Silence erupted into motion.
Ash launched himself forward like an arrow, his sword tracing a deadly arc straight toward Nephis. She didn't retreat—she never retreated—instead raising her blade to meet his in the air.
CLANG.
The impact sent shockwaves through both their arms, but neither yielded. Ash spun on his heel, using the momentum to deliver a low kick that Nephis leaped over with feline agility. While airborne, her sword descended in a diagonal cut that Ash deflected with the edge of his blade.
Sunny appeared from his left.
The black tachi whistled as it cut through the air, aiming for his exposed neck.
Ash leaned back, feeling the wind of the blade pass millimeters above his throat, and responded with a quick thrust toward Sunny's abdomen. The dark-haired boy twisted his body, the blade grazing his side.
'Coordinated...' Ash thought, stepping back to readjust his stance. 'Damn coordinated.'
Nephis gave him no respite. She advanced with a series of quick cuts—high, low, middle—each forcing Ash to move his sword at a different angle. White flames began to faintly glow on her blade, a palpable heat radiating from the metal.
Ash blocked the last attack and pushed forward, sending Nephis stumbling back. In that instant, Sunny was already moving to cover the space she'd left, his tachi seeking gaps in Ash's defense.
TINK. CLANG. SHING.
Three weapons danced in the mist, a frenetic rhythm of metal against metal. The fighters' feet kicked up small clouds of dust, their breaths beginning to quicken. Ash deflected a blow from Sunny and responded with a cut the other dodged by centimeters, but the tip of his sword managed to open a shallow cut on his arm.
Sunny hissed through his teeth but didn't stop.
"Now!" he shouted.
Nephis was already moving. She attacked from Ash's blind side, her sword imbued with white flames tracing a perfect arc toward his ribs. Ash turned just in time, blocking the strike, but the heat of the flames burned his forearm through the sleeve.
'Damn...'
He retreated three quick steps, creating distance. He watched as Nephis and Sunny repositioned themselves, their stances mirroring each other. They had fought together for quite some time against scavengers, and it showed. Each movement of one anticipated the other's, each attack covered their partner's weaknesses.
Ash smiled, despite the pain in his arm.
'Good. This is better.'
He lunged again, but this time with a different approach.
Instead of facing Nephis directly, he veered toward Sunny. The boy raised his tachi to block, but Ash didn't complete the attack—instead, he twisted his body and delivered a low kick that connected with Sunny's knee. Not enough to break anything, but enough to throw him off balance.
Sunny staggered, his guard dropping for a fraction of a second.
Ash seized the opportunity.
His sword whistled in an ascending diagonal cut, the steel finding Sunny's chest right where his armor ended. The blade sank into flesh, tracing a diagonal line from his right hip to his left shoulder.
Blood gushed forth, hot and red.
Sunny gasped, his eyes widening with shock and pain. He staggered back, one hand pressing the wound, but blood seeped through his fingers. The wound was considerable—not fatal if treated quickly, but debilitating.
"SUNNY!" Nephis's voice cut through the air, but it wasn't panic. It was something else. Perhaps anger?
Ash turned toward her, his sword ready for the next exchange.
But Nephis was already airborne.
She had jumped while he was distracted, her body transformed into a projectile of steel and flames. Her sword descended directly toward him, imbued with a white radiance so bright it hurt to look at.
Ash raised his sword to block.
The clash was deafening.
But it wasn't the force of the impact that mattered. It was the heat.
The white flames exploded at the point of contact, a torrent of pure energy enveloping both blades. Ash felt how the heat devoured the air around him, how his eyebrows curled, how the skin on his face began to blister.
And then, Nephis's blade slid through.
It didn't break his block—it pierced through it. Her sword, empowered by the flames, cut through his as if it were butter and continued its upward trajectory.
Straight toward his face.
Ash tried to turn, to move his head away, but it was too late. The burning edge found his right eye.
The pain was indescribable.
Not just the cut. The white flames burrowed into the cavity, burning, devouring, destroying.
Ash felt his eye vaporize, the skin of his cheekbone and forehead charring, the heat spreading through his skull like liquid poison.
He screamed.
He couldn't help it. A roar of agony that echoed in the mist, a mix of surprise, pain, and something akin to the most primal fury.
Nephis landed before him, her sword smoking, her expression impassive.
Ash staggered back, a hand over his face. When he pulled it away, he saw blood and burnt tissue on his fingers. He blinked with his left eye—the only one he had left—and the world reconfigured itself before him. Depth. Perspective. Everything slightly different.
He looked at Nephis with his remaining eye.
The pain was... immense. But behind it, something else began to burn.
'You took my eye.'
Sunny was on the ground, clutching his chest, but his eyes—one of them, at least—were fixed on him with a mix of satisfaction and alertness. Nephis had returned to her guard stance, her sword ready, the flames dancing faintly but present on her blade.
Five seconds had passed since the attack.
Ash took a deep breath. The air entered burning his lungs, but he ignored it.
"Good," he said, his voice hoarse, broken. "Now it's definitely personal."
The mist swirled around him as the three prepared for the next assault.
Less than two minutes had passed since the fight began.