the knight order spent two decades tracking these bastards' base. I can't believe they are hiding out here using a fake ice cream shop as a cover."
Reynald's blood boiled. He remembered his younger cousin, who had been kidnapped years ago by this exact syndicate. He gripped his sword tight and prepared for a brutal battle.
Seeing the knights, the man with the eyepatch spat on the floor. "Damn! That kid was a distraction. Everyone, prepare for battle!"
The basement erupted into pure chaos. A bright, glowing yellow Aura coated Reynald and the knights as they charged forward.
Across the room, the man with the eyepatch roared, his own body flaring with a yellow aura.
"Kill them all!" he commanded.
CLANG-SHHK-BAM!
The two forces clashed with earth-shattering force. Reynald lunged forward, his aura-infused blade carving a glowing arc through the dimly lit basement. He parried a heavy axe strike from a syndicate enforcer, the collision sending a shockwave of sparks raining over the stone floor.
The eyepatch man leaped into the fray, dual-wielding curved daggers. He aimed for Reynald's neck, but the knight captain pivoted smoothly, his aura absorbing the glancing blow before he retaliated with a devastating shield bash that sent the thug crashing into a wooden support beam.
The basement echoed with the deafening symphony of ringing steel, battle cries, and the blinding flashes of colliding auras.
---
Amidst the chaotic clash of steel and magic, no one noticed that the little boy who had caused the syndicate and the knights to meet was already gone. Kian took full advantage of the distraction and slipped away.
When he finally burst outside, he spotted an ordinary, unmarked carriage parked nearby. There was no one around.
Desperate, he climbed aboard and hid inside a large, empty barrel in the back. A few minutes later, he heard the voices of a man and a woman approaching. The carriage jolted, and they began to move. Exhausted from the relentless running, Kian's eyes grew heavy, and he quickly fell asleep.
After four hours of bumpy travel, the carriage stopped to feed the horses. The woman grabbed the empty barrel to put water into for the horses to drink. But she felt something was terribly wrong.
"Why is this so heavy?" she muttered. Curious, she pulled the lid open. She found out that a boy, who she estimated to be about eleven to twelve years old, was curled up inside the barrel. The woman gasped in shock.
The man climbed up to the back of the carriage to see what was wrong.
"What's that?" he asked, spotting the black-haired child.
Ignoring him, the woman used her strength to carry the little boy out. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly against her chest.
She cheerfully shouted, "A boy!"
The sudden movement jolted Kian awake. Disoriented and still traumatized by his recent brush with the syndicate, his survival instincts kicked in.
"Haaaa! Human traffickers!" he screamed.
The man was caught completely off guard, jumping back. But the woman, who looked to be in her late twenties, just smiled soothingly. "We're not kidnappers. Calm down, sweetie."
"You're not?" Kian asked as he wiggled in her grip.
"Yes, we're not," the woman smiled warmly.
Kian looked to his side and saw the imposing, scary-looking man glaring at him angrily.
"Monster!" Kian screamed again.
"I'm not a monster," the man frowned deeply. "And get away from my wife."
The carriage traveled for two more days down the long, winding dirt roads. Then, without warning, the carriage slammed to a violent halt.
Confused, the woman asked, "What's going on, honey?"
"An ambush," the man replied grimly.
Panic seized the woman and Kian. The man leaped down from the driver's seat and drew his sword.
"Stay in the carriage," he commanded without looking back. "Don't come out, no matter what!"
"Okay," the woman promised.
She pulled Kian onto her lap and hugged him tightly while closing her eyes.
Damn this woman, Kian complained internally. Why does she like hugging me so much? If things go south, I need mobility to run! Restricting my movements isn't protecting me, it's suicide!
But as he grumbled in his mind, he felt the woman's warm body trembling against his.
She's scared, Kian realized.
During their journey, he had learned that this couple once had a son who was killed in a monster ambush two years ago. If the boy had lived, he would be exactly Kian's age. The grieving mother was seeing her own lost son in Kian.
"Don't worry," the woman whispered while her eyes stayed tightly shut. "My husband is strong. He used to be a Level 5 Adventurer before he retired two years ago."
Her husband had retired the exact day after their son died.
"I'll protect you," the woman promised softly.
Kian sat on the woman's lap, locked entirely in a tight embrace. He looked up at the woman's pale face. Her eyes were closed out of sheer fear, and her hands were trembling out of heavy trauma.
CLANG-SHHK-ROAR!
Loud clangs and the brutal noise of battle erupted outside. Five minutes of combat dragged on. The bestial roars became louder and much more chaotic.
Then, debris of small rocks flew from outside the carriage and hit Kian and the woman.
"Gahhh!" Kian yelped as a small rock grazed him, overlapping with the woman's sharp cry of pain, "Aaaah!"
It hurt, but the injuries weren't serious—just minor cuts and bruises.
"Are you okay?!" the man roared from the chaotic road.
"Yes! We're fine! Just some flying rocks!" the woman shouted back.
The deafening clash of metal resumed. The retired Adventurer hacked through the deadly swarm.
"Where did all these monsters come from?" the man muttered to himself as he fought. "This road was supposed to be safe. Did a dungeon break happen nearby?"
Another five minutes of brutal combat passed before the noise finally died down. The man stood victorious amid the fallen monsters and sheathed his sword. Inside the carriage, the woman finally breathed a sigh of relief and let go of Kian from her tight hug.
But the relief was premature.