Jason walked towards the doorway that had been turned into a dust cloud, stalking the lardly Sil`phane, expecting him to be lying in the rubble, bruised and broken. What he found, when he got close enough, was that the slaver was already on his feet and dressed head to toe in armor embossed with intricate patterns that must have been impressive to him, but to Jason they were meaningless. In the slaver’s hands were a whip like weapon. Instead of leather, it seemed to be made of interwoven metallic thread overlayed with plates with sharpened edges so that if used as a whip no matter where the lash hit it would rip flesh and if you found yourself wrapped in it the mere act of keeping your prey held would cause it to grind and slice into their flesh. Wrapped around one’s neck the victim would find their head detached from their torso very soon after they found themself in its grasp.

“What the…?” Jason mouthed surprised by the sight in front of him.

Before Jason could process what he was seeing the metal whip shot out at him. Instincts and muscle memory kicked in getting his sword in the line of the whip just in time. It coiled around the blade, gripping it. Jason’s eyes bulged, saved by the accumulated experience of the last few months. Thinking that this was the perfect opportunity to remove the whip from the slaver’s possession, but in the next moment he found his hands empty. The slaver pulled the sword from Jason’s hand, having planned and acted before the neurons in Jason’s mind had fired to come up with his plan. Jason had thought that he was well beyond the slaver’s abilities and the equipment that he had gathered would be enough, but now he found himself disarmed before the fight had even begun, a fight that he had hoped and tried to avoid. If he still lost and was unable to from Gael from her enslavement what was the point of all that he had done over the last few months he thought.

There was no time to puzzle over these thoughts that were running through his head. His sword clanged against the ground and slid away bringing Jason’s attention back to the present. He needed to get it back. His feet were already in motion when this thought passed through him mind. The whip once more shot out towards him, this time targeted at his neck. Jason ducked avoiding it. The slaver tried again, but instead aimed at his feet. Jason kept his eyes switching between the slaver and his sword as he moved to get it. The whip touched his leg, signalling him to jump and dodge, rolling by his sword, grabbing it and sliding to a stop in a kneeling position.

Back in possession of his weapon Jason went on the offense. The slaver was quick with the whip but with that bulbous body of his Jason thought that the slaver couldn’t possibly move fast enough to avoid his attacks. Unfortunately, this was a line of thought that came from his lack of experience. Slow or fast didn’t really matter. What mattered was not how quick you were, but how much you can predict and how far in the future you can forecast. Jason’s sword passed by the slaver not touching him, worse, he had put a large amount of power into his swing, expecting to dig into body of the slaver making him lose his balance. This was enough for the slaver to get his whip around Jason’s neck.

Jason felt the the whip tighten around his neck. At first he was afraid, but then he noticed that he was not being choked nor cut and then he felt something cool around his neck. While he was distracted Gabi had emerged from the bracer Jason wore, made her way up his arm, and at the moment that the whip was about to make contact she wrapped herself around his neck, creating a barrier between him and then sharp edges of the whip, preventing any damage from being done. The whip being ineffective at beheading Jason, the slaver changed tactics and yanked hard, pulling Jason by the neck and tossing him against the cages that held the slaves, bending the bars to near breaking. Jason felt his ribs break. He slid down and slumped to the ground.

By this point, the ongoings of the town square had come to a halt and surrounding stores had heard the commotion and began coming out to see what was going on. Like Humans, these aliens liked watching a good fight and that is what they were being given free of charge, however, they weren’t expecting noise to flood in from other directions. The first hint of something much larger happening was when Dork ran through the street and into the square with Rina. He paused seeing Jason’s body lying limp on the ground with the slaver approaching him. The moment Dork saw what was going on he forgot that he was running from a mob and ran towards the prone body of Jason and set Rina down. He wasn’t thinking to have Rina heal Jason, but rather, he just wanted to set her down next to Jason so that he could keep them at his back while he fended off the slaver.

Dork charged at the slaver, his large muscular mass seemed to shake the earth with every step. The slaver stepped to the side, unphased by the hulk of a creature. As he stepped around he lashed Dork. Immediately a welt formed on the Orc’s back, but the whip failed to pierce his skin. Even that, however, was amazing to Dork. He had only ever known Orc weapons to be able to do much of any damage at all to an Orc. He didn’t have the time to contemplate what the pain running through his back. Both because Orcs were just that slow mentally and because the slaver was quick to send a second blow towards the green beast. Dork raised his arm to stop the whip from hitting, but found himself facing the unintended consequences of his action. His arm was wrapped up by the lash and digging into his thick hide. Dork struggled. An electrical current zipped up the line and jolted Dork causing him to roar out in pain.

The people that were chasing after Dork an Rina finally arrived at the town square. As they arrived, saw the fight between the slaver and Dork they slowed and filled the square, surrounding the area around the fight. They cheered on the slaver, waving weapons in the air and shouted insults towards Dork, Jason, and Rina. Spurred on by the cheers, the slaver felt a surge of excitement. He whipped Dork repeatedly. With each stroke came a wave of cheers surging from the front to the back.

It wasn’t long after the crowd of aliens had settled into cheering for the torture of Dork when the Human rioters reached the town square. Hearing the roar of Dork and knowing that he was the one protecting the little girl that they had come to save the Humans to no time in engaging the aliens. It didn’t matter that most of the aliens hadn’t laid a finger or attempted to lay a finger on the girl and didn’t even know truely what they were rioting about. The Humans rushed forward and grabbed the whichever alien they could get their hands on first, dragging them back into the mob of Humans to be thrashed by those further back. It also had the benefit of slowly clearing the way towards Rina. That is, if they were able to continue it beyond a few victims. Instead, the aliens caught on to what was happening and turned to find that the filthy, smelly, Humans that they had all but banished to outside the walls of the town had been the true source of their anger towards the Human child.

The two groups held their positions, staring at each other. The emotions were flaring, but now that they looked at their enemy in the face and realized that to proceed meant to take the risk that they would be hurt, maybe even killed, they had doubts of whether they wanted to continue. This was their chance to rid themselves of the other. To aliens it means the cleaning of their town and return to better, more stench free days. To the Humans it meant that they could raid all the buildings of those that had treated them so maliciously. No one moved. Fear of being hurt, of being murdered, held sway, and had it lasted but a few moments more both riots would have lost their wills to continue, but that is when a shout went up, “I will kill you and every one of your Human masters,” the slaver’s voice carried over the crowds, the rage it was filled with could be felt by all. It wasn’t righteous rage, angered by having been wrong, but rather, an indignant rage at having to put up with such intolerable, disgusting, creatures so far beneath his position that it was an insult that he even had them as slaves.

The sparks of anger were lit once more, pushing through any fears that had previously been holding them back from engaging a full scale battle with each other. The fear that could have lead to a peaceful resolution disintegrated into nothingness. A flip had been switched that told them that no matter the end result, no matter the consequences to them, their actions and sacrifices were for the greater good. The other side had to be removed and it must be removed this day. The two sides crashed against each other, each using their makeshift weapons against each other rather than ARMS. They were all too poor own any or just didn’t think to bring them. Rocks were thrown. Fur was ripped from flesh. Some had their head bashed with stones while others were stabbed with any sharp instrument that was lying around that was easily accessible.

Jason woke up to sounds of a full scale battle happening in front of him. His first thoughts were what was going on and how did this happen. Rina was there healing him. She looked worried and scared. This was a town, Jason thought, how in world could it have devolved into this. Where were the guards? They should have broken this up by now. Jason thought right. The guards should have, but when they had come to restore order, the guards, all being aliens of one stripe or another from the Human perspective, were pulled into the fray as though they were just another alien that had not only treated them poorly, but were out to harm a child. Jason waved Rina away and stood, taking in just exactly what was happening. He wasn’t sure but it looked like a full on revolt by the Human population for some reason. Has he been out for long enough to this to occur he wondered, but his thoughts were cut short. Dork let out an ear piercing scream which drew Jason’s attention. The green skinned Orc now appeared to have been burned to a repeatedly, his skin no longer having a vibrant green but a charred coloration with only hinted that it was once green.

Sheathing his sword Jason reached for the cage he had landed on top of. When he hit it the bars gave way and some were only just holding together. He surmised that maybe he could pry one of them loose and use it as a weapon. He remembered that despite the ability for ARMS armor to absorb cutting and piercing forces, blunt force trauma more often than not made it through. The armor just held the wearer together. He yanked a bar from the cage with all his might, pulling it free, and with that he ran towards the slaver, the bar in hand like a baseball bat. He swung as hard as he could, targeting the back of the slaver while he was distracted torturing Dork.