The food stalls filled the busy, mid-day market. Apples on one stand. Oranges on another. Bananas and strawberries past them. So on and so on. It seemed to go on forever. As time went forward so did everything as well. The people buying. The people selling, The food being sold. It was all moving with time.

Rodia quietly picked up the perfectly plump potato and began to turn it in her coarse hand. She sniffed the brown starch and stuffed it into her pouch. Off to the side of the potato seller was a bakery known for its delectable bread and pastries. A quick trip inside the bakery and she came out with a few loaves of bread.

Rodia hummed to herself as she continued to shop through the market district. The joy felt by herself and those around her was free. A satisfactory smile was what filled the void on her face.

“Miss Rodia! Hey!”

A young boy wearing a blue cap came running up to the joyful Rodia. The body suddenly stopped in front of her to catch his breath.

“Here’s the newspaper today.”

The young boy held out the newspaper for Rodia to take. She took the newspaper from the boy’s hands and pressed a coin into his hand.

‘Keep the change and buy something nice for yourself.’

Her whispers brought about a joyful excitement in the boy.

“Thank you, Miss!”

The boy bowed his head out of respect and began on his way to get more purchases. Rodia continued to watch the boy as he ran off. Both had a smile of satisfaction as they parted.

Rodia continued on her way. Her home was quite far so she needed to head home soon if she wanted to make dinner in a timely manner.

Her walk home was peaceful, to say the least. No interactions. No human interactions. Just her and the street in what was the busy marketplace. Rodia’s smile shifted slightly. Her walk continued on until she could see the house’s wooden walls approaching from around the corner. At that moment, she turned around and looked up at the sky. It still showed mid-day in the sky.

She carefully placed the groceries she had acquired on the ground. The view around was dull and uninspired.

What kind of trap is this?

Rodia brought in air through her nose. That air quickly exhaled from her mouth. A man approached her from the side. He seemed to appear from a void beyond that of the plain of mortals.

His face expressed the feeling of joy as his steps progressed him forward. The man’s brown eyes were dull but somehow bright. Someone whose intelligence seemed to hold no bounds, and yet seemed to always to strive for more. A man who walked through the plain of mortality and immortality. A living contradiction.

The man wore a tailcoat of which was uncommon. His black hair appealed to excellence. The man, who seemed to yearn for something of Rodia, became quite agitated when her now hardened expression.

“I don’t plan to hurt you.”

“You’re a bad liar.”

Rodia looked at the man, whose smile was twisted by malicious intent.

“Well, can you blame me? Someone who possesses a smell strong enough to even feel emotions and actions. I had no chance of lying to you anyways, so why hide it?”

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“How did you know about-”

“Your sense of smell? Oh, that was the easy part. Finding you wasn’t hard since I was searching with help. The problem came from preparing this plan. Though I also didn’t expect you to wander in so easily.”

Rodia backed away from the man. Her body had long been on guard.

“Now I wonder, will you fight back?”

The tailcoat-wearing man charged at Rodia. He was far faster than any normal human. His movements were smooth and did not spare any unnecessary movements. His fist rose into the air before slamming into the rocky path leading to the home.

Rodia, as the intended target, jumped backward and pulled the whip from back in her mercenary days, from the side of her waist. With a crack of the whip, a small blaze appeared on the ground.

“A whip? Unusual, but fun!”

The man pulled back his fist. Cracks of the bones and creaks of muscle could be heard even from a good distance away.

“I just need to not get in range of that whip.”

A crazy smile was now on the man’s face. His fist moved forward, colliding with the air causing his arm to rupture and burst. Following the explosion, a large burst of air flew through the air, crashed into the building that was formerly behind the quick-to-move Rodia, and obliterated it, leaving not even a single splinter of wood.

“Still needs a bit more refinement.”

Rodia’s gaze fell on the broken building. A level of power not obtained by humans. A fearsome blow that no human could ever even think of performing.

In a moment of fear, Rodia recklessly charged at the fast-regenerating man. The whip lashed at the man’s back, leaving a fierce burn. With his uninjured arm, the man pulled the whip back. His arm, now nearly healed, pushed forward into Rodia’s torso.

Her body flew backward while her mind remained still and confused. She crashed through a large building, but she didn’t feel the pain.

By the time she had regained her proper consciousness, she had already been sitting in the building rubble. Knowing the man to be fast approaching, Rodia picked herself up and began to move the whip in a rhythmic pattern. With each flick of the whip, more and more flames would burst from the ground and the flailing weapon.

She could feel her injuries quickly racking up.

This has to finish soon.

The flames continued to that of a fire dance. Her shoulder dislocated from the fast movements.

The man soon came into view. The whip continued to crack, creating the effect of fire flying through the air. Like that of a witch.

When finally in range, Rodia lashed outward one last time, extending her whip with the flames which ignited the air in its path. The man could not react in time. The extension of fire quickly made contact with the man’s side, pushing through, and cleanly burning off his right arm and a portion of his leg.

Through the burst of flames, the man wearing a tailcoat seemed to be in dismay as his arm and leg were not regenerating quickly enough. The veins, blood, muscles, and bones all tried to form that of his arm but it was too slow for him to continue.

The man breathed heavily. His exhaustion seemed to far surpass normal human levels. Still, he knew he would not lose this fight entirely. For only a moment, his eyes focused on Rodia. In just that single instance, the sound of cracking could be heard in the back of her mind. Her body collapsed on the ground writhing in pain due to the assault on her mind.

“I can’t break that smell of yours, but your mind is feeble enough to crack.”

The man in the tailcoat watched the woman spazzing from the pain. He watched, then he walked away while mumbling.

“I’ll need the eyes if I wish to progress further.”

His mumblings continued on until he disappeared into a void of endless darkness.

Only after his disappearance did Rodia’s pain finally subside. She stood from the ground. As she walked toward the wooden house, which only accommodated a family of four, the surroundings changed to that of a normal setting.

The dark oak trees. The slow streaming river. The sun which was just about to set. From the house came a singular man with a russet stubble and sharp jawline.

“Honey, what took you so-”

The man gazed at his bloodied and bruised wife. His eyes twitched and his fist clenched into tight balls of force.

Rodia quickly patted her husband on the shoulder.

“It’s already been dealt with, so don’t worry. Oh, and uh, how much money do we have saved? I don’t think I can patch this up myself.”