Jorish ran faster than he thought he ever could. He could barely comprehend the events that had just transpired. His mind quickly went through the last few minutes as he ran behind Traves.

Just as Traves had burst into a sea of crimson, covering everything he could see, the traveler stopped talking. Soon after, a weird disk appeared out of thin air in Cail’s hands. As it shone, a layer of light covered the entire party.

The party proceeded to run towards the village at a pace Jorish found unbelievable. Each step made them cruise tens of meters forward. Jorish was more confused by the fact that his body and mind could not only keep up with his motion but control his movement perfectly as well.

As they ran, Jorish stared at Travis’ back. He couldn’t see his brown hair. Instead, he saw only his cloak covering the back of his head.

Jorish didn’t dare look at his face. Traves’ crimson eyes had burned an impression on his soul that he couldn’t shake, an impression that left him unable to think, unable to breathe.

The trip that had taken hours earlier only took them less than ten minutes as they returned. As they approached the village, Anise’s steps slowed down. Her eyes widened as she stared forward.

Thick smoke rose into the sky as the smell of blood and burned flesh invaded the air freezing them in shock. Silence was immediately broken as Traves turned to witness Cail shaking his head, “None.”

Jorish gathered the necessary courage as he glanced at Traves’ face. Unexpectedly, what he saw was not a face, but a mask. Traves’ face was covered by a silver mask with two slits where his eyes were. A crimson glow leaked through the slits. Instigating terror into him.

“You handle it here, I have some people to talk to,” said Traves grimly before he rushed deeper into the village.

Moments later, Anise, Jorish, and Cail stepped into the village. Anise’s eyes widened as she let out a shrill roar.

Inside the village wasn’t the calm that it normally was. The occasional playing child or adult reprimanding the children for playing in the sun for too long couldn’t be seen. Instead, around them, they saw the mutilated and burned bodies of the villagers. A few men wearing rags sat laughing as they played around with the weapons they held.

Before anyone could take action, Jorish felt something invading his mind. Unable to resist, He felt as if he could see everything around him. He could feel every grove on every bandit’s face, he could feel their ragged breaths, he saw as they turned around after hearing Anise’s shout, almost feeling every muscle in their bodies as they moved. He felt Anise’s face as it quickly contorted into a bloody rage. And finally, he could see Cail staring at them with his azure eyes.

Not a moment had passed as Anise lunged forward with her weapon, roaring. Not wanting to leave her to face the bandits alone, Jorish sprinted after her. No longer under the effect of the artifact anymore, it took them a couple of seconds to get close to the bandits.

Jorish took note of the information that kept flowing into his brain, Five enemies, one with a sword and a shield, a spearman, and three are unarmed he thought as he rushed forward.

He wanted to tell Anise to slow down, to approach this intelligently. But he knew she was beyond reasoning at that moment and with good reason. He had been like that once, fortunately, he had been too young and weak to be able to take any action at that time. Else he wouldn’t be here holding his spear.

Unexpectedly, the armed bandits took a few steps back while the unarmed bandits stepped forward. As Anise was about to lunge forward, she suddenly stepped back and an explosion of fire burned in front of her.

The men stared at Jorish and Anise as they smiled maliciously and one of them laughed. Anise kept trying to push in while the waves of explosions and flames kept stopping her, scraping her.

She then tried to rush through the flames before the explosion forced her back. She leaned forward and prepared to rush in again as blood dripped from her left arm that was used to cover her face from the explosion

Too hasty! thought Jorish as he saw her moving predictably, almost telling her opponents where to hit her.

Jorish stepped next to her and prepared to either help her or stop her and drag her backward if he had to. Trying to remember the few times that Traves had directly taught him something, he thought of the first thing that came to his mind. Know your enemies, witness every movement, every breath they take. Only then can you truly be the victor. Either that or you could take me up on my offer to help you reincarnate as a giant, he could hear Traves’ sarcastic tone in his memory.

Jorish saw Anise being pushed back again as the land across from her exploded. He saw one of the bandit’s hands twitching at that exact moment. As she stepped back as the flames followed, just as the other bandit’s hand moved.

Seemingly frustrated, Anise rushed in immediately and growled as soon she was pushed back. Jorish was unsure if she was betting on them not being able to cast their spells continuously, or if she was frustrated enough to just ignore everything and run forward.

At that moment Jorish could faintly see the third unarmed bandit’s face twitch slightly as his body threatened to move. Jorish knew he had to take action. He rushed just behind Anise who seemed to be too occupied with her rage to think.

As they pushed forward, Jorish could faintly feel a pulse of air push from the third bandit’s hand in a wave as it pushed towards them. As it went through, Jorish could somehow feel its course. It had been aimed to collide with Anise’s neck to send it flying. She was oblivious as she rushed in blindly.

He knew warning her was pointless. Instead, he jumped forward, as he shoved his staff in front of her and pushed down on her legs, putting her off balance and pushing himself forward. Her face twitched in surprise and momentary anger at him, before the blade of air struck the edge of his staff, chipping it and pushing him off-balance. He stepped forwards to balance himself.

Now separated from Anise and within range of all the bandits. His thoughts froze in panic. Just as he was about to step back, he felt a tingling as his instincts pushed him to step forward instead just as he heard an explosion behind him.

He saw the first bandit’s face grunt in annoyance as the second bandit’s hand moved. Jorish stopped moving and smashing his staff on the floor to cancel his momentum just in time for a wave of flame to burst in front of him.

With no time to think he reversed his momentum again, moving forward. Now, finally in range of his staff, the two armed bandits stepped forward, ready to meet him head-on while the unarmed bandits stepped back. This was my chance to fall back, he thought. Yet he felt his body urging him forward. Pushing him to fight.

Neither bandit waited for him to decide as they stepped forward, rushing with wide swings of their weapons. It was there that Jorish felt it. He didn’t know what caused this flow of information that caused him to see everything around him in such details, but he felt the presence of a slight opening between the attackers. He felt the hesitation of the unarmed bandits as they didn’t try to fire their spells at him from their position.

At that moment he didn’t defend or attack. Instead, he stepped forward, his staff held close to his body as he slipped between both bandits. He moved his staff and then used it to push their backs as he spun his staff around, putting them off-balance and tumbling forward.

The unarmed bandits stared in terror as Jorish got in their faces. From behind, he could feel as Anise caught up to the armed guards who were still off-balance.

There was no suspense next as Anise crushed both her opponents, killing them instantly. Jorish struck the unarmed bandits with the full force of his staff, disgusted yet still surprised by how easily his opponents had been broken and died. Not even as hard as a Kriel huh, he thought.

Moments later all the assailants were dead. Jorish recoiled as the flow of information stopped. He turned around when he remembered that Cail was there, and was confused by his lack of assistance as they fought. He didn’t have the chance to ask as he saw Cail rush deeper inside the village.

Jorish and Anise followed him until they finally arrived at the town center. They stood still as they witnessed a scene that forced even Anise to freeze out of terror.

The floor couldn’t be seen as pools of blood ran through it. Countless bodies, or whatever remained of them, wearing various rags were thrown around, cut and mutilated beyond recognition. Deep grooves made their marks around on the sand as blood and flesh splattered around.

In the midst of the mess, he stood. Green cloak and silver mask. Eyes shining red like crimson. On his right hand he held his sword, with his left he grasped the face of a kneeling bandit.

The bandit kept convulsing and thrashing around as tiny blades of blood hit him, cutting his body and clothes alike as muffled shouts were heard. Not a moment later, the small blades of blood that were feeding on the bandit’s body enlarged, shredding and blowing his body into pieces.

Silence reigned as no one dared to break the silence. Anise feet shuffled closer to the Traveler who stood in silence next to an aging body. Moments later a crazed wail went off in the wind.

Jorish felt shocked, unable to process everything that had just happened as he walked forward. His eyes rested on the corpse of a child. He didn’t know how, but he immediately knew it was the boy who gave him the bracelet. He took out the bracelet and grasped it hard, as he lost his balance as he stumbled forward, falling to his knees. He felt his tears flow down his face.

In a few minutes, the wailing stopped as Anise sat down, apparently in too much of a shock to think of anything. Too tired to even cry anymore.

The silence lasted for a few minutes until Traves’s hand extended, slowly taking off his mask. He turned around in what Jorish instinctively felt to be the direction of the capital. The traveler spoke, grimly and coldly, holding his blade tightly.

“Come, friends, it seems we’ve got a bone to pick.”