Li waited for a few seconds. There was only silence. The knights of the blood legion did not move, standing still in formation as if emotionless. It was impressive, really, that they could maintain a stiff professionalism even in the face of their esteemed, revered general getting utterly defeated. Surely, they were feeling surprise and awe, but they did not let it show.

The one that broke the silence was Tia.

"I knew it!" said Tia as she pranced up to Li, tugging at his hand. "Too easy for papa. Papa should let me fight," she pouted.

"Don't get too impatient, Tia," said Li. He looked to the forest where he had sent Leonid flying. "You can get up now! I know that was not enough to put you down for good."

Leonid appeared from between a few trees, a fist-shaped dent imprinted in the white of his breast plate. Several smaller dents covered the rest of his armor, with a few pieces of wood embedded into gaps in the armor where they stabbed into flesh. 

He was still smiling, blood trickling from his mouth, but when he came out from the trees, he was limping. 

"Just catching my breath, Easterner," said Leonid as he stood up tall again. He was beginning to regenerate, the cuts on his face patching up and the wood skewered into his flesh falling out. "That was a mighty fine blow. The mightiest I've ever felt, that is to be sure."

"And if you don't want another one, you'll surrender," said Li. He was still grabbing onto Leonid's spear, disarming the man. "I have your spear, your family's pride, and you have no chance at fighting me bare handed. Yield."

"A Drozdov never yields in a duel," said Leonid. "You will have to strike me down for good to end this fight."

"I mean, I can certainly do that," said Li. He eyed Leonid and saw nothing but stubborn, excited drive to fight, and he shrugged, deciding to use more lethal force. After all, this is what the old knight wanted.

Leonid slammed his gauntlets together and grunted, bracing himself for another fight. 

"Stop!"

Li froze, recognizing the voice. Tia did too, and her face brightened up. 

"Sister Jeanne!" said Tia. 

The sound of moving armor echoed from behind Li as the knights parted to make way for Triple Threat. They walked side by side together, moving through the sea of armored men and waving at Li. 

Li looked at Triple Threat, a little surprised at how much they had changed in just a month. 

Azhar's hair had grown even longer, more unkempt, reaching down to his shoulders, and his normally dark eyes were tinged in a slight glimmer of dark green. Around his shoulder was a new bow fashioned out of bones. A gift from Ven'thur, made as a way to apologize to Azhar for harming him when they had first met. 

Several necklaces dangled around his neck, all of them holding a bone or collection of dried magical insects. All signs that Azhar was advancing in Dark Druidry that he learned by communing with Li. 

Sylvie was dressed in black, eastern styled robes fringed with white. A Chinese dao sword lay sheathed by her hip, making her look far less an assassin and more a warrior. She noticeably wore a necklace with an orb colored black and white in yin and yang patterning. 

This, Li also knew. He had gotten the eastern golem back from the Shoggoth in the form of a portable orb that had its free will so warped and twisted that it had become a kind of artificial intelligence that could guide Sylvie in how to progress in her eastern themed training and to provide weaponry and other items appropriate to her level. 

Jeanne stood between the two, and she looked nearly the same. She still wore her typical heavy white armor, looking almost at home with the blood legionnaires around her. The only noticeable change was that she had cut her lengthy hair until it could be tied back to a shorter, sportier ponytail. 

Tia ran up to Jeanne, leaping into her arms, and Jeanne smiled as she hugged Tia tightly, spinning around with the girl in her arms before putting her down.

"I missed you, sister Jeanne," said Tia. 

"And I missed you too, little dragon. My, you've grown so, so much," said Jeanne. "And you speak so well now! Your father has been teaching you well."

"Papa always teach," nodded Tia.

"Make sure he does not overwork you," said Sylvie as she put a hand on Tia's shoulder.

Tia shook her head. "Papa's teaching always fun. Never boring." She smiled. "Lots of hunting too."

"Oh, do be careful not to get hurt," said Jeanne, her brows furrowing in concern. 

"Ain't no reason to be worried," said Azhar. "Huntin' and fightin's in her blood. If anythin', it'd be cruel to not let her fight."

"Uncle Azhar always understand," said Tia.

"And why am I uncle and Jeanne's 'sister'? I ain't that old," said Azhar.

"Somehow, 'uncle' does suit you better," agreed Sylvie.

"The wise uncle type, yes," said Jeanne.

"Oh, come on, you two," said Azhar.

It was good to see that two months down south in Duvin had not done anything to their dynamic, thought Li. 

A month after the Summerfell festival, Li and triple threat had said their goodbyes for the adventuring team had been assigned to a monumentally important task of engaging in a long and grueling campaign along with many other adventurers and the Ascendant Order hero Sea Shrike to fight against a sudden emergence of a horde of sea borne dark beast monstrosities that threatened to overwhelm the coastline and cause untold damage to the mainland. 

Before that farewell, Li had sat down with Azhar and a newly revived Ven'thur. Azhar had wanted more power to protect his sisters, knowing of the danger of the assignment, and so Li had experimented, initiating the archer into dark Druidry with the aid of Ven'thur and his knowledge in the darker arts. 

Such was the perceived danger of this mission that Li had granted Sylvie the golem's assistance, though he doubted she knew that she was wearing what was essentially a corpse around her neck. 

But compared to the looming demonic threat now, it felt like the dark beast threat at the south was something so minor and so far away. 

"Good to see you three are alive," said Li. 

"Barely," said Azhar. "Those dark beast fish things gave us a damned hard time."

"Damned?" asked Tia, her head cocking.

"Az!" Jeanne lightly punched Azhar's shoulder in admonishment before smiling to Tia. "Forget that word, little dragon. It is a rude one."

"I second that motion," said Li as he scooped Tia up, putting her on his shoulder. "And now, I have to ask, what are you three doing with this guy?"

Li pointed back to the ragged Leonid who was still catching his breath and trying to regenerate from his wounds.

"When the duchess ordered the legions of blood to march north from Duvin to Riviera, we also followed," said Sylvie. "After all, hearing that Riviera, our home, may be under the attack of demons, we could not simply sit idly by."

"Though I do feel so conflicted leaving Duvin without fully defeating the sea monsters," said Jeanne. 

"Relax," said Azhar. "That bearded fish man Sea Shrike's got it under control now. We helped out enough as it is, and our home means a whole lot more to me than Duvin. No offense to all the legionnaires round' me."

The legionnaires did not respond to Azhar, and the ranger sighed. "Won't see a less talkative bunch than these folk, I'll tell ya that. How is Riviera, by the way, Li? Holdin' up well? Heard there was a first attack."

"An attempted infiltration," said Li. "But I stopped it."

"Figures. Didn't worry for a second, knowin' you were there. Now then, the hell's the general thinkin' fightin' you?"

Li shrugged. "Ask him. He was the one that wanted to fight."

"And that desire still burns," said Leonid.

"Papa beat you already," said Tia as she gazed at Leonid with bored expression. 

"Precisely why I must stand up to challenge that much more." 

"You will put an end to this now," said Jeanne to Leonid. "You are a fool to be wasting time and energy on petty personal matters of pride, Sir Drozdov. Take your men and march them again as a proper general would."

"I would listen to her, if I were you," said Li. "Your men are loyal to you, and if you die, there is no guarantee that they will obey my orders. If you so wish, we can continue this duel after this invasion has been settled."

Li tossed Leonid his spear back, and the man deftly caught it. 

Leonid paused, contemplating, then nodded. "Fine. We shall halt this duel for now, and I recognize my defeat. My men, as promised will defend Riviera." He held his spear out to Li. "And you may have the Drozdov treasure if you so wish. It is only right that in a won duel that I grant you a prized possession of mine."

Li shook his head. "I really do not need that thing."

"Then is there anything else you so desire?" said Leonid. 

"Did you not listen closely to what I said? Your men will be following my orders now, too. I don't want your men to just defend Riviera. I want them to obey me."