Yna ran across the Dark Expanse as her body emitted flares of light.

This made me think back to what I saw by the waterfall.

“Err… what were you doing back then? With the whole ball of fire?” I asked while desperately trying to calm myself.

“Mmm? Oh, I was just trying to calm myself down a little. Although you did interrupt the whole thing.” Yna said rather calmly, even though she was running incredibly quickly.

Each step of hers was like a mini earthquake.

“What would have happened if you finished?” I asked.

“What you saw was a representation of all my… power? Energy? Yeah. I was basically cycling it outside of my body, meaning some energy would have been lost during the process. I was then gonna absorb it all back in with less energy than when I released it.” Yna explained.

“Wouldn’t that leave you vulnerable?”

“No. Like I said. It’s simply a representation. A visual glimpse into what my energy reserves actually look like.”

“So… how big would the sphere have been if you were to release all your energy?” I asked with narrowed eyes, but Yna’s simply grinned in response.

“No idea!”

“Oh.” I sounded.

.

..

My eyes widened upon seeing a pillar of smoke rising from where the makeshift encampment above Eimval was supposed to be.

We approached the burning camp to find the bodies of countless Rendaro littering the ground, only their bodies looked mangled beyond reason.

It’s as though something had chewed at their bodies leaving nothing but bones, bit of flesh and strips of cloth

Yna carried me ever closer to the camp and she didn’t even bother crouching to avoid detection or anything.

Also, I noticed that she wasn’t carrying her golden sword.

Yna froze as we heard the sounds of people talking.

“They’re not coming out of that hole any time soon, are they?”

Some asked from deep within the camp.

“Probably not. Gid could pull the entrance open, but those cowards would probably surround and kill us.”

“But that wouldn’t matter since we know where their hole is now.”

Yna and I walked out into what must have been the camps centre and like everywhere else, it was littered with corpses, but before I could even focus on that, my eyes landed on two tall armoured figures who stood next to two sleeping beasts.

They looked like Rhino’s, but were far smaller and had leaner bodies. Their dark, leathery bodies were covered in spots and like Rhino’s, they had horns.

“Huh?” One of the figures sounded before turning around.

He quickly spotted us before raising his dark sword.

“What in the- who are you?” The figure asked.

I then noticed that they were Rendaro, except they were clad in dark armour that looked rather familiar.

Yna put me down as the Rendaro approached, their weapons raised.

“Well? Who are you and why are you so damn tall?” The Rendaro to the left asked with a giggle.

“My name is Yna and this is Katsíki.” Yna simply said.

“Oh really? Are you so lonely that you keep a goat with you for company?” The leftmost Rendaro asked while snickering.

“Hey, let’s not rough her up too much. The Arcus’s would praise us like crazy if we brought her back alive.” The one to the right said.

“Ooh! You’re right!”

The two Rendaro said before giggling by themselves.

I glanced at Yna to find that her eyes weren’t glowing.

Uh oh.

The two beasts behind the Rendaro were the first to act.

They quickly stood and almost mindlessly ran towards Yna while barring their dagger like teeth.

Yna simply kicked one of the beasts on its face, shattering its skull and sending bits of its brain spraying to the ground.

The beast let out a death squeal as it tumbled into some nearby rubble.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

This seemingly enraged the other beast prompting it to jumped towards Yna’s head, but she simply punched it in the neck before grabbing it and gently placing it on the ground.

I quickly backed away as the Rendaro dashed towards Yna, but before I could even close my eyes and look away, Yna grabbed one of the Rendaro’s sword wielding arm, resulting in a series of crunching and cracking noises.

She then kicked the second Rendaro so hard he crashed into some nearby tents.

At this point, I couldn’t help but watch as Yna raised the Rendaro using the hand she’d crushed.

“Ah! Let me go, you overgrown bitch!” The Rendaro yelled, but Yna ignored him as she removed his helmet revealing a young, but scarred face.

The other Rendaro quickly recovered from Yna’s kick.

He stumbled towards her while loudly coughing.

“Who are you?” Yna asked.

“Like I’d tell you-“

The Rendaro tried saying, but Yna seemingly squeezed his hand even harder.

From where I stood, it looked as though his hand was becoming one with his sword in a mess of flesh and twisted metal.

“Ah! Idiot, help me already!” The Rendaro in Yna’s grasp screamed, but his companion simply turned around before running away.

Yna then placed the Rendaro on the ground before forcing him onto his back.

She then straddled him as waves of heat and light appeared around her body.

“Who in the world are you?” The Rendaro asked with teary eyes.

“That’s my question.” Yna said with a higher pitch than usual.

“I’ve already told you who I am. Now it’s your turn.” She said.

I couldn’t see her face, but something told me that her expression wasn’t very pleasant and so I remained completely still.

“I’m not telling you- AHHH!”

I didn’t want to see what was happening and so I turned away.

“Fine! My name is Leeg and I am a proud warrior of the Foph. Let me go already!” Leeg cried.

“Who sent you here?” Yna asked. Her voice soft and almost comforting in its tone.

“Gid, our troop leader. There, I told you. Now let me go-“

“What’s this?”

A rather familiar voice asked.

I looked to find several Rendaro standing in front of Yna.

Their bodies all clad in dark, scaly armour.

One of them was different.

He was slightly taller and his armour was slightly heavier looking.

“Another Golden Sword has found itself in the Dark Expanse. Greetings, ma’am.” The Rendaro said.

“I’m guessing you’re Gid.” Yna said.

“That would be correct. What would it take for you to take your hand out of my buddy over there?” Gid asked.

“Not much. I just have a few questions for you.”

“Ask away.” Gid said. He was the only one not wearing a helmet. This allowed me to see that his eyes had a pale blue glow to them.

“Why did you attack this place?” Yna asked.

“It’s simple really. We saw that the mud crawlers had finally come out of their hole and so we tried greeting them, but we were met only with scowls and animosity. So… we decided to kill everyone here. Well, almost everyone.” Gid said with a casual smile.

“Is that so? I see. Katsíki, what should we do with these… Rendaro?” Yna asked, but at this point, my vision was all blurry and my chest ached far too painfully.

“K-“

I stopped myself as my eyes darted from Yna to the Rendaro.

“Injure them, but don’t kill any of them-“

“Whoa there, creepy talking goat. Unless you’re somehow related to any of the mud crawlers, I don’t think we did you wrong.” Gid said, but his words were like an incomprehensible sludge of noise to me.

The smell of death hung thick in the air.

I needed time to think.

“Wait! Don’t injure them. Just give them a warning.” I said and for some reason, I was fighting for each breath I took.

Yna nodded before standing up, allowing the Rendaro beneath her to crawl towards his comrades.

“Thank you for being reasonable, strange talking goat-“

Gid stopped as Yna’s body burst burst into flame.

She then dashed towards Gid, stomping the crawling Rendaro in the process.

Yna then lowered her head towards Gid’s ear and said something to Gid that I couldn’t hear.

All I could focus on was the tattered remains of the Rendaro who was alive only moments prior.

A large hole that resembled the shape of Yna’s foot sat where his chest once was and his head had been splattered across the ground… like a tomato.

My eyelids slowly fell and I quickly lost consciousness.

.

..

I opened my eyes to find myself on Yna’s lap.

I quickly hopped away and looked into her eyes to find that they looked… normal. Well, as normal as Yna’s golden eyes got.

I looked at her hands.

They were stained with blood.

“W- what happened?” I asked while cautiously looking around.

The sky was grey meaning quite some time had passed since I blacked out.

I spotted a few Rendaro sleeping in a neat row.

They looked extremely wounded, but they were alive.

“The Foph left shortly after you fell asleep, but something tells me they’ll be back soon.” Yna said as she stood up.

“That wouldn’t be the case if… you hadn’t killed that Rendaro.” I said, but Yna shook her head.

“Oh, they would have come back regardless. I admit, I may have gone a tad bit overboard, but fear now lives in their hearts-“

“Why is murder the first thing that came to your mind?” I asked. My legs shaking and my heart aching.

“Katsíki… I’m a Golden Knight. We’re not exactly known for bringing peace only enforcing the commands of our betters.”

“That’s your excuse? You took someone’s life because that’s just what you do?” I asked.

Yna’s eyes narrowed.

“That Rendaro would have come back once he recovered and chances are I’d have killed him then. Also these are the Foph we’re talking about. They aren’t exactly the ambassadors of good. All you need do is look around.”

I lowered my eyes.

I didn’t want to look at any more death.

I couldn’t.

“Also, what would you say if my life were in actual danger? What if I was a normal, human woman? Would you have continued to played the passivist as the Rendaro mutilated and violated me?” Yna asked.

“Y- you…”

I tried saying, but no more words left my mouth.

Yna sighed.

“This world is cruel. Crueller than you know. I… I need you to become a leader capable with dealing with that reality. I don’t want to watch you freeze and pass out whenever things get tough. I know you have it in you and I think, with time, you’ll-“

“Become cold? Detached? Numb to it all?” I asked.

“In a way, yes.” Yna said, but I turned away.

Silence filled the air as visions of the previous night flooded my mind.

I needed… I needed to move forward.

Even as I swam in a sea of darkness.

A darkness so palpable, so tangible, I could almost feel it.

My eyes narrowed as my mind sunk into that darkness, but before it could properly grab hold of me, I shook my head.

“Ahem! W- what’s going on with Eimval? Why haven’t they come to save their people?” I asked without facing Yna.

“No idea. I knocked on the secret entrance really hard, but no one responded."

“Mmm… do you think the Foph will forget about last night if we talked to them about it?”

“Unlikely.” Yna said.

I nodded before walking over to the six Rendaro that Yna managed to save.

I saw that their wounds were covered in what appeared to be strips of light.

I wondered what kind of effects such a concentrated amount of light had on wounds.

I sighed before creating six black stretchers that floated mid air.

“Lets take these guys back home and uh… we’ll pay the Foph a visit once we make sure everyone is safe.”

Yna nodded before gently placing each Rendaro on a stretcher.

“What do you plan on doing once you get there?” She asked.

“I’m not sure. I just want to see who the Foph are exactly.” I said as Yna and I walked back home.