Twunk! Whoosh! Twunk!

Dirt and pebbles flew over Yuriko’s shoulder as she dug a hole in the ground. It was around a dozen paces wide, and nearly a pace deep. She needed to dig a bit deeper, at least another pace, before she would be done.

On the other end of the pit, Rhox was also grimly digging into the soil, using a hoe to loosen the hard-packed dirt. They were just outside the village, outside of the protective berm that didn’t do anything to ward off the savage marauders. With a borrowed shovel, she and Rhox were determined to put the dead at peace.

“Do you burn your dead?” Yuriko had asked.

“No, we bury them to return to the earth. To nourish the land,” Rhox choked out.

“Alright.”

Then she looked over the village and found a shovel. The one she had inside her backpack was too small for this kind of work. She found a relatively flat spot then started digging.

“What are you doing?” Rhox couldn’t help but ask.

Yuriko grunted. “Digging a grave. I can’t leave them just out there. Bad enough that we couldn’t recover Drost and Rharn’s bodies…”

“Oh. I’ll help,” Rhox said softly.

The wind howled as they dug. Dusk would arrive soon, but thoughts of stopping to prepare camp, or food didn’t even occur to her.

Those scum killed everyone, down to the smallest child. They severed the villager’s Ancestors’ lineages! And they…the parents and the children, will no longer have a chance to become an Ancestor. They will wander the Grey World until their Anima dissipates and is reborn. With no one praying for them, how long before they reincarnate?

Poor children…dead before they could experience life.

Plop. Plop.

Tears, of course. Dripping down her cheeks. She let them flow as she worked. It took a couple of hours before the hole was deep and wide enough. Then the two of them moved the bodies, and laid them to rest. A hundred and three bodies. Nearly forty were children. A mix of snake, lizard, and crocodile kin. No humans.

“Do you…have any last rites?” Yuriko asked.

Rhox nodded. She picked up a shovelful of dirt and dumped it in the hole.

“Return to the earth from whence you came. Walk in the darkness, and emerge in the light of renewal. Farewell.”

Rhox repeated the benediction for every body, covering each with a shovel of dirt as she recited, even if she had to go back and forth. Her voice grew hoarse, towards the end, but she didn’t falter. Once each one was sent off with the benediction, she nodded at Yuriko, and both of them started to cover the pit. They didn’t know their names, and there was nothing more to be said.

They retired into one of the cleaner houses by the end of it all. They ate some of the trail rations that Yuriko kept in her bag, and they slept like logs afterwards. Though Yuriko didn’t forget to set her alarm stones around the village.

She must have slept for an hour when she was jolted awake. The stones…they had activated.

_____

Kou spat out the weed he had been chewing on as they neared the village walls. The scent was somewhat faded but it undoubtedly led here. Ironic, considering this had been one of the places they’d hit on their mission list. A little act of terrorism to get the ball rolling so to speak. Spark enough outrage and people stopped thinking. Maybe there was more beneath the surface but as long as it was occluded enough, most wouldn’t think to look beyond the obvious.

“Think they’re here, Wing leader?” Renche, his Talon leader adjutant, whispered. “This is scary work, hunting down an Elder.”

“As long as we keep our distance, we should be fine,” Kou replied confidently.

The Elder didn’t have a way to attack at range. Their crossbows were accurate at fifty paces, but were still deadly at a hundred. All they had to do was aim and shoot. There were bound to be a few that would strike true. Besides, sometimes it was better that they all didn’t aim at the same spot. If they did then all the target needed to do was dodge a little distance.

It was already halfway through the night, but they couldn’t let their quarry get too far ahead. Several of his men were trackers with Geists specialized for hunting down fleeing prey, but that didn’t mean they could track endlessly. As long as they were less than a day behind then the Geists would work, but more than that and the number of false positives got too high.

Travel had been slow, infuriatingly so. After every encounter they had, they’d shot enough bolts to take down a Dire Beast but the little Elder had been too nimble. Plus, they had to make sure each bolt carried enough Animus to penetrate the woman’s Field. Not that that did it, either way. But still, every bolt invested in Animus that managed to connect would hurt the woman. Recovering from Animus exhaustion was honestly what took them so long to follow.

The village was protected by a low berm, maybe a pace high. It was sloped on the inside and wasn’t really anything more than a deterrent for the common beast. It was easy enough for Kou and his cohort to step over it. Now where in the village were they? He noticed a distinct lack of bodies. Personally, he wouldn’t order a massacre but he had no choice in the matter. Still, his Anima had blackened with enough misdeeds that a little more wouldn’t make much of a difference.

There were fifteen houses, most made with wood and stone, covered by straw roofs. The village hall was the only slate and stone construction, so there was a big chance that their quarry had sheltered there.

“Their scent is thick in the air,” Keiko, their Tigris tracker, said. “They’re still here. I’m sure of it.”

“Which one?” Kou asked. He scratched under his mane using a claw.

“Both, I think. Uh...” she rubbed at her snout. “I..are you sure we’re supposed to kill her?”

“Those are the orders. Move to the back now.”

“I…uh...”

“Go.”

Keiko reluctantly nodded.

“That Elder’s presence is problematic,” Renche muttered. “Don’t look at her for too long.”

“We’re in trouble if even her scent is already affecting the trackers,” Kou snorted. “Nothing for it. Kill her as soon as we can.”

“Wing leader! I detected an Animus signature!” Eiko, one of the other scouts ran up to him in a panic, “I think we…!”

Whatever she wanted to say, what warning she wanted to call became moot when a crossbow bolt smashed into one of the vanguards. It came from one of the closer houses, not the village hall!

The darkness of the night, illuminated only by a waxing moon, broke when a golden light suddenly flared to life.

“Oh no!” Kou yelped. The house was only a couple dozen paces from the berm. He watched in mounting horror as the female, human Elder emerged, her hand bearing a sword forged from the fires of the Radiant Sun. “Shoot!”

But the volley was ragged, nearly half of his troops were still stunned by the sudden brightness, and only those further back had been spared. As for Kou, his relative strength and Geist was enough to shield his eyes. He aimed with his own projectile weapon and pulled the trigger, immediately kneeling to winch the string back in place as soon as he released.

His movements were quick and fluid. Attach the hook to the string, brace the stock against his waist, spin the handle five times after setting the locking mechanism. Place the bolt along the grove, detach the hook and ready to shoot.

In the time he did that, dozens of bolts had been sent the Elder’s way, but her figure blurred as she moved quickly to dodge the attacks. In less than a blink of an eye, she had halved the distance between them. Too close!

“Retreat!” he yelled.

His cohort followed but as for the other two cohorts, their Wing leaders must have been dazzled. They barely reacted, and by the time they got to their senses, it was too late. The woman was in their midst. A single swing of her saber took off a head. A stab pierced through another’s helm as though it were nothing but paper. When she pulled her weapon back, the leather fittings were already smoking and the scent of burning meat permeated the air.

The next instant, she danced in between several men, taking a head off here, stabbing a heart there. At some point she must have thought that dismembering an arm or a leg was just as effective as cutting a head, and much faster too. Glancing blows at the thigh was more than enough to drop a man, whose screams broke through the others’ stupor. In five seconds, she killed or maimed a dozen men.

“Run!”

He thought nothing of abandoning that cohort. The other one was slow to react but lucky to not have drawn her attention. They, too, began to withdraw. No, it was a rout more than anything else.

The ease at which she slaughtered broke their spirits. Worse, when Kou looked back, he caught a glimpse of her face. It was oddly serene, expressionless. But when he saw her eyes, at times blue and at others glowing gold, he saw anger so deep that he felt his Anima scorch. And yet, he was oddly drawn to her. He could feel it. His Anima slowly twisting. The enthralling effect she had on everyone, and one of the most critical pieces of intelligence that had been sent to his unit.

If she stopped and asked them to surrender, they would. If she told them to tell her everything they knew, they would. If she asked them to betray their city, they would. Without a second thought. If only she asked.

But those eyes. They sought only to kill, to destroy. And with the lack of command, lay their salvation. She didn’t demand they do anything else, so they could only do what they had set out to do.

Kou ripped his eyes away from her. His breathing was ragged. He ran for fifty paces down the road, with his cohort around him. Keiko was lucky he’d already sent her to the back. As for her twin, Eiko, she was dead.

The warriors were fleeing, but the Elder was much too fast. Even as she killed or maimed, she always stayed within the crowd. How could they shoot her now? They’d hit more of their own men than her. This was a disaster brought about by exhaustion. Still, something must be done or they are all dead.

“Form ranks!” he yelled, careful to keep his eyes away from her.

Whatever influence he had been subjected to had started to fade. The second cohort had fled in a different direction, allowing the first and the third some leeway. They had a choice now, either to keep running and regroup, or to try to bring her down now. She was preoccupied, there was a chance!

“Shoot!”

The Elder must have been surprised by their act. She froze for a second, allowing several bolts to bounce off her fiery aura before she reacted and started to dodge around. Then, the bolts were killing more of them than anything else. A minute later, she was the only one upright. She must have been glaring at them since Kou felt the heat from her eyes washing over him. Still, they needed to persevere.

“Watch out!’ someone yelled. Renche.

He looked up just in time to see her leap at them. The cloud of dust behind her as she propelled herself towards the first cohort. The bolts bounced off, and none of them came even close to touching her skin. She stopped trying to dodge and was relying on her Protective Field to close in on them.

Oh no.

He reached deep inside his Anima, to his Geist. He didn’t want to do this, as the chances of exposure were too high. That was why none of them did anything more than empower their crossbow bolts. Then again, he doubted that any of their Geists were a match for hers.

He knelt, then pressed his palms on the ground. His Geist materialised around him as a hazy outline occluded by an amulet he wore.

Just as the woman’s foot impacted the ground ten paces away, weeds, vines, and shrubs erupted from the ground, catching hold of her ankle.

She cursed loudly in a language he didn’t know, even as she ripped the plants off the ground. But more appeared and tried to ensnare her. Her fiery blade swept and burned the vegetation, and the fire sank all the way to the ground, burning Kou’s Animus strands off.

He yelled from the effort but his sacrifice had been enough. More and more bolts peppered the Elder, enough so that he could see her Field start to crack. She cursed soundly and retreated. But not before she threw the saber at him.

It spun as it flew, and Kou’s vision focused on his impending doom. The next moment, his vision spun dizzyingly, and the next thing he knew, he was staring at his own decapitated body from behind. He just had enough consciousness to see the blade fly back to her hand before darkness claimed him.