In A Pickle

Ella came out and went to the waiting room with the clothes she already picked at hand, Derrick didn't bother to even ask how the clothes looked like, as long as she liked them he decided to buy them.

Paying for the clothes, Derrick felt they were pretty expensive, but he had no choice than to pay, the sales attendant was over the moon because she made alot of profit through this sale and was extremely happy, most of the customers usually comes and buy one clothe before leaving, but Ella actually picked five, Derrick didn't complain thou, cause he was the one who suggested they came to buy some clothes for her.

"Come again young master, young miss" the sales attendant said after a bow, with a pleasant smile on her face.

"Thank you very much young master" when both of them came out, Ella thanked Derrick for the clothes he bought for her, not that Derrick has seen how the clothes are on her, she was still wearing the baggy clothes which Shadow got for her.

"You only call me young master, during this type of situations, I accept your thanks but I told you to pick a name to call me, not to use both of my suggestion" Derrick told her, while carrying what Ella bought with both of his hands, while she was giggling around him.

"If I only call you young master, I believe we would grow apart, if I call you by your name in presence of people that would be disrespectful, I already noticed you are a human noble, I haven't been in the human territory for long but I have picked up a thing or two" Ella replied, while both of them were talking, Derrick realized they were being sorrounded but he only checked the level of those surrounding them and noticed that they were low level mages.

Suddenly the slave trader jumped from where he was hiding, before bursting into laughter, with two of his teeth missing, the laughter turned into choking which he apparently used all his strength to stop before staring at Derrick with hatred.

"I knew I would still find you, your blazing hair was always a unique means of identifying you, I thought you would have already ran away from Vall kingdom, but here you are walking around the place and laughing with my money and you think I wouldn't get my revenge" the slave trader said, his eyes has already turned red due to anger.

"I will make sure to turn the both of you into slaves that would pay me well, alright boys do it" the slave trader shouted, after speaking alot he ran away, which amused Derrick, Derrick heard what the slave trader shouted at the end before running away, so he waited to find out what this people were up to.

"Not good, they are setting a formation, stop them before.... scratch that the formation has been set, don't die kid" Zazel said to Derrick, which alerted him once, 'what do you mean by formation?' Derrick quickly asked being on his guard, but he felt something strange, a pattern drawn with yellow light, the pattern looked like an hexagon, it was below his and Ella's feet, he felt his strength drained, both his mana and physical strength were halved just like that.

"Oh sorry kid, I totally forgot about formations, and couldn't inform you in time, formations are used by mages, either to attack as a group, defend as a group, strengthen an individual or to weaken an individual, this particular formation is to weaken an individual and it seems you are the target, your strength would be halved, so instead of a 4th stage warrior, you would have the strength of a 2nd stage warrior and instead of a senior mage strength, you have the strength of a senior apprentice, well this was a well thought out plan, I suppose, anyways they are low level mages so I don't think the formation can last too long" Zazel spoke as if the situation wasn't really that urgent, but Derrick felt the urgency of the situation, the warriors on their side have already drawn their swords, and seeing how Ella was shivering behind him, it seems the formation still affected her, he was in a pickle, he thought to himself.

"Wait wait, no need to get violent, I can pay you the 1000 gold coins, and let's walk our separate ways" Derrick said in other to avoid the upcoming battle, seeing that the onlookers was avoiding the area they were in, it seems help wouldn't come and this was not the first time the slave trader have done something like this.

"Don't bother, I would be making more than that after capturing the both of you" the slave trader said with a wide grin, he was already thinking about the profit he was gonna make, selling both of them, and asking for ransom from the red haired kid family.