The three of them were kilometers away from the city wall. With their combined powers, they could have easily solved the problem using force. Eric, though, didn’t want to get too much attention from the first day and tried recreating a thriller movie scene in one second. He took a corpse of a monster he had skinned and butchered in the forest, and calmly separated it into three pieces, similar to their respective height. Then, raising a strong wind, a fraction of a second before the impact of the cannonball, he grabbed Eve and Rubra at the level of their waist and jumped away. Both the girls were still stupefied from the death aura of a minute ago, and in just a second, they were in the arms of that man as dangerous as mysterious. ''Did we hit it, Tom? ‘’ ''I don’t know Rid. But if that kind of aura comes any closer to the city, half the seniors in the city will have a heart attack! ‘’ That’s right. The three of them weren’t attacked because of the wings on the backs of the two girls(which couldn’t be seen by the wall guards) but because of the materialization of death caused by Eric. ''And also tonight...is camping night! ‘’ That was all Eric said. The three of them would appear too suspicious, arriving with this little time difference from the same direction as the monsters just attacked. ''That’s all your fault, with your pompous, conspicuous horns! ‘’ Rubra instantly said it, trying to push Eve away from Eric’s hug. Eve instantly understood the objective behind Rubra’s actions and answered after squeezing her grip behind his back. ''What do you mean? Your pigeon-like wings are way more eye-catching! ‘’ Rubra would have accepted the logical message behind the sentence if it wasn’t for the animal Eve compared her to. In a moment, flames appeared around her. ‘’How dare you, filthy liz…’’ Eve needed to hear just the beginning of the word. Instantly a white flame, similar to her hair, made her appear beautiful and lethal at the same time. ‘’Ok, that’s enough…’’ Eric decided to de-escalate the situation as soon as possible. As he spoke, he lightly poked with his fingers at the respective sides of the two women, making them laugh. At that moment, they were back near the end of the forest but not completely clear from Zolag’s guards' point of view. ‘’We don’t want to get even more attention with a colossal campfire. It wouldn’t be romantic. Sometimes size matters…’’ The last sad joke luckily went over the head of both of them. Eric’s humor was quite rare. It was in rare situations like this he regretted not being on Earth to receive some honest dry laughs at his dad's jokes. Somehow, he didn’t achieve the laughing standing ovation he desired, but equally managed to stun them enough to make them stop arguing. ‘’…Sure, Eric. ‘’ Rubra’s voice was still unsure. Eve took the shot once again to have her little revenge against Rubra. ‘’Sure, my darling. It’s so cold tonight. Let’s keep snuggling together, just the two of us! ‘’ Automatically the phoenix answered. ‘’Why don’t you accept your defeat, Eve? Can’t you hear us every night? Eric is gonna snuggle only with me! ‘’ Her face at that moment would probably appear in the Ouroboros dictionary for the word victory. The problem was Eve had way more experience than Rubra in this kind of game. Verbally arguing wasn’t usual in the dragon society, but with age, and normal social interactions(lacking point for Rubra), her tongue became as dangerous as her adamantium-like fangs. ‘’In fact, hearing you during the past nights, I clearly understood that you can’t manage Eric on your own and become an unconscious crying mess too quickly to satisfy a man of such stature. ’’ Rubra didn’t know how to answer such a bold statement. The problem was she was the one who dug her own grave, but at that moment, she instinctively turned her neck, searching for his face. Seeing Rubra in that improbable abandoned puppy situation, a smile appeared on his face. When he was teleported to Oruroboros for the first time, he just hoped to be able to live an adventurous and interesting life, unlike on Earth. The second time his expectations were similar, but the constant pain caused by betrayal, gave him an even stronger sense of urgency. Unconsciously he gave up having his revenge on his ex on Earth: partly because he believed it to be over his possible power limits, partly because, in a perverted, visceral way, he could understand that jealousy could lead to momentaneous inhuman actions. In a way, he was self-limiting his future one time again, similarly to how he had done on Earth. There, he decided on the reliable and simple employment life, and then on the seemingly destined Hero adventure. He thought he had evaded that dangerous mental bias, but once again, he found himself in it without realizing it. His self-limiting beliefs made him think that even in this third chance, all he could hopefully obtain was revenge against his past comrades. That’s it! The story about dethroning Zeus and his brothers Nemesis told him about sure sounded cool, but he placed it in a small, dark angle of his mind without even considering it. Similarly, if Nemesis, when she first met him in the underworld, asked him how probable he thought he would be able not even to create something resembling a family or a lover but even find someone to genuinely trust, he would have laughed in her face for an incredibly long time. Now, even though they didn’t turn on a bonfire yet, he felt warmth from the words of the beautiful women that fought in his arms. Had he not been traumatized by his past experiences, and a normal human being, he would have probably cried from happiness in that moment. He felt like he had to somehow externalize and make that moment memorable. Deciding on his following actions, he hugged them even tighter and kissed them softly on their cheeks. ‘’Ahahah, you are so cute when you quarrel! ‘’ Eve didn’t expect any of that. Her mind emptied as all the blood went to her face and cheeks. Rubra, on the other hand, was in that same condition for a little less time, and then it dawned on her. ‘’He is still acting, right?! ‘’

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