Eliza and Leo stood in a standoff. Both were glaring at each other, and neither budged an inch.

"Stop it, both of you! Enough people already want us dead without us trying to kill each other!" Leah said.

"That's precisely why I can't let this go," Leo said, looking away from Eliza. "If she cannot acknowledge her faults and work with us like we need her to, she'll only end up getting us killed.

"Nothing about that involves insulting my parents." Eliza spat

"I don't know about that; This is the most open you've been with any of us since we met you," Leo said calmly, indicating towards the spear with his chin.

"All for the price of making me want to kill you," Eliza said

Leo scoffed, "Please, if you were really trying to kill me, the mark would've gone off and incapacitated you. Knowing that shows that this," Leo grabbed the spear and tore it away from his throat; at the same time pulling it back and dragging Eliza towards him. He leaned down and looked directly into Eliza's rage-filled eyes. "This is nothing more than a feeble attempt to intimidate me to get your way."

He then shoved the spear, sending Eliza staggering back a couple of steps. As Eliza came to a stop, he continued speaking.

"There are two ways that this will go. "Either you acknowledge your mistakes and drop whatever is stopping you from working with us. Or you have to kill us."

"Uh, can I opt out of that? I'm not really looking to die here." Demitrus said, raising his hand.

"Not now, Demitrus," Leo said tersely without looking away from Eliza.

"As if that's a choice; you yourself said that if I attack you, the mark will go off."

"There's a simple way around that; we just need to spar. The mark doesn't interfere, and it doesn't know if we're using wooden practice weapons or those," he said, tilting his head towards the spear she held.

"Leo, you're taking this way too far!" Leah once again said, trying to stop what was happening.

"It's better now than in the future. Stop interfering, you two, and keep watch. So what will it be, Eliza?"

"Are you sure? Do you, by chance, think that killing you is beyond me? You only need to apologize for insulting my parents. "Eliza threatened as she glared at him. She raised the spear and pointed it at him.

"Are all Soldiers from the Silverian army this chatty? If you're going to do it, do it." He remarked, the smile leaving his face.

Enraged, Eliza lifted the back of the spear and stabbed the spear towards his neck.

"Stop!" Leah called out desperately, but she was too far away to do anything. The stab was a solid one, and Leo's death was all but guaranteed; at least, it would have been if Eliza hadn't pushed it to the side at the last moment. The spear hovered a few inches to the side of Leo's head and held there.

With a cry of anger, Eliza tore the spear away from his head and took a couple of steps back.

"What? I thought you said you weren't beyond killing me?" Leo said tauntingly. Eliza clenched her teeth.

"Let's just go; we have some more Rakna to kill." She said as she attempted to force her way past him, but he stepped in front of her and blocked her path.

"We're not done yet, didn't you hear me before?" he said, looking down at her.

Beyond frustrated, Eliza stepped back and began to pace a few steps to the left and then a few to the right while ruffling up her hair with her free hand.

"Eliza-" He began.

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"Shut it, Leo. I know; promise me two things." Eliza spat.

"What?" he asked, tilting his head.

"First, if I do what you want, you'll take back what you said about my parents, and I get to hit you as recompense."

"That's… fine? What's the other thing?"

"Don't ever pull something like this again," Eliza said, stopping and glaring at him.

Leo smiled, "Something like this won't be necessary once this is over."

Eliza only glared at him.

"Fine. I won't do this again if you keep your side of the deal." he eventually conceded.

"Alright, I know my overconfidence almost got me killed, alright? It was stupid of me to disobey your order. And it was extra stupid of me to let myself be separated until I was alone, surrounded by enemies I hadn't fought before. I'm sorry." Eliza said, forcing the words out of her mouth through clenched teeth.

"It's good to see that you have enough sense to apologize. But what are you going to do from now on?" Leo asked as he folded his arms.

Eliza stopped pacing and pinched the bridge of her nose. She let out a long-suffering sigh before saying, "I promise not to disobey orders, and I'll actively help out the group from now on. I won't run off to fight alone. I'll also ask for details on whatever Demons I don't know anything about. Is there anything else?"

Leo was silent for a moment as he pondered her words. Finally, he said, "I'll hold you to those promises." Leo said, his face softening, "I'm sorry for bringing your parents into this; I'm sure they were good people, and I took things too far."

"Thank you for saying so. Is it alright if I get my hit in now?" Eliza asked with a smile.

"Sure, but no weapons," Leo said.

"That won't be a problem; just widen your stance a little bit so you can better take the hit," Eliza said, the smile on her face widening.

Leo scoffed, "How hard could you possibly hit me that I would need a stance to take it? Like this?" he asked as he slightly widened his stance and bent his knees.

"Perfect, no blocking now~," Eliza said as she kicked him in the nuts as hard as she could.

Leo gasped, his face contorting in pain as his knees buckled and he fell to the floor.

"That… was a low blow." He gasped out as he rolled over onto his side.

"So was insulting my parents, we're even now," Eliza said smiling. She started to walk away but stopped before turning to look down at Leo.

"Ah, just thought you should know. My dad taught me to do that if a male was ever being overbearing and pushy. I didn't quite understand what he meant until now, but now I do, so thanks," She said as she started walking down the road.

"I don't… think this…is what… he meant… by that," Leo said, slowly pushing himself to his feet. Leah came over and started helping him up.

"Hmm? What was that? "Eliza said, turning back to look at Leo.

"Nothing," Leah said.

"I see," Eliza said, turning back around. She heard Leah say to Leo quietly, "Honestly, what the heck was all that."

Eliza didn't have a chance to hear Leo's answer as Demitrus clapped his hands twice, drawing everyone's attention.

"Alright, everybody, now that the show is over, How about we get a move on? Do remember that we have a time limit, and we're only about a third of the way into enemy territory."

"Just.. give me a second," Leo said; still a little hunched over."

"Very well," Demitrus said, looking over at Leo with pity. Demitrus turned and looked at Eliza, "While he recovers, ill give you a basic rundown of The Rakna."

Eliza nodded, and he continued. "I'm sure you experienced most of this in the last fight, but the Rakna do not rely on light to see; it's mostly speculation, but we suspect that they can sense the vibrations in the ground when someone or something steps on it. However, this theory doesn't hold for adult ones. Other than their scything arms, the only other thing you need to look out for is the spit, which you experienced first hand." He said, looking down at the dead Rakna next to his feet.

"Alright, so we throw rocks to distract them if they're younger; anything else?" Eliza asked, folding her arms. She was acutely aware of the small blisters on her left hand.

"The only other thing worth mentioning is that within a group of Rakna, they seem to act cohesively. By that, I mean that if something happens to one, the rest will immediately react. They're also not afraid to sacrifice one to get more information; take the one that charged you initially, for example. For the next encounter, how about you just watch to see how we handle it? Then you can join in the next time. Naturally, if something unexpected happens, that is void."

"Alright, fine by me," Eliza said

"You good now, Leo?: Demitrus said, looking back over at Leo, who had slowly ambled forward.

"Just about; I just need to walk the rest of it off. I should be fine by our next encounter," He said, taking point and leading the group down the street. Eliza and Demitrus fell to their respective flanks.

"Sorry, Eliza, while I did want you to open up more to use, I didn't want, or expect, Leo to go that far." Leah apologetically whispered to Eliza when Leo was far enough away.

"Don't worry about it; I got my payback," Eliza said, giving Leah a small smile.

"I just feel bad, I promised you that we were good people, and we are, but after what both Demitrus and Leo have done, I would understand if you didn't believe me." She said, looking down sadly.

"As annoying as Demitrus can be and… Leo… being Leo." It honestly hasn't been that bad. So don't worry about it." Eliza said, assuring Leah.

"Stop." Leo interrupted from the front, and everyone stopped. She watched as Demitrus bent down to pick up a few easily throwable stones. And then they waited.

At first, she didn't hear anything, but then she heard the sound of the legs quietly scuttling across the ground.

A Rakna came charging out from the rubble on the right side of the road. And scurried over to the other side. Passing by the front of the group, it disappeared into the shadows on the other side of the street.

Then it was silent again.

There was a flurry of movement as, one by one, the Rakna's crawled out of the rubble and into the street and surrounded them. This time there was more. Eliza counted ten of them, and a few were slightly bigger than the others. They began tapping on the ground with their scythe arms, slowly closing in on the group's location.

Leo waited a few more moments until the Raknas seemed to be converging on their location. Then he turned his head to look at Demitrus and nodded.

Demitrus threw the first stone as if he was skipping the stone across a lake. It bounced down the street in a scattered line, and the Rakna instantly responded by rearing up, turning towards the stone. The ones closest to the stone almost simultaneously spat at where the stone was going to land. Their wads of spit hit the stone right as it landed, and it was engulfed in the luminescent blue liquid.

Everyone jumped into action.

Leo instantly charged at the nearest Rakna and, with a single hit, caved its head in. And then he stopped as another stone flew past him, simulating him running towards another one. The nearby Rakna responded by spitting at the stone, and once they did, Leo instantly took out another one.

Meanwhile, whenever the Rakna would respond to a thrown stone, Leah would throw out another one once either Demitrus or Leo took care of a couple more.

Eliza watched in fascination as the team systematically wiped out the Rakna party in this fashion. In no time at all, the Rakna lay dead at their feet.

Demitrus turned to her and smiled at her, "see? It's easy."

Looking at the destruction they had caused, she had to agree.