They both rushed out to see what happened, the glow of Life maou already filling Tay's hands in case someone needed healing.

What he saw as he stepped out into the gyms main floor caused Chisson to freeze. The first thing he noticed was the man, pale and trembling with fear suspended above the ground by a grip around his neck, his hands so small compared to their captors clawed desperately to loosen the grip around his throat. Both they and his entire neck we're starting to grow red with burn marks as the char-gray hand of his captor grew hot. The Char gray hand attached to a thick scaled arm which was attached to a body housing a large Turtle-like shell interspersed with cracks that seemed like they were filled with Magma.

"You knew what would happen if I saw you here again" Bensen growled, Chisson for a moment thinking he was talking to him before realizing he hadn't turned away from his victim, "what do you have to say for yourself, Zimm"

In a pained rasp Zimm, a thin zapoinki man, who looked like a yellow Pig, choked out "Please, Bensen… Sir… I'm sorry! This the only gym in town and I just need to-"

" I don't care what you need. this place belongs to me I decide who comes and goes and you are not welcome"

" I swear I'll pay I just don't have the money right now I just"

"I've heard that bullshit too many times recently. No more warnings. Pay your tab or pay the other way"

Zimm simply started weeping

"Fine then" Benson said as he slammed his captive to the ground without letting go up his throat. It was easily enough to eliminate the man's lifeline, likely breaking a few bones in the process. The Kaigin raised his fist, the same sheath of flame that he had to used to charge Chisson appearing to cover the appendage and...

For Chisson time seemed to slow

This was what would happen to him of Bensen saw him here.

The helpless look on Zimm's face made his stomach roil.

It wasn't like he could save the guy, if he tried to affect the situation he would just be dying a pointless death.

And it wasn't as if he knew him. Dying for stranger sounded so pointless and stupid especially for someone as weak as him.

He couldn't beat the Kaigin yesterday when the man had simply wanted to teach him, in the mood Bensen was clearly in, a repeat offense only a day later was suicide.

He should turn he should run, he should try to blend in with the crowd enough to get to the door and get out of there.

He had no place in this situation.

He knew it. it was an objective fact not an opinion, like the fact that the sun shone and that water was wet.

So why was he running towards the danger, just like always?

Chissons legs we're not listening to reason as they put on every bit of speed they could muster, rushing him nearer to the beating before him.

"Chis!" Tay called from behind him. She must have been following but as was proven earlier he was much faster than her.

Every second counted here. There was no time to consider how stupid this decision was, he didn't really want his final thoughts to be berating himself for being an idiot.

Instead he thought about the technique he wished to use, hoping against hope that maybe just maybe it would work this time. He only needed this one time. Just this single moment and he would never ask for his maou to work for him again. He wouldn't be able to. He pulled on the final dregs of it. The Pond inside of him; little more than droplets mixed in with mud after his fights with Tay. He took every bit he could scavenge every drop fed into the technique which took them like a desert dweller given water.

'FOCUS BLOW!!!' Chisson screamed in his mind, not caring for a second that he had let the thought through. As always, the technique failed. As Chisson's fist flew at full force at the flaming forearm coming down on a man's skull it seemed like nothing was going to happen, then like last time the technique manifested, giving him hope only to dissipate immediately.

This time through, that split-second of manifestation came just as his attack made contact with his target's flesh. The common maou clad puch smacked into the Kaigin's wrist.

Even then it was weak, focus blow should have flung the arm hard enough to make Bensen stumble if not torn it out of socket all together.

Benson barely looked like he even noticed it but it was enough. Chisson's failure of a technique imparted just enough momentum to send the Kaigin's already speeding fist off course just inches to the left. Inches that weren't part of Zimm's face.

Surprised cut through Bensen's fury. Enough that the hand-holding down Zimm opened. The zapoinki shot to his feet. Running away at impressive speed despite a limp from what look like a fracture in his leg.

"Wh-" Bensen growled turning to see who had dared to interfere with his 'business' "Bug? Really?" The Stone-flame soul stood to his full height, turning to face Chisson fully, " I have to admit you really do have stones. I give you a chance, a fair warning and you not only decide to show up the next day but you slug me in the arm just to make sure I know you're here. Let me guess you don't have the money" before Chisson could respond, he continued," it doesn't matter. You don't get the chance to pay the easy way after that. You don't even get to walk away."

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The fist that hit Chisson in the chest felt like being kicked by a horse, he fell backwards, and the foot that landed on his chest was like having a boulder dropped on him. His lifeline spiked downward to a quarter, then half then began a slow but steady decline as he felt the pressure increase.

"Fitting isn't it bug? What better way for you to go?"

Chisson couldn't breathe. He couldn't respond he could only think about how much of an idiot Bensen was for doing this in a public space. With his left arm his only free one he began a weakly beating at Bensen's leg. It didn't do anything, and the Kaigin didn't even bother to react.

His vision was starting to fade being crushed forcing all the air out of his lungs, and the continued weight kept him from being able to take anymore in. It was going dark around the edges, his mind deciding to conserve air by not being awake.

He was barely aware enough to comprehend the mass of roots that shot from the ground, tangling Bensen in their grasp. Red light blooming from within them as they tightened and pulled, dragging Bensen off of his body.

He was even less aware as Tay stepped up beside him, plucking one of her fruits and placing it in his mouth, forcing his jaw closed so that he would bite into it.

Then as he finally faded away. He saw her turn to bensen with a scowl on her face.

Then he was simply taken by sleep

----------

A young entonid boy, about 11 years old lay on the hard dirt ground, confused.

What was going on? He had been able to beat Marle, just two weeks ago. The other boy had challenged him to a sparring match just like he had this time.

It had been easy then. Enough of a fight that it wasn't boring but his victory had been assured from the beginning. He was strong, he didn't think that had changed. So what had?

He knew the answer even though he pretended he didn't.

Maou.

Marle had finally gotten a technique into his repertoire, maybe he had earned it from his family, maybe he had found it in a book, maybe he had just moved his maou around until it did something that he could bind to a niche. Ultimately the how didn't matter, it only mattered that it was true, and even a single technique was enough of an advantage that Chisson couldn't hope to win.

He was strong physically. But now, with maou, Marle was stronger.

It seemed everyone his age had a technique now. Be it a burst of flame or a Rush of speed it was all too much for him to fight.

Technically he had one too. He just couldn't use it.

He had no family to inherit a technique from, so he had scoured the library until he found a common technique that he thought fit his fighting style.

It was called 'Focus blow' and it had taken him a week to bind it to his first niche. His maou had listened to him but it had felt like the strings of energy the guide had told him to imagine were slipping out of his fingers at random, undoing all the loops and ties he had been attaching to the crevice in his soul. Every time he got close to success it would unravel, followed by this horrible feeling like his entire body was made of ants.

It had taken try after try after try after try after try after try after try.

Until, eventually he had managed to get far enough to tie the final knot and it had held.

But then he had attempted the technique….and nothing had happened.

He felt his maou flowing into shape as he called upon the technique. He felt it taking on the form of the purpose it had been assigned and… it just popped. Like a soap bubble, one moment it was there and one moment it wasn't.

Whenever he tried it there was absolutely no effect. He couldn’t get it to do anything. Just the same horrible feeling of his skin and chitin crawling.

He had tried everything the book recommended. Meditation, exercise, getting more sleep, eating healthier. But none of it worked

He imagined his maou as a liquid, then as a gas, then as string, then as fire, but none of it worked.

He tried saying the technique out loud, shouting it in his mind, focusing on the feelings, clearing himself of thought. But none of it worked.

Now he was on the ground, bruised and battered, his life line three quarters spent, looking up at an opponent who looked down on him, not with the begrudged respect that he had seen before, not even the disappointment or pity that he had seen on some of the others. What he saw instead was revulsion.

" I can't believe I lost to you so many times. Beating you was so easy. You're so weak. you're not my equal, you don't even have a technique. You're just… you're just a bug. I lost to a bug." His voice filled with horror as he came to that realization "A stupid pest that anyone could crush under their feet. I can't believe I thought you were going to be a decent fight. I can't believe I thought you were strong I- what happens when my family hears about this. That I was losing to someone Like You you until today you're already a family-less orphan. If they know that you're also so completely powerless they'll think I… my reputation..."

A kick landed hard in Chisson's stomach

"How dare you?! How dare you ask to spar with me? How dare you try to drag me down to your level? How dare you be seen with me you stupid fucking bug?"

The air around Marle's fist started to whirl, his wind maou technique, the one that had decided this fight, bringing the air together in a condensed ball in his now open palm. With a flick of his wrist he sent the ball of Air & energy shooting at Chisson, and striking his cheek like a slap to the face. Then another kick, then the technique again and again. Chisson tried to fight back but it was pointless. He was already so tired and hurting that it was impossible to get any force behind his blows.

"That's enough" a voice, strong and female, said from just out of view. Before Chisson could turn to look, something burst out of the ground. Wrapping around Marle and pulling him away.

From his left a girl stepped into view.

Despite looking about his age she was taller than Chisson, though in reality that wasn't saying much, her hair hung down in a green length to her shoulders, tiny light green dots seeming to be sprouting from it, the particular way it draped with certain parts much more tangled than others, making Chisson think it had a has been elaborately styled and recently undone in a rush. Her skin with a light brown the color of wood after the bark was removed, a scowl on her face making her otherwise pretty features look terrifying and sharp,

"I'm so tired of people like you looking down on others just because they aren't as powerful or combat Focused as you. You think you can do whatever the fuck you want? You think your top shit because you can throw a bubble real hard?" Chisson watched as she stepped up to Marle, getting right in his face as she ranted "You know what I think I think you're some petty little kid who throws a tantrum at the idea of someone being better than you. So I'm taking it upon myself to show you what top shit really looks like."

Marle snarled "What are you talking about? Who are you? What makes you think you have any right t-" but he was cut off by his own grunt of pain as the girl's knee slams him right between his legs, making Chisson suck in breath through his teeth.

"What gives you the right to be such an asshole? And as for who I am not that it's any of your business" she stepped back, hands on her hips as she looked down on the root tangled boy who was hunched over cradling himself due to her handiwork.

"I'm Tay. Tay Rieken. Best remember it."