They arrived at the outskirts of the bandit camp in the middle of the night. Selphis, the white moon, was at its apex, emitting a misty white glow. Days like this where Selphis rose at midnight were weird. Shouldn't midnight be the darkest part of the night? Instead, with Selphis, the night became a misty morning. So much for stealth.

Sayhas had spent far longer tracking down the camp than he intended for the trail of Soul Sound dissipated before he could locate any material clues to the bandit camps whereabouts. Instead, he had wandered in a general direction, trusting his gut. He should have taken Oldum; he would have known how to track them. Even Mizu would have come up with something.

Instead, he could only regret not paying attention when Oldum taught him how to track in the forest. He used Clive's trick of sending ethereal aspects ahead to scout. But if they found the bandits, it’d be a chase. Unfortunately, the three stowaways didn’t have the presence of mind to stay completely quiet, earning them malevolent glares every time they grew too raucous. To Sayhas’ dismay, they even tried to initiate small talk with him. Seriously? Now of all times?

It was when Sayhas was considering the possibility of giving up that he heard something. At the limits of his enhanced Soul Dissonance, something flared, burning brightly like a beacon. That was it, the camp. It had to be. Otherwise, Sayhas would have failed. He made a b-line towards the flame, it had flickered away, but Sayahs had made a mental note of the location. He all but sprinted across the forest floor, making as much sound as a hunting owl.

Blessedly, the three stayed quiet. It was as if they knew that the search was over.

The hunt was on.

He could feel the flames of the bandits now. They were dim, even worse than Kirin. In the middle of the dim flames was one slightly brighter one. It felt familiar. Lucia. She was still alive at least. He zeroed onto her Discord, he was close enough to do so. It pulsed normally, albeit at a quickened pace. But otherwise, it showed no signs of damage. She was frightened. That was it.

“Lucia,” Kirin whispered. His eyes were wide, his heart thumping loudly in his chest. “Is she there? Is she safe?”

“She’s there,” Sayhas said, absentmindedly, “Don’t know about safe. But I guess she’s as safe as we can expect her to be.”

“Cinders, what’s that supposed to mean?” Kirin angrily said, getting louder and louder. Sayhas cringed, he was trying to listen around the camp but Kirin’s shouting whisper was making his job a whole lot harder.

“Quiet,” Taed said, putting his hand on Kirin's shoulder, “relax, it’ll be fine.”

Kirin summoned a sword. It sounded amazing.

It was distracting.

“Put that away,” someone hissed. The blade vanished in heavenly sound.

So distracting

Finally, Sayhas found it. It was hidden, from Sayhas’ ears; he almost missed it. What could block Soul Sound like that? Sayhas could worry about that later. He had found a grouping of glows with the same lustre as Taed. Maybe a little duller. But what Sayhas was really looking for was the glow in the centre. This glow resembled Mizu’s.

Sayhas felt a grin spread across his face. Found you Bandit.

“Are we going back for them?” Dismas asked, “Or… you have a Ciyrox receiver for Mizu, don’t you? You’ll just use that then. But—not that I mean to doubt you of course—won’t it be hard to give them direct instructions through the forest?”

Covertly, Sayhas eyed Dismas as he ranted. Never change kid, you’re adorable. Sayhas was once a captain in a mercenary corps and a very young Dismas part of the same corp. Unfortunately, Sayhas was not in much contact with Dismas as the difference in rank was too great. Though Dismas did serve as an eternal source of amusement. He always rambled on when he was nervous, it seems Dismas hasn’t gotten rid of that quirk yet.

Both Maaier Speal fell into Sayhas’ outstretched palms and he looked up at Dismas. “We’ve got someone to rescue, don’t we?”

“Wait, what?”

“Alright get close people, here’s the plan.”

. . .

“You’re crazy.” Taed, who, refreshing, had no filter, accused. “Mizukana’s going to kill you for this.”

“That’s why you’re not going to tell her.”

“Trust him Taed, he knows what he’s doing,’ Dismas said.

“I trust him,” Taed summoned a spear, “still think he’s crazy.”

“You’re all okay with the plan then?” Sayhas asked.

“I’m down as long as it brings Lucia back,” Kirin said.

“Perfect, wait for my signal.”

Ethereal scythes fanned out of Maaier Speal as he walked towards Lucia’s glow. He wouldn’t use it's Attunement Sayhas needed to save his strength. He merged the blades, stacking onto Maaier Speal, making them overlap like a cake.

Sayhas clamped Maaier Speal between his knees and awkwardly hopped forward. He summoned and unnamed blue-green scythe. Sayhas took a deep breath, cracking his neck and back. If I die, at least two people will be sad. Another two will be pretty pissed. I better not die.

Sayhas let out a giggle. Just the prospect of getting a chance to kill Bandit made him feel all giddy inside. He slashed the newly summoned scythe, letting out an ocean-like ripple of blades. Immediately, Sayhas Dismantled it into Soulthirst.

The Reaper was coming out tonight.

Sayhas lurched forwards, propelling himself out of the thicket with Maaier Speal. Dozens of shocked faces greeted him as he landed. He whipped Maaier Speal around, slitting throats with ethereal blades. Surprisingly, the noobs reacted rather fast. Projectiles of anything that can be thought of raced towards Sayhas. He stabbed Maaier Speal into the floor and grabbed Soulthirst with both hands.

“Yum,” the scythe said as it drank the projectiles. “Is that it? Do the other one then.”

“Not yet.”

Sayhas hooked Soulthirst to a specially designed clasp on his back and pulled Maaier Speal from the ground. It had lost its blades due to being apart from Sayhas but he didn’t need it anymore.

“Could you all please move out of the way? I’m here to save the girl.”

Most of them crowded in front of Lucia’s cage, weapons pointed towards Sayhas. AS if that meant anything at all. He smirked and listened. From behind, a ripple of blades shot out.

“Scatter!” someone shouted.

The group messily tumbled away, stumbling over themselves. Some managed to avoid the blades but most weren't so lucky. On the floor, trampled by their colleagues, the unlucky ones were sliced into tiny strips. Suddenly, the ripple vanished, dissipating into smoky tendrils. A shield-bearer.

Dressed in grey armour, a big man was holding a blue shield, He lifted the shield from the floor. Behind him, Sayhas couldn’t see, he could hear to other people. They too were stronger than the rest.

Better trained? Finally.

Sayhas attached an ethereal scythe to the shield-bearer and pulled. Hard. The big man stumbled forwards. Sayhas threw a few more scythes on his armour, dragging the shieldbearer across the air. He reacted quickly, forming a bubble of protective Discord. Smart, using my pulling against me. Sayhas dug to ethereal scythes into the ground and blocked the shieldbearers counterattack with Maaierspeal. The connections to the ground strain but held.

Surprised at Sayhas’ resilience, the shield-bearer awkwardly danced back. Sayhas could hear the imperfections in his barrier now. He was good at that now, thanks to his sparring with Oldum.

Sayhas ducked under a blade that would have connected with his head. And turned to face the attacker. The third reasonably competent warrior attacked, smashing what seemed to be a mace into his back. Sayhas had heard it coming and maneuvered Soulthirst—which was clasped into his back—to block it.

Cinders, that hurt. Sayahs prodded Soulthirst with a thin thread of Discord.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Elemental orbs rapidly circled Sayhas, creating the image of hula-hoops at weird angles. Colourful beams shot out, razing all three of the attackers. He slashed at the swordsman’s legs, impaling his chest with three ethereal scythes. Then, he brought the blade up and slashed downwards. Simultaneously, he had summoned a white scythe. From that new scythes tip, multiple lightning bolts slithered out and crawled towards the mace-wielder.

His downwards slash had splattered blood onto Sayahs’ duster.

Chains be blessed, this is new.

He heard a body from behind fall to the floor. One left. Sayahs tugged on the two scythes he used earlier to stabilize himself against the shieldbearer. They broke through the weak point at the back of the protective bubble. The big man fell.

Sayhas dismissed the white scythe and Maaier Speal.

“I held back this time. Are you proud of me?” Soulthirst chimed in a sing-song fashion as Sayhas walked towards the cage. “Look, almost half the orbs are left.”

“Good job.” Soulthirst hummed pleasantly at that. “Now use the rest.”

“On what?”

“Anything still moving.”

Sayhas summoned a red scythe and sliced open the cage doors, melting through whatever it touched. Lucia stumbled up to her feet, eyes wide. Oil and grime were lathered over her typically ghostly pale skin. She collapsed onto him.

“Sayhas!” Lucia cried. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to get captured. I’m not a liability to the team, I promi—”

“Shhh,” Sayhas soothed, helping her stand.

She hugged him, “Thank you,” she said between sobs. She pulled away, wiping tears from her eyes, “where’s Kirin? He didn’t do anything stupid did he?”

“Almost. He’s here, just beyond the trees.” Sayhas paused, listening. Soulthirst was done committing mass murder and instead, was humming to itself, satisfied. He unclasped Soulthirst. “Can you fight?”

“Duh,” the scythe said.

“Yes,” Lucia said, her Discord quavered.

Lying are we?

He sent Discord into his silver bracelet, Weaving thin threads of lightning around his hand. He pushed Lucia in the chest, sending the threads into her. “Sorry kid, no lunarwing green.” He gently set her down, placing her back in the cage as her body went limp. He reached down and checked her pulse. Please be alive, Hysiedies isn’t here to save you. Thankfully she was fine.

Sayhas got up and walked deeper into the camp, passing by empty tents; former homes of the ones he’d just slaughtered. He didn’t have to walk far.

“Hello, Bandit.”

Bandit was a tall man, dressed in black, nobleman finery with a glass of red—either blood or wine. He had long, black hair with a slight purple varnish, similar to Lucia. All this brought focus to his pale face, the only thing readily visible under the shelter of the night. When Bandit stole something, all anyone ever saw was his face. That’s what they remembered, and Bandit liked it that way.

“Hello, Reaper.” Bandit downed the glass and grinned at Sayhas, showing red-stained, perfect teeth. “What brings you here?”

“I've come to collect my dues.” Sayhas listened at his Discord but could glean nothing useful. Bandit had learned a long time ago how to control his Discord. After last time, he had too.

“I don’t remember owing you anything,” Bandit said, scratching his head.”

“We parted ways before I could tell you.”

“Hmm? Oh really. Well, please enlighten me.” Bandit rested his hand on a blade sheathed by his side and smirked knowingly.

Sayhas summoned Maaier Speal, making sure to exaggerate the light and sound it emanated as it coagulated from nothing. “Not much really.” Ethereal blades sprung out of Maaier Speal, blossoming behind Sayhas like a thornbush but more elegant. “I’ve come to take your life.”

“Oh no. that’s not for sale.” Bandit snapped his fingers and seven others appeared. Sayhas recognized them as the reasonably strong glows he’d seen earlier.

In response and without cue from Sayhas, the three stowaways dashed out of the trees and stood in front of Sayhas, weapons in hand. Dismas looked at Sayhas, question in his eyes, careful not to completely turn away from Bandit.

“Who are these cuties?” Bandit exclaimed.

“Plan C,” Sayhas muttered, “Plan C.”

“I sure hope they can fight…” Bandit mused, “whatever, let’s begin. Eshkel, Noham, Cayton. Deal with the children.

But before Bandit’s men could move, Sayhas’ group smashed into the other four, attacking in a vicious frenzy. They disappeared into the forest.

“Nevermind,” Bandit said, “deal with him.”

The three started towards Sayhas, blades raised and poised to strike. Sayhas looked at them and held each of their eyes. They shivered and shifted backwards. Sayhas read there Discord.” Impressive. They're good enough to tell that they are completely outclassed, Sayhas thought

A red blade impaled one of the three, “Oh Cayton, don’t look at me like that. You knew full well what would happen if you disobeyed me.” Bandit twisted the blade, digging around Cayton’s chest. “Noham, Eshkel.” Bandit pointed at Sayahs with a red blade. Their eyes darted between Sayhas and Bandit.

“You need motivation?” Bandit’s sword began to glow, sending off streams of Discord that buried itself into Eshkel and Noham. Bloodlust filled them.

They ran at Sayhas, blades held high like they were actors in a terrible play. Although they looked silly, Sayhas knew that the strength they boasted, along with Bandits blade, was nothing to scoff at. Sayhas slit their throats simultaneously with ethereal blades and sank another deep into their hearts.

“Cinders,” Bandit swore lightheartedly as if he had just lost two pitches. “As much as I’d love to throw bodies at you for the entire night, I’ve got places to be tomorrow.”

Without any more preamble, Bandit threw his blade. It twisted in the air, red metal catching the Selphis’ light. Sayhas Weaved a barrier of lighting around his arms, creating a mesh layer that would offer a small degree of protection. He smacked the flat of the blade with his reinforced arm and unclasped Soulthirst while blocking several more projectiles with Maaier Speal.

“How long can you keep that up?”

Bandit began to throw with even more vigour. His blades blocked out the surroundings and for one serene moment, all that could be heard was the gentle clang of metal clashing. But Sayhas couldn’t listen to the beautiful melody forever. He had to get back before Mizu got suspicious.

The numerous scythes of Maaier Speal converged onto Bandit.

Death by impaling? A far, far better death than Bandit deserved.

Death by tiny surface cuts that slowly gorged deeper and deeper until you died from blood loss? That was more like it.