New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



David stared the fatso in front of him down, his mind already trying to figure a way out of this without resorting to violence. He couldn't care less if these scum died or not, but he knew this would only bring unwanted attention to him.

But as the three other men wrapped around their little group, David knew there was no more time to think. He either acted now, with the roughness of a hammer, or they would force him into the sharpness of a sword.

Kary was watching two of the men looking at her from much closer now, drool coming out of their mouths.

One of them took a step forward, extending his hand toward her.

"Come here, babe. Don't stay with those two pipsqueaks. I'll show you what a real man tastes like. You'll never want to go back up to the top world."

His hand almost reached Kary, before a clawed hand grabbed it in midair. Attached to that clawed hand was an angry young man, whose face radiated in such hatred that Kary wasn't sure he was in control anymore.

"If you put your filthy hands on her, it'll be the last thing you'll ever do. Understand me, scum?"

Alexander's voice came out so low it was closer to a growl than actual words. That's when Kary knew he was already on the cusp of losing it.

The man snickered toward Alex, before yanking on his arm. But nothing budged.

The small, clawed hand grasping his forearm was like a vice, in which his arm was slowly getting crushed. His face morphed to fear as the pressure upped another degree, and he heard a clear *crack* come from his forearm.

He heard the sound before the pain even registered in his brain. But once it did, he started wailing out in pain, his other hand punching at Alexander's face repeatedly.

But Alex looked unmoved at the strikes. Like they came from a child.

Kary saw him raise his other hand and flatten it out like a blade. She knew he was about to commit the irreparable.

David, on the other side of her, could see this happening from the corner of his eye and knew he needed to act as well before all hell broke loose.

If Alex lost control here, not only would he waste a tremendous amount of mana on human garbage, but there was also no telling if he would stop at these four.

The fat man heard the cracking and the screaming and snapped out of his staring contest.

"What the fuck?! Boys! Kill them!"

But before any of them could take a single step, a bright, blinding light erupted from the middle of this minor scuffle, forcing the homeless thugs to shield their eyes, as David and Alex turned their heads, squinting at Kary.

Standing in the middle of them, Kary reopened her eyes, which flared up like two miniature suns, as her arms and hair glowed a bright yellowish orange, fire rising from them like an inferno.

Her hair fluttered upward, burning like a bonfire, as she extended her arms outward, the fire on it rising almost to the ceiling of the place, twenty feet in the air.

"Enough! Alex, let go of the trash. Don't lose yourself to empty threats and dirty bastards. David, lead us forward," she said, looking at each of the guys.

She then turned her head to each thug, one after the other.

"And if any of you get funny ideas, I swear on god, I will turn you to cinders faster than you can reflect on your actions. Do I make myself clear?!"

The four men, even the one who had been crying out in pain, were in utter shock. The woman before them, which they had considered as nothing more than a plaything, was on fire!

And she didn't even seem to care.

Panic grew in them, before they bolted away from there, Alex releasing his grip on the crybaby's arm. But another problem arose.

Everyone around, who had been turning their eyes away until Alex broke one of the thugs' arms, was now staring in terror at the flaming woman in the middle of their little camp.

General panic spread like wildfire in straw, as every homeless person in the underground camp suddenly started screaming and running. No one wanted to stay close to the burning woman, who looked to them like the incarnation of the devil.

The camp emptied, David watching as almost a hundred homeless people upped and left, running over others, and tents and whatever stood on their way to the direct route out.

The stampede almost resulted in some of them getting trampled over, which would have been terrible, since they mostly looked so fragile that a simple sneeze could kill them. But as they fled, silence came over the camp.

They could hear only the sound of the blazing inferno that was Kary. A sound which rapidly faded away as Kary extinguished her flames.

But Alex smelled a bit of burnt hair odour, wafting off of Kary. When he leaned in to see if she was okay, he could see her wince in pain a bit.

The very tip of her hair was now singed slightly, as if she had passed too close to a campfire, and a few superficial burns speckled her forearms. It was clear as day that she hadn't controlled the flames entirely.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, already knowing the answer.

"I'm fine. I thought I could control the fire, but it was harder than I had imagined. But I wasn't quite ready to go this big, it seems. I'll be fine once we get some ointment on these minor burns."

Alex looked around, searching the tents visually, hoping he could see water bottles or anything that would temporarily soothe her pain. After a bit of looking, he found a tent that had a pack of water bottles and an almost empty bottle of burn ointment.

He was lucky to find those, as whoever had them hid them under some boxes, most likely to hide them from the other squatters. He quickly emptied a water bottle on her arms, trying to cool her down, before applying the ointment.

But David looked impatient, suddenly.

"Make it quick. I have a feeling releasing that much mana might have lit us up like a beacon to our prey. We need to move soon."

Alex frowned, wondering how rats could have felt the mana at all, but didn't question David. He knew more about them than he did, after all.

"I'll go as fast as I can, but I'm not leaving until I at least applied ointment on her burns. She did this for us. It's the least I can do."

David waved his hand at him dismissively.

"Whatever. Just hurry it up."

And so he did.