Circumstances

The group of slave traders were in a great mood. Their 2-month journey had been smooth, almost without incident.

The only problem that had come up was a group of beasts that stampeded into their caravan a week ago. Fortunately, the beasts were relatively weak so in the short melee that followed, the 12 Hunters easily drove them away. Best of all, the beasts had been chasing a unique Accursed who was so wounded that it could barely flee, let alone resist being captured. Being able to capture her on the road meant that all the profits from her sale would go to the escorts instead of their employers.

That was because their job was as escorts for the slave caravan, just transporting slaves from one town to another. They were not on a slave hunting job, where a group of Hunters would raid Accursed settlements to bring back slaves. That made any merchandise, whether cores or slaves, picked up in route, fall into the ownership of the escorts. Therefore, they made sure to take good care or her, nursing her back to health, as well as they could on the road.

Humans could not be slaves. The lowest status a human could have was a serf. The only thing awaiting an offending serf was death. There were no long-term prisons, if a serf stepped out of line, but was not deserving of death, they would be charged for their offense and if they couldn't pay then death would follow. The Omniscient Church had declared that the title of Human would never be degraded to that of a slave.

Conversely, the Accursed, those who were akin to wild beasts, those non-humans could never be worth anything more than slaves. They were hunted, their land and riches taken, and the lucky ones were enslaved. The rest were treated like any other wild beast, dissected for their cores and useful parts.

This was why if the Hunters were to find a human, they couldn't enslave them, but because they found an Accursed it was already considered a slave.

Now they had also made it into the Mountain Tomb's Forest, which meant they could relax till they reached their destination of the Bazaar. Everyone knew that the areas around tombs were low threat areas. While they may be attacked by a few low-level creatures it was nothing to worry about compared to the rest of the journey where death waited around every bend of the road. Even Mana Storms were known to be infrequent in the area around tombs, and the ones that did happen were small and mild.

Once they got out of the forest, they would be in the vicinity of the town itself, another safe zone due to the frequent clearings of the area by both Hunters and rookie Adventures.

Normally trading between towns was low due to the dangers of the journey between them. This was mainly due to the expense of hiring a team of hunters for months at a time to guard the merchandise. That cost alone would often overshadow any profit to be made from the goods. Thus, towns would make do with the resources that could be found in their own regions. If a town could not survive on these recourses alone, it would often fail to exist for long.

This of course only applied for regularly established trade routes, or trade routes that a town would rely on to survive. There were many caravans traversing through the Humans domain carrying anything from rare cores and artifacts to slaves and beasts, both dead and alive.

Slave trade going into the Bazaar was especially profitable because there were no Accursed colonies anywhere near the town. Between the inhospitality of the desert and the early Hunting of the warriors from the Bazaar, even the nomads were wiped out years ago.

Now the only way the Bazaar got slaves is if they were brought in by caravans from far away. This scarcity made the slaves shipped in all the more profitable.

An easy, well-paying job plus a large bonus coupled with their feelings of relief from reaching a safe zone had made the slave traders lax. They hadn't put out any guards and instead, were drinking in celebration for a job well done.

They indeed heard the loud impacts and shocking roars in the distance, but in this world such things were rather common, and the Hunters saw no reason to get excited by it. They imagined that two creatures were fighting over territory, or perhaps a mate. Either way after such a fight no creature would want to attack a group of warriors while it was exhausted and perhaps injured, and maybe it had even won a mate and wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.

Thus, their revelry continued as they drowned out the background noise of distant violence. They even continued ignoring that violence as it became less and less distant and the earth began to slightly shake beneath their inebriated feet.

The Hunters continued the self-indulged ignorance right up until a ballista landed directly in their midst.

The shocked faces all turned in panic toward the origin of the projectile. The first thing they saw was the destroyed wagon. Half the roof was missing, and one entire side was torn open as if to reveal what it contained.

The rays of the setting sun shone to perfectly illuminate an image that would remain with the slave traders for the rest of their lives.

Three pairs of long narrow wings with feathers so black that the sun's rays seemed to be devoured by them. A smooth silk white dress, dirty and torn, covered a slender body all the way to the ankles. It shimmered in the light creating a mesmerizing image.

A burlap sack covered the head of the figure before them creating a strange contrast to the other worldly picture. The graceful arms showed the angle's skin to be a glossy gray color as it emerged the sleeveless dress all the way to its hands, bound in front of it.

'A fallen angel in a cage'

This same thought flashed through all the minds of the gawking hunters.

It only lasted for a brief moment as their eyes traveled up past their captivating captive. There, towering above their camp, was a horrific monster.

Its eyes were so bloodshot they appeared entirely red, blending in well with its blood-soaked head. Half of an island drifted above the trees on its back, floating next to a pool of gore. Its murderous aura was almost palpable as it glared at them.

The air was heavy as the two sides stared at each other one with pure hatred, the other utter shock.

The behemoth opened it mouth and broke the stalemate with a deafening roar.

Blood sprayed from its mouth, splashing on the Hunters gaping faces.

Their leaders' wide eyes didn't even flinch as he began to tremble.

"Impossible..."