The starless night may cloak the sins of mortals from the eyes of the just, but even the silence it offers couldn't quell the willing howls of sinners. Two sets of exasperated footsteps on the dry ground soon turned to the ruffling sound of the tall grasses. It was then soon followed by a loud march from an unidentifiable amount of people.

“Look, Osis! There’s light up ahead! We’re so close! Quickly, your-” A masculine voice reverberated.

“I’m trying! It’s-” the feminine voice coughed before her panting resumed, “It’s hard for me to concentrate!” Her palms were aimed at the ground as the grasses they ran by grew in height.

The man shifted his backpack to the front and lowered his arms by his hips. “I’ll carry you! Just jump on my back!”

“But-”

“Quickly!”

Osis bit her lips and leaped. Even with her petiteness, the man almost tripped over when she landed on his back. As he resumed his previous pace, the woman hung one of her arms over his neck and raised an even larger patch of grass taller. Their pursuers barked as the patches of taller grasses diverged into multiple paths, causing them to split up and follow each one.

“Did it work? Their voices sound spread out.” The man asked, his eyes still locking onto the light in the distance as his orange feline ear twitched.

“I think it worked, Lian!” The woman celebrated in a suppressed voice as she stared at the balls of light floating above their pursuers splitting away from the others.

“That’s great-” His sentence was cut short as he fell to the side, causing Osis to land on the dirt, her face nearly planted on the ground. Their pursuers, upon hearing a thump down one of the paths, promptly converged at where the couple fell.

“Fuck!” Lian stood, his right hand rubbing his knee to smother the pain, and his left pushing against the object that caused him to fall.

“We need to go now, Lian! They’re coming! They’re coming!” Osis held up the man’s arm once she found it in the dark and helped him stand up. She tried to raise more tall grasses to obscure their location, but it was too late. The balls of light were only meters away from them. Of course, they still tried to escape, but an arrow to the man’s arm was more than enough to seal their doom.

“I told you, thief.” The leader of the pursuers walked past the others and stood in front of the duo. It was a woman with a nasty scar across her left eye and a pair of gray, furry ears. “You can never escape punishment.”

“I’m not a thief! It belongs to my father-”

“WHO STOLE FROM MY FAMILY!” She plunged her spear into Lian’s shoulder, causing him to shriek. Osis directed the grasses to wash away the leader of the pursuers like a wave. However, a simple slash from her spear instantly cut through the grasses and across the pretty face of her prey. Osis’s scream was then heard alongside her partner's subdued groans.

“Now you know how that feels,” the leader snorted. “The gods have blessed me today. You two would have escaped if not for…” She gleamed at the ruined wall that the couple was sitting against.

“Take… me if you want…” Lian coughed as his other hand pressed against his injured shoulder. “But… let her go… Rwane-”

The leader snarled, “Never!”

“Boss!” Rwane peeled her eyes away from the duo and toward one of her underlings approaching her from the right. “We need to-”

Extending from the dark, a black blade drew across his neck, and it fell silently onto the ground. The body, as if unaware its former owner had already departed from the mortal plane, continued to stand as the luminous ball grew dimmer. Then, a visage of a towering onyx knight stepped into the light, sending a chill down everyone’s spine, before darkness swallowed it whole once more with the collapse of the corpse.

Upon snapping back to their senses, the other underlings shouted. The ashen-ear clicked her tongue and gestured to two of her men to tie the couple up. Then, she lifted her spear and gathered the rest of her lackeys to confront the knight in the dark. Despite the death that had occurred, she still hoped she could reason with the mysterious assailant.

The ebony blade extended from the darkness once more, and another head fell to the ground. Rwane roared with a scowl and aimed her spear forward. Her people roared in rage as well, though one could easily hear the fear mixed in their voices. The group then spread out to encircle the knight and illuminate him. Like a phantom, the knight whisked toward those who were furthest away from the group and decapitated them. Realizing that their usual strategy wouldn’t work on the apparition, they charged at their opponent. Several of them landed their sword strikes on the armor, causing metallic clashing sounds, but it didn’t harm or even slow their enemy at all. Those who tried to parry the knight’s attack were sent flying into the air before having their skull cracked when landed.

Rwane gritted her teeth. Her pride demanded her to strike down their opponent, but it was clear they were no match for the knight. Right as she considered retreating, she noticed the knight’s movement was gaining speed, and it was advancing in her direction.

“Retreat! Grab the two of them and go!” She exclaimed as she ran back to the ruined building. As if understanding their intentions, the knight swung its greatsword with a force so powerful that the sliced upper half bodies flew backward, one of which hit Rwane’s back, leading to her stumble.

She swiftly got back to her feet and thrust her spear, repelling the black phantom backward a couple of meters. She followed it up with a leap forward and a swing to the side of the knight’s helmet. That sent her enemy yet another few meters away, creating a gap for her three remaining men to escape with the couple. The leader attacked relentlessly, distracting the knight with dentless armor as long as she could.

A few moments later, the onyx knight abruptly roared and rushed toward the lackeys. Rwane grabbed the cape on its back to drag it back, which resulted in the knight flinging her toward her underlings and crashing into them. Ignoring her pain, she pulled herself up with her spear and prepared to face the charging knight. In a blink of an eye, the phantom arrived in front of her before swinging its sword from the top with one hand. The ashen-ear dodged and-

Stab.

The greatsword landed on the ground, but she was rendered immobilized by the knight’s hand in her abdomen in a contorted position. That incurred the wrath of the rest of the pursuers as they tried to save her.

“Don’t!”

The knight removed its hand and, despite the apparent weight of the armor, cracked all their necks in a swift arm sweep. They crashed into the ground and gasped their last few breaths before meeting their ends. Rwane, falling to the ground as well, turned her body to stare at the couple as moonlight finally illuminated the land. They were sitting against a black object with an open cover that stood on four feet. She saw Lian open his mouth when the knight approached them with its weapon, but before he could speak, the greatsword was plunged into his chest. Osis screeched, causing the surrounding grass to grow like a raging wildfire, extending so far into the air that it almost blocked the moonlight entirely, before plummeting back onto the ground. The knight took another swing, and silence filled the air once more.

As the ashen-ear’s eyelids weighed down, she saw the knight fling the bodies away, brushed the stains on the black object away, and stood still next to it. Then, in her dying breath, she cursed her fate as the night draped the cover of darkness over her body once more.