Caspian and Erica turned to see a man dressed in rags, running off with a purse clutched in his arms.

Several meters from where they stood, a woman dressed in a plain-looking yellow sundress was pointing at the hastily retreating man and shouting. "That man stole my purse! Someone! Please, stop him! My entire life savings is in there!"

Caspian didn't hesitate. His body moved before his mind caught up with the situation, taking off in the direction of the thief.

"O-oi! Caspie, where are you going?!" Erica shouted at him as he gave chase. He barely heard her, however, as his attention was focused solely on the thief, who even now was disappearing amongst the crowded streets.

Caspian wove his way around the mass of people, using his agility and reflexes to dodge and weave through the crowd like a river flowing around thousands of pebbles. The man in front of him had no such talent; he just shoved people out of the way.

The man looked behind him, eyes widening when he saw Caspian slowly closing the distance between them. In what appeared to be an act of desperation, he ran out onto the street. MAFTs honked and tires squealed as people swerved to avoid the crazy thief. Several people shouted at him, but the man ignored them in his effort to reach the other side.

Caspian followed. He sped across the street, heedless of the danger. A vehicle came speeding in from his left, the MAFT's horn honking loudly. Out of instinct, Caspian leapt into the air and flipped over the car, allowing it to continue unimpeded. When he landed, he tucked into a forward roll, thereby dodging a car that came in from his right. As his feet touched solid ground, he pushed off from his crouched position and launched himself into a full-bodied sprint that took him out of the street.

The man tried running away when he realized that Caspian had followed him, but Caspian was having none of that. He followed as the man turned a corner into an alley, which turned out to be a dead end. The man turned around, eyes wide and frantic as he backed away—until his back hit the wall and then he could move no more. Caspian stopped two meters away from him. Now that the chase appeared to be over, Caspian finally got his first real look at the man.

Young. That was the first word that came to mind. He didn't look much older than Caspian himself. He might even be younger, though it was hard to tell because of the dirt smeared all over his face.

The man—no, boy's—clothing was ragged and worn, the edges frayed and torn. Grime covered much of his clothes. Mold and moss grew along the rough fabric in thick patches, as if he'd found it buried underneath a creak and dug it up. It had several black stains from the spirits only knew what. He wore a bandana that hid his ears, much like Caspian, only his looked more like a strip of cloth torn from his clothes than an actual bandana. Dark strands of stringy, rough-looking hair covered his forehead, and his eyes were so dark they looked almost black.

"There's nowhere left for you to run," Caspian said, taking a single step forward. "Give me the purse and I'll pretend this incident never happened."

"I can't do that," the teen said, slowly shaking his head, body quivering in fear. "I need this money to feed my younger sister."

"Tch!" Caspian's glare hardened. "People like you are the worst. You go around stealing the hard-earned money of innocent people, never working a single day in your life. You can justify it all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that what you're doing is wrong. If you need money so badly, then get a job! Don't go around stealing from other people!"

"You think I haven't tried getting a job already?!" the teen shouted back, anger and frustration lacing his tone. "I've tried finding a place to work dozens of times! Hundreds! But no one's going to hire someone like me!" He gritted his teeth. "You humans are all the same! A bunch of greedy fools who can't look past the differences of others!"

"Humans?" Caspian halted. His eyes widened. "Wait, does that mean—"

"Caspian!" Erica came rushing around the corner, her high heels clacking loudly against the pavement. She stopped behind him, hands on her knees, her enticing bosom heaving as she sucked in some much needed oxygen. After catching her breath, the dark-haired Sorceress scowled at him. "Don't just run off like that. You're supposed to be protecting me, not dealing with petty thefts. That's what we have law enforcement for."

While the many nations of Terraria had no military, they still had soldiers who acted as law enforcement. It was their job to help the Sorceresses keep the peace. They were the ones who handled petty crimes like thefts and vandalism, allowing the Sorceresses to run their cities without having to take care of every problem that crops up.

"I didn't see any law enforcement in the area," Caspian didn't take his eyes off the teen, "and I didn't want to wait for one to show up and allow this kid a chance to escape."

"Ha..." Erica sighed. "You say that you don't care about people and yet here you are, chasing after some petty thief without even thinking about the consequences."

Caspian felt heat rush to his face. He tried to glare at her, but he wasn't very successful. "That's... that's only because I dislike people who feel like they need to steal from others to make a living. It's not like I actually care about that woman or anything."

"Really?" Erica raised an eyebrow.

"Really," Caspian said, nodding. Erica continued to stare and, after several seconds of silence, Caspian looked away, causing her to chuckle.

"Oh, Caspie, you are so predictable."

Caspian scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you're too easy to read, of course."

Caspian twitched. He was not that easy to read, was he? Surely not.

Before he could retort, his eyes caught the thief trying to escape.

"Hey! Don't think you can sneak away from while I'm not looking!"

Caspian reached out to nab the thief, however, all he managed to do was grab the thief's headband, which slipped off the teen's head to reveal something shocking. The kid's ears, their tips were slightly pointed.

"You're a—"

"Hold thine enemy in place, Sarutahiko Ōkami!"

Before the boy could do much more than scream, the earth rose up, encircling him like the jaws of some kind of monster. It enclosed around him, trapping him in a dome. Caspian could hear the teen banging against the hardened earth as he shouted, "let me out!" over and over again, his voice muffled by layers of sediment.

"There." Erica clapped her hands together. "That's one thief taken care of," she said, nodding her head toward Caspian. "Are you satisfied Cas... pie...?"

Caspian heard her, but her voice sounded like it was coming from a great distance. His eyes continued to stare at the large conical dome of earth in shock.

"He... he's a..."

Just then, a large wall shot up from the ground behind them, blocking off the only exit from the alley. Erica clicked her tongue while Caspian snapped out of his funk. He turned toward the wall now impeding their path, his tightly gripping the hilt of his sword, when something else happened.

Like Daimons rising from the depths of Tartarus, several figures emerged from the ground, first their hands, then their arms. They pulled themselves out of the earth—two-legged figures that vaguely resembled humans, except they were composed entirely of earth and possessed only a single eye.

"Golems," Caspian murmured as he pulled his sword from its sheath.

Golems were a creation of the elves. Having studied the elves in great detail at the academy, Caspian knew that golems were incredibly durable, being composed of thousands rocks tightly packed together, compressed to the point where they had the hardness of diamonds. They had been used to great effect during the Elven War. According to records, some of the golems used had towered over even some of the largest buildings here in Ashtown—Dorehan Tower being the sole exception.

"It seems we have been trapped," Erica stated the obvious, clicking her tongue in annoyance. "This is just great. Not only did you drop all of my shopping bags back there, but now we're trapped and unable to get them again. They'll probably be stolen by the time we finish dealing with this."

"We're trapped and surrounded by several dozen golems, and all you can think about is your clothing?" Caspian asked, incredulous.

"Those clothes are expensive," Erica defended, "and that last dress I bought was a limited edition export from Serichi. Do you know how long it will take for me to order another one? Months! And by by the time it comes in again, it'll be out of fashion."

"You've got some screwed up priorities," Caspian muttered, warily eying the golems that were closing in. They were clearly in trouble.

Well, at least something interesting is happening, Caspian thought seconds before the golems surged forward.

The battle had begun.