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"Get to the point, quick one," Momma Menn demands. "You didn't come here to just spout history at us. What do you want?"

"Fair enough," the other Kinal shrugs. "I'm here to take his measure," he points at Nathanriel. "Come, let us go to my camp."

Momma Menn doesn't even stop to consider the opinions of the others but immediately starts to follow him, trying to put on speed to at least press him a little bit. But he doesn't seem the slightest bit concerned by the speed and maintains the exact same distance ahead of Momma Menn. With nothing else to do the others huddle up somewhat to try and figure out what all to do.

"So who is that guy?" Angylia asks quietly.

"I don't know," Kresta answers. "I do know he could probably kill all of us without even lifting a finger if he felt so inclined. Based on that sword at his side I'd be tempted to think he might be White Fox, the leader of a bunch of Kinal that have been going on a campaign against anything associated with the Merchant's Guild."

"White Fox?" Bob asks, more to make sure he didn't mishear it.

"It's a draconic name," Angylia says, "or at least a translation of one. During the Great War it was common for their species to be rescued and raised by dragons and given a draconic name. Some keep to the original draconic language, some just translate it over and all of them are extremely plain like that. Dragons weren't known for their creative names. What I really want to know is why is he here and what does he want with Nathanriel?"

"Beats me," Nathanriel shrugs. "If he's as strong as you say he is, then I imagine he's here to support those other two. It'd seem extremely odd if you had three incredibly strong people of the same race just happen to be in the same place with nothing to do with each other."

"I suppose that makes sense," Claden says, actually being rather conservative about his outburst and actions once learning of their guest's potential identity. "From a tactical point of view, if you know that your enemy will try and set a trap, the best way to go about it if you have the necessary resources is to go about rendering it null. They see the two, set up a blockade designed to handle the two, however powerful they may be, then attack with an army to the side. Won't necessarily completely destroy it but should allow for the trap to be rendered useless."

"We're here," White Fox says up ahead, drawing everyone's attention.

Mamma Menn slows to a stop to let everyone off, but doesn't unsummon herself, knowing that there's still quite a ways to go yet on their journey to Xinth and it'd just drain Bob more to go away now. What is before them seems less like a base of operations as it is a group of people who just happened to decide to set up camp somewhere. There are tents here and there and a few campfires. On top of that there is a bunch of gear that's all been sort of dumped all in one location with one person looking after them all. Claden stares around and observes from a more tactical standpoint while Kresta chooses instead to head straight over to one of the camp fires to see what all is being cooked and if they are to be allowed any of the food before they are sent on their way. The kinal that lead them here moves forward and gestures at Nathanriel.

"Come, let us see how capable you currently are," he says as he closes the distance once they've gotten into a fairly open area. Nathanriel starts to move to grab at his sword but the other kinal closes the distance a bit too fast for him, holding one hand on his sword hand and the other touching at his forehead. The Voice urges Nathanriel to stay perfectly still and he obeys for the moment. The kinal stares at him with an intensity he had never really seen before, the finger on his head almost feeling like it's driving into his skull. Finally, when his eyes move to blink he finds that the other kinal is now a good ten paces away from him. "Now draw your sword and show me your limits."

Nathanriel draws the sword and begins to charge, not entirely sure why he's not even hesitating. While he's charging a practice sword flies through the air to land in the other kinal's hand. They then proceed to casually block Nathanriel's attack and then returns with a very slow and sloppy looking attack. And they begin to fight in this manner, though Nathanriel is definitely confused as to how things are going. Given how fast the other has been shown to be and how much respect Kresta and the others seem to show him it's surprising how poor the other's fighting skills are. As well as not really understanding why he is fighting all out as he is. But as the fight continues he begins to understand. With each strike the other kinal's attacks are moving just slightly faster, slightly more precise. And Nathanriel is matching each attack with full intensity. He guesses that the other is simply testing him and that finger instilled a sort of hypnotic spell to make him fight all out. A clever tactic to be fair.

Naturally some of the others in the area move over to watch the interchange, though it was probably not all that hard to tell who would eventually win. Eventually Nathanriel starts finding it harder and harder to keep up and once it becomes clear that he simply cannot match the skill the other kinal is showing they snap their fingers and the compulsion to fight is immediately eliminated.

"Disappointing," the other Kinal shrugs. "And annoying. You're an elite demon. You should be fighting like one. I did not even sense the slightest impulse to use magic against me."

"I've never really learned how to use magic all that much," Nathanriel admits.

"That I would find impossible to believe," the other Kinal says, "unless."

The other kinal walks forward purposefully, throwing his sword at one of the others in a way that would make it easy to be caught. He walks right up to Nathanriel then sniffs a few times at him. His eyes narrowing down to nearly horizontal slits he half growls and suddenly the bottle of Anrisil that was in Nathanriel's pocket is suddenly in the other's hands. The other kinal then proceeds to smash the bottle onto the ground and stamps on it with one of his feet.

"Hey!" Nathanriel complains.

"This is the tool of the weak to subjugate the strong. You don't need it," he says.

"But what about the withdrawal symptoms?"

The other kinal looks unconcerned and then raises a hand and a burnstone appears into it. He then hands it over. "When you feel the buildup, melt this stone."

"But that's a burnstone, those are specifically designed to be completely impervious to flame," Nathanriel complains.

The other kinal rolls his eyes and then another comes flying into his other hand. He then focuses on it and the stone begins to glow brighter and brighter. The air around the stone begins to become wavy as the heat of his magic is affecting the air. Eventually past the point where the stone has turned white it seems to start to look like it's softening and then starts to melt in his hand. He holds his hand out such that it won't land on his clothes and then simply lets the oozing mixture land on the grass below, the ground instantly starting to catch fire. The kinal steps over it while another immediately runs over and starts casting ice magic to try and cool it down again.

"Learn," he shoves the stone into Nathanriel's chest, almost pushing him back a step. He then goes over to Bob. "You two," he points at both Bob and Kresta, "you two are proper demons. Teach him how to use his magic and protect himself."

"But I'm not a demon. I'm a human under a curse," Bob corrects.

White Fox glances over to where Momma Menn is still watching the camp with passive indifference. "Right. Anyway, it's the job of you two to get him to be at least on the level of a proper demon again."

"So I have to ask," Claden speaks up, forcing the white kinal to stare down him a bit.

"What is it, apprentice demon hunter?" He asks before opening up his hand and a small green ball forms into his hand and shoots off into the distance.

"Are you here to assist the other two? To attack the blockade set up to trap the other two?"

The kinal laughs. "As if those two would ever need my help to escape any sort of silly trap those two could come up with. No, they'll walk into that trap because that is what they chose to do. If anything, the two of them are here to assist us."

"I don't understand."

"They're drawing the Merchant's Guild's focus. Meaning their defenses on their Anrisil factory will be far more lax than otherwise."

"You're after the Anrisil?" Nathanriel asks.

"Yes," White Fox says casually. "Anrisil was a drug designed by a demon with good intentions, designed it as a temporary medicine for demons to control their magic when a malady or curse is affecting them. But the Merchant's Guild has gotten a hold of the drug and are promoting it as a long-term alternative to a demon learning how to control their own power. It's a drug being used by the weak and manipulative to control the strong. If they have their way in a hundred years or so all knowledge about how to control their own magic will be suppressed to the general public, and just about every demon on the planet would require Anrisil to function. At which point every demon on the continent is effectively a slave to the Merchant's Guild. So for the sake of all demonkind we're going to go and destroy every plant of Anrisil we can find. Won't absolutely solve the issue, but I find the notion of forcing demons to learn how to be demons is far more preferable, regardless of collateral, than letting every single Demon become a slave to the Merchant's Guild until we are either wiped out or neutered to the extent of being no better than Lesser Demons."

"So now what?" Bob asks. "Are we to be taken prisoner while you go after the factory?"

"Nope," one of the others says as they toss White Fox a canteen of water. "You lot are free to go."

"Wait, really?" Claden asks, completely confused.

"I wanted to take your measure, and I have. You pose no threat to us as you lot are now and have a long way to go before you can do what Fate wills of you. So off you go. We likely won't be meeting ever again."

The group seem to be somewhat confused and even somewhat reluctant to head back towards Momma Menn in case it's a trap. White Fox sighs and then with a flick of his wrist all of them are lifted up in the air and moved through the air before being deposited onto Momma Menn's back. Seeing it as enough of an invitation to keep moving, she doesn't wait for permission, but rather immediately starts heading off towards their original destination. After waiting a few minutes to make sure they're out of ear shot Claden speaks up.

"So what was that all about?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," Angylia says. "That he went after Nathanriel, it's quite possible that with Nathanriel being a child of Fate that he already knows a bit about what we're supposed to do, but I would find that rather impressive, considering. Since most of Fate's children don't have long written prophecies over them and if he was strong enough to see the paths of things he would be almost on Seraph's level."

"Don't think too much on it from him," Momma Menn speaks up. "Of their little group, he's not the schemer. He's the diligent little soldier. He's a capable leader, and is more than willing to deal with the other races. And of course I am loathe to admit one of the best fighters on the continent. But he is not a schemer. He leaves that to that other one. She does all the thinking for their little group. The other two just happen to always tag along and become stronger for the effort. So the only reason he grabbed you was because she took an interest in you. So either he wanted to see what she saw in you or was trying to navigate us all around some form of trap that would likely have gotten you all killed. Beyond that he had no further plans with you all unless she told him to do so."