Ceph, as experienced as she is with my presence, snaps out of her frozen state first. Not long after the natural laws do so themselves. Her two opponents eyes flicker to her, then to me, but they can manage nothing but a few brief twitches.

The dohrni, without any hesitance besides a glance my way, extracts herself from the now muddied gravel road, and leaps for the two incapacitated enemies. A knife in each tentacle, racing towards their throats.

I didn't command them to stop for one side to freely execute the other.

Ceph is quick, but I am quicker. Through a bend in space, I slide into her path, curl around her body, and jerk her away from the vulnerable albanics before any of her weapons can pierce the fragile skin. For a moment, she fights against me. She tries to fight me off to reach her targets, even stabbing her blade down on my side, only for it to slide off the hard scales with a clatter.

As soon as she realises what she's done, she freezes even without my presence. Her body goes limp in my grasp and she lets go of her knives. Ceph tries to speak, but can manage no words.

Obvious regret and panic wash over her, but I pay it no mind. Taking any predator from their prey inevitably brings out an instinctual rage and frustration that I doubt even I could stifle. Besides, when I cast a glance over my scales, she hadn't even left a scratch.

Didn't stop Ceph from panicking… again. We really need to work on that.

Extracting my guide from my coiled length — and ignoring the stammered apologies — I turn to the ambushers. The two strongest are now casting off their lingering stiffness. They glance between each other, clearly doing that strange, wordless communication that some sapients can do that I still haven't figured out. Is it some kind of mind reading? Or are they communicating through body language? I've made massive bounds in that sort of reading, but I know I'm still an amateur.

Not wanting to give them the perception that I am an equal — as I have with the other sapients I've met so far — I've already begun shifting sizes. Instead of a serpent as thick as their legs and can hold itself only as tall as their head, my torso is comparable to their own, but ten times as long. I loom over them.

If their hesitant stance and worried glances up at me are anything to go off, I give off the intended effect. They look like they're ready to flee at any moment. Despite knowingly having them ready to flee, I can't allow them to. They have to answer some questions.

I expected to have to stop them from running away, but I didn't block off their path; cornered creatures tend to be more aggressive, and I want to talk. As I loom close, I wait for them to run, so that I can stop them, while also making it clear I don't intend to harm them. A bend for each of their legs should do.

Instead, they attack.

By all means they should take their chances and flee. There's nothing here they need to protect, nor do they have any reason to hate me beyond reason, so even emotionally, they have no reason to strike me. Especially considering they felt my presence only moments ago. But they do anyway.

The man steps to one side, threatening me with his spear. I turn my head to watch him, and in that moment, the woman skips in to my other side and throws her entire strength into her axe. The sharp, weighted head comes down just behind my eyes.

Her weapon breaks.

Glancing at the back of my head where the sharp lump of metal crashed, I find the scales just as untouched as Ceph's strike before. I could have moved out of the way, but I figured it would be worth testing my growth since the first time I'd breached the surface.

Back then, similarly strong warrior caste had broken my scales with their weapons while I was at roughly the same size. Now, I barely even feel it. Good to know that growing larger continues to strengthen the scales of my smaller forms.

The woman stares wide eyed and gaping at the splintered remnants of the metal pole in her hands. I guess the weapon couldn't handle her strength? But her partner is bound by no such shock. He grabs her by the elbow and pulls her into a sprint after him.

"Fire," he shouts, but I note that he does not run towards the other — weaker — gunmen in the trees. He flees down the road, away from them. Only a few of the dozens in the trees have freed themselves from the binding terror. And only two of them do as he commands, and shoot.

The little bits of metal patter against my side like flies. They either ricochet out into the woods, or crash hard enough into my scales that they flatten and fall still in the wet gravel beneath me. I send a glance the way of the gunmen, and that alone is enough to send their entire retinue running. No more bullets strike my scales.

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I ignore them. Rather, I turn my attention back to the two, far stronger warriors. They were already out of direct sight and running through the forest, showing no sign of returning to their kin. Considering their failed attack, he should have known how pointless those little pellet throwers were against my scales. I mean, even the shots those two took left little more than bruises. They should have known it was pointless.

Really, the only answer I can think of as to why, goes entirely against what I've seen from sapients so far.

Sure I've already known there are differing factions between the sapients, and they fight for territory and resources the same way ants do, but this isn't one colony battling another. This is sacrificing their kin to save themselves.

It goes against my initial plan to stop them before they can make two steps away, but I let them continue their flight. I can have my questions answered later. Right now, I want to see whether they return to help the gunmen they left behind. I'm doubt this will be helpful for learning how to take on stronger creatures, as was my original intent, but the very nature of sapients seems to always shift when I think I've finally got a good grasp on how they act.

I may not move, but that doesn't mean I'm not following all those who fled. Creating chains of bends is hardly even a challenge anymore.

But Ceph doesn't know that. Even while I watch the gunmen flee a hundreds of metres while the duo run kilometres, the dohrni behind me grows agitated. Her large eyes follow the last of those that disappear through the trees, then flicker to the dead around us, and finally to me.

"Why did you let them go?" she tries her hardest to keep emotion out of her voice, but can't help the accusatory tone.

"I haven't," I say, keeping my eyes peeled through a series of distortions. The fact that I didn't fight seems to have unsettled Ceph. I might have questioned it, if not for how every little thing seems to perturb her.

The remaining sapients in and around the large trucks now murmur amongst themselves. I'd be fine with it, if not for their combined chatter as they look upon me growing loud enough to drown out the words exchanged between the main two targets of my observation.

I slide through a bend and away from the clamour just in time to overhear their conversation while in mid sprint.

"-was that? A portian? Has one of their kind ever reached elite status? Didn't we have intel on all their Inner Circle?"

The woman, no longer needing to be tugged along, hasn't been able to pull her eyes away from her hands which shiver involuntarily. "It's scales were harder than diamond. Harder than ranked stone. You felt that presence, right?" the shiver spread visibly up her arms and down her spine. "That thing is in a league of its own. I don't even know if the Empress or Emperor's guard will be enough. We need to return. This takes precedent over all other objectives."

"And just leave the insurgency? After all this effort? We should at least rile up the rest so they don't simply disintegrate with us gone."

The woman finally drops her hands, clenching them against her side. "We can't risk it. However they helped a portian to infect a beast that powerful, I doubt they're bringing it through this backwater for nothing. That dohrni… I can't remember her name, but she was in the briefing; one of the Beiths that hasn't been seen on the front line, nor stationed in any rear-line position we had intel. There were questions about what she was up to, and now we know. If I had to guess, its here to clean up the rear before charging into the war."

"So… no encouraging the locals for one last suicidal rush?"

Her glare shut him up.

Their conversation leaves me with more questions than answers, but what I can piece together makes some of the things Pallen had said suddenly become much clearer. There is a large battle occurring somewhere towards where the sun rises. That's why there has been so much talk about the cities not having many people, and buildings lying vacant. It's a little surprising that they've been gone without a victor decided in all the time since I've been here. These sapients aren't exactly turtles: any fight they'd find themselves in would end — regardless of victor — within a day.

Ceph, and most of the people around her, have done much to keep this from me. Why? I ponder it for a few moments before I come along what is the most likely answer: they want to show me the best of their nation. Not the worst. Instead of death and depression akin to what I experienced with Scia, she wanted to show me how their species live in harmony together.

How kind.

Ceph could have easily taken me to their 'war', and used me as a shield, or simply have my presence scare off their opponents. I could have interfered with their battle, but Ceph didn't want that. She doesn't want that. She truly does just want to show me the best their people have to offer.

As much as I'm interested in heading to this war to watch how they fight, or even participating to see how they try to overcome an overwhelming force, Ceph has put in a lot of effort so that I see the best, most optimistic outlook on sapients as a whole. It would be rude of me to ignore that wish, and head into their war, when she clearly doesn't want me to.

I turn my mind back to the fleeing duo. Regardless of war, their conversation still doesn't answer why they ambushed a group this far from the fight. What could they gain by attacking the weaker people here, if all the stronger fighters are elsewhere? The obvious answer is the slaughter of the people that are defenceless… but there are so many, how could they kill them all just with ambushes like this? On top of that, why did they call their warriors 'locals'? Why would individuals of the colony help enemies?

Bends appear beneath their feet, and instantly, the two are stuck. Their cries of shock carry through the forest, changing to confusion and fear as they find it difficult to pull themselves out. Also, I've learnt that to sapients, suddenly seeing their limbs where they shouldn't be is incredibly disorienting. Just another reason why limblessness is better.

Time I brought them back. While I still want to question them, I'm sure Ceph would not pass up the opportunity to do the same. Or more. For her good intent, I can gift her this much.

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