I know it's been a while, sorry.

"We can take care of itses!" The masked man exclaimed. Lex glanced at Renning unconvincingly, who returned his gaze with a raised eyebrow and a smirk before returning to Legion.

"In that case, I will leave the both of you to it. Commander Anna expects these chores to be complete by sundown, and I would assume it is in your best interest not to face her combined wrath with the summoner's."

"Of course, sir." Lex affirms. Renning took one last look at the two before nodding and leaving the cramped room. The duke of Dozel retook his seat on the wooden bench and began to reinforce the bindings on the armor. Legion was in the corner reorganizing inventory.

The blue-haired man was surprised when Legion was summoned. From what he had heard, Legion was supposed to be just as plentiful as his name suggested, and he expected a violent and uncontrollable beast of an army to invade the Order of Heroes.

Instead, here was an individual masked man who was surprisingly docile and seamlessly carried out the tasks he was given.

"Legion." He called out. The masked man turned his head to him with a 'hm?' This would not be the first time the two of them conversed, but Lex did not make an attempt to dig into Legion as an individual. Despite his "brothers" being nowhere to be found, Legion still went about his day as though he were surrounded by multiple versions of himself.

"How are things? I trust you've figured yourself into integrating into the Order."

The masked man simply shrugged and said. "We are okayses." Then, he returned to his work.

Though Renning's presence made Lex restrain his usually hot temper, there was still something itching at his back that told him he should try and challenge the masked man to a sparring match. They were both axemen, after all. Of course, there was still work to be done. After seeing Commander Anna scold Mae and Boey into repenting their very existences after failing to organize the inventory before a battle, Lex did not want to be next on that list.

Lex carefully replaced and then reinforced the vamplate on a used lance. While doing so, he couldn't help but steal a few glances at the other man in the room with him. Legion had not initiated any conversation since the two of them were called to the convoy. For someone as wild and ferocious as he is on the battlefield, he could be surprisingly dutiful outside of it. Lex always wondered what it must have felt like to be on the receiving end of Legion's blows.

Perhaps asking couldn't hurt.

"Hey, Legion."

"Hmm?" The man responded without turning around to face him, still focused on his work.

"After this, are you up for a sparring match?"

"No."

Lex was surprised by the response. He'd never seen Legion deny anyone ever.

But then, he spoke again. "Legion is busy. Ask us againses after we are finished."

Lex stared at him for a moment. Was this guy even human? What kind of response was that?

Nevertheless, Lex had no choice but to comply. "Um, sure."

The two became quiet again and continued working.

"Lex."

The addressed looked up from the sword he had just finished sharpening.

Legion handed him an axe, a burlap sack covering the head.

"We are finished with inventory, but we have one more weapon we need you to inspectses. This axe has been worn. Used upses. Fight after fight after fight after fight after fight after fight."

Lex merely raised an eyebrow at him before removing the sack. Upon inspecting the weapon, he quickly made a realization.

"Hey." The Duke of Dozel's youngest gave Legion a hard stare. The masked men remained motionless. "This is your axe, isn't it? Why don't you just do it yourself?"

Legion remained silent for a moment. Lex wasn't sure if Legion was thinking of what to say or if he was studying him closely. His eyes did not move. Not a blink.

Finally, he spoke. "Legion agrees to spar with youses. We will go straight to the training groundses and wait for you there. No detours, not distractionses. We will leave the axe with you until you finish."

With that, the masked man simply turned and exited the room, much cleaner and tidier than when he had entered.

"Well, I'm here."

Lex made his presence known, though Legion had already been staring him down the moment he appeared within eyesight. The masked man stood up and tossed him a training axe, which surprised the other man.

Lex dropped the sack he was carrying and reached a hand out reflexively. After juggling it for a bit, Lex was able to catch the axe. "That's alright, I got it-"

Once Lex turned to face his adversary, the masked man had already been running towards him, axe in hand. Lex is able to steady himself and parry Legion's blow. He smirked.

"You're wide open!" Lex reeled back to strike Legion in the back, but a quick sweep of his feet knocked him to the ground.

Legion, still wordless, stood over him and attacked Lex again with a swift slash, who narrowly blocked the attack with his. Lex takes the opportunity to kick him in the chest to create some space.

The Duke of Dozel stood up again and tightened the grip around his axe. Legion remained silent. Though he wasn't wearing his heavy orange armor, the mask alone made him look as though he had all the protection he needed. He was always physically imposing, armored or not.

Lex moved forward again, sizing his opponent up, but Legion did not budge. Legion looked animalistic, almost demonic, in his posture. He was stiff as a board, standing up completely straight with his shoulders held low, his axe gripped tightly in his right hand. His head looked like it was about to roll off his neck. There were several openings in his stance, but Lex knew better than to underestimate the one (or, in Legion's case, the many) known as "Masked Maniac".

The lord held in a breath and set his feet. Lex was never one to back down from a fight. In fact, he was rather happy to see his opponent not waste time with words and get right into sparring. Legion gripped his weapon tighter as he braced himself. Then, Lex dashed forward towards Legion's left and swung his axe upward.

Unbelievably, Legion merely leans back to dodge it and then, in a move unfit for real combat, catches the head of the axe with his free hand and drives his own weapon into Lex's waist.

Lex feels the wind get squeezed up his trachea and out his nose as his breathing ability falters. The man falls to the ground clutching his abdomen.

Legion tosses his weapon aside and kneels down next to him. "Ooh! Sorry. We hitses you too hard. Is the burly blue lord alright?"

The young duke slapped his hand away and coughed. "Legion! What in blazes was that? If we were using real blades, I would have sliced your hand in half!"

Legion didn't budge. "Just like our hand, your entire body would have been sliced in halfses. Your large burly bodyses, in two pieces. Two halves, sliced up and up and up!"

Lex coughed again and stood up, ignoring the searing pain under his ribcage. "What's wrong with you!? In a real battle you'd have been left without any of your fingers!"

"But we would still be alive."

Lex blinked, disbelief and rage still welling up between his ears. However, he did not have a retort. As wrong as it was, Legion made it seem like it was the logical thing to do.

When Legion noticed his opponent remain silent, he continued. "Legion is many, many many! We are allses expendableses. Our purpose in the field is to kill allses of our master's enemies. To that endses, we do everything we can to make sureses that is fulfilled. We do not know painses, our purpose is the only thing that matterses."

Lex clenched a fist. He knew it wasn't a rational human being telling him this. There was much more Legion wasn't telling him, but Lex knew that Legion wasn't the type of person to say much anyway. Still, the fact that he was able to talk about himself as an expendable asset, something so useful yet unimportant that it can be thrown away, abused, mishandled in any way. Something about this made Lex's blood boil, but he couldn't quite understand why.

"You're crazy!"

It was all he could say. Lex felt like anything else he tried to say and explain would just go over Legion's masked head.

Legion merely shrugged and walked past him. "Anyway. You shouldn't worry about this fightses. Just from this fight alone we can see the fighter that you are. If you were weaker, we would not have botheredses. Legion's hand would not be in half."

Then, the masked man bent down to pick up the sack that Lex had dropped earlier. "Thank youses. The summoner and the commanderses told us that we are in the same squadses in battle tomorrow. "

As the man walked away, Lex called out to him one last time, "Hey. Legion!"

Legion stopped for a moment. "Hmm?"

Lex paused, staring at the ground for a moment before continuing, "You know, in the Order of Heroes you're a unique individual. Why don't you try referring to yourself singularly for once?"

The masked man seemed to think about this for a moment. "We do not understand what you meanses."

Lex walked over and picked up the training axe he had dropped during their sparring session. "Well, I think you're unlike everyone else from the Order. As far as I know, you're the only Legion we have, and you don't seem to take after anybody else. Haven't you ever given the thought that maybe you're a unique individual rather than a drone in legion?"

Legion turned back around and stared at him. Lex felt a bit intimidated. He wasn't quite sure what Legion was like when provoked.

"No," Legion simply stated. "I do not understandses. Legion is not an individual. There are many of us and ones of us, all in oneses."

This only made Lex even more confused. "Um. After our battle tomorrow, why don't we have a drink or something? Tell me all about yourself."

"You keep saying that word."

Lex raised an eyebrow. "Which one?"

"Yourself. Legion doesn't understandses."

Lex tilted his head in thought. When Legion was first summoned, Commander Anna and the Summoner had described Legion as some bloodthirsty savage of some sort who barely had anything to register as a personality. The masked man in front of him was neither of those things. Instead what he saw was a docile, complacent trooper who never complained and didn't understand what it meant to be an individual.

So, Lex merely walked past him, holding his side where he felt there was a bruise forming, and waved an arm. "I'll see you tomorrow, Legion."

Legion is a veeeery weird character to write dialogue for.