Gwen and Stacy were swimming, they were having the time of their lives. The boys following them, even though the whole group was over 22 they still considered them boys, would do whatever they wanted as long as the manipulation was subtle. They didn’t have to work much, only getting in a hit or two on almost dead monsters so that they could level, and they got to travel. Gwen was a former high society girl and was used to bossing around the staff, Stacy was just enjoying the freedom from her previous life. Stacy had been a relatively well known B movie actress, but her only claim to fame was that she was always the girl in the movies who showed her boobs.

  She did mostly horror movies which gave her a following of weirdos and basement dwellers, but now no one knew her and she could just be herself free in the world. The boys with them reminded her of the fans she had before but they were good simps who never tried anything, however she was getting the feeling that they were not as good of people as they pretended. She expected them to either try to force themselves on her and Gwen or plan some scenario where they all almost die and they would get some from saving their lives or something. Just when she thinks they are going to enact some plan, this crazy hot naked guy shows up at their usual place.

  At first she thought this was a part of their plan, this guy was going to fake a fight and lose and she would have to be thankful. Then she felt his power, it was just a tiny decimal point of a piece but she knew he was not with them, he was someone who didn’t follow, he did what he pleased and others followed or they didn’t and any obstacle was ground to dust. This was who she should be following around, but she wouldn’t be able to just ask, this would take guile. Thankfully for her, that's who she got into Hollywood even though she was mostly average looking and a mediocre actor at best. The only part she had to figure out was how to play it and as many options ran through her head she saw Kyle stab him.

  She couldn’t make out from her distance what exactly was happening, but it looked like the big stranger had made a friendly gesture putting his hand on Kyle’s shoulder and he used that weak position to stab him. She knew in her heart that they might all die because that was not going to stop him, figuring that the only way to save her life was to reason with him, so she started swimming to shore. Gwen seemed to think that their boys were going to win, Stacy saw no reason to dissuade her of that notion, she had a better chance of survival if she was also killed by him. Maybe he wouldn’t be angry anymore, she thought to herself. Then when she saw Ben stab him as well, she swam faster thinking that the more damage he took the angrier he would be.

  Gwen was a few seconds behind Stacy as they both reached the shore, Stacy unashamed of her nakedness just stood and watched, but Gwen was trying to put clothes on. It appeared that the boys and the large man were whispering to each other, like for a while, like they were having a long conversation. Then suddenly, and she did mean suddenly, a tall slender woman appeared in jet black leather armor holding a spear. She had literally appeared from nowhere, and before her mind could register what had happened or the fact that she was in danger, the tall woman used her spear in a swift swing to remove one of Gwen’s legs at the knee. Still frozen in confusion, Stacy gulped when the woman turned and looked toward her.

  “So you say I have to leave,” Eli said with no difficulty, as if he didn’t have two blades in one of his lungs.

  “Yes, you leave now and James here won’t remove your head from your neck with his axe.”

  “James, would you do that to someone, remove their head even though they are injured and at your mercy?”

  “Yes he would.” Ben replied.

  Eli turned to Ben, but it felt more like Eli had stayed still and reality warped to move Ben in front of him. “I was talking to James. I thought we could be friends James, but if you're going to be the kind of man who can kill like this then maybe I was wrong.”

  “Why would he be friends with you?” Kyle said. “You lost, we beat you.”

  “No we didn’t,” James said and turned to Ben, “Does he look beaten?”

  Ben and Kyle looked over to him, there was some blood and they were sure that their blades were still inside him, but his posture hadn’t changed, he didn’t look like he was in pain, and he was breathing normally even with his damaged lung. They looked back to each other then back to Eli and pushed their blades in deeper, Kyle even went in with another dagger to his kidney.

  “You see James, these two don’t seem redeemable. Think about it, three of you and only two girls. Do they look like the sharing type to you?” Eli said, pointing at Ben and Kyle.

  Kyle saw the doubt in James’ eyes and released his kidney dagger and ejected the one on his wrist and swung it for James’ throat. Eli moved and grabbed Kyle’s wrist way before it could reach James who then jumped back holding his axe in front of him protectively. Eli squeezed and everything in Kyle's wrist broke and was crushed, he lost all composure reading his other dagger, which was still in Eli’s side and fell to his knees screaming in pain. Ben wasn’t giving up and kept pushing and twisting so Eli conjured his cudgel and casually swung it backward hitting Ben's knee and breaking it. He too fell to the ground in pain.

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

  Bethany spoke up from right behind James, making him jump and turn, “You're going easy on these guys Ash, just kill them and move on.” She was standing behind James, dragging Gwen by the hair with one hand and holding Stacy by the throat with the other, her spear was under her ‘Gwen-dragging’ arm.

  “Soft? They are screaming in pain, what more do you want, woman?” Eli responded in a joking tone. Bethany would never let him call her woman like that if he was serious.

  “I think they are just being little bitches there isn’t enough blood, one should be holding a severed arm and trying to crawl away leaving a red trail. Something like that.” Bethany finished her proposal with a wink to Stacy since that had been one of her scenes in one of her more famous horror movies. Stacy instantly realized that this amazon of a woman was a fan and she felt like she might not die, laughing inwardly that the thing she had been running from was what was going to save her here.

  “Thats a little theatrical don’t you think? Wait, were you into horror movies?” Eli asked.

  “Oh yeah, I’ve seen 'em all, I used to cheer when the pretty girls got killed.” Bethany said with a smirk, feeling Stacy tense up. She threw Gwen over to the crying and screaming boys and she started screaming and crying again. “What should I do with this one?” she asked while shaking Stacy a little.

  “Put her down, Stacy and James here are going to decide what to do with these three.”

  Stacy was dropped and fell to the ground holding her throat, James went to her and helped her up. After seeing that she was unharmed, he relaxed a bit and they stood facing Eli.

  “Are you gonna have them kill their friends, that’s devious, you aren’t normally like this.” she put a finger to her chin in pretend thought. “You guys must have done something to make him mad.”

  “We have a few minutes until the auction thing goes live and I can browse it, you have until then to decide what we do with them.” Eli said then put his arm around Bethany and walked toward the water talking about how the lake compared to the lake beneath their town.

  “What should we do?” James asked Stacy. “I think it’s some kind of test.” They glanced back at the pair as they got to the waters edge, Bethany removing the blades from Eli’s body like she was brushing dust off his shoulder.

  “It’s definitely a test, the question is what gets us a passing grade.” Stacy said.

  “I think we should let them go.” James offered. He had a feeling that cruelty wasn’t their style so it was to kill them or let them go and he didn’t want to kill them.

  “I think you’re right,” She whispered to him. “You three are terrible, but you can go, just pray you never see them again. They don’t seem like the second chance type.”

  The three, still making pained noises, started moving away, but it was slow since two of them couldn’t really walk. Just ahead of where they were crawling Gwen’s leg landed, it had been thrown by the tall woman and Stacy realized that it would end up being the scenario she had suggested from before. That woman was smart, she would need to keep her mouth shut around her and tone down her usually sarcastic personality. Stacy and James walked towards the two at the water and stopped several feet away, they didn’t say anything, just standing sullen and defeated. They just hoped they hadn’t inadvertently signed up for something worse than what the others got.

  “Oh, the auction is almost starting. Stacy and James, this is Bethany, my second in command and my strongest friend. Gather your courage and strength and spar with her while I do this auction thing. After it's over she will let me know what kind of potential you have and if you are worth our time.” He paused and looked directly at Bethany, “Do not kill them,” He paused again “and no maiming either, I want them able to walk when you're done.”

  Bethany’s smile was that of a snake who found an unattended rabbit den, “As you wish, Ash.”

  Eli went to sit down on a rock with his feet in the water and opened the auction screen which, when not active, just had a timer until the next time it would activate. The timer had just over a minute left. He leaned back and stared at the sky, quieting his mind, the encounter with those people had not been what he expected. If he had seen a naked man laying on the ground, he would have asked if the person was ok or if they needed help. Even if they might have been a threat, he could have asked from a distance or just avoided them entirely and waited for the person to leave.

  That group moved for an attack, even when they knew it was a naked man, they didn’t relax, the three that left even seemed to get more excited that it was a person that they could use or rob or kill. The thought of offering help didn’t cross their mind. But maybe he was being too hard on them, they weren’t lords or even that strong really, maybe the weak feel the pressure for survival more keenly than he does. This would explain their behavior, he had seen it many times during his military deployments, people doing bad things because it's the only way they know how to survive. When the choice is between doing a bad thing to survive or not doing it and not surviving, he wasn’t sure what he would pick.

  He would like to think that he could keep his values no matter how weak he was, but he was probably the most powerful person on the planet and he was struggling with keeping his values. He was glad that they would live and hopefully learn from this, but he wasn’t going to hold his breath. The girl hadn’t really done anything but be rude to him and oogle him a bit, but Bethany would not have done what she did if it wasn’t warranted. The guys however, both of their magic was exploding with elation at the prospect of hurting him and bullying him. Also their attack was planned without communication, which meant that they had planned to kill James like that or they just both had the instincts of a murderer.