Chapter 6 - A Cripple?

‘Now, what’s a cripple and two kids doing in a place like this?’ A man mocked with a laugh, raising his arms as he leisurely walked towards the threesome that were still in the queue to be seen. He wore a shiny bronze set of dog tags and dull iron armour which was littered with indents and gashes. Zeus estimated he was about six feet two inches tall, as his height was almost perfectly matched to his father. He also thought this man had balls of steel, to address Sy like that.

‘I couldn’t help but notice that armour of yours,’ the man continued, ‘the thing is, I’m actually looking for a new set myself and I think yours would work perfectly for me.’ He grinned, ‘minus the missing arm, that is.’

‘Idiot.’ Zeus thought.

Sy remained silent, his expression unchanged.

‘Did you not hear me, you handicapped fuck?’ The man continued, disgruntled by the lack of a retort.

By this point, the interaction was already garnering the attention of a large proportion of the guildhall, all the onlookers eager for some conflict to provide much-needed entertainment. The Chaoxs’ entrance had already piqued the interest of quite a few of Dynabury’s regulars. It wasn’t often they’d get a visitor with such exquisite looking armour and imposing aura, of course, the latter was only noticeable by the more experienced adventurers.

The man who had approached the twins’ father was well known amongst the members of the guildhall. Having progressed from porcelain to bronze in only two years, he could be considered a genius of sorts; if it wasn’t for his horrendous attitude and tendency to look down on others, Cal would’ve been rather popular.

‘I’ll give you one you last chance,’ Cal continued, his signature mock smile returning to his thin lips, ‘Strip.’

Or at least that’s what Zeus thought he was going to say, as, at some point between the ‘S’ and ‘T’ sound of ‘Strip’, Cal’s head was severed, and a fountain of blood erupted from the open volcano which was now Cal’s oesophagus. His limp body followed the head in hitting the ground with a dull thud and the hall was covered in a veil of red silence.

Xavier simply stared at his father in wide-eyed horror. He had just killed someone and that someone had just died right in front of him, and they hadn’t even been able to react. He tensed up unconsciously, to think that it could all be over like that was scary. Unimaginably scary. This wasn’t a pin drop moment for Xavier where he had the cliché drive to become stronger, it almost resulted in the opposite. Fear clawed at him, and he instinctively cowered away from his father, this man had the power to kill him in the blink of an eye. It didn’t seem cool nor inspiring. It was terrifying.

Sy had always known one of his children was a little ‘off’. When Xavier stepped away from him, he was pleased. This was the twins’ first encounter- albeit a brutal one -with death that wasn’t resulting in their dinner and so it was only natural they’d be afraid. When Zeus crouched next to the corpse to stare into the dead eyes of the man he’d just decapitated, Sy wondered just how much he took after his mother instead of him.