“What the hell do you want?” Valar shouted as she approached the table.

The two men looked up like children whose hands had been caught in a cookie jar. Their heads were almost level with Valar while sitting. Neither were short.

One of them croaked, almost uncertain as he eyed me. The other stood to his feat.

“What? A man can’t grab a bite around here?” The confident man leaned forward. The anxious man looked between him and me, but stood in solidarity.

“What the hell are you doing out of your city, pig? To the door now.” Valar said. She picked her spear up off the ground, not pointing it at the two men, but leaning it menacingly.

On an invisible cue, the more confident man threw himself across the table, scrambling forward, only for Nalar to activate the technique in her spear, piercing the man through the head and stilling him instantly.

[What’s this? Hellfire increased to 53%. Is it because he’s a Celestial or because he’s damned?]

I didn’t have time to reply to Interface as the second man lifted the table, throwing it at me, arms glowing.

He had a completely different arm technique, one that massively enhanced his strength. The entire restaurant broke out into shouts as I was shoved backwards, slamming into one of the pillars holding up the room. I grunted with effort as my lungs were forced to empty, pushing the table off and drawing my sword.

The man was already running for the door.

“Get back here!” I said, pushing through the crowd to catch up to him.

My sword cut a gash in him. He gasped. People around the restaurant scattered, furniture clattering all around me. Food hit the ground as people yelled and streamed away into the kitchen.

The man fell to the ground, shocked but not dead, and my sword cut a clean line through the plaster covering the front of the bricks.

The man gasped in ragged, heaving breaths as blood spilled down the front of him.

“I surrender!” He said, croaking again. “I didn’t come here to die!”

Nalar walked up to me, nodding her head.

“Do we… have handculfs or something?” I asked.

“No. Let’s drag him back. Restaurants closing for the day anyway after that.” Nalar pointed over her shoulder at the man behind her, dead on the table, blood spilling to the floor. Some of the tables were broken and the entire shop was in disarray.

Customers were being shoved in an orderly fashion out of the kitchen by an angry looking goat chef holding a large knife.

“Alright.” I said, grabbing the mans arm and forcing him to stand, while simultaneously shoving it behind his back. “You have any techniques?” I asked him, curious.

“No! I haven’t reached understanding…” He said.

“Why would they send someone like him here?” I asked Nalar.

“Probably just to stir up trouble.” She shrugged. “They poke into our territory all the time, checking the positioning of our guards and reporting back. This side of the city is near the wall into the district the Iron Gut control. Let’s see if we can drag him back alive.”

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We led him through the street. He didn’t resist.

Nalar twirled a new knife she had in her hand. I called it a knife, but it was huge, It must have belonged to the man she killed inside the building — another trophy to hang from her horns, no doubt. She would have to break a tiny piece off of it.

“You’re not bad, you know.” She said idly.

The man I was dragging with us coughed, blood splattering onto the ground. We caught nervous stares from onlookers.

“I’ve fought a lot.” I replied. It wasn’t something I was proud of. It was just who I was.

We dragged him back to the clan, bringing him inside the complex, which seemed bigger every time I accessed it. The guards nodded or bleated at us, seeming proud of us for capturing this man from the Iron Gut.

A few even head butted Nalar, slamming their horns into her.

We descended into a third and then a fourht level of the Shattered Mountain complex that I hadn’t yet seen. There were barracks here piled with goat-men ready to fight, and even more training facilities.

“What are these?” I asked.

“These are training for clan loyalists. The guards above ground are mostly initiatory like me. People who reach the Second Realm or above train here, rare as they are.” She said.

There were huge, sprawling rooms here under the city, carved out. Where there was barren earth and stone showing in the wall, it was altogether too smooth, like someone had molded the earth with their hands rather than picking it apart and clambering underground.

By the time we reached a room with guards and a jail warden, I was practically dragging our hostage.

The giant goat-woman leaning over the desk sighed dramatically. Though she towered over us, her face was mostly human, the whites of her eyes showing around slitted pupils.

“Nalar. You should have brought him to medical.”

“He’s dangerous.” Valar said.

“He’s bleeding on my floor is what he is.”

The giant goat woman pushed herself to all four legs, reaching down and grabbing the man from me like he was doll. She pressed a jade tablet on her desk with another sigh, causing it to glow.

“Medical will be here soon.”

We turned around to head back upstairs, but met four more Shattered Mountain clan guards on the way. They dragged two prisoners between them. These ones thrashed wildly when they saw us. And they were gagged.

“Is it normal for there to be so many attacks?” I asked as we passed them.

“No.” Valar said. She soudned unhappy.

We headed up to the yard, meeting the guard captain handing out new orders.

“I’m sorry to you two — I’m going to have to send you back out. The Iron Gut is pressing all of our establishments, disrupting business and scouting us out. There have been some major fights in the city.” The captain’s eyes moved slightly to the side as he said that.

There was a column of smoke rising behind him.

“Where to, Captain?” Valar said. She deposited her new knife near one of the weapon racks.

“Join the group reinforcing the gates. Make sure no more Iron Gut sneak into the city.”

Valar led the way as we met up with a larger group before moving to the city’s eastern gate. The ground and walls were damaged, signs of battle evident. This rival clan had simply attacked their guards and swept into the city.

[This is ominous.] Interface said.

There was an Iron Gut body sitting on the ground. None of the goat-men seemed to have any inclination to retrieve it. A few spat on it and bleated as they passed.

Two of the goat men, holding bows of all things, climbed up to guard posts looking over the walls. There was a tense silence.

It faded over the hours we waited. Eventually, a smaller group came to take over. I waited for Valar to leave with her. She was exchanging headbutts with other goats, celebrating the kills they’d won that day.

“What do you think is going on?” I asked her.

I was here to learn about the world in relative safety, not get involved in another war. I wasn’t going to die for this clan, even if they did help me a little. But I didn’t think I could break out of the prison myself, either.

“They probably want payback for Marvelle.” Valar said, spitting at having to mention his name. “He was an officer in their clan — a good one, too. For a non cultivator like Nalaar to kill him is a grave insult against his legacy. Do they know you were involved?” Valar pivoted, looking at me curiously.

Hells. They did probably know, considering we left their enforcer alive. Now that I knew more about cultivation, I was more confident in my ability to take him on.

Leaving the clan didn’t seem like a good idea once that thought reached me. Without them, I would have no protection at all if they sought retribution.

“Where is Nalaar anyway/ I should find him.” I said to Valar.

She looked at me with confusion.

“You don’t know? He’s at the nursery.”