A codename. He looks Imurian, but that name...

“Okay, Zar. To what does the town of Bruyn owe this visit?”

Zar’s smile didn’t let up, “Seeing as you were gracious enough to prepare us a welcoming party, I assume you’ve already been made aware, no?”

Maleek’s eyes narrowed as he sized Zar up, “We received word that a large convoy was approaching us flying a flag never seen before. We’re merely wondering what for?”

Zar’s smile morphed into a grin as a faint chuckle escaped from within it, “That so?”

He spurred his horse forward. The soldiers besides Maleek reached for their weapons in response, but Maleek calmed them. No one besides Zar moved. While it was a long shot, there was still a chance they could resolve this without violence.

Zar noted the fearful response, but ignored it. Nonchalantly riding up to the side of Maleek, he stopped his horse when they were within arm's distance.

“While I would love to continue this exchange, time is on neither of our sides. I know the baron came to town, I know he visited your residence, and I know he miraculously disappeared thereafter,” The smile on his face receded, “Whether you’re hiding him here or somewhere else, it matters not. What does matter is that you know who we are and why we’re here. You can either cooperate. Or not.”

Maleek looked Zar dead in the eyes. He didn’t know how to respond. He could have already guessed they had a spy in Bruyn, but that didn’t explain how they knew so much. The baron didn’t announce his arrival as he usually did. He practically snuck into town.

Fool! They knew he’d be coming. They probably waited for him to show up and trailed his carriage when he did. Fyk!

“Shall I take your silence for cooperation?”

Maleek continued to stare Zar down, but the intensity was no longer there. They both knew Zar had him where he wanted him.

Maleek frowned, “The baron is not in town.”

Zar’s smile returned, “Perfect. It would admittedly have been an awkward hurdle for him.”

“What?” Maleek blinked in surprise, “What do you mean?”

“Plans have changed Maleek. We’ll be taking this town. Have your men m—”

Maleek interrupted him, “Taking the town? Are you mad?”

“When necessary.”

Maleek opened his mouth as if to reply, but Zar cut him off, “Let me be blunt, you do not possess the manpower to stop us. I’m no admirer of bloodshed, but I have a task to fulfill.”

You’re not the leader! We can still negotiate.

Maleek yelled, “Code 5C!”

Behind him, the twenty soldiers that accompanied him casually rode their horses back towards town. Maleek didn’t turn to see, he trained them well. They responded to his instruction immediately.

Zar had responded immediately as well, forming his barrier instantly. His posse did the same behind him.

Like I thought...

He gazed at the retreating men, “I had thought you wiser than this.”

“The only unwise one here is the one who believes a town still reeling from a bandit attack would openly accept them as their new lords.”

Zar sighed, “We sh—”

Maleek raised his hand to stop him, “Wait. I’m not done. I know why you’re really here.”

Zar eyed him, seemingly intrigued. He remained silent however, waiting for Maleek to continue.

“You need this town. Its produce is vital to sustaining your population, but you don’t have the coin or resources to afford it. Your current..situation also makes it difficult to find trade partners. I believe we can come to an arrangement that doesn’t involve hostilities.”

Zar clapped, “Bravo, bravo. Unfortunately,” The clapping stopped, “You’re wrong.”

What?

“And we’ve run out of time.”

Krck!

Maleek leapt off his horse just as a glowing bullet whizzed by where chest used to be. He landed, his barrier formed, and leapt backwards towards town. The force of his first jump had instantly killed the horse he was sitting on. The force of his second jump sent him back almost half a kilotelk.

Shit, I fo—

Cutting off his thoughts, the ground behind him warped. Two golem-like hands emerged seemingly seeking to pull him down. Noticing the shift in the earth below him before the hands even appeared, Maleek reacted swiftly, dashing to his left before the hands could get too close. Before he could gather his thoughts however, the ground warped again.

Instead of retreating this time, he put as much strength into his arm as he could and punched straight down. The impact immediately formed a large crater below his feet.

Krck!

Fyk!

Maleek didn’t react in time to completely dodge the bullet. He managed to avoid being hit in any vitals, but the bullet still grazed his midriff. The physical damage wasn’t too bad, but the knowledge that whoever was shooting at him could bypass his barrier so easily worried him immensely.

Landing slightly outside the crater, he poured as much sahir into his barrier as he could reasonably manage. He knew he was stuck between a sword and a blade. The artisir below him must have been a mesheer considering the way he moved through the earth. If that was the case, there’s no way his punch would have killed him. That’s assuming he had even hit him. Somewhere in the distance there was a rifleman that was waiting for him to lose focus for even a moment. He would have jumped high into the air to avoid the malsir below and retreat to town, but he knew he would simply be shot down. There was no escape.

—————

Back in the safety of the Bruyn, Emont looked on both worried and perplexed. The advanced unit that was sent out with Maleek came back reporting he had called Code 5C. Code 5C effectively ordered the men to ‘retreat then wait and see’, They were only allowed to move if he died or retreated himself. As the head of the garrison, he could override this order, but he didn’t have a good enough reason to believe he should. He didn’t have any reason. The situation in front of him was filled will nothing but unknowns. He couldn’t predict how it would proceed. Before he could even reorganize the unit, Maleek leapt off his horse.

They had thought he would retreat, but he suddenly stopped. Faint sounds of gunshots could be heard in the distance, but no one believed that one rifleman could restrict his movement. The real issue was the six malsirs still sitting on their steeds. For some reason however, they hadn’t moved a muscle. They merely watched as Maleek hopped around and oddly punched the ground.

Carter walked up to Emont, “What is he doing?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe our assumptions were incorrect?”

Three days ago one of their scouting squads rushed into the garrison with urgent news. They had spotted an unusually large convoy heading their way. The information didn’t immediately strike as dangerous, they had just received their first merchant convoy of the season. It wasn’t until they realized the direction they were coming from that they panicked. They immediately set up for a raid; gathering any and every able-bodied man and putting guns in their hands, augmenting the partially built stone wall with wooden fortifications, sending out calls for aid to nearby baronies. By this time, knowledge of Arkthur’s fall was public. If the king’s declaration didn’t reach the townsfolk’s ears, the merchants from Otger would enlighten them.

The whole town had grown somewhat suspicious of the lack of merchant convoys coming their way. They were one of the few things that got everyone out of their homes. Most assumed news of the bandit attack had reach the merchants and they had decided to not risk the journey. It made logical sense. While the scope of the attack was limited, the graveyard was noticeably populated even on snowy days. It was the first time the stench of blood reached Bruyn in a long time and it filled the town with unease. They quelled this unease with stories of their protector, but when a merchant convoy finally showed up their imaginings of ‘God’s Disciple’ could no longer assuage their fears.

Carter rubbed his chin, “I would like that to be true..I would love that to be true, but I think their inaction proves our assumptions are correct.”

Emont looked at his assistant mildly confused, “How so?”

“Who but bandits would have such hubris? It’s almost like they’re testing him.”

—————

Maleek lamented leaving his weapons attached to his horse. He had done so in a sign of nonaggression, but he placed them in such a way that he could easily reach them if the situation went south. The threat of the people in front of him was expected. The threat of a sniper however, was not. In his rush to avoid the sahir hurling at him the thought to reach for his spear slipped from his mind. If he hadn’t let it slip, he was confident he could nullify the snipers threat.

The ground behind him warped. He repeated his previous tactic of punching the ground, this time waiting a bit longer in hopes of catching the malsir in his punch’s radius. He immediately dashed out of the resulting crater, not even giving the sniper the time to shot. After landing outside the crater he glanced in the direction the bullets were coming from. He couldn’t spot anything irregular, but he reasoned a talented sniper wouldn’t let themselves be noticed with a mere glance. He quickly gave the endeavor up and glanced to his right to see if they had anymore surprises lined up for him. Given all the time he had to scan his surroundings, he could have tried to make a run for it. Something about the situations felt off to him however, and he didn’t think running back to town would solve it. Zar clearly wasn’t making any attempts to chase him. He instead chose to wait for the malsir below him to return. They obliged.

Behind again?

Maleek casually stomped the ground. There wasn’t anywhere near as much force behind it as either of his earlier punches, but it accomplished its goal. The warping halted and quickly disappeared.

He’s green.

Maleek immediately concluded that despite the power of whoever the mystery malsir was, he lacked experience. His attack pattern was textbook. He always attacked from the same relative position, at the same angle, even the speed of his attacks were similar. He would applaud the consistency if it wasn’t so amateurish. It was now clear to Maleek that this was all just a play. An elaborate dance. They were trying to guide his actions, but he could only speculate to what end.

Are they trying to capture me? For what purpose?

Krck!

Maleek easily dodged the whizzing bullet.

They’re wasting way too much time. Why are they still on standby? Was he lying about running out of time?

He peeked at the man that called himself Zar and his posse. To Maleek’s surprise, Zar had gotten off his horse and was stealing for his dead horse. Maleek frowned.

To lack class and honor, can he even ca—

“Haa haa haa haa haa,” Zar started laughing loudly, “This! This I...”

Maleek couldn’t catch the rest, but he would probably have missed it even if it was audible. Zar’s laugh was deep and hearty, quite unlike the image he had formed of him. Quickly memories of his days as a mere sentinel spending nights with his squadmates rushed into his mind. No. That wasn’t why his laugh was nostalgic.

Why do I—

“Enough!”

Just as Maleek was preparing to stomp the pesky malsir away again, Zar had spoken. The earth behind him returned to its stillness. Maleek looked at him skeptically. He was still somewhat bemused why decade old memories were resurfacing. While he mulled that and whether the sniper got the ‘back off’ memo over, he noticed the distinct figure of a woman pop up out of the ground next to Zar.

A woman?

A short conversation passed, but neither of them spoke loud enough for him to hear. Soon the woman returned to the hole she appeared from and Zar began walking towards him. Maleek briefly considered making a run for it. He didn’t understand what was going on, but he didn’t like it. It gave him a bad feeling. That being said, he was the strongest malsir in town and his backup would struggle to handle the strength of either of the malsirs he just dealt with. He knew nothing of the ones on standby either.

Ha. ‘Dealt’.

If they both truly sought to kill him, he wasn’t entirely sure how he’d combat them without his spear. While he was still powerful without it, with it he was on a different level. He—

Wait.

Zar was steadily getting closer as Maleek was considering his options. He had gotten to the halfway point between them before Maleek realized the spear in his hand was in fact his own. Maleek senses were now flaring. The scene playing out in front of him was all wrong, again. He suppressed it and waited though. At the very least, he knew for sure that killing him wasn’t on the agenda. If he could trust Zar’s words at all, he didn’t enjoy killing.

It didn’t take long for Zar to reach him. When he got within a couple dozen telks of Maleek he stopped, with a large grin plastered on his face.

“I can’t fathom how he does it, but he always manages to spot the baby diesfell hiding amongst the tigers.”

Maleek understood the idiom, but didn’t understand how it related to the current situation. Zar knew he was a malsir from the start and it wasn’t like he was hiding. Thinking about it, he was probably the most recognizable person in Bruyn. Zar, either not knowing or not caring about Maleek’s confusion, casually tossed him his spear. Maleek caught it and immediately checked it for any foul play. Sahir runes were a secret art, but with his limited exposure to the more advanced parts of the world he couldn’t be sure that was still the case. Confirming it hadn’t been tampered with, he looked back at Zar even more confused than before. Nothing was making sense.

“Why?”

Zar’s grin grew even larger, “Why you ask…”

In the next few moments Maleek’s eyes grew wide in complete astonishment. Within Zar’s hand a spear very similar to his own suddenly phased into being. A spear made entirely of sahir.

“You...you’re...you’re a..” Overwhelmed by shock, Maleek stuttered.

“Certain obligations prevent me from giving you my name, but I’m sure you’ll know soon enough.”

The grin turned into a smile as Zar quickly took a stance. It was a stance Maleek knew well. It was the stance he had spent most of his life trying to mimic.

“Come junior, show me what you’ve learned.”