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

Ethereal scythes fanned outwards, arcing towards Bandit. Instead of dodging backwards, Bandit dashed forwards, a long purple blade in hand, ringing a strident melody. Dangerous Sayhas thought. A moment before the scythes hit the spot where Bandit was, Sayhas pulled it into Bandit’s backside. But Bandit must have heard what Sayhas did.

He jumped up and a shield materialized on his back. Bandit tucked his knees in and slouched his back, catching the scythes with the shield. One of them managed to slash his arm but it couldn’t draw blood. Bandit had a Discord mesh weaving too; it was of the same make as Sayhas’. After all, they learned it from the same person. Bandit rode the pull of Maaier Speal, closing the distance in an instant. Cinders.

Sayhas flung himself to the side, bringing his scythes between him and Bandit. In the brief respite, he checked himself for wounds. There was a nick by his hip where a dagger probably slipped past his defence. Then, he heard cracking in front of him, as the ambient Discord was ripped apart. Right after, a purple-black oval coagulated from the torn Discord. The edges were a sinister purple web, erratic branches growing outwards, fading as they got farther away from the origin. Its center consisted of a murky, morphing black. It blocked his hearing. Straining, Sayhas managed to hear something. A distinct sound.

A purple blade stabbed through the portal as Sayhas raised his arm in defence. He pooled the Discord that powered his defensive lightning mesh to his arms, barely raising the Discord density to a point it could block the blade. Sayhas pushed into the flat of the blade into the dirt and stabbed the back end of Maaier Speal into Bandit. The tip of the scythe was thinned into a deadly spike that clung onto flesh like an arrowhead.

Bandit staggered and cough out blood. He managed to create a portal to distance himself before Sayhas could attack again. Maaier Speal was still embedded into Bandit’s gut. Sayhas took out Soulthirst and a white scythe. “Bados’ beard, that hurt.” Bandit laughed and raised his red blade. A haze of Discord spread out like an invisible miasma. It sank into the corpses.

Sayhas touched Maaier Speal with his Soul Sound and remotely activated it. That was bound to surprise Bandit. As far as Sayhas knew, no one else in the world could do that; he had devised that technique himself. Unfortunately, he couldn’t wait to see how Bandit reacted.

The dead men rose from their slumber. They sounded different, powerful, threatening even. A beam of lightning travelled for the white scythe, melting through the undead mass like the wrath of the sun. He’s killed them all once, he could do it again. This time, he’d kill them so thoroughly that there was nothing left to revive.

As he melted one after another, a slight feeling of nausea filled his stomach, but it was manageable for now. Sayhas shook his head to throw away the sweat collecting by his nose. As he did so he noticed that a haze would rise from the soldiers he’d killed. Sayhas felt a grin smear itself across his face.

“Drink?” Soulthirst asked, “I’m thirsty.”

Still shooting out the beam of lightning, Sayhas fell into Partial Resonance with Soulthirst. This state required precise control of Discord and allowed Sayhas to be less fatigued when using it.

The greedy scythe hummed and sucked in the haze, pulling it in like gravity. Red orbs flitted about. Even Sayhas wasn’t free from Excalibur’s influence. Stop it.

“Yum,” it replied dreamily.

Sayhas rolled his eyes, the amount Soulthirst was draining was insignificant. He shot a few red orbs backwards. They were sliced apart. “You took your time Bandit,” Sayhas mused, not turning back, still shooting the beam.

“What did you do with that flaming scythe.”

Sayhas Dismantled the white scythe into Maaier Speal. “This is a god aspect, it’s special.”

“Stop using that scythe and I won’t use Bloodlust.”

“That’s not a good deal,” Sayhas retorted, putting his back to the thinned out the undead horde. A wall of scythes rose behind him acting like a wall.

“Corpses aren’t the only thing I can control,” Bandit whispered. As he said that, the bushes and trees started to tremble. The grass latched onto his boots and even the air itself stilled.

Cinders that's scary. “Deal,” Sayhas said.

“Promise.”

“You first.”

Bandit chewed his lips, “Fine. I promise to promise that I will forgo the usage of Bloodlust for the remainder of our current battle immediately after you promise that you will forgo the usage of the god aspect, said in however method you may.”

Sayhas paused then started. But caught himself before making a scene. “Clever,” he said slowly. “I promise that I will not use Maaier Speal and any of its abilities until one of us is dead.”

“I promise that I will forgo the usage of Bloodlust for the remainder of our current battle.”

“Sealed.”

Though not of his own volition, Maaier Speal, vanished into Soul Sound. Sayhas listened to himself and felt a void where his bond with Maaier Speal typically was. Peering deeper into his Discord, Sayhas could sense a faint connection with the scythe. He resisted the urge to touch the bond.

“Been a while since I did a restriction promise. Forgot how weird it feels.” Bandit said eyes closed. Bloodlust was gone too.

Sayhas planted the tail-end of Soulthirst into the ground and waited. Idly, he fidgeted with a multicoloured Soul in his pocket and replenished the Discord powering his protective Weaving. Finally, Bandit opened his eyes.

“The old Reaper would have killed me just now.”

“The old Reaper would have killed you when you were making that first promise.”

“Oldum’s a terrible influence on you.” Bandit drew his purple blade. “You’re still with him right?”

“Yes, but it’s not really him. It was Eve’s fault.”

“Ahh, Eve. Blasted woman.”

Enough small talk.

“Finally, I’m hungry.”