The bike screeched its brakes. Terra threw her leg on the ground to support the bike. Diato thrust his palms on the hot seat and jumped off. Terra kicked the side stand down, pulled out the key, and swung her leg across the seat. Diato took a deep, warm breath before stepping forward near Terra.

"So this is the Bounty Market, eh?" he spoke without looking at her. His eyes were locked on the entrance.

The entrance seemed like it was ripped from a cheesy cowboy movie from the nineties. It was an odd place compared to the rest of Shenezwa. Diato stepped forward and entered the market, Terra catching up close behind. They glanced around, their gazes dancing around the stalls, jumping from head to head. Although Terra searched intently for someone, Diato stared at people with an unnerving intensity.

Terra shoved her hand into the pocket of her overcoat and pulled out black sunglasses. Diato looked over the stalls as the sun rose, its soft glow illuminating the clouds before finally peeking into the sky. The rusty, worn-out wooden stalls decorated with jute cloths and the sand beneath their legs, along with the bobbing heads of the crowd, were slowly illuminated by the morning sun's glow.

"What exactly are these vendors selling?" Diato asked. "It's not like anyone's gonna buy their legal fruits and vegetables."

"I know," Terra explained. "It's just their cover. Let me show you what they're actually selling."

She moved to her side, near a random stall. Diato followed her, curious to see what these vendors were up to. She approached a vendor and slammed her claw on the stall's wooden pillar, catching the vendor's attention. The vendor, wearing a brown dress and a brown turban, wiggled his eyebrows.

"I want something strong," she spoke, leaning against the stall. There was something in her voice that Diato had never seen before. The amount of arrogance she carried was enough to annoy the entire market.

The vendor didn't reply, at least not with words. He just continued to stare at her. After a short pause, he moved his gaze down to her waist and back up. He tapped his chest with his widely opened claw twice, then threw his hand back. A slight smirk hung on the vendor's face as Terra spoke.

"Never mind," she rolled her eyes as she walked away with Diato.

"What the heck was that?" Diato spoke, confusion dancing on his shoulders.

"So basically, I asked him if he had any strong drugs," she explained, her eyes still scanning above the bobbing heads, trying to find someone. "He agreed, but he didn't want money as payment."

"So, what else did he want?" Diato asked, unsure where to look, so he just glanced around, acting like he was also looking for someone.

"He wanted me to take off my clothes, which of course I wouldn't do," she continued. "Matter of fact, he probably knew I wouldn't, and that's exactly why he asked, so he wouldn't have to give me any of his drugs."

"But why would he do that?"

"Perhaps he knew I was undercover," she explained further. "Because ladies don't usually roam around places like these. But I tried my best to look like I did."

Diato nodded in reply. She walked deeper into the crowd, with Diato following her like an obedient child. Chills ran down Diato's spine as he looked around more closely. He could sense dragons. More than half of these people were dragons, including the vendor that Terra had just spoken to. He couldn't figure out how he was doing that, but somehow, he was. Perhaps being a dragon allowed him to sense other dragons. He got behind Terra and found himself at another stall.

This one said "Con - Kill Nuggets." Although it was a chicken shop, the vendor sold live hens. Terra knew that this stall was a front for contract killing. She again slammed her fist against the side of the stall and spoke with the same arrogance as before.

"I wanna find Shez."

The vendor swallowed something he was eating and said, "Go straight ahead. There's the exit. Shez doesn't waste time on bastards like you."

Diato turned to him, his eyes sending aggressive chills down the vendor's spine.

"What are you looking at, motherfucking dickhead?" the vendor spoke, his words laced with venom.

Diato grabbed the back of her collar, pulling her away from the vendor. He lunged at the stall with all his might.

"Diato, No!" Terra exclaimed, reaching out to grab him, but it was too late.

Diato had already demolished the stall and was now on top of the vendor. His eyes were glowing pink, his canines and nails pointed. He scratched the vendor's face, leaving four angry red marks on his cheeks.

The vendor retaliated, pulling out a sickle and throwing it at Diato's neck. The sickle pierced through his neck, the blade emerging from his throat on the other side. Little did the vendor know, this wasn't enough to kill Diato. He was a dragon now, and it required a special metal to slay them. Diato roared in pain and fury, throwing his claws at the vendor's eyes, grabbing hold of the eyeballs.

A demonic smile spread across his face as the vendor screamed in agony. Diato ripped the eyeballs out of the vendor's skull and threw them at the crowd gathering behind him. The vendor's screams attracted a growing crowd around the broken remains of the "Con - Kill Nuggets" stall. The sign, now in pieces, scattered the letters across the ground. The once clear message was now a broken phrase: "Kill Nigges."

Pushing through the horrified crowd emerged a cloaked figure. He stood at least seven feet tall, his face shrouded in black cloth that seemed to be connected to his collar. He approached the scene, the crowd parting before him. Now he stood at the empty space between the crowd and the stall, where Diato was currently dismantling the vendor's face like a gruesome puzzle.

The cloaked figure grabbed Diato from behind and threw him on the ground with a force Diato had never experienced. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he looked up at the figure.

"Greetings, mortal," the figure spoke in a deep voice. "You don't know what you've done, you pesky little Inferno!"

He lunged to grab Diato's collar again, but Terra intervened.

"Shez, please no," she pleaded, standing right in front of him, her hands spread wide like a scarecrow.

"Shez?" Diato spoke in confusion, his eyes returning to normal as did his teeth and nails. "Oh, I love this guy's humor... Oh wait, maybe he's not joking?"

"You will pay for this!" Shez roared as he stormed around Terra, raising his leg for a kick. Diato, however, wasn't about to go down without a fight. He grabbed Shez's leg and lifted his own in a desperate attempt to block the blow. He managed to connect with Shez's groin, but not with the precision he'd hoped. Despite the glancing blow, it sent Shez staggering back.

Diato scrambled to his feet, mentally preparing for another fight.

"We were looking for you, Shez," Terra said, trying to de-escalate the situation. "Diato wanted your help."

"If it were for you, Terra, I'd slightly consider it," Shez growled. "But not for this motherfucker."

"Oh boy, here we go," Diato muttered, a wide grin spreading across his face.

"How does he know my name?" Terra thought frantically.

Diato lunged at Shez again, transforming back into his dragon form. His nails and teeth sharpened, his eyes glowing a menacing pink. Diato almost landed a scratch on Shez, but the cloaked figure was surprisingly agile for his size. He caught Diato's attack, grabbing him by the neck and holding him at arm's length.

"Give up, Diato" Shez spoke, as he saw the crowd fading away. The crowd knew Diato was done for. And they showed no interest in seeing Diato's death. "It's not worth it. You're too sensitive."

"Ahh" Terra spoke, "There goes the gaslighting. As far as I've read and heard, Shez is quite the gaslighter."

Diato flapped his claws on that guy's forearm, but je couldn't deal any damage. He knew it was over for him. If this guy was shez, he wasn't coming to Dragonspines, and Diato wasn't gonna get his answers.

Terra grabbed the collars of her overcoat and pulled it backwards over her shoulder. She pulled out her arms and held the coat's sleeve. She charged up at Shez, her hand ready to throw the coat at Shez's face. She was going to do it, she was going to cover Shez's face with her coat and bring him to the ground. But little did she know, Shez wasn't an average Dragon.

Shez was a skilled master of Warcraft and an experienced mage in dragon magic, also referred to as Brute Magic. Shez threw his other arm and grabbed her coat. She, however, didn't lose her grip and hung on the coat as if she were a bat hanging on a stem. Shez sprung his hand and threw her at a stall.

She struck against the stall, and realised she actually hit a pillar, fixated on the ground, beside the stall she was thrown at. Her back ached against the pillar, as she fell down on the ground, her legs spread across the dirt, as if she were an injured soldier who was waiting to be healed.

Shez's gaze slipped to Diato, who wasn't in his grasp anymore. He turned around, trying to find him. It was then, that he realised that Diato was behind him. He heard Diato scream,

"Hail Lord Naruto!" Diato screamed as he joined his palms, his fingers interlocked, with his index and middle finger pointing outward, creating a ninjutsu gesture. "Thousand years of death!"

Diato pushed his fingers above himself. He was sitting on his knees behind Shez's feet. Before Shez could even move, he felt something penetrating his butt. Diato pushed his fingers, straight into the lean asshole of Shez. But, unlike what Diato expected, Shez didn't get launched in the sky, grabbing his buttcheeks. Instead, he simply turned around in a fluid movement.

"Was that not deep enough for you?" Diato asked Shez loudly. "Welp, I guess my fingers are too short to launch you in the air while you grab your butt cheeks in pain.", He spoke at a speed at which it was almost impossible to understand what he just said.

What Diato didn't notice was the punch that came with Shez's fluid motion. Shez's knuckles struck Diato on his cheeks. It felt like the whole universe collapsed between Shez's hand and his cheek. The punch was so powerful, Diato found himself on the ground, unconscious, knocked out.

Shez turned his neck towards Terra, who was now standing in front of him. One of her arm was rested on the hilt of her pistol at her belt, and her other hand was showing Shez her palm, gesturing stop.

"We are not your enemies!" She spoke with the same authority, "We are here to propose an offer."