Chimaera's Conquest: The Legend Of The Devourer
Chapter 50: Prisoner’s Fate (2)

Chapter 50: Prisoner’s Fate (2)

Adrian was let out of his tent the next day. His hands and legs were still tied together but loose enough to walk comfortably. He didn’t enjoy being bound, but there was no alternative.

He already tried breaking the ropes every lonely second he got. But despite his efforts, he couldn’t break free from the ropes.

They seemed to be made of some unique material that even his strength couldn’t overcome. Thankfully, he wasn’t brought out naked and was given one of the fur kilts the tribesmen wore.

Going commando under the kilt was uncomfortable, but not as much as the tribe’s women eyeing him. Unlike what Akila, the old man who saved him, had said, the women seemed quite interested in him, and Adrian had his charm stat to thank for the attention. But they didn’t know about it yet.

’Fuck me... I feel like an animal being paraded in the city,’ Adrian thought as his gaze turned towards the men. ’Why do these elders have to leave far deep into the settlement.’

Unlike the women, the men didn’t like the fact that Adrian was receiving so much attention. Being a matriarchal tribe, the women were usually in charge of the household. So, for the men to get noticed, they had to be good at many things to be considered as husband candidates.

From hunting to performing exquisite dances, nothing was out of the ordinary. In simpler terms, if a man wanted to woo a woman, he had to follow her lead, no matter how odd her requests might be.

It wasn’t like they were forced to do anything, but rejecting a female’s request often led to discrimination from the entire tribe.

On top of that, no other female wanted a rejected male, so their fate was sealed as celibate warriors who were in charge of the tribe’s security in faraway regions, never to return home.

That’s why the men had hostility in their eyes, as Adrian was receiving the attention of the females without doing anything. In their eyes, Adrian’s patchy skin made him ugly.

Unfortunately, the ladies didn’t seem to mind the ogre skin patches all that much as long as his pretty face was flawless. Adrian never expected to miss his deformed face, but at that moment, he wished he still had Blighted Skeleton’s skull embedded on his own.

"Keep walking!"

One of the frustrated guys shoved Adrian with the back of his spear. Since his legs were tied, Adrian fell over. The guy who pushed him wanted to embarrass Adrian, but it had the opposite effect as the women began awwing upon seeing his naked butt.

"The fuck’s wrong with you!" Adrian got up, embarrassed and got in the guy’s face.

However, his reaction prompted the frustrated men to point their spears at him, ready to shove them into his body. It was then Akila approached them, and the men immediately lowered their spears.

While Adrian didn’t know Akila’s position in the tribe’s hierarchy, he must be pretty high up there because the rowdy men immediately turned docile when he barked at them in their language.

After yelling at them, Akila turned towards Adrian and whispered something in his ears.

"Constrict your abs for a moment."

"Wha-"

Before Adrian could react, Akila punched him in the stomach, and it hurt like a bitch. The force he felt was unlike anything Adrian had felt before as the punch alone forced him off his feet.

Akila then turned towards the boys and yelled at them once again before punching the guy who had attacked Adrian previously. Akila then proceeded to lecture them more before telling Adrian to get up.

"Sorry about that," Akila replied with his characteristic straight face. "But as an outsider, you mustn’t get involved with tribals. No matter what they do. Heed the advice, or you won’t last long."

Adrian groaned in pain but didn’t respond otherwise. He understood what Akila wanted to tell him. Even though he didn’t say it explicitly, he advised Adrian to keep a low profile. The higher he held his head, the more others would try to bring him down.

Although Adrian didn’t like the arrangement, there was little he could do about it. For now, he’d have to eat up the ridicule and be on his best behaviour... till the elders decided his fate, that is.

On the way to the hut that served as a council room for the tribes, Adrian saw quite a few interesting things. For starters, he wasn’t the only captive in the tribe. He had expected that much but didn’t expect to see elves amongst the slaves.

It seemed Nexarians weren’t the only ones the Banur tribe had problems with. Even though it might not seem like it, the slaves working in the homes or helping the tribespeople were in a better position than those whom Adrian saw next.

He turned to see a farm where people wearing torn and tattered Nexarian soldier uniforms could be seen tilling the soil. It was their punishment. They were being used as farm animals and treated as such.

But even though their backs showed scars of being whipped, they were alive, unlike the next group he saw.

The tribesmen brought him to a place with a massive wooden statue riddled with blades and other weapons pointing outwards. But the thing Adrian noticed first was the dried blood covering the statue.

A dozen naked prisoners stood in front of the statue, bound in ropes like him. From what little he understood about the chatter, these soldiers were given the death penalty by the elders. As such, it didn’t take a genius to know what would happen to them next.

One after another, the prisoners were forced to climb the statue and would earn their freedom if they reached the top. The only problem was that the statue was extremely smooth, with no way to grasp the thing.

That’s where the protruding weapons came into play. If the prisoners wanted to earn freedom, they would have to climb the statue using the bladed weapons as footholds.

Obviously, the prisoners hesitated, but they had to do it because the other choice they had was certain death. Some brave souls chose death rather than entertaining the twisted bastards.

In Adrian’s eyes, such people were both brave and wise, as the choice they made didn’t matter, for death awaited them in any case.

Those possessing a trace of honour and devoid of fear preferred facing certain death over subjecting themselves to the twisted pleasures of the tribespeople.

However, most were foolish enough to try and gain their freedom. They didn’t know that they’d meet a grim fate even if someone somehow scaled the fifteen-foot-tall statue.

With just a glance at the blades extending from the statue, Adrian could tell they were covered with poison, not just any poison, but the kind that would slowly kill them in the worst ways possible.

Ultimately, regardless of their choice, they would die entertaining the enemy.

Even after knowing all that, Adrian didn’t feel much sympathy for them. Because Adrian had seen quite a few incidents back in Nexaria where the captured tribals were exposed to a much worse fate.

Depending on who they were sold to, they were often used for twisted experiments or fulfilling the nobles’ twisted pleasures. In a way, the tribals only did what was done to them. Nothing more, nothing less.

Some might argue it wasn’t the soldiers’ fault, nor was it right that they were treated as such. While they were correct, it was a cruel world, and the food chain in the realms was ever-changing. One could be at the top of the chain one day but then get hunted in the next.

’Survival of the fittest. That’s the only rule applied to everyone,’ Adrian thought as he was led away towards the council room, where his fate would be decided.

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