RE:volt! Chapter 32: Go Away Means Go Away.

  Returning to his world and his current body, Ark blinked several times in rapid succession, readjusting himself as Thirty-three greeted the group of four boys.

  Ark watched with disguised disinterest. With the slave losses sustained due to monster to the cullings, it wasn’t too uncommon for cohorts to be reinforced, dissolved or combined with other cadres. This seemed to be the case of the latter as Ark recognized a few of the faces of the boys from assembly.

  “Number?” Thirty-three asked, standing face to face with the lead black-haired boy who bore scars across his tanned skin. The most notable being what appeared to be a burn scar that coated his entire left arm.

  “You first.” The teen growled, eyeing Thirty-three up and down with his eyes settling on her red sash more than once.

  The nearby kids had already scattered, everyone’s eyes awaiting the inevitable confrontation. Even Irelix had materialized, the dragon filing her nails in the corner of the room.

  “Don’t play stupid. You already know mine’s freshie.” Thirty-Three said, leaning in close. “So we doing this?”

  “Yeah I think we ar-”

  Before the boy could finish his sentence Thirty-Three drove her knee into the boy’s groan, hard.

  He barely had time to react, let alone cough in pain before his face was palmed and he was sent squarely into the floor with one swift movement of Thirty-Three’s leg and her palm.

  Outwardly, Ark was stoic, observing dispassionately at the scene before him but inwardly? He was smiling. Watching as the maneuver he taught the girl was being used to take down a would-be challenger to her title as alpha of the barracks.

  Surprisingly, the boy recovered quickly, Immediately rolling while latching his feet between Thirty-three’s and sending her sideways to the ground. Now leveled, he positioned himself to strike with his fist raised but Thirty-three was faster, more focused, and knew how to fight on the ground thanks to Ark’s training.

  With a deft punch she struck the boy in the nose before quickly climbing the teen and pummeling him before he could retaliate once more.

  Three punches, that was how many the teen took before his hands dropped to the side and he was left bloody in the ground, the battle over in less than a few seconds.

  Thirty-three stood, glaring at the three other boys who backed off under her intense scowl.

  “Numbers?” Thirty-Three demanded.

  “Fourty-Five.”

  “Two-two-one”

  “Eighty-Six.”

  Satisfied, she reached a hand out, offering the boy aid as she’d been taught by Ark but the boy batted it away, rolling onto his side where he clutched his jaw and spit out a tooth.

  “Sixty-six.” The teen spat before rising to his feet and walking away to an empty cot with his lackey’s following him.

  Hmmm. The cogs in Ark’s head turning as he eyed the boy.

  Oh? See something you like? Irelix commented, the woman materialized beside him and sitting with her scaly thighs crossed.

  Possibly. Its always good to have more followers. Ark said to himself. The boy had endurance and quick reactions. Usually when newcomers arrived all it would take was the floor tossing and one punch, but this boy had taken three and was still walking to tell the tale. But not only that, at the moment Thirty-Three had moved to knee him in the crotch, Sixty-six’s hand had moved, shifted to block and dampen the blow, meaning he possessed keen reflexes.

  Now the questionS on Ark’s mind were, how to approach them? What would they be like in battle? Was he capable of being molded?

  Ark didn’t know, but they were questions he’d find out sooner or later.

  ****

  A week went by fairly aimlessly with Ark rinsing and repeating the day’s activities. With Delia dead, Manfry missing, the drunken Bruno was left in charge which resulted in next to nothing going on. It began to get so monotonous around the combat thrall area that the helpers began a fight ring during morning and afternoon assemblies, betting on slaves from different cohorts and allowing them to mix when they normally wouldn’t.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Out of all the hundreds of slaves, the top fighters were Thirty-Four, Thirty-Three, and Sixty-Six respectively. The top three winning their fights with Thirty-Four beating both of them.

  During this time, Ark kept a low profile. There were an abundance of rumors that someone among the overseers had killed the man after word spread that his room showed signs of a vicious struggle. In Ark’s haste to move Manfry’s body, he had left the crime scene as is, a mistake on his part as there was now a heightened awareness for a supposed killer on the loose.

  Night patrols had doubled, and even men wearing matching green uniforms with an emblem of a cross on their shoulders had arrived. Investigators from the way they pulled helpers to the side and questioned them.

  Fortunately the only thing that could tie Ark to the crime scene was a bloodied book buried beneath the tree by the barracks and Thirteen, the house slave who was the only other witness. For a while, Ark waited for the inspectors to come for him, but ultimately, they didn’t and after a week of the green shirts poking around, they finally left.

  However that didn’t mean the coast was clear. With no concrete evidence of a killer, tensions were high, and the helpers were on edge, meaning it was still too soon for Ark to go on another one of his night time adventures.

  So Ark laid in his barracks cot, eyeing the SPELLBOOK as he finished talking with Thirty-Four and his system updated, logging his daily completed.

  [Congratulations! Quest Completed!]

  [Reward: +1 T3 Spell Use.]

  [Updating Quest Log….]

  [Ding! New Quest.]

  [Quest: Kill Quest.]

  [Exterminate Monsters: 12/30]

  [Quest Note: Monsters are an ample source of mana. The spellbook can replenish spell usages depending on the amount of mana harvested from defeated creatures.]

  [Reward: Spell Recovery Feature unlock]

  Hmmm. Isn’t that neat. Ark said to himself, noting that the exterminate monsters feature had logged and categorized the Apothecary Marible and Overseer Manfry as monsters, carrying his progress over along with his other kills.

  However, despite that bout of good news, Ark narrowed his eyes, reading the quest over and over again with a frown. Kill monsters.

  A simple quest which wasn’t much of an issue for Ark, however, one problem arose that immediately gated Ark from completing the task.

  There were no monsters left to kill.

  The last culling had effectively wiped out the latest monster infestation, meaning there were no more expeditions, no more chances at killing. And it wasn’t exactly good for his anonymity if he went around assassinating helpers and overseers.

  He could try his luck with stalking the forest, but considering that his last foray into the wilderness had resulted in a safe journey, Ark doubted he could complete his task anytime soon. For better or worse, the surrounding area was just too safe.

  Ark clicked his teeth and furrowed his brow, his jaw clenching at the simple task turned impossible.

  “Hey! I just want to talk!”

  Ark turned to the sudden outburst, eyeing one of the new boys yelling at Thirty-Four.

  “Then talk. Somewhere not beside me.” Thirty-Four hissed, the long-haired older sister sitting with her arms folded, her legs crossed, and an expression of disgust on her face.

  “Come on, don’t be such a bitch, I just want to get to know you better.” The teenager said, sitting across from Thirty-Four as two of his friends joined him.

  Oddly, Sixty-six stood back and watched, sitting on the sidelines like Ark usually did to observe the inevitable fallout.

  With Thirty-Three attending her usual training with Bruno, this left Thirty-Four subject to the attention of the teenage boys as the only girl in the barracks their age.

  The newcomers were aware of Thirty-Three’s strength, status, and in-your-face disposition, but what they weren’t aware of yet was that Thirty-Four was ONLY friendly toward Ark and her own sister, caring little for anyone else.

  “I said. Get lost.” Thirty-Four said coldly, the nearby kids who knew her backing away.

  Despite her warning the boy didn’t take no for an answer, resulting in Thirty-Four standing up, towering over the sitting teen.

  “What? Wanna give me a lap-”

  Before the teen could finish his sentence he was sent flying, one strong kick to the solar plexus that sent him tumbling across the barracks with his friends immediately rushing toward the girl.

  With numbers on their side, they attempted to attack Thirty-Four, only to make one critical mistake.

  She was the older sister.

  Within seconds the boys were lying in a heap, all three moaning on the ground as each lay incapacitated from the bruises that covered their bodies. While Thirty-Three backed off when her opponent was down, Thirty-Four didn’t. Even as they lay groaning she kicked, stomped, and punched the teens until they were left bawling in their own piss.

  Was it cruel? Perhaps. But the only language these kids understood was violence.

  “When I say go away. You go away. Do you understand?” Thirty-Four hissed, one foot on the head of a crying teen that was slowly being pressed into the dirt.

  “Y-y-yes ma’am.” The teen cried before Thirty-Four walked off and joined Ark, sitting beside him and pulling out a piece of jerky tucked in her waist band and handing it to him with a smile.

  “Here you go, I save some of my breakfast for you.” Thirty-Four beamed as if she hadn’t just finished beating up three people for a solid five minutes.

  Not one to pass up food, Ark accepted, one eye on the Thirty-Four while his other gazed at the trio of glaring teens.

  Oh great. Ark said to himself, realizing he had another problem on his hands.

  Teenage jealousy.