The trident was long, three pronged, the tips glowing a sickly looking green. The Anura was a red and blue mix of colors, the long tongue darting out and back in, tasting the air.

  “Mind your own business human,” he, she, it, I wasn’t sure, said in that odd bubbling voice they had. “This does not concern you.”

  “I don’t like it when three pick on one,” I said, taking another step into the alley.

  I didn’t draw any weapons, just holding my hands to the side. Maybe this could still end peacefully. It wouldn’t, but didn’t hurt to try.

  “Leave,” the Anura said, taking another step closer, pointing the trident my way.

  “Make me,” I said.

  The creature made a bubbling laugh, lowered the trident and charged at me. I didn’t move the way it expected me to. I twisted to the side, letting the prongs of the trident pass by. Grabbing the weapon, I twisted and pulled, dragging the already charging Anura off balance and forward, right into my lifted knee. It caught the Anura in the stomach, a large whoosh of air followed by a cough. The Anura staggered a bit as I lowered my knee and shoved down, still holding the trident. The body fell to the ground, arms dragging as it tried to not let go of the weapon.

  While it was down, I kicked it and wrenched the weapon out of its hands.

  I remembered what I’d been told about fighting in the Nexus. I didn’t want to kill any of these thugs, though they deserved it. I again kicked the downed Anura in the head, with a little bit of extra force, making sure he was out for a good bit of time. Then I turned my attention to the other two.

  One of them was holding the being against the wall still, not paying attention to me but watching their victim. Which was smart.

  The second Anura held their hands to the side. They were wearing some kind of robe, which usually indicated a caster of some kind. The long multi-jointed fingers moved in a weird pattern, the hands starting to glow green. Green usually meant poison.

  Of course frog people liked poison. I was kind of surprised that Boro hadn’t used any in the duel, but then maybe his weapons had been poisoned and he just never managed to hit me. I hadn’t examined them that closely. They hadn’t been obvious like these two.

  I still held the trident, so I threw it at the caster, noticing the tips were no longer glowing green. The unconscious Anura had the Ability, it wasn’t infused to the weapon. Good to know.

  The weapon sailed through the air quickly. It was a short distance and I’d thrown some kinetic energy behind the launch. I didn’t use spears, but I’d practiced with throwing them quite a lot when I’d been learning how to add kinetic energy and force to things I threw. I was no Hawkeye, far from it, but at this distance and with the speed I threw the trident at, it didn’t give the Anura much time to get out of the way and I was pretty damn accurate.

  The prongs pierced its stomach at the same time it released a blast of green energy. The energy looked like green, slimy liquid. Thick and heavy. I threw up a force shield, angling it away from me, and dove to the side. The blast hit the shield, most of it flowing into the wall. Some splashed on me, hitting my armor and starting it sizzling.

  Acid instead of poison. Maybe a combination of the two.

  With a bubbly screech, the Anura fell back, stumbling into the other, who dropped the victim, who just fell to the ground, not getting up. He did fall into a bit of light at the end of the alley and I got an okay look at him, now able to tell it was a guy and it was human. He was wearing what looked like black robes. I caught a bit of red embroidery at the shoulder, which made me regret interfering. I thought I knew that pattern and hoped I was wrong but had to deal with the Anura first. I’d gotten involved and had to finish it.

  The caster glared at me, trying to get the trident out of its belly. I hadn’t been that accurate, hadn’t hit any vital organs. Probably because I didn’t know where the organs were in an Anura. The third pulled a strange looking crossbow from its inventory, stepping around the other to take aim at me. At least the bolt, since it was a crossbow, didn’t glow green. I wondered what the best way to stop the bolt was going to be. The Anura pulled the trigger and the projectile shot at me.

  Really fast.

  I didn’t have time to decide so I went with the instinct. Reaching out with some force, I snapped the bolt in the air a foot or so from me. The pieces fell to the ground, the Anura’s large eyes widening in shock. It had already loaded another bolt, recovered quickly and fired that one. But I had nothing to recover from and was already on the move.

  The bolt passed right by me, heading out to the street, where it would probably hit someone or the shop across the street. Either way, someone else was probably going to get involved.

  I’d moved closer to the wall, lifting the friction between my feet and the ground, and slid right down next to the Anura. I punched them in the head, with a lot of kinetic energy wrapped up in the blow. Their head snapped sideways, the second bolt launching into the air and over the buildings. As they fell to the side, I kicked out and caught the caster in the chest as it was turning to try to throw some energy at me. They stumbled back, clutching at their chest, where green blood leaked out of the trident holes. They’d managed to pull the weapon out, tossing it on the ground.

  My kick was accurate, hitting right where I’d wanted it to.

  More blood gushed out of the Anura’s gut.

  I reached up and grabbed the crossbowers head, fingers sliding along the slick surface. I gave up, not able to get a grip, so just punched it in the shoulder. Very hard. Bones cracked, skin ripped. I managed to grab their arm, twisting the shoulder I’d just hit. They tried not to yelp, but failed as I twisted harder, yanking them in the way of the caster. A blast of energy struck the crossbower, the skin sizzling under the acidic power. I pushed back and the two tangled up together.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  I was just about to pounce and get into punching-and-kicking-until-unconscious-mode when a voice yelled out from the alley.

  “Who shot this,” a deep voice asked.

  I turned, the two Anura weren’t really capable of it, to see who the newcomer was and almost laughed. Not at the being, but at the situation. Exactly what I thought would happen did happen.

  Standing at the end of the alley, taking up most of the space, was short but very wide creature that looked like an orc but with a dull orange skin.

  He stood about four to five feet tall and that wide. A slight hunchbacked shape as the legs were shorter, but thick, and the shoulders so wide. The head sat on a short neck, long dark hair in a mohawk trailing down the back, mutton chops that hung down his chest in two thick braids. He wore leather pants and vest, exposing the muscled arms. He carried no weapons and had a very angry expression on the face, the red tinted tusks sticking up from his lower lip.

  He pointed to a crossbow bolt sticking out of his shoulder, red blood flowing down his chest and arm. It didn’t appear to be hurting the orc too much, just making him angry. He glared at me and the two Anura, barely sparing a glance for the one still unconscious near his booted feet.

  “Better answer before I beat all of you.”

  I stepped back, holding my arms out to the sides, and nodded down to the two Anura.

  “That one,” I said, nudging the crossbowman with my foot.

  The orc, still assuming he was an orc, looked at the Anura and the human on the ground at the other end. The guy hadn’t moved and I hadn’t gotten a chance to really check him out yet. The orc looked at me.

  “These three jump that guy,” he asked, pulling the bolt out, barely making the orc grimace.

  Blood flowed freely from the wound, and fell from the tip. He used the bolt as a pointer.

  “Yeah. I heard them beating him up, told them to stop and they didn’t like that so they tried to beat me up.”

  The orc laughed. His voice was deep and gravelly.

  “Doesn’t look like they did a good job,” he said, kicking the down Anura who grunted at the pain.

  The orc stepped into the alley, walking over the again unconscious Anura. The two at my feet started to try to scramble away as the orc walked toward them. Tangled up as they were, it was hard for either to get moving. Both were bleeding and hurt, so that didn’t help. I also might have kicked them both a bit to keep them from trying to run away.

  The angry orc looked at the crossbowfrogman, still holding the bolt.

  “This the one?” he asked, pointing at the crossbower.

  “Yep,” I replied, stepping back, figuring this was going to get messy.

  The orc kicked the caster in the head, which snapped back, luckily not making the bone breaking noise, but the Anura was out for the count. The orc then reached down, which wasn’t far as the orc wasn’t that tall, and grabbed the last Anura by the vest. He easily lifted the much taller being. He growled low as he glared at the Anura, who for his credit, didn’t look afraid.

  Up until the point where the orc jabbed the bolt right into the Anura’s eye.

  I could see the already large eye get wider as the tip of the bolt got closer and closer. I grimaced, cringing a bit, at the sound the bolt made as it pierced the yellow eye. Thick fluid burst out and the Anura screamed. It was an odd sound, all bubbly and piercing. It got worse when the orc twisted and pulled, the eye yanked out of the socket, a thick line of something connecting it back into the head. With another yank and twist, the orc severed the cord.

  The Anura fell to the ground, clutching at its eye which was leaking blood and other stuff that I didn’t know what to call. The orc just casually kicked it in the head, knocking it out, the eye still leaking bodily fluids of various kinds.

  “What are you going to do with that?” I asked, pointing at the eye.

  “Not eat it,” he replied, tossing the eye over his shoulder where it bounced on the ground and rolled around a bit. “Anura tastes nasty.”

  I really didn’t want to know.

  “That one of yours?” he asked, pointing at the victim, who still hadn’t really moved.

  I finally had time to look at him, the man slowly getting up, using the wall to steady himself. His face was bruised. The Anura had really worked him over, which was saying a lot for people at least Level 100 with the increased strength and endurance that came with it. He had the dark skin and black hair that would have marked him formerly as mainland Asian, but now marked him as part of Subutai’s Bounding Dragon Sect. I could see the Sect’s symbol, a dragon in flight, stitched onto the right shoulder of the man’s Gi. It wasn’t a robe, but loose fitting pants and shirt, with a red belt holding it all up. HIs black hair was long, with beads and feathers braided in. He glared up at me nervously.

  I didn’t recognize him, but I wasn’t that up on just who was in the Sect outside of Subutai’s elite. He definitely recognized me though.

  “Naw,” I answered the orc. “From my planet but not one of mine.”

  “I hate the Anura,” the orc muttered, giving the wounded frogmen another hard kick. “Cause nothing but trouble.”

  “I’m Nick Howell of the Solace Fellowship,” I said.

  “Know who you are,” the orc answered. “Been causing some noise since you got here. I like it,” he said, giving me a wide smile, which only highlighted the tusks and red tinged teeth.

  I really could picture this guy casually munching away on an Anura.

  “Orbic Grun,” he said, holding out his huge hand. “Part of the Blood Sands Pact.

  It easily surrounded mine when we grasped the warrior’s shake.

  “We got the space right across the street,” he pointed over his shoulder.

  Before we could say or do anything else, two of the gray-skinned four armed Haric appeared at the end of the alley. They held no weapons or wore any armor but I got the impression I didn’t want to challenge them. Orbic’s muttered curse helped that impression. I turned and saw two more at the other end of the alley.

  “We have questions for you all,” one of the Haric said.

  “This’ll be fun,” Orbic sighed.

  And that was how I found myself sitting in front of a Haric tribunal for the first, and probably not last, time.