"Wait, just checking, you're against Haven?" Stanis asked as the two of them left the boundaries of the village. "I thought the village suited you well?"

"Yeah, I think it would've if that was all the village had been. But becoming monsters and shit, that just ain't my thing. Besides, the women there never got me and my beard," Pete joked while stroking the beard in question. It was no longer as grand, nor well-groomed as before, with wisps of white porpoising through the sea of dark-brown.

Stanis dryly coughed, before turning his head around to look at Haven.

"What were you doing in there, then?"

"Waiting for you, what else?"

"How did you know I'd even come?" Stanis asked.

"Oh, I didn't. I just knew that if you did, you'd probably wreck yourself, which in turn would force me to replan the future. So, I told them two to go on without me while I waited a few days to see if you came. If you had come after I had left, well, then no one would have no one to blame. Just bad luck then," Pete said.

"Mmm. So what are those two doing right now? Rallying up an army of something?"

Pete laughed and shook his head. "No way, they wouldn't be able to do that, and I wouldn't want that. No, they're just warning the villages; the coming war won't be easy and I'm going to need as many meatshields as possible if I'm going to survive this,"

"Course," Stanis agreed. "So, you're going to join the war?"

Pete didn't answer, instead rotating his head and staring at Stanis for a second. "Those who don't fight will fall behind. Those who fall behind will die," he eventually added, sounding to Stanis more and more like a wizened old man.

****

Time passed by and soon enough, slower than Stanis had hoped for, a whole day had passed. He had suggested running to their destination to Pete but he had seemed unconcerned about the time they were wasting. In fact, Pete's actions throughout the whole journey confirmed Stanis's belief that he had radically changed.

No longer did Pete make a fool out of himself, or even make frequent jokes. He was now reserved and sombre, only occasionally speaking. He hummed constantly and proved to Stanis that he was an adept at the art very quickly. However, the most concerning fact wasn't to do with his new actions but his old; he no longer drank that much. Before, he would have drank till he was drunk, and then some more for good measure. Now, he only occasionally sipped at the Devil's nectar.

In fact, the most horrifying aspect of Pete's changes would be the fact that Stanis found himself trusting Pete's advice and ideas. Of course, at heart, he knew what Pete's number one priority was, but at the same time, the ideas he suggested were beneficial for the both of them. All Stanis had to do to keep his bacon was to maintain his sovereignty over Pete. As for what would happen if he couldn't maintain his lead, well, that was a thought for another, later time.

"That's it, Silvermoon," Pete said as a small village revealed itself over the horizon.

"Are these guys the biggest competition to Haven, then?" Stanis asked.

"After Yora it is. Held out quite well against Haven, but when those monsters are ready to be released, this village will be decimated,"

Walking into the village, Stanis quickly agreed with Pete's judgement. There were wooden stakes and other simple traps and defences around the village, but nothing worth sweating blood over. In fact, from Pete's words, it seemed the village's biggest defence was the people themselves, although Stanis heavily doubted this considering the fact that the two of them had easily been able to sneak into the village without a peep saying otherwise.

"Where are we headed?" Stanis asked as he realised that Pete wasn't just randomly walking his way in.

"You see that centre building over there," Pete answered as he pointed towards a medium, hut-like hall, "that's where Bear and Skint said they were,"

"You can contact them?!" Stanis asked, shocked. He had taken mobile phones for granted in the past. Only afterwards had he realised the true power of telecommunications.

"Short distance," Pete said. "Bear's got this weird skill that lets me talk to him within a kilometre or so. Nothing like telepathy though, only simple words will go through,"

Their conversation stilled at this and the two of them soon entered the building and looked around. Unlike Yora's or Haven's village halls, Silvermoon's was just a large empty space without any furnishing or decorations. It was, however, filled with men and women of various sizes and shapes. The one thing they all shared in common, however, was that they were all strong.

"These are the two you've been waiting for?" an aged-man asked.

Stanis looked around and saw Skint and Bear standing on a raised platform, circled by a group of people, each armed to the teeth.

"Yeah," Pete answered, causing the aged-man to whip his head towards him. "Who are you, beast from Haven? I've never heard of a Pete before…"

"Not surprising," Pete said as he uncorked his canteen from his waist. Stanis found it strange that he was pleased to see Pete take a deep gulp; the past Pete was easier to understand than the new one. "But I'm not the focus of this; you guys are,"

Murmurs spread through the hall and the aged man flared his nose and squinted his eyes at Pete. "Hmmph, some dog-shit about Haven producing monsters to kill the rest of us? Do you think we're brainless?"

Stanis felt an urge to join the conversation here but resisted the temptation, after all, he knew how much of a mess he could make and exactly how he would fix that mentioned mess.

"Looks like it," Pete answered, surveying the hall's overall mood with a chilling gaze. "They're not human and you'll be the first targets, easy pickings to be perfectly honest,"

Some snorted, while others simply shouted. In fact, was it not for the fact that Pete had begun emanating a dangerous aura, it was without doubt that he would have already been under attack. Still, with the way he was moving the conversation, Stanis guessed that it was just a matter of time until anger broke reason.

Before the old man could respond though, Pete added one final point. "Ask your chick. She was there in the Colosseum. She's Mosyte rank; she'll know all of you will be wiped out in a week. And with Haven to deal with before that, you'll probably be wiped out before the week is even over,"

Stanis followed Pete's pointed finger and caught sight of Sofia in the crowd. She wore reinforced-cloth armour which stuck to her well-endowed figure. She had a set of menacing daggers by her waist, as well as a short-sword. She wore her brown hair loose and it lay by her shoulders.

The aged man turned to Sofia and waited. Noticing the clamour around her quieten, Sofia grimaced before saying, "I can't be for sure," She then paused and hesitated. "But I think he's right…"

Inside the hall, the anger had been rising and about to break. But following Sofia's statement, the atmosphere cooled down into cold fear. They knew her and trusted her, after all, she was their strongest, their champion.

"Fine then," croaked the aged-man. "Let's assume for a second that Silvermoon will be wiped out soon. What are you to do about it, Haven vermin? We're not just some hovel-filled village, we'll be able to survive on the run without your help," he said, basically announcing it to reaffirm the villagers' belief.

"As the other villages are doing, you'll come to Yora and join the defence. That way, all of us will survive till the war and most of us will survive even past that," Pete answered.

At this, the aged man broke into laughter. Cruel, mocking laughter.

"Haven and Yora, I knew there was something going on between the two. So they're linked, are they? This just some ploy to force us out of the village, eh?"

As the audience moved, so did Stanis. Power surged out of him and pushed the crowd back. Multiple icicles formed by his head, but before he could fire, he felt Pete grab his wrist.

"Stop," he spat, "you're going to kill the people who will soon enough join the defence anyway,"

Stanis grit his teeth and collapsed the ice crystals around him, each of them falling onto the floor. In front of him, the crowd grew both more aggressive and scared. The power they had just witnessed, it wasn't humane, but at the same time, the way Stanis almost attacked them put them on edge, ready to react any second.

"Don't make crap up," Pete said. "If Yora and Haven had a deal, with their combined forces, they would easily crush this place."

While discontent with the way Pete phrased it, no one in the village could deny it either. Unlike Stanis, the trio or Sofia, the villagers had actually been here for the whole period and, in turn, witnessed Yora's rise to power.

The aged man looked around the hall with worry. The truth was that he was running out of things to argue; what Pete had said was, despite vicious, also truthful. Sofia's word had helped to bring the hall's support towards Pete, after all, everyone here still cared more about their lives than Silvermoon. Knowing that he was already in a losing battle, he went towards the only other thing he could see.

"Who are you," he asked while pointing at Stanis. "Threatening us in our own village, you must be eager to show your true colours,"

Stanis cracked his head from side to side in response. "I'm Stanis, strongest man on this globe"…