Push, Punch, Move On

Mira and Reith stood with their backs to each other in the dim silence. The night crept toward its final darkness; the moon had begun its slow descent beyond the horizon, casting long, fragile shadows through the trees.

The quiet between them wasn’t peaceful—it buzzed with tension, like something coiled and waiting to strike.

Reith glanced toward the ground where Eira’s weapon—the naginata—stood planted in the earth beside Mira, its blade still faintly stained from the earlier fight.

“I can feel your stare,” Mira said without turning. “Out with it.”

Reith shifted slightly. “Just wondering why you brought the naginata. Eira might need it.”

“I hope she won’t.”

“She seemed to know how to use it, at least.”

Mira turned sharply, facing him. Her eyes weren’t watery, but they burned with frustration—maybe even guilt.

“She broke down after using it. You saw her.”

“Yeah,” Reith admitted. “But maybe… maybe she needed that. A step forward, in this world.”

“A step forward?” Mira’s voice rose, incredulous. “You think slicing into a monster and collapsing afterward is progress?”

“It’s better than staying soft,” Reith replied flatly. “Out here? Soft gets you killed.”

Something in Mira snapped.

“Oh, really?” She stepped forward and shoved him hard in the chest. “I’m soft, Am i dead yet?”

Reith stumbled back slightly, more surprised than threatened.

She shoved him again—harder this time. Her bow slid off her shoulder and thudded softly to the ground. “You really think that’s the answer to everything, don’t you? Just kill, push, punch, and move forward like nothing matters?”

Reith raised a brow and shrugged. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

Mira’s fists clenched. “Maybe Corvin’s right. Maybe you are messed up.”

Reith’s eye twitched. His breathing quickened—deeper, heavier.

Mira hesitated, instinctively taking a step back. She caught movement behind him.

At the tree line, eyes gleamed in the darkness. Wolves. A dozen, maybe more, slinking low between the trees, forming a crescent around the clearing.

Reith turned slowly. A small, unnerving smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he unhooked his scythe from his back and yanked the naginata from the dirt—one weapon in each hand, as he looked at the pack his scar glowed a dark black color.

Mira tensed. “Should we wake the others?”

“Nah,” Reith muttered. “Better let them sleep.”

The wolves growled low, baring fangs. The one closest to Reith crouched, hesitated, then lunged.

Reith met it midair—his scythe cleaving clean through its torso. He spun without hesitation, the naginata severing the next beast’s head in a flash of steel and blood. His movements were unrelenting, precise, almost graceful—like a storm in human form.

He smashed a wolf’s skull with the scythe, then swung its limp body into another. In the same motion, he drove the naginata straight through a third, slicing clean down the middle.

Mira froze with an arrow nocked, watching him slice through the pack with terrifying ease. Limbs flew. Growls became screams. Reith’s laughter—low and manic—echoed through the trees.

A wolf sprang onto his back. Mira snapped back to reality and loosed her arrow, piercing through the beast’s skull. It dropped instantly.

Reith didn’t flinch. He kept swinging, eventually he kicked a wolf to the ground and then pushed against its throat his scythe blade, he grabbed it close to the edge and pushed it down until the blade hit the ground, as he continued with blood now soaking his clothes and dripping from both weapons he seemed more like a monster then the wolfs.

Minutes passed. By the time it was over, the clearing was a mess of fur, blood, and torn flesh. Reith stood alone among the carnage, panting heavily. Then he tilted his head toward the fading stars and let out a slow, ragged breath, the adrenaline still buzzing under his skin.

He dragged his weapons back toward where Mira still stood, the scythe still buried in a wolf carcass he pulled behind him.

Dropping both weapons, he collapsed onto the ground with a grunt, bleeding from several shallow cuts and a deeper bite wound on his shoulder.

“Ahhaha,” his exhale turned into a small laugh. “That was fun.”

Mira stared down at him, her expression somewhere between concern and disbelief.

“Are you okay?”

“Yep. Never been better.”

“You sure? You were… weird. Back there.”

Reith chuckled dryly. “You said it yourself. Push, punch, move on.”

She frowned, glancing down at the bloodied jacket she wore—his jacket—and then back at him, now sprawled across the earth like a man who’d just run headfirst into a wall and then came out grinning.

“You sure you’re okay?” she repeated, more serious now. “You went wild on that thing’s corpse earlier… and now this.”

“You said I was messed up, right?” Reith sat up slowly. His voice dropped. “You’re not wrong.”

Mira tilted her head, cautious.

“I suffer from somethings,” Reith continued, eyes staring into the firelight. “IED. Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Basically, my brain gets angry before I do”

“Outbursts,” he went on. “Sudden. Stupid. Dangerous. Back home, they just told me to ‘walk it off’ or ‘go chop wood.’ Like that fixed anything.”

“You… you can’t control it?” she asked, quieter now.

“I try. But when the pressure builds, it’s like holding back a flood with your hands. Fighting, violence—it drains it out of me. That’s why I do what I do.”

Mira sat down across from him. “That cant be healthy.”

Reith gave a dry smile. “Nope, but my family didn’t want to play for a therapist or treatment, in fact i think they liked that i got mad i could work it off they used to say.”

“And what if one day you snap… and it’s not just wolves in front of you?”

He looked her in the eye. “I hope that wont happen.”

She blinked at that. The air felt heavy again, but not hostile—just fragile.

“Anyways, now you know and thanks for the arrow,” he added after a moment. “On my back.”

“You’re welcome,” she said. Then, after a pause “Thank you” Reith looked up at her. “For telling me i mean”

They sat in silence again, this time sharing the quiet, not fighting it.

Dawn began to peek through the trees, pale and gold.