Briggs lifted his head and scowled into Shiv's soul with empty eyes. "I ain't no friend of the monsster. If I kill you, everythin'll fix. It'll all be better. I'll find a real friend somewhere else."
Shiv returned the scowl. "I don't want to hurt you, man, but if you attack me, I will fight back."
Just like that, Briggs' mood switched again, and tears began to fall. "But… I don't want to hurt my friend. Friends're important. Real important." He shook his head and looked around with wild eyes. "Where's the boooooze?" He spotted his empty mug and began crawling toward it. "Booze is a good friend. Always a good-"
Shiv punched him in the jaw. "Get up. You're acting like a child. If you were sober, you would be ashamed of yourself right now."
Briggs was sent sprawling, and he stayed in that position for several seconds before slowly spitting out some blood and standing up. He had his back to Shiv, but it was still obvious that the short warrior was angry. His fists were clenched and his shoulders hunched.
Suddenly, he whipped around and threw an ice javelin at Shiv, almost completely catching the taller man off guard. At the last second he leaned to the side and was only grazed by the deadly weapon. With nothing stopping it, it continued until it pierced two members of the crowd, skewering them together. The crowd was greatly agitated by the unexpected deaths, and started backing away from the two men in the center of the square.
Duncan, who was right beside the two people when they died, had been splattered by their blood. He sniffed it, then frowned. "You guys deserved a much worse death than that."
Unaware of what their companion was doing or saying, the drunk and the divinely inspired began circling each other with wariness. Shiv did not want to fight, but Briggs was furious and bloodthirsty, so he didn't have much of a choice.
After circling once completely around the square, Briggs stomped, sending a line of spikes growing out of the ground toward Shiv, who dodged. The spikes continued on, killing several people and causing minimal damage to several buildings.
But that was just the warmup.
Briggs then started shooting pure elemental ice at Shiv. Unformed and chaotic, it was much harder for him to dodge. As such, he instead sank into the ground, letting the icy devastation wreak havoc among the crowd, finally tipping the domino that led to the crowd running for their lives. But not before several more of the bystanders fell from the freezing attack.
Shiv traveled through the stone as if it were water until he thought he was directly behind Briggs. Once there, he swam upward until he had broken the surface of the stone and found that Briggs was not there. He immediately sank back down, and felt the vibrations of a thick spike of ice penetrating the spot he had just vacated.
'OK. This needs to end.' Officially ticked off, Shiv moved to the side and then shot out of the earth. In the air, he quickly located Briggs, who had moved again, and came to a running landing. He dashed forward and threw a punch at the short man, who dodged it and responded with an ice-infused blow of his own to Shiv's side.
Shiv flew into the side of a building and crashed through the wall before rolling several times and stopping. "Owww. I do not want to fight this guy." Shiv groaned and stood up, pretending he hadn't just broken a rib or two and gotten himself covered in cuts and bruises. "C'mon, you saved my life, remember? You force fed me that gross stuff. But now you're trying to kill me? That's just not cool." Briggs was too busy preparing his next attack to pay attention to Shiv's whining. But Shiv wasn't going to give his opponent time to pull off that attack.
Sighing, Shiv imbued the house he was in, and made it launch forward in man-sized pieces. Most of them missed the drunk, and instead crashed into the buildings behind him, causing much destruction, but some had to be blocked by walls of ice or deflected by projectiles of ice. Shiv quickly ran out of house to shoot forward, so he started pulling up the earth with his abilities and launching that at Briggs while simultaneously sending a wave of lava forward.
Not in too good of a temper himself, Briggs responded in kind with large chunks of ice he created and launched forward with his own powers.
Not wanting to get hit, Shiv started dodging with every ounce of speed and finesse he could manage. Briggs did the same, though his moves were far more balanced and practiced, even with the alcohol impairing his mental capabilities.
The battle became a moving one that eventually spread throughout the entire island, destroying every last trace of civilization on it. It became a wasteland of lava, dangerously shaped stones, and ice.
Finally only three men remained. The most notable was Shiv, who was standing, motionless, in front of the kneeling figure of Briggs. The standing figure had many scratches and cuts from which blood flowed freely, while the other looked to be unwounded.
The final figure was Duncan, who had descended from his place in the sky to sit on a rock some distance away to watch the interaction the two men were about to have.
Briggs spoke between taking gasping breaths. "Your stamina… it's inhuman. You should be on the ground… in severe pain. Just like me. That's proof enough… that you're a monster." His voice wasn't slurring as much anymore. It seemed as if the alcohol was beginning to wear off already.
Shiv shook his head. "That fight was miserable. All we did was throw things at each other. With all of your powers and skills… that's the strategy your drunk brain chose to use?"
Duncan, who had initially only planned to watch, couldn't stop himself from calling out. "You're both messed up in the head."
"You shut up. You didn't help at all!" Shiv pointed an accusatory finger at him.
"I thought it looked like you had it taken care of." Duncan shrugged and glanced at Briggs. "And I was right."
"Great. You made him cry again." Shiv threw his hands into the air and walked away when Briggs fell onto his face, his body shaking. Doing so revealed to him that they were about to have company on the island. All of the bridges had been broken during the battle, but someone had fixed one and now a group of men was crossing it with grim expressions. "Wait, no. That's not a man…" Shiv squinted and found that the one in the lead was actually an incredibly ugly woman.
Shiv grinned at Duncan. "Check it out." He nodded his head toward the approaching group, but was distracted by Briggs.
"I… I'm sorry." The short man sat up, though he kept his eyes on the ground. "I know I'm still drunk, but I'm in more control now. I shouldn't have, uh, freaked out, and attacked you like I did." His tone was genuinely apologetic.
"Don't worry about it. Just sober up enough to help us deal with these folks. They have a mean look about them."
Briggs nodded and struggled to his feet. Duncan was watching him with a contemplative expression while Shiv faced the group headed their way. They reached the end of the bridge and stepped onto the island, then the woman spoke.
Shiv and Duncan glanced at each other with amusement. Then simultaneously made dramatic shrugging gestures at the far away group. "Why does everyone do this to us?"
"Your ugly face scares them." Duncan's reply tore a laugh from Briggs, who still seemed out of breath.
"Are you three the fools who ruined this place?" The group finally came within earshot and called to the trio.
Duncan frowned, and vehemently shook his head while muttering, "just how stupid are these people."
Shiv nodded at the same time.
Duncan sighed. "Not as stupid as my allies."
"Very well, I need you two to come with us." The group finally approached close enough that they didn't have to yell. They were talking to Briggs and Shiv.
Duncan immediately spoke up. "Wait, I just remembered… I did actually have something to do with the destruction of this place, in a roundabout kind of way." They blinked at him. "That means you've gotta take me with you, too."
***
"Do you know why you've been brought here?" A small man in black and brown robes asked from his small throne that looked exactly like the eleven other thrones that were on raised platforms surrounding the three men in the center of the room.
"Uh, not really." Shiv brought about an awkward silence.
Briggs broke it. "We're here because we killed several people and completely destroyed several buildings in our conflict." He had been busy eating everything in his inventory while they were led across various bridges to an elevator of stone, ropes, and pulleys. They had then been taken into a large room in the hanging castle and left alone there for quite awhile before twelve people silently came in and sat upon the thrones.
"That is correct. Do you know what the punishment for your actions will be?"
Shiv growled. "I want a lawyer, because if you say 'death', then I'm just going to kill you."