[A surprise attack, used by people in hiding to gain the upperhand in combat.]

“Here to talk? What a joke,” the ambusher, a short, muscular lady, shouted angrily while still dangling from her sword. She wore a tattered, burgundy coat, similar in design to many of the Clan’s cloaks, which nicely complimented her messy, mossy-green hair. “The only reason a bunch of Hunters and government cronies would show up is to kill us all!”

She let go of her sword, summing another one from her Demon Sheath immediately after landing. The first weapon was a simple short sword, but her second one featured a unique design. Its blade was cobalt blue, and the blade had two large curves, making it into an ‘S’ shape. Both edges were sharp, but one was smooth while the other had large serrations. At the top of the ‘S,’ in line with the hilt, it tapered into a sharp tip, doubling back on itself like a fishhook.

Oroske couldn’t simply block, he had to also parry the weapon away from him, as his blocks, regardless of where they landed, would slide to a position where he would still get stabbed or cut. By pushing it away he protected himself, in addition to creating openings for him to attack. The woman attacking was quick to recover each time, using the weapon’s unique shape to slide it out of the parry. Each opening only lasted a split second before her next attack.

The two danced around the clearing, a flurry of sparks and a cacophony of swords clashing following them. Her attacks were lightning fast, and Oroske wasn’t given much opportunity to attack, and I wagered he was hoping to outlast her stamina.

The noise the two created drew the attention of other bandits, several of which charged at as on sight. While all of them were demons, some had weapons in regular sheathes on their belts. After quickly analyzing their strength, Kared summoned her red scythe, and boldly claimed she could take four of them on at once, and charged at them, trying to corral her targets.

Nadred, Terib, and Vai’ra all stepped forward around the same time, each bringing out their own weapon. Nadred’s weapon of choice was one I hadn’t seen him use until now; a great sword with a very wide blade, rectangular in shape. It seemed great for cutting, and breaking through tough armor, but there was no tip for stabbing whatsoever. The blade was black, with a red line making a nice accent down the center. Each of them met with a single opponent. That left four more. Ranfa came and patted me and Jarou on the back, “It’s go time, boys. Just remember, we’re to incapacitate, not kill.” She stepped forward, summoning a long, thin sword with a green blade, “It’s no big deal if any of them do die though.” She ran off to meet her opponent, with Fyr following right behind her.

That left Jarou and I. We exchanged a look, he nodded and I shrugged. We chased after them, hoping to quickly separate the enemy forces. The opponent I ended up facing was a woman that seemed to be only a year or two older than me. She had wispy, platinum blonde hair, and wore a cloth band that covered her eyes. I was impressed she was a combatant, with her vision being blocked like that.

I had to consider my approach carefully. Up till this point the only people I had fought were Oroske, Nadred, Kared, and the Necromancy from the City of Towers. The first two cases were sparring matches for training purposes, and we had clear rules that decided when the match was over so that both sides would be able to walk away alive and generally unharmed. Against Kared I was so severely outclassed I wasn’t even able to get up to full strength to defend myself, no less attack. The Necromancer I foolishly went in the same way I’d approach Oroske or Nadred, not really trying my absolute hardest to win, which ended up with me losing. I wasn’t able to tell how strong opponents were just by looking at them like Oroske and Kared could, but underestimating their strength could result in my downfall. Similarly, overestimating them might mean I go too far and kill them. Perhaps I use magic to restrain them? What element would I use for that, jarou? Maybe pyrse? My mind raced as I approached her, summoning my sword. I’ll start off at a medium level, I decided, I just need to react quickly, and adapt to her power level. Focus on defense, until I come up with a way to end it quickly.

I made the first move, swinging at her head from above. She had clearly noticed me, but had neither a weapon on her belt or in her hand. Just before making contact, it felt like I hit a solid stone wall. She had daintily raised her right hand, extending her first two fingers. A sword made of rel, pyrse, and sentem all swirling together had appeared to block my strike. She waved her hand and the sword swung to parry my strike. Her lips crept into a small smile. Yet, she still didn’t move to attack.

I decided to probe her defenses, to see what she’s capable of. I recreated the Lightning Blade spell I had learned, but instead shot the concentrated selr towards her like a spear. She was able to disperse the attack easily. She simply raised her left hand, and it seemed like the bolt just disintegrated upon contact. I spotted traces of the same three elements her sword was made out of, which still lingered in the air next to her. Her ability to use three separate elements that effectively impressed me. I struggled to stabley use two elements at once, but here this girl was outclassing me in that aspect.

Getting the hang of creating lightning blades, I decided to send out three more at once, arcing their trajectories to hopefully give her some difficulty with blocking. She’s plenty powerful, I had realized, I’ll just try to finish this quickly. Just after the bolts were sent out, I focused and accelerated to my stable limit. It wasn’t much, but I hoped it would give me an edge. I ran at her full speed, arriving just after the bolts of selr. I swung as she blocked the first two bolts with her left hand, and she used her right hand to guide her sword to block my swing. She seemed shocked at my speed, and had prioritized blocking me over the third bolt, which hit her square in the side. The impact of selr singed her clothing, and the electric shock seemed to stun her for a moment.

I used the stun as an opening to strike, pulling my sword off of hers and swinging horizontally at the same spot the bolt hit. My sword barely made contact with her skin before the stun wore off, and she guided her magic sword to slam into my sword. The parry caused me to lose my grip on the weapon and it went flying. She used the opening to punch me, since by the time she could hit me with her blade I would have recovered. Her fist hit me square in the cheek, and was covered by her favorite elements. The wind cut my face, the ice dug into the cuts, freezing the blood and causing extra pain. I wasn’t sure of the purpose of the light, however. She was also able to land another punch, this time to my stomach, before I was able to recover and start countering.

I grabbed her wrist as she began pulling away from the punch. I turned around and hurled her body over my own, slamming her back onto the dirt. I gave the slam extra impact by continuing my acceleration and boosting her up and down with sen’tur.

That seemed to bring her close to the edge of consciousness, all I had to do was give her an extra push. I figured it would be enough to incapacitate her, but not wound her too severely, so I crouched down, and gave a hearty revenge punch to her stomach. And that did the trick.

Looking around, I saw Jarou and Ranfa had finished their fights, and Fyr was deadlocked with his opponent. I witnessed Kared put down the last of her opponents with a swift punch to the throat. She then threw his unconscious body on top of her other targets and sat on the pile they made. It looked like Terib and Dyn’ya finished their fights pretty quickly, and were tending to their opponents' wounds.

Meanwhile, Oroske was still defending from the onslaught of the woman with the unique looking sword. It seemed like she had slowed down, however, and was beginning to lose energy.

The two were pretty close by when she finally stopped, breathing heavily. “Why?!” She shouted, “Why aren’t you taking this seriously?!”

“I already told you why,” Oroske said flatly, “We’re not here to fight.”

“Then what do you call that?!” She yelled, pointing at the various instances of her comrades being unconscious or otherwise incapacitated.

“Look more closely. None of them are dead.”

It only took a moment for her to realize he was right. “Wha… why?” She fell to her knees, dumbfounded.

Oroske walked over to her, and extended a hand, “Again, we just want to talk. We’re here to help, more than anything.”

She looked up at him, too skeptical to take his hand, “What do you mean?”

“I’ll explain in a bit. I’d like to speak with your chief or leader or whoever. Just hear me out, okay?”

She was silent for a minute, staring him down, before grabbing his hand and pulling herself up. “Fine, you win. We can talk in my house.”

She led the way to one of the four proper houses in the village. The rest of the buildings were more like huts or shacks, with even a handful of tents here and there. The house she led us to was the nicest in the village, but it was still very small compared to any house I’d been in. There wasn’t enough room for everybody, so Oroske and Raen picked a handful of people to accompany them inside, while the rest stood outside. Oroske picked Nadred, Kared, and me, while Raen picked his right hand man Terib and left hand woman Vai’ra, as well as Vai’ra’s brother, Elrik, and Leren.

The table in the main room of the house only had seating for four, taken by the chief, our leaders, and Kared. The chief, the woman Oroske fought, introduced herself properly. “My name is Kalen Faris, after the passing of my mother two years ago, I was made chief of this little village.”

“Well met, Kalen,” Oroske said, respectfully bowing his head, “I am Oroske Tsumi.” He gestured to each member of our group while naming us.

“Wait, Oroske Tsumi? I think I remember that name.”

“Your mother was the previous chief, yes? If you came from the same village as the men who met with us in Ish’din, you probably heard of me from her. I did some work there a few years ago.”

“That must be it. And then we have the Crimson Fucker herself, Kared here too? Just how much trouble are we in?” She seemed worried at the realization she was dealing with a delegation consisting of a Human Lord, a representative of Danfis Tsumi, and one of the most infamous members of the Crimson Twilight.

“Well,” Raen started, “Putting it simply, a lot. But we’re not here to punish you and your people. Instead, we wish to offer a better route for you to take going forward.”

“Anything any government can offer isn’t going to be free, especially for bandits like us.”

“Correct,” Kared said, leaning back in her chair, arms folded. “The cost will be simple to provide, at least. All we want is information.”

“Information? On what?”

“Not really what, but who.” Oroske said, “We need information on your current benefactor. The one who calls themselves a ‘Demon Lord.’”

Just as Kalen’s eyes widened at the request, the door slammed open. In walked a tall person dressed in a black cloak, adorned with golden accents along the edges and embossed designs all around. The cloak disguised their body, and a mask concealed their face. It was clear before they even spoke: this was the ‘Demon Lord’ in question. Their presence was intimidating, much like Kared’s. Her voice was smooth and low, “You called?”