"Seems like you got lucky, ah friend? Your competitor isn't very willing to show up." Juda was seated on a large rock next to an observer. The observer – a half-naked chubby man with tattoos that held tribal symbolism, was a contrast to Juda’s more compact and muscular frame that was concealed.

 

The young adult ignored the blabbering of the rotund mana as he focused purely on his inner thoughts.

 

While he would greatly appreciate avoiding any bloodshed due to his opponent simply not showing up, he knew the conclusion of the bout would not be that simple.

 

He had worked with Nova Ordo multiple times in the past, and if he had learned anything, they were a desperate bunch.

 

They wouldn't risk sending anyone who'd run late and miss the match ups. Especially with such high stakes involved.

 

Still, he shouldn't expect a typical member of the rebel group if they hadn't rushed in zealously early. He'd have to approach combat a little differently.

 

"Mm... I'm only waiting one more minute; I got dinner with my fiancée tonight." The observer blabbered on, grumbling at Juda’s unresponsiveness.

 

---

 

Cheshire was surprisingly not smoking, instead she munched down on a bowl of beans and fish she got from a kind old woman at a town near the forest entrance.

 

She was lucky she stopped by, as she would have most likely arrived later than intended if she was not told about the river she had to cross. She was informed of an old wooden bridge that was once used for mining operations.

 

The not-cat woman had gauged that it would be bad for her to arrive any more than 5 minutes late. It would be a shame to start a performance when your audience had already packed up and gone home!

 

She finished up her afternoon snack and left the bowl next to a nest of ground squirrels. Magical advancements had left a plethora of biodegradable materials in its wake, so she need not worry about being guilty about littering.

 

Now that her hands were free, she reached for her cloak, which was a little too thin for the presence of pockets, but Cheshire was not the type of person to care whether a fabric should have room for pockets or not. She took out her trusty rosewood pipe and gave it a flick with her finger, it lit up and a thin, white smoke immediately flowed out of the chamber. She gleefully had a taste of the totally-not-dangerous chemicals within.

 

Now that her lungs were once again filled with toxic smoke, she took a moment to observe the weather.

 

The air was humid, and it was getting cold. One look at the sky and the thick, black clouds that gathered foretold incoming rainfall. Cheshire would claim that she was pawsitively sure about the incoming heavy rain.

 

She advanced to a clearing that exposed the foot of a mountain, as she pressed forward; she shivered from a cool breeze.

 

"So much for a desert environment..."  She groaned.

 

Cheshire recalled a slip of paper that a grumpy-looking Nova Ordo fellow gave her back at the dilapidated building that called itself a bar. It had the magical seals of Lahidi, Harawrah and Sihnaren, so it was obviously legitimate. The content of the paper slip merely detailed that she would fight the other contestant at a certain location when the sun was three thumbs from the horizon, and a postscript stating the presence of one observer due to the difficulty of the terrain.

 

She spotted two figures seated on a large rock, one was a plump, half-naked man, and the other was a muscular figure whose face she couldn't exactly make out under his worn robes.

 

Any experienced mercenary would easily be able to tell who the observer was and who her opponent was. Except an actually experienced mercenary like her wouldn't be so rash as to come to such a conclusion. This was Arc Trading, a subsidiary of the spaghetti-damned sages. She wouldn't be surprised if the former was some sort of demonic creature summoned from the depths of hell.

 

She noticed the plump man rising from his seat, and wasted no time in approaching him. It appeared she was running perfectly late.

 

"So, whomefur may be the audience, and whose the fellow actor?"

 

The plump man opened up a folded piece of paper and glanced at Cheshire's face; he gave a nod and crumpled it up.

 

"Ah, glad to see you're finally here Miss... Cheshire? Merc names sure are strange these days. We're about 5 minutes past the agreed upon time now, what happened?"

 

"Well, it is simply my duty to arrive wonderfurlly late after all!"

 

The man grimaced, half at the terrible pun and half at the fact that Cheshire’s tardiness was absolutely intentional.

 

"Ack! and it's my duty to arrive early to my dinner with... You know what, your opponent is that brick wall over there.” The man paused to look at his former seat, he realized that sentient rocks indeed existed and he may have been discriminating against them.

 

“That was a figure of speech; you fight the man with a poor fashion choice, not the rock. I'll be back when one or both of you are sprawled on the ground." He pointed at Juda and promptly disappeared behind a nearby tree.

 

Cheshire sized up her 'fellow pawformer', which was clearly not someone that looked to be hired by a rich company.

 

In fact, had she not checked the invitation there and then. She would have assumed some a random shift in time had caused her coinflip to go the other way, and she was fighting for the other side now.

 

Alas, this man in worn robes was indeed fighting for the people in fancy suits and not the rebel group in well, worn robes.

 

As Cheshire extracted her smoking pipe from her mouth to exhale smoke, she frowned. The taste of the cold air informed her that she did not have much time until it rained. She gave herself three to five minutes to wrap up the show.

 

In any case, it was best she got rid of the extra weight on her.

 

She extended her hand and threw her smoking pipe into the air, the force was controlled so that it would land in her hands once more in around five seconds.

 

She took the Kit Cat from her back, which made Juda spring into a defensive stance. He put his hands near his waist, ready to draw his blade.

 

However, he appeared to relax when Cheshire opened the box and rummaged through it, she took out a coin purse buried in a batch of kitchen knives.

 

She immediately threw it behind a nearby tree.

 

 

She then took out a pair of mittens from who-knows-where and equipped them, fitting snugly on her hands. She had a second to spare before the smoking pipe would land in her hands once more.

 

She turned and waved at the nearby tree "Take care of my pawsessions for me! I won't be needing this right meow." And caught the smoking pipe in her other hand before holding it as if her five fingers still functioned and taking a whiff.

 

The smoke from the pipe reached Juda who ensured Cheshire was within range of Shedim. He was especially wary of his opponent, as no normal person would be able to hold an object with those two 'paws' on.

 

"Purrfect, let's get started."  Cheshire smiled.

 

Juda nodded and took out Shedim from his leather scabbard; he brought it upright then raised the sword slightly overhead, opting for a powerful first blow.

 

While the magical weapon contained great power from its ability, at the end of the day it was as deadly as any other when used conventionally. He was going to test the waters, then end the fight swiftly.

 

Neither side was willing to fight in the rain, and they understood that the battle must end before it came. For a moment, there was dead air.

 

Juda blinked, and that was when he realized he had made his first mistake. He found that Cheshire was no longer at her original location, and was right next to him, out of his reach.

 

"The days of yore, beyond the desert cliffs,

found miners, milk still on their lips"

 

 

A puff of smoke materialized next to him, and depicted a group of people, he recognized him as children. Perhaps it held a deeper meaning if he interpreted Cheshire’s words, but it was a distraction from battle.

 

Juda infused the cutting edge of his blade with misfortune, and immediately struck at Cheshire’s arm. His face turned pale from the loss of a little blood, but he was satisfied when his opponent had chosen to block the blade with her hand instead of dodging it.

 

However, he found that instead of cutting into the mittens, his blade was violently thrown back with equal force in the opposite direction. It could have dislocated his arm if he did not control it.

 

‘Magical gauntlets? How? I only saw magic right at the moment it hit it. That was completely unexpected. If it was an enchantment, there would be at least a trickle of magic I can spot and react to.” Juda considered his options, the solution was simple. Aim for something other than the mittens, they were obviously over-sized and seemingly useless to trick others.

 

He lunged with the blade again, not giving time to Cheshire who was in the middle of bringing her smoking pipe to her mouth. This time he aimed for her stomach.

 

She twisted to the side, deftly avoiding the blade and brushing the fabric of her cloak against it.

 

“Hey be carefur, you could seriously hurt someone with that blade!” Cheshire warned.

 

That was when Juda swerved, changing direction and using the momentum to instead cut Cheshire’s stomach. He thought of using a little blood to once again try to inflict misfortune upon his foe, but he decided against it due to the possibility of more tricks.

 

Shedim was once again repulsed; he had made the right call. It was easier to regain control of the blade, as he had controlled it in anticipation of a violent change in direction once more.

 

“Really? Not even a chuckle with “that’s the point?”, even the more bland types have some sort of retort. Well, whatefur.” Cheshire continued speaking as if nothing happened; she once again brought the smoking pipe to her mouth.

 

"' 'Hind their backs as they did arduous deeds.

burst forth the laugh of scoffing fiends."

 

The smoke exhaled suddenly formed into devilish creatures laughing out notes, as the children smashed at a nearby wall.

 

Her words might as well have been a monologue, as they taunted the man observing from a nearby tree more than they did Juda. The young man took her idleness as a chance to switch weaponry.

 

With practiced ease, he returned Shedim to his scabbard and eyed the gauntlets that were around his arm. As with Shedim, the pair of metal fists were strong even without the use of the innate abilities, especially when backed with his strength.

 

Cheshire, with her omnipresent grin once again exhaled smoke which turned into a visceral scenery of rather comical torture.

 

"Day to day, they toiled and toiled

Abused by fiends,  their blood boiled."

 

Juda leapt forward with enough speed to almost catch Cheshire off guard. Unfortunately the cat-like woman stepped to the side just in time so that his fist instead landed on a boulder. It was turned into a piece of modern art under the force of his blow.

 

Juda concluded that Cheshire could indeed not redirect his attacks, unless she was reverse bluffing him, but that made very little difference. The latter conversely concluded to simply not get hit by his attacks.

 

Juda did not relent; he employed various tactics to land a hit on Cheshire, he was not a practitioner of any martial arts, however he was an expert in the art of punching someone’s face. Unfortunately, his opponent did not only possess superior agility and reflexes, physics worked in her favor as well.

 

Cheshire bounced around – literally. She was bouncing all over the place to avoid Juda’s attacks; the young man didn’t understand how she was pulling that off. There wasn’t even magic involved, so he could only cross off the humanity of his opponent.

 

He noticed that they were edging closer and closer to the forest, this was bad; he allowed his opponent to control the environment of his battle. It was already hard enough to even plan a solid hit out in the open, what more if he allowed Cheshire the cover of the fauna in the forest?

 

He needed a way to bring the battle back to the foot of the mountain, preferably uphill.

 

Cheshire was perfectly fine despite bouncing around, she didn’t get sick from all the motion; she could even get a puff of smoke out and some lines of dialogue.

 

"Emotions swell within man's thought,

Justice! O' vengeance they sought!" 

 

The scene from earlier appeared, but the stone the children were mining cracked, the whole "stage" following suit.

 

Juda persevered; through sheer will he started to move faster and faster, he conventionally jumped around to try to catch up to Cheshire and even corner her. At one point he had successfully felled a nearby tree and made it land on Cheshire’s head, however it harmlessly bounced off her.

 

What he did not know is at that same point in time, Cheshire breathed a sigh of relief that the trunk of the tree was dead as soon as it was separated from its roots.

 

"No need to be so feral with your blows."

 

With that line of dialogue, Juda finally got lucky, or perhaps the slash of misfortune from Shedim actually worked. Cheshire had bounced on a deer, she crashed into it at a high speed, making a red bump form on her head.

 

This was it, Juda had already won, his iron fist had aimed for Cheshire’s face, and there was simply not enough time for her to roll out of the way. He was about to claim victory over yet another powerful opponent.

 

A moment later, he found an error within his previous thoughts. What opponent? Why was he punching a deer? He did not recall having a sentient deer for his opponent, and the one in front of him looked to be perfectly normal. He did not particularly have a hatred for deer either, so his current course of action made no sense. In fact, his opponent had not arrived at all. .

 

Then, why was he out in the forest, and not back at the large rock with the observer?

 

He knew something was fishy, he felt very wrong. If he did not take a step back that instant, something very bad would happen.

 

Instantly, he recalled why he was here, he was obviously in the middle of a fight with a mysterious being  named Cheshire! The memories didn’t even come as a rush, they were always there to begin with. In fact, it was his thoughts a second ago that seemed strange.

 

The ground in front of him was crushed by Cheshire’s ‘paw’.

“Oh, you have furly good instinct. Most people just stand there looking confused.”

 

She looked to be slightly disturbed, taking her sweet time to smoke once more.

 

"Does Heaven not follow an Impaetial Plan?

Or perhaps, an unseemly jest - made up by man?"

 

The children in the smoke had grown, but they had not been friend. Their shackles had grown firmer.

 

He could only assume that his enemy had some sort of immense psychic power or the like. However, it seemed very limited for now.

 

As much as it was dishonorable, he needed an advantage to win this. Juda looked towards the sky, and tapped at his feet. With the glow of some magical runes, his air boots activated and propelled him upwards.

 

“Oh, flight boots? Can’t say I haven’t dealt with stuff like that before.” Cheshire took swiftly took off her mittens, at this point she had not bothered to set aside her smoking pipe and just let it spin in place.

 

She threw the two mittens into the air, confusing Juda. However, he was wary of the airbone projectiles, and drew Shedim just in case there was magic imbued in them.

 

 

“Good luck with this!” She exclaimed.

 

The mittens appeared to fall, but Juda could not relax yet. They fell into Cheshire’s hands, but instead of staying on, they instead continued to “fall” on a path straight towards him.

 

His alertness had paid off; he noticed that magic was in effect as soon as his opponent had touched the mittens with her hands. He was able to cut through it before it reached his face, making the two gravity-defying objects harmlessly fall as nature intended.

 

The mercenary had only given his act that defied magical law a passing glance, she had unfastened the container that was attached to her back and set it down on the ground once more.  She took out what Juda could make out as a model of a magical rifle, though he did not see any points where the wielder could channel magic into it. Upon further inspection, he could actually…

 

Was that a cook book inserted into the bottom of the gun? The design didn’t look ergonomic.

 

All Juda cared about was that whatever was coming out of the business end would hurt pretty badly. He raised his arms in a defensive position, ready to activate Gluttony’s Gauntlets.

 

Cheshire held the rifle to the side, accepting Juda’s generosity and taking a moment to do some theatrics.

 

"Alas, alike the sun, magical rays shine only a-few,

Not blessed by Liberty nor the Earth, we fade like drops of dew."

 

Smoke was once again introduced into the air, animating itself. Shackled men knelt down, they appeared to pray to the heavens. However, they only got mere droplets of light.

 

Cheshire had finally decided to stop smoking, perhaps deciding it would be more productive to introduce Juda to her church-issued rifle.

 

“This model in particular is called the ‘Carbonara’, I believe.”  She did not need to pull any sort of trigger, a weapon powered by faith would only need the user’s will to be triggered.

 

A spray of magical bullets had flew towards Juda, who had attempted to make evasive maneuvers. Unfortunately, man could not outrun 500 rounds of faith a minute.

 

Juda grimaced, within a second; all the mana stones he had hidden in his cloak to feed to Gluttony’s Gauntlets had already run out. Each bullet was individually more powerful than a fully-charged fireball from a professional mage. If the barrage were to continue, he’d have use the coins in his pocket, and eventually, his own flesh.

 

Luckily, that was all there was to the barrage of bullets. A screeching sound came from the magic rifle, its systems grinding to a halt.

 

Cheshire looked at the gun, mouth hung open in surprise. She shook it multiple times and gave it a quick slap. Then proceeded to appraise it again, tracing a finger on the surface of the weapon.

 

 

“You have got to be kitten me.”  The cookbook that was attached to the gun fell off; the text and pictures that were on the cover had long since faded away.

 

The mercenary flipped through the pages of the book,  the content had been completely consumed as well. However, at the end of the page was the signature of a great Newlander cook, left untouched.

 

 

Juda could have taken the chance to swoop down and strike, but he decided that it was best to not let the battle continue in the forest.

 

 

“Damn, so it was a fake.”  Cheshire hissed, and then looked at Juda who was inching closer to the foot of the mountain. It was not really a problem.

 

 

She threw the cookbook to the side and promptly placed the gun back in its container; she then rummaged through it to take out a couple knives. She started to juggle them, dexterously adding another to the performance when she had a chance.

 

The knives smoothly went from one hand to another, strangely not cutting her despite the speed she was juggling at. The velocity of the knives continued to get faster and faster.

 

Cheshire threw a glance side wards, looking at a knife that was about to fall on her left hand. Upon contact, it shot off towards the direction of Juda. Though with the velocity it was going at, he did not even need to cut the magic with Shedim or block it with Gluttony’s Gauntlets. He simply made a slight movement to prevent the knife from making contact on his body. However, that was only the first knife.

 

Cheshire was juggling a dozen, now eleven. The sheer speed the knives were rotating around made them appear as one big, circular object.

 

It appeared Juda was in fact going to be financially challenged today, in more ways than one.

 

He had attempted to avoid the two knives hurling in his direction, but he did not have enough time to maneuver in any direction. Gluttony’s gauntlets literally ate the blow for him, costing him most of his money.

 

He could not afford to get hit any more.

 

The young man tried to fly upwards, but a knife had almost dug into his ankle if he did not keep his gauntlets’ shield up just in case. He tried to move erratically to confuse his opponent, but it did not quite work.  The three knives that would have used up the remainder of his wealth, had one not gone astray proved otherwise.

 

At this point, he had decided to just slash in intervals with Shedim and pray. It paid off as he cut the magic from two incoming knives. One had gotten through his defense; he was officially out of money.

 

Though what he had lost in money had been gained in distance from his opponent. At this range, he had a much better chance to stop any further thrown knives.

 

 Cheshire understood that just as well as he did. The human-cat-mercenary-thing once again strapped the pink container to her back. A knife held in both hands, she began to rush at Juda faster than he could retreat.

 

She swerved to the right and started walking up the trunk of the of a tall tree, not climbing, just walking up without the influence of any magic. She walked through the leaves and branches of the tree as if it was a bush.

 

A second later, Juda couldn’t help but rub his eyes and lose focus a little.

 

A woman with cat-like features was sprinting towards him, who was in the air. What’s more, she was sprinting upside down, with her knife aimed towards his torso.

 

He blocked the one of the knives with Shedim, the other dug into his left thigh, drawing blood. He put the strength of both his arms into the blade, while Cheshire’s was only thrust with one. At the same time, Juda noticed his feet were leveled with her face, so he may as well attempt to kick it.

 

Unexpectedly, instead of his sword overpowering the lone knife both were violently thrown behind him. Cheshire, who did not want her face caved in, decided to notice the ground and crash into it. She held on to the knife and extracted it from Juda.

 

“Ngh.”

 

Both had sustained injuries in the exchange, but the battle was still far from over.

 

The young man glanced at his sword, it was important, so he would retrieve it later. Though he did not quite understand the powers of his opponent, he understood that it would perhaps be better if he did not use a weapon.

 

He would beat her with his fists. He slid his gauntlets off his hands and threw them onto the ground.

 

Cheshire stood up, dusting her clothes as she struggled a little to get up. Her insides were relatively fine, but her back impacting the ground had been quite painful.

 

‘Right, that boy didn’t look all too disturbed despite having a knife pulled out of his leg, huh?’

 

Her reflexes had allowed her to bring the Kit-Kat in front of her to intercept a falling fist. Juda had swooped down in an attempt to snap her neck.

 

The material of the container bended and warped- rendering It useless. The gun inside would be fine, she hoped.

 

“Oh c’mon. That was custom-made!” Cheshire complained, not bothering to pursue Juda who had flown out of knife’s reach.

 

Instead, she took something out of her precious container’s remains: A single, metal, pipe. Her grin appeared to grow even wider, beckoning Juda to come and attack her. She put her lone knife to the side, and put both hands on the pipe.

 

He wondered if she had actually geared up for a battle or just received a notice to come to it within hours while she was in the kitchen.

 

Deciding that it was not worth attacking again, he instead attempted to lead her up the mountain. There was already a distinct lack of forest where they were standing, but the farther they got, the better for him.

 

Cheshire did not in fact care where the battle would take place anymore, and followed after Juda at a leisurely pace. She was used to traversing through long distances, and even with injuries, she would last longer than the sky boots.

 

They climbed up the mountain for almost a minute, keeping their guard up against each other. It was Cheshire that made the first move.

 

There was a group of boulders that had piled up, perhaps because of an avalanche. It was tall enough that Juda was only hovering slightly above it. She rushed up the pile of rocks, kicking up some dust and pebbles.

 

Juda had nearly flown out of her reach, at this point; she could only reach his feet. But that was all that really mattered.

 

She swung the metal pipe at the sky boots, shattering the vulnerable components within it. In a split second-decision, Juda attempted to wrap his legs around Cheshire, but he only grabbed air.

 

The former crashed into the mountain’s soil, damaging his lower body further. The latter, in contrast, landed gracefully on the ground.

 

Juda, who had dislocated his right leg, popped it back into place and put his left foot forward, slowly standing up.

 

“Are you fur real?!” Cheshire finally cried out in annoyance, great her opponent was not only durable, but also had extreme tolerance.

 

However, as she shifted her foot in preparation to attack once more, she noticed it touch something that was clearly not a rock. She took the risk and glanced behind her, and what she saw was the emaciated hand of a man.

 

Juda did not take advantage of the situation, because he too saw the scenery. The arm of a man’s corpse was buried under a few loose rocks. It was bent in a strange angle, as if he reached for something in his final moments.

 

He could not attack an enemy, not when they were respecting the dead.

 

As Juda stared in shock, Cheshire attempted to wedge out a smaller rock with her metal pipe, though she did not have much strength to do it. Her breathing grew heavy, but she would have not done the task if it was impossible for her.

 

She gave Juda a cursory glance, wiping sweat off her brow.

 

“What? Even mercenaries have standards; we should at least bury the dead? Well, technically he’s kind of buried, but this doesn’t feel proper.”

 

“Mm. We should.” Juda nodded, striding forward to aid in excavating the corpse.

 

“Woah! He talks!”  Cheshire feigned surprise, a moment later; the rock was successfully displaced, sending it rolling down the mountain.

 

It revealed more of the man, from his attire; he was most likely some sort of miner. Not a very free one either- from the ragged state of his clothes.

 

Juda, with his superior strength, lifted multiple rocks and threw them out of the way. Eventually, there remained just a single big one.

 

“Be carefur, wouldn’t want to break your foot, again.” Cheshire joked.

 

Juda took it as a friendly gesture nevertheless, and gave her a single nod. He grunted as he struggled to lift the rock, dropping it and further squishing the corpse. A tinge of rage and regret appeared In his eyes. Perhaps the emotions gave him strength to fully lift it.

 

With a thud, he dropped it a few centimeters away from the corpse.

 

Revealed in full, the sight of the man buried by the avalanche was left for Cheshire and Juda to take in.  The corpse was still fresh; perhaps the events that led to his death had just happened the other day. A rusty dagger could be found on his torso; he had tried to poke holes in order to breath. He had fought to the end.

 

A piece of cloth could be found peeking out of a pocket in his ragged attire. Cheshire took it out and unfolded it.

 

“It’s written fully in Ibinian, a dialect at that.” She could not read it.

 

Juda gave it a glance, his eyes widening.

“That’s the code slaves use. I can read it.”

 

“Huh? Well, sure, if you really want to.” Cheshire gently passed the tattered notes into Juda’s hands.

 

“Dear Sister,

Has the tree we planted in the family garden grown beautifully yet?

 

I am sending you this, because I know mama well enough to feel that she no longer wants anything to do with me. However, after spending 8 years in the bondage of slavery, I have not atoned for my crimes, I was drunk and got too impatient with Tica that night, no amount of punishment will ever give me the right to ask for forgiveness.

 

As of the moment I’m writing this letter, I’m still in the mines. Me and the boys found some ink and thought we should prepare some letters home – well, with the help of those who know how to write. The mage here knows how to control the earth, yet he’s lazy enough to employ a bunch of lackeys to do it for him! How absurd! Toiling here for 15 hours a day is excruciating, I am glad he was arrested, unrelated the case may be.

 

The country had no idea what to do with a bunch of prisoner slaves, so they made us all free men. The old mage is still here, he has a day to get everything in order, grumbling something about how it’s all our fault. I doubt he’s going to take revenge, not with the two guards coming here to escort us out.

 

Though, they are running late. If they do not arrive soon, we will have to go out ourselves. That is fine, too.

 

Enough of that, I am telling you this not because I am going home, no, I will find work here in the nearby city. Then, I will write a follow-up letter in a few months, along with a few gifts and my first salary. Give my salary it to mother, but don’t say it was from me, ok? Haha. As for the gifts, I am planning to give one to you and brother… and also Yuj and my daughter(the word was blotted in ink, but Juda could barely make it out) her little girl.

 

I cannot lie, I hope we meet again, but in the event that we do not, know that I am always praying to the gods for everyone’s luck and safety.

 

Respectfully, a changed man

He seemed to have started writing his name, but decided against it.”  Juda delivered the content of the letter with clear sorrow. With a heavy heart, he slowly lowered the paper.

 

Cheshire turned to the avalanche. There were more people inside. She shook her head, deciding against any further attempts of excavation.

 

“No, we have already spent enough time here. It is best we just report this to the observer. Hopefully they do the job properly.”

 

Juda also stared blankly at the pile of rocks. He gritted his teeth, he was not sure of the connection between an earth mage and the avalanche. However as a former slave, he was predisposed to that sort of conclusion.

 

“Let us bury him”

 

Wordlessly, Cheshire picked up her pipe that she had dropped.

 

The two foes turned temporary allies started to dig out some soil, burying the man starting with his feet. Cheshire used her metal pipe to slowly but surely transfer the soil. Juda in the meanwhile used his bare hands to do the process, uncaring of whatever repercussions may come.

 

Droplets of rain had started to fall from the sky, and then came the downpour. A strong rainfall enveloped the mountain, winds scattering the water through its exterior.

 

Juda stared at the tattered cloth within his hand; he did not know where the letter should be sent.  Unfortunately, the man’s wishes will be carried with him to the afterlife.

 

Not necessarily a bad thing.

 

He placed the paper back where it was found, inside the remains of the man’s clothing. Then, they continued to bury him under the mountain.

 

Eventually, he was fully under the soil.

 

“May the Flying Spaghetti Monster bless this soul, for he has attained salvation.” Cheshire lowered her head and prayed.

 

Juda glanced at Cheshire in disbelief. The man was a criminal, and was killed the moment he tried to aim for a better life. Yet, he had somehow achieved salvation?

 

He did not believe in any particular god, but he did believe in any particular god. He did not know what to feel about this fallen slave, but he still wish him safe passage to whatever destination he may come to. A pang of regret welled up in him; perhaps he should have gotten an extra cross.

 

A moment of silence was shared between the two in the rain. Surprisingly, Juda was the one to first strike up a conversation.

 

“Tell me, Cheshire, has man gone insane?”

 

She laughed at his query.

 

“Kid, meown was never sane.”

 

Juda nodded, standing up and turning his back to Cheshire. He seemed to be brimming with even more power than before.

 

“Now is a good moment to surrender. I do not feel like fighting you any longer.” He advised, assured of his victory in the current condition.

 

Cheshire drew her knife, and aimed for his neck. However, the young man ducked out of the way, instead making it cut off a strand of his hair.

 

“Sorry boy, but I’ve got a contract to fulfill.”

 

“I understand.” Juda’s expression turned stoic, and once more they were locked into combat.

 

He had somehow managed to keep up with Cheshire, reacting slower but fast enough that he could simply sustain minimal injuries. Cuts may bring an ordinary man down, though not someone with a will such as he.

 

His saving grace was the rain, for one, Cheshire hated it and it slightly messed with her psyche due to the cold.  She also struggled to get a grip on the wet soil, making her moves less aggressive and to an extent, slower.

 

“You know, these knives actually have names.” She spoke, voice audible but drowned out in the rain.

 

The cat-like woman attacked with a flurry of slashes and stabs, something that not even a skilled martial artist could stop. Juda couldn’t either, but despite the many cuts sustained in his arms and legs and the light stab wounds on his body; he had somehow not fallen.

 

“The first one I threw at you is named Damien, the second is Buck, the fourth was pretty unique. It is named Du Feng.”

 

Then, he attempted to grab his opponent’s left arm; he succeeded, though she would soon wriggle free. He then grabbed her shoulder with his free hand, attempting to tackle her despite the risk of sustaining a deep injury.

 

“This one is unnamed, though.” It was hard to tell if she was troubled or not with her grin permanently plastered on her face.

 

He tackled thin air, and he had no idea why he was all the way out in the mountains, in the middle of such heavy rain. Juda’s intuition practically screamed at him, his mind kicking into overdrive.

 

Right, he was fighting, from the forest, to the mountains. He stopped, to bury a corpse of a dead slave, a criminal that wished to turn a new leaf.

 

What exactly was he fighting, his inner demons?

 

"No."

 

At that moment, he did the impossible.

 

That’s right! He buried the corpse with someone else, a mercenary. Cheshire. She was mentally unstable, so he decided to spare her. But, she rejected. Then…

 

This was the second time she disappeared.

 

Through the sheer force of will, he overcame the impossible. He grabbed a head that didn’t exist, and pulled it into existence.

 

Except, it wasn’t quite a head that he pulled.

 

Cheshire’s eyes widened, tears flowing from her eyes in shock. She had never been pulled out into existence before. In fact, it was impossible to interact with her since she did not exist in the first place. Yet, here they were.

 

Her mask had been torn off, revealing her real face. The left lower half of her face’s skin was completely gone, so with everything else but the bones. The rest of it was simply disfigured, filled with scars that did not ever heal. Her teeth had somewhat messed with the structure of her jaw, making for an uncanny appearance. However, appearance did not matter to Juda, what did was the expression on her face.

 

He couldn’t describe it, but if he were to do so.

 

“That looks… bad.” He coughed out blood, not in shock. Cheshire had stabbed him straight in the chest out of reflex. Her emotions were still in a storm, she did not even know she was in a fight.

 

Yet, he still moved. He raised his arm, attempting to club the woman’s back with his fists. But due to having overcome the impossible once already, he could not muster up enough strength to do any significant damage.

 

If one observed from afar, it may have even looked like some sort of hug.

 

Cheshire finally calmed down, nothing was impossible. It was simply something extremely improbable that occurred.

 

She extracted the blade from his chest. Letting the young man fall to the ground, she briskly walked away, afraid that through sheer will to live the man would rise again and turn into a zombie.

 

That he did, and faster than expected. Blood gurgled in his mouth; he crawled towards her, determination in his eyes. He had even managed to lift one of his arms.

 

He was clearly fighting for someone. That commendable and all, but most sacrifices in history were made in vain.

 

He faced upwards, and somehow, managed to eke out some words.

 

"But, brothers, let us not lose faith,

Children of today, in the future, we place our hope."

 

Cheshire tilted her head in confusion.

 

"The... last line of the poem... my friend's... uncle... made it... you plagiarist."

 

The improvisational performer only scoffed.

 

"Really? Doesn't even rhyme." 

 

She threw her knife at his head, driving it straight through his skull. Two of his most important organs were destroyed. Finally, the force of nature that was this young man had been quelled.

 

Cheshire approached his body to extract the knife once more. They were enchanted to not rust or break, so they were quite valuable.

 

There was a chance, that even with this, he would survive. Not from his own power, however.

 

Though on the off chance he does.

 

“Stay pawsitive, boy. Don’t burden yourself with everything the world throws at you.” Cheshire’s words were lost in the rain. Though hopefully, the Flying Spaghetti Monster would pass it on a whim.

 

---

Cheshire limped through the area, gathering all her tools. Though before that, she first collected Juda’s weapons and threw it beside him.

 

She had left the iron pipe; it was in too bad of a condition to continue using. The rifle, thankfully, was perfectly fine. She kept it in the remains of the Kit-Cat; it could no longer be strapped to her back, but carrying her stuff in it was better than nothing.  The knives were all perfectly fine, even the one that fell beside Shedim.

 

She looked at the one used to deal the finishing blow, bringing it in front of her grin.

 

“I’ll call you Juda from now own, twelfth knife.”

 

She threw the bloodied knife back in its resting place.

 

--

After finding the observer, reporting the fight, and retrieving her explosive handbag; Cheshire had the man escort her out of the forest due to her current physical health.

 

“Well, you better collect that boy now. Hurry up.” She waved him goodbye.

 

The chubby man complied, after hearing her report. He was sure the man was already dead, but he did not want the corpse to lay unattended in Blood Mountain. There had already been many men, mostly miners that end up missing there. The last thing he wanted was another mother angry about the missing corpse of her son.

 

Cheshire continued her trek, ignoring her worsening injuries. Her scheduled ride was soon to arrive, and she had the foresight to set the destination to a hospital.

 

However, she was confronted by another man dressed like the observer, but with actual muscles to show off. A hat also sat on his head, it was a deer’s skull carved into a specific shape to mimic a dragon. The Kobold hat, a sign of submission to the rule of the Ibinian dragons. He was the tough mercenary-turned-warlord of Harawrah, Lord Bidar.

 

“That lasted a good fifteen minutes. Knowing you, that would have been over in one or two, had you not played around”. He commented, looking down on her.

 

“There’s a bunch of men buried under the avalanche, you should probably retrieve their corpses.” She gave no response to his question and continued on her way. The warlord was not able to question her further.