The chance came a week after the incident, when they were visiting yet another village hidden by guarded tunnels halfway up the mountains. Because there was only enough room inside the caves to accommodate some channelers who would otherwise be in tents, Solera and the other prisoners were split into smaller groups scattered around the craggy mountain. The fog making up the endless stormclouds enveloped them in a dense soup, making it impossible to see beyond ten meters.

Yes, this was his chance to kill Jumpy. With most of the channelers, including Rasmurnov, in caves, low visibility in uneven terrain, and even a river to dispose of the body, it was almost too perfect.

So when Jumpy’s silhouette rose to its feet, Solera was elated. His efforts of sneaking into Jumpy’s group during the prisoner divisions and staying up all these hours looked like they were about to pay off. If Jumpy had done nothing all night, giving Solera absolutely no opportunity to strike, then he might have just given up on the plan entirely.

Solera wiped the condensation off his face as he stealthily got up. The other sentries for his small group were too far away to clearly make him out. Next to him was a snoring old man, the one who had fought with him against Jakovich. Because the old man had gone to sleep the first moment he could, Solera still didn’t know his name. He took care not to wake him as he creeped away.

Jumpy had gone downhill, presumably to the bathroom a hundred meters away, but Solera needed to do one thing first. He remembered that on the way here, he had seen a tall tree surrounded by several large boulders. After a half minute of walking, he had located it in the fog. After checking his surroundings for others, Solera took out the flat rock he had been hiding for the last few days in his robe and stripped his clothing off. He folded the robe and placed it underneath a malformed, cracked boulder. If it got stained during the assassination, then all his hard work would be for naught.

He picked the flat rock back up, feeling its cool, smooth surface in his hands. Though he was naked, it actually felt warmer without the damp clothing on his skin. The mists enveloped him in a coolness that wasn’t soothing in the way a hot bath would be, but it was nonetheless very comfortable. He checked his surroundings again before striding off into the direction Jumpy had gone.

As he strode down the hill in the direction Jumpy had gone, a drop of cold landed on his hair. Then another, and another. Raindrops fell through the fog from the clouds above, trickling into ruts in the ground which ran down the entire mountain. Over time, the ruts would gather together to form into streams and then into rivers running through the base of the Thunderslab. One such river was not far away; he had seen it on the way here, and he could still hear the faint rushing sounds of the water if he strained his ears.

He had gone about fifty meters down the hill when he made out the faint outline of a human form leaning against the silhouette of a tree. He froze. After a moment, when he was certain that the outline hadn’t noticed him, he dropped to the ground to eliminate his silhouette.

This figure… yes, it was Jumpy. His head was tilted upwards at the sky, as if he was pondering something.

Not that he was, of course. He was a deranged psychopath. And Solera was going to kill him here.

He silently inhaled. He could feel his heartbeat, even and tempered. He was ready. He was in control. He could do this, and he would do this. Because he had decided to.

He began to creep along the ground in a roundabout fashion so that Jumpy wouldn’t be able to see him. His feet were bare and his footsteps were light, the way Vinoh had trained them to be so long ago, but they still made tiny, scuffing sounds as they treaded over the pebbles and stones. No big deal, though. The noises were all but imperceptible amidst the pouring rain.

The ground was bumpy and filled with grooves, allowing Solera to silently move through the cover towards Jumpy. There weren’t any people nearby, he was certain of it. Everything was clear. He gripped the rock tightly, his eyes narrowing. He had a week’s worth of verdant power saved between the crystal and his Lake. He would end this before it even started.

Jumpy’s head jerked around. “Who’s that?”

Solera didn’t know what had given him away, but he didn’t think about it because he was already bolting down the last five meters of distance between the two of them the moment Jumpy’s head had moved. Jumpy’s silhouette gained depth as he closed the distance between the two of them, turning into a young man with wet, black clothing and a shocked expression.

Verdant power blasted through Solera’s channels as he pounced. Jumpy recoiled, attempting to back away but only bumping into the tree behind him. The rock left Solera’s hands and sailed through the air at a dangerous speed towards Jumpy’s face, who raised his arms to protect himself. Even as a small thumping sound emitted as the rock smashed into his forearms, Solera was upon him.

It was as if the world was moving slower than usual. Solera’s senses heightened to the maximum. The burning sensation of overpowering was back, along with the calmness that had accompanied it before. He was calm. He was in control.

Solera’s palm smashed into Jumpy’s chin with enough force to throw someone an entire ten meters away. His head jerked backwards into the tree, creating a loud thud and a cracking noise as the bark split apart. Jumpy should have already died, but Solera’s other hand shot for his neck. Just in case.

His hand clamped down around Jumpy’s throat, squeezing it so that no sound could come out. As he did so, his eyes widened. He had slammed Jumpy’s chin into the tree with the combined force of overpowering and a fair amount of verdant power from the crystal, yet he could still feel a vibrant pulse in Jumpy’s neck!

What the fuck was going on?

His palm redoubled in force, pressing Jumpy’s face harder into the tree. His fingers descended and raked Jumpy’s cheeks. Thin, bloody canals were carved into Jumpy’s face, much like the rainwater ruts on the ground around them. A strangled gurgling sound came out of Jumpy’s throat.

A metal gauntlet pressed into Solera’s abdomen. Before he could react, he was sent backwards by an inexplicable pushing force. He stumbled back for several meters before tripping over himself and rolling across the ground for another few meters.

Solera got up quickly, staring cautiously at Jumpy. The kinetic push hadn’t injured Solera, but he didn’t care because Jumpy should have been dead! Why wasn’t he dead?

An inhuman groan came out of Jumpy’s throat as he extracted his head from the indent it had made in the tree. Blood poured out of a deep gash in his skull, along with some faint, gray light.

Overpowered! Without even being able to see Solera’s palm coming, Jumpy had overpowered! This motherfucker! Solera cursed in his heart as he charged towards Jumpy again. Jumpy was crazy, but he definitely had either strong reactions or incredible foresight to do that without even seeing the blow coming.

Jumpy’s eyes were dim and glazed, although Solera could not be sure in the fog. The gash in his head seemed to be deep, very deep. And yet his gauntleted hand was raising upwards towards Solera.

Zwub zwub zwub zwub zwub-

A thorny mass of gray branches of power blasted out of Jumpy’s gauntlet towards Solera. Without even thinking, Solera dived to the side.

The branches shot out like lightning, twisting and smashing into the ground before dissipating into nothing. Out of the corner of his eyes, Solera could see small, perfectly shaped holes in the ground in the area the branches had pierced. What… what the fuck was that attack?

Zwub zwub zwub zwub-

Another storm of gray lightning shot out, twisting in every direction as they grew into the air. This time, they didn’t shoot towards Solera, but in the complete opposite direction he had been in. They enveloped the rock wall a meter away from Jumpy, poking countless holes into it. Solera stared, dumbfounded.

Jumpy’s eyes were still dim. His mouth drooped open to make another gurgling noise. Out of his left, ungauntleted hand, a storm of normal lightning shot out. Rather in clean, straight lines like normal, the lightning storm arced about haphazardly to cover the entire area near Jumpy’s left side.

Solera had no way to dodge before the lightning hit him. He collapsed to the ground as the shocks slammed into him. His ears were ringing again, and he could taste a burning sensation in his mouth.

But he was still overpowered. He was still in control. He stared up at Jumpy, several meters away from him. He, Solera, would finish this!

The pebbles and bark all around Jumpy skated along the ground as the wind around him picked up. Cursing, Solera leaped up and began running to the side. A mini-tornado formed around Jumpy, sending stones spraying everywhere. Solera’s lips thinned some more. He needed to end Jumpy before this ruckus became too loud.

Lights blasted out of Jumpy’s gauntleted hand. They bounced off the fog, lighting up the whole area around Jumpy for a brief moment. The tree lit up with light and emitted several slight crackling sounds, as if it was about to crack apart. As for Jumpy himself, his throat gurgled again as he collapsed onto his knees. His face seemed to be slightly burnt.

Jumpy was on the cusp of death, but he needed to die right now.

Solera took another step to Jumpy’s side, putting himself ever so slightly behind Jumpy. He charged forward and closed his eyes as he passed through the tornado. Rocks bounced off his body again, much like they had done during the avalanche. After a split second, he cracked his eyes open again.

His fist smashed into Jumpy’s jawbone, sending him toppling onto the ground. Solera put his hands on his knees, panting. He had overpowered for too long, he could feel it. Fuck it, it didn’t matter. The other guards! Had any other people noticed? Solera strained his ears, listening for any sounds of possible movement.

Nothing. Just the sound of rain, pitter-pattering onto the ground. After ten seconds of nothing had passed, Solera relaxed. The verdant power flowed into his body, converting into healforce which treated his light burns. Within several minutes, there would be absolutely nothing tying him to the killing. Maybe his channels would be sore for the next few days and he might have lost some cultivation, but nobody would notice things like that.

Jumpy lay on the ground, blood pouring out of his head. Just like the rain, the blood flowed into the ruts. Come morning, perhaps no traces of the fight would be left. Except for one thing. Solera looked up at the rock wall, studded with holes.

He glared at it for several moments. The blood could be washed away, the body could be thrown away. But the holes? What could he do about that?

He could patch it up with mud. That would make it hard to notice. But that would take too long. The more time he spent here, the more likely he would be spotted by someone passing by, for some reason or another. He couldn’t risk it.

Solera sighed. Well, it wasn’t as if Jumpy’s death could have been hidden in the first place. Come morning, they would definitely find out. Only, Solera had intended to make the death possibly seem like an accident. Maybe Jumpy fell off the cliff or something. The holes in the wall made that extremely hard.

He looked into the fog. He knew the cliff edge was not far, only a few hundred meters away. He hoisted Jumpy’s body up onto his shoulder and creeped through the rugged terrain, his eyes constantly sweeping around for any possible signs of other people.

Soon, the sounds of rushing waters could be heard. The turbulent river below ran down for who knew how far. Once he threw the body over, nobody here would ever find it. It was just too bad about the holes, but maybe nobody would notice. It was just one of many, after all. And Solera had never heard of that channeling technique, or really most of the things Jumpy had done. He had not read about it in the channeling books, and it didn’t seem like the average Tornado sect channeler in this contingent of troops knew how to do any of them. So maybe nobody would even recognize that the holes were the vestiges of a channeling technique.

Or maybe the technique was simply something recently invented or something advanced which Solera didn’t know about. Well, then maybe the holes were for the better. It was unlikely a crazy guy like Jumpy would be able to channel advanced techniques like that. And that technique looked like it needed a gauntlet. So an advanced channeler, with a gauntlet. That made it seem more like an advanced Tornado sect channeler had fought with Jumpy and created the holes, rather than Jumpy creating the holes in a fight with an unarmed prisoner.

Solera stopped. In that case, maybe it was better not to throw the body away. No need to make it difficult for that idiot Rasmurnov to connect the dots. If he didn’t even notice the holes and declared that the prisoner was a killer, then that would be even worse.

But this scenario guaranteed foul play, whereas if he threw the body away, it would be much easier to explain as an accident, as long as they didn’t notice the holes. But then how would they draw the conclusion that it was an accident without being able to find the body? And what if they did see the holes?

Gardener damn it all! Solera ground his teeth. Those holes had ruined everything. Everything! Forget it! He would throw the body away. That area was extremely inconspicuous. Combined with the fog, it was extremely easy for nobody to ever notice it without a careful comb-over. And there was no time for one of those, since even if the villages were all safe and sound, they were still far behind schedule. If Solera just left Jumpy’s gauntlet next to the cliff edge, then it would be natural to think there was simply an accident. He had taken off the gauntlet to relax, and somehow fallen off the cliff. Whatever, he was crazy. They needed to move on. Case closed.

The smell of something Solera could not identify hit his nostrils. It was rather pungent. After a moment, he shrugged. Just animal droppings or the fragrance of a particularly odorous mountain plant. Without further ado, he carried the body down the path which led straight to the cliff edge.

On either side of the path were rocky outcroppings. They gave way to a ridge overlooking the bottom of the mountain. Sitting against the stone walls, a pipe in her hand, was Helga.

Solera halted. Their eyes met for a moment, before Helga’s gaze started darting around. Taking in Solera’s nakedness and the corpse on his shoulder.

Helga opened her mouth, and then closed it again. A hint of fear creeped into her expression.

Jumpy’s body slid off of Solera’s back, landing on the ground with a solid thump. He looked straight at Helga, his expression completely blank.

“I killed Jumpy.” His eyes bored into Helga’s face, analyzing every muscle twitch.

Her body was completely still, her eyes like that of a panicked deer. “Y… yeah.”

“... You won’t tell anyone, would you?” Solera stepped forward slowly as he maintained eye contact with her. Even as he asked, he knew what he had to do. He could see the lie forming in her eyes. He knew she was going to tell. To scream.

Helga opened her mouth to answer. Solera’s step immediately turned into a sprint as he charged forward. She didn’t even have time to react before his palm smashed into her face, sending her head flying backwards into the stone wall and bouncing off and sliding to the ground with the rest of her now-limp body. Dead instantly. That was how Jumpy should have died.

His eyes flitted over the two corpses blankly. Helga hadn’t even been wearing her gauntlet. It was laid down at her side. Next to the gauntlet was her pipe, which she had dropped when Solera had killed her. Some smoke was still drifting out of the thing.

His gaze slowly turned into a glare. Why? Already the situation had been complicated by some holes in a damn rock face! Now there was a second death to deal with! Solera gnashed his teeth. Why the fuck did Helga have to be here? Couldn’t she have chosen somewhere else to smoke? She ruined everything!

Solera trembled with fury for another moment before calming himself down. He had to be calm. Calm and decisive. Figure this out again. Maybe this could all be worked out somehow.

What would Rasmurnov think when he saw this? Jumpy, dead from physical blows to the head, and the same with Helga. Could they have done this to each other?

No, of course not. Two people dying simultaneously from punching each other in the head was preposterous. Well, he could still throw the bodies down, and then they wouldn’t be able to know who died from what. Or he could just toss one of them. Solera blinked. There was an idea in there somewhere.

This was the scenario. Jumpy and Helga were smoking the pipe together. No, they wouldn’t do that, they weren’t friends. Helga had made that clear. Okay, Jumpy, pissed off Helga was smoking. Or smoking without him. Or that she was flouting guard duty. Or some other stupid reason. He’s crazy, the specific reason doesn’t have to make sense. He kills the defenseless woman in a fit of anger. Why would he do that? He did something similar just a week ago. That was why Solera had killed him in the first place. To prevent stuff like that from happening again. Yeah, that made sense.

Would Rasmurnov believe this? Maybe, maybe not. Solera needed to set the scene so that he would. And Jumpy still had to die somehow.

Solera thought a bit longer. Jumpy commits suicide. Why? He realizes he has made a transgression a thousand times greater than killing a lowly prisoner. This time, he will be executed without question. Better to kill himself, then. He jumps off the cliff to commit suicide.

Yes, that was the story. It wasn’t too unbelievable a story, either. Solera dragged Jumpy’s body to the edge. Almost as an afterthought, he took off Jumpy’s gauntlet, tossing it to the side. He grabbed Jumpy’s body, and with some effort, raised it over his head.

The body fell forward, disappearing quickly into the mist. After a few seconds, he heard a faint splashing sound. He turned around to Helga’s body, which was still leaning against the rocky outcropping. Would Jumpy have channeled anything to kill Helga? He had only kicked and punched the child, but he had thoroughly burned the young man to death. Solera knew the flame mantra. If he burned Helga’s body, then maybe it would be more convincing.

No, that would be too fishy. Helga already had a fatal head wound. No need to make things too complicated. Then would Jumpy have carried the gauntlet to his death? Solera had no idea.

He shrugged and laid the gauntlet down beside the cliff. It was a shame that he couldn’t keep it. He could hide a rock, but hiding something like a gauntlet, especially Jumpy’s gauntlet, was incredibly risky. If he was found with it, all the effort he had spent on creating this semi-convincing story would have gone up in smoke. He would not risk it all for some weapon he didn’t even know how to properly use.

He made his way back to the tall tree and the cracked boulder, washing off the bloodstains in a puddle before donning his robes and slipping back into his camp. The old man was still snoring away. Similarly, the sentries had not moved from their position on the other side of the area Jumpy had been guarding. They really were incompetent.

Solera laid down on the ground, a simultaneously worried and relieved expression on his face. He had done it. He had slain Jumpy, which meant there would be no more crazy in their group. But he had also killed Helga. He had set it up so that it seemed like an internal conflict, but he couldn’t rest easily until he knew how Rasmurnov would react.

The night passed without any further disturbances.