Arthur's group was moving along the river bank, the rocky area where they were expecting the slave traders to attack was coming into view. The area they expected to be attacked was several miles long, so they knew in only a few more minutes they would have to all remain on guard. Everyone's mana cores were full in preparation for the upcoming battle. Claire had just returned her wet stone back into her dimensional ring after sharpening her blade to near perfection. Arthur was driving the wagon, making sure not to push the skitter pulling it too much in case they needed it's strength to escape.

Everyone was as ready as they were going to be, when suddenly Arthur jerked hard on the reins as he pulled them to the side to turn them around.

"Arthur what are you doing?!" Claire asked as she and the others hung on tight to keep from falling out by the sudden movement.

"Sylvie just communicated to me, the others are under attack from the slave traders. They saw right through our plan, and are already waiting for us," Arthur replied, his voice laced with concern for their friends.

Even though they wanted to catch these slave traders, they all agreed that the level of risk just shot way up. With a crack of the reins the skitter was going drastically faster than it was. They didn't get far when a cyclone formed right in front of them, showing them the slave traders were right there.

"Tess, create a cyclone spinning in the opposite direction to disperse it!" Arthur ordered.

Tess nodded and spoke the incantation for her spell, creating another cyclone. Just as expected the cyclones ripped each other apart. However, as the skitter continued moving as fast as it could, which wasn't very fast at all, a stone pillar shot up out of the ground between it and the wagon. The wagon was pushed up onto its two right wheels as the front left wheel was broken and the axle snapped.

"Everyone jump!" Arthur ordered.

Everyone managed to clear the wagon safely before it completely flipped, causing the skitter's harness to also break, allowing it to continue running away.

"Everyone ok?" Arthur asked as he and everyone else recovered.

"Yes, but I'm not sure how much longer that will be the case," Feyrith replied as he pointed to the tree line.

Emerging from the forest were at least fifty men armed with varying close ranged weapons, with over a dozen archers up in the trees with arrows drawn back ready to release. But that wasn't Arthur's biggest concern, he was more concerned with the five mages walking out behind them. Four of them were at varying stages of red cores, and based off of their weapons, three of them were augmentors, and one was a conjurer. The fifth was also a conjurer, but at the solid orange stage. Something about the fifth mage bothered Arthur, it wasn't that he saw him as any kind of real threat, but instead something about him seemed familiar. He was wearing a brown and gold robe, and walked with a conjurer staff to his right, and a cane on his left as he hobbled forward. His hair was completely grey with his hairline receding, and beady eyes. Arthur was confident he knew who this man was, but he couldn't remember, until he spoke.

"So it seems you realized we were waiting for you. Very impressive, but also expected from students of Xyrus academy," the man said with a confident tone to show off what he knew.

Everyone was curious as to how he knew they were Xyrus academy students, until he continued.

"Now as much as I hate many of the noble families in Xyrus after how they treated me, I have no quarrel with you human children. Just surrender Ms. Eralith and her escort and I'll allow you to leave unharmed," The man stated.

Everyone but Arthur looked to Tess as they tried to know how he knew it was really her.

The man chuckled. "I once served the Sapin royal family, so I've seen you before young lady. I also know that you are worth more than every elf I've captured put together," a lewd smirk formed on his face. "That is, if my men can control themselves long enough to collect the ransom." His men laughed and whistled, all wanting a piece of the young female elf.

"Those bastards wouldn't dare," Feyrith said as even he seethed with anger.

"I get where they are going with that, but why do I feel there's more to it?" Claire asked as she tightened her grip on her sword.

"For an elf to lose their virtue before marriage, essentially strips them of their worth. A family would essentially disown their own child for this, regardless of the reason. And without a family, not even the poorest of families would welcome someone like that, not even Tess," Feyrith explained as he spoke through his teeth. Despite Tess no longer being a princess, many elves still saw her as such, and would gladly die to ensure such a fate wouldn't befall her.

The three of them by this point could feel a sudden pressure wash over them. Even though Tess and Feyrith were familiar with this feeling, they couldn't place where they've felt it before. Claire on the other hand knew this feeling, and where it was coming from. She looked to Arthur to see his sword was already drawn, and the ground beneath him was cracking as dust began to swirl around him. The first woman in two lives Arthur had allowed himself to love was being threatened in the most vulgar and disgusting way. He remembered exactly who this man was, and was more than ready to remind him of his place.

"Sabastian!" Arthur yelled, getting everyone's attention right on him. "Remember your place and leave with your men now, otherwise I'll break your other leg this time!" Arthur threatened as he laced his words with mana.

Sabastian stumbled back, from both the shock of realizing Arthur was there, as well as from the sobering sense of the mana laced threat. He quickly recomposed himself as he stepped forward, his face contorted with rage towards the boy who led to his downfall.

"You bastard child! How dare you speak to me like that! If not for no one believing me you would have been executed along with your sorry excuse for parents," Sabastian replied, lacing his own voice with mana to try and sound more threatening, but it only came off as almost amusing to Arthur.

"What did you do to him?" Tess asked.

"It's a long story. Short version, I broke his leg when I was eight. But because of the way I used my beast will, no one saw it but him. So no one believed his allegation," Arthur replied calmly.

"BRING ME THAT BOYS HEAD!" Sabastian yelled at the top of his lungs.

Almost immediately the archers released their arrows, however Tess used a simple wind spell to block them.

"Next time Arthur, don't taunt the bad guys," Claire commented as she ignited her sword.

"It's not like we were going to be allowed to leave here without fighting anyway," Arthur replied, then immediately began giving orders. "Feyrith, use the wagon for cover and take out those archers. Tess, support Claire and I, don't give them a chance to swarm us. Claire, you and I will take defensive positions and keep those fighters back."

Everyone moved into position quickly. Feyrith was reciting his spell as he ran, so as soon as he was behind the wagon he had already fired his first spell, taking out four archers at once, as well as the two trees they were in, forcing several of the fighters to move quickly to avoid getting crushed by the falling tree. As Claire and Arthur charged forward to their positions, slashing down every opponent that got into their way, Tess began using her plant magic to grab several fighters by their feet, effectively slowing them down, while others were thrown around by roots that burst from the ground. The enemy mages held back and just watched as they used the fighters as cannon fodder to weaken Arthur and the others.

After five minutes the archers were completely eliminated, and Feyrith and Tess were focused on taking care of the remaining fighters, as Claire and Arthur had their hands full dealing with the augmenters. Arthur's opponents were equipped with a broadsword and a mace, while Claire's had two daggers. Arthur had dodged another swing by the mace wielding augmenter then kicked him in the head, before pushing off to strike the one with the broadsword. The swordsman dodged and quickly backed away. Arthur was about to go after him, when his instincts caused him to look to his left. Coming right at him were wind and fire spells, courtesy of Sebastian and the other conjurer. Individually Arthur could easily handle and overpower these two spells, but together he wasn't too sure. Nonetheless, if he dodged Tess and Feyrith would become the victims of this combination. Focusing wind mana into his free hand, Arthur thrust it forward using his tempest spell. A nearly constant barrage of wind blades collided with the combination of fire and wind, holding them both at a stalemate.

The two augmenters charged in at Arthur to strike him down while he was busy holding back the spell. However Tess was fully aware of Arthur's situation. Two roots shot out of the ground and wrapped around their necks tightly, and pulled them down to the ground, and continued pulling as if pulling them into their graves. No one was allowed to endanger Arthur's life while Tess was around, not after all the time she waited to hear him say he loved her.

Arthur smiled upon seeing how Tess was able to take care of the two augmenters so quickly, and refocused on holding off the spell. It didn't take Arthur long to realize there was no way he could hope to push back this spell, so he settled for holding it as he tried to redirect it. Arthur began side stepping while changing the angle of his spell, until instead up redirecting, the spells caused an explosion. Everyone in the immediate vicinity was thrown off their feet from the blast. Feyrith and Tess were ok behind the wagon, but Claire and Arthur were sent flying. However due to having their bodies reinforced with mana, both Arthur and Claire were able to recover quickly. Unfortunately though Arthur's core was severely depleted, meaning any additional magic would be impossible for him.

Arthur got back up to his feet and looked to see that Sebastian and the other conjurer were already preparing a second round of spells. Arthur was weighing his options, when suddenly a series of ice spikes rained down upon them, followed by a powerful blast of wind that sent them both up into the air. A mighty roar was heard, followed by Grawder bursting out from the tree line, with Curtis riding upon his back with both of his swords burning as he struck down fighter after fighter. The augmenter Claire was fighting recovered first and was charging in to finish her along with several fighters. However a stone snake erupted out of the ground, sending the augmenter flying. As for the fighters, it looked as though they were going to succeed, before the hooded mage from the outpost dropped down on one from nowhere, and with such force everyone could hear the man's spine breaking as the hooded mage landed on him. He then took off at incredible speed darting from fighter to fighter, knocking them away with ease and sending them flying with his shiny black steel gauntlets.

As the reinforcements began cleaning up the remaining fighters Arthur moved closer to Tess to work on recovering his mana using mana rotation. As he did this he kept an eye on this new augmenter. As he moved Arthur was able to tell he was pretty strong, with his core at the light orange stage, and was wielding gravity magic.

"Papa!" "Kyuuu!" Sylvie cried out as she leaped through the air from Elijah to Arthur.

"Sorry we're late, we ran into some trouble," Elijah stated as he walked over to Arthur, and Sylvie jumped to Tess and began snuggling her.

"Don't worry about it. You came just in time," Arthur replied, then looked over at the gravity mage. "So who's that?"

"Haha, I'll allow him to introduce himself," Elijah replied, an amused look still on his face.

A few minutes later the remaining slave traders were all taken care of, with only a few left alive. Everyone then started moving the survivors to one spot as everyone regrouped.

"So we could use some help," Lilia stated as she and Kathyln joined everyone. "We beat one of the conjurors, but he can't walk, and we can't move him."

"I froze his more severe wounds so he won't bleed out, but now he can't move half his body," Kathyln added.

"Which one was it?" Arthur asked, his high interest catching the second group's attention.

"Sorry, but Sebastian managed to escape," Kathyln replied with a disappointed tone.

"Wait, Sebastian was here?!" Curtis asked in shock.

"He was their leader," Arthur replied, his frustration clear in his tone. He originally held no ill will towards Sebastian for his actions from years ago. As far as Arthur was concerned, between him breaking his leg and then being dismissed by the king, he received enough punishment for his actions. But now, things were different, this time he threatened Tess, he was kidnapping innocent elves and dwarves to be sold as slaves, and this time he managed to escape any real punishment. Arthur wasn't going to hope karma caught up with him, no, he wanted to catch up to him, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day.

Arthur sighed as he pushed those thoughts aside. "Tie these guys up so they can't escape and are linked together, then secure them to the wagon. They'll walk back to the outpost, or they'll be dragged back." He then looked to the hooded augmenter. "It seems I owe you my thanks. If it wasn't for you this would have turned out a lot worse. So thank you." Arthur extended his hand.

The augmenter smirked as he took Arthur's hand, and turned up the gravity. Arthur's knees began to buckle due to his exhaustion, but he managed to straighten himself and looked up at him, now having an idea who he was. They released hands, and Arthur cast a weak wind spell, blowing his hood off.

Arthur smirked. "Nice of you to join us Theo."

"What makes you think I want to join you guys, twerp?" Theo asked in an amused tone. If not for his voice and Arthur saying it, no one would have realized he was actually the missing disciplinary committee member. His hair was completely gone, leaving most of the top of his head with scars from his burns. The scars continued down the right side of his face, and down his neck. Additional scars could also be seen on his arms.

"Ok then, thanks for your help. See you later," Arthur replied and started to turn away.

"Hey, I didn't say I didn't want to join," Theo replied.

Meanwhile, while everyone else was busy dealing with the fact that Theo was there, two of the slave traders that were laid out on the ground, thought to be dead or unconscious, started to move. Carefully they both grabbed swords, and sprang up, grabbing the closest person as a hostage.

"Nobody move!" One of the men yelled as he held his sword to Feyrith's throat.

"Let him go!" Arthur demanded as he and everyone else faced them ready to attack.

"No, you let us go, and we'll send this elf back when we're safely away," the man countered.

"Big mistake," Feyrith replied with an amused tone. "You might as well just kill yourselves, because there's no way you'll make it out alive now."

"Shut up!" The man ordered as he held the blade harder against his throat. "What will it be? Us, or him?"

"Here's my counter offer," Arthur started.

"No! Our deal and that's it!" The mana yelled.

"Release our friend, or you'll be dead before you hit the ground," Arthur stated calmly with a dark tone.

"N-no. We leave here and that's it!" The man replied, sounding less confident.

"You have till the count of three to release him, or I'll kill you both," Arthur informed them as he laced his voice with mana. "One."

"We're not going to prison, it's our deal or we kill him!"

"Two." Arthur closed his eyes.

"You don't seem to get it kid, we're the ones with all the power now!"

Arthur opened his eyes to show them glowing purple, with golden runes underneath. "Three."

Instantaneous Arthur disappeared and reappeared right behind the man holding Feyrith, as his sword severed his head. The head fell to the ground and rolled to the other man's feet. Everyone was in shock about what they had just witnessed. Not only did Arthur appear to just teleport, but he mercilessly severed a man's head without even a hint of hesitation, and was now walking to the other man.

The other man threw his sword to the side and he fell to his knees. "I want to make a deal," he pleaded.

"You have nothing I want," Arthur replied. He had no intention of killing an unarmed man, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to make him fear for his life.

"The others, the other elves and dwarves we captured. I'll take you to them," he blurted out.

Arthur stopped and looked down as he placed his blade at the man's throat and raised his head with it. "Where?" Arthur asked threatenly.

"You give me your word you won't kill me, and tell the soldiers of my cooperation and I'll lead you to them," he begged.

Arthur released his killing intent, making sure the man felt his blood lust. "If you're lying to us, or try anything, I'll make you wish I killed you here quickly."

The man nodded as he pissed his pants.