"Hold the fucking line I said!"

Though the battle had turned badly for them, as the battle line shrank and their ranks began to harden, the wardens managed to hold the slaves back. Striking down those that got too near while ignoring the taunts of the many others. That said, many of their comrades had fallen, and the soldiers watched in horror as some slaves began to don the armor of those who had fallen before them.

Suddenly, the slave's disadvantage of a lack of equipment was wiped away as the now-armed slaves all charged toward the lines of the wardens. Worse still the giant himself joined the ranks

“Hold, hold, hold... Not one step back!”

Their captain, really just a random person taking charge, hardened his voice to display his confidence, but their morale was slowly faltering as more and more wardens began to fall by the seemingly endless amount of slaves.

‘Just how much was imprisoned here?’

Just as he was contemplating his situation three men left their line and ran away,

“Get back here!” He tried to chase after them but a cheer from his side took his attention. Properly armed soldiers began to enter the room in lines and helped bolster their forces,

...

Isaiah stood from the back, watching the battle unfold alongside Porridge,

“Looks like they need help, should we?” Isaiah prepared himself for another fight.

“No...” The old man replied, “They’re coming,”

“Who?”

Just as Isaiah asked, an explosion rocked the room followed by a section of wall collapsing. A stream of prisoners began to unleash their shouts as they rushed to reinforce their brethren in their fight.

“Let them do all the dirty work,” Porridge pointed to their right where a small group of prisoners, led by the fire-wielding man were making their way quietly, "Let's follow them, it looks like they have found something..."

Isaiah needed no further coaching and the two followed after the group, they later found them standing on top of a section of wall,

"I once worked here a long time ago," The fire-bending slave grunted as he pulled out the leg of a table, "There is a hidden passage here that leads upstairs, we should be able to use this for our escape." He turned and saw Isaiah and Porridge arriving,

"Why hello, hope you don't mind us following." Porridge awkwardly laughed as the man nodded,

"It's good, that said..." The fire-bending slave jammed the stick towards a small chip in the wall and began clawing his way through, soon the stone bricks fell revealing two soldiers who was about to pull a lever, "I knew you bastards would be here."

"Scheise!"

Before the soldiers could react, the fire-bending slave tackled them both bringing them down to the ground and a brief melee ensued as the other soldiers from behind tried to gain control over the corridor, but the tight space made it difficult for them to fight with their long weapons. The battle was quick and brutal and soon they were making their way up the stairs, and as they walked out of the dark room, they were met with a brightly lit room

"Woah!"

Massive windows commanded great views of the forest in front while to their sides was a line of statues depicting a variety of busts from animals to muscular men, and half-naked women. Above them, the hallway was illuminated by vast chandeliers with gold linings on top of a plethora of colored candles while their foot touched the thick, heavy, velvety carpet below ontop of glossy marble tiles.

"No way! Everything here is carpeted!" A slave gasped as the others began to look around in awe. "And is this marble!"

"Come on now..." The fire-bending slave tried to call them back to attention but it was in vain.

To many of them, they were born, raised, and should have died in some poor backwater village, with nary a single hope of improvement for their lives, and as such seeing this luxury that they never even dreamed of made some lose sight of their goal. Many began to wander off, beguiled by the shiny splendor around while some even tried to take souvenirs.

A fight ensued between two such slaves who had found a small statue that had some shiny stones around them.

"Ey, gimme that, it's mine!"

"No, it's mine..."

"Stop that... We still have to escape, we are deep in enemy territory." One of the slaves tried to intervene but was shot down by their animal-like stares.

"Escape all you want, I'll stay here and enjoy all these things!"

"Give me that you bastard,"

While the two were trying to fight each other for a few pieces of stone, Porridge meanwhile knelt to feel the fur of the heavy carpet below.

"Selling slaves can get you this much huh?" He looked up and saw Isaiah rather calm, "You don't look surprised kid."

Isaiah looked at Porridge and gave a shy grin, "I've seen something like this sir."

"Eh?" Porridge stood up "You a noble or something?"

"What? No, no, no sir."

"Really?" He stared hard at Isaiah before giving a mischievous grin, "Hahahah, no need to worry," He began to whisper "No need to worry, just, follow me and I'll escort you out of this place... Just, you know..." He flashed the money symbol with his fingers as the grin on his face grew larger,

Isaiah nodded with a nervous smile. He may have misunderstood his background, but if he was willing to help Isaiah out then he would quietly accept that help.

‘That said I have no money.’ He looked away and clicked seethe his tongue, ‘How do I run away from him? Well, he is old so he should be slow,’

As Isaiah was trying to formulate a plan to solve this problem, they were suddenly disturbed by the sound of hurried footsteps from the front. Four slaves, sweat pouring in their foreheads were running with all their might toward them,

“Hey, what’s going-" The fire-bending slave caught one of the running slaves, “Eyy calm down, what’s happening?”

“Ru-run, run for your life!” His face was pale as snow, it looked as if he had just seen a ghost. His eyes were shaking so much that he looked rather pitiable. Others became curious as to what he had just said.

“What’s going on?”

“Eeek.” The slave panicked and flailed himself free from the man's hand. Running towards where his other comrades had left,

“There is no exit there.” Mumbled the fire-bending slave as he looked back when one of the slaves pointed to his front, his fingers quivering from fear.

"Holy shit!"

All the others stopped what they were doing and looked to where he was pointing at, and it was here that their faces grew just as pale as that one slave was. They found out exactly why those slaves ran as fast as they could in the other direction.

After all...

“Huh...No way!”
“Why is he here?”
"Mama!"

Who would willingly put themselves on the path of a behemoth?

A colossus of a human with enormous physical stature the likes that would make the giant from below look like a child. One whose fist alone was larger than Isaiah's head, his size made the hallway look small and tight in comparison. Donning a heavy jet-black armor that resembled a European knight, red linings adorned the sides of the enormous metal shell while his bucket-like helmet carried two feathered plumes of an orange hue, giving him the aura of a mighty demon.

Far and wide, his name resonated like a being of pure calamity, and every slave knew who this person was. As if to solidify their doubts, a necklace with twelve diamond stars was hung around his neck, to them they realized just how unlucky they are now.

"It's him." The fire-wielding slave gasped, "Titan..."

Titan... Just that moniker instilled a sense of dread in their faces,

“Why is he...” The slave shut his mouth as Titan opened his visor and scanned the rabble of strange-looking men in front of a pair of powerfull and dense scarlet eyes. Isaiah felt his gaze pass through him and that alone was enough to make him run out of breath with his legs shaking, others weren’t so lucky as their legs buckled from terror, everyone was paralyzed with fear.

‘We... We have to fight him?’

Gulp...

Isaiah's confidence had been at an all-time high thanks to how broken his abilities were, it gave him a sense of invincibility, as if nothing could ever beat him.

‘But now. His armor...’

A black glowing aura surrounded his armor. An aura that made Isaiah feel as if his magic could do little against him.

“Maybe... Maybe he's here to save us?” One such optimistic thought came from a slave but upon seeing the man behind Titan their faces returned to that of distraught.

“Hehe...” Kilo, the chief warden, grinned smugly as he watched the slaves cower in fear, “You’ve made it this far... I congratulate you. Now then, I shall show you why no one escapes Eisansurgburg!”

“So there was an escape huh, Kilo?” An obese man grabbed Kilo by the shoulder and angrily hissed at him.

“My... My lord, everything’s fine...”

“Fine? They are in front of us!”

“Yes... But I can take care of this. Not a problem.”

“Then hurry up!” The man threw Kilo away who stumbled but quickly gained his footing back, he clicked his tongue whilst looking away, arranging his collar.

“We gotta fight... We have to fight now!” The fire-bending slave began to cheer them up and the more braver ones prepared themselves. But when Titan took a single step forward, their morale was instantly shattered while others began running the opposite way.

Others tried to follow after their fleeing comrades but upon seeing the wall of spears behind them, they paused. Two of those who fled were impaled while the slower one managed to stop herself in time and ran back to the group.

“Shit were trapped...”

“Give up...” Kilo grinned and spoke in a 'kind' manner “I’ll be merciful and only have you all whipped, well, 100 times, nothing much.”

“Fuck you!” Porridge yelled back

“Right...” Kilos' voice dropped, “Kill them all...” He then pointed to Isaiah “Except for him.”

At once the soldiers lifted their spears and threw them like javelins. Four got impaled by their chest and died while one was struck in her foot. The soldiers followed up this attack by drawing their swords and marching forward.

The display of discipline and the fact that half of their number was killed in an instant demoralized them further. Even Isaiah wanted to surrender.

“I don't want to die!”
“Help! HELP!!”

The fire-bending slave looked at the helpless lot and saw Isaiah, “You, your magic... You could use magic right?"

“Eh, what?”

“I don't have that much mana, but I can attack them, you support.”

“What... What do you mean?”

But instead of replying, the fire-bending slave snatched the sword of another slave and proceeded to charge. Two others, perhaps infested by his zeal followed after. But these two were quickly cut down by the soldiers, which stopped the charge of the other more hesitant one. That said...

“Aaaaah!”

The slave easily cut one of the soldier's arms. A sword came running for him from the top but was blocked before he tackled the soldier's body which fell onto the two others at the back. Another tried to charge but was easily avoided.

Realizing his danger, the rest of the soldiers attacked at once and though he was able to deflect two strikes he was beaten back. But before any fatal wound could be applied, the soldiers were suddenly pushed away as if struck by invisible hands.

"Aah!"
"What the!"

Isaiah joined the fray, and lightning erupted from his hands.

"Ohh..."

A soldier charged toward Isaiah with great speed but was struck down by lightning, knocking him unconscious. The others turned their attention to Isaiah and took a few steps back, allowing the fire-bending slave to retreat...

"That... That was good, but..." His eyes turned to Titan who remained silent. "What do we do..."

"This cannot do..." Kilo clicked his tongue and nodded, two hooded figures appeared from behind carrying large wooden staffs. "Fire away. Make sure not to kill any."

The mages then lifted their staffs which started to glow in a reddish-orange light,

"Light, fill my path, destroy my enemies."

Fire materialised from their staffs, before gathering at their circular edges. The mages then pointed the staffs at the slaves,

[Fireball!]

Two balls of fire exploded out of the staff and darted towards the slaves. Isaiah sensing the incoming missiles looked back and raised his hands onto the chandelier above. With a sliding down motion, the chandelier suddenly gave in and fell to the ground with a loud boom, burying the balls of fire in rubble.

The two mages took a step back in surprise but before they could recover, Isaiah pushed the chandelier onwards. The two mages were now in a panic as they hurriedly chanted their attacks launching a set of haphazard missles however it was not enough to halt the advancing chandelier. But before it could hit them, Titan joined the fight,

Although the mages were still firing their magics, Titan sallied forth, the mages were late at stopping themselves but that didn't matter, Titan simply ignored their magics even if it hit him from behind as he reached his left hand out and stopped the chandelier in an instant, he didn't even flinch. Then in a show of strenght, he lifted the chandelier with one hand and threw it back with even greater force.

Kilo wanted to complain, as that throw could kill Isaiah, but before Titan, he couldn't say a single word.

'Oh shit...'

Isaiah hurridly raised his hands and 'caught' the chandelier mid-air, however, his view suddenly became foggy as his head started to ache.

"Ack.."

The force of his throw was so strong that Isaiah was pushed back by a few feet, had he not been careful he would've even fallen to his butt. He bit on his lips and looked around, there he saw Titan take out his axe and begin moving forward. Looking back, he found himself to be alone, seeing that the soldiers had fled the other slaves used the opportunity to escape, not one of them wishing to fight against the giant.

So he was left alone, having been betrayed

'Well not exactly betrayed, we weren't a team in the first place.'

He sighed,

"Still you bastards, you could've left me something!"

He felt himself gagging as he held onto the chandelier. He was angry at the others but felt no further remorse. After all, anger is a luxury for the living. Now that he was alone, he had to somehow defeat this crazy strong giant in front of him, he threw the chandelier back at Titan, but of course, the giant easily took the hit flinching for a moment before continuing on his march like nothing happened.

'Shit... Shit, shit, shit...'

In a panic, Isaiah looked around him and that's when he remembered that below them were the dungeons. He placed his hand on the ground,

"Surrendering are we? Titan, just knock him out, don't kill him." Kilo smugly gave his order,

Titan closed in on Isaiah, it was clear that the giant wasn't even fighting properly and that was fine, it meant that Isaiah had the advantage in surprise, and so when Titan was only a few meters away from him he then released his magic.

"Collapse!"