A battered slave

"What are you doing?" the mad king asked in a displeased tone.

"Saving you"

Before he could say anything else, the ring rapidly contracted around his index finger, in the next moment, a searing pain was felt deep inside his chest. He felt like his very essence was being ripped from his body and yet there was no physical wound. As the gut wrenching pain increased, the mad king lost control of his body, he opened his mouth and screamed in agony.

What he didn't realize was that there was two voices that were crying out in a synchronized manner and in the next moment through Ayasha's open mouth a small dim flame flew out. Then eight rays of light flew out and formed a bright palm sized multicoloured flame, dominated by purple light that shone with brilliant light.

"Sir...what's happening...we-we can't move!" one of the matching elementalists managed to speak out.

When Alaric turned around, he was surprised to see that amongst all the one hundred and fifty elementalists he ha brought, he was the only one still standing. All the others were either kneeling or sprawled on the ground, unable to stand in the presence of the purple light. Ignoring them, he stretched out his hand and summoned a bolt of lightning from the sky crackled.

"i have a feeling we won't be able to see each other in a while, so please accept my gift." Alaric smiled and a blinding flash of light illuminated the sky as a bolt of lightning shot forth, striking Ayasha's body with precision.

Alaric raised his brow in confusion "That was too...easy"

"Sir you did it, your name shall go down in history!" Looking at the twitching body on the ground, the other elementalists cheered but Alaric didn't seem happy.

He went close to the body and touched it's hand, it seemed fine despite Alaric's strong attack "Something is not right, wrap it up and bring it back to the base, l have a feeling the mad king is pulling another one of his tricks."

Alaric surveyed the surroundings but there was nothing out of the ordinary, yet he vaguely remembered that there was a flash of light before the lightning hit the body.

And he was right, the two flames had vanished right before the lightning reached Ayasha's body.

 *****************************

Elsewhere in the realm below, a fat white man with protruding eyes was sweating profusely as he held a whip in one hand and the other hand was supporting his build while he leaned against the cold wall of the cellar. The visibility in the dark space was very poor since the torch was so far away in the corridor, nevertheless, one could still make out the small figure lying motionless one foot away from the fat man.

The fat man raised his whip again and struck the little figure on the ground but it remained motionless "Still pretending to be dead? Even if you die, you must return the money l lost because of you today!"

He raised his hand, ready to throw down the whip but someone suddenly spoke "what's the use of beating her to death?"

The fat man turned around and saw a buff middle aged man walk out of a shadowy corner, recognizing who it was, he sneered. "Viktor, I advise you to mind your own business"

"if l wasn't minding my own business i wouldn't even be here" 

"What do you want?" The fat man asked in annoyance.

Viktor threw a string of copper coins towards the fat man "that's 10 copper coins, give me all those who you deem useless"

The fat man hesitated for a moment, looking at the severe injuries on the people in the cell and thinking about his losses earlier that day, he thought it was a good deal. No one would pay him so much anyway. "Add 5 more coins and you can have everyone in here" 

"Excellent" Viktor smiled and didn't hesitate to give the fat man the extra 5 coins.

Looking at the happy smile on Viktor's face, the fat man felt a bit reluctant to give away his slaves but the deal was already done.

Viktor clasped his hands together "let's go, anyone who falls behind will be fed to the beasts"

With that said, Viktor turned around and walked out of the cellar while the slaves struggled to follow behind.

When everyone was almost out, the little figure that was motionless finally moved.

When she opened her eyes, first thing that hit her was the putrid smell of decaying flesh, then she could gradually feel the chilling cold coming from the ground. When she tried to move, pain assaulted her from all over her body but despite all this, she still heaved a sigh of relief.

"I'm me again" a dry hoarse voice was what came out of her mouth, making her throat hurt.

"You little wretch, I knew you were playing dead all along. Tch… a pity I've already sold you off, otherwise l would've really beaten you to death to fufil your wish." The fat man said in disgust before leaving the cellar while playing with the copper coins happily.

The words of the fat man confused Ayasha, she looked around, but she couldn't make out where she was. She clearly remembered everything that had happened, like when she lost control of her body and killed those people. She could still remember how it felt like to control the elements of the world, making the bend to her will, the feeling wasn't bad at all, and she liked it… no, she craved to feel it again.

Stretching out her hand, she tried to recall the feeling, but nothing happened.

'You don't have an ounce of elemental energy in you, what are you trying to do?' A man's voice loudly echoed in her head, making Ayasha vigilant.

"It's you" Ayasha instinctively knew it was the same person that took over her body earlier. Her heartbeat accelerated, the feeling of not being in control of her body terrified her. She could see everything she was doing but wasn't in control, she never wanted to feel that ever again.

'be at ease, I won't be able to control you for a while'

His words sent a chill down her spine.

"Do you want to be dog food?" A clear voice came from the cellar's entrance.

"No" Ayasha said when she realised the girl was talking to her.

"Walk quickly" she said and moved away, following the others.

Ayasha followed right behind them, enduring the aches and pains she could feel all over her battered body. When they reached their destination, it turned out to be another cellar, not much worse than the one they came from. The only difference was that this one already had about a few dozens of people cramped up together for warmth.

The slave master left them alone without any explanation, Ayasha found a spot to rest her aching body, but she winced in pain as soon as she tried to lay down.

'So weak, worse than the one before' the mad king mocked.

"Do something about it then" Ayasha mumbled weakly.

'Sure, you just have to allow me to take over your body for 5 minutes.'

"No" Ayasha refused without hesitation.

The mad king snickered 'i see you are a masochist, enjoy the pain all night long'

"Good, lets die together. Your centuries old waiting will be a joke" She deliberately provoked him.

He went quite for a few moments before speaking again 'cultivate the wind or earth element, it will help strengthen your body'

Ayasha was slightly surprised, she had expected him to ask her to cultivate the dark element since it was the one whose conditions were highly favorable at the moment.

She quickly closed her eyes and began to meditate, luckily, she already knew how to cultivate through all the books she had read. Not long after she closed her eyes, many glowing dots appeared around her, the purple ones were the highest in number, followed by the brown ones then yellow and red while the other colors were barely present. Ayasha placed all her concentration on the yellow dots and tried to absorb them, but surprisingly, the brown particles were the ones excitedly rushing to her instead while the yellow ones were moving at a steady pace.

'Hmm? She can cultivate two elements at once? How is that possible?…And she seems to have high affinity with the earth element. Interesting.' the mad king said with a hint of surprise in his voice but Ayasha was too lost in her focus that she didn't hear him.

She remained in a meditative state throughout the whole night.

Unbeknownst to her, someone had been observing all her actions, not like she would've cared if she had known.