Thomas and the expedition left the city next day and journey down south.

The next day, Thomas and the rest of the expedition leave the city on order of the Strategos and headed down south into the city of Malatya, which was once known as Melitene when it was part of the Roman Empire back then.

The city is now under the rule of the Arab Emir named Umar ibn Abdullah ibn Marwan al-Aqta, known as Amer among the Romans, and his autonomous reign over the strategic city posed the great danger to the territories of the Roman Empire in Anatolia!

With Malatya under his control, he can launched raids into Anatolia whenever he pleased. This resulted in the creation of the no man's land between between the Empire and the Caliphate that located between Malatya and Caesarea, one of the cities within the Empire's eastern borders. In fact, he helped pave the way of the Sack of Amorium back in 838 by assisting the Arab expeditionary **** to victory in the Battle of Anzen. And to make the matter worse, the Paulicians, the Christian sect who believed in iconoclasm and the rejection of the material world, are fleeing to his court in Malatya!

That is the purpose of this expedition. If they cannot take the Emir of Malatya out on the battlefield, then they are going to take him out at his very own base of power! If that is not an option as well, then they needed to at least weakened the army loyal to him and his base of power by raiding the city.

For days and nights, the Strategos led his forces through the no man's land between the Empire and the Caliphate. And during this journey across the no man's land, the expedition encountered villages and towns that are under the de facto independent rulers.

Needing places to stay, Thomas and the rest of the expedition are sometimes being **** to set up campsites near these settlements that pledged no allegiances to neither the Emperor in Constantinople or the Caliph in Baghdad.

But after the long journey, he and his friends finally made it! They finally arrived at Malatya! And as soon as they saw the city on the horizon, they immediately ride their horses out with the intention to pillage the city!

Caught off guard and completely unprepared, the garrison and the inhabitants of Malatya failed to defend the city and hide in time respectively!

Thomas rides his horse along with many other cavalrymen into the city with little to no resistance and begin to unleash their swords and spears on anyone who attempted to harm them.

Soon, the situation escalated into a bloodbath and confusion followed!

Preoccupied with fighting for his own life, Thomas is suddenly hit in the head with the wooden part of a spear by an unknown assailant! This resulted in him being knocked out cold and falling down from his horse! After that, everything becomes black for him!

Around him, the fight between the inhabitants of the city of Malatya and the Roman raiders continued on around his **** body with casualties on both sides keep increasing.

"Ooh..." Thomas groaned as he's slowly opening his eyes.

"Where... where am I?" Thomas asked no one in particular as he's opening his eyes. Then, heard the sounds of chains!

Then, he looked at himself and found that he is now chained at both his wrists and his legs! And to make the matter worse, he realized his situation as he is now being one of the many chained up people as he is surrounded by many people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds who are put into chains too!

He is now at the **** market and he most likely will be auctioned off soon, judging from the fact that there are plenty of peoples are participating in this auction!

"Oh great..." Thomas thinks to himself in his own head sarcastically.