“Bromgar, my friend. How have you been?” Salamander asked.

  Tarin and Arix stood up with their weapons in their hands. “Do you know him, Bromgar?” Arix asked.

  “Well, yes, I know him. Everybody knows him. He is one of the Eight Greats of the Lord, but he is no friend of mine,” Bromgar answered.

  Salamander smirked. “What are you talking about, Bromgar? We are friends. We are close friends, in fact.” He spread his arms and moved to hug Bromgar.

  But Bromgar blocked him with both hands. "You killed my kind in the war. We will never be friends. In fact, you were the one who killed my father.”

  “But I see you have already killed the king of Nyctonas, Kharvos. It means the war between your races is over now. So why don’t we be friends now?” Salamander stood there with his hands spread.

  “I was not the one who killed him. I only delivered the final blow. But that is of no concern here. Tell me, why are you here?” Bromgar asked.

  Salamander looked at Kharvos’s corpse. “If you were not the one to kill him, then who was?”

  “That is none of your business now, is it?” Bromgar hissed. “And you haven’t answered my question. Why are you here?”

  “Well, ain’t that obvious? I am here to kill these humans. And I see one is already dead. Or unconscious?” Salamander said.

  Bromgar stood there quietly in the rain for a while.

  “What is going on here?" Arix shouted. Salamander turned toward him. "Well then — shall we start? I don't think you're the type to go down without a fight," Arix said.

  Tarin kept looking at the corpse of his father. “Why did you kill him?” he said. But his voice was low, low enough that Salamander caught the words but not their meaning.

  “What did you say?” Salamander leaned his ear toward Tarin.

  “I said, why did you kill him?” Tarin shouted.

  Salamander laughed. “Because he failed to kill you. He was going to rot to death anyway because he broke the law. So I showed him mercy," he said.

  “You will not kill them, Salamander,” Bromgar said, looking at the ground.

  The rain was not slowing down. Other dwarves and Nyctonas kept their distance.

  Salamander turned around toward Bromgar. “You know the rules of this land, Bromgar, right?”

  “Yes, I know,” Bromgar replied.

  “Then you realize, I am going to kill them.” Salamander smirked.

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  "You will not. You will have to go through us first," Bromgar said, pulling his axe from his back.

  Salamander looked around at all the dwarves and Nyctonas keeping their distance because of fear. “Fight us? There is no one with you, Bromgar.”

  “That doesn’t matter. These humans helped us a lot. They even tried to make peace between Nyctona and dwarves. I am not going to let you kill them,” Bromgar answered.

  “What will you do then? Fight me one on one? You will die in an instant.” Salamander walked toward Bromgar and stood before him.

  “You are already bandaged up. You can’t even hold your axe properly.” He laughed, eyes dropping to Bromgar's trembling hands.

  But Bromgar stood there unfazed.

  “Even though I am alone, I will defend my people. And these humans have become my people now,” Bromgar said.

  Salamander stopped laughing. "Very well then," he said, then grabbed Bromgar by the head and lifted him off the ground. Bromgar’s axe fell to the ground.

  Arix and Tarin gritted their teeth and rushed toward Salamander. But they were already tired and out of energy.

  When they closed in on Salamander, he easily dodged them and even kicked Tarin in the stomach.

  Tarin fell to the ground. Arix went to him and knelt beside him. “Tch. We can’t win against him right now,” Tarin said, standing up again.

  Arix looked at Salamander grabbing Bromgar. "I am not letting him kill Bromgar—" A curved sword flew from the crowd and stabbed into Salamander's hand.

  It stabbed him, and Bromgar fell to the ground.

  Arix looked back to find a Nyctona stepping forward from the crowd.

  "You cowards! He is killing our king and you are all just sitting there? Just die already if you can’t even defend your own king,” he said.

  One of the Nyctonas said, “But, General. He is not our king.”

  “Our king died at that man's hands. And being the last general alive, I accept Bromgar as the king of Nyctonas too. We will live in peace now. If you don’t agree, then you can leave the Nyctona's settlement too.”

  Everyone started muttering to themselves. All the dwarves stood up and picked up their axes. Even the ones who were injured picked up their weapons as best as they could.

  “We will defend our Chief.” All the dwarves started shouting and closing the distance between themselves and Salamander.

  Looking at them, the Nyctonas also started standing and walking toward Salamander.

  Salamander smirked. “Hmph. Are you all willing to die for these humans?” he shouted.

  Bromgar also stood up.

  “We are willing to die for our King Bromgar. If he said these humans are his people, then they are,” the Nyctonas’ general said.

  Salamander started laughing again. After a while, he said, “Fine then. I can’t kill your entire race, of course. But I have to kill these humans. So I give them one chance. Run as fast as you can. I will give you three days to run. After three days, I will hunt you, and wherever you are, I will kill you.”

  “What? You will not kill us right now?” Arix said in shock.

  “Well, where is the fun in that? Seeing you try to escape desperately and killing you then will be much more fun than just killing you here,” Salamander said.

  Bromgar rushed toward Arix. “Run, boy. Even with all the people here, it will be impossible to defeat Salamander.”

  "Tch." Tarin looked away.

  “You wanted to go to the Divine Prison, right? Well, it is not far away.” Bromgar pointed toward a small mountain, toward the west from the village. “Go to the other side of that mountain. You will see the prison from there,” he said.

  Arix looked at Tarin, then at the already injured Lyra and Meilie.

  “Let’s run, Tarin,” he said.

  “Let’s go,” Tarin agreed, and both ran.

  Arix picked Meilie up, taking her staff with him, and Tarin hoisted Lyra over his shoulder and started running toward the mountain.

  “HAHAHAHA… Run! Run! Run! Let’s see how far you can run,” Salamander laughed.