A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

"Huh."

The collection of Stats which individually all out-scaled Henry's by heaps of Stat points. Despite lacking the Intelligence Stat that Eloise had, and hence not being a Mage Knight, Sir Boyle still had more Mana than she did. Everything just made him out to be a powerhouse. Even the System had so clearly made that clear by stating that, as far as Henry was concerned, Boyle was unkillable.

Which begged the question, why hadn't he done more?

Yes, the Orcs were imposing and powerful but that was compared to Andor and Eloise. With what Boyle looked capable of, he should have breezed through far more Orcs and lessened the load on everyone on the field in general.

This was why, despite being impressed and a little intimidated, the only thing Henry could think to let out was 'Huh.'

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And then he looked around and realized none of the Knights were dead. Their numbers were complete and the most injuries any of them had suffered were cuts and fractures the Clerics were healing quickly enough.

And then he understood:

Boyle had done his best but that best had only been to ensure his men —the Knights—, survived the battle. Of the more than Thirty Orc warriors whose bodies littered the floor, the Knight Captain had had the most kills. He must have taken on more enemies to ensure the Knights were not overwhelmed.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Eloise was the exception to this blanket of concern because of two reasons;

One, she always found herself out of formation and closer to Henry and Andor.

Two, she was the most capable of the Knights. Boyle must have thought she was more than capable of taking care of herself. Which, in essence, she was.

The one who had slacked off concerning those who were his responsibility was the now-dead Gareth which was why some Mercenaries had fallen to attacks and those Mercenaries had, in turn, cared very little about the slaves with them. Using them as meat shields to keep enemy axes away from them.

This was why, before the actions of Henry, Andor, and Eloise, most of the dead humans on the field were Slaves.

The thought left a bad taste in Henry's mouth. Even worse was that he wasn't sure fighting and killing Gareth right now was in their best interest. Sure the Slaves were now uncuffed but they were still inside an evolving Dungeon and a part of a group whose significant martial force he, Eloise, and Andor, had killed off.

He saw Boyle address the former Slaves with seriousness and eventually, he turned away from them.

The former Slaves turned away from him too and walked over to Henry, Andor, and Eloise who was still patting Nyx's coat.

"Thank you," they said in a chorus and Henry realized all eyes were on them.

Some, like those of the Clerics, seemed misty with emotion. The others, most of the Knights, seemed to glower with disapproval.

Eloise seemed to notice the glare of her fellow Knights which was why she paid very little attention to the Slaves. After all, to maintain the story she had spun, she could not look at the Slaves and show off how much joy she felt from seeing them freed.

"It's fine," Henry told the former Slaves with his hands raised, "And you don't need to bow either."

"You can't imagine how long we spent with those cuffs…" the one at the front of the group said and shuddered at the thought.

"You're safe now," Andor said. Unlike last night, this act of good service was not marred by too much guilt.

And then someone in the group shoved the one in front to the side to glare hard at Andor and then at Henry where his attention stayed the most,

"What's your angle?" He asked intensely.

"What?" Henry asked, confused.

"You're not going to snap some other cuff on my wrist, you know!" The man yelled and his eyes glowed bright as mana seemed to seep from his body,

"Let me tell you now. I'm smarter, and wiser now. I'd rather die than have another one of those things snapped onto my wrist."

The man's mana raged even higher and stronger as his eyes continued to glare at Henry who held out his hands to placate an anger he was starting to understand,

"You—" he started and paused and then asked, "What's your name?"

"Aaron," the man said and while his tone was angry, Henry saw a gleam in his eyes. It was as though this was the first time he had ever been asked to introduce himself. Henry understood why.

At the Gribbo Estate, no Mercenary had asked for his name either. He was just tossed into the Slave residence to be another one of the large numbers already stacked there.

"Aaron, you have nothing to worry about," Henry said gently and gestured at Andor as he said, "We're not Slavers. We're not snapping cuffs on you."

Aaron still looked suspicious,

"So what are you playing at? Why get rid of the last one then?" He asked and gestured at Gareth's corpse still on the ground.

"We were only looking to help," Henry said and added with a light shrug,

"From here on out, you make the decisions. There are no bounds on you.

Of course, things are currently not so easy…"

"I knew it!" Aaron announced and his suspicion seemed to have infected everyone else in the group because they fidgeted and took steps back,

"You do want something!"

"No, I don't," Henry said still gently, "But you're inside a Dungeon now. Unfortunately, although you can now make your own choices, you are limited while you're here. You either come with us. Or you try to make your own way."

The man Aaron shoved aside earlier shoved him now instead so he could get Henry's attention as he said,

"That's what the Knight said. What do you say we do?"

"I say you come along," Henry said.

"Of course, you want that," Aaron said and shoved the man aside to grab Henry's attention again.

It wasn't even necessary because he was still within range but Aaron was probably the kind of person to always want to be a little extra.

"Of course, you want us with you to use as Meat shields. To die instead of you!" Aaron yelled with a bit of venom in his voice.

Those who had not been paying them any attention glanced over. Among them was Boyle who had his eyes narrowed and paid attention while leaning against a tree a good few feet away.

"What did the Knight tell you to do?" Henry asked the man Aaron had shoved twice now.

"He didn't say. He just told us our options and walked away."

'So you're leaving it to me to convince them, huh?' Henry thought with his eyes on Boyle. The Knight held his gaze for a few seconds and then cocked his head to the side like he was acknowledging Henry's thoughts.

'Damn you.' Henry thought fervently hoping the Knight could hear his thoughts.

The truth was, having lost all the Mercenaries, they could use the strength of the former slaves. Now that they had autonomy though, they couldn't just be forced to come along. Well, they could. Boyle, strong as he was, could probably threaten them to be obedient but he left it up to Henry.

Part of the reason was because, while it was certainly not illegal to own slaves, Boyle had always had doubts about its morality. Also, he felt it would be against his oath to strong-arm free-thinking humans to die for him. It just wasn't what a noble Knight should do. So, since Henry and Andor had caused this mess, he thought he might as well leave it to him to fix it.

Henry sighed and held the bridge of his nose.

"Come on," Aaron told his fellow former slaves, "Let's get the hell away from here. If we head this way, we should be able to find the Gate. Once we're out of it, we all go our own way."

The others mumbled but the sounds were those of agreement and soon, with Aaron leading and the twice-shoved man a foot behind him, they started to troop away together.

"Wait," Henry called out when he eventually opened his eyes a second later.

"Don't listen!" Aaron yelled out.

"You'll die!!" Henry yelled, his voice raised.

Aaron paused then and turned until he could see Henry's face.

"Are you threatening us?"

"Me? No," Henry said with his voice much more normal in volume now that he had their attention.

He continued,

"But you've seen what this place is like. How long and how much wandering do you think you'll get to do before you run into a horde of Orcs? Are you confident you can fight them off with only you all?"

"If we stay here, we'll die," Aaron retorted.

"Maybe. But it's only a 'maybe'.

If you stay here, you'll be in the company of Knights whose strength and numbers are better than yours. You'll be with Clerics who can heal your wounds.

The way I see it, you have more of a chance to survive if you stay and journey with this bunch than if you go off and try to find the Gate.

If you see sense in my words, Stay. If you don't, you can leave. No one will stop you. All our efforts to free you will be wasted if you die, but you do have your choice.

Make it."