"I didn't want to have to do this, young Elf."
The old man calmly stood from his chair and placed his walking cane on the floor beside him.
"Father, let me!" Mora's palms had reverted to their beast state, with long talons coated in red fire.
"We will need to work together to bring down an Elf, Mora." His expression became fierce. "Luckily, she is still young."
"W-what do we do? There's two of them now! We didn't sign up for this!" Rulla tugged on Naya's hand, still disoriented from the sudden launch backward and nervous as ever.
All the while, the table was burning brightly, producing no smoke as the table splintered and fell apart.
Naya simply stared at the Chief and Mora with a blank expression. She would typically get the initiative in physical combat, surprising her opponents with a burst of speed they wouldn't expect and launching a grievous blow.
However, this time would be different. Rula hadn't seen Naya fight before, and Naya wanted to ensure she remembered it.
"Simple." Naya crossed her arms and smirked. "We let the wild animals get the first blow."
"Y-you're crazy!" Rula let go of Naya's hand and ran further back, her sketchbook now tucked at her side.
"You're too arrogant, Elf!" Mora shouted and snarled at Naya.
"Gross."
Mora cocked her head back and took a heavy, deep breath.
[Easy.]
--I kind of feel bad for them.--
Mora flung her head forward and released an animalistic tiger roar. Along with the loud roar, a sphere of red fire formed at her mouth and launched forward toward Naya.
"Dodge!" Rula shouted.
A moment later, the Chief did the same; released a deep, guttural roar and summoned a sphere of red flames.
Both spheres launched simultaneously, from the left and right, aimed directly at Naya.
Naya raised her arms in response, with her palms opened at the spheres.
Two purple vortexes formed in her open palms right as the spheres reached her.
They were effortlessly pulled in like sand through an hourglass.
Purple lines formed from Naya's fingers up to her wrists, her eyes took on a slight glow, and the bottom of her hair was dimly lit.
The Flameclaw duo did not just wait for their spheres to impact; they likely knew it wouldn't work, just not how it did.
They both launched forward on their hind legs, arms open and hands in a claw motion as they instantly approached her.
Their speed impressed Naya.
They both slashed at the empty air; Naya had jumped into the air and grabbed onto the rail on the second floor.
Both the Chief and Mora had their arms in beast form now, and it looked like they were steadily reverting back.
They looked up immediately, able to follow Naya's movements.
Naya swung herself upward to land gracefully on the rails.
With her enhanced body and senses, there was no way the duo could beat her physically.
Mora jumped at Naya while the Chief charged two more fire orbs in his palms.
Naya kicked off the rail and flipped herself mid-air to land on the other side of the blazing flame that was once the table.
Mora quickly adjusted and kicked off the rail as well, reaching Naya again in an instant.
Her claws were coated in red flames, and Naya couldn't absorb them without touching them directly, so she had to dodge them.
However, the moment Mora slashed at her, two horizontal crescent arcs of flame fired from her palms.
At the same time, the Chief launched his two balls of red flames toward the two.
Naya ducked while she touched the bottoms of the crescent flames, immediately realizing the battle would be more challenging than she thought.
While the flames were absorbed into her hands and her purple lines extended to her forearm, she was nearly caught in Mora's simultaneous horizontal slashes.
Mora jumped to the side in perfect synchronicity with the Chief, and the Chief's two fireballs headed straight toward Naya.
Naya jumped into the air from her squatting position to dodge since it was too close for her to touch them.
A moment later, Mora jumped beyond the table to meet back with the Chief.
Naya would not allow that; they were on the side with Rula.
She immediately landed and dashed forward, catapulting over the table and realizing she could now absorb the table's flames.
Her hand touched them, and instantly, every bit of the red flame flew into her like a gust of wind. She hadn't done that immediately because she didn't want to give away her power before she got a comfortable amount of Arcana.
The purple lines had reached her elbows now.
Mora and the Chief were aghast; they realized their magic would be useless in a frontal battle as Naya had absorbed most of it.
Naya reached their side and twisted her body in a horizontal kick at Mora, which More attempted to block by lowering her arm - a mistake.
"Mora, no!" The Chief was horrified, but it was too late.
More screamed in pain, with a loud crack from her bone shattering.
With the force of the kick, Mora was flung into the Chief, and both of them were sent stumbling to the side, the Chief slamming into the wall with Mora in his grasp.
The sound of an old groan and cracked wood filled the room as the Chief struck the thick wooden wall back first.
The wall now had spiderweb cracks from the impact point.
"Woah! You're so cool, Naya!" Rula jumped excitedly and punched the air. She no longer looked nervous, and Naya's goal was almost settled.
Naya reached down and picked up the claw that had fallen from Mora's paw on her broken arm.
She wanted more.
--Stop here.--
Naya froze. [Not until I kill-]
--Nayalisia, think about it, you stupid Elf. What happens if you kill the village's only guard and their leader? You have what you need!--
[I don't care; they are beasts of Soranulam.]
--You... You think Soranulam was the primary reason you were banished. That your mother would have been able to convince them to keep you around had she not been there.--
Naya's ears twitched. [No, they are both-]
--Monsters who have done nothing that any other race wouldn't do. You're doing this for petty vengeance over a wrong you think happened.--
Naya was embarrassed, confused, and angry. She hated having enough self-awareness to know that Lia was probably right. She had been too eager to kill the two Flameclaws.
Maybe it was because of Soranulam.
She didn't care about the consequences after the two died, but her motive might have been misplaced.
--You should care. This place is full of halflings that find no place in their parent's lands, children included.--
As if to reinforce her point, the home's front door burst open, and in rushed various halflings and humans.
"Chief! Mora! We heard noises. Are you okay?!" The man at the head was a beastkin hybrid, and when he caught the two struggling to stand from the ground and Mora's groans of pain, he glared at Naya.
But seeing the glow on her body and her cold stare, he opened and clothed his mouth and settled on just a click of the tongue, then ran to the Chief instead.
However, a younger female halfling came in afterward, and she didn't stop her glare. "HOW COULD YOU? WE NURSED YOU BACK TO HEALTH AND TOOK CARE OF YOU BOTH, AND THIS IS HOW YOU THANK US?" She screamed. It hurt Naya's ears with how close she was.
It annoyed Naya but left her frozen, not knowing how to react.
After shouting, the woman also made her way to the Chief, but it looked like she resisted doing more.
Naya wanted to say something. To defend herself against the venom being shot from the countless eyes.
However, next, it was a little girl, and the sight left Naya petrified.
A child barely older than 6. Her eyes were not filled with hate; it was worse.
She looked at Naya in absolute terror with he body halfway behind the legs of a man and her hands tightly gripping his pants; she looked as pale as a ghost.
When their eyes met, the little girl instantly burst into tears and ran toward the Chief. She looked like she'd seen a terrifying beast.
That shattered Naya's heart in a way she didn't think possible, and her ears drooped to their lowest point.
Was she in the wrong? Was she the evil one here?
When she thought about it, how could she use their expansion to justify their deaths?
The humans warred all the time, and so did the Dwarves. The Pixies were nearly wiped out from an expansion war. The Orcs suffered a similar fate, only they were entirely erased due to their territory being desired by the Demons.
What race hadn't engaged in wars of expansion?
On a smaller scale, provinces war for territory, and small tribes in remote lands also do.
How could she come in here and place blame on them just because they were Flameclaws?
At this point, it'd be weirder for her to claim a moral high ground.
It was not her job to stop their expansion plans.
Villagers entered the building one by one, and all sent Naya vicious glares before trodding over the Chief and Mora.
It reminded Naya of her worst moments.
Even Rula wasn't spared their venom, and she was taking it even harder than Naya.
She had tears in her eyes; she had likely never been exposed to such stares before - stares of pure hate. Those accusatory glares as if she were the greatest villain.
"A-are we... are we the b-bad guys... Naya? .. Hey... are we?" She mumbled, trying her hardest to hold back her tears.
Naya wasn't sure how to respond, even she didn't know what to do.
And so she didn't.
Naya grabbed onto Rula's hand and pushed out the door.
She couldn't bear those stares anymore, the same stares her brethren had when she was dragged through Aleria in chains.
Even she felt her eyes moisten, but she resisted it with everything she had.
--I told you, Nayalisia, the world is not so black and white. It may not have been Witch's, but the reality is the same. --Lia's tone was soft, softer than it had been before.
"Not everything has to be a fucking... lesson!" Naya shouted, and her voice choked at the end. She bit back her tears.
Lia didn't respond.
The glares continued the entire way as Naya dragged Rula out of the village and to the stone path.
She didn't stop outside the village. Naya continued speed walking until she couldn't see even the edges of the roofs anymore. Even then, she kept going.
The light from her body was the only thing illuminating their path.
Naya wasn't sure how long she walked, but eventually, they reached another village.
Naya couldn't believe there was one this close.
She'd had the image in her head that the Flameclaws had burned them all down.
"Halt!" Came familiar words, only this time, from a human man.
"Let me in, now!" Naya commanded, trying her best to keep her voice steady.
"E-elf!" Shockingly, the man didn't appear to have the same reservations as Mora. "Right away, Madam!"
A moment later, the gate was pulled up.
Naya walked in with her head down to not show her moist eyes.
"My companion and I need to rest; give me a room."
This time, it was a mature-sounding woman that responded. "Come with me." She sounded almost motherly and looked concerned, especially as she watched Rula's tears and noticed Naya's turmoil.
Minutes later, Naya was on the back of a bed with her knees tucked in.
Rula was not in the room with her; she was lying down in the one next to her. Naya's enhanced senses let her hear the halflings' muffled cries.
She didn't understand why Rula was crying. She didn't even understand her own emotional state.
Naya's grip on Mora's claw was tight, so tight it began to hurt.
Why did she have to feel this way? Why did Lia have to pour salt on her opened wound? Why did she even have to do this in the first place?
Why can't she just go home?