“Slaughter them all!” Tath laughed as she shattered the skull of another man.

  Her underlings trailing behind fought desperately, in sharp contrast to her blood splattered zeal. Many fell to the blades and magic of Barosa’s crew, but still she led them forward, blind to their struggles.

  Four guards before a two-story house took their stances to meet her, and tath burst forward. She shot past with no regard and destroyed the wall they guarded with a single punch.

  Through the rubble and dust, her gaze locked on the large bearded man who waited patiently with an axe in his hand.

  “Where are your fields?!” Tath demanded, the craze of madness etched across her face. But Barosa simply stood in silence with a bold smile.

  Tath burst forward again, no longer possessing the patience for an exchange of words. Green veins bulged across her iron skin as her body swelled with aura, her fist raised already for a reckless punch.

  Barosa flicked a yellow pill into his mouth and swallowed it. He pulled his double-headed battleaxe out in front and knocker her fist away with equal strength, green veins bulging over his body.

  “Pitiful fool.”

  Tath barely registered his words before the edge of his axe gleaned with supernatural sharpness and he swung it back, cleaving her in half at the waist.

  She collapsed in a growing pool of her own blood. With no ability to feel pain, only confusion remained on her face. The mad slumlord regained just enough sanity at the last moment of life for regret and fear to seep in, and her iron body turned to cold flesh.

  Barosa spared her nothing more than a passing glance as he turned his bold smile out to the sanctuary past the broken wall. This sanctuary was already his.

  ---

  Banda silently stalked around Eres with his aura completely suppressed. She stood in the middle of an empty lot with her eyes closed and the sphere of Sense extended around her.

  Her range had expanded to over 5 yards now. Banda didn’t know how well that compared to others, but it was twice that of his own.

  He let a few embers of aura leak out and Eres lunged at him immediately. With only basic aura manipulation, he smacked her fist away and stopped the claws of his other hand just short of her neck.

  “Sharper.” Banda instructed. She had the intent to kill, but lacked the fear to cover her weaknesses. That did not sit well with him.

  Instead of retaking her position, Eres formed a thin layer of armor over her whole body and pressed her attack with the support of Harness. Banda dodged and deflected her half-skilled strikes with ease, as he stared with observant eyes.

  She rivaled him in raw strength and speed at his base, with a similar mastery of Harness and Armor, but he was far more skilled in ways of combat. Far more experienced.

  Eres telegraphed a side kick, but then whipped it downwards as she twisted her body. Banda sidestepped that and she pivoted in close. Her left hand reached for his shoulder and her right for his wrist as her foot slid along the ground to the back of his ankles.

  Banda slid his right foot further away and slackened his left, allowing Eres to knock it up with little resistance. He put strength into his one standing leg and yanked her closer to land a crushing knee in her stomach.

  Eres staggered and that was a split moment too long. His claws stopped short of her neck once again.

  She stared back at him with competitive indignation before relaxing her posture with a slight frown. “That’s enough for today… I want to see the state of the town.”

  “We should train more.” Banda voiced his disapproval. They had no right to the luxury of being satisfied with their current strength.

  “This is more important.” Eres walked off without further argument, and Banda once again had to follow.

  ---

  “Can’t you lower it? Just a little.” A gaunt man with twitchy eyes pleaded to a group of refugees.

  “20 shards. Pay it or leave.” The stern-faced warrior of the bunch said coldly.

  “I only have 12… Just… just give me half.”

  “Full 20 or nothing.”

  “Look, look…” The gaunt man took out three thin cone-shaped bones with spiral patterns from his satchel. “Almiraj horns. Worth almost 20 at least.”

  The warrior eyed the material in thought. “Those horns and the shards. Then you can have your powder.”

  “But that’s more!” The gaunt man objected.

  “Then get lost.” The warrior shoved him away.

  “Wait, wait!” The gaunt man scrambled to his feet and held out the horns and shards. “Deal! Take them.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The stern-faced warrior collected the payment with emotionless eyes and dropped a pouch made of large fresh leaves tied with plant fibers in its place.

  The gaunt man hurriedly untied it to reveal a fine purple powder within it. He stared at it for a long moment, then jostled for his water pouch and poured the powder in, barely shaking it up before downing all of its contents.

  His body seemed to freeze in place as a feckless smile spread wide. Slowly, he started to amble away as though a spell had been placed on him to hinder his movements, and another walked up to the group.

  Banda glanced as they walked past, but nothing more. It was a common sight in the town lately, ever since Barosa’s pack had started selling their poison. He could not understand why these humans would pay precious shards just to weaken themselves, but they did it in droves.

  Consumption of the herb Barosa grew had spread throughout the town nearly overnight and the proof was plain to see. Far more people laid in the streets than before, and many of them looked sickly.

  It had been a few weeks since Barosa had killed the iron human. He’d rapidly grown his influence since to become the second major power in the sanctuary, though the slumlords had rallied around Otto to preserve their territories, which kept him as the city lord.

  At least, that was the narrative on the surface. He knew the truth that Otto was merely commanding his pack to protect. But it was also true, that Barosa was proving to be a real threat.

  “What is Otto thinking…?”

  Banda glanced at Eres but said nothing in return.

  “What?” She asked, annoyed by his silent judgement. “Nothing to add?”

  Banda too grew slightly annoyed at her picking a fight. “Not running or fighting means he’s waiting.”

  “Yes…” Eres tone lowered in agreement. “But for what?”

  Their discussion was interrupted by the sight of another powder deal, though this one had meaning to Banda. The buyer for this one was Cedal, and it did not seem voluntary.

  Banda paid no mind to the words being spoken, nor took consideration for the context. He simply appeared by the herb peddlers and battered them away. He had struck them hard enough that a sharp glare was all it took to make them flee.

  “Thanks…” Cedal breathed a sigh of relief. “This town has gotten even worse since they arrived…”

  “We noticed.” Eres said.

  Cedal looked awkward as he searched for the words to say. “...Everyone’s wondering who will win… especially since Otto appears weak. Barosa’s people keep starting fights to reinforce that, and it seems like their territory grows every day… Who do you think will win?”

  “Neither.” Eres spoke neither out of petty spite, nor a shallow hope. She simply told him the result that would be.

  “Hey, you bastards!”

  Eres and Cedal turned to where Banda had already been looking moments before. The humans he had just beaten away had returned, and they were not alone.

  A crowd over thirty strong stared them down, all at the peak of Rank 1 and all with hostile intentions. But Banda only gave focus to one that stood out from the crowd. A man in leather armor and a hooded cloak with black facepaint around the eyes.

  He was the only one whose aura he could not sense, which meant he was at the rank above. That alone was not enough to worry Banda, but the weapon of choice the man held was a bow. And range was something that always demanded vigilance.

  “You’ll pay for acting against us!” One of the original humans shouted again, showing his few recently missing teeth.

  “Be quiet.” The archer spoke sternly as he stared at them with uncanny stoicism, as if thoughtlessly reciting something he had been told. “Wounding one of ours in an insult. Not irreconcilable. Pay amends and the matter is settled.”

  “You can’t let them get away w-”

  The archer stabbed an arrow into the first man’s head, without so much as a twitch of his eyelids. “1 Manastone. Or items of equivalent value. Your answer?”

  “You should ask your leader about us.” Eres spoke firmly without a hint of weakness.

  “Your answer?” The archer simply repeated in the same tone.

  “I doubt Barosa would want you fighting us.” She spoke more directly this time, and receive the same response.

  “Your answer?”

  The air around them grew tense. The archer showed no sign of bending or compromise to the point one might assume he desired a fight were it not for his emotionless expression. Eres narrowed her eyes as she contemplated on the best way to pacify the situation. But Banda acted first.

  Without a single warning, his arm flickered. The archer jolted to the side as the stone meant for his head shattered the skull of the man behind him.

  His eyes slid back forward as he knocked an arrow, but that moment of ill-focus caused by reflex sealed his fate. Banda mauled his iron clawed hand and splattered the archer’s head.

  He turned on the others without pause, maiming and mangling until they all laid dead on the blood drenched ground.

  “You shouldn’t have done that.” Eres admonished. More annoyed than she was concerned about a fight.

  “No more lies.” Banda declared, his objections to her scheming ways no longer reserved. “It makes us look weak. The weak are hunted.”

  “I considered as much.” Eres’ temperance grew more heated. “Our priority is to overcome this. If we have to take a loss or look weak to achieve that then so be it.”

  “You still underestimate the forest…” Banda could feel his frustrations mounting beyond his control.

  “And you know nothing of fate.” She snapped back. “There is nothing it disdains more than a coward.”

  “I am no coward!” Banda yelled. His ferocity silenced everything around him. “I survived worse than you! Longer than you! I am stronger!”

  The two stared each other down with frustrations inching ever closer to hate. It was all Banda could do to remain where he stood with gritted teeth.

  He had let her lead them ever since his mistake on the first day, but she had increasingly shown herself to be a poor leader. Not only was she incapable of avoiding danger, she led them towards it. Again and again.

  He would not take it anymore. He would do things his way from now on. The way that had kept him alive for countless days and nights. Not human schemes, but the wisdom of beasts.

  “No more lies.” Banda declared.

  Eres’ eyes grew cold and eerily distant, but Banda did not care. He would do what he has always done. Survive. And he would do it by any means.

  ---

  Barosa smiled wide and bold at the two kneeling before him. A tall, thin old woman and a short man with a thick mangy beard. Two of the slumlords formerly under Otto’s rule.

  Floating in the air above behind him, was the face of a strange lion. Six legs grew from behind its mane from all sides like a wheel and its greedy eyes stared eerily at the mortal men.

  At the signal of Barosa’s raised hand, his underlings slit the throats of twenty captured people who all bore signs of extreme torture. Infernal red mana enveloped Barosa and then the two slumlords.

  Agony coursed through their flesh from the ritual as the red mana invaded their souls. The two collapsed on the floor drenched in sweat with weary posture, as Barosa’s blackened eyes glinted red then returned to normal.

  “Offer more souls… Soon…” The Buer demon faded back into the Abyss, leaving the others alone with the wide, bold smile of Barosa.

  There was no loyalty that could not be bought, no monk that could not be tempted. Not in the Tower. If any desired riches and status beneath him he would promise such insignificant things without hesitation. For all else was truly worthless in the pursuit of power.