The forest was dense, which made it pretty easy to hide myself from the would-be attacker. But that also meant that they would be hiding well too. On top of that, the close proximity of almost everything in there made it much more difficult to move around quickly without making a lot of noise. In short, with my sword sheathed, I was moving around as slow as I needed to be, to find the person in the woods.

Right now, I was to the right of the training grounds. Due to being close to the boundary, I could see the people standing there. Wellath’s family seemed to be standing quite normally now, though they did not move much. None of them seemed to be crying too much. The octagon in the middle still hadn’t been burnt, which is what I had originally thought that the ritual would mainly be. It did not seem like it was that simple, though. The mercenaries had said that it would go on for hours.

A sound in front of me, a bit to the right. It wasn’t natural. Something like the crunch of a twig.

I turned all my attention to that area and kept my hands on the handle of my sword. The view seemed normal enough. I could see way too many trees to count, but there were four that I was keeping particular attention towards. There were also a couple of bushes surrounding all of them, and a few fallen logs with overgrowth all over them. A lot of places that someone could be hiding. But as long as I kept looking, I would spot something.

“I know you’re there.” I whispered just loud enough for my voice to have reached those places. There was no reply, obviously. It had just seemed like the instinctually right thing to do right then. It was always better to check if the opponent preferred hiding and sneaking, or an honorable head-on fight. This one clearly lied on the former side.

I tried to keep all of my attention the places that I had selected, but there was always the nagging doubt of the person being somewhere else. If that was the case, then I needed to trust Hess to be able to handle it. It would mean that I probably wouldn’t get into the good graces of the people in the camp, but it felt a bit more important to deal with this intruder right now. I had decided a while back that I couldn’t focus on myself all the time.

Something moved. I didn’t see it, but the shade of one of the bushes had gotten a bit lighter than before. That might be the place where the intruder had been hiding. My hunch had been right, and the person had probably shifted to another one of the spots in that area. I blinked once to focus as much as possible. The next time they moved, I needed to attack and start the fight. If I wasn’t able to do it, and the intruder ended up doing whatever they had come here to do, the funeral would be ruined.

There was a crackle above my head. It was impossible for the them to have moved there so quickly. My eyes shot up for a split second, and Hess’ foot came into view. I hesitated and started to bring my eyes back into position, but when I did, they were covered with black. I groaned and pushed back against the darkness. Someone had jumped directly on me. There was a painful sting on my neck, which was probably a blade of some sort. I pushed back once more, while trying to pull myself out of the lock.

The attacker budged just ever so slightly, and I was able to roll away from them. Once I did, I managed to immediately keep my eyes on them, even before I had stood up. The person was still standing there, in a ready-to-attack stance.

What’s Hess doing?

That was the only question on my mind right then, but it was not one to ponder on. Whatever she was doing did not matter. She must have shifted positions by now, and was probably spectating the fight to see how I would handle it.

The attacker was holding a small blade with a rounded edge, like a spear. But it was very much the size of a dagger. I pulled my own sword out and sighed. The enemy’s weapon might have been a dagger, but it definitely worked much differently than the one I had gotten fairly used to. A rounded blade had much variation when compared to a regular one, in almost all ways. Nevertheless, I could still try and apply some of the things I had learnt when defending and blocking against Typhen.

Hopefully, if I could hold this person back for long enough, Hess would come and save me even if I didn’t end up killing them. There was a certain part of me that was still unwilling to cross that boundary, no matter what. That was, of course, considering that I would even be able to get into a position to be able to kill someone like this. It had taken the enemy a single second to close in their distance and start their attack on my neck.

My free hand went to check the wound, while the other stayed in position. The enemy hadn’t moved either. The wound wasn’t too long, but I could feel a lot of blood on my neck. The dagger must have been pushed in pretty deep. At the very least, I wasn’t feeling dizzy or nauseous in any way, so I could fight for a while. I put my second hand back down and raised my sword to another position. The enemy seemed to have been preparing to attack too. Between long breaths, I tried twisting myself around a bit to see what felt confident enough.

This was the first time I was facing a human opponent who actually wanted to kill me. I readjusted my position once more, and as soon as I settled, the enemy pushed themselves forward and came straight for me with the dagger raised towards my face.

I bent down and raised my sword up to get to the path of the dagger. The blades met at the edge and caused a clang, while my body moved towards the opponent’s stomach. I raised my free hand to try and punch them, but a kick had already found its way to my own shoulder by then. I went flying to the right, and hit one of the trees I had been looking at earlier.

In a way, this wasn’t completely bad. I had moved away from the place the funeral was being held. As long as I could keep going further right, my mission would be accomplished.

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I pushed myself up, and calmed my trembling fingers by closing them into a fist and holding it for a second. The enemy was slowly moving towards me once more, but it did not seem like there would be any stopping and thinking this time. I raised my sword once more, holding it with both hands this time, and got ready to face the second attack while adjusting myself away from the tree and slowly moving backwards, deeper into the forest.

The intruder jumped towards me, pointing the dagger towards my neck. I swung my sword to block it, but fell slightly short of hitting the dagger. Moving around this much had not been part of the practice with Typhen, so it wasn’t surprising that I wasn’t able to get the distance and time right. Fortunately, just the move itself was enough to put the enemy on alert, because they slightly changed the path of the dagger to move towards my neck. I sidestepped and let the attacker move past me, but they stopped almost immediately and turned once more.

The funeral was fairly far away now, but not enough. If something were to happen to me, the intruder was fast enough to get to the place before Hess would interfere, even though she was very quick too. I took a long jump back and adjusted my feet to not slip, while keeping the sword up. The intruder jumped forward too, trying to attack me once more. The speed was faster this time, but I was able to judge the timing better. Our blades met and repelled each other a bit, which gave me time to jump back once more.

There was much less movement than when I had been fighting the flowerling, but there was something more oppressive about this fight. The enemy was clearly in control, and I had landed no attack. In the last fight, Hess had already told us the weakness of the plant; this time there was no particular goal except getting away. Doing that should be enough, but the fact that I could see no way of winning gave me a headache.

The fight went on for a while, and I stopped paying attention. I jumped back and away, and the enemy kept rushing closer and closer to me. There were one or two swings each, and the process repeated. Slowly, though, I felt like I was getting better at guessing exactly when it would be safe to repel attacks. The clangs got louder, more in tune, almost beautiful to listen to. We kept moving deeper into the forest, as the speed slowly increased. It was growing a bit suspicious that the enemy kept following me. If their goal had been to do something at the funeral, then why were they moving away with me, as if completely focused on this fight?

My biggest worry had been that there could come a time when I kept moving back, but the enemy decided that the pursuit wasn’t worth it. But that time did not come. The fight kept continuing. For a moment, the idea that the enemy might not be someone who wanted to disrupt the funeral began to grow in my head. That, however, would not change the fact that my life was still in danger. I sensed a tree behind me and moved to the left before jumping once more. The attacker moved their dagger through the tree and tore the bark. The wood came flying towards my eyes, and I hit it with my sword. The wood chips fell down.

Then, just like before, the enemy was right in front of my eyes, covering their entire view. My sword was in the opposite direction right now, but the dagger was still coming. I pushed the sword back, even though there was no chance I would be able to control it. The attacker held the sword with their hand, and I felt it hit flesh for the first time. It felt fragile. Something in my mind caused me to lower the force, but the blood was already flowing from the palm. I hesitated and turned to look at the dagger, which was still coming for my face. I swung my face aside, but it went right through the edges of my ear, making them feel a bit lighter.

The intruder got a bit closer and brought their elbow down on the part right below my heart. I groaned and tried to jump back, but the pain took over. I stumbled and fell down to the ground; the grip on my sword grew loose. The enemy jumped on top of me with their dagger raised.

Their knee was right on the spot where they had hit me just now, and it made the pain grow. I shouted as my hands fumbled around to get a grip on my sword again. The intruder’s dagger came down, and I grabbed my sword once more and held it in a stabbing position, bringing it straight towards their stomach. The enemy saw it, but did not stop. Maybe they knew that I wouldn’t be able to do it. The choice still weighed heavy on my mind. If I pushed the sword, I stood the chance of killing this person.

The sword and the dagger both attacked at the same time. The dagger almost reached my heart, enough to lodge into the skin and stay there. But once that was done, it wasn’t pushed any further. A flash of red passed in front of my eyes as the enemy’s hand went flying. Hess had chopped it off. My sword, on the other hand, had stopped before it could fully attack the enemy.

They pulled the dagger off my chest and jumped back. I stood up and coughed, holding the area where I had been hurt. I looked to my left, hoping for Hess to give instructions, but she wasn’t there. She had already disappeared back into the trees. That was it, then. She wanted me to kill this person to prove myself.

The enemy was now holding the weapon with their other hand, while blood keep dripping down from the place where the first had previously been. I knew what this was. I had been in the same position just a little while ago. The grip and control just would not be right if there hadn’t been any practice. Of course, I couldn’t assume that this person wasn’t good with both hands, but the way they were huffing made it clear that they were stressed. Not only were they attacking from the wrong hand, but they also now knew that I had a helper around here somewhere.

And yet, the intruder smiled. They raised the hand holding their dagger and ran forward at full speed. I raised my sword. I could block again, but it would lead to a repeat of the situation we had just been in. I needed to end this, and that required offence. Even if I got stabbed, I could try and fight through the pain. Something felt right at the moment, as if it was fine to attack.

The enemy appeared right in front of me, and I swung my sword, straight for the other hand. There was a slight bump in the air; that was it. Once that bump disappeared, my sword went up in the air, along with a trail of blood. The dagger fell down to the ground with the hand. The intruder pushed past me and I stumbled a bit before turning back towards them. The enemy kept standing, smiling.

“You always end up focusing on the wrong things, don’t you, Hess?” The attacker suddenly said.

She jumped down right behind him, and her sword was already on the edge of his neck. The enemy looked back just a bit.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

The attacker’s smile disappeared, and he gulped. Was he supposed to do something right now? There was a sense of hesitation in his voice. All the confidence had disappeared.

“J-Ji…Jillesha sends his regards.” The attacker hesitated once more, but then immediately pushed himself onto the sword in front of him, slicing his own neck before falling to the ground, writhing.

Hess kept standing with an expressionless face.

“What just happened?” I asked.

She put the sword back in her sheath and started moving towards where the funeral was. A jog, and then a run. I ran behind her.

Once we got closer to the camp, I could see smoke rising up to the sky in the distance. And from the same direction, loud shouts and cries.