Familiar Dance

The six bounty hunters spread out.

Two remained near the back. Three disappeared in between the buildings. The last man continued walking down the centre of the street.

He was broad-shouldered and weathered by years of war. A Huge axe rested against his shoulder, and a faded blue cloak hung from his armour.

He stopped a few paces from Lisa.

"Lisa Herbert."

"You are hereby charged with treason against the Kingdom of Ceres."

He slowly lowered his axe.

"We have come as your executioners."

The hooded traveller glanced at the emblem stitched onto the man's cloak.

A silver star surrounded by six black daggers.

"...The Star Assasination Squad."

Lisa's eyes widened slightly.

"You know that insignia?"

The traveller looked at her.

"I always thought it was just a myth."

Lisa gave a small nod.

"They're very real."

She let out a quiet breath.

"...I used to be one of them, then I ran away."

The traveller looked at her for the first time since the hunters arrived.

"So that's why they’ve come to kill you."

One of the assassins stepped out from the shadows.

"...I'm sorry, Lisa."

His voice was almost gentle.

"But this is where it ends."

Lisa closed her eyes.

"...Yeah, I already knew there would be no talking my way out of this.”

The instant she opened them—A knife flashed towards her face.

The traveller's hand grabbed the back of her coat and yanked her backwards. The blade sliced through the air where her head had been a second earlier before burying itself in the wall behind them.

A second assassin appeared on a nearby rooftop. Six knives left his hand almost simultaneously. Aimed towards Lisa's ribs.

The traveller stepped forward, and grabbed Lisa's wrist.

He turned smoothly—they spun together as though they were dancing. One knife passed in front of Lisa's chest. Another slipped behind Elijah's shoulder. A third missed by inches.

All six embedded themselves harmlessly into the cobblestones.

Lisa stared at him.

His movements are effortless.

It’s almost beautiful.

She looked up.

"...Who are you?"

A few minutes later...

The veteran warrior tightened his grip around the haft of his axe.

"Stand down, stranger."

He took another step forward.

"This doesn't concern you."

The hooded traveller looked at the tavern bread still tucked beneath his arm.

The traveller sighed.

"If I save her..."

He glanced sideways at Lisa.

"...she'll owe me an entire tavern."

He scratched the back of his head.

"And then I can drink all the alcohol I want."

Lisa stared at him.

"...Seriously?"

For a brief moment...

She almost laughed.

Then reality came crashing back as she looked at the silver stars embroidered onto the hunters' cloaks. The faces she'd once trained beside. The voices she'd hoped never to hear again. 

Her past had finally caught up to her.

She closed her eyes and slowly filled her lungs with air. Mana gathered within her body.

Then—

BOOM!

She slammed her foot into the ground. A violent burst of compressed wind erupted beneath her, throwing dust, sand and loose stones into the air. Within seconds the street vanished inside a thick cloud of swirling earth.

The bounty hunters vanished from sight.

Lisa's mana disappeared.

He smiled to himself.

"So this is how assassins fight."

He rested a hand on her shoulder.

"I have an idea."

Inside the dust cloud, the three assassins exchanged silent signals. One pointed towards a faint blue glow.

"There."

All three burst forward—with their mana remaining completely concealed. The blue sphere became brighter. One assassin lunged. His dagger pierced straight through the glowing figure's neck.

Splash.

The body dissolved into water.

The assassins froze.

"What!?"

A calm voice answered from above.

"Over here."

All three looked up. The hooded traveller stood atop a broken stone archway overlooking the street. Both hands drifted through the air in one smooth circular motion.

Like he was dancing.

The puddles left behind by the evening rain trembled. Water reacted to his every move. It rose into a great sweeping current. With a gentle downward motion of his palms—The wave crashed. The three assassins were swept off their feet before they could recover, their bodies carried the length of the street and slammed into a collapsed cart. The dust cloud exploded apart.

The two Ceres mages stared in disbelief.

"...What kind of mana is this?"

One whispered,

"It’s like he’s been blessed by it."

Before either could react —Lisa appeared behind the first mage. Her dagger struck his neck. He instantly collapsed. The second mage spun around too late. She was already behind him. Her blade pierced his heart. He fell without even trying to defend himself.

Only Alexios remained, the veteran warrior.

He roared and charged, his battle axe tore through the air with terrifying force. Lisa ducked beneath the swing. Her dagger slashed across his heel. The warrior barely flinched. His free hand shot downward and caught a fistful of her hair.

"Got you."

With a tremendous heave— He hurled her straight through the wall of a nearby house. Stone exploded outward. Timber splintered. Lisa disappeared beneath the collapsing debris.

The Wanderer lifted one hand. Water rushed from shattered barrels and rain-filled gutters. It gathered around Lisa moments before she struck the ground, forming a floating sphere that slowed her fall to almost nothing. He stepped inside the ruined building. Carefully lifted her unconscious body. Then laid her gently across what remained of a wooden table.

When he stepped back outside, Alexios was waiting. The warrior rested his axe across one shoulder. His eyes never left the hooded traveller.

"...You're no ordinary man, are you?"

"You have no idea..."

He let out a quiet sigh.

"...how much I wish I was."

The street fell silent. Rainwater dripped from the broken rooftops. Alexios slowly lowered his stance.

There’s something about his movements...

It stirred a memory he hadn't visited in years.

A memory from the battlefields of the Six-Year War.

Six Years Earlier...

Year Two of the Six-Year War

Ravenna-Ceres Kingdom

Ravenna had stopped looking like a city hours ago.

The white stone buildings that overlooked the eastern sea were little more than blackened shells. The roofs were collapsing beneath pillars of smoke that drifted into the sky. 

The harbour burned behind them, filling the air with the bitter smell of salt, ash and blood. Somewhere beyond the city walls, siege engines still thundered, each impact rattling the cobbled streets beneath Sergeant Alexios' boots.

He wrenched his axe free from the chest of a Valk soldier and barely had time to breathe before another blade came for his neck. Steel rang against steel. The force of the blow travelled through his arms, numbing his fingers.

"Hold the line!" he roared.

Around him, the Third Coalition Battalion struggled. They had marched into Ravenna believing the city was on the verge of collapse. Instead, every street had become a trap. An Orion mage disappeared with a scream as something darted across the rooftops.

An instant later his body struck the ground below, a dagger buried neatly beneath his jaw.

"It's the Indigos!"

Before anyone could react, a spear of fire erupted from a second-story window and tore through three soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder. Their armour glowed red for a heartbeat before they collapsed together.

Panic spread faster than the flames.

"They're flanking us!"

Alexios spun just in time to catch another assassin with the haft of his axe. The man twisted through the air, landing silently several paces away before vanishing into the smoke as though he'd never been there at all. The sergeant's chest tightened.

The first thing Alexios noticed was the silence during the massacre.  The screams hadn't stopped, nor had the clash of steel, yet something beneath them had changed. A strange calmness settled over the battlefield, subtle enough that he almost dismissed it. The wind had disappeared.

He glanced towards the harbour. For a moment, he couldn't understand what he was seeing. 

The sea was retreating. Water rushed away from the shoreline as though drawn by an invisible hand, exposing rocks and abandoned fishing boats that had never seen daylight before. Soldiers on both sides slowed to a stop, their eyes drifting toward the horizon. Someone nearby prayed. Another simply stared. 

Then the horizon rose. Alexios felt every hair on his body stand upright. A wall of water towered above the sea, blotting out the afternoon sun. It stretched from one end of the coastline to the other, impossibly high, impossibly silent, until at last it began to move.

Towards Ravenna.

At first Alexios saw only a silhouette.

A lone man stood where the harbour met the flooded streets, untouched by the chaos unfolding around him. His robes— white-trimmed with royal blue— swayed gently despite the gale rushing inland.

He moved like he was dancing.

One hand drifted across his body as the other followed. The sea seemed to answer his every request. The waves bent around him. Every sweep of his arms reshaped the water, every shift of his footing sent another current spiralling across the flooded streets.

It’s beautiful.

Alexios muttered to himself

Yet so terrifying...