The sound of heavy breathing and the sharp pitch of pickaxes against stone echoed inside a cave as three men dressed in red and dark purple robes walked in between the groups of people scattered throughout the mine.
Each person that were busy mining were dressed in ragged white clothing and no footwear as their hands were cuffed to the heavy pickaxes in their grasp.
Further towards the entrance, though, there was one exception in the form of an overweight young man, who grunted as he chopped through the neck of a deer with a cleaver, letting the beast's head fall into the bucket besides his table as he continued hacking the beast apart.
Just like the others, he also had ragged white clothing on that was stained with blood, but unlike the others, his feet were instead cuffed to the table in front of him that was also locked onto a large slab of metal that was chained to a large bounder off to the side.
Unlike the others that at least have the cool ground below them as they chipped away at the stone in search of rare ores and minerals, the young man stood on warm metal and if he still had skin on the bottom of his feet, it was most likely already charred away.
'Twelve years…Twelve years of torment and pain...but our plan is almost finished.' The young man thought with a frown as he ran his fingers through his hair to push it back, not caring for the fresh blood staining his hair seeing as there was already dried blood on his head already.
"Oi, slave! Unless you want to make sure you and your friends don't eat tonight, I'd suggest you keep on chopping up that venison meat!" One of the slavers shouted from the watch towers behind him and the young man frowned as he simply rolled his shoulders and walked over to pick up the next deer on the ground.
"Can you believe that we were lucky enough to not be on the Tower of Heaven it blew up?"
"I know, right? I was a bit pissed that I wasn't going to be there for the revival of our Lord and Saviour, but man, am I glad I wasn't there when the entire Tower was blown to high heavens."
"That's true, but hey, at least we can sleep peacefully knowing that the sinners responsible died a year ago for their sins."
"Indeed. Oi, slave! Take that meat to the butcher's table and start carving." The young man simply gave a nervous smile and nodded as he reached down to pick up the deer.
Glancing at one of the older slaves near the entrance, the older woman that looked to be in her late 40's looked at him before giving a slight nod as she caught him flickering his eyes to the wall, the young man nodding as he picked up the deer and walked over to place it on the table.
However, this time, he started at the abdomen, slowly cutting open its stomach before smiling as its intestines and guts flooded out and fell onto the large metal tub beneath the table.
The reason for his smiling was the sight of the key hidden inside the beast's stomach, the young man reaching in and subtly picking it up before faking a wince as he fell to a knee.
"God dammnit! Oi, did you not hear me, slave?!" The slaver from before as he leapt down, landing on the dusty sand below with a grunt before making his way towards the teen, who looked a bit nervous as he was betting a lot on this plan.
"S-Sorry, boss. It's just a cramp. I'll be up in a bit!"
"I don't give a shit. You'll be up now!" The boss growled as he knelt next to him, to which the young man nodded as he went to stand up before his hand reached for the butcher's knife besides them.
The next moment, the cuffs on his legs fell to the floor with a loud thud as he swung his arm in front of him in a wide arc, a vindictive grin on his face as the boss' eyes widened in horror while reaching up to stop the blood spurting from his throat in vain.
"Now!" The woman shouted as she spun and stabbed her pickaxe into the back of the slaver next to him, rolling forward and grabbing his staff before pointing it at the other two in the cave and blasting their skulls open.
The young man on the other hand was quick to kick the table over and dive behind it, curling up as the guys on the walls behind the table aimed at it and unleashed a flurry of blasts.
Wood chips washed over the young man as he protected his head and face as best as he could, watching through squinted eyes as most of his 'family' hid deeper in the cave behind the large rocks while the woman and two others shot back.
"Eric! We need the keys!" The woman shouted and Eric nodded as he took a deep breath, hyping himself up before rolling over and kicking the table upright with a grunt to draw the men's attention.
This made the shooting cease for a moment before they continued firing at him, but it was enough as he rolled over and picked up both the keys and the shooting staff of the boss.
With a grunt, the young man jumped to his feet and shot out rapidly at random points while rushing towards the cave as fast as he could, tossing the keys to the women before a gasp escaped his lips as he felt a searing pain on his leg.
"Eric!" The woman shouted as she went to rush out before her eyes widened as Eric held up a hand to stop her while continuously spraying fire behind him as he crawled to hide behind a boulder.
"Go! A wounded will just slow you guys down! Remember, down to the eight tunnel on your right and the fifth tunnel on your left!" He shouted before gritting his teeth as he forced his body around and aimed at the slavers getting closer, smiling as he heard the woman shouting for everyone to go before his smile turned sadistic as he began firing back.
For each shot that impacted and shaved off parts of his boulder, he returned one that injured one of the slavers, forcing the others to hide behind cover lest they lose their life.
However, his luck ran out as his staff only gave off sparks at the last shot, gritting his teeth as he saw the slavers nearing before giving a sad smile as he had managed to buy his 'family' time to leave.
'Man, look at me. The fattest one out of the group turned out to be the hero. I guess old man Rob was right about me having the bravery needed to do so, huh?' Eric thought with a smile as he stood up, grinning smugly at the slavers aiming their staves at him with glares.
"Tell us where your friends went and you'll get to live!" The one at the front demanded and Eric grinned as he hobbled forward, the slavers backing away as the young man fell to his knees outside the cave before chucking the staff at them.
"Fuck you, bitch."
"No, fuck you. Fire!" Eric gasped as the first beam impacted his uninjured leg, gritting his teeth and stifling his screams as he knew that they were aiming for non-vital spots to draw out the pain when they began to take quick shots at his entire body.
However, he smiled as he felt his body beginning to grow numb, feeling the life leaving him as his body fell back and he looked up with a peaceful smile at the blue sky.
'Man…I hope this…at least gets me…into Heaven.' He thought with a smile as the first slaver that spoke to him stood over him, feeling happy at the man's frown and the last thing he saw was a flash of violet before he knew no more.
'Urgh, where the hell am I?' A groan escaped my lips as I slept on what felt like a comfortable bed, far too comfortable to be mine.
Unfortunately, no matter how much I tried, my eyes did not open, I could not smell or taste anything and no sound managed to make it through my ears as I laid on the comfortable bed.
The thought that I was kidnapped was the first thing that came to mind, but I just snorted at the thought as I was both too heavy and too ugly to be kidnapped by anyone.
That's not even my low self-esteem talking there. It was just facts.
'Then again, I do remember that there are people out there that like round guys like me so maybe I might be wrong.' I thought before wincing as I heard an abrupt whistle penetrating my skull and while I was thankful for the fact that I could hear again, a warning could have been nice.
The next sense to return was smell and my eyes widened as a familiar yet unsettling smell impacted my nostrils, that being the smell of fire.
The next was taste and this time, I knew I was not imagining it as I could taste the smoke in the air around me, my vision finally returning as well as my movements as I flew up and looked around in horror to see a blaze around me.
Without further delay, I dove head first out of the flames amd into the form of a confused yet terrified looking man with blue hair as the two of us rolled over the ground, with me quickly standing up only to wince at the sight of the man screaming while his right leg was bent at an awkward angle.
"You fucking bitch! You fat bastard! You'll pay for this!" His shouting just made me even feel worse and I was confused by the staff he aimed at me before my eyes widened as an orb flew out wide past me and exploded upon impact with one of the boulders around me.
'…Note to self: Time to run.' I thought as I spun around and took off to the nearest cover as fast as I could, diving behind it with a grunt before yelping as another blast took off the rock on top.
"Okay, okay! I'm sorry, okay?!"
"I don't care! You're going to fucking die in the name of Zeref!" The guy, who I now realized was a wizard, shouted as he sent out another blast, making me flinch as it exploded against my cover before I frowned slightly as I recalled his words.
'Zeref? As in the guy from Fairy Tail Zeref? Wait, wasn't he wearing a purple & red robe?' I thought as I quickly stopped up and looked to see that I was right before I dove back down just in time for a blast to miss my head, taking a deep breath as I picked up a few of the rocks around me.
With a grunt, I threw the first rock out on a curve, quickly rushing to another boulder as the wizard fired at the rock before I continued running while throwing a rock at him.
It seemed to stop him for a moment as he winced and that's what I needed as I aimed a rock low to the floor before wincing slightly as it smacked him dead centre in between the legs, but I didn't feel any sympathy as I threw another one at his injured leg and made him squeal as it had managed to get him on the thigh.
However, I may have miscalculated and wheezed as a blast impacted my chest, the wind having been knocked out of me as I rolled across the ground while trying to get air into my lungs.
"Y-You…you dare…hit a servant of Zeref?!" The wizard growled as he hobbled closer and I just groaned as I rolled over only to stare at the end of the staff held directly at my face.
"H-Hey, man. Why don't we calm down with the whole 'Killing me' thing, huh?"
"No, you shall die for your sins. May Zeref have mercy on your so-!" I didn't waste any time as I kicked in between the legs once again with one leg while kicking his hand with the other, catching the staff as it fell onto me before his eyes widened as I held it to his skull.
"Good night, bitch!" I growled before I stabbed the sharp crystal on the end of it directly into his mouth, feeling something being pulled from my body before I blinked as his head exploded and covered me in gray matter.
'…It's just a game. It's just a game. Don't think about it. It's just a game.' I repeated to myself as I slowly stood up, pushing back the bile and disgusted thoughts in my head as I looked at the dead body and slowly began to take off its clothes.
It was one thing to see a dead body on Liveleak and another to see it in real life, making sure to wipe the blood from my hands before I put on his clothes and frowned as I found them a bit snug.
"Hah, guess it'll have to do." I muttered before remembering to pick up my new death stick and looked around, staring out at the vast rocky plains and desert around me before humming.
Now…what the hell do I do now?
A/N:And this story starts off far more chaotic than its original. The next chapter: Escaping slavery and heading to a new place.
Anyway, yes, Eric is still going to get the Hell Flame Dragon Slayer magic, but this time, his own personal magic is going to be something special and I'm fairly sure everyone can figure out what it's going to be from the profile pic or the original story.
Anyway, check out my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories that may peak your interest. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one, welcome to...
Cursed Soul.