Everyone froze for a bare moment before the entire room burst into motion. Dorian wasted no time and dashed to the thug nearest him quickly ended his life. Before he knew it the next one was already attacking him. Dodging with the tiniest of movements Dorian buried his blade in the skull of his assailant.

Another guard came from the side, Dorian once again smoothly stepped past the sweeping blade. Twirling the blade he made a expertly aimed cut against the wrist of the guard severing his muscles and causing him to drop the blade. He then stepped forward and with a swift stab to the heart finished him. Another one of the thugs came at him from behind with a scream but before he even reached Dorian a fist the size of any normal humans head crashed into the side of the thug. With a loud crunch of breaking ribs he was sent across the room untill he smacked into a wall and hit the ground.

Not having the time to concentrate on anything else Dorian dodged the axe of yet another of the thugs. A small black bolt flew through the air and shot through the axe-wielders head. With the splash of blood and gore the man hit the ground with a finger sized hole in his head. A thug with a sword was trying to attack the young woman from behind. Dorian caught the axe the thug was using before it hit the ground and with a twirl of his body sent it flying through the air. Hitting the attacking thug square in the chest.

Yet another guard jumped at Dorian with a knife, Dorian grabbed the wrist of the attacking thug and pulled him forward breaking his balance. Using the falling movement of the assailant Dorian kneed the man in the face with all the strength he could measure. The angle of the blow caused the mans neck to loudly snap. Thus another lifeless body hit the floor.

A spear wielder thrusted at Dorian from the side, before the tip of the spear could even touch him the innkeeper appeared next to the man with a roar. With an impossibly fast swing of his axe he cut the spearman in 2 blood splashing over Dorians face and here and there a piece of spearman stuck to his clothes.

Grabbing the spear from the now cut in half warrior, Dorian twisted his body and used the momentum to throw the spear straight through the shoulder of one of the 2 warriors the priest was currently fighting. The spear struck the warrior in the shoulder causing him to get knocked back. The priest made swift use of the surprise of the 2 warriors to twirl his staff and use the blade on the end of it to cut the throat of the one who was still unhurt. He then quickly flowed into another move and used the other end of the staff to crack down on the head of the wounded thug killing him instantly.

Before they even knew it the fight was over and the dead bodies of the thugs littered the floor. Dorian glanced around at his group, all of them were still standing. That went rather smoothly, Dorian thought to himself.

“Those that are injured come to me, i will take care of the wounds.” The priest stated readying his staff for the use of magic.

“I have no need for restoration.” Vor said in his deep voice.

“Not a scratch on me.” Gladiel stated. “Im unhurt aswell, these thugs were nowhere near fast enough to wound me.” Blaitz stated.

“These bastards are a 100 years to young to harm a hair on my head!” The innkeeper roared. “Indeed they did not have the skill to cause injury.” The young woman stated.

The priest looked at Dorian in surprise. “I'm unhurt aswell, seems there is no need for your magic.” Dorian said giving the man a small smile. The priest shook his head in disbelief ”6 against 32 and none of us are harmed.” he muttered to himself. “Wat kind of people did i get myself involved with.”

Dorian just shrugged when he heard priest's words and walked through the piles of dead to the door on the other side of the room. Opening the door led into a hallway that had a lot of doors on both sides. After checking the contents of the room he could see that these seemed to be the living quarters of whatever group these thugs were. After the priest told them there were life signs in another of the doors they headed through yet another hallway that led even further down into the ground.

They broke through the door in a hurry only to find themselves in a dungeon of sorts. There were multiple cells on both sides of the wall. Dorian stepped to one of the cells and found himself staring at the image of a young woman. Her clothes ripped and the signs of physical abuse on her body. Bruises and cuts were all over her skin. The poor woman was not moving and it was obvious to Dorian that she was dead.

What was even more disconcerting was the small child clutching the leftover rags of the woman and cuddling up against the corpse. Dorian could feel the fury running through his body as he saw the small child pressed up against her mother not even knowing, or at the very least refusing to accept that her parent had died. In white hot rage Dorian broke the lock on the cell and swung the door open.

The child reacted to the sound in fear. Quickly jumping to the other side of her mother she tried to hide behind it while trying her best to drag the corpse to the corner of the room. As far away from Dorian as she could. Dorian just looked at the child with an ache in his heart. No matter how hard he trained, or what stories he had heard. Nothing had prepared him for this, this vision of a terrified child with her dead abused mother made his heart break.

He sat back on his heels and put the knife away. He opened his hands palm open to the small child. “I am not here to hurt you, i am here to get you out.” Dorian told the girl, the tiny figure only tried even harder to back away the moment Dorian opened his mouth. The girl with her dirty ragged clothes, messy unkempt brown hair and tear-stained face hurt Dorian to his very core. He sat down on the ground without a word and just grabbed some of the food he had put in his pouches.

He held the food out to the child, as skinny as she was he was sure that she was not fed properly in this dungeon. The signs of malnourishment were more than obvious, skin tight over her ribs Dorian felt as though he could fit his around the girls body. But he would not dare to use any pressure, he was genuinely afraid he might snap her body.

After a few minutes of just sitting there the girl started to make small steps forward. Dorian gave her a what he hoped was an encouraging smile as she carefully reached for the bread in Dorians hand. With a swift moment she grabbed the bread and backed off again. Staying out of grabbing range she ate her bread as fast as she could.

“Not to fast, you could choke.” Dorian said. The girl looked at him for a moment before starting to chew a little slower obviously savouring the taste of the food. Dorian grabbed his drinking flask from his belt and held it out to the little girl. She stepped forward and wanted to grab the flask from his hands before she realised the flask was to big for her to hold. She was merely to small to hold the bread and the flask at the same time.

Noticing it Dorian quickly tilted the flask a little so some water would run out so she could drink. She stared at Dorian suspiciously for a second before her thirst took over and she started gulping down the small stream of water. Dorian made sure to slowly tilt the flask so she would keep getting water. He also made sure not to do it to fast, he was worried she might choke because of the water.

Once the girl had her fill of water she stepped back again. Most of the fear in her eyes were gone now. Dorian extended his now empty hand to her hoping that she would take it. She stared at his hand for a moment and then slowly extended her small frail hands to his. He tenderly took her hand, as soon as she had grabbed his hand she rushed to him and clutched his leg and started to cry. Dorian put his hand on her head and softly patted the poor girl.

After a short while the girl sniffed and stepped back from Dorians legg. Dorian looked down at the girl, she looked at the corpse of her mother one last time before wiping the tears from her eyes with the dirty rag she was wearing. It seemed the poor girl was perfectly aware that her mother was dead.

Dorian took her hand and walked out of the cell with her. The rest of the group was waiting outside, staring at the scene before them in shocked silence.

Even Gladiel had no smart comments to make now, the look on his face was just as grim as those of the rest. None of the group had moved from their spots while Dorian was interacting with the girl. The young priest looked at the child with sadness in his eyes. He readied his staff and stepped forward extending a hand to the girl. The girl backed away from the hand suspiciously and glanced at Dorian. After a quick nod from Dorian she stepped allowed the priest to touch her.

The priest's hand glowed and he spread his healing light over the young girl fixing the bruises the child had. The abuse of the thugs had not spared the poor girl. The girl looked at the light on her skin in childlike wonder. Turning her hands around to see the light spreading across her skin. She tested the skin were the bruises used to be and she looked at Dorian with blessed wonder on her face. The face she was making warmed Dorians heart as he put his hand on the girl's head again and gave it a rub. The girl gave him a small smile and once again fastened herself to his legg.

The group checked out the rest of the dungeon. More of the cells were filled, most of them were young to middle aged women. A man here or there, at the end of the dungeon was another door. Walking up to the door Dorian broke the lock and opened it. This cell was different from the others. Here a young woman was chained against the wall. Hands and feet clasped in heavy iron, a battered face peered up at them. Dirty blond locks of hair hanging in front of her face. This woman had suffered a worse fate than the mother of the child.

Dorian was absolutely positive that this woman had been tortured.

Wanted to upload this yesterday but i couldn't gain acces to the site, it kept giving me errors. But here it is!.

And i had a question for you guys, i wondered if i should put the shorter chapters together with the other ones so it would be a more steady amount per chapter for new readers. Or do you guys say i shouldn't bother.

PS : im really excited to hear wat u guys think about this chapter and the story so far!