The more they followed the road buried beneath the dirt, the more obvious the signs became to Erin. It didn''t take her long before she recognized that the odd-shaped pillars that appeared every little while were more markers similar to the one they had uncovered. There was a definite path where trees refused to grow, even if some brush and fronds did pop up along the path. The effects of the gold road made it impossible not to notice.


    "There is little room to roam." Artur grunted as he swung his sword through some brush and kicked the remains out of the way. "When all roads must lead home."


    "To someone''s home, at least," Erin whispered, tapping her chin as she followed him. "Or what''s left of it."


    Boom!


    The jungle around them shook, and Erin grabbed hold of Artur''s shoulder to stop from falling to the ground. Artur held up his shield, his eyes searching the jungle around them. Erin balanced herself as another hit shook the area, causing the leaves and vines around them to shake.


    "Mighty giants must be the cause," Artur whispered, his shield glowing blue as he opened his gate. "Unless it is merely raucous applause."


    Erin shook her head. Artur''s compulsion to rhyme his words seemed unbreakable. She wondered if he would do it even if he were knocked out during a rhyme. She forced that thought out of her mind as she pushed through the brush and toward the origin of the noise.


    Through the brush and fronds, she stepped out into an open clearing. In front of her, down an incline, was a large complex of several square buildings surrounding a large stepped pyramid. Erin put a hand on the nearest tree trunk as she looked over it. It was massive, and though it looked abandoned, it had to have taken thousands of people to build it all.


    "Shades," Erin whispered, rubbing her eyes.


    Even in the distant moonlight, the ruins looked covered with tarnished metal, the same kind of metal covering the road that led to the ruins. If what she saw was real, the entire area was gold. Erin gulped down the dry lump that had formed in her throat.


    That was impossible, right?


    "A path ahead." Artur came out through the trees, his shield still glowing brightly. "No cause for dread."


    Boom!


    As Erin looked out over the ruins, she caught the source of the sound, even as the ground shook yet again. Two figures stood out near the temple, throwing punches back and forth against each other. Every hit shook the ground around them, but neither figure seemed ready to back down.


    One was an old man, almost comically scrawny except when his muscles bulged before a punch. He wore a black and red coat over his frame but had only ragged and torn rags beneath. He had no shoes, but Erin noticed he wore cobbled-together sandals when he kicked the other figure.


    The other was Alex, and Erin was more surprised by how normal that felt. Alex always had a penchant for diving right into trouble, and the man he was fighting was trouble. Erin bit her lip as she watched the exchange of blows, unsure what to do.


    "We should help him." Artur pointed his sword toward the fray. "More hands help when hope dims!"


    "Wait." Erin grabbed Artur''s hand, pushing the sword down as she watched the fight. "That''s not the best idea here."


    "Why not intervene and overwhelm?" Artur asked. "Teamwork is well known regardless of realm."


    "You haven''t been around us." Erin sighed, shaking her head and putting her hands on her hips. "Especially those three. If it looks like he can handle it, don''t run in. Alex, Sayed, and Jean love fighting—there''s no sense in interrupting it unless it is important."


    "That is an odd behavior." Artur raised an eyebrow but still sheathed his sword. "But people come in many flavors."


    Yeah, like rhyming princes who always spoke in verse. Erin didn''t say what she thought, but it was at the back of her head. Or a healer who worked for the People''s Revolution in denial, a skeleton man who only wanted to travel the world with his reanimated wife, a swordsman who would hold back to get a better story out of his life, or an automaton who denied she was a child, all the while acting like one.


    Except for Wen, they were all oddballs of one sort or another.


    "Now I have to wonder what secret Wen''s hiding," Erin said as she watched the fight.


    "I do not want to cause alarm or any such," Artur asked, as he put down his shield and let the glow fade as he released his curse. "Or do they both seem to enjoy this fight far too much?"This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Erin squinted as she tried to get a good look at the two, and she noticed both of them were smiling like kids who had just discovered a new game. Neither of them was fighting for their lives; they were fighting and enjoying it. Erin frowned but then just shook her head.


    "I''ll remember if he needs to be picked up after this is over," she said. "Maybe he needs to learn a lesson about fighting for the sake of it."


    "Oh my, how scary you can be." Artur chuckled. "Perhaps, for his sake, Alex should flee."


    Erin glanced at Artur before focusing again on the fight. She had been joking, if just a little. However, if Alex asked nicely, she would heal up any wounds he had. It wasn''t like she enjoyed helping him; it was just what anyone trained in the healing arts would do.


    "Come on," Erin said, starting toward the buildings. "We can look around while he''s having his fight."


    Together, they set off through the buildings.


    ***


    Alex''s gate blazed with aether in his chest as he opened it wide for his stupid plan. Blood ran down his nose, but he didn''t care. He was simply having too much fun in the fight. All the details of how he had gotten in it were forgotten. All that mattered was that he and the old man in front of him continued to trade blows until the other went down.


    Whoosh.


    Alex ducked a punch from the mystery man before bringing his left arm right into the man''s gut. However, to Alex''s surprise, the man took it. The air around them shook with the force of the hit, but the man didn''t move a centimeter from where he stood. A smirk cracked the man''s lips as he looked Alex in the eyes.


    "You''ve got a strong punch for a kid," he said before pushing down on Alex''s arm with one hand. "Flash Kick."


    With a vault, he jumped over Alex''s metal arm and landed behind Alex. Alex had only a moment to spin around and throw up his other metal arm to defend as the kick came. Alex''s arm shook as the man''s foot made contact, and he had to redouble the magnetic hold that held his feet to the ground.


    Boom!


    Alex had come up with the strategy early in their fight. The man he stood against could throw punches strong enough to send Alex flying, so he used his curse to hold himself to the ground. With the metal beneath his feet, it formed the perfect anchor to keep him from being thrown around.


    However, that still meant he had to take the hits, and every hit from the man sent a shockwave rippling through Alex''s body from just the force of the strike. It felt like he was trading blows with Superman, assuming that comic character could come to life off the comic panel.


    "You''re good," Alex said, taking in a few ragged breaths.


    "And you''re not bad for a kid." The man nodded, holding up his fists again. "In ten years, you might be where I was when I was just starting."


    "Ooh," Alex said. "That hurt more than your punches."


    "Hah, you can''t let a little banter get to you, kid." The old man smiled as he took in a deep breath. "Flash Fist."


    His legs blurred as he shot forward again. Instead of just taking the hit on his arms, Alex did something different this time. He released his hold on one arm, letting it disappear in a flash of blue light as he threw himself to the side. He pushed away from the ground with the magnetic force of his curse simultaneously, practically throwing himself toward the nearest wall.


    While standing there and trading blows was exciting and a little fun, Alex still wanted to win the fight, and he wouldn''t do it by sitting still and taking every punch the man threw. His body might be more durable than a normal person''s body, even if the people on Erth were already tanks compared to his original Earth, but it wasn''t indestructible. His arms and chest still pulsed from taking the hits through his metal arms. He didn''t want to imagine what would happen if the old man caught him somewhere more vulnerable.


    The old man''s punch caught nothing but air as Alex landed against the metal wall, holding himself there with his magnetism as he focused on his arm. He had used this technique once before on Nowhere in a temple where he was fighting a man named Mister Deadman. The man had been in the form of a giant scorpion at the time, made entirely from bone.


    On reflection, Alex realized that a lot of the people he fought had bizarre powers.


    Alex pushed that aside, taking in a deep breath as he channeled aether into his metallic arm. The metal on the arm grew like a muscle and doubled in size as he held it ready beside him. Once he was certain of his footing and target, he launched himself off of the wall, pushing with his magnetism just as his feet blurred to add additional force.


    "Acceleration Piston!"


    He shot off the wall like a cannonball, throwing his fist forward in a punch as he careened toward the old man. Alex wouldn''t have used the technique on any normal person. So far as he could tell, the old man could take the hit. This was the first real chance he had to practice the technique outside of coming up with it.


    Boom!


    Flesh fist met metal fist as Alex slammed into the old man. However, the old man didn''t move from the hit. Alex pushed, practically suspended in the air between the man''s arm and the wall behind him, thanks to the magnetic push propelling him forward. However, the old man didn''t budge.


    "Oh, you''re going to go serious." The old man laughed, pushing back against Alex as he walked forward.


    He pushed Alex like a cart on wheels, using one hand and merely walking forward. Alex''s stomach dropped as he slowly walked back to the wall, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. At that moment, Alex realized just how big the gap between them was.


    He gulped.


    "Now, why don''t I show you a real technique!"


    The old man jumped back, and Alex fell to the ground, his arm shattering into a line of blue electric light as his concentration broke. Alex caught himself on his hands and knees and tensed as he prepared to run. The fight had taken a turn he hadn''t expected, and he didn''t know if he could take a real hit from the old man.


    "Flash—"


    The old man had taken a stance, his body held wide, and his fist held back as he pointed at Alex. Alex''s mind raced at countermoves. He could ''step'' out of the way or throw up a steel barrier and hope that it dulled the strike. He was just about to do both, one after the other, when the old man stopped, his eyes going wide and his jaw going slack.


    Crack.


    "My back!" the old man yelled before he fell to the ground, clutching at his back.