The chains of Alex’s whip became enveloped in a liquid like aura that took the form of a snake with crimson eyes. The two exchanged glances over their shoulders, and smirked within their standoff. They took simultaneous steps away from each other and upon their tenth, they turned and faced each other. Alex’s whip coiled around him, similarly like a snake would, and formed a type of armor. Meanwhile, Ajax pointed both hands towards him and took a deep breath.

The snake started to rapidly spin around Alex, like a drill would, and he started to walk towards Ajax. In response, Ajax unleashed twin blasts of hot water from both hands and a breath of fire that ran parallel to them. Alex kept his calm demeanor even as the attacks approached. The spinning of his whip increased and upon making contact with the series of attacks it deflected them in all directions.

“You are skilled; I wouldn’t mind sparring with you again.” Ajax said, increasing the strength of his water attacks, “Though as a monster I am sure that would be an inconvenience.”

“I am sure my seniors wouldn’t approve, but I am actually having fun for once, I am sure I gained some good experience from this duel.” Alex replied.

“Same here, this is getting my blood pumping, so holding back was getting hard.” said Ajax, he felt his heart pounding, the mana rushing through every point of his body, and a strange urge growing in his mind, “Finally get to try this skill, Drowning Chains.”

“Prepare yourself.” said Alex, “Decipher creation and give me power, Force of Arms.”

Ajax cancelled his attacks and immediately behind him a large magic circle appeared. Around him appeared small blue balls that gathered at the circle to form a large one. As this ball grew, Alex uncoiled his whip and made the aura disappear as a purple smoke started to be emitted from behind him. After a few seconds, behind Ajax was a large ball of water and behind Alex were five purple arms. Chains made of water streamed out from the large orb as the hands reached out in response.

The chains squeezed the arms apart and the hands regrow and grabbed purposefully grabbed the chains so that none gets passed them. This cycle of destruction and reformation took their spectators in amazement as they watched. The force behind the attacks astounding them, even going so far as to cause cracks in the barrier as the chains that were thrown away slashed it. Both boys sported a maddening grin, their determination displayed clearly on their faces as neither had the intention to stop or even notice what was happening around them.

“So that is the skill he doesn’t use, Alex is a newbie like us, where did he learn that?”

“These two are crazy, can’t they see they’re going too far, the barrier is about to break.”

“Enough boys, cover your ears everyone.” said the mage, the rest of the group nodded and did as they were told, “Decipher creation and give me power, Banshee Scream.”

The mage released a deafening scream that rang out within the barrier and its soundwave destroyed both the chains and arms. The sound broke the boys’ attention, causing their attacks to disappear, and forced them to cover their ears. The mage stopped the shouting after a few seconds and took a deep breath.

“You almost blow out my eardrums!” shouted Alex, “What the hell!”

“You both were amazing but we have to stop here, it’s time for patrol and the barrier is almost shattered.” said the mage and he pointed to the walls around them.

“Really, seems time flew by fast.” said Alex as he took in all the damaged that had been done, he coiled and placed his whip on his hips and picked up his shield, “We should fight again Ajax.”

“Better believe it.” replied Ajax with a thumbs up.

The mage brought down the barrier and Alex walked to join the rest of his team, waving at Ajax as he walked away. The moment that Alex and his group was out of sight, Ajax flew back to the inn. He entered back through the window to find that the room was empty, no Nathaniel or children. This sent him into a panic that had him searching all over the room. He wondered if the man had come back and abducted them while he was out. As these thoughts circled through his head he felt as if the room was spinning. He felt his stomach knot and his heartbeat becoming slow, strong, and rung out in his ears with each beat.

This panic slowly transitioned into something else, something that he couldn’t explain. Undenounced to him, his eyes closed shut and started to glow as he fell to his knees. A thin vail of white wind started to surround him and the air slowly became electrified. Only for it all to come to a stop by the door opening, taking him by surprise, and Nathaniel accompanied by the kids stepping inside.

Their hairs were all messy and dripping wet, their bodies were covered only by towels. They all looked at Ajax in confusion as to why he was on the floor. Ajax blinked a couple of times while looking at them with somewhat teary eyes. He stood up and brushed the tears from his eyes and sniffled only once to catch his breath.

“Good morning.” Ajax said as the kids rushed over to him, “Where did you all go?”

“When I woke up you were gone, I assumed you had departed to travel alone.” Nathaniel replied, “So I took the children to bathe in the inn’s bathhouse.”

“I see.” Ajax said and patted the kids on their heads.

“I am glad that you decided to stay.” Nathaniel said and smiled at him, closing the door behind him.

“Sorry I left without saying anything.” he said and nervously scratched the back of his neck with an awkward smile, “I went on a fly and ran into a little fun distraction.”

Nathaniel cocked a brow at what Ajax meant by a little distraction and decided to inquire further. He sends the children to dry off next to the bed while he dragged Ajax closer to the door and whispered his questions into Ajax’s ear. When Ajax revealed that he had actually fought with some knights, Nathaniel almost went ballistic on him. He grabbed Ajax by the ear and twisted it slightly, making Ajax wince in pain and tried to get himself released.

Ajax tried to properly explain that the fight was just a sparring match. However, Nathaniel wasn’t having it, only letting go when he explained that he seemingly had made a friend rather than an enemy. Nathaniel sighed and let go but had his arms crossed, showing his slight disapproval.

“You should go deal with your scratches, I think they have healing potions in the lobby.” Nathaniel said, “When I thought you left I felt a little sad, so try not to do such reckless stuff.”

“Alright, I am sorry.” Ajax replied, “I hope the bed was at least comfortable with so many people.”

“Yeah…last night was…” he said as he noticed that he couldn’t remember much, he put on a slight blush and leaned closer to Ajax’s ear, “Did we do anything weird last night, you know, like stuff we can’t do in front of kids?”

“If you’re implying sex, no we didn’t do it.” Ajax replied with a similarly red face but tried to keep his cool, “We only kissed.”

“Ww…we ki…kissed.” he nervously stuttered, taking a step back as he felt his mind go poof.

Nathaniel grabbed his shoulders and started to tremble and when he bumped into the door, he slowly slid down and then grabbed onto his knees. He felt like he was suffocating, his chest tightening and his mind lost within a room of spinning thoughts. He just started to apologize by constantly repeating that he was sorry while rocking back and forth. Soon enough transitioning into begging to not being abandoned.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright, it’s alright, no need to apologize.” Ajax quickly said, he wasn’t expecting this reaction and reached out to Nathaniel but stopped half way as the children stole his thunder by huddling around Nathaniel and hugging him, “You don’t need to apologize, I don’t hate you or anything.”

“Are you sure?” Nathaniel sniffled and looked up at Ajax, slowly drying his eyes and standing back up.

“Yes I am sure, besides right now you’re helping these children so how could I hate you.” Ajax replied and smiled at him, patting Nathaniel on his head.

“Thank you and thank you children.” Nathaniel said and gave them all a hug back, “We need proper clothes for you all, I will go out and buy some, watch them Ajax.”

“Sure I don’t mind a little babysitting.” Ajax replied.

“Please sirs, you’ve done enough already!” exclaimed the first boy they saved.

“We will be fine with everything you’ve done so far.” the girl quickly said.

“We are grateful, and we know we can never repay you.” the second boy chimed in, “We don’t want you getting into any more trouble because of us.”

“No one said you had to pay us back and we’ve already made up our minds to deal with any fallout or else we wouldn’t have helped in the first place.” Ajax said and crossed his arms with a smile.

“Besides, you are children, we can’t have you running around in those rags.” Nathaniel said, “I’ll buy breakfast on my way back, so be good boys and girl.”

After hearing their words, the children nodded and withheld any further resistance to the stance of the two older ones. Ajax broke their unease by picking them up and carrying them to the bed, putting them into his lap, and drying their hairs with their towels. Seeing this made Nathaniel smile, making him feel more confident in Ajax’s claim of not hating him. Nathaniel went to the dresser and picked out an outfit of; a green fancy tunic with a floral design of pink shades, silky black trousers, a pair of smooth black shoes, and a green choker with a central pendent of a rose flower.

Nathaniel went into the separate room and after a few minutes came out well dressed in his chosen attire. His hair was groomed and had a slight shine from the water that was still in it, his cheeks were shining and appeared to have a touch of pink in its shade, and his choker complimented his design. He was a brief image of beauty that served to take Ajax’s breath away as he witnessed him walk by to the door. He bided them all a farewell and left the room, however, once the door closed behind him, he leaned against it and slapped his forehead.

“Ahh…I can’t believe I kissed him.” Nathaniel groaned, “My parents were right about me.”

Ajax searched the room for something to comb the children’s hair since he saw that Nathaniel had groomed his own. He went into the other room and found the grooming supplies that Nathaniel had, he took the comb and went back to the children, starting with the girl first. While combing her hair, he asked them about their lives before meeting him. This question caught the children off guard and made them rather uncomfortable. Seeing their response and remembering Nathaniel’s earlier reaction, Ajax was quick to withdraw his statement, however, the girl started to describe her experiences with the boys following shortly after.

Their tales were that of the abuse Ajax expected to hear but he was unprepared for the brutality of what he heard. They were purposefully starved for hours on end, whipped and beaten as punishments for any disruption to their labor, and some being chained while half-starved dogs were set on them for the entertainment of their former master. Ajax was left in shock as the children went on, not in his wildest nightmares could he have imagined children being subjected to such torture just for being born demi-humans.