The purple-haired girl raises from her seat and looks behind her.

Her eyes widen as she jumps towards Aiyoma.

"Aiyoma! It's been too long!"

The two embrace for a while then Aiyoma looks back at Yuumi and me.

"O-oh, sorry! These are my two traveling companions, Momoko and Yuumi. And this here is the Healing Sage of Ayuu, Chiyo."

The purple-haired girl walked toward us.

"It's nice to meet you both! What're you venturing out to Ayuu for?"

Yuumi stepped forward. "We heard you could look at our status for us."

"Well, I usually only do that while I'm working. But since you came here with Aiy, I'll give you both a pass."

I throw my fist in the air. "Alright! Show me my stats, baby!"

Chiyo put her hand in the air, and a staff suddenly appeared out of thin air. It was an elegant pink with a blue gem encircled at the top.

"You may feel a bit drained after this, but that's just normal, nothing to be afraid of."

She holds her staff in front of her and closed her eyes. "I'll start with you first, Momoko."

The Sage puts her staff on my head, and I start to envision a graph. "Is that my—"

Suddenly, a girl dressed in white bursts through the doors of the chapel. She stops to the side of Chiyo and whispers something in her ear.

Chiyo sighs and walks toward the door. "Sorry, you're status check is going to have to wait. I have business to attend too."

She turns for a second then smirks, "Actuaally, you're all strong and powerful knights, right… Maybe you could help me with this."

What's this Sage getting us into now?

. . .

We walk outside, and a crowd gathers around four knights centered in front of the stairwell.

"Get out of here!" One of the crowd bystanders yell.

"We won't take any of your crap anymore!" Another female shouts.

The middle knight, a female with auburn hair, puts her hand up, motioning for silence.

"People of Ayuu! As knights working for the glorious Phoenia Empire, we must ask for your help once again."

She snaps her fingers, and the second knight carries an injured knight towards her.

"We heard this town has a great Sage known for her healing magic! We're ordering you to provide us healing services so we can get back into battle!"

Chiyo walks down the stairs and stops in front of the female knight.

"You guys have been coming here way too often. Why aren't you staying in your precinct while on raids?"

The female knight looks over to her injured companion, putting her hand on their shoulder.

"One of our knights was following a monster when it ran near this town. We destroyed it but without him being severely injured."

"Alright, if you say so. Just say, please, and I'll heal him up right now."

The female knight scoffs. "Please? Did you not hear me? We were off protecting your town. Now heal us or else!"

She snaps her fingers once more, and the two knights nearest to her put their hands on the handles of their blade.

Chiyo laughed. "Do you really think that you can intimidate a Sage?"

The female knight grits her teeth and unsheathes her blade. "Let's see how good you are healing with one arm, dammit!"

Her blade shines in the sky and comes down onto Chiyo.

Aiyoma dashes towards the knight and grabs the sword with her hand.

"What're you doing? We're on the same side!"

"I'd rather not be on the side of people trying to threaten a citizen."

The female knight pulls her blade back and backs away from Aiyoma.

"Alright, I guess we can have some fun. Your friends here are going to be paying for your crimes, Sage."

The knight placed down his injured ally and ran to the side of the female knight.

Me and Yuumi dash over to Aiyoma's side.

Yuumi licks her lips and grins. "I do like me a fight."

. . .

"Helena!" Yuumi and I say in unison, our armor and swords shine brilliantly.

A knight with green hair smiles. "Oh-ho! They're Holy Knights. This'll be interesting!"

He points to me and smiles menacingly. "I'll take that one."

I hold my sword out in front of me and grin. "Then come get som—"

Before I could finish my sentence, he dashes over to me and lands a solid jab to my face, sending me flying back.

Aiyoma turns around. "Momoko!"

The female knight advances towards her, and they clash blades.

"I'm your opponent! Worry about me, and me only!"

The third knight, a young girl with short pink hair wearing a delicate smile, bowed in front of Yuumi.

Yuumi spits on the ground in defiance. "I don't have time for little girls. Go play dolls with your daddy—"

She flashes over to Yuumi and pulls out a katana. A single slash is blocked but makes Yuumi fly into the air.

"The hell—"

The young girl smiled. "Don't underestimate me just because I'm a bit young…."

The pink-haired knight jumped into the air and smacked Yuumi to the ground. "… Because this little girl is about to kick your sorry ass!"

I get up from the ground and steady myself. The green-haired knight walks in front of me and sighs.

"Well, this is no fun. I thought Holy Knights were a specialty class." He runs towards me, unsheathing his blade.

"I don't think you deserve it!"

We clash blades, and I struggle to find an angle to counter. I take a hand off the handle and go in for a punch. He catches my hand and twists it backward. I wince in pain but maintain my composure.

I can feel that he'd break it if I gave him a chance.

He headbutts me and sends me back. I shake my head from a daze, and he jumps in the air, preparing a sword strike.

"Come, Holy Knight, you're disappointing me!"

We clash once more, but this one pushes me back into the church's wall. He doesn't lose his momentum and continues to advance. The wall behind me breaks bit by bit.

I slide my sword down to the handle of his blade and push him back. He dashes back to me and explodes with a flurry of strikes at my head. I narrowly dodge them, strands of hair fly into the air.

"Dammit!" Yuumi throws her blades into the air as the pink-haired knight danced around her.

"You sure do like swinging those things around." She joked and dashed at her head-on.

"You're mine now!" She pulls the chains towards her, and the blades retract behind the knight.

"Oh?" The knight jumps into mid-air, both the swords are dodged acutely below and above her.

She then balances herself onto the ground and throws her katana onto the terrain towards Yuumi. It tumbles like a spinning ax past her.

"Missed me!"

The knight suddenly teleports behind Yuumi and grins.

"I don't need to aim directly for you."

The knight thrusts her blade into Yuumi's head but grazes her cheek as the Holy Knight bends down and throws her blade to her leg.

"My leg? So sadistic!" The young knight blocks the blade with her sword and balances one foot onto it, throwing herself at Yuumi.

Yuumi uses her second blade to shield herself, struggling against her strength. "Stupid loli is actually putting up a fight!"

Aiyoma and the auburn-haired knight exchange blows as sparks fly from their iron swords.

"You dare defy your own knight-in-arms? I'll show you what traitors get for protecting these weaklings!"

Aiyoma draws her rapier back and thrusts it forward.

"Are you not weaker than them if you're trying to scare them into doing your bidding?"

The female knight catches her rapier. Drops of blood extrude from her hand.

She throws down her sword to the ground.

"Heh, we're knights. We can do what I want!"

She grabs the handle of the sword, driven into the ground, and pulls out another sword.

"What?" Aiyoma takes her rapier from the attacker's hand and jumps back.

The female knight takes another blade from the ground-driven blade, but this one has a more curved shape.

"This is my legendary sword. It allows me to generate numerous swords just from this one. Every swordsman I've defeated has their sword devoured by my magnificent weapon…."

She points the curved blade at Aiyoma. "… And your's is next."

The knight dashes towards Aiyoma and thrusts several strikes with her left blade.

Aiyoma counters the blades as a tint of silver catches her gaze.

She ducks as the knight's right blade barely severed her throat.

Aiyoma jumped back and touched her neck, she looked at her finger as blood rushed from the small cut.

The knight smiled and pointed the blade towards her. "Next time, I'll cut it off!"

Aiyoma took a deep breath and steadied her sword. "I guess the gloves come off now, huh?"

"You cocky bitch!" The auburn-haired knight lunged at her, swords at the ready.

"HALT!"

The auburn knight stopped and looked behind her as her eyes widened.

"C-Captain Stroyer!"

. . .