KINETIC

Clay's duty in the war is to direct the Royal Army operations around Drom, a difficult job for someone so young but one that he proved to be skilled at.

Drom had been designated as the kingdoms primary refugee camp. Whenever a civilian lost their town or village because of the war they would be sent to Drom.

Drom was chosen for this due to its population decrease after the monster horde attacked the city.

With Drom being the place all the injured civilians would end up, Rene was also within the city. Her duty was to direct the healers and other supporters in assisting the civilians in whatever way they could.

Being in these important roles, the two of them frequently met to keep each other up to date with relevant information regarding their duties.

These frequent meetings became a daily occurrence after some time had passed and they found themselves meeting whether they had information to share or not.

They were currently walking in the streets together, heading towards a local restaurant for dinner.

"Has anything out of the ordinary happened on your end lately?" Clay asked.

"Nothing that's worth mentioning. I heard from someone that Zoren was being attacked relentlessly, is that true?" Rene asked.

"It was. I was told today that the city has fallen and the Duke is missing. The cult somehow got inside the city, bypassing the walls in the process.

They attacked everyone within and slaughtered the people, eventually taking control of the city. Snythe was supposed to be there when this all happened and nobody has seen him since he left.

Now I'm being told Leo had grown tired of waiting and demanded a mission. The Supreme Commander sent him to Zoren before he knew its fate, meaning Leo is running into a city of cultists and doesn't even realize it." Clay explained.

"I'm sure he'll be alright... He's really strong." Rene replied with a semi confident tone.

"He would be hard to kill, that's for sure..." Clay said, his words trailing off as a strange expression appeared on his face.

Rene noticed the look on his face, it was one he always had when something felt wrong. "What's is it, is something wrong?"

"I don't understand where all these cultists are coming from. They have enough people to match us and we have the entire military as well as the Infernai. Where are they getting so many people that are willing to fight for them?" Clay replied.

Rene didn't reply. She knew that it was a rhetorical question and that Clay was just expressing his thoughts.

"We're running out of people to fight against the cult, especially regarding Infernai. Each time we engage them in combat, they send the human cultists out to fight first.

We usually defeat them but then an Imperium or ability user will show up and attack the squads Infernai. Since they've already used some energy fighting the previous wave of attackers, they can't hold out for as long in the fight and end up losing more often than not.

We almost never see Imperiums or the ability users that fight for the cult. They almost exclusively show up just to kill Infernai. They even ignore the other squad members once they've dealt with the Infernai, it's like they just want to weaken us, not defeat us." Clay continued to pour out his thoughts as they walked.

Eventually the reached their destination and entered the restaurant. Clay had finished unloading his burdens and put on a happier face as a woman approached them.

She was wearing the uniform that the employees would wear but hers had the word 'manager' embroidered on the left chest area.

"Welcome. Would you like your usual spot?" The manager asked with a smile on her face.

"Yes, please." Clay replied.

Clay and Rene would both remove their Infernum jackets and put on different jackets before they went to a restaurant. They had made the mistake of wearing them the first time they went out and it was uncomfortable to say the least.

The staff treated them with forced respect that came across as fear instead. The other patrons stared at them constantly and wouldn't speak unless it was in a whisper. It was just better that they did it this way.

They would bring their Infernum jackets with them but would keep them in a bag where they couldn't be seen.

The manager lead them to a table at the back of the restaurant, it had a 'reserved sign' on the table but she just reached out and removed it.

The two of them sat down and ordered whatever food they each wanted. This was a restaurant they visited everyday at roughly the same time.

The table they were seated at was the one furthest from the other patrons, it's why Clay spent a little extra money to keep the table reserved for this time of night each day.

They spent their time talking about whatever they found interest in and ate their food once it had arrived. The food wasn't anything fancy but it was still really good compared to anything you could experience outside a city.

"While I do think my mother is quite a good cook, this is able to surpass her cooking by a decent amount." Clay said with a guilty tone.

"To be fair, these people do cook for a living. I wonder if we..."

~Boof~

"I'm not gonna pay for this, it's terrible!" Someone shouted from across the room, interrupting Rene.

"If you have a complaint then..."

"Shut up! You knew it was terrible before you brought it out, didn't you!? You shouldn't sell terrible food to people!" The man shouted again, his anger rising.

Clay and Rene, like everyone else, looked towards the commotion and noticed that the man was wearing a military uniform.

There were three other men, all wearing military uniforms, sitting at the same table. Each of the soldiers was snickering as they watched their friend shout at the manager.

"Sir, please lower you voice! You're disturbing the other customers." The manager said in a commanding tone.

"What? I'm... Disturbing them?" He asked with an extremely agitated expression appearing on his face.

~Thwack~

His hand swung up and to the side, slapping the manager across the face and pushing her off her feet.

She fell to the ground and looked up at the soldier who slapped her. She had tears in her eyes as she placed her hand over the red spot on her cheek.

The soldier lifted his hand again and pulled it back with a smile on his face. He swung his arm down with an open hand, aiming for her other cheek.

He was expecting someone to say something but instead he felt his hand get grabbed, his slap stopped halfway through the swing.

"The first slap was already too far, if you continue to behave this way then you're going to regret it for the rest of your life." Clay said as he pushed the soldiers arm away and let go of his wrist.

"What's that supposed to mean!? Are you trying to impress your girlfriend your something...!?" The soldier pointed at Rene.

"Don't try to play hero, just fuck off and let us do what we want. We run this city." One of the soldiers sitting behind the slapper said, a smirk on his face.

"I'm willing to overlook this if you leave now." Clay said, trying to stay calm.

"Fuck you!" The slapper lifted his arm and through a straight punch at Clay's face.

Clay side stepped the punch, grabbed onto the slappers wrist with one of his hands and attacked his elbow joint with the other, resulting in a loud snapping sound reverberating through the room.

"Aarrggg! My arm! FUUUCKKK!" The slapper screamed in pain as he stared at his arm that was now bent the wrong way.

The other three soldiers all got up from the table ready for a fight. One of the picked up a chair and swung it.

Clay lifted his arm in a defensive manner, allowing the chair to hit him. As the wood made contact with his arm, it smashed into several pieces, leaving Clay unharmed.

One of the other soldiers picked up a knife from his table and trusted toward Clay's stomach as the chair was hitting his arm.

The knife was only a few centimeters away from his stomach when Clay grabbed onto the soldiers arm, twisted it and forced the knife into the soldiers own shoulder.

The one who had attacked with chair backed away with fear in his eyes. The third soldier, who hadn't done anything till this point, pulled out a shortsword that he was carrying on his belt.

He ran at Clay and took three swings, diagonal, horizontal and then diagonal again. Each one was dodged without issue and Clay grabbed onto the wrist holding the sword.

That's when his body started to grow. He doubled in size, in every way, and loomed over the soldiers. Two of them were on the floor, one with a broken arm and the other with a knife in the shoulder.

The one who had attacked with a chair turned around and ran out the restaurant. Clays hand had grown big enough to completely cover the soldiers hand and wrist.

As he began squeezing, popping and crunching sounds were heard, as well as screams of pain. The sword fell to the ground, clattering against the wooden floor.

Clay didn't stop even though the soldier no longer held a weapon. He continued to squeeze, completely crushing the soldiers hand, wrist and some of his forearm.

Once he was satisfied with the damage inflicted, Clay released the man and watched him fall to the floor screaming from the pain and gripping his arm.

The slapper, looking up at Clay, managed to say something while fighting through the pain his broken arm was inflicting.

"He's probably...getting our Captain...you're fucked now!"

Clay looked down at the slapper, an intense anger inside of him.

"You're welcome to believe that."

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