Rhea pulled up to a local parking area just outside of the quaint little town of Fairywood a few hours later. Scott's eyes were wide as though he had experienced something akin to a religious epiphany. Even after the parking fee was paid, his expression never changed.

Eventually, Rhea snorted at him and shook her head. "Come on, you don't need to act like that!"

Slowly, he turned to look at her. He spoke in long, slow, cadence that held a faux British lilt to their tonality, much like a drug addled rockstar, "My wife can drive like a normal person? Is this reality? Is it dream? Nothing makes sense anymore..."

She offered him a sarcastic quirk of her lips. He blinked owlishly then continued in the same tone as before, "Oh, what kind of world do I live in now?"

"Alright, you've had your fun," she said before she poked him in the arm.

"Sharon!" cried Scott loudly, and in the same tone, "Bring me another bat!"

Rhea slapped him on the arm. "You are not Ozzy Osbourne, and this was not your Crazy Train!" she exclaimed, a smile on her lips.

"All aboard?" he asked her quietly, his eyes wide and filled with a certain amount of terrified wonder.

She groaned loudly then grabbed his hand and dragged him away from the family death buggy. Once he was no longer near the vehicle his demeanor changed. Was it humor, or something else? Did the fact that his fiancé can drive like a normal person cause him to have a mental breakdown, for real? The world may never know. Either way, the dark journey reached its end. With its passing came hope for a new day.

"Wow, what a short uneventful trip," said Scott pleasantly.

Rhea looked to him, her eyes half-lidded and her lips pursed. "Uh, huh."

He grinned at her then offered her a saucy wink. She could not help but laugh at his goofy antics. There was just something wrong about that guy at times, but it was usually humorous at least.

Herbert rose up from his seat on Scott's shoulder. He looked around then sighed. Ero was nowhere in sight. Their family was not yet complete.

Sensing the little guy's discomfort, Scott reached over and rubbed the top of his head. Herbert mellowed a little and settled down for the ride.

"Hey, now that I think about it, what are the traffic laws in this crazy world?" asked Scott. "I saw a few enforcers drive by, but everyone was traveling so quickly that it seemed pointless for them to be there."

"Traffic laws?" asked Rhea. After Scott offered her a nod she tapped her chin. "Well, outside of the cities there aren't many."

"You're kidding," said Scott.

"No. They are pointless on ARS," said Rhea. "Even at low levels everyone is superhuman compared to folks on Earth. Everything from reaction-time to the ability to survive a crash is much higher."

"Still, there have to be some sort of rules," said Scott. "People all drove in one direction or another on the painted lanes."

"Well, yeah. There's stuff like that," she said. "Signs are placed as suggestions for minimum speed or when it's a good idea to stop moving because you're at an intersection."

"Suggestions?" asked Scott. They moved past the large wooden gate that allowed entrance into the town of Fairywood before he continued, "How can traffic signs be suggestions?"

"It's not like Earth. Enforcers don't waste their time on traffic violations outside of the city. As long as no one crashes, dies, or starts a battle around the road they don't get involved," she said. Rhea tossed her hair back over her shoulder briefly then smiled at him. "I mean, if you're worried about car crashes just buy insurance."

"I see. It almost seems like they don't care how people drive as long as no one gets hurt," said Scott.

"Pretty much. Driving outside of the city is a time for personal responsibility. The crown doesn't want to expend resources on prosecuting traffic violations on the roads. Inside the towns and cities it's a different story, though," she said.

Scott nodded to her, but after he took a few steps he realized something. "Is that why there are so many parking lots outside of the city gates?"

Rhea clapped her hands together happily then laughed a little. "Yes! Of course. I knew you'd figure that out eventually."

Scott smiled at her cheerfulness. "I think I might have actually heard it all before, but never bothered to really think about it until now."

"That does sound likely," she said with another warm laugh for emphasis.

Scott started to laugh himself, but his joy was short-lived and his laughter died in his throat as a loud wailing siren erupted from nearby. "The hell!" he cried. He spun toward the source, while Herbert clutched at his shoulder and held on for dear life.

"Invasion!" shouted an enforcer from the nearby gate. "The gate is closing! Move to the town shelter, now!"

Scott glanced through the rapidly closing gate. Dozens of people were running or fluttering toward the gates as quickly as their various appendages would move. "They won't all make it," he said in a hollow voice.

Beyond the terrified people a small horde of eldritch armor knights rattled and clanked their way toward town. The gates would need to be shut and bolted closed soon, or the town would be quickly overrun.

He heard someone call his name, but he shook his head. The sight of the gates closing while far too many people remained outside continued to haunt him. Some of them were able to slip through in time, but there were too many to make it inside.

Scott's eyes were suddenly drawn to a small family outside the gate. A man, a child, and a heavily pregnant woman with the wings of a dragon fly all ran for the gate. She clutched at her abdomen, and even from his distance he could see the terror on her face.

"Scott!" shouted Rhea. "We have to go!"

"I know," said Scott. Rhea grabbed his arm and started for the shelter. Scott, however took off toward the gate. He moved so quickly that Herbert was forced to leap to the safety of a nearby street lamp then slide down the pole.

"Scott!" exclaimed Rhea in shock. "No! There's too many."

"Citizen! Return to the—" exclaimed an enforcer as Scott rushed past him.

Rhea ran up to the gate, but more enforcers drew together to fill the gap. They could not allow any more fools to rush back outside.

"Scott!" screamed Rhea once more.

"What does that fool think he's doing?" said one of the enforcers. The gates were nearly closed as a small horde of people rushed up to it. The small family that Scott had seen did not make it inside. Along with a few dozen others they were unable to make it inside.

For the briefest of moments, gun fire erupted from the gate towers nearby, but then they went silent. An enforcer shouted, "Gun's down!"

Another enforcer called the same thing a moment later. The head enforcer, a man with a gold shield on the chest plate of his black armor cried out, "How's that possible!"

The rumor began to spread like wildfire, it was sabotage. Someone had deliberately damaged the guns.

Hundreds of eldritch armor knights stomped toward the city while Scott stood in front of them, a lone barrier between their march and the people of the town. Worse, he was what stood between his family and the armored horde.

He was a fool, and possibly born under the cursed star of stupidity. However, he was not without options. There was no way for him to fight off an army of monsters which were each able to be a threat on their own at times. Not with his own power, at least.

No, all he needed to do was get the attention of the horde, possibly lead some of them away. He might be a fool, but the armor knights were brain dead idiots.

"Get those people inside!" roared Scott back to the gate. He doubted they would bother to open the gates at all, but it was the best he could do. There was no more time to waste. He needed to become an incredible pain in the ass to these monstrosities and with a grave quickness.

"Who does that fool think he is?" asked an enforcer from the top of the wall.

Scott did not hear his question, but gave an answer all the same. He raised up one hand and gestured imperiously toward the oncoming horde. "I am the raging wind that blows."

The air pressure around him immediately began to shift and twist as hot and cold air began to mix in a volatile manner. Back at the gate, an enforcer sensed the uptick in magical energy and called back that the idiot was about to try something.

The idiot in question threw both of his hands behind his back, palms facing forward but with his fingers extended. He gripped at the energy surrounding him in preparation for something he'd only theorized before, but he believed would work without complications. His recent episode wherein he became the wind slowly granted him a superior knowledge regarding how that element moved. This location was the perfect place to test his theory as the design of it lent great strength to his cause.

The entrance to Fairywood was behind a thick enchanted wall of wood which artfully allowed those who entered to be gently guided inward. However, it also worked to funnel any would-be invaders into a single location before the gate. An intelligent army might attack the barriers and break through without being funneled. However, the eldritch armor knights could only follow immediate orders and someone prepared ahead of time for the guns to fail. As such, there was no need for marching orders more complicated than, 'Storm the gates and attack Fairywood.'

While Scott did not know of their marching orders, he did know that the monsters were beginning to funnel inward along the barrier. Everything he'd realized and done so far happened over the course of a scant few seconds. As far as the city guard could see things, they barely managed to get the gate shut in time.

Scott gripped the wind in his fingers, and loudly intoned, "Nothing stands before me."

The eldritch armor knights would disagree, had they any will of their own to do so. Behind Scott, the mass of terrified people huddled at the gate cried out fearfully as a terrible wind began to pick up. They were close enough to the entrance and far enough from the epicenter of that power to avoid being drawn up into it, but they were fearful in general due to their predicament.

Scott continued to build the wind, drained his mana at an alarming rate in the process. Well over a third of the attacking horde had begun to funnel inward when the sorcerer could hold it no longer. He ripped his hands forward, tore the wind with his fingers.

"Howling Gale!" he cried passionately, even as his hands crossed over each other like a wild animal tearing into its prey.

His knowledge of the wind, though not as extensive as he would like, did allow him to slightly combine his gale force wind with a twisting and tearing motion. Combined with the funneling effect of the barriers nearby, and a mildly tornadic rush of wind tore down the impromptu wind-tunnel. It slammed into the armor knights with incredible force and twisted them around. They were thrown up into the air and spun wildly like great evil ragdolls.

Scott held on for as long as he could while the effect continued. The wind blew through the formation of the monstrosities and continued forward. He tore a line right down the center of the horde and scattered them to the side.

Precious seconds ticked by. At the third second his body began to shake. At the fifth, his knees went weak. By the sixth second he reached the end of what he could do and fell heavily to his knees. Braced with his hands, he could do nothing but pant heavily as armor knights rained down from the sky for several more seconds.

His attack did little damage, despite the amazingly efficient destruction of their formation. However, the approaching horde was stopped full-tilt and struggled to regroup.

He managed to find the strength to look back at the gates. He needed them to open, for those people to get inside. His strength was failing him fast, as he suspected that his extreme overuse of elemental energy and mana had done harm to his body. There was little time left before he would collapse and he needed what he did to matter.

Thought patterns erratic, he spied a guard on the wall and with all the strength he could muster he roared out the only clear and concisely motivational thing he could think to say at that moment, "You assholes wanna live forever?"

Scott's vision began to blur. His hearing became distorted. He saw a few things before darkness claimed him. The first thing that he saw was the guard on the wall turn back and shout something. The small family of a man, fairy, and child looked at him with expressions of wonder and awe.

He collapsed to the ground before the he saw the gate opening. A small swarm of black armored enforcers rushed out of the gates and took up positions. In the distance he could see more of them rushing toward the gate from within the interior of the city. They were no doubt the remaining enforcers on patrol in Fairywood who even now converged on the town gate.

Meanwhile, an angry looking blue haired elf maiden made a bee-line for his position, while a small Grassrat held onto her shoulder and chittered in fear for his life. Heaven help anyone, survivor or enforcer, who got in her way. Some idiot needed a proper scolding.