Hasib lowered his sword.
Gutu let out a wheezing laugh at that, tilting his head. "Giving up already? That was fast."
Hasib’s mouth curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile.
He’d been watching Gutu’s eyes the whole fight and every time the creature lunged, his gaze never actually locked on where he was striking. It drifted, just slightly, a half-beat before the attack landed. A tell. Small, but enough.
The next time Gutu came at him, Hasib didn’t bother raising the sword at all. He simply stepped into the strike, closed the distance faster than Gutu expected, and wrapped one hand around his throat.
The room went still. The other creatures froze mid-laugh, eyes going wide. Gutu’s own eyes bulged, hands scrabbling uselessly at Hasib’s wrist.
"L-let go of him. Now," one of them barked though the threat in it barely held.
They didn’t rush to help. If anything, they seemed almost entertained, jeering at Gutu for being caught so easily, calling him useless, pathetic, a disgrace to whatever rank he held among them.
Then the largest of them clearly the strongest of the group decided he’d had enough of the show. In one motion, he grabbed the girl by the arm and hurled her into the wall.
She hit it hard, a sharp cry tearing out of her before she folded to the floor, sobbing through the pain.
Something in Hasib went cold.
"You bastard."
He shoved Gutu aside without another thought, and the moment the girl hit the ground, the strongest creature and the one beside him were already closing in on him from both sides.
Hasib didn’t wait. He slashed low and hard, catching the nearest one across the side and throwing him clear across the room. The remaining two screamed not in fear, but fury and came at him properly this time, one swinging a length of chain, the other wielding what looked like an iron war-fan.
He blocked the first strike, then the second, but they moved faster than the others had. Within moments he was on the back foot, catching hits he couldn’t fully avoid, blood starting to run freely down his arm, his side. The girl watched it all from where she’d fallen, too hurt to move, unable to look away.
Still, Hasib didn’t go down.
Fan user’s got range on his side. Chain user’s got reach. He turned it over even as he moved, breathing hard. So when the chain’s locked into a strike, he’s committed can’t redirect mid-swing.
The next time the chain came around, he waited for the exact moment it was fully extended, feinted toward the fan user instead then spun and drove his blade into the chain-wielder before the man could recover.
It cost him. The fan user’s strike caught him across the body in the same instant, tearing straight through his armor. Pain bloomed hot and immediate. The girl flinched at the sound of it, a small whimper escaping her.
The fan user came at him again, grinning through the whole approach.
Hasib forced himself upright. "One on one, then. Fine by me."
He kept his distance, circling just outside the fan’s reach, letting the creature grow impatient. When it finally closed in laughing, certain of the win Hasib’s mouth twisted into a crooked smile.
"Knew you would."
He stepped straight through the opening and buried his sword in the creature’s chest. A last, glancing blow from the fan caught him across the throat as it fell shallow, but enough to sting.
"No !" the girl cried out, scrambling half upright despite herself. Why is he fighting like that risking everything for someone like me?
The boy in the corner made a sound too, something desperate and wordless, but no actual words came.
The fan user collapsed. Hasib sank down, using the sword to hold himself upright, chest heaving.
[HEALING KIT]
A faint green glow spread across his skin, the worst of the wounds already beginning to close.
The girl hadn’t taken her eyes off him. "I-Is he... going to be okay?"
Hasib finally looked over at her then immediately looked away again. "Sorry."
"Huh !" She yelped and pulled her arms up over herself, cheeks burning. Hasib spotted her torn dress on the floor nearby and tossed it toward her without another glance in her direction. Her face went even redder as she pulled it on, and once she had, she asked him voice still shaking,
"What is your name?"
He moved first to free the boy from his bindings. The boy dropped forward the moment the ropes gave, gasping for air in short, ragged pulls.
Hasib crouched by the girl. She probably doesn’t know me as "Hasib" out here anyway.
"I’m Karon," he said. "And you?"
"...Y-You okay?" was all he managed to add before she broke.
She couldn’t hold the tears back anymore. Without fully understanding why, she threw her arms around him and cried into his shoulder.
"I’m Java," she finally got out between sobs.
"Java. Okay. And you two, and them what exactly are you?"
"We’re... goblins. Different kinds of goblins."
"Oh! Goblins!" Hasib’s eyes went wide, though he recovered fast enough to give her a light pat on the back. "Right. Okay."
"We need to go. Now," Java said, wiping her face with the back of her hand. "They’re servants of Lord Gobalata. More of them will come looking soon."
"You two live out here? Where are your parents?"
Java blinked at him. "...Parents? What’s that?"
Hasib’s face went blank for a second. Is she serious?
She wasn’t joking her expression made that clear enough. He glanced over at the boy instead, who was still trembling where he sat, arms wrapped around his own knees. Something about the way he held himself told Hasib the boy wasn’t quite like other children his age; whatever had happened to him, it clearly went further back than tonight.
"Just put a jacket on, both of you," Hasib said, deciding the questions could wait.
Java tried to stand and immediately hissed, grabbing at her ankle. It had twisted badly in the fall. She pointed at the jackets hanging near the door instead, and Hasib grabbed them, tossing one to the boy, draping the other over Java’s shoulders, and pulling a spare on over himself.
"We should hurry, but... my ankle "
"Don’t worry about it," Hasib said. "Since we don’t have time to waste, there’s really only one thing to do."
A little while later—
Three sets of footprints, two small, one larger, pressed side by side into the snow.
They made their way down the frozen path together, Java riding piggyback on Hasib’s shoulders, her cheeks still faintly pink.
"So, Karon what species are you, anyway?"
"Human. Mostly."
"You’re human? And that strong?"
She pointed ahead toward a low mound half-buried in the snow. "That’s it, right there my burrow."
Hasib squinted at it. "That’s... an abandoned settlement."
[SYSTEM: CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE BROUGHT THEM TO SAFETY.]
He set Java down gently once they reached it.
His sword dissolved from his hand. Guess it’s time for me to go.
Java grabbed onto his sleeve, holding tight. "Where are you going?"
"We’ll meet again," he said simply.
Then he was gone too, vanishing the way he’d come.
Hasib’s eyes opened.
Hasib’s eyes opened. The night still hadn’t broken.
He got up and crossed to the window, standing there for a moment in the dark.
Down on the street below, a figure in a heavy jacket was walking away and something about the shape of him, the way he carried himself, looked exactly like the strange man Hasib had bumped into earlier that day.
But what stood out more than the resemblance was the direction. The man was heading north toward the stretch of land where no human ever went.
What could he possibly be doing out there, this late?
At Drago Academy, the librarian Kosai came running through the halls, shouting for anyone who would listen that disaster had struck.
"What happened?" Inosi asked, stepping into his path.
Kosai only clutched at his head, gesturing wordlessly toward the shelves behind him.
Inosi followed the gesture and went silent the instant he understood.
The Catalyst. Gone.
In the Principal’s office, Yamin stood with one hand pressed to his temple, saying nothing. Beside him, chests squared, stood Habi Ma’am and Inosi.
Kosai bowed his head low before the Principal’s desk. "This happened because of my negligence. The Catalyst *The Book of a Thousand Sword Techniques*has been stolen. I’ll accept whatever punishment is fitting."
The Principal let out a short, humorless laugh. "Hah. This was bound to happen sooner or later. It’s not your fault."
An eagle’s cry cut through the room before anyone could say more. It swept in and landed on the Principal’s outstretched arm, dipping its head, wings shifting, offering up whatever signal it had come to deliver.
The Principal’s expression darkened as he read it.
"Just as I thought. This wasn’t some stranger who stumbled onto it. Whoever it was hidden from, it’s now ended up in exactly their hands."