The crowd slowly dispersed as Belver Markiz made his way toward the stage with his two guards in black suits and black leather gloves, parts of metal armor over their clothing. Before he even came up to chained Navia and Mirabell, he made his way to Evan to give him a handshake.
“I knew you would be interested, Mister Markiz.” Said Evan as he almost grabbed the old man’s wrist instead of the hand, still feeling a bit drunk. His movement not as sharp as it used to be in a fight against Navia.
“How could I not? Such an interesting find.” Answered Belver as he glanced toward the two girls, his greed fulfilled a bit.
“Of course you were… Survivors of something so horrific as that? Hard to pass by the opportunity to torture them in more than a physical way you fucking bastard…” Thought Evan, but his anger spilled out a bit on his tightened smile, which looked more forced than he wanted.
At the snap of Mister Markiz's fingers, the two guards moved toward Navia and Mirabell. The girl tightened her grip on Navia’s leg, she patted the girl to calm her down. “Nothing to worry. We’ll be fine. I promise.”
The pirates gave the chains to the Markiz’s guards, and they pulled the girls toward Belver, who was talking with Evan. The pirates quickly moved away, trying to stay near the exit in case everything went wrong. As the guards approached them, Evan slightly bowed his head toward Navia. He wanted to wish her good luck with the escape, but she completely ignored him. Her focus was on one person, the one who bought the two of them, Belver Markiz.
The old man looked up and down to inspect the two of them. A smirk appeared on his face as the girl tried to hide away from him in fear, but it changed once he faced Navia, who didn’t show any signs of fear he wanted to see.
“I look forward to breaking you…” The old man whispered into Navia’s ear, hoping to plant some terror in her, but it was to no avail as her face remained the same.
Evan quickly got his chest with gold from the auction. With a wide grin on his face, he said loudly, “See you later!” as he disappeared behind the curtain. Belver Markiz thought it was aimed at him, so he simply lifted his hand, but Evan targeted those words toward Navia.
“Do we plan to do business with the Markiz family?” Asked one of the pirates that followed Evan.
“No. That was to that lady we sold. Good thing we got chest so early because I think she might try to escape earlier than I expected.” Answered Evan as he picked up the speed, realizing that his words came out faster than he understood them.
Navia got escorted slowly through the hall as the old man tried to brag about his new possessions. He moved closer to one of the guards and loudly said to him so Navia could hear him, “Prepare a whip and scissors when we arrive back home. We need to greet our guests properly…” As he moved forward, he noticed that his guard no longer stood beside him. Looking back, he saw that the man was struggling to pull Navia.
“You gave me a reason to kill you right here… Right now.” With one swift move, Navia broke apart her shackles. The whole crowd began to panic; the auction guards moved closer to Navia but kept their distance. Their only concern was to protect the guests.
Markiz’s guards looked at their boss, waiting for orders since they didn’t know what they should do. “Get her, even if you have to cut her limbs off!” Shouted Belver, and the two guards pulled out their swords.
As they finally took a stance, ready to fight, Navia was right in front of them. Her knee flew right toward the first guard’s face. He brought his arms up in time to block the attack, but he wished he had avoided it entirely. The anxious crowd muffled the sound of breaking bones with their chatter, but they went silent as the sword hit the ground, the metal echoing through the whole hall, followed by a painful scream. With a spin, she hit the guard with the back of her foot in the chin, dislocating it and sending a few teeth flying and cutting off his screams.
The second guard quickly jumped in to help his companion, but he was too slow. “You bitch!” He shouted as he brought his sword down on Navia. Lifting her forearm, she stopped him from moving any further by pressing against his lifted arms, then she followed with a hook to the sternum with her other arm. The man lost all the air he had in his lungs, spitting a bit of his blood out. With one kick, the man lost his balance, and Navia helped him fall faster with a straight punch to the face. Nose broken, and a whole face covered in blood as he lay unconscious.
She picked up the man’s sword and turned her gaze toward the old man. Belver shrunk in himself at the sight of his guards being humbled, and he knew very well that the wolf in front of him would bare her fangs at him. As she dashed forward, the man could feel the upcoming cold wind of death. Losing all his strength, he fell down on his butt and tried to push himself away from running Navia.
Her sword thrust forward for Markiz’s heart, the man closed his eyes out of fear, awaiting the feeling of cold metal placed inside him. The sound of clashing metal made his heart stop for a moment. “Six hundred and three! That’s my offer. Mister Markiz.” A man shouted from the side of the hall.
Belver opened his eyes and saw two blades in front of him trembling as the two fighters tried to win the contest of strength. Right beside him stood a man with dark leather armor. An iron collar on his neck and a dirty long sword in his hands. He had long black hair reaching beneath his shoulders. A thick and unkempt beard that couldn’t hide his devious grin.
Mister Markiz then turned his gaze toward the crowd, looking for a person who shouted an offer. Standing in front of all the people was a wide-in-built man who made anyone behind him look like an ant. He wore a red coat with black fur as if he were wearing the skin of a bear he had skinned. Under the coat, he has a black military uniform with golden buttons. His square face showed strength and a feeling of dominance over everyone here. Red hair slicked back, and mutton chop beard on his head.
“I accept your offer, Strada! I accept it! Take her away from me!” Markiz shouted as he desperately crawled away.
“Godan!” The man in a military voice shouted only the man’s name, but it carried an order that the slave understood: “Defeat her.”
The man with the longsword in one hand lifted it almost effortlessly, pushing Navia away with her sword above her head. She thought she could recover quickly before he could attack her, but even with a long and heavy sword in one hand, his movement was fast, as if he was swinging a stick. Navia barely brought her sword down in time to block the attack, but it felt as if she was trying to stop a cannonball. Before the next swing, she was able to put her sword in front for a more stable position where she could block the attack without her weapon flying away.
The man brought his left arm in front and the right with a sword behind his head, spreading his legs wide and standing with his left side toward Navia. With a psychotic grin on his face, he said, “Let’s test your endurance.” He took a long arc swing and spun his body at the same time to add speed and force to the attack.
Hearing his warning, she braced herself for an upcoming attack. After her sudden growth in strength, Navia was sure she could block this attack if she was prepared, but as she watched the sword move toward her like a meteor, she lost the confidence she once had. With a loud clunk as the swords collided, Navia was pushed back ten feet. The squeak of shoes scraping the floor echoed through the hall as Navia remained standing.
“That’s unusual… Normally, they hit the wall when I throw an attack like that.” Godan muttered under his nose, a bit surprised that his attack had a different outcome than he suspected.
The man menacingly moved forward as his sword scratched the floor behind him. He halted at Navia’s words “If you’re so strong, why don’t you escape yourself? With that raw power, there is no one to stop you.”
Godan thought for a moment. He never thinks of escaping for one simple reason: “Why should I run if I can fight to my heart’s content?” He said as if he was surprised to even think about escaping. There was no reason for him to run away.
“What?” left Navia’s mouth as she couldn’t believe his words. A slave that is glad to stay by his master’s side, and it wasn’t because of fear or his poor situation.
“I don’t see a reason to run when I can fight and slay people…” Godan jumped forward with his sword above, swinging it right at Navia’s head like he was about to smash a watermelon.
Navia brought her sword up to block the attack and used her other hand to support the other end of the sword. Once she met Godan’s longsword, she quickly fell to her knees and struggled to keep his sword away. She noticed a crack in her sword; Godan noticed it as well and reacted quickly. Pulling his sword away, he changed his curse of attack from above to an uppercut. He effortlessly changed the longsword course and struck Navia’s sword from below, breaking it in half from where the crack appeared.
With his sword in the air and Navia without balance, he brought it down and buried the longsword deep in her shoulder. Her dark blood splattered around on the ground. The people gasped at the sight of it and called her “cursed”. While others were in terror at the sight of black blood, Godan couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“You are…” He whispered but didn’t finish as Navia grabbed the sword that was in her shoulder, the dark blood turning into a knife that she threw right at his throat before fainting.
Dark blood dripped down on the floor. “You know some tricks too…” Godan whispered as he held the knife made of dark blood right by his throat, black blood running down his hands. “So you were chosen just like me.”