Last chapter, the trio arrived at the sandy island of Birzion in which they are greeted by a beautiful blonde, and meet a hardy blacksmith who gives Seric a warning about those wearing vests, and to keep Karia away from them. Now, they head off to explore the rest of the island in order to trade their goods.

Seric's P.O.V.

"Hm... If you would like to trade, I think I know a few places that are fantastic for it!" The girl says to me in a soft voice with enthusiasm as we start to walk onto the wide sandy path enclosed by brick buildings on both sides, as well as the many people walking around the area.

"Oh, haha, thanks a lot for taking the time to help us out like this." I reply honestly to her as I try to maintain eye contact, but I find it quite hard to do so due to what happened before.

"No problem at all, I definitely appreciate the company of kind and strong travelers like yourselves!" The woman says to me with a small smile and closed eyes. "Cute..." I think to myself with a slight blush and look away to the right in the direction of a blue brick building to my right- along with King Metallica walking beside me holding his new pieces of orange metal up to the sun and examining them.

"Hey, um Abigail." I ask quietly after we walk a bit further on the path where not as many people are walking by.

"Hm?" She responds and I walk closer to her, "I heard some things about being careful around some guys with vests, should we be worried?" I whisper as I glance side to side to make sure no one's eavesdropping.

"...You... you heard. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that that is your first impression of our beautiful town, c-curses!" Abigail says in a sad and angry tone as she clenches her fists, tears starting to leak from her eyes beneath her blue and white flower patterned sunhat.

"Seric!" Karia calls out to me as she walks over to her to comfort her I presume.

"What did I do, I just asked her about a warning I heard before!" I respond back in a whispered yell as I feel somewhat guilty but also annoyed.

"N-no, he's right, it's not his fault that we women are such delicate flowers..." Abigail says as she wipes her eyes with the bottom of her palms and finishes with a last few sobs.

"Flowers huh? You hear that Seric, women are delicate flowers." Karia says happily as she continues to look ahead of her, taking her attention off of Abigail.

"I don't think normal flowers can be alcoholics." I mumble to myself and start to laugh out loud in order to enact my revenge, only to be met with Karia's unamused glare staring back at me.

"Says the one who'll never be able to pollinate a flower." Karia says with a laugh which makes me smirk and shake my head in an attempt at a defense.

"Who cares about some pretty flowers, just what in Hopian's name is that?!" King Metallica calls out as he points to the right of us, and looking in that direction, instead of there being normal brick buildings, instead a giant brown rock as tall as the buildings next to it is in place, in which the upper half of it has an awkward and jagged shape on a slant.

"Yeah, what's this thing here for Abigail?" Karia asks as we all turn towards her.

"...V-V-Virile Noble! This was that beast's doing, this rock used to be double in size, but to become the wicked mayor of this island he launched the other half of it right off!" Abigail shouts loudly in an angry and frustrated tone this time as she starts to cry again.

I then look around the rock, and lo and behold another pathway of sand extends back from it, in which in the close distance another rock of the same color and about the same size sits upside down.

"Wow, that man sure didn't miss A.R.M. D.A.Y. then did he, YASHASHASHA!" King Metallica laughs in excitement with his hands on his hips.

"Damn straight."

I hear a deep voice sound from behind us, and looking back a man- no a giant at least quadruple the size of me stands in his bare feet, wearing worn out navy blue shorts that are torn at the bottom, as well as a brown vest that barely covers anything, revealing his completely chiseled and hairy physique, for example his bulging six pack. He also has a mature face, having a black beard that extends down in a triangle just off his chin, as well as a black mustache and short grey and black striped hair that barely extends off of his head.

Abigail screams, running behind King Metallica in which he raises his arms in a confused fashion and looks down at her. My face turns into one of panic as well- as I realize what him wearing a vest means.

"The hell are you?" Karia asks unfazed as she crosses her arms, with one of them still being bandaged.

"Karia! I'm-"

"You've got some nerve talking to me like that. Just who do you two bitches think you are?" The man responds with a stern face, and as I look around everyone who was on the path before is gone. "I guess he heard what Abigail said, he-he really is Virile then!" I think to myself shakily.

"You wanna go tough guy?" Karia responds with an angry face as she starts to unwrap her bandaged arm.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Many laughs come from out of nowhere, and at that moment a whole group of guys wearing the same type of vests and no shirt style come out from behind the man.

"You think- AHA- a chick like you can really take on our boss? Sure try and attack him, you'll end up just like that baldy blacksmith's wife~" One of Virile's men say with a laugh as he licks his lips.

"That's why he was so concerned about Karia, that's awful..." I think to myself as my stomach drops even further, realizing the man we bought the metal from is most likely the "blacksmith".

"We'll see about that!" Karia yells in a cocky tone as she fully rips of her bandages, luckily with her arm being healed now as she charges towards the giant Virile.

"Out of the way you maggots, I'll teach her a good lesson!" Virile says as his men quickly scatter to the left and right of the sandy path.

"Spirit of Kodan: Strike!" Karia shouts before I have time to tell her to stop, throwing a punch in the air at a distance and causing a giant red ghost fist to phase into existence and fly towards his legs

Without a word, Virile squats down and stretches his arms out just as the flying punch hits, causing it to slam into his open palms and slide his feet backwards.

"Not terrible- for a lady. Why don't you-" Virile tries to say as the fist disappears and he examines his hands, but Karia continues to run across the sand until she's right in front of him.

"Spirit of Kodan: K.O!" She yells as she throws an uppercut with her own arm, causing another translucent fist to fly up from the ground and directly into Virile's unsuspecting and unprepared chin.

"Oh no, boss! HaaaaaHAHA!" The men yell in a sarcastic and uncaring tone as Virile is launched backwards into the air a tiny bit- but a moment later he recovers, landing and almost falling over but managing to stay afoot by stumbling back through the sand.

"Not bad at all- for a lady. Still, it'll never be enough." He says with a drip of blood coming from his nose while maintaining his undeterred face, as Karia jumps backwards to create a bigger gap between the two.

"Hey, King Metallica please help her out!" I try to plead with him from the sidelines, and looking in his direction Abigail is sobbing into his robe with him not knowing what to do as he awkwardly pats her back.

"Sorry pal, I'm occupied! Besides, pal #2 got is super amazingly strong, so we should believe in her like any pal's would!" King Metallica replies optimistically as he gives me a smile and a thumbs up.

"Well that doesn't help..." I think to myself worryingly as I realize how bad of a situation we could be in, after all this beast just completely tanked Karia's Blessing and he also has a whole group of thugs at his disposal too.

"Karia, let's get out of here, it's way too risky!" I try to reason with her myself as I yell towards Karia's back.

"And just who are you supposed to be, her princess? AHAHAHA, nah, a girl like her would never like a short guy like you. After all, chicks only dig men who're ripped and have strong wills!" One of Virile's dark-skinned men wearing nothing but a brown vest mocks at me as he flexes his large arms.

"Karia, come on!" I'm almost begging her now, trying to ignore what the man said but still feeling the sting of it.

"Honestly, you should really listen to what he's saying. Grow a pair." Karia says in annoyance as she looks back at me with an unamused face.

"What?! Who's side are you on- listen whatever, all I'm trying to do is help you out here!" I yell out to her as one last futile attempt.

"...My turn." Virile says with his stern voice as he cracks his neck and fingers, starting to charge towards Karia as his men cheer.

"Bring it bastard!" Karia replies as she takes a defensive position, keeping a close eye on him.

He reaches Karia, digging his feet in the ground and stopping his charge, and using his momentum to launch his muscular fist directly at her upper-body. Karia simply side steps to avoid the hit without much difficulty, making the punch travel right by her side and causing a gust of wind to blow her hair back.

Virile then swings the now open palm of his attacking arm that "missed" into Karia's side, allowing him to completely wrap his hand around Karia's waist in a firm vice-like grip, in which he starts to seemingly crush her ribs.

"Spirit of Bersi- *cough* *cough* Bersia: Electron Passover!" Karia shouts with short breaths as she plants both of her palms on Virile's giant unrelenting fist, and a second later it starts to make his fingers shake causing him to furrow his brows, until black burns become visible on his skin and he quickly panics and throws Karia aside, causing her to roll on the sand a few times and leaving her lying on the ground.

Karia then slowly stands up a few moments later, using her knees as support and holding her injured chest, as Virile shakes his hand in pain and tries to blow on the electrical burns- but soon stopping after seeing Karia is still able to fight, and proceeding to stick his left foot behind him into the sand for some reason.

"Spirit of Kod-" Karia tries to say, but before she can the leg Virile stuck behind himself launches forward, carrying a giant piece of the brown uneven rocky earth from underneath the sand with it, and he hurls the giant land mass towards Karia with a loud grunt.

"Wha- Spirit of Bersia: HideofAegis!" Karia utters to herself extremely quickly as with even more speed she swings both of her arms in front of herself, causing her ghostly purple translucent hide to appear from thin air in front of her, as the rock is far too big to dodge or destroy by normal means I presume.

The object slams into Karia's last resort, stopping the projectile's motion entirely with a loud slam and protecting Karia without fail, as well as shattering the rock into multiple big chunks. At the same time, Karia's Hide of Aegis vanishes not even a second later after the impact.

"Is that-" Karia is about to say as she regains her composure, but soon after she seems to notice something and jumps backwards, and at that moment another loud crunch is heard, in which the large remains of the now resting rock suddenly start flying towards a retreating Karia, and then they crack into hundreds of smaller more deadlier shards, acting almost like a shotgun.

"What?!" I'm able to think to myself frantically as the shards can't hit me from where I am next to a building, and looking closer Virile is standing where the rock used to lay with his arm sticking out in a punching position while he pants heavily.

The barrage of rocks then zoom towards Karia, many of them hitting her and almost knocking her over as she covers her head and rolls to the side of the sandy pathway towards a red bricked building with locked doors and covered windows in order to avoid the hellfire.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, shit..." Karia grumbles as she lays face first on the sand next to the building with her clothes being damaged and full of dust, rubbing the top of her head as she does so.

"That's our boss! No one can ever beat his "Flying Rock Crusher"!" Virile's men laugh as he blows the remains of the rock off from his knuckles and catches his breath.

Virile then looks to the side, staring at me with a surprisingly sad look on his face for a moment, but soon after an angered one, "Remember this well boy, no matter how strong they may act- all women deep down are never truly strong." He says in a serious tone as he turns back to Karia.

"I'll let you off with that this time, you stupid maggots." He says as he turns around, stomping off along the path in the direction we were heading beforehand, and with a few last mockeries to us his men proceed to follow behind him.

"Karia!" I yell as I run across the wide path towards her injured self, seeing that she has many cuts and some bruises over her body.

"Are you alright?" I try to ask in a calm voice as her head seems to hurt.

"Hmph, yeah why the hell- *cough* hell wouldn't I be?" Karia replies with a scoff as she quickly pushes herself up off of the ground and bolts upwards, but as soon as she does she wobbles a bit on her feet and after taking a few steps she loses her balance- luckily I react fast enough and run towards her, grabbing both of her shoulders before she slams face first into the sand.

"Jeez! You Alright?" I ask once again, but now that I think about it that probably wasn't the best move.

"Shut up already! Honestly, even King Metallica probably has a bigger pair of balls than you do!" Karia snaps as she rips my arms from her shoulders and pushes herself up with her own arms, luckily actually being able to stand up on her own for once.

"Don't get so pissy I'm just being nice! And look where being brave always gets you, dumbass!" I yell back at her with reason- and to defend my own insecurities.

"Hey, hey, hey! Pals aren't meant to fight each other! If you waste all of your roaring, restless, awesome fighting spirit on each other, than what are you gonna unleash on the real baddies?!" King Metallica intervenes as he awkwardly walks in between us with difficulty as Abigail is still sobbing into his robe.

"..." I'm about to retort back to him as Karia is completely in the wrong, but I realize that making a scene like this right now is definitely selfish.

"...Whatever." Karia says as she shakes her head, dusting off her shirt as she proceeds to cross her arms to look tough. Although like Virile said, I'm starting to realize it could very well be an act.

"I-I-I-I-I'm so sorry, because of what I s-said Virile hurt you guys, physically and emotionally! Please, d-d-don't fight, I'm begging you!" Abigail manages to say through her sobs, looking at us as tears pour from her eyes like a faucet while blowing her nose into King Metallica's red robe, as he continues to pat her back- less awkwardly now at least.

"It's alright, really! This isn't your fault at all, Karia's the one who picked a fight with Virile in the first place, so please don't feel guilty." I try to cheer her up, as we still need her to guide us around the island. And because of my good conscience, of course.

"N-no... it's all my fault! So please, at least let me treat both of your types of wounds!" She says as she finally let's go of King Metallica's robe, in which she starts running over to me, stumbling through the sand.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I ask worryingly as she's not stopping, and soon after she launches herself onto me, wrapping herself around me in a soft bear hug and almost taking me down to the ground as her large chest squishes my own.

"..." I don't respond but start to blush, I don't move either, as even though her tears are drenching my shirt I would be lying if I said this wasn't nice.

"You too!" Abigail says as she finishes her attack with a pat to my head, jumping up and running towards a stern faced Karia, who simply steps backwards like the monster she is, avoiding the charging hug and causing Abigail to fall over into the sand.

A/N: The action returns with the manly but despicable mayor of Birzion, Virile Noble, who even gives Karia a run for her money?! Just who is this man?!

I hope you consider voting or commenting if you enjoyed, and see you guys next week!