[ The Administrator ]

Part II Chapter 43 - Ascension

I frowned, giving Leven a condemning look. He can't be seriously considering his offer, right?

"One gold coin," the leader proposed.

His men all winced in synchronization, clearly disapproving of this offer.

"Boss, that's a bit..." the secretary dude tried to reason with him, but he was immediately cut off.

"Silence," the leader ordered. "If I say one gold coin, it's one gold coin."

As the slavers exchanged dubious looks, their leader turned to one of them.

"You," he designated the one who grabbed Leven by his collar just before, "bring him the money."

Despite grinding his teeth, the slaver complied. He glared at Leven and, without breaking the eye-contact a single second, he unwillingly brought a pouch full of coins. Then, he took a golden coin out of it and tossed it at his face.

"There," he said, just before spitting at his feet.

Ignoring his rude action, Leven looked down on the single golden coin who just fell on the ground.

"One golden coin?" he mumbled.

"A peasant like you should be satisfied with that, right?" the slaver added, his voice filled with contempt. "It's probably more money than you've ever seen in your entire life."

But Leven clearly disagreed.

"Satisfied?" he repeated, a grin breaking onto his face.

Something triggering within him, Leven suddenly pounced on the slaver. In a split second, he stole the knife at his waist and used it to slash his throat, not even leaving the poor man a chance to react. He died before he could even understand what was happening. The others, however, were quicker to react.

"Fuck!"

"That little bastard!"

"Grab him!"

Leven immediately tried to go for the leader, but his men didn't leave him the chance. In an instant, a swarm of slavers came to subdue him. Leven may have managed to put on a fight against five of them before, but this time, there were more than ten of them. He was quickly subdued, tackled to the ground.

Seemingly unfazed by this sudden attempt of murder towards him, the leader simply let out a long sigh.

"How disappointing," he said, "I guess I'll have to take that for a no?"

"You, son of a bitch!" Leven bellowed, struggling on the ground. "One golden coin? Are you fucking kidding me? Is that what human lives are worth to you? My wife... My daughter's lives... One golden coin?! Go to hell!"

The leader sighed once more.

"Such a waste... Hold him well," he ordered his men, "we'll take care of him just after I'm done with the other two."

"Fuck...! Come back here you bastard! Don't hide behind your men! Fight me fair and square!"

But the leader had no reason to listen to him. His interest in Leven now gone, he moved to Cottontail, completely ignoring the corpse at his feet.

"So this is the mutant girl?" he inquired.

"Yes, this is her," the secretary dude responded. "She is also quite a dangerous one. Apparently, she took down dozens of our men on her own."

"Interesting."

The slavers' leader stepped forward to better inspect her. However, Cottontail did not appreciate that. When he tried to reach her chin to raise her head, she immediately growled, threatening to bite his hand off.