“Thanks a lot for the meal,” said Timothy as licked his soup using his tongue combined with ‘Druidic Force’. He was collecting the globules on his tongue and eating it that way in his ‘Form of Man’.

“Good soup,” said Timothy.

“A anything for ‘a you, mister pilosa! I wouldn’t ‘a dream of ‘a chargin’ you! You saved my daughter!” , cheered a random italian accented chef. Cosimo balked at that, it reminded him of home. The waiter went to attend to other customers, a smile on his face.

They were at the Adventurer’s Guild. Timothy was having a soup that looked like they just put everything possible in it, and Cosimo was having a giant ant. When he saw it on the menu, he said “Timothy! This is it! You need to eat this! It’s what your species on earth eats! Don’t you want to fulfill that destiny!” and was turned down.

Timothy said something to the effect of “if you want to see me eat it that much then it feels like I would lose if I gave in,” in a huff and declined.

So Cosimo got it for himself out of spite. And a hope that Timothy would desire it on some level seeing him eat it. It tasted like lobster.

Timothy checked his arm to which was tied with an identification crystal. He had gotten it at Cosimo’s urging. He didn’t want give in and was still looking for an excuse to take his anger out on something, but in the end curiosity won over.

“By Xenarthra Cosimo, the lady was so excited to see me she didn’t even question my looks. I guess my ‘Form of Dragon’ really doesn’t hide my identity that well. So, you said I imagine ‘status’ in my head… Hmm…well seems like I knew everything already. You said ‘Arts’ were supposed to be rare though. Then again, I couldn’t use magic in the first place. I wonder why it’s so hard for humans to get them. Level six? That’s a little low isn’t it?”, rambled Timothy out loud.

The number of things that the identification crystal could do were hilarious to say the least. Word had already gotten around that the magic pilosa that saved the town had become an Adventurer, with sigil birds glittering through the sky. They were sending him donations for some reason. Identification crystals were mostly for commerce, identification slash status reading and ability description, and spell casting after all.

“Oh no… so that’s what ‘Mediocre is…,” sighed Cosimo.

“‘Mediocre’? You yelled it like was some kind of spell when you looked like you were trying to end our fight earlier, it was flashy but all that happened is a felt a little weaker when we were walking,” said Timothy.

“I’m sorry Timothy. It’s one of the spells I got from the god who transported me here. My level is six too, it brought you down to my level quite literally,” apologized Cosimo.

“You do like your apologies. Amongst my people, if you had a problem, you just fought it out. If I get taken out become of some dumb thing concept like what level I’m at, that just means my skills weren’t good enough. Wait, it’s ‘Arts’. My ‘Arts’ weren’t good enough,” Timothy grumbled.

“Levels are really important though. I was worried when I saw your identification crystals number of points on it too,” Cosimo said.

“What’s wrong with the number of points? Don’t all of them have six?”, said Timothy.

“My and your’s do. From the book I read when I was in the whiteless void about identification crystals, it’s your quality as a being that determines how many points you have. Six is the lowest,” said Cosimo.

Timothy pointed at Cosimo with his ‘Form of Man’ finger and arm. “Are you saying I’m poor quality? Me? I’ll have you know, there wasn’t anyone else in the order that was even into shapeshifting. I’m special. If I’m not, then my skills definitely are,” he said that grumpily as he choked down a globule of soup.

“Also, you were in a whiteless void? Dream exploration?”, asked Timothy.

“I don’t know what dream exploration is, that’s where I met the japanese god Susanoo the first time and then this time I fought against my inherently broken sister who I failed to save from her own brokenness. Also, level is important because-”, Cosimo said.

Timothy held up his ‘Form of Man’ hand. He had seen humans do this, it was a ‘Stop’ ability. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just what the heck is that? Sister? In a magical whiteless void? How is a whiteless void even whiteless? Isn’t that just black? Broken?”, he questioned.

Cosimo considered how to respond effectively and put his hand to his chin. Telling the truth is the best way, right? Even if he’s too honest, at least he isn’t using ‘Liar’.

“My sister killed me. She made a deal with Susanoo, the god I talked about, because she wanted to go have fun and she thought I wanted to go to another world. She was correct about that. She is homicidal from birth. I put my pride and shame on the line trying to protect her from society. They would throw her in jail for her crimes. I covered up for a murderer, basically. I thought it was the right thing to do. The void is white. I call it the whiteless void because there isn’t any white in there but it’s white. That’s how I got here, also level is important because-”, spouted Timothy.

He pointed at him again with his ‘Form of Man’ hand and interrupted him, “You. I like you. First human that told the truth even when it was hard. You remind me of home. Great job, human.”

He continued making hand gestures to emphasize his points, “That sounds like an awful, awful past. It was tough I bet. Bet you wish you had ‘Soul Communication’ like me. Could have sorted that right away. You aren’t a pilosa. You’re human. You messed up, I messed up. You’re like me. I messed up harder than you. My whole order burned to the ground when I was off having a good old time flying around the countryside with ‘Form of Dragon’. I still don’t forgive myself. But let me tell you kid, the balance needs to be preserved! I regrew my people’s valley by tongue hard work alone after I buried their corpses and fought off the burning beasts driven to starvation. Life’s tough. Want to fight again?”

Cosimo was put off by the anger and openness combination. ‘Soul Communication’, I guess this is how his people like to talk? It’s kind of refreshing. Maybe everything with Maria wasn’t that big of a deal? Well, now that he’s in another world and it’s over at least. Cosimo didn’t want another fight though, he’d just be able to tank hits with ‘Average’ in the end and that didn’t sound fun.

“I-I’ll pass. You’ll just be wailing on me. I have this ability called ‘Average’, it returns me to setpoint of what I think ‘Average’ is, it’s a really unpredictable ability. There’s also some time component that I haven’t really tested. Also, level is important because-”, said Cosimo.

“That reminds me. When we fought, you know the first time where we went insane simultaneously? I was talking to Arge earlier and he said Aeschyli called what happened between us a magic reaction. I lost it right after I read your soul with ‘Soul Communication’. What spell were you using?”, Timothy asked.

“Nothing. But now that I think about it, ‘Average’ is a passive type of ability. I remember feeling like you stepped into my mind, I got really angry. I think I said something like ‘get out of my head’. Then I remember just using ‘Flow Charge’ and ‘Mediocre Force’ to charge my hand up with nigh limitless energy and cause that explosion that leveled part of the city. That’s all I remember before I passed out. Also, level is important because-”, Cosimo said.

“I’m going to let you get to the level thing. Okay? I want to know that too. Not being rude. Just curious. Just one more thing. ‘Mediocre Force’?”, said Timothy. This was an insult to his people.

“It’s an ability I have. It lets me put force into something. I can’t really use it well though, so I use another ability called ‘Flow Charge’ to move the ‘Mediocre Force’ through my body. I used it to help people during the flood along with ‘Mediocre’ and Aeschyli was with me too. You know she was the one who took you? Anyways, level is important because it toughens your body and mind up. Certain attacks, spells, ‘Arts’, they just won’t affect you at all. You can’t go past a certain potential level depending on how many points you have on your identification crystal. People like you and me will never level past twenty or so, if we ever get there. Also, my ‘Mediocre’ may have permanently lowered your potential level since you also have a six point identification crystal,” Cosimo said.

Timothy was pondering with his ‘Form of Man’ hand on his chin. He was pulling everything together.

“Arge told me about Aeschyli. She’s trouble. It seems like your ‘Average’ reacted with my soul read. I don’t know how though. That ability sounds like it’s much worse than ‘Mediocre’. I won’t begrudge you the whole lowering my potential part. From the start, I only seek truth and justice.

One mystery is solved. Now, onto the next one,” said Timothy.

“There’s another mystery? Oh, and what happened to that army?”, asked Cosimo.

“I may have caused the flood,” he was lucky he was using ‘Soul Communication’ as the people around him would have gasped.

“Also they won, somehow. Despite the nonsense you pulled. Humans,” Timothy shrugged.

“You may have caused the flood? When did that happen?”, Cosimo said. He was lucky the restaurant was busy and the people were leaving their hero alone to dine with his friend out of respect.

“I hit Arge into a water cylinder. Right after, the whole city flooded. I used ‘Druidic Force’ on my tongue. It may have been another magic reaction,” he said as he sipped his soup.

“‘Druidic Force’? Is that like ‘Mediocre Force’”, asked Cosimo.

“It’s a lot better. I hope it’s better. No, it’d better be better. It’s my favorite ‘Arts’ after all,” said Timothy.

“So you want to know the truth then? What are you going to do if you’re responsible?” asked Cosimo. He was wondering how Timothy would deal with guilt, seeing as how he already had the guilt of not being able to save his people.

“Hmm. That’s a good question. Probably just hate myself. I don’t think the answer is to stay here and repay my crime with the rest of my life in servitude. I’m going to help people wherever I go anyways. The truth is necessary though. If it wasn’t my crime, I can’t hold onto it. If it is my crime, I need to remember it. It is necessary to respect that. Even though I can do nothing for the fallen,” Timothy answered.

Cosimo was trying to process Timothy’s answer. In the end, Timothy couldn’t do anything about it. He had already decided what he believed, and what he was going to do. It just happened to him, he didn’t choose to flood the city, but he did choose what to do from then on. He wasn’t running away. He wasn’t necessary taking responsibility either though.

“What about the people here? Wouldn’t they deserve to know the truth about what happened? I think… they would want to punish you for sure,” Cosimo said.

“Humans. If they found out the truth on their own, that’s fine with me. If someone, like you, were to tell them, that’s fine with me. I’ll fight all the battles I need to fight. Even if it’s against the people I saved,” answered Timothy.

Cosimo was stunned. He couldn’t have imagined Timothy was like this. What’s this feeling? Cosimo tried to parse it out in his head. Timothy shouldn’t get away with this, is what he thought.

This is wrong, how can he think this way? But Cosimo couldn’t blame him due to the circumstances. After all, that was just a freak of this world, the magic reaction, that Timothy had no idea about. Timothy was strong. Timothy was really strong.

That didn’t mean that Cosimo thought that Timothy still wasn’t wrong. However, Cosimo decided in his mind that he wouldn’t punish him.

“I won’t tell anyone. I can’t really understand your beliefs… but I’m your friend. I’ll stand with you if it comes to a fight,” Cosimo said with a grin.

“No, I don’t think so,” Timothy grinned with his eyes and heart. “After all, you might level the rest of the city you know?”, Timothy slurped his soup.

“Can I have some of that Vespoidea?”, Timothy said, pointing at the ant Cosimo was eating.

==========

Arge was at the hospital returning the Rosa Lingua to Aeschyli. He ran into Chel.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you earlier but Cosimo woke up today,” said Chel.

“Yeah I saw him running in the city center earlier. He looked like he was scared, he should be!” said Arge.

“My, he’s up already? Good for him. If you want to hurt him make sure I’m nearby okay?”, worried Chel.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Please, if I do that how will I kill him?”, cackled Arge as he walked off.

Chel watched him walk off.

“He’s having fun. I hope he doesn’t kill Cosimo too much,” said Chel.

=========

Aeschyli woke up in a start and grasped Rosa Lingua. Good thing it was right there, she might have torn up the city trying to find it. Arge had guessed that much right.

Aeschyli caught Chel on the way back.

“Hey, Aeschyli. Cosimo woke up this morning. He’s running around the city scared for some reason according to Arge. He brought you your Rosa Lingua, he said he forgot it. How was the fight?”, said Chel. Chel had naturally assumed that Arge had finally snapped and knocked Aeschyli unconscious.

“I’ll have to thank him. Arge is good about the small things. I wonder why. We fought some Felix guy. He was cool,” Aeschyli said as she fondly remembered waiting outside his window for him to finish his long soliloquy.

“Felix? He’s the thief lord of Aleppo. Arge always has to deal with him. I guess Arge finally defeated him battle, proving that he was truly superior to his role model,” Chel said. She had no idea that Timothy impaled Felix with his tongue and threw him through his own roof.

“Wonderful. I knew you could do it Arge,” she sniffed herself on instinct. She smelled like the pilosa.

“Why do I smell like pilosa?” asked Aeschyli.

“Oh, earlier Arge flew in on that pilosa that saved the city with you unconscious. I wonder why he was there,” said Chel. She was not aware that the sloth that was being carried around was the same person in a different form. She naturally assumed that Slo had picked up a incredibly small sloth and Arge had permitted it because he was too busy with Aeschyli.

“Thanks Chel. I think I’ll find that pilosa,” said Aeschyli.

“Take care,” she said as Aeschyli ran off. “I guess she likes animals like Slo does?”, wondered Chel.

============

Slo had a job. A part time job. Rubble needed to be cleared, and her destructive power was immense. She was helping where Doru was salvaging the buildings that Cosimo had blasted away after the flood. There wasn’t many mages who could do that in Aleppo.

Doru was hiding behind an entire building. This wasn’t the building slow was aiming at either. He had his blackened wooden shield that was tall as him and square bunched up against the wall. It was double protection, in case her ‘Haagen Jofurr’ caused shrapnel to fly his way.

“I’m starting!”, yelled Slo.

Everyone was running away. Even the people who were already far away, they were ducking and hiding.

“Today’s my lucky day, right? I don’t want to end up like John…” said a random woman. Incidentally, John was fine, mostly. This was Xana. She recovered her identity crystal which had flowed all the the way out into the plains with the help of a sigil bird designed to locate her identification crystal. It was expensive though.

“‘~Brenna’ Full Bombardment! - ‘Excelsior’! ‘Haagen Jofurr’!”, she cast. ‘Excelsior’ wasn’t as strong as her ‘Excelsus Maximus’. It was really just the power setting on her ‘~Brenna’ which augmented the spell.

However, she wasn’t aiming. Thousands of tiny red yellow lights shot out. Normally, she would have them stop, then explode, then shoot off again and explode again. That was just ‘Haagen Jofurr’ in the first place.

There was no aiming this time. There was only explosions.

Each red yellow light shot off in many different directions and blew up the surrounding countryside along with the buildings. There were precautions taken. No one died.

They had asked her to do it really. There was a lot of buildings to break down and not a lot of mages to do it.

Doru had said to the foreman, “‘dis wee lass ‘ere, she’ll blow ‘da ‘hole plains ‘ta ‘ihg ‘eaven”.

They thought he was joking. The foreman had urged her, “Hey, I know you’re doing a good job already, but don’t hold back on us. Just don’t deplete your own energy, we wouldn’t want you to get hurt!”.

Slo smiled, and waved to Doru who was climbing out of the rubble of the building that had fallen on top of him.

“‘Das a good ‘un lassy! Keep ‘er up!”, he cheered. He was glad he brought his shield today.

========

Cosimo was wandering the city. Timothy had flown off saying he was going to find a sigil magic engineer. He had borrowed money from Timothy after they ate, as Timothy was now extremely rich due to donations from his admirers. Cosimo had a tight grin on his face when he heard that, as it was a good chance that Timothy was the spark that light the fuse here. He was trying to let it go.

After all, he had bought clothing finally, and was feeling good about himself. It was a dark red loose shirt tied by a belt, a black undershirt, some pairs of black tights and boots. He got a round red hat too. It seemed like a good idea. He had collected a knapsack and various goods he read about in ‘Aleppo for Retards’ during his stay in the whiteless void.

The thing he wanted most was a sigil bird. That was doubtless going to be useful somehow, since he saw them everywhere flying around. They would glitter from the sun and have various stamps on them.

He was lucky that Timothy had just gone, “hey, take it” and transferred him a bunch of money. This was going to be pretty expensive. He was amazed that a sigil bird shop would even be open so soon after the flood, but he figured that the economy still needed to keep going. He was never good at understanding that kind of thing.

He entered a large shop emblazoned with hundred of sigils etched into vast glass windows. Guess that’s how they show off their skill? There was a culture of images in Aleppo after all.

A short studious bespeckled type with white hair and a bald head greeted him.

“‘Ello ‘der ser. Whaddya lookin’ ‘fer?”, he said in a lower class british accent. Maybe it was something wrong with the translation spell that wizard cast? Maybe it was just him hearing it that way, he surmised. He looked like a dwarf though, and dwarves were always scottish right?

“I’m looking for a noble-class sigil bird,” said Cosimo. He wasn’t going to cheapen up here. Although he had no idea how he would pay Timothy back, Cosimo figured that with his ridiculous level of sheer power he’d make it up to him somehow. Besides, who knew how useful the bird would prove to be? He was thinking of learning sigil magic himself.

“And I’m looking for books on sigil magic,” he decided to add that.

“Ah, we don’t sell book’s ‘ere ser. Sigil magic is usually apprentice based you know?”, said the shopkeeper.

“Oh, I didn’t know. I just assumed anyone could just try it out,” said Cosimo.

“No, no, you’ve got to have an artist’s touch. It takes a lotta skill to get the sigil looking right, it’s not just magic, you also need to learn the language itself. Here, let me show you our noble-class sigil birds in the back.”

Cosimo was getting down about sigils already. It sounded like being an artist and computer programmer at once. He was a hard worker, his history proved that, but he was already losing steam. Give up? He’ll try it another day at the very least. He was too sure of his art skill though.

As he was lead into the back Cosimo saw the large variety of them. Some of them could be used for battle. It was possible to capture unique magic in sigils, given that you had someone who could cast it. It was impossible for spells that used your own energy though, as that would destroy the sigil in an instant. In ‘Aleppo for Retards’ he read that they usually considered them far too costly for combat, especially since once you had one it could last for quite awhile.

“These are them. You’re using it for mailing right? All of these are unpainted and have no emblazon on them. We decorate them too for a fee,” said the shopkeeper.

Often people just decorated them themselves, but a noble house would have special artistry on the sigil bird.

The sigil birds in front of him were slim and pointed, like blue jays or pigeons. There was even a few weapons in the cases. He read about sigil weapons and armor, the reason why they were in the back was that only nobles could afford them. He’d pass on that, he didn’t want to be getting in fights anyways.

Wait, wouldn’t it happen for sure in the future? He put it out of mind. One thing at a time.

“What’s this one over here?”, Cosimo pointed out a thick fat light metallic gold one. It looked more like a canadian goose without a head and neck.

“That’s my special,” he lit up with a smile. “I’ve been doing this for years, everyone who does this sort of thing long enough wants to make their own personal type of bird. Nobody even looks at them though. They take countless years of hardship to make an original version but no one’s willing to invest in something specialized like this. This is result of my experience and preferences. Really, you could just say I made it for myself. I wanted something that someone who had the same thinking as me would appreciate,” he laughed.

“It’s more my personal professional joy you see. An amateur couldn’t build it at all, wouldn’t even bother to try. I don’t see why anyone would want a sigil bird that can run on the ground, swim and dive, and fly all in one. ‘Why did you make it do that?’ people would say, ‘you’re sacrificing speed, it’s fat, the magic flow efficiency is low, why no head? It’s supposed to be a bird!’ and I just had to do it anyways. It’s noble-class of course, but you probably wouldn’t want this for mailing, it's more of a pet or novelty item. It’s got a bit of a mind of it’s own you see. I wouldn’t recommend it if you want something that’s reliable,” the shopkeeper said.

Cosimo was interested to say the least. He admired the tenacity to do something new. Beyond that, he had read that Marscione was filled with canals. Wouldn’t this be great for that? Or what about the sea? Wouldn’t this be fun just to have around?

“I’ll take it. I want one that can follow me around, it would be nice not to have to carry it,” Cosimo said.

This was something special, he could tell. He had no idea what he would do with it, but the potential was there. Lots of complexity to delve into, he thought.

“Okay then. I usually have no returns, but for this one I’ll waive it. After all, this thing might just wander off on you and come back suddenly. You’ve got to be careful. It’s 45,000 rukh, I’m assuming lump sum?” said the shopkeeper.

Cosimo was wondering if he should investigate it more but he had a lot of Timothy’s money to burn right now. This was awfully interesting.

“Yeah,” said Cosimo, as he followed the shopkeeper who picked up the fat goose sigil bird and lead him to the register.

======

Cosimo was playing around with the sigil bird. It was walking after him, registered to his identification crystal. It felt like he had a dog now. It would cut behind him as if it could see people coming at it. They must have a motion detection spell in a sigil right? Otherwise how could they fly? He was amused at the jerky motions it would make and he ordered it to fly to the top of buildings and back down. It seemed more and more like an animal to him, more like a flying fat basketball than anything else. He laughed. It was cheering him up. It had been a rough day.

He was heading back to the inn when he bumped into Arge.

“What the heck is that,” Arge said.

Cosimo completely missed him approaching distracting by the sigil bird.

“My new sigil bird,” Cosimo said.

“What, you really are a noble aren’t you?”, Arge said. He was convinced his earlier theory was true. Cosimo was a mystery. The only feelings he felt were the need to punish him.

“Nah, Timothy’s rich now. He gave me money. I heard he got angry and beat you up. I’m sorry about that, he’s really rigid you know? He beat me up too. Twice. He’s pretty violent, isn’t he?”, Cosimo sent the sigil bird into the sky. He felt a kinship with Arge. Cosimo had the knife on him, so this was a good time to give it to him.

“I want a sigil bird,” said Arge with a sad smile in his heart.

Arge didn’t really have a plan. There didn’t seem to be a way to use Timothy’s sentience as a way to get back at Aeschyli, so he dropped that. Let her have the damn pilosa.  Beating Cosimo up was his only goal for today. At least making it clear that he did not approve of his behavior, even though Cosimo did nothing.

Now he wanted a sigil bird really bad. He then considered using ‘Haggle Arts’ to haggle one for himself. For a reasonable price of course. The thought had not occurred to him before because Aeschyli had run him ragged ever since he got restored from pretending to be a corpse and getting retrieved by Timothy.

He looked up at the flying fat sigil bird.

“You wait here Cosimo. I’m getting a sigil bird,” said Arge.

Cosimo felt a sense of danger in that statement. What was he mad about?

Arge ran off to the sigil bird shop that wasn’t that far away from the inn.

“Hey shopkeep, I want a noble-class sigil bird. Make it black. For 1, no 10 rukh,” Arge said.

“You’re going to need to go higher than that…” said the shopkeeper.

If there was anything Arge learned from the talk with Felix it was that ‘Haggle Arts’ wasn’t all powerful.

“Okay, twenty rukh, you can paint it black if you want to, you can choose make it a noble-class or regular one if you want. Someone like me, I prefer noble-class. I’ll give you five rukh to make my noble-class sigil bird black. Here’s your money,” he gave him 1 rukh, “I left the rest in the sigil bird,” said Arge.

He had just decided to use everything at once. He confused himself saying it, but when the shopkeep went into the back to get it he thought himself a genius. I’m getting a sigil bird, Arge thought.

Isn’t this thievery?

No, really this was all Cosimo’s fault for suddenly getting a rich friend and showing off his sigil bird. Arge thought he wouldn’t bother trying to con Timothy though, he had enough trouble with Aeschyli and it drove him mad.

He raced back to Cosimo sending his black and silver sigil here and there with verbal commands.

“Okay Cosimo. Let’s end this,” he said as he called his sigil bird to float above him

Cosimo looked up from checking how the legs on his sigil bird worked. It was just a simple lever system, but there were sigils at certain parts that did who knows what.

“End what?”, Cosimo said.

“My sigil bird… is going to beat your sigil bird!”, Arge said, as he ordered it to attack the golden goose.

“Um, fight back golden sigil bird,” Cosimo said halfheartedly. He didn’t want to play with Arge. Moreover, how’d he get money for a sigil bird anyways?

Arge’s feelings of uselessness and frustration surged forth with his noble-class sigil bird that was black and painted with silver sigils. It’s victory would be his victory.

They smacked into each other.

The golden goose won by sheer weight.

Arge fell to his knees and then on his palms.

Just who was he kidding? Slo’s always been like this anyways. He was just being dumb.

It wasn’t the sigil bird’s fault. It was his feelings that lost.

“Hey. Arge. What’s wrong?”, said Cosimo. Isn’t this the perfect time, he thought, standing over the fallen Arge.

He held out the knife handle first, pinching the handle himself. He didn’t want to touch the blade.

“Here Arge, It’s a blade blessed by the god Susanoo. My sister killed a dragon with it. I want you to have it. I have bad memories thinking about her, so you’d really be doing me a favor. It’s actually an ability of mine to summon it, but it just paralyzes me when it’s inside so it’s kind of useless. Just be careful with it okay? It’s supposed to be amazing somehow,” said Cosimo, being as honest as he could. It wouldn’t do to lie. He neglected to mention the dragon was a komodo though.

Arge looked up, tears in his eyes. There was a knife with a blue shine in the blade, undoubtedly of noble origin, a sigil blade. That story was obviously false. He knew that. But the effort put into it made him think, “This guy, he understands what he did. He’s giving me a sigil blade! He’s apologizing!”. Cosimo did not understand at all.

Arge took the handle in his hand, the blade was strangely broad, isn’t this a kitchen knife? He then felt a dark energy seep into him. Take revenge on Aeschyli, it said, stab her, kill her, it said.

Naturally, he had already thought of those things. Her body was literally too amazing though, as he saw on Timothy’s back after the fight with Felix. Also, his murderous rage was only really expended when he was in danger, he wasn’t homicidal by nature. Probably. Unless his friends were in trouble. Did he really even want to actually kill Aeschyli anyways? It felt like he wanted to show her he couldn’t be pushed around more than anything.

The dark energy seeped away and Arge felt a new strength within him as he stood up. Who cares about Aeschyli? She could bully him all she wanted. He could take it. He’d defend Slo to the end!

Arge hugged Cosimo, who was surprised.

“Thank you,” Arge pulled out the hug. “I’ll make sure this gets used for good!”, he cheered.

Arge was weird today. Was he always like this? Cosimo didn’t know him for long, so maybe he had a weak side?

“You’re welcome?”, said Cosimo.

While Arge wasn’t going to kill Aeschyli, there was definitely someone who was coming to do just that.

============

The sky was pitch black and thunder rumbled in the distance.

Trees without leaves swung in the night wind.

A lone abomination garbed entirely in red stalked across the land.

There was a trap set for him up ahead in the nearby mountain, he could tell with ‘Detection Arts’. His skills were many. You could say it was just many people stacked into one being, the ultimate Grunt of Grunnir. Merely a shocktroop, it was comprised of the flesh and identification crystals of many different adventurer’s. It could invoke most of their spells, and had a total level of one hundred and sixty-nine.

The noble council of Grunkirk had allowed Grunnir’s madness, but hearing from the security they had stationed at the border of the Grunnir estate to keep things in as well as out, they had no choice but to try to contain it with the reserves they had. Where was it going? What was it doing? They knew Grunnir had control over a small army of shocktroops but that was it. The only kind of people who went there never came out.

“Captain, target sighted! Begin ambush?”

“Fire, Fire ‘til it’s a black stain on the ground.”

A palisade of concentrated magical fire rampaged toward Grunt, who chanted “‘Thirt’”.

Thirteen blades of shining glass sparkled into existence around him in a fan.

They all converged in front of him, interlocking by stabbing past each other.

The magical wall of energy dissipated when it hit the swords, some particles and fireballs floating off to burn the countryside.

“Captain!”

“See, this is why I brought the alcohol. Keep firing!”

The troops spread out in a fan formation and kept barraging Grunt with magical menagerie.

They surrounded him on all sides, neglecting the danger of friendly fire and aimed for his legs.

Grunt just took it all, sword or no. The captain of the troops had gathered his strongest melee fighters together with sigil blades and armor. With all of the combined experience there, they were level one thousand five hundred and forty-three but not a single one of them was one hundred sixty nine. A few were ninety eight.

Grunt charged forward towards the melee line and smacked into them scattering them into the sky. The few stronger ones managed to stay on the ground, and those he targeted with ‘Foil Rain’ which he just kept casting over and over. From each of his identification crystals, he could cast an additional spell. While the soldiers who were level 98 could individually take on any of the humans that comprised Grunt’s being, they couldn’t stand against it coming against them all at once.

They each fell from the sheer number of foils, and Grunt waded through anyone that was remotely weaker. Soldier who flew earlier were just fleeing if they could, completely void of hope.

The magical attacks continued. They achieved nothing.

“Captain! Call for retreat!

“Fine, fine, sound the retreat! Just what is the council doing allowing that madman to run amok?”

Grunt saw them fleeing. Killing them was not in the orders. Finding out what Aeschyli knew and killing her was.

“Aeschyli… fight me…”, Grunt groaned.