Maleek didn’t move a muscle. He stood still, gawking at the man standing in front of him. His eyes must have been playing tricks on him that had to be it. Running in to a fellow disciple of his former martial arts school was unthinkable on its own, to run into one of the only three masters? Impossible. Even now, as he gawked at the man, he couldn’t connect the dots. He didn’t resemble any of his former masters. Yet…

“Fine. I’ll come to you.”

Zar burst forward instantly, his form seemingly disappearing for a moment. The speed amazed Maleek, but he was a soldier. His reflexes were sharp. The blue light of Zar’s spear left a trail as it whizzed passed his shoulder. Maleek quickly regained focus. That strike would have killed him if he was even a fraction of a second late. Whether the man in front of him was one of the men he thought he was or not didn’t matter. If he didn’t concentrate, he’d be too dead to ever find out.

“Good instincts, but can your arms move that fast?”

Maleek immediately understood what that question would entail. He poured sahir into his spear, simultaneously filling its hollow center and activating the runes attached to it. It brimmed with power and Maleek gripped it tightly. It probably wouldn’t help him at all in the coming onslaught, but

Zar didn’t give him any room to breathe. Stabs and thrusts came thick and fast, in every direction Maleek looked the treat of being skewered loomed. It wasn’t a false impression either. Zar wasn’t just quick with his spear, he was quick on his feet. He darted around and picked apart Maleek’s form at his leisure. Maleek didn’t even consider the notion that he could guard against Zar’s advances and immediately sought to evade. Unfortunately for him, Zar was faster than he realized. The greatest advantage of a spear was its range and Maleek couldn’t get out Zar’s.

Zar chuckled, “Have some backbone Maleek, this is a test not a duel.”

Maleek didn’t believe those words for a second, he continued to frantically dodge and evade. Zar was getting hits in, but they weren’t anything life threatening and he intended to keep it that way. Many of Zar’s attacks appeared as nothing more than blue blurs. There was no need to risk trying to deflect or parry such things. It had been a decade since he fought anyone he would label dangerous. Even with his instincts and reflexes, he was woefully under-prepared for such a fight. He never imagined a group of bandits could enlist someone of such strength.

The game of cat and mouse continued on for quite a while until Maleek was finally forced to start using his spear to protect himself. He could no longer ignore the wounds Zar was inflicting for sake of fear. If things continued as they were, Maleek would simply die a slow death. Unfortunately for him, he realized this much too late. He had many cuts across both of his arms and chest. Even if the pain could be easily ignored, his body would just naturally react slowly to his commands. Trying to repel Zar’s advances would be no more fruitful than continuing to run. As such, he did the only other thing he could do. Attack.

More precisely, he’d counterattack. Zar had all the momentum. He’d have to find a way to counter him and, if but for a moment, make him consider his own defence. Not having time to think of an elaborate plan, Maleek let his battle instincts carry him. They told him Zar outclassed him in speed, power, technique, and accuracy. That left only one plan of action, pure unbridled assault. If he couldn’t best Zar in anything, then he’d ignore everything and be the aggressor.

At first, the counter attack proved fruitful. Zar was stunned by his very sudden switch of tactics. The ‘fight’ had been little more than him cutting Maleek up while Maleek did his best to evade the tips of his spear. He had anticipated that Maleek would have to change his approach sooner rather than later, but he expected that transition to be from evasion to defence first. Maleek instead went straight from evasion to offence in the blink of an eye. The shift caught him off guard, so much so that he momentarily stopped his own assault to step back. That moment of reprieve for Maleek didn’t last long though.

The word finally escaped his lips as met Maleek’s advances with his own. Unlike Maleek who was moving on pure instinct, Zar was calculated in every move he made. Each feint, each parry, each strike was planned many moves in advance. While the ‘fight’ was technically no longer a game of cat and mouse, it was still clear that only one of the two participants could be considered a predator. None of Maleeks strikes landed. Zar never sought to evade them either, he met each of Maleek’s moves with a move of his own. Whether it be parrying or deflecting or merely showing he had a longer reach, he never shied away from the contest. The contest would be prove to be a rather short-lived event, however.

Suddenly, while Maleek and Zar were crossing spears, a bright red flame burst into existence. Even though it was more than a kilotelk away, at the other end of Zar’s convoy, they could both see it. Maleek was surprised by the size and brightness of the flame, but what was truly stunning was the huge wall of rock that formed to meet it. Zar merely sighed in annoyance.

“Raezel Meyner. Troublesome.”

He spoke those words as if discussing an annoying mosquito. Maleek didn’t notice his tone however, he was busy noting the laxing of his guard. As soon as he confirmed he had effectively ended hostilities, he made a run for it. Unfortunately...

“Ahhh..uhh,"

He tumbled to the ground and rolled a few dozen telks. When he stopped rolling, he felt nothing but excruciating pain. Looking down towards his stomach he found a blue spear lodged in his gut. After a few seconds, the spear dissolved into nothingness, but the hole in his abdomen remained. He had already been bleeding previously, but now he was drenched in blood. His body no longer heeded his commands. It was shutting down. He tried to roll himself to see back towards Bruyn, but he couldn’t. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was Zar picking up his spear.

“You...mu…...earn,"

—————

“This is a bad idea. A really really bad idea.”

“Stop whining, we’re almost there.”

Kain gingerly snuck behind Julia as she lead them to an abandoned two storey building close to the edge of Bruyn. They were supposed to be on a caravan heading to Otger right now, but Julia had the genius idea to sneak back into town to snag a glimpse of the battle. Kain had immediately protested the ludicrous idea, but as had become common between the two, he was quickly strong armed into it. To make matters worse, unbeknownst to Julia, they hadn’t even managed to slip away from the caravan unnoticed. Kaige was keeping him updated on two of her mother’s arberdirs that were tailing them. While their presence comforted him somewhat, the fact they made no effort to stop them bothered him deeply.

Reaching the front of building, Julia peek through the window to make sure it was empty before slowly opening the door. Kain already confirmed the building was abandoned, but he knew Julia was enjoying herself. They both carefully tiptoed across what they assumed was a tavern. As Kain looked around, he started to wonder why the place was abandoned. Unlike a lot of the building in this direction it wasn’t burned anywhere. It may have been slightly separated, but that didn’t seem like a good enough reason to completely abandon it. There wasn’t even any furniture. The sound of their footsteps echoed slightly as the headed towards the stairs. Once they reach them Kain tapped Julia’s shoulder and offered to sweep the rest of the bottom floor while she did the top. She agreed, and they both separated. Kain walked a couple telks away and sat down. He’d let her have her fun.

While Kain waited for her to finish, he looked around the place. It looked like any average tavern, excluding the emptiness of course. He wasn’t the type to frequent taverns, but had visited the two main ones in Bruyn. They had very similar layouts.

No backrooms though.

You don’t know that.

Check.

Kain didn’t really want to, but sitting and waiting was boring so he obliged. He only got four steps before Kaige yelled stop in his mind. Kain cringed, the feeling was very similar to a brain freeze.

What THE FUCK was that for?

There are people under the floor.

What? You said it was empty.

I thought it was...there are a lot of dead bodies down there.

Wait, what? Is anyone down there alive?

Yeah. There are four, four people alive.

Okay...how many dead bodies is ‘a lot’ exactly?

Sixty.

Sixty?! Oh hell no. We’re getting out of here now. Wher—

“Don’t move.”