Alex had no idea what he was dealing with in the shadows, but based on his vague sensation of them, he thought there were two. One stood near to him, spread out in a stance with his fists ready, and the other was in the corner. Alex was almost sure the one in the corner had taken the shots at him, but he couldn''t tell more unless he drew them both out into the open.


    Considering how they were already messing with his magnetic sense, he didn''t like the odds of that happening.


    "I didn''t want to do this," the man in the shadows said, taking in a deep breath as he brought back his fist. "Flash Fist."


    Alex brought up his metallic arm, throwing it between them without even thinking. Knowing a technique wasn''t uncommon for anyone across the nightsea to have access to. Techniques were just application of will to aether to allow the human body to perform superhuman feats.


    Thud.


    Alex skidded back on the ground when the punch hit his arm, and he only stopped when he slid out through the entrance. Alex grunted as he pushed against his arm, but the man still held him in place with the force of his fist. It was like a truck was pushing against his arm.


    "So you''re cursed." The assailant was now revealed in the moonlight.


    He was a bearded old man with long white hair and tanned skin. What stood out to Alex wasn''t the rags he was dressed in but the ragged black and red jacket draped over his shoulders. Alex looked at the old man in his grey eyes through his glasses and saw the cold, calculating gaze of a member of the Military Police.


    "Who the heck are you?" Alex spun, letting the fist pass by him as he kicked hard with one foot right into the man''s abdomen.


    "Oof!" The man grunted, grabbing at his stomach and catching Alex''s foot before he could get away. "Flash Whirl!"


    The man''s feet blurred as he spun in a circle, and Alex was already along for the ride. His vision swirled into a blur of motion, and his blood flooded his brain. The man kept going faster and faster until he finally released Alex, sending him arching through the air.


    Alex''s mind raced, and his vision shook, but he didn''t need to see to recover. His senses might have been thrown off, but he knew what direction he was flying in and that there was a metal all around him. He threw one hand in the direction he was going and willed his curse into a blast of magnetic force behind him.


    "Force Wave!"


    The blast slowed him down until he slammed into the ground. He rolled across the grass and dirt for a few moments until he finally stopped. Alex pushed himself up with one arm, blinking the shaking in his vision away. He focused on the area around him.


    The man had thrown him to the bottom of the giant pyramid with his throw. Alex had to be impressed. It was over the length of a soccer field in one throw. Alex pushed himself up, clenching his metal fist as he saw the man walking toward him.


    "Are you done fighting?" the man asked.


    "Nah," Alex said, holding up his fist. "Just had to let my brain settle from that attack. Step!"


    Alex''s feet disappeared in a blur as he instantly cut the distance between him and the man. He reappeared behind the man, swinging his arm toward his head from behind. However, the man ducked his attack without even looking, and Alex had a good idea of what he was dealing with.


    "Steel Swing!"


    Whoosh.


    "Step."


    The man disappeared and gained some distance from Alex, and Alex smiled. The man wasn''t that different from another he fought on Lundao when they had to steal a slipship from the Military Police. Alex guessed he had mastered the Path of Step and the Path of Will, similar to that other captain.


    The Path of Step allowed the man to use quick movements to move and attack during a fight. Alex guessed that his two techniques from before were just an application of ''step'' to his punch. The Path of Will allowed the man to predict Alex''s attacks. It was a good combination and the same one Captain Grayson had.


    While Alex couldn''t take that captain down, he had upgraded his curse to the second grade since then. He had given the captain a good fight while it felt like he was having a stroke, so it stood to reason he might be able to beat the man in front of him.


    "You''re good." Alex laughed, holding up his left arm. "Junk Arm."If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Blue light flashed around his second arm, and he formed a second metal arm to give himself double the attack options. As the light faded, he raised both fists, putting one foot forward as he got ready to throw punches. The old man watched him, quirking one eyebrow before he also entered his own stance, holding his hands up in a similar stance.


    "You young people have too much energy." The man sighed, cracking his neck left and right as he relaxed into his stance. "You''re always far too willing to fight for the fun of it."


    "Can you blame us?" Alex asked. "It isn''t every day I get the chance to go toe-to-toe with a captain."


    "A captain?" The old man laughed, flashing his teeth. "Is that what you think I am?"


    It was Alex''s turn to be surprised. He had to be bluffing. There weren''t many ranks he knew about above a captain in the military police, and they wouldn''t be hanging out on some random island. Captains and lieutenants were the most common of the rank and file officer out in the world.


    "So, what do you think you are?" Alex asked as he leaned forward.


    "A commander." The old man smiled as he took in a breath. "Flash Fist."


    ***


    Jean stood over his three assailants, completely flabbergasted at their appearance. He had expected fierce warriors on the other end of all those arrows, and in a way, he was a little right. However, part of him expected them to be, well, human. What he was looking at didn''t quite fit his expectations.


    "What are you all?" he asked as he looked over the three of them.


    They were a hybrid of man and beast. That was the best way he could describe them. Each one of them was covered in dark fur, except for a long white area of fur that ran from their necks down into the exotic clothes they wore. Ears stretched off the side of their heads, long and pointed, yet still covered with black fur. However, they also had their own hair, and each had their own unique style, long and short. Their eyes were slitted and yellow, but they otherwise had normal human faces with human features.


    They even had long tails.


    "Cat people," Jean whispered, shaking his head. "I never thought I would see the day."


    "What is he?" one of the assailants hissed, their bows still pointed at Jean.


    "He reeks of death."


    "Look at that spirit on his shoulders! He''s a shadow shaman!"


    "Now, now." Jean raised both hands, turning Eliza invisible with his will so she wouldn''t bother them. "While I might look odd, I can assure you all that I am mostly harmless. I merely wish to speak with you and was reacting to you attacking me first."


    "Don''t believe him!" one of the figures hissed, and Jean guessed it was a ''she'' based on its clothes. "It''s a nightwalker!"


    "Nightwalkers don''t look like that," another said back. "But we should be careful. He still smells like death."


    "That would be my curse," Jean said, keeping his hands raised. "It can be disturbing until you are used to it. However, I assure you that I mean no harm. My companions and I just wanted to know who was watching us from the forest."


    "You''re from the ship?"


    "I am." Jean smiled. "We came out to investigate when one of our fellows thought we were being watched. We had to split up to search more ground, but I honestly didn''t think I''d be fated to see such a sight this day."


    "You promise not to attack us?"


    "I would have if I planned to already." Jean raised his hands higher. "Trust me when I say that I could have killed all of you if I had wanted to, and I had cause to because of your arrows."


    An audible gulp interrupted the silence caused by that statement.


    "Put down your bow, Iara." One of them lowered their bow. "You too, Jaci. We can help walk him back to his ship. The others should have encountered them by now."


    The three assailants put down their bows and stood, and Jean watched every moment. They had pads on the bottom of their mostly human feet, and their nails were long and sharp like claws. They had their tails and their ears, as well as their fur. Aside from those features, though, everything else about them was human. Again, he couldn''t help but take note of the oddities of their forms.


    "I am Jean." Jean smiled, holding out his hand. "Known to many as Baptiste ''the Reanimator.''"


    "I am called Maocir." The central figure looked at Jean''s hand but didn''t reach out to shake it. "These are Iara and Jaci, my fellow tribesmen."


    "And if you don''t mind me asking, what exactly are your people?" Jean closed his skeletal hand but didn''t take offense.


    It was hard to find people willing to interact with him, after all. His body was little more than a skeletal frame below his head. While he had his dark and handsome features preserved, including his incredibly sexy bald head, he couldn''t say the same for everything below his neck.


    The lack of skin and muscle definitely made others wary of his appearance.


    "We are the Zoan," Moacir said, thumping his bare chest. "Though we came from many tribes before we landed on this island, we are still one people. We are the first people."


    Jean raised an eyebrow at that. According to every bit of history in the Twelve Kingdoms, the first people were the nobility, which the Scions created. The Scions weren''t human; they were more like divine beings, and they created the nobility to rule over and control the Erth.


    It was the kind of thing that could only exist out on the Fringes, and if the island he was on were ever incorporated into the Core, then these people''s history would be erased alongside it. It made Jean want to learn more about it, even if now wasn''t the time.


    "What of you, Jean? What are your people? You look like James, but you are clearly not human."


    "I was a man once," Jean said, looking at his skeletal hand. "I like to think I still am, in a way. I died and came back thanks to the power of my curse, which granted me this body."


    "See, he isn''t a nightwalker, Iara." Moacir smiled at his friend. "I told you."


    "We''ll find out who is right when we get them all back to their ship." Iara bristled, her fur standing up and even her long hair becoming frizzy as she turned and walked back the way Jean had come. "Come on, outsider. We will find the truth of things when all of your people return."


    Jean couldn''t help but chuckle. He travelled the nightsea precisely for situations like this. A flickering island out in the Fringes and a strange fur-covered people who called themselves the Zoan. It was everything that he had gone out to explore the world for. He followed after the three as they led the way back toward the lake and the ship, smiling all the way.