“What am I, your errand boy? I ain’t going anywhere just because you say so.”

“Have it your way, then,” she said, her gaze suddenly turning sharp. “We’ll have to use the less utopian approach.” The tension between the opposing groups shot up. “Don’t mistake us for saints. You clap at us, we clap back harder.”

“I haven’t gotten into a fight in a while.” Lynga rolled her shoulders. “This brings me back.”

“My chance to work off some of this pent-up energy.” Loewe cracked her knuckles. The other demi-humans standing behind them also bristled with hostility.

Zophia shot Zenos a brief glance. “Looks like these guys have beef with our festival. Nothing to do with you, doc, so don’t worry about helping out.”

“Got it,” Zenos said. “Lily, stay behind me.”

“O-Okay,” the elf girl replied.

The moment the healer stepped back, the large man from the Black Guild commanded, “Get their asses!”

Two-dozen-odd burly men all charged upon his signal. Zophia, Lynga, and Loewe, leading the demi-humans, stood at the entrance to the festival, blocking their path. Shouts and the dull sounds of flesh being struck echoed all around, drowning out the festival music as blood sprayed into the night.

The guild members, who made their living off of conflict, were indeed powerful. However...

“Out of my way!” Zophia snapped, spinning around and easily evading their attacks.

“From where I stand, you’re so slow you may as well not be moving!” Lynga mocked, dashing through her foes like the wind.

“You guys are puny,” Loewe said, sending them flying with her powerful arms. “Are you even eating three times a day?”

Having long fought for dominance in the slums and used to bloody conflict, the demi-humans didn’t back down an inch as the fight went on.

“Ugh! Damn it!” one of the guild members said after a while of scuffling.

“These guys are strong!” another said. The men were panting heavily, dropping to their knees one after the other.

Zophia looked down at the prone men and said coolly, “You guys seriously underestimated us. Did you really think a group of—what, twenty, thirty of you?—could take us all on? Today’s a day of celebration, so we’ll let you off the hook, but come pester us again and it’ll be the last thing you do.”

Their big-bodied leader quietly gritted his teeth before chuckling boldly. “Guess you’re better than we thought. I wanted to let the newbies have some fun, but they’re so useless it’s killing my mood.” He turned to his men. “You lot are gonna get it later.” They grew fearful as their leader turned back to the demi-humans. “Whatever. Playtime’s over. Be seeing ya.”

With that, he took something out of his pocket and threw it at Zophia and the others, the glowing red stone arcing through the air.

“That’s a Bomb Stone!” Loewe, who made a living out of mining manastones, shouted out. “Everyone get back!”

Manastones could have a variety of effects, and Bomb was a high-tier, explosive manastone.

The man cackled as the demi-humans turned to run in a panic. “The whole point of this little skirmish was to gather all of you in one place for a clean sweep! Die, you idiots!”

A man in a pitch-black cloak stepped forward slowly between the two groups. “Now, that won’t do.” Zenos caught the Bomb Stone in his right hand.

The large man was dumbfounded by this unexpected move. “Wha—?”

A high-pitched whine like a countdown came from the manastone, and then boom! A loud explosion echoed through the air, and black smoke radiated outward, engulfing all present.

As the thick smoke cleared, however, Zenos stood there, unharmed, as though nothing had happened. The demi-humans behind him were similarly uninjured.

“What the hells?!” the man exclaimed.

“Doc!” Zophia called out as she rushed over to Zenos.

“I blocked it with a defensive spell, don’t worry. I wasn’t planning on interfering if it stayed a minor scuffle, but I can’t really ignore people potentially dying right in front of me, so...” he explained nonchalantly.

“H-Hey!” the man said. “How the hells are you in one piece?!” Irritated, he threw several more stones, but Zenos caught them all, and they exploded harmlessly in his palms. “What the... Who are you?!”

“Just a concerned party,” Zenos said dismissively. “Oh, look. This one didn’t go off. You can have it back.” He pretended to throw it back at the henchmen, who all screamed and began to flee in terror.

As he turned to flee, the big man pointed a finger at the demi-humans. “You ain’t getting away with this! There’s gonna be payback!”

“That’s our line! You guys started this,” Zophia pointed out. “Next time we won’t be so merciful!”

Her words were met with a click of the tongue, and the men from the Black Guild disappeared deep into the streets.

***

As though sorry to part with the enthusiasm, a single drum beat had announced the end of the night festival. Despite the unexpected trouble with the Black Guild’s attack, the event in the slums had concluded in grand fashion.

“Good job, everyone!” Zophia said, the other demi-human leaders raising their glasses to clink with hers, causing the amber liquid within to swirl. They were all celebrating the success of the festival.

“That’s cool and all, but why are you guys doing this here?” Zenos asked. The chosen venue for this celebration was his clinic. It was late at night, and the scenery out the window was shrouded in pure darkness.

“I mean, c’mon,” Zophia replied. “You’re the reason for this success, doc. We wouldn’t even have had a festival without you.”

“Besides,” Lynga added, “this place’s the best for relaxing.”

“Indeed,” Loewe agreed. “This place is like our home.”

“But you do know it’s not your home, right?” Zenos said.

“It was originally my home, in fact,” interjected Carmilla, who had returned earlier, as she floated down from the second floor. With her arms crossed, she looked down at Zenos and the others and said, “Hmph. You took your sweet time.”

“Well, stuff happened,” Zenos said as he brought his glass to his lips.

The “stuff” in question was the fact a group from the Black Guild had intruded upon the festivities. Those who lurked in the shadows of the slums, thriving in chaos, had seemed displeased with the peaceful event. Dealing with the aftermath of the scuffle had taken some time, but in the end, there’d been only minimal damage. Some of the demi-humans had been injured, but Zenos had already treated them.

“But throwing an explosive manastone out of the blue like that...” Lily murmured, clutching her teacup with both hands and shrinking back slightly. “Those people are scary.”

“Well, yeah,” Zophia chimed in. “That lot has no limits. But I think they were scoping things out more than anything.”

Lily lifted her head. “Scoping things out?”

“I think so, yeah. If they’d really wanted to destroy the festival, they’d have been sneaky about it, sabotaged it here and there instead of brazenly barging in like that.”

“Yeah,” Lynga agreed. “And if they’d done that, we’d have retaliated for real.”