The group was only a day away from Fairvale and were making haste towards the Noble city.
"Why do you humans value freedom so much?" Melius asked as the group pressed forward.
"Humans are strange. Take away their freedom and they riot for it... give it back and they'll choose a scapegoat to take the heat for their bad decisions," August explained to the lizard.
"I still don't like that thing," grunted Alice.
"That's why he probably doesn't like you either," August mumbled.
"What was that you just said?" Asked Alice as she pulled a dagger from her jacket.
"Guys, something is way off," said Ali. "Forests never have such tension."
"Probably just your imagination," said Melius as he scurried after August.
"I highly doubt it," she responded.
"Ali's probably right," stated Alice.
"Or she was busy mastering her herbal skills last night, if you catch my drift," said August whilst making a smoking gesture.
"Hey, I might occasionally grab some herbs now and then but it doesn't mean that my intuition is wrong," Ali justified.
Just then, four men appeared on the forest path, heading towards the Recovery Team. It seemed that one of them had a large warhammer on his back, another had a battle axe and there were two men with swords on either side of the group. It seemed as if three of them only served as bodyguards, though.
"Nobles?" Alice asked.
"Probably," sighed Ali. "They won't trouble us if we don't trouble them," she said.
"They probably will bother us," said August. "We'll just have to ignore them," sighed August.
"I'll cut these fools down," said Alice. "Just like I did during the Festival."
The four figures drew closer and closer until the two groups could make clear eye contact.
"Hello, ladies and gents. My name is Tyrius," one of the young men explained. "I'm a Noble, which you imbeciles probably didn't know."
"What a pleasure to meet you! This is such a dream come true," Alice sarcastically joked.
"Could we by any chance pass by without any conflict?" Tyron asked.
"Unfortunately not," replied Tyrius.
"And why is that?" Asked a slightly agitated Tyron.
"This is so because I've been sent to handle a minor issue concerning you," the Noble explained in a smug tone as he readied his warhammer
"What kinda problem?" Asked August with his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"You're alive," snapped one of the guards at the back of the party as Tyrius rushed August.
Before the young swordsman had even drawn his blade, he was sent crashing to the dewy grass of the unusually cold summer morning.
Before the dastardly Noble could get halfway through his villainous laughing, Ali's gauntlet had already found a place in his gut, dropping the Noble to his knees.
The two guards on either side rushed to August with swords drawn as Tyron rose to his defence. August managed to get up and draw his newly enchanted blade, each fire rune glowing brightly in his hand.
The two guards rushed in and August struggled to hold both of the men off. As one of the man swung, he quickly rolled under the sword and plunged his blade into the side of the merciless Noble guardian. The remaining guard and his blade were rushing towards August.
