Far to the north in the Snow Owl tavern, a dim yellow light lit up the common room as well as the usual small groups of demigods that sat at the tables all day and drank away their gold. Today they seemed more agitated than normal.
Jas wiped a clean mug for the hundredth time while he watched the small groups quietly whispering to those at their table ignoring everyone else at the other tables.
He was only able to hear a few snippets from each of the groups as he put more fuel on the tavern’s central firepit. From what he did hear, it seemed like each group was talking about the same new ‘mission’ they had all been tasked to complete.
Bam!
The tavern door was kicked open with such force that one of the worn hinges broke when the door slammed into the wall. Now it hung crookedly against the wall still attached to the door frame.
“What is the meaning of this? Are you going to pay for breaking my door?” asked an angered Jas.
A group of ten demigods fully armored entered the tavern along with the cold wind, they each had their hands on their weapons as they looked at each group of demigods sitting at the various tables.
The ten demigods ignored the angry Jas and continued to scan the tavern room that was now losing its warmth.
A male demigod with a large two-handed sword on his back stepped forward one step from the open entrance.
“A new decree has been issued by the [Demon Hunters] clan leader. Anyone that is not a part of the [Demon Hunters] must leave Froit TODAY. If you wish to leave your guild and join the [Demon Hunters], now is your only chance. If you do, you will be allowed to join as a probationary member,” said the man.
“What nonsense are you talking about?” shouted a similarly large demigod male who wore beast fur armor.
“This is our base of operations! Why do we have to leave?” asked a female with a bow.
“We have been paying you hundreds of gold each month for our guild to be able to live here! That doesn’t even include the cost of food and other things we spend our meager gold on. Are you trying to start something with us?”
“We don’t make the rules. We are just enforcing them. If you have a problem with it, take it up with the guild leader later. Right now you are trespassing on the [Demon Hunters] property!”
“I’m not leaving,” said a knight standing up.
The rest of the demigods from each of the small groups all stood up as well.
“Are you refusing to leave?” asked the two-handed swordsman, his hand reaching for his weapon.
“Yes, we are,” said the knight, also reaching for his shield and short sword.
In an instant, the demigods from both sides grabbed their weapons and readied themselves for a fight.
“Wait! Wait! Just wait for a second! You guys need to take this discussion outside!” shouted Jas.
He had already experienced several drunk brawls between a few demigods and it resulted in much damage that he had to pay a large amount of gold to repair.
Although the demigods from the demon hunter guild were outnumbered, their equipment was several degrees better than the others that stood before them.
“You were given the option to leave peacefully. Now each of you will be put on the permanent ban list. You are not allowed to come near Froit ever again. If we see you here we will kill you again.”
“Let’s see you try!”
“You guys stop!” shouted Jas as he crouched down and peered over the counter at the two opposing sides.
A multitude of colorful sword slashes, arrows, wind blades, fire, and ice balls flew through the air as an all-out battle between the demigods started without any command.
The two-handed swordsman that had led the talks was targeted by several of the demigods in their rage. Even though he had some nice shiny-looking armor it quickly became tattered as he charged forward swinging his two-handed sword separating opposing demigods into two halves.
He only lasted a few seconds more before succumbing to the concentrated attacks.
Jas dived to the ground covering his head with his hands as the skill attacks started to fly everywhere, some even carving large chunks off of the bar just above him.
The sound of battle lasted for over ten minutes as skills flew through the air. Every minute or so several curses and cries of pain rang out before a demigod disappeared.
Jas continued to hug the ground even though the sound of battle had stopped for over a minute.
He did not dare to raise his head for fear of getting mistaken as a rebel demigod and getting attacked.
“Jas! I have returned to give you a few coins like I said I would! I made a killing this time selling my stuff to those new people. They were real push… overs?”
Burkin stopped just inside the doorway of the snow owl as he looked around.
“What the hell happened here?”
The entire tavern was filled with holes in the floor, walls, and ceiling. The tables, chairs, and benches were all split apart or shattered into wood splinters littering the floor.
The only people he saw were two people bent over huffing and puffing as if they had just run a marathon. Their bodies were full of severe wounds and one of them was missing an arm.
The two demigods stood up and turned to look at Burkin as they pulled out deep red potion bottles from thin air and began chugging them down.
The wounds immediately stopped bleeding and started to heal. It was now that Burkin realized that they were Demigods.
“Jas?” asked Burkin, now a bit nervous about the current situation. He didn’t dare enter the tavern but he also could not run away as he was being watched like a hawk by the two demigods as they recovered.
Jas gathered his courage and peeked over the now ruined bar counter and saw the short and stout Burkin standing in the doorway.
“Ah… it’s you Burkin. Unfortunately, you have come at a bad time,” said Jas, still hiding behind the counter.
“Who are they?” asked Burkin, pointing at the two demigods that looked ready to do something.
“Whoa! You guys, Burkin is a traveling trader friend of mine. He has nothing to do with the other demigods so you need not worry about him,” said Jas, standing up to get the demigods’ attention.
The two demigods turned their gaze from Burkin towards Jas.
“We have come to take you to Commander Fella. She has a great offer for you. I suggest you come with us and talk to her,” said the female demigod wearing tattered robes and leaning on a wooden staff.
The arm that the male demigod had lost was already slowly growing back. It was a sickly sight watching the small baby-sized hand sprout from the bloody wound and start growing in size and length.
“Hey! If you’re talking about some type of business deal, you need to talk to me, since I represent Jas and the Snow owl in such matters!” said Burkin, regaining some of his normal spunk.
“Burkin, it’s fine…”
“Nope! How can I let you talk to them alone? Knowing you, you’ll get walked all over in the negotiations!”
“We don’t even know what they want.”
“All the more reason for me to be your main negotiator!” said Burkin.
“Hey, dwarf shut it. You need to leave Froit now. You’re lucky Fella allowed you to sell your stuff here. If you keep bothering us, don’t blame me for not being nice,” said the male demigod.
“Wait! I’ll come with you guys, but as Burkin said, he represents me in any negotiations that we may need to hash out,” said Jas.
The two exhausted demigods glared at Burkin for several seconds before lowering their weapons.
“Hurry up. Commander Fella is a busy person so we can not make her wait,” said the female demigod.
Jas walked to the door and joined the dwarf Burkin.
“What’s going on?” asked Burkin in a whisper.
“I’m not completely sure but something big has stirred up the demigods to start infighting and…”
“Stop lollygagging and start walking to the lord’s mansion,” growled the angry female demigod interrupting Jas.
