Once they had finished eating, they got up from their table and left the area with the food stands.

  They needed to make their way to the temple to conduct their daily prayers.

  Georgious wanted to skip it entirely, not wanting to waste any time to make use of the gift that he had received. He could guess that the younger boys didn’t care much for it either.

  However, he knew that his long-time friend wouldn’t take kindly to them keeping him away from his prayers and to be honest, it wouldn’t do them any good to show apathy towards his wishes when so much of their futures hung in his hands.

  They made their way through the streets, taking care to avoid the areas where the guards patrolled most often.

  The four of them were walking side by side and everything almost like in formation.

  He mused to himself that perhaps not dodging the draft wouldn’t be so bad. Sure the risks would be significant, but getting to spend time with the three of them and perhaps even Axios wouldn’t be a bad way to make an honest living after all.

  Could he get Seth and Leo to come with them? Seth as easier to make an argument for. He would soon be strong enough to overpower the average adult and Leo could fulfil some role of delivering equipment and outfitting soldiers or perhaps even be taken under the wing of someone in the brass, being groomed for a job done behind a table.

  As he kept having these thoughts and still thought of his relaxation soon to come, they came upon an area that was slightly more crowded than the ones before. Nothing to it, just a regular street that opened up in a small circular communal space.

  The temple’s roof had started to come into view.

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  He looked sideways to check on the friend that was the cause of their short routine journey and was surprised to see that he had moved away from them, eyes fixed on someone in the crowd already behind them.

  What is he doing?

  Suddenly, his white cloacked friend quickened his pace and went behind them, walking straight towards an average sized, slim and dark haired man who was talking and laughing with an elderly man that was sitting on a bench.

  “Hey!”, Seth called out.

  “Kenos!”, Leo yelled.

  Not even looking back, he grabbed the hand of the dark haired man and raised it up high.

  “Hey, let go! What are you- Ah! Ah!”

  The man cried out in pain and his knees buckled as the jade-eyed young man suddenly started clamping down on the bones in his hand.

  Damnit Kenos! What are you doing?!

  “Guards! Guards!”, the old man next to them cried out.

  The man in Kenos’ hands looked at the old man with visible fear and panic, but the deed was done. The agitation and the cries for help had already caused the crowd to move away and start an uproar and five guards in total had started to come into view, coming from either direction.

  The man tried to slash at Kenos with a knife that he now held in his free hand, but their postures and the poor leverage derived from it made it easy for the jade eyed youth to grab the wrist of the assaulting hand and control it.

  Kenos finally noticed the guards coming in and Georgious saw something that he couldn’t have imagined, even after knowing him for so long.

  Those strange sharp and misshapen teeth of his, which caused him to be relentlessly mocked with the nickname of “spiky” by all the other kids since the day he first arrived at the temple.

  He dove right into the man and with his mouth wide open, drove his teeth straight into the man’s right bicep, biting down hard.

  “Gghaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!”

  The man let out a blood-curdling cry.

  The guards slammed into Kenos, trying to pry him off of the man.

  Seth was going to take off running to enter the fray, but Georgious was one step quicker and grabbed by immediately locking both arms across his torso.

  “Let me go George!”

  “No! You two are just going to make things worse!”

  He looked at Kenos, still grabbing on to the man’s hard with his teeth, crimson blood staining his characteristic white tunic and making a mess all around them,.

  The guards tried to kick him in the head but he had positioned his arms around his head, as he held on, to prevent that. They tried to pull at his legs but he kept kicking their hands away.

  Don’t pull out a knife! Don’t do it man! Don’t give the guards a reason!

  “Leo!”

  “Yes!”, the boy replied.

  “We are getting out of here!”

  “Oh no we are not!”, Seth said.

  The young Vermillion bit into his arm and he could feel him drawing blood.

  “Now!”, Georgious yelled, as he direct Leo towards the crowd and dragged Seth kicking and screaming.

  He threw a last look at his friend and the last though on his mind was:

  What in the Abyss was that?