"Tess, Kathyln, Theo, with me. The rest of you get these guys back to the outpost," Arthur said. He started to turn around to start leaving, but had an idea. "Actually, let's get some free labor out of them before we turn them in. Get them to fix the other wagon, and find the skitter. It ran off when the wagon flipped."

"No problem, Grawder and I will make sure they work," Curtis stated as Grawder looked over at the prisoners and growled.

"Can I borrow Theo before you guys go?" Claire asked.

"Sure, I need to secure this prisoner anyway." Arthur replied and walked over to their prisoner with a length of rope.

Claire stepped away from everyone, with Theo following behind nervously. Once far enough away Claire spun around while drawing her sword, striking Theo in the right thigh with the broad side.

Thwack

"Ow, what was that for?" Theo practically yelled as he grabbed his thigh.

Claire then hit him near his upper arm. "That's for not replying to all the letters I sent." Thwack. "That's for not coming back to school and ghosting everyone." Thwack! Claire then hit him on the side of his head. "And that's for making me worry." Claire then returned her sword to its scabbard and walked away, leaving Theo limping back to Arthur as he rubbed his head.

Claire made no effort to hide what she did, only to hide her words, so everyone saw her actions. She was known to care greatly for her team, to the extent of checking on Arthur daily when he was injured in the medical ward after his first day of school, even though they had only met a few days prior. It was also known that she put a great deal of effort in trying to contact Theo after he was hurt during the attack, but received no response. She went as far as to leave Xyrus one weekend to visit Theo's home, only to be turned away, being told Theo wasn't talking visitors. So it was understandable that she would be angry at him after seeing him finally. But everyone would agree, hitting him with her sword like that may have been a little much.

"Umm, are you going to be ok?" Arthur asked Theo as he rejoined him.

Theo looked over at Claire as he began barking orders to the prisoners in a threatening manner, no doubt her releasing some anger. "Yeah, I'll be ok." Theo replied.

Arthur shrugged, not really understanding what was going on with them right now. "Alright then, our new friend here said their camp is about an hour walk from here." Arthur forced the prisoner to his feet. "Start walking."

They didn't walk for long before Arthur decided to get Theo talking.

"So Theo. As happy as I am to see you alive and well, what happened to you? I heard you got hurt really bad, but why didn't you come back to school?" Arthur asked.

"That guy left me barely alive. After the adventurer guild emitters saved my life, my family was told I had so many bones shattered, and with so much of my body burned, it was a miracle I was still alive. I was told walking would take time, and there was a good chance I wouldn't be able to use my hands again. My father is the type that refuses to accept defeat until all options are exhausted, so my parents got the best emitters and doctors in Sapin to work on me. It took months, but I was eventually able to walk normally, and get almost a full range of motion in my hands. After that it was back to training," Theo replied.

"Ok, that explains what happened, but why not come back? Even if you couldn't use a pencil I'm sure there are artifacts that could help somehow, or someone else who could take notes and write for you," Arthur asked, trying to understand, but also not wanting to bring up the burn scars, since he knew even the best emitters had limits.

"Pride. That bastard stripped me of my pride when he beat me," Theo stated as his body shook with anger. "So I decided to train, and get stronger. After I was back to normal, I got my parents to agree to allow me to become an adventurer until school starts back. I figured fighting mana beasts was the closet I was going to get to fighting that guy." Theo looked down at Arthur. "Since you managed to capture him."

"Sorry about that?" Arthur replied, not really sure how to respond.

"It's fine. Capturing someone as powerful as him alive is no small feat, which means you were significantly stronger. All it means now is that you set the bar that much higher for me," Theo replied.

The group walked a little longer, filling Theo in on what he missed while he was away. They also learned about several of his exploits, and what he was doing at the outpost. Theo had also heard about the kidnappings, and was going to try and end them himself. He had already identified several of the informants that notified the slave traders when a target was coming through, so his plan was just to sit and wait. He didn't like the idea of essentially using his friends as bait, but accepted it and kept to his role. However when he learned the slave traders saw through their plan he knew he had to rescue the second group first, since they were going to be attacked first.

Suddenly the prisoner stopped. "Just through those bushes," the prisoner stated as he pointed with his tied up hands.

"Wait here, I'll check it out," Arthur stated, and quietly moved to the bushes while keeping low.

At the bushes Arthur got on the ground and low crawled underneath them to see what was happening before heading back.

"We're on a hill about twenty feet above the cave they're working out of. We need to move fast, they're loading all the prisoners into caged wagons. I have a feeling Sebastian's been here and told them to pack up and leave," Arthur informed everyone.

"How many mages," Theo asked.

"I can't sense any," Arthur replied. "The prisoners are all in irons, and it looks like they put mana suppressing artifacts on the prisoners, so we can't expect them to help much."

The prisoner was then gagged and tied to a tree as they formed a plan.

————————————————————————

"Move it!" One of the slave traders yelled at the prisoners as he cracked a whip.

There were four wagons with cages, and one without. The wagons with cages were being filled tightly to the point that the doors were barely closing. There were a little over a dozen traders, and three to four dozen prisoners. Most of the traders weren't moving, only standing still with their weapons ready as they watched the prisoners being herded into the caged wagons.

Since most of the traders weren't moving, they were easy targets for a conjurer's spell. Quietly, thorny vines emerged from the ground behind half of the stationary traders, quietly moving up behind them. Suddenly, a series of ice spears impaled the other half of the stationary traders, while the vines wrapped tightly around the throats of the other half. Those that weren't attacked already began to panic as the prisoners looked around frantically as they tried to take in and realize they were being rescued. The remaining traders tried to run to the wagons to escape, only to be stopped Arthur and Theo slashing and smashing every last one of them that got in their way.

One of the traders managed to get to a wagon full of prisoners, and tried to escape. He snapped the reigns, but the mana beasts wouldn't move. They were being blocked by Sylvie growling at them. The beast layed down on the ground, submitting to the more powerful beast. The trader however didn't know better, and grabbed a spear to deal with her. However as he stood to throw his spear, Tess ran her bladed staff through his side, killing him as she protected Sylvie.

"Mama!" "Kyuuu!"

The slave traders were all dead or badly wounded, and the now former prisoners were overwhelmed with joy and relief, some falling to their knees in tears, while others tried to hug their rescuers.

"Princess," one of the former elf prisoners said, getting Tess' attention. Behind him were several elf prisoners. He then fell to his knees as he bowed his head at her feet, all the other elves doing the same where they stood. "Thank you Princess Tessia. Thank you for saving us from these horrible humans."

"Please stand," Tess replied. They all did as she said and looked to her. "All I did was what any of our people would if they were capable. Your thanks should really go to my friends. They are not elves, and didn't have to come. After learning of all of you being captured, I told them, and without hesitation they all agree to help free you, and bring those people to justice."

After Tess' speech to her people, the keys to the restraints were found, and they began removing them. Theo and one of the dwarves managed to remove the cages off of all but one of the wagons, throwing the surviving traders inside the one with the cage. With Arthur driving the lead wagon holding the now prisoners, they left for the adventurer guild outpost, making sure to pick up the trader that cooperated along the way.

—————————————————————

The sun was setting in the beast glades. And at the entrance to the outpost, Elijah and Claire just brought plates of food for themselves and the other two members of their party, as they wait for Arthur and the others.

One of the entrance guards clears his throat. "Excuse me, Prince Curtis. You don't need to wait here. We can notify you if the rest of your party returns."

"Are we preventing you from doing your job properly?" Curtis asks before taking a bite of the bread on his plate.

"Of course not your majesty," the guard replied urgently. "It's just, it's getting late, and it is much more dangerous to travel at night. If your friends are wise, they probably made camp for the night with the plan of arriving in the morning."

Curtis stopped eating and looked up at the orange sky as he pondered the guards words. "Would Arthur stop for the night? They don't have much supplies, so they wouldn't be able to feed many people if there were a lot there, and we don't know the condition of the prisoners, or if anyone could have been injured on our side."

"What do you think Elijah? Do you think they would stop for the night?" Curtis asked.

"It's a tough call. There are far too many unknowns for us to even make a guess. If it was just Arthur, I have no doubt he would just push through. But if they managed to save anyone, he would consider their safety too." Elijah then looked down the road in the direction Arthur was expected to come from. "We'll wait till a little after dark. If they haven't returned by then we should expect that they probably stopped to make camp, so we should turn in for the night then so we can be ready to leave in the morning to either go look for them, or to get back on our way to the next dungeon."

They ate their meals and continued to wait, and wait, and wait. The sun had completely set now, with the only light coming from the two torches at the outpost entrance, and the full moon in the night sky.

Claire took a look down the trail they were expected to be coming from and sighed. "Still nothing."

"Ok then," Elijah said, then stood up. "Let's get some sleep, and if they aren't back by morning, we'll go searching for them."

With that said the young adventurers slowly got to their feet, and began to head back to get some sleep. Lilia took one last long look down the trail.

"Come on Lilia," Curtis called out.

"Coming," Lilia replied disappointedly, and started to turn back, but as she did she saw movement. She looked back and watched, and was confident something was not only moving, but getting closer. "I think they're coming!" Lilia announced.

Everyone including the guards rushed over and looked down the trail. They could all tell something was coming, but between the distance and the lack of light it was too hard to see. To remedy this Curtis activated his beast will, since with it he had better night vision.

A smile formed on his face. He then turned to the guards as he deactivated his beast will. "Get more guards, there are multiple wagons coming," Curtis suggested.

One of the guards nodded and ran off. Despite Curtis not really having much authority, his suggestion was taken more as an order. About ten minutes later the wagons arrived to be greeted by ten guards and several adventurer guild employees, as well as the other half of their party.

"The ones in the cage are the slave traders we found at their hideout. Everyone else is a prisoner they had. They need food and medical attention," Arthur informed the guards.

Quickly the guards got to work removing the prisoners, and not being gentle doing it, with the exception of the one that cooperated. Per their agreement, Arthur informed them of his help, and treated him with more consideration.

"So Arthur, did you find Sebastian?" Curtis asked as Arthur walked away from the wagon.

"No," Arthur grumbled as he clenched his fist. "According to one of the prisoners he arrived maybe ten minutes before we did, mounted a horse, and rode off without explanation."

"Do you really think he was telling the truth?" Claire asked.

"Not only do they not have any reason to lie, added with me giving them more reason to fear me than Sebastian, well, it's pretty safe to say they were telling the truth," Arthur replied matter of factly.

"So in other words, you tortured some of them," Feyrith concluded.

"What?! No!" Arthur replied sounding insulted. "Torture is an unreliable method of gathering information. For people like them, I can get reliable information without laying a finger on them."

—————————————————————

Morning came, and Arthur and the others were eating breakfast at the inn. They were all exhausted last night, so upon filing the needed paperwork for the quest competition, they all went to bed.

"Excuse me," said a well dressed man with several scars on his face, showing he was at least once an adventurer himself. "You lot are the party that rescued all those slaves last night, and brought in all the prisoners?"

"That's right," Arthur replied.

The man smiled and bowed. "I am the adventurer guild representative for this outpost, and would like to thank you for all your hard work." A woman then stepped up from behind him with a tray holding several pouches as he stood back up. "And of course what I'm sure you all wanted, your reward." The man then proceeded to hand each of them a bag with two hundred gold each.

"Excuse me, but what will happen with the people we rescued now?" Tess asked.

"We've already sent notice to the council, so now we wait," the man replied.

"Wait for what?" Curtis asked.

"For the council to do something. We unfortunately lack the resources and funds to transport all of these people back home," the man replied with a disappointed expression and tone.

"Well how long will that take?" Feyrith asked.

"Not sure. But I've heard it can take weeks before we even get a reply," the man stated.

"What will happen with them for now then?" Tess asked.

"Apparently the slave traders took all their possessions and sold them, so they can't just leave, it would be too dangerous. We made some quick tents last night, but we can't do that for the long run," the man replied.

"So what is the long term plan?" Arthur asked.

"To be honest I don't know. We don't have the funds to even purchase proper materials or sufficient amounts of food," the man said, his frustration over the situation clearly heard in his tone. "I've already requested for additional funds and supplies from the guild, but it will take days before anything actually arrives, if anything arrives at all."

"So to clarify, your biggest issue right now is that you don't have enough money to do what you need?" Arthur asked.

"That's right. If I had the money I could have the builders association here in a few days starting construction on some actual buildings for all of them to live in. As for food, I could at very least create some hunting quests, and easily have enough meat to feed everyone," the man replied.

Without much thought Tess held her portion of the reward up. "You can take this to help cover things. They've had it so hard, they should be able to at least be a little comfortable while they wait to go home."

Arthur and Feyrith were next to do the same.

"Use my portion to help as well." "Take mine too."

Soon everyone in the party was handing their portions of the reward back, even Elijah, who actually needed the money the most. They didn't rescue all those people for the money, they did it because it was the right thing to do.

"Thank you, all of you."