“What are we doing here?”

I asked Jin as he moved through the bushes in the dead of the night. He was definitely headed towards a destination but somehow it just felt random that he had chosen to walk out of insight.

‘Maybe it is because of me,’

I thought at first, but everything up until now looked suspicious.

“Jin?”

I asked again. I raised my voice a little and stood at my place.

He quickly pulled me down and then hushed me with his finger reaching his lips, gesturing me to stay quiet.

“Look over there—“

He said as he pointed his hand outside the bushes towards the road in front.

I was in between the route towards Terra and the Forest of Emptiness, surrounded by nothing but trees and darkness.

I looked over to where Jin was pointing. There I saw five carts running behind each other.

By running I mean they were on a moderate speed, which not to slow and not too fast. They were guarded by four men each and five horsemen ran alongside it. The men wear the drapes of the Kingdom Terra. It seemed as though they all were headed towards Terra, which became the only logical explanation as they seemed to be the Knights of Terra.

“They have Alias?”

I asked Jin who stood quietly watching them.

“No.”

A single syllable from his mouth and then went silent again.

“You both aren’t doing anything funny, are you?”

A voice hit our ears, which made us look back. It was Mikhail who walked out of the shadows.

He was visible to everyone, so I being on the right….pulled his right hand , but apparently the same fear of them finding us out led Jin to pull Mikhail’s left hand which made him fall right on his nose.

He was fed with dust and as he fell, he made a great thud.

For a moment the horsemen supervising the carts started looking at the carts suspiciously, but then interested themselves with something else.

“Shssh!”

I said as I saw Mikhail lifting his head up.

“That’s one way to pull me down,” Mikhail responded as he spit the dust out of his mouth, “Tell me, I will shut up!”

He said with daunting face which somewhat made me laugh, but I had my reasons to be serious.

“What are you doing here?”

I asked him with a confused look, as to Jin he sat quietly with no word whatsoever.

“Out on a stroll, what do you think?”

He asked me with a huffed face. He was unhappy for certain reasons, but I presume he does know the reason behind my sudden disappearance.

“You shouldn’t be here—“

“It’s okay.” Jin spoke in between, “The more the people the quicker job is done.”

“So, what are we doing here anyway?”

“We’re here to take something.”

Jin answered with soft voice.

“Steal something?”

Mikhail raised a question.

“Borrow something.”

“You know you can’t act out a theft, right?”

Jin seemed irritated by Mikhail’s constant questioning, turned his head towards the carts.

“I’ll go out there and distract them. Once, I raise my sword….you both attack from both sides. We’ll take them off guarded.”

He said ignoring us and then proceeded forward, but then stopped and reached out his back pocket to remove a scarf, which he then wrapped around his neck and covered his face by pulling over his nose.

‘Why couldn’t give us one as well?’

I thought as I saw him depart.

“Theft, really?”

Mikhail asked me. He took two steps forward to be alongside me.

“He knows where Alias is…”

“So?”

“If she is alive, then there’s a chance that others are as well. If I find them all and then get my hands on….”

I hesitated to speak as everything right now in front of me was just a probable outcome and nothing had surety in it. That made growl from the inside, but I stood quietly as not enduring it would be a shameful act towards Teacher.

“You can reunite the system?”

He asked me as he filled in the words for the blank spaces I left.

I nodded and then looked down at the ground.

“So, you decided to walk with me?”

I asked him to which he stared straight and answered with a nod as well.

“I have some things I need to clear……and also I couldn’t leave a friend to struggle alone, can I?”

He answered.

He realized it was corny, though I never minded it. I looked at him with appreciation sparkling from my eyes which he clearly was trying to avoid as he started looking the other way.

“If you guys are done with your chat, then I could really use your help here.”

Jin screamed at us as he was fighting the guards alone with his sword. It didn’t look like fighting, but just defending.

Mikhail and I nodded at each other and then charged outside the bushes. I jumped on a wagon and then drop kicked a guard while Mikhail punched the other.

“They don’t have a sword?”

I said aloud as I knew Mikhail wasn’t going to use his, but rather these were drivers and not trained knights so it was possible they weren’t carrying any weapons.

“Don’t worry,”

Mikhail exclaimed in laughter and jumped towards a horseman, while swiftly dodging his attacks he removed a backup sword out of the saddle.

“They always have one here.”

He said as he looked at me.

“So, what do we do?”

In that moment Jin pushed the guard he was fighting with and charged with an intent which was clear to me.

I jumped in between them and knocked the guard into an unconscious state.

“Knock them out,”

I replied to Mikhail who then straight away went on a rampage of clearing men.

In moments, we cleared the whole squad and were ready to take away the carts.

Mikhail was quickly handed a rope by Jin to tie all the carts and make the horses follow each other, but as they worked an arrow came flying from deep within the road. It just grazed us all and then went on to stick itself on a bark of a giant tree.

“This is quite unexpected.”

I heard a voice walking towards us.

“But, I don’t mind it.”

I saw a woman walking in with her shadow as the moonlight casted light. I couldn’t see her face. I pinched my eyes to get a better look, but couldn’t recognize her.

“Amanda?”

Jin gasped as he stood beside me. Mikhail turned around as well.

‘Amanda?’

I had heard that name somewhere, but wasn’t quite sure where. Maybe Ishi had mentioned her sometime.

Mikhail slowly led his hand towards the sword he held in his hands. He was ready to strike at any given moment, in fact we all were.

But, I just felt abnormal at the moment. The feeling of eeriness and just the unnerving sense of danger which resonated from her, made me jump towards her in order to quench the fight as fast as possible.

She saw me charging towards her, unfazed about it, she lifted her bow and removed an arrow from her quill. Aiming it towards me, she fired it.

I swiftly dodged it once by changing direction, but by the time I looked up another arrow had been fired at me.

‘She’s fast.’

I thought as I made my second escape with the same strategy.

But the same result yielded again, this time I wasn’t going to dodge it because it was just hard…..or to say it was impossible. I used the trump card of mine and stopped the arrow in the air for a second.

Anything more than a second was not possible for me. The feat achieved in front of Soli maybe was just a plain miracle or my mind-set now was just too undermined.

I dodged the third arrow and then cleared the gap in between us, which now made things hard for her.

“You are great with the bow, but it won’t help you if I am this close.”

I said as I reached to her neck as a warning plunge.

Archers had always been good at aiming things from afar. Their accuracy made and ability to clear an enemy out from distance, made them an indispensible unit for any cavalry.

But, they had to deal with a serious problem. Although, being a master to target things from afar, when the target moved close, their efficiency shattered.

Their weapons of no use when it came to close combat, and so did I walk close to her.

I was now ranging for a close combat and now the situation was in my control…..or so did I thought.

Because, as soon as I uttered those words…….she grinned.

She took a step back and raised her bow with her left arm. She jerked the bow with a attempt force to make the string of it lash out.

The bow now transformed into a single wooden stick, which kind of resembled a lance.

She instantly blocked my attack and then kicked me in my stomach to create a distance between me and her.

She flicked the lance in the air and then caught it with her right hand.

“Won’t help? How about now?”

She asked me. Till now her face wasn’t glowed, but now I could see her clearly. She had blonde hair, white frail skin. She wore shimmering armour. Silver and red seemed her go to weapon costume.

She was intimidating, but I was well aware of my surroundings and I knew what I had to do.

I had my options prepared beforehand, but they were still limited.

She being an archer could hit us even if tried to run away and after seeing her speed, I am glad I didn’t pick that route.

So, I got ready with a stance to throw my spear at her. With the spear pointing towards her, it glowed in my hands embracing my determination.

With precision and brute I threw the spear towards her, but she dodged it as it was just fiddle.

“Such things won’t work against—“

She said but stopped midway after landing on the ground after jumping.

Dodging the spear was impressive, but I had expected her to do that.

Because the real trick didn’t lie in throwing it, but calling it back.

I raised my right arm and summoned my spear to come back in my hands. The ability which stayed unique to my weapon. It was a gift from Alias, which she never told how she got the hold off.

The spear turned around rapidly and started cruising towards my hands at the speed greater than that of sound.

Still, she managed to dodge it.

I had no options left now, I stood and watched with a blank face as she jumped and dodged my spear, but in that moment I saw Mikhail running behind her.

It immediately clicked me of what I should do. I grabbed my spear mid-air and then plunged towards her.

With Mikhail behind her and me ahead, it was pincer attack.

It was a fairly successful technique when used against opponents who you feel are more strong than you. Single handed, you can’t defeat the enemy even if you have three like yours, but an attack like this makes the enemy vulnerable to either of the sides.

She had only one weapon, her lance. So, it was clear that she might either deflect Mikhail’s attack or mine, but she can’t do both.

Or so did thought…

She looked at both us raging towards her and in brazened way possible she turned her spear to me and let her other hand grab the arrow behind from her quill.

Now, she had two weapons of sorts, by one she blocked mine and by the other she blocked Mikhail’s.

She had successfully tackled us both and not to mention, we were now in a precarious position as we were now open to any attack.

“You really are good.”

She said as she strengthened her grip on both the weapons.

She looked at me once and then towards Mikhail, but strangely she didn’t take her eyes off Mikhail.

It was as if she was stuck in between.

I tried gathering to where she was actually looking and it revealed that she was looking at the sword which Mikhail carried with him.

“Mi—“

She tried to say something, but gaping the opportunity, Jin stabbed her from behind.

The sword rushed in and out of her abdominal region. Unable to hold the pain, she dropped on her knees and then just in moments, she fell unconscious.

But before she went asleep, she looked at Mikhail for the last time.

“Why did you do it?”

Mikhail asked Jin.

“We don’t have time to discuss about that.”

As Jin pointed to afar position, where it seemed like people were coming towards us.

Jin and Mikhail quickly ran towards the cart, while I dropped on my right knee and took her hand in mine.

I could sense her life withdrawing from her.

‘She can survive till help arrives.’

I thought as I looked at the people walking towards us.

“Mortis?”

Mikhail cried out.

“We need to leave.”

I nodded and ran towards the cart, then leaving the site with their carts.

*****

[Just after Mortis left]

A man with his guards surrounding him arrived at the scene.

“Quiet the work they did, huh?”

“Is this not what you wanted, sir?”

His guards asked him as they tried to help the soldiers by getting together.

“Don’t help them. Kill them.”

The man ordered his guards, who froze just as he said those words.

“Sir?”

“Crimes being serious only pressurizes everyone to catch the culprit quickly.”

The guards obeyed his order and drew their swords out and with one stroke over their neck, they killed every last one of the guard.

Wanting to not leave a trace, they even killed the drivers.

As one guard approached to the woman beneath his master’s feet.

“Not this one. She still is useful.”

The man spoke out, thus making the guard stop. Done with their work, they brought their swords back in and waited for their Master’s orders.

“Take her with us, treat her wounds and call me when she wakes up.”

He ordered them. The guards immediately picked the woman and walked towards the cart they came riding in. One of the guards rounded a cloth around the wound to stop the bleeding temporarily.

“Amanda….you did well.”

The man said as he saw the woman being taken away.

“John, I know what you are up to and I support you as you are certainly making my job easier here. Thanks, hahahaha!!”

He said as he burst out in laughter as he looked upwards to see the starry night