Kayde pulls himself up off the ground and gets out the map of the marshlands they found in the mountain ruins.

“Hey, Kali, do you know what this tent symbol on this little island is?” He holds the map up to her so she can see the marked mass of green.

Kali glances down at it and roughly rips it from Kayde’s hands. She gives it a closer look, but remains silent, considering whether she should tell Kayde what he wants to know.

“So, do you know what it is?” Kayde asks after she stares at it for a while.

Kali glares back at Kayde, scowling just at the sight of his stupid grin, “Yeah, I know what it is”.

“What is it then?” Kayde inquires, acting as if he didn’t know why Kali is acting so stubborn.

“I’m not going to tell you,” Kali drops the map. It floats down, landing softly amongst the blades grass she stirs in her wake.

Kayde picks up the map, quickly wiping the condensation from the grass off of it.

“Why won’t you tell us what it is?” Drakthar asks plainly, thinking they were all working together now.

“Oh… I mean… I’ll tell you, but not him. It’s the island where all the immortals live,” Kali is all too eager to inform him.

“That’s where Sharn will be,” Drakthar declares, looking forward to their rematch.

“Looks like we are headed there then,” Kayde notes cheerily, not letting Kali’s treatment of him get him down.

“Before we move forward there is something I must do,” Kali draws her sword so fast no one is able to stop her before she takes a swipe at Fore. She lowers her sword towards the wolf.

Kali watches as the ground underneath Fore starts to give way. The wolf falls down into a pit; walking over a trap in the only situation it would be beneficial. Kali’s sword wedges in the dirt at the edge of the pit.

“What are you doing!” Kayde goes over to the edge of the pit to look down at Fore to see if his buddy is okay.

“Do not do that again,” Drakthar slightly raises his voice at her.

“It’s the same as with Orrin, anyone who has drunk from the fountain must die,” Kali explains her actions, resolute in the matter.

“Not anymore,” Drakthar isn’t going to let her kill Fore.

“That mutt is a mark of shame, everyone who sees it will know of my failure!” Kali shouts while pointing vehemently down the hole.

“You’re wrong, the only people that know the wolf was the one to drink the fountain are right here, and none of us will say a word about it,” Drakthar promises her. Kali looks around at the others and sees Xander and Gwendolyn nod back at her.

“What about you cyborg?” Kali asks tentatively.

“I won’t tell anyone, and again, I’m not a cyborg,” Kayde responds, continuing to look down at Fore, concerned for his buddy.

Kali sighs, “I guess the wolf can live”.

“Now that that is settled,” Xander walks over to the pit. Kayde watches as he throws a bell at him, and suddenly the bell becomes Fore just as it reaches his arms.

He catches Fore, “Hey buddy, are you okay?” Fore barks back up at Kayde, wagging his tail rapidly in his arms.

“Wha… how… what did you just do?” Kali points blankly at Fore in Kayde’s arms, puzzled as to how he got there.

“I used to be from the Sacrosanct; I have some of their technology in me that allows me to switch things, teleport myself and turn back time a little,” Xander willingly lets Kali in on his powers.

“I’m sorry… what?” Kali clearly has never heard of any of this before.

“It’s a long story, I can just do some useful things sometimes,” Xander tries to simplify it so they can continue forward.

Kali shrugs and begins to lead them towards the island.

“It’s going to take a few days to get there; this is one of the better spots to set up camp for the night, so let’s wait here,” she tells them once they reach a small clearing amidst the tall ominous trees.

Once everything is set up, Drakthar gives Xander the look that it is time to go train.

“Yeah give me a second,” Xander replies, as he watches Drakthar head out of camp, disappearing between a couple of trees.

“Kali, do you want to train with us?” Xander offers, knowing she likely wants to cross blades with Drakthar again.

Kali turns her face away from Xander, “With both of you, no, but I will train with Drakthar”.

“Sure, I guess that works, but can I ask you one favor? Can you two do specialized training?” Xander rolls with her cold attitude.

Kali’s façade crumbles due to curiosity, “What kind of specialized training?”

“Drakthar is training to fight a man named Sharn, the person he considers his greatest opponent. I have memorized Sharn’s technique, so if I teach it to you, you can help Drakthar train against it,” Xander explains what he meant by specialized.

“I see… but why should I do that? It would only be a waste of my time,” Kali no longer entertains the notion, knowing exactly who Sharn is and how much stronger he is than her and Drakthar.

“I don’t think you should look at it that way. If he defeats Sharn, you will become the opponent he wants to defeat the most. I could be wrong, but I thought that was the reason you decided to come with us,” Xander points out, thinking he is reeling her in like a fish.

“Okay, I will do it,” Kali reluctantly agrees, knowing no amount of training will catch Drakthar up to Sharn.

“Alright kid, let’s go,” she starts to walk towards the trees. Xander outstretches his arm offering her a handshake, “Call me Xander”.

Instead of taking his hand, she slaps it out of her way as she walks past him, “Fine… Xander”.

The two of them head to meet Drakthar in the forest, fading out of view between the trees.

“You know, that was progress,” Gwendolyn comments having listened to the entire interaction.

“Yeah, she’ll be calling all of us by our names anytime now,” Kayde quips sarcastically, not seeing it as much progress at all. Fore barks in agreement.

Drakthar sees Xander and Kali approach out of the corner of his eye while he is swinging his axe at a tree.

“Look who agreed to train with you,” Xander tells him the good news.

“I don’t want to train with her right now, I need to focus on getting ready for Sharn,” Drakthar rejects the idea immediately, wanting to train with only Xander so they can brainstorm more ways to beat Sharn’s style.

Xander tries to clarify the misunderstanding, “Yeah, she is going to help us with that. I’m going to teach her Sharn’s style so she can spar against you”.

“I see… I guess that is fine,” Drakthar agrees, knowing Kali will be more like Sharn than Xander once she’s practiced it. He goes back to chopping down a giant tree while Xander teaches Kali Sharn’s sword style. By the end of the day, Kali is able to replicate it better than Xander ever could.

“Looks like you two can handle it from here…” Xander slow fades into the background giving them time to train by themselves.

“Back already?” Kayde comments upon seeing Xander return.

“I thought I would just do what I had to and then get out of there as soon as possible. I get the idea she only wants to spend time with Drakthar,” Xander observes while taking a seat with the other two.

“By the way she was moaning earlier, I wouldn’t blame her,” Gwendolyn comments, quite crudely. Eliciting shocked looks in her direction from both Xander and Kayde.

“Woah, you got something to tell us? I mean, is every woman we meet going to throw themselves at him now?” Kayde quips knowing full well Xander is right there.

“No, no no no… no, it was just a joke, I didn’t mean anything like that,” Gwendolyn backpedals quickly.

“Yeah, Kayde come on,” Xander defends her; knowing she had to have been kidding.

They wait for Drakthar and Kali to return before they eat, but they see no sign of them before they start to get tired and decide to sleep instead. They get up the next morning and head out again.

“So, you two were out pretty late last night what did you do?” Kayde asks coyly, as they head towards the island of immortals.

“We were just training,” Kali almost yells, her face slowly turning red.

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“Oh… okay,” Kayde replies. He hadn’t thought they actually did anything, but now...

They camp overnight again before waking up on the day they are set to reach the island.

“We should reach it by midday if we leave now,” Kali informs the others just as they have everything packed up and ready to go.

“Guys, maybe we should wait a few days… I mean what if Drakthar isn’t ready yet? He should train a bit more now that he has a more capable partner,” Xander suggests, not wanting his friend to lose again.

Kayde looks over to Drakthar, “What do you want to do?” Drakthar thinks hard on this, on one hand, he could always get stronger with time, but on the other, he doesn’t want to wait for another second to have another shot at Sharn.

“I’m good with either decision,” Drakthar decides, it not mattering either way to him.

“Okay, then let's vote on it. Fore and I both vote to go,” Kayde suggests, not giving anyone time to disagree.

“Hold on, you don’t know what he wants to do, he is a wolf,” Xander points out, not thinking Kayde should get two votes in what they do.

Kayde looks down at Fore and asks, “Fore, you want to go right?” Fore looks back up at him with the same dopey look as usual and barks.

“Oh come on, he will bark at anything. Watch, hey Fore you like eating your own shit right?” Xander stares at Fore waiting for him to bark back. Instead Fore growls menacingly up at Xander.

Xander is taken aback by this reaction, “Okay, fine, Fore can vote. My vote is we wait”.

“I agree, I think it will give Drakthar the best chance to win,” Gwendolyn agrees with Xander.

They all look over at Kali, who has the deciding vote in what they do.

“I say we go, the sooner his business with Sharn is over, the sooner he will focus on me,” Kali gives her reasoning, not mentioning that Drakthar will lose again.

She sees their eyes get a bit wider in surprise and she realizes her wording and adds, “As an opponent”.

Sure… Xander, Gwendolyn, and Kayde all think to themselves simultaneously.

They arrive at a bridge, this one wide, unlike the one they had crossed to enter the marshlands. Torches are lit to either side of it, one on each post along the bridge. They reach the end and see a large wooden gate with two spearmen standing guard outside.

As they draw nearer they notice the scars across their necks like Sharn’s. They must also be immortal.

When they get right in front of them, the guards cross their spears and they hear a voice, “State your business! None are allowed entry without a suitable reason”.

They see a grey-haired man with dark red eyes standing atop a stonewall at one of the edges of the gate.

The man notices Kali is with them, “Oh, Kali, didn’t notice you there. Shirking your duties to visit again?”

“Yes… I mean, I’m here to visit, but I’m not shirking my duty,” Kali explains, flustered, not able to admit that duty doesn’t exist anymore. The man raises his hand and the guards let her pass. The others try to follow, but crossed spears meet them again.

“What about the rest of you? What do you seek within our walls?” The man asks them.

“I seek battle with a man named Sharn. He indicated I should come here if I wished to fight him again,” Drakthar shouts back up at the man.

The man grins and gives the guards a signal and they let Drakthar pass.

“We are with him,” Kayde tells the man hoping he will let them through.

“I’m afraid that is not a valid reason for entry. The three of you will have to wait out here for your friend to settle his business on his own,” the man informs them.

“Actually there are four of us, don’t forget about Fore here,” Kayde signals down at the grey wolf at his side.

“Three, four, I don’t care how many of you there are, you cannot come in,” the man is irritated by Kayde’s correction.

“I guess we will be waiting out here, good luck buddy,” Kayde wishes Drakthar well.

“Yeah, you’ve got this,” Gwendolyn agrees.

“Don’t forget everything we worked on. You need to win here, next time he will know you studied his movements and change them on purpose, but if it looks like you are going to lose, don’t push yourself to the point where he kills you. I know you would rather die than lose, but I still need you... so just don’t die,” Xander rambles, worried about his friend.

Drakthar puts a hand on Xander’s shoulder and just nods silently, a calm yet determined look in his eye. They watch as the gates close behind Drakthar and Kali.

The man looks down at the remaining three and notices a glint of purple in Xander’s eye.

“You, turn back around,” he orders Xander.

He obeys looking up at the man atop the gate, “Yeah, okay… what do you want?” The man looks down at Xander, his eyes now blue again like normal.

“Nothing… never mind, you may leave,” the man dismisses him, convincing himself that he’s been seeing things.

“Great… now I’m stuck with you two,” Kayde sulks, as he starts to walk back along the bridge.

“Oh, come on you don’t need to sound so sad,” Gwendolyn is honestly a little hurt that he said that.

“Yeah, we can be fun,” Xander chimes in.

“No, you two are the least fun. Anyway it doesn’t matter, I’ll just bond with Fore while you two stay in your tent all day doing what you do,” Kayde urges Fore to follow him and they start to get far away from Xander and Gwendolyn.

Xander looks at Gwendolyn and shrugs before they start to follow Kayde in order to set up their camp to wait for Drakthar and Kali.

Back on the other side of the bridge, Drakthar gets his first look at the city. It’s not too different from Melusarej or Aconblasam. The stone buildings all around him take him by surprise, a stark contrast from the wilderness outside its gates.

“Where do I find Sharn?” Drakthar asks the man who questioned them; it seems he is the only one who can talk on this island.

“His house is the one with the brick path on the east side of the island; you know the one, right Kali?” The man describes. Kali nods.

“Then you two go get him, I will wait here for your return,” the man states, insinuating they should bring Sharn back there. As Drakthar and Kali pass through the city, Drakthar is surprised to see people going about the same business they would in any other city. The only difference is they cannot talk; creating an unsettling silence that honestly doesn’t bother Drakthar much.

“Here it is,” Kali points towards the house the man described with the brick path. They walk down said path and come to the plain white door of the quaint little house. Drakthar knocks forcefully on the door twice, aiming to ensure Sharn can hear him.

The person who opens the door is not Sharn, but instead a red-haired woman. Emotions start to overwhelm her as she sees the man standing on her doorstep. To others, he is just a guy with some scars, but to her, he is an angel of death. She knows why he has come and has dreaded this day for a long time.

“I’m looking for Sharn,” Drakthar informs the woman in a loud voice. Sharn appears having heard Drakthar’s voice; there could only be one reason he has come here.

Sharn tries to move past the woman to go with Drakthar, but she grabs his arm. He looks down at the distraught look on her face and smiles as if to calm her down. She puts her hand delicately on his face as if to remember how he feels one last time.

Sharn leans down and kisses her passionately, so much so that Kali looks away out of embarrassment. Sharn looks down at her with one last smile before going with Drakthar and Kali back towards the front. The woman looks at Sharn walk away with tears silently filling her eyes; desperately wishing she could still scream.

As they walk, Drakthar and Sharn do not make eye contact, the two sporting determined expressions as they make their way back towards the front of the city.

“I see you found him,” the man on the wall comments as he sees them return.

“You can follow me, we have a place set up for occasions such as this. I hope you are ready, Sharn has been with us for a long time,” the man warns Drakthar.

“I wouldn’t have come here if I wasn’t prepared,” he declares, thinking back on all the training he’s gone through leading up to this moment.

They follow the man as he leads them to a dirt arena, not unlike the one the Bears had in a warehouse in Melusarej. This time though, the stands are empty; no one will witness this fight aside from the present four.

“Why don’t we have a seat,” the man suggests to Kali, gesturing towards the front row of the stands. Kali obliges, sitting down next to the man. They watch as Sharn and Drakthar make their way into the center of the dirt circle in the middle of the arena.

Before the fight begins Drakthar pulls a stym out of his bag and takes it.

“Ah, a stym,” the man observes, knowing exactly what Drakthar is taking.

Kali scowls a bit at him using something like that, “He thinks he needs to cheat in order to have a chance”.

“I wouldn’t look at it that way. I know Sharn sees him taking a stym as a sign of respect. It means this man values Sharn as an opponent, and him taking the stym is a reflection of that,” the man explains.

“Does it ever bother them that you can do that?” Kali asks vaguely.

“No, they understand my role as speaker and have become accustomed to living like this,” the Speaker explains.

“I wouldn’t want anyone in my head, my thoughts should stay private,” Kali declares, detesting the way of life of the immortals.

“You have something to hide?” The Speaker asks.

“Doesn’t everyone?” Kali points out.

“Looks like I’m in control this time,” Drakthar states, still in full control of his actions. The fight begins with Drakthar swinging wildly at Sharn, trying to confirm that he defends the same way he did before.

Seeing Sharn block his attacks at exactly the same angles brings a grin to Drakthar’s face. With his next attack, he swings horizontally at Sharn, but with less force than normal. Sharn notices Drakthar’s feint a fraction of a second too late and Drakthar changes course subtly, his axe reaching Sharn’s armor for the first time.

“Did Sharn request to die?” Kali asks solemnly as she watches the fight.

“So you figured it out, fairly impressive for someone so young,” the Speaker compliments her ability to make such an observation.

“I know Sharn is at least ten times stronger than Drakthar right now, yet he is fighting him evenly. It would be obvious to anyone with knowledge of how you operate that Sharn is planning to die,” Kali notes, frustrated by this entire situation.

The Speaker turns towards Kali, concerned by what she’s said, “It is true, everything you claim. Sharn chose Drakthar as the one he wants to replace him”.

“And what if Sharn dies and he refuses, you will be down an immortal?” She questions, hoping there is a chance Drakthar won’t want to become an immortal.

“I believe in Sharn’s decision, he’s been here the longest. If he wants to rest, who am I to keep him from it?” The Speaker explains.

“Promise me one thing… if Drakthar does accept, never tell him Sharn let him win,” Kali insists, knowing what it would do to him if he knew.

The speaker looks over at Kali for a second, surprised to hear such a tone from her of all people, “You really care about him don’t you?”

“Shut up, I just met him… but just don’t let him know. I know his type, if he knows the victory was handed to him he wouldn’t be pleased, and that could cause a problem for you,” Kali denies his allegations, going back to her normal dismissive tone.

“Alright, he will never know,” the Speaker promises her.

As the fight continues, Drakthar notices that, despite knowing what Sharn will do, he still cannot land a hit on him, especially now that he has his guard up. It takes a while before Drakthar knows what he has to do in order to win.

Drakthar steels his resolve and swipes low at Sharn’s left calf, completely ignoring Sharn’s sword headed directly for his chest. Sharn’s eyes grow wide at Drakthar’s ploy. He hesitates for a moment and his sword cuts through Drakthar’s armor but doesn’t make it any further.

Sharn feels immense pain in his left leg as he falls, his foot and lower calf no longer attached to his body. He lands on his knee and stares up at Drakthar. The armor he hit shatters and falls, clanking against the dirt.

Those watching the battle look on silently. Despite knowing that Sharn intends to die, they are still stunned by what is playing out before them. Even though Sharn has lost part of his leg he remains determined, his sword at the ready.

For a moment Drakthar underestimates him and swings lazily at the man with no leg, assuming his axe will easily find its mark. Instead, Sharn knocks his axe down with his sword and redirects to cut slightly into Drakthar’s arm through his armor.

It dawns on Drakthar that, even though Sharn is down, the fight is not over. He stays close to Sharn, their weapons colliding repeatedly, both of them starting to feel the toll of battle.

Drakthar is surprised as he stumbles, causing a slight opening for Sharn and narrowly dodges the following blow. Drakthar glances down to see that it was Sharn’s blood that he slipped in. He knows that in a few minutes Sharn will bleed out and die.

Still, the determination never leaves Sharn’s eyes. Drakthar looks directly into them and knows he must continue fighting in order to honor Sharn’s life. It is not one that deserves to die in such a way.

They exchange blows until the bitter end, and right before Sharn is about to faint from the loss of blood, Drakthar readies his axe and cleaves Sharn’s head clean off; a death befitting a mighty warrior such as him.

As Sharn’s head hits the floor, Drakthar falls to one knee. The pain starts to take its toll and he loses himself to the blissful embrace of unconsciousness.

Kali runs over to Drakthar’s side and calls out, “Get somebody! Help him!”

“Calm down, he is fine. Rest assured, all of his injuries will be treated,” the Speaker promises her. He gets up and looks down at Sharn’s lifeless eyes. He shuts them before walking off into the nearby building.