Having already hit the road in Lizali’s wagon, the group had finally begun their journey to the hidden village. Aislin, Lizali, Zycor and Novos sat up front while Mylon, Aisha, Nalea and Baz sat in the back. Baz sat as far from Aislin as he could, making sure to have Mylon be in between them as a last line of defense. “She really ripped into you, huh?” Mylon lightly taunted.

“I don’t want to talk about it, hear about it, or think about it. Just sit there and be my buffer.” Baz explained, looking out of the rear of the wagon.

“And you think Mr. “Reflective Armor” will save you from me? I think you have received one too many concussions.” Aislin chortled.

Giggling, Lizali asked, “Are your friends always like this?”

“Ha, yeah, they are a handful, but a riot to be around.” Zycor chuckled in response.

Lizali and Zycor continued to converse while Aislin and Baz continued to bicker with each other. They talked about things they were not able to the night before. Favorite foods, hobbies, jokes, and an assortment of other things.

Meanwhile, in the back of the wagon, Mylon, worried about Aisha, asked, “Hey, are you feeling better?”

Aisha nodded, sighing, “Yeah, I am alright. Just have some things on my mind.”

“Does it have something to do with how close Lizali is to Zycor?”

“Yeah, but that’s fine, I think he needed this.”

Mylon shrugged, “Whatever you say.”

The group was able to make quite a bit of progress on their journey, mostly smooth sailing the entire time. Though, there has never been a time where that has remained true with Zycor around. The wagon came to a sudden halt as a group of three Velathrian knights blocked their path. “We got company guys.” Zycor told those in the back.

Baz, Mylon, Aisha, and Nalea all began to stand up and hop out of the cart, gearing up and chatting.

“Hoho, fresh meat!”

“Baz, we talked about this, you cannot eat them.”

“But they will just be corpses, who’s gonna care?”

“Shut up you vomit skinned idiot, we got a job to do.”

“Wanna say that again, miss doggy? Did Aislin tell you to say that!?”

“I will say it as many times as I have to, not that you would ever end up fully understanding.”

Lizali and Aislin began to stand up, but were stopped by Zycor. He shook his head, “I appreciate the sentiment, but I refuse to expose you to danger. Besides, this will be over shortly.”

Lizali, visibly upset, began to rummage through her bags while she angrily mumbled, “‘You don’t want to expose me to danger’ my butt, you just don’t want to share the fun!”

The Velathrian knights drew their swords and exclaimed, “For crimes against Velathria and its people, Zycor Mori, son of the former black market lord Adria Mori, are under arrest!”

Hearing the information about his mother, Zycor whipped his head towards Nalea who, just as quickly, looked away. Refocusing on the knights, Zycor’s rage began to grow. “For the crimes I have committed? Funny, considering everything you have done!” Zycor shouted.

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“Enough of your lies! En garde!” The knights roared in response, beginning their charge.

As Zycor and the group readied themselves, Lizali screamed, “If you want to live, get down!”

Looking back at her, they saw Lizali kneeling with a massive, metal pipe looking object on her shoulder. With an almost crazed look in her eyes and voice, she shouted, “You were warned! Firing!”

An ear deafening ‘boom’ came from the rod as a condensed fireball was launched into the air. The knights stopped in their tracks and looked up, completely bewildered by it. After traveling for a few seconds, the fireball split with another ‘boom’ and smaller fireballs rained down on the knights like artillery fire. As the explosions went off, everyone turned to look at Lizali who was cackling at the destruction she had wrought.

The explosions subsiding, Lizali recomposed herself. Clearing her throat, she apologized, “Sorry, I may have gotten a tad overzealous field testing my new toy.”

Baz immediately burst into uncontrollable laughter, Mylon covering his own mouth in an attempt to remain composed. Aisha gave her a thumbs up and Nalea became lost in thought figuring out if there was a way to replicate it herself.

Zycor’s focus had already shifted back to the clearing smoke. As it did, he noticed the knights were still squirming and groaning. He let out a hefty sigh, “Jeez Liz, all that firepower, but you missed.”

“Missed, what do you mean? They are down and out, are they not?”

“But they are still alive. Though, I suppose that is fine, I will take care of it.”

Zycor started walking towards the downed knights, electricity sparking along his body. He raised his hand, but before he could go any further, Lizali stood between him and the knights. Confronting him with confusion and anger, Lizali exclaimed, “Zy, what are you doing?!”

“Finishing them off? Is there a problem?”

“Several! For one, they can’t fight anymore! There is no reason to kill them!”

“What do you know!” Zycor shouted with primal anger, “They took everything from me! They killed everyone close to me, both of my moms, my dad, my siblings, my friends, everything! Then have the audacity to get upset when I begin to settle the score?! What utter bullshit.”

“They took everything from you? Do you truly believe that?” Lizali retorted back to Zycor.

“What do you mean?! I watched them kill everyone with my own eyes! Of course I am sure!”

“Then you need to get your eyes checked, along with your definition of ‘everything.’”

“What are you on about?!”

“I’M STILL HERE!” Lizali cried at the top of her lungs.

Zycor fell silent. He had no response to that. While he remained silent, Lizali continued to rip into him, “On top of it all, did you ever think about the knights you were killing?! A lot of them probably had kids that were just like you, and just like you, their dad was taken from them. By you. Through your own actions, you have possibly created a multitude of other ‘Zycor’s.’ Is that really what you want to do?! Put kids through what you went through?”

“That’s enough.” Zycor coldly said through gritted teeth, “We’re done here.”

Giving one last glare at the Velathrian knights, Zycor turned around and walked back to the wagon silently. Lizali watched on with a pained look. “Oh Zy…” she lamented, a severe feeling of pity and sorrow filling her heart.

Baz slightly leaned towards the rest of the group and asked, “Has anyone actually heard Zycor cuss before?”

Aisha, Nalea and Aislin looked at him, then silently walked back to the wagon. Mylon put a hand on Baz’s shoulder and sighed, “There is a time and place for those comments, old friend… This was not one of them.”

He then followed suit and headed back to the wagon. Baz threw his hands up and silently mouthed ‘What the hell’ before he also headed for the wagon.

Everyone loaded back onto the wagon and, without any further words, hit the road again. The only difference was Zycor sat in the very back of the wagon, staring out of the rear with a contemplative gaze.