"I can see the dock now! Its right...across...the bridge..." I said between gasps. I gradually began to slow.

"Did I tell you to slow down lazy meat?"

"No...sir..." I was like a fish without air, barely able to form a proper sentence.
For the past twenty minutes Isa had run like a machine. Her body betrayed not even the slightest hint of exhaustion.

I was at my max limit; I felt my legs were turning into wax and my lungs were ablaze. I couldn't go on anymore, so I eventually came to a stop.

"Sir...I can't go on..."

Isa stared at me for a about a good thirty seconds, and during that time she looked as if she was having a hard time deciding whether to roast me on a stick or chop me into a million pieces and make sushi.

"Soft meat...5 minute break." Isa sneered leaning back against an abandoned car.

"Thank you sir..." I gulped, trying and failing to wipe away the waterfall of sweat on my forehead.

Slowly, bit by bit, I began to recover my strength. The harsh training really paid off now, if not for that I honestly would have dropped dead halfway through this run.

"AEEEEEE!!!" A piercing scream came from nearby. I turned in the direction of the scream, instinctively I began to walk over to the source of the voice, and once close by, I hide behind a car found and peeked over to see what was going on.

A gasp escaped my mouth.

"Cursed Elementals! It is time for you to repay your crimes!"

"Yeah! Punish them!"

"I say we tie them up, and hang them over the building!"

"Death to all elementals!"

Between the narrow gaps of the angry mob, I caught a glimpse of a pair of elementals, both in their early twenties, hugging one another. Like I said earlier, on the outside, elementals don't look different from humans and most of them dress in regular human clothes, so it makes it even harder to tell most of the time. But they have clan or house symbols printed on a visible part of their skin. This time it gave away their identity and made them a clear target.

"Please! I never harmed anyone! I just want to go home..." said the lady.

"Everyone please! This doesn't have to happen!" said the man, desperately trying to shield her from the incoming filthy projectiles.

"My son was murdered by an elemental, I deserve to draw first blood!" called a middle-aged man holding a crow bar.

"My business was stolen by an elemental; I should draw first blood!" cried another middle-aged man as he tapped the metal bat in his hand impatiently.

The two locked eyes and seemed to get into an argument about who should get the first lot.

There was a rage boiling inside me, like a beast I could hold it back no more. Next thing I knew, I was wading through the angry mob and found myself standing between the mob and the elemental couple.

"Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Go back to yo mama! You nipple toothed boy!"

Screams and curses flew towards me at once, along with a couple of filthy projectiles, which I managed to dodge most with ease. But when a half smoked cigarette connected with my forehead, I could take it no longer. With a sudden rush of rage, I stretched out my left arm and thought of firing a laser beam. Like a magic wished granted, a red hot laser beam shot out from the palm of my hand, drawing a molten line right before the feet of the very front of the crowd. Seeing the beam, the crowd backed up several meters and had a new look in their eyes.

Fear.

My eyes stayed glued to the mob before me, just in case they tried to take me but surprise, but instead all I got was a bunch of murmurs.

"Abomination..."

"Monster..."

"Traitor..."

I was ready to blast all their heads off; the beast of rage inside me was hungrier than ever.

What do you understand about me?

Did I just lose an arm to save people like this?

Do you think I wanted to lose an arm?

WHY!?

CURSESSSSSS!!!!!!

I lifted my left arm higher to get a better angle to blast their heads off, but a hand grabbed me by left shoulder before I could finish. Before I could even turn around to see who it was, a series of gunshots went off at almost zero distance from me, forcing me to cover both ears. By the time the gunshots were over, I turned and saw Isa, hand rested on my shoulder, and the other hand pointing her M4A1 at the sky.

"In the name of Iron Justice, everyone drop your weapons and lie on the ground." Isa barked out. Nobody made a move. With a sigh, Isa fired another array of bullet towards the ground near the front row, forcing them to scramble and jump back.

"Don't make me repeat. Put your hands on your head and don't move. If any of you move, you're all gonna become dead meat."

One by one, people began to drop their weapons get on their knees and eventually lie on the ground. After seeing the entire mob lying on the ground, Isa finally lowered her gun and turned towards me.

Then she slapped me.

"I ordered you to take a break, not fire at civilians! Kardusenn!"

It was the 2nd time she'd ever used my name, I could barely keep my vision straight and the anger still ran hot in my blood.

"You're a solider! A soldier who kills out of freewill is no more than a butcher, and I know..." her sentence trailed off as she looked me sternly in the eye. "You're better than that. Fresh meat."

String by string, my huge tangled ball of anger began to untie itself.

"Let's go." Isa snapped and turned, with my anger slowly digesting I followed up.

"To where sir? And what about the elemental couple..." I looked to the pair.

"Thank you for saving us..." the man said.

"I know a safe house and it's not far from here." The lady added.

"Where?" Isa snapped.

"We can take you there, I am sure they will let you in." replied the lady.

"Let us in...What do you mean?" Isa eyebrows arched.

"It's actually a library operated by my friend; she is an elemental just like us."

"I see..." Isa paused for a brief moment. "Alright, lead the way."

"Of course! And thank you again for saving us! Um, I haven't learned both of your names yet..."

"Isa."

"I am Kardusenn, you can just call me Kard." I managed a small smile.

"I am Mimi, and this is my fiancé..."

"Feberek." The guy cleared his throat.

"Another mob could come very soon, we have to move now." Isa snapped as she all of a sudden fired another shot towards the mob lying on the ground. Whatever movement there was a few moments ago, was gone.

"Ok! Follow me!"

Mimi was in the front leading, Isa and I were side by side running in the middle, and Feberek was running at the very back. After running for about several blocks, Mimi stopped at a metal gateway. Past the gate was a marble path that lead all the way up to the doorstep of a five story antique building.

"Let me handle this." Mimi said as she ran up to the front gate and pressed her hand against it. The gate didn't seem to have any locks and it looked just like a regular pair of black metal gate. But the moment Mimi hand made contact with it, there was a golden glow. Next thing I knew, the gate was holding its self inwards, opening up a path for us.

"It's a magically sealed gate, only an elemental can open it." Mimi turned around and explained.

"I see..." I had heard of magically sealed gates before, but this was the first time I'd saw one with my own eyes.

"Alright come on in! Lebi-Chan and the others must waiting for us!" Mimi said cheerfully.

I never knew elementals were so embedded in the eastern empire culture...

As we walked further towards the library I noticed the gate slowly closing in behind on us.

No turning back eh...

The great pair of wooden doors of the library opened, and a figure stepped out.

"Lebi-Chan!" Mimi ran forward and hugged the figure.

She was about a head shorter than me; her eyes reminded the color of Illyria's eyes. She had a shoulder length blue hair and wore a pair of glasses. She had a scholar black cloak and hat. Over all looked knowledgeable, wise and certainly not bloodthirsty.

"I am glad to see you are fine." Lebi said calmly stroking Mimi hair, and then looked to me and Isa.

"Are those your friends?"

"Uh...Yes! They saved us from a group of angry mobs, so I brought them here." Mimi said proudly.

"Ho..." Lebi nodded, and then looked to us again. "Thank you for saving my friends. If you don't mind, come sit down with us and have a cup of tea. You all must be very exhausted."

"Thank you." Isa replied and I was more glad then willing to get away from the chaos of the streets.

"Alright, this way please." Lebi said leading the way inside.

Once inside I realized how spacious and organized the place was. Antique wooden bookshelves were organized in neat rows along the side and an elegant spiral staircase lay at the end of the hall. Presumably there were more floors As we walked down further on the cool marble ground a voice called out from above:

"Lebi! What is the meaning of this? Why is there a bunch of humans with you!"

We all paused and looked up. The voice belonged to an angry young elemental about the same age as me.

"Yacob! These are guests! Show some manners!" Lebi rebuked.

"Humans can't be trusted. Probably the only thing I can agree with the imbecile Yacob." came another voice from behind the bookshelf.

"Yeah! Humans can't be trusted! And who are you calling an imbecile, Jak?" Yacob shouted.

"The two idiots are right; they could be spies sent by the mob." Said a third voice from somewhere among the bookshelves.

"Agreed! I say we tie them up and torture them to get information out of them...And wait did you just call us both idiots Nyu?"

I looked to Isa, her stance was solid and her expression was masked. And when I scanned my surroundings again, that when I realized there could be more of them. And it may just come to the worst...

Curses.

Q: How do you respond to an insult by strangers?