The Essence Domes that the Knights produced wreaked absolute havoc on everything in sight, however along with the tremours that they caused, they seemed to have become less frequent. Relovan had to ride with a bit more caution than before, however he still blasted his way towards the Hotel. His head was throbbing quite badly now from where he had been hit, however the Enforcer was able to ignore it by and large thanks to the pain killers. They were also helping him shrug off the after effects of crashing into the advertising screen, however that wasn’t quite as bad.

“Why is everything so quiet?” Relovan asked himself as he eyed the map before taking a turn. “No radio contact, no updates, not even an acknowledgment of having heard me.”

As Relovan got closer to the Hotel and he continued to try and process it all, his senses screamed at him to try and evade incoming danger. He was unable to however, and before he was even able to identify what the danger was, something smashing into both him and the bike, launching them both into the air and then sending them all hurtling towards a building. Unlike last time, Relovan tried his utmost to keep his hands firmly on the handlebars and to stay seated, as he would remain under the protection of the motorcycles Shields. As it turned out, he would need it because he not only crashed into the wall, but through it as well. As whatever smashed into him, smashed through the wall with him, Relovan managed to maintain his grip on the bars even when the vehicle hit the ground, bounced a few times, smashed through a few trees and slid into yet another wall. The thing that had hit him kept him company the entire time and slid to a halt along with him. The Shields absorbed the brunt of the damage, and the Enforcer slowly got off the bike and stood up gingerly. He looked to his right and upon closer inspection, realised that the thing that hit him wasn’t a thing at all, but a who. It appeared to be a Personal Knight belonging to Juxtae, and moments after Relovan had made that distinction, the Knight shot right up and was enveloped in a blue shroud that looked Water Essence. Tall and well built, this Knight looked rather familiar.

“This is Poli—oh, it’s you.” Relovan stated as he reached for a pair of handcuffs. “You’re under arrest. Hand yourself over.”

“Huh? Who the fuck are – it’s you!!”

“Yes, Enforcer Relovan. Now hand yourself over – I will not repeat myself.”

“This really isn’t the time for that, Enforcer!” The Knight boomed.

“Don’t be absurd. It’s always ‘the time’ for the law.”

“No, the weakling was right, Human Policeman.” A deep, burbling voice declared from above.

Both Relovan and Juxtae’s Knight looked up and saw a man who was built differently to the rest – much like the Knight beside him. Rather than being built like a brick house, he was instead tall, wiry and unlike his colleagues, he was clad in a type of robe that covered his body completely, whereas the others wore sleeveless breastplate type tops, armoured trousers and heavy boots. He had a type of headdress that was adorned with spikes, and a pale, sickly complexion. His gaunt face was set in a permanent scowl, and flames pulsed gently from his eyes. The blue skinned hulk of a Knight next to Relovan genuinely looked as though he was less than happy to see the wiry Knight and swallowed a lump in his throat. The Enforcer looked at the other man with something of a scowl on his own face and then unholstered his gun slowly.

“Do you also subscribe to this ridiculous belief about it not being the time for the law? No wonder you are so willing to destroy property in Coalition owned land. You are under arrest. Surrender yourself willingly and face the wrath of the law.” Relovan stated as he turned to face Vox’s Knight.

“I have a question for you, Human Policeman.”

“What is it?”

“What if I refuse to hand myself over and submit to your law?”

“Then I will have to bring you in forcefully.”

“Yes, well you appear to be woefully lacking in ability to do that, Human Policeman. If you do not leave myself and my friend next to you to continue with our business, you will be the first to perish.”

The intensity of Relovan’s scowl suddenly increased as his eyes grew large and he raised his gun, aiming it at the skinny man who was still floating in the air. Without even waiting for a word to be spoken, the Enforcer fired off a shot aimed directly at the Knight’s head. The Knight had raised his right hand before the shot was fired, and it hadn’t even reached him when it suddenly burst into flames and exploded in midair. Relovan didn’t even flinch at his bullet exploded, as his eyes were large and filled with anger.

“Threatening an officer of the law with death is a crime punishable in extreme cases by death itself; I suggest you take that threat back before the situation becomes extreme right now.”

The menace in Relovan’s voice did little to intimidate the Knight. In fact, he floated down to the ground, touching down gently as a smile actually creeped across his face, and what could only be described as morbid curiosity filled his eyes.

“Human Policeman, I will not withdraw my earlier statement. I am standing right here if you wish to mete out any form of justice or punishment.”

As if he had been waiting for permission to do so, Relovan fired off another regular bullet, and it too burnt up in the air. After that happened though, he was already on the move; extracting two more smoke grenades from his belt. He tossed the grenades while running towards the Knight, staring at him with unblinking eyes. The moment they exploded, Relovan – who had turned the dial on his pistol from STUN to CRYO – fired off two shots into the smoke. Without even breaking stride, he flew into the smoke cloud with his gun still raised. As soon as he did however, he felt an almost unnecessarily hot gust of wind hit his body, forcing him to stop in his tracks and shield his eyes with his arm. As the wind continued to blow, the smoke cleared almost immediately; resulting in the grenades being blown away. The Knight stood there looking at him with both of his arms completely covered in ice from the shoulder down. The right arm, which was extended out front of him appeared to have a glowing red spot in the palm of its hand, and the Knight was still smiling at Relovan. The Enforcer quickly fired off two more bullets into the Personal Knights’ quads, rapidly encasing his legs in ice and then turned the dial back to STUN. After pushing off from where he was standing with some force, Relovan dashed towards the Knight, running with his pistol at the ready. The closer he got to the Knight however, the more prominent the glowing spot in his palm became. With each passing step, it grew from a mere spot, to a medium sized orb and as Relovan reached the Knight, the ice around the outstretched arm had begun to crack.

‘Shit!’ Relovan thought to himself as he reached the Knight.

Just as he began raising his gun to shoot, the ice around the Knight’s arm shattered completely and the large hand suddenly changed direction and pointed at Relovan, with the orb in its palm immediately growing larger as Essence Flames danced all around its surface. Relovan strained absolutely every single fiber in his body, lowering his arms, dropping his right shoulder as low down as it could go while simultaneously pulling his head as far to the left as it possibly could. The instant Relovan had done all that, a beam of orange and black flames blasted past his face. The beam was cylindrical in shape, and not much larger than Relovan’s face itself, however the flames themselves were completely different from those used by the other Knights as they were actually hard – solid flames. They made a peculiar sound as they absolutely boomed past his face, and it took everything Relovan had not to cry out in immense pain from the residual heat. Instead, he tossed his gun into his left hand while planting his left leg and using it as a pivot. He powerfully swiveled his hips and as his right foot slid across the ground, Relovan began raising his left arm. Upon finishing his 90-degree swivel, Relovan’s pistol was pressed squarely against the underside of the Personal Knights’ chin. Without wasting a moment, he pulled the trigger and fired off a shot.

“Hmph.” The Knight scoffed as Relovan realised that the ice around his left arm had also shattered, and that the Knight had grabbed his pistol and tilted it, diverting the shot and sending it into the sky above.

That left hand had been glowing the entire time and a few moments later, Relovan was forced to relinquish his grip on the gun as it had been heated with the super-hot flames being emitted from the Knight’s hand. As this happened, the Knight’s right hand came back into the equation with it now being completely enveloped in the hard flames as well. The Personal Knight’s right leg had shattered the ice around it and had taken a large step to the side, allowing him to open up his body, bend his arm at the elbow and swipe his hand up from the bottom. His unnaturally long fingers were curved, and despite Relovan’s best efforts, he was caught as the flames scorched his uniform from his navel up to his collarbone. He managed to avoid getting hit directly in the face, however his torso felt like it had just been ripped open. The uniform held out as best it could, however it quickly melted away. It didn’t burn, it melted, and his skin also suffered something of a nasty burn, however a large portion of the damage was negated by the police uniform. Relovan had no time to react to the pain however, as the Knight thrust his left hand towards him. The left hand was still enveloped in the flames, and Relovan quickly grabbed his cape in both hands and wrapped it around his body as rapidly as he could. The cape instantly hardened and was then hit by the open palm of the Knight. Yet another thing shattered, only this time, it was the hardened cape and Relovan was launched off of his feet and sent careening backwards. His cape had bits that were on fire and smoking, and as he bounced and tumbled along the ground, the fires were gradually extinguished. The Enforcer came to a rather painful looking halt, and he just lay there motionless for a second.

“How interesting you are, Human Policeman.” The Personal Knight said with a genuine smile on his face. “Just how extensively have you trained that body of yours to be able to put up this much of a fight? Have you encountered more of my fellows before me? Be a good Human and just lay there quietly; you and I have a few things to disc—”

The wiry Knight was interrupted as a massive swell of water caught his attention. The other Personal Knight, who had seemingly been on the shelf while Relovan engaged with him, was standing there with Water Essence swirling around his fists and forearms. His eyes were glowing bright blue, and he let out a roar as he seemingly drew out more Essence. Water from plants, fountains and even underground burst out from swirled around him. It was quite the sight, and it looked as though he was readying himself to unleash quite the attack.

“Goodness me, would you look at that.” The wiry Knight remarked. “You appear to be taking this rather seriously. Unfortunately, you and I will have to put our scuffle on hold while I finish up with the Human Policeman.”

“Shut your odious mouth, you freak!” The other Personal Knight retorted. “I’ve had about enough of your nonsense. I hope you had your fun picking on a Human, because now you're about to get your ass kicked by somebody you shouldn’t have given time to prepare!!”

The water swirling around the Knight’s body formed into a kind of sea creature, and once the creature had formed above his body, it let a thunderous roar. Vox’s Knight looked at the display with complete disinterest and raised his left hand, aiming it in the direction of Juxtae’s one.

“Surely, you do not think that you are the only one who is allowed to get serious, do you?”

The instant the question was asked, poles of flame shot out from beneath the ground around Juxtae’s Knight. They took the form of a giant bird cage around him, and he quickly recognised what was about to happen.

“Not good!” He boomed as he pulled all the water around him in to form a shield of sorts.

“Crushing Prison.” Vox’s Knight said in a surprisingly audible whisper.

The cage suddenly constricted, closing in on itself and crushing its victim within its bars. The flames were the same ones that had been used during the fight with Relovan, and they appeared to be attempting to crush the Knight completely.

“Hmph.” Vox’s Knight scoffed. “Weakling.”

The Personal Knight’s attention was suddenly caught again, as he noticed signs of life coming from Relovan. The Enforcer stirred, and as he did, Vox’s Knight broke out into a massive smile and then started laughing. He even started clapping excitedly and did so for the entire time it took Relovan to get to his feet.

“You really do impress me, Human Policeman! I thought for sure you would have lost consciousness at the very least!”

Relovan stood to his full height as his breathing was heavy and ragged. His entire body was throbbing and felt like it was being burned, but his face did not show this. Instead, the look of wrath in his eyes only grew stronger and the Enforcer took a deep breath before bending his right knee slightly and leaning back slightly. His left leg was extended, and his foot slid across the floor while his right arm bent and raised to form a guard of sorts. His left hand stayed low though, and Relovan assumed a rather obvious fighting stance.

‘No gun, that swipe took out my belt, so I have no flashbangs, cape shield is done, and to top it off, I definitely have some fractures. I need to find a way of incapacitating him, and the only way I can do that is by recovering my gun and using the final bullet on him.’

Relovan went over his current state in his head and strategised, all the while staring at the Knight who was still staring and smiling at him. His teeth were pitch black and appeared to be covered in some kind of black, tar like substance.

“Human Policeman, it looks as though you are trying to formulate some king of plan. Perhaps you wish to retrieve your firearm and shoot me again? Your initial attempt at subduing me was wonderfully impressive; realising that you couldn’t shoot me from a distance, you closed the gap and stopped me from moving so I couldn’t destroy the bullets like I had earlier. You adapted the game plan as new issues arose such as my blowing your grenades away and teasing that I was going to shoot flames so you tried to execute the plan even quicker. Those were all great moves! In fact, you’ve probably deduced that your best shot lies in the retrieval of this gun.” The Knight said this as he raised the gun which was now back in his left hand. “You also have to time this retrieval impeccably otherwise; you lose the opportunity to shoot.”

The Knight raised the gun and held it in front of his face. His hand then began to glow brightly as he drew out flames and moments later, the gun began to glow as well. Eventually, the heat was such that the gun began to melt, and Vox’s Knight wrapped his fingers around the barrel and squeezed until the entire pistol became deformed and clearly no longer able to function as a pistol. As this happened, the smile on the Knight’s face changed to a grin, and he stared at Relovan with unblinking eyes, waiting to see how he would despair or become dejected. Instead, what he saw was Relovan emitting some kind of energy, some kind of aura that was both familiar yet completely alien. Time to contemplate just what it was Relovan was producing was at a premium however as the Enforcer suddenly broke the deadlock and charged, moving towards the Knight at speed. Vox’s Personal Knight simply smirked as he raised his right hand and aimed his palm squarely at Relovan. The hard flames from before gathered in the large palm, and a beam of dense flames flew directly at Relovan. As it zipped towards the Enforcer, the ground below showed signs of scorching from the intense heat. Relovan suddenly leapt up without breaking stride. He tucked his upper torso in as he went through the motion of a somersault. As Relovan was halfway through the somersault and the back of his head faced the ground and flames below, he extended his legs as the flip continued. His left leg was extending and moving through the motions a bit faster than his right leg, and as Relovan completed the arc and the somersault, he had completely closed the gap between himself and the Knight, and within the blink of an eye, the heel of his left foot absolutely smashed into the back of the Knight’s head, before his right heel did the same. There was an immense weight behind the blows which had not been present before, and the Knight actually reacted – staggering just a bit and bending over from the waist down.

The instant he landed on the ground, Relovan was at it again; resuming the same fighting stance however this time, he crouched down particularly low and slid forward as if being propelled or pushed. The Knight reacted to this in time however, and slid backwards himself, despite his feet being flat on the ground. The two slid across the ground for a good few meters and once they both came to a stop, Relovan quickly launched an attack consisting of a series of body punches. The barrage of lefts and rights to the ribs also seemed to have an effect on the tall, thin Knight, as he was doubled over again. While this happened though, the Knight had his eyes open the entire time, carefully scrutinizing Relovan’s fists. Once he was satisfied that he had seen all that he had to, the Knight suddenly stood up straight and swatted away both of Relovan’s arms. He then reached out with his right hand, as if aiming for the Enforcer’s neck with the intention to strangle him. Relovan saw this coming however, and quickly reached up with his left hand. He grabbed the right wrist with his left hand, then grabbed a handful of the Knight’s robes with his right. His right foot slid forward along the ground as he turned his body to generate momentum, he actually let out a roar of exertion as he used pure strength to lift the surprisingly heavy Knight up and over his body. As Vox’s Knight flew over his head, Relovan’s feet actually left the ground and for a moment, both were airborne. The moment was brief however and without relinquishing his grip of the Knight’s wrist, Relovan slammed him into the ground while simultaneously spreading his legs and landing on his butt; completing something of a sit-down powerbomb type hybrid slam. It may have been improvised, but the shaking of the ground and he dust cloud coupled with the fluttering of Relovan’s cape made it all look incredibly epic.

Relovan looked as though he was going to try and lock in an armbar, however the glowing of the Knight’s hand alerted him to impending danger. The arm suddenly bent at the wrist and aimed up towards the Enforcer’s face, prompting him to not only release the hand, but kick it away and roll off to the side as quickly as he could manage – which was all just as well as another beam of dense flames blasted by him. The residual heat was enough to scorch the already battered police uniform even more, but Relovan gritted his teeth and scrambled to his feet and resumed his fighting stance. The Personal Knight, who was still on his back, simply smacked the ground with both palms and rose up to his feet without even bending his knees. He had a look in his eyes and a grin on his face that prompted Relovan to raise his left hand and form a far more defense-minded guard. The Personal Knight took the guard as a sign of sorts and charged Relovan with the kind of speed he had yet to display during their scuffle. The Knight closed the space between the two within the blink of an eye and raising his left arm and bracing it with his left hand to form a block was all Relovan could manage before a looping, sweeping open handed hook ripped through the air and connected with his armoured forearm. Relovan’s bones shattered as though he suffered from the most brittle of brittle bone syndromes, and the breaks occurred throughout the entire arm, not just his forearm. The pain was blinding, and Relovan only just managed to stifle not only a wail of immense bail, but also managed to hang on to his consciousness. He was then barely able to swing his torso back and avoid a similar attack from his right side, and then another from his left again, however the third attack connected. An absolutely thunderous open-handed strike directly to the midriff not only doubled the Enforcer over in midair, but also shattered his ribs. Blood spewed out from Relovan’s mouth as he was sent flying backwards so rapidly, he left shockwaves in his wake. A rather large convoy of luxury and armoured vehicles which had been abandoned sometime during the entire skirmish were suddenly hit by something moving so quickly it sounded as though a missile of some sort crashed into them. The car that suffered the initial impact was actually on its side, and whatever had smashed into it had hit the roof so hard, it caused it to not only flip back onto its wheels, but also slide into the cars behind it.

There was a period of stillness and quiet and after a few moments of persistent silence, it was broken by the sound of approaching footsteps. The sound of a multitude of rapid footsteps echoed throughout the air and sounded as though some kind of millipede was scuttling across the ground. Soon enough, Vox’s Knight appeared as he walked with his hands behind his back.

“Human Policeman!” He bellowed a bit too happily. “You truly do astound me! To have held out as long as you did, and not only dodge and evade, but to also attempt to subdue me with your superb fists when your weapons were no longer available. Truly outstanding.”

Despite praising Relovan continuously, the Personal Knight seemed to be saying this all from a place of amusement, rather than actually being impressed. He reached the smoking heap of vehicles which had the broken looking Enforcer in a dent in the middle of a roof. The Human lay motionless, prompting the Knight to reach down, grab him by the head and pull him out from the wreckage, before holding him up. Relovan just hung limp and lifeless, however this did not deter Vox’s subordinate from continuing to speak.

“I really do wish we had more time to continue this dance of ours, however that weakling will likely break free from the cage very soon, so we will have to end things here. Farewell, Human Policeman.”

The Knight began to squeeze the Enforcer’s head as a sadistic smiled creeped across his face. His giant hand’s grip tightened as he squeezed harder and harder, trying to pop Relovan’s head like a grape. The grin grew ever wider with each passing second and considering the power the wiry Knight had displayed just moments before, it was clear that he was taking his time – as if waiting to hear Relovan’s screams before killing him. Suddenly, bright blue light flared from the Knight’s waist, and he looked down to see multiple streaks of blue and white lightning dancing around a certain point on his left hip. Relovan had his stun baton in his right hand, and at some point during the head squeezing, he had removed it from his hip and attempted to use it on the Knight.

“Bravo.” The Personal Knight said as he nodded. “Truly.”

The grin on the Knight’s face suddenly disappeared as he looked down. The lightning streaks appeared to be increasing not only in number, but in intensity as well. The Knight focused his gaze on Relovan’s arm and noticed the same thing from before swirling all around his entire arm.

“I thought it was just some kind of anomaly, however…”

The Knight was interrupted as the lightning started to increase and within the blink of an eye, his entire body was covered in the blue and white streaks.

“HA!” He chortled. “Are you banking on me being stunned to submission? Interesting, Human Policeman – let’s see how long you can keep this up before you destroy yourself!”

The amusement was right back on the Knight’s twisted face, and his teeth-baring grin made its appearance once more. The seconds passed, and the lightning streaks continued to crackle and snap all over the seemingly unfazed Personal Knight’s body. As time passed, he noticed a gradual change in the colour of the streaks as they darkened.

‘What is this?’ He thought to himself as he focused his attention completely on the still darkening lightning.

Suddenly, the rate of the change in colour escalated, and the lightning went from being a darkish blue to a somewhat light purple. This sudden change seemed to not only affect the colour of the lightning, but it’s properties as well, as the Personal Knight reacted to the change.

“What is this?!” He cried out before looking up at the Enforcer, who was still dangling from his hand. “What is with thi—”

The question could not be finished as the Knight suddenly jolted. Whatever change the purple colour signified, it turned out to be bad news for the Personal Knight as he was actually feeling the effects of the stun baton for the first time. He gritted his teeth and scowled at Relovan, before both of his hands began glowing bright orange, as if about to produce the flames they had been producing with such ease. This appeared to be much harder this time, and the Knight actually looked at both of his arms with an absolute look of confusion and dread.

“WHAT IS THIS?!” He asked yet again, however he got no answer, only more pain.

By this time, the lightning was deep purple and had increased not only in the sheer number of lightning streaks, but in size as well. The streaks were huge now, and as if remembering that all he had to do was pull the baton away from his skin, the Knight grabbed it with his left hand. This turned out to be a mistake however, as everything seemed to intensify as he did this, and the orange glow being emitted from the Knight’s hand quickly changed and became purple. There was a final roar of pain and effort, before the stun effect truly took hold, forcing the Personal Knight down to his knees. This resulted in Relovan’s feet touching the ground, but he too fell to his knees and from there, both men fell to the ground – Relovan on his side and the Knight on his face. The moment this happened, everything went still and silent, and it took a good few moments for signs of life to emerge as Relovan stirred first. His cap was absolutely steaming and appeared as though it had negated pretty much all of the lightning damage. He wheezed, hacked and coughed as the monumental struggle to get to his feet required every single ounce of willpower and strength that the Enforcer had. His left arm was limp and twisted, and his uniform, greaves and gloves were covered in bumps, scrapes and cracks of all kinds. He eventually managed to get to his feet after pulling the baton out from under the Knight and using it as a walking stick of sorts. He took a moment to try and get his bearings, however he was too battered and broken to do that. Blood poured from his mouth, nose and ears and his legs could barely hold his weight.

“…how is this possible?” The Knight asked as it appeared as though he was still conscious, but no longer able to move.

He didn’t get an answer though; instead he was jabbed with the baton and the moment that happened, Relovan activated it and shocked the Personal Knight to shit once again. The Knight’s screams were loud and filled with absolute pain, and Relovan stopped after a few seconds and pulled the baton away. He stared at the Knight with unblinking eyes and after a few moments, he jabbed the baton into the Knight’s back once again, stopping seconds later. Things continued in this vein, with the stop/start use of the baton seemingly serving no purpose other than to torture the Void Lord’s subordinate. The screams, which were loud and blood curdling, progressively became softer and quieter as the prolonged torture went on. The sheer wrath in Relovan’s eyes seemed to become tangible in a way, with both of his eyes beginning to glow as purple as the lightning used to torment the Knight.

“Your mistake… was toying with me… out of… curiosity.” Relovan said in a pained voice between breaths. “You had the ability and… the op… opportunities to kill me… but chose to play around even after… deciding to actually… kill… me.”

Relovan was completely out of breath, but this didn’t stop him as he jabbed the baton into the Knight’s back one more time, not even producing a scream or reaction of any kind.

“You’re… under arrest for… attempted murder of… an officer of the law.”

He held the baton down against the Knight for longer this time, and only pulled it away when there wasn’t even a hint of a reaction from the now unconscious Knight. Meanwhile, Juxtae’s Knight, who had broken out from the flame prison before the baton was even introduced had been quietly waiting for his chance to strike. His strategy changed from waiting to pounce to watching in amazement as the Human came out on top. Relovan placed the baton back on his hip and rummaged around the undamaged parts of the utility belt before pulling out a pair of syringes – a Healing one and the Numbing one. He was so wrecked that he doubted the Healing Serum would have much of an effect, however it would still be better than nothing. He jabbed it into his sternum and pulled the trigger before doing the same with the Numbing Serum. It took a few seconds, but Relovan’s breathing calmed down quite a bit, he stopped groaning and the severe grimace on his face eased just a bit. He then fished around behind his back and pulled out a single handcuff which he looked at hesitantly. Only a few seconds passed however and Relovan crouched down and clacked it on the Knight’s left wrist. It took almost every bit of strength he had left to stand back up, as his legs wobbled and were woefully unsteady. He did manage to stand up straight and after a second or two, the energy tendrils snaked out from the cuffs and joined together. Relovan, who had started breathing somewhat heavily again was looking towards the sky when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps. He grabbed the stun baton off his hip and held it firmly in his right hand before his gaze shot in the direction of Juxtae’s Personal Knight. The Knight stopped walking and looked at Relovan for what appeared to be the longest time. This was the Human Enforcer that had confiscated his gloves earlier, and who Juxtae had disciplined him for not listening to. As if remembering the pain he had felt, he raised both hands in a non-threatening manner.

“I am not here to continue the fight, Enforcer.” The blue hulk said as he started walking again.

He looked at Relovan, this virtually broken Human whom he could probably wipe out with a single direct hit yet couldn’t. It wasn’t just because of the memory of being punished in front of everybody, but as he looked at this barely conscious man, he too could see what Vox’s subordinate had seen emanating from Relovan – an aura of some sort. He reached Relovan, who was still glaring at him with his baton at the ready but was employing a sort of ‘wait and see’ tactic.

“I repeat, I am not here to fight, Enforcer.”

“If you aren’t approaching me to hand yourself over, then you are.”

The Knight sighed as he actually lowered his hands and held them close together in front of him, as if presenting them to Relovan.

“If you must arrest me, then arrest me, Enforcer. However, I suggest that you receive some form of medical attention. I have—”

Without having seeing him actually get them, the Knight suddenly felt handcuffs being clacked onto his wrists by Relovan.

“Huh?” The Knight remarked as he looked at his wrists.

“You’re under arrest.” Relovan said to the Knight before touching the strip below his ear again. “This is Relovan. I have subdued two more of these Personal Knights. I shall be moving towards the Hotel now. I have sustained serious injury however, so I will impose on those who still have Healing items once at the rendezvous area.”

Relovan then turned around and began to walk off without saying anything.

“Wait!” The blue Knight called out. “The Void Lords are more than likely at that hotel! What do you possibly hope to do when you get there?”

“Bring them in.” Relovan said as he continued to walk.

“What? Even if you weren’t a walking corpse, those two have the ability to obliterate you with a mere thought!”

“Even so, I must go.”

“Why?”

Relovan stopped in his tracks and a somewhat convenient gust of wind which was likely generated by a shockwave caused his tattered cape to flutter about. Relovan then looked behind him towards the Knight and spoke with unwavering resolve.

“Because I am a Custodian of the Law.”

The Enforcer held eye contact with the Knight for a second or two, before facing the direction he was initially walking in and held out his right hand. A few seconds later, his ruined pistol flew into Relovan’s hand, and after struggling to get it into the holster, he continued down the road. Juxtae’s Personal Knight remained silent as he watched the Human walk off and eventually disappear down a different road. He looked down at Vox’s Knight for around a minute, before suddenly raising his foot and kicking the headdress off of his bald head.

“I know you’re awake, Vo.” The Knight barked.

“So I am.” The Knight referred to as Vo stated as he rolled over onto his back and looked up towards the sky with a grin on his face. “How could you tell, Rhee?”

“You moved just now when that Enforcer spoke.”

“Ah, a mistake on my part.” Vo said as he chuckled before coughing a bit. “That Custodian of the Law bit was just too rich a line for me. He tortured me.”

“You tortured him first, you freak.” Rhee retorted as he actually sat down next to Vo.

“This is true.” Vo said as he laughed, which caused him to cough again.

The pair sat in silence, with neither man attempting to make any sort of meaningful conversation. A few minutes later however, Rhee looked down at Vo and spoke.

“So, did you notice?”

“Of course I did, you weakling.” Vo replied before closing his eyes. “I saw those fists up close.”

“It’s almost as if he wasn’t aware of it though.”

“He absolutely wasn’t.” Vo confirmed. “That’s why he became so interesting.”

“Interesting or not, he was right about one thing – if you hadn’t toyed around with him and just took him out, you wouldn’t be on the floor like this. Well, at least not because of him.”

“He piqued my curiosity. I wished to see if he could back up his big talk, and considering how I’m currently on the floor in immense pain, I would say he did all he could to back it up.” Vo said with a chuckle.

“It’s crazy how he doesn’t know that he can use Lightning Essence though.” Rhee said as he looked towards where he last saw Relovan.

“Lightning Essence? Is that what you…?”

“Huh?”

“Nothing.” Vo said as a creepy grin made its way on to his face. “More importantly, it sounded as though you intimated that even if the Custodian of the Law hadn’t have come here, I would still be in this position.”

“Are you saying you wouldn’t be?” Rhee asked as he glared at Vo.

“You weakling… I would have taken care of you within a matter of seconds if I had taken you seriously.” Vo snarled.

“Is that so?!” Rhee asked. “Then why don’t we settle things right now?”

“Works for me. Even as I am, I can beat you with ease.”

Before things could escalate further, the two men suddenly felt the ground shake and heard what sounded like a massive explosion close to them. This killed their bickering and caused them both to look to the side where a massive dust cloud shielded whatever it was that crashed down there from sight.

“Excuse me there, gentlemen.” A familiar voice boomed. “Forgive me for having listened in on your conversation, however I am fairly certain I heard you two mention a Custodian of the Law or something like that.”

The two Personal Knights continued to stare at the cloud as the silhouette of somebody who was so vast in size, he even dwarfed Rhee. The silhouette stood up straight and a large cape fluttered about before the one within the cloud began to walk; each step causing the ground to shake ever so slightly. Soon, the Chief of Police emerged from the cloud with his arms down by his side and his fists clenched. The copious amounts of blood both on his fists as well as the sleeves of his uniform hinted at him having just been involved in more than a few scuffles. He looked at the two Personal Knights, and when his eyes fell on Vo, a pride-filled smile made its way onto his face.

“Aha, Professor… you appear to be in a spot of bother. Might you point me in the direction of the one who did this to you?”

Vo looked at the Chief who continued to approach and then looked at Rhee.

“I forgot about this one.” He said with a hint of amusement.

“Yeah, you and I both.” Rhee replied with a sigh.