TBATE Duality

Chapter 74

Jade Leywin POV

| 8 months later |

*Bzz bzz*

I felt my Lance ring vibrate, sign that someone was calling me, as I was flying across the Elshire forest headed to Zestier after finishing my patrol

"Hello?" I picked up

"Jade, are you busy right now?" Alea's voice came from the ring

"I just finished my usual patrol, I just passed Eidelholm and I'm coming back to Zestier, why? Did something happen?" I replied

"Your golems just found a group of refugees being attacked, based on your position they should be around 20 kilometres away from you" Alea told me

"Alacryans?"

"No, slave traders" Alea stated dark

"WHAT?! But it would be the fifth group in the last 2 weeks! What the hell is happening?" I shouted as I stopped flying and started hovering

"I don't know either, after elven and dwarven slavery had been declared illegal by the Council and your reforms against slavery as a whole I thought, hoped that slavery was gradually disappearing from our continent, I guess I was wrong"

"No, you weren't, according to the last report I saw slave trading activity plummeted, right now it's less than 5% of Sapin's economy just a couple of years ago it represented more than 30% so slavery is disappearing, well at least legal slavery, this is something else, besides all of the attacks targeted groups of refugees evacuating from the more remote villages due to the war, this can't be a coincidence"

"Whatever it is it must be stopped, can you handle it? You should be able to reach them in time right?" Alea asked me

"Yeah, no problem, while I'm there I'll make sure to capture a couple of them and nicely ask who is feeding them information" I replied

"Perfect, I'll leave it to you then" Alea said and closed the communication

I closed my eyes and searched for the golem that spotted the group of refugees, I found it fairly quickly, alright they're a little less than 20 kilometres from here east-north-east and by the looks of things they won't be able to last for long

I started flying at top speed in the golem's direction shaping the wind around me in a drill and I shot compressed fire from my hands and feet

*BOOM*

I felt rather than heard a massive explosion behind me, sign that I entered supersonic flight, and the world below me blurred as even with [Thunderclap impulse] active I couldn't make out clearly the ground below

Less than a minute later I reached the place, there were around 400 civilians that were desperately trying to fend off against a group of 50 or so bandits, despite the theoretical numerical advantage the civilians were at their limit since the majority of them were either elders or children, among the few adults present some of the men assumed a defensive formation around everyone else using whatever they had on them as improvised weapons while the only 3 mages were trying their best

The sole conjurer was sweating buckets as he was at his wits end trying to keep up a water barrier around the whole group while the 2 augmenters lead the non-mages who were trying to fight

"Kyaaa!!!"

I heard a shrill cry and I saw a man managed to capture a young elven girl, since the conjurer was at his limit the barrier was flickering and this allowed that piece of thrash to capture the kid, she couldn't be older than 10

"Ahaha you're going to make me rich! Elven girls are in high demand nowadays, especially those who are still young and virgin"

Bastard, I felt my blood boil as very unpleasant memories resurfaced, as I got closer I didn't slow down instead I kept accelerating and slammed my fist into his face while using my newly developed force type mana art to protect myself and to prevent the impact from spreading in order to not hurt the child