"Didn't think I'd find you so soon," The boys voice was a cold rasp, eyes fixed on Yukki. "Step aside and maybe I won't spill the girl's blood."
"Who are you!" Yukki hissed. The boy laughed. "That won't matter to you, i'm only here for the girl." But the boy laughed once more. "Names Con."
Nyla whimpered, clutching at her blanket. Yukki moved in front of her instantly, sword angled across his body. "You'll have to cut through me first."
Con's smirk widened. He flicked his hand, and the sickle tore forward unnaturally, yanked by magnetic force. The blade whistled through the air toward Yukki's chest.
CLANG!
Yukki's sword intercepted, sparks spraying as metal screamed against metal. But the pull was relentless, the sickle dragged, scraped, then snapped back into Con's grip like a predator on a chain.
"Seems like he's using magnetic magic, he seems to really know what he's doing!"
Yukki wasted no time. He stomped hard, and the earth beneath Con's feet buckled, jagged stones jutting upward like teeth. Con sidestepped effortlessly, the magnetic hum of his magic sending the rocks crumbling away as the metal in the soil bent under his control.
"Clever," Con hissed, swinging his sickle in a brutal arc. With a twitch of his fingers, the blade curved unnaturally mid-flight, bending toward Yukki's blind spot.
Yukki twisted just in time, steel clashing again. His arms shook with the force, but he gritted his teeth. He couldn't let even one strike slip past him, not with Nyla trembling behind him.
"Stay down, Ms, Nyla!" he barked, forcing the sickle away and slamming his foot down. A wall of earth surged upward between her and the fight, a shield of stone.
Con laughed low. "Protecting the weak? You'll break before I do."
He thrust his hand forward, and suddenly Yukki's sword grew heavy, too heavy. The magnetic pull dragged the blade down, towards the dirt.
Yukki's eyes narrowed. "Not… happening!" He roared and released the sword completely. With his free hand, he slammed the ground, causing a jagged pillar of rock to erupt under Con's arm. The strike nearly tore the sickle from Con's grip.
Con staggered back, his smirk faltering. Yukki lunged, scooping his sword back up in one fluid motion, the weight restored once he broke Con's focus. His blade cut through the firelight in a vicious arc, forcing Con into a desperate retreat.
For a moment, the camp was alive with chaos, the crack of stone, the hum of magnetic force.
And Nyla, huddled behind her wall of earth, could only watch as Yukki stood unyielding, his body battered but his stance like stone.
"Come at me again," Yukki growled, fire in his chest. "But you'll never touch her."
Yukki's chest heaved, sweat streaking his face, sword trembling in his grip.
Con sneered. "You're slowing down."
Yukki planted his feet. "Not while she's behind me!"
When Con feinted left, Yukki bit the bait. His blade swung to intercept, only for Con's sickle to whip the opposite way, curving unnaturally mid-air with a magnetic snap.
BOOM!
Yukki staggered, "The hilt, got my jaw." Yukki stumbled forwards as he clings to stay up.
"Move aside," Con snarled, pressing forward. "You can't stop me."
Yukki's arms buckled as the sickle smashed into his sword again. His knees hit the dirt, body giving out. Nyla cried out, scrambling toward him.
Con raised his weapon high, magnetic force vibrating through the metal, ready to cleave down on both of them.
"Pathetic," he spat.
But the strike never landed.
A blur cut through the firelight. Whoosh. Con's sickle arm was knocked off course, the blade embedding into the dirt instead of Yukki's chest.
"Step away from them."
Kaito.
He stood just a few feet away, bloodied from Con's earlier ambush, but his eyes burned sharp, Yukki's hunting knife glinting in his hand. His stance was loose, like the fight had already begun and only he knew the rhythm.
Con wrenched his sickle free, smirking. "You think you can take me with that toy?"
Kaito didn't answer. He shifted his weight, knife low at his side. The firelight danced across his frame, then he moved.
Fast.
Con lashed out with his sickle, magnetism dragging it unnaturally sharp through the air. But Kaito slipped past the arc, body bending at an impossible angle, the blade missing him by inches. He pivoted on his heel, knife flashing toward Con's ribs.
Con barely deflected it, sparks spitting where sickle met steel. But Kaito was already gone, ducking low, rolling under Con's guard, slashing for the ankle.
"Damn!" Con jerked back, blood spilling from a shallow cut.
Kaito's eyes locked on him, unblinking. His movements were wild but precise, attacks that looked reckless but struck with surgical timing. Each dodge seemed too close, his body twisting and bending like he wasn't bound by the same rules of combat.
Yukki, mouth bleeding but conscious, stared from the ground in awe. "His… movements… can't be read…"
Con swung again, pouring more magnetic force into his strikes, each one faster, heavier. But the harder he pressed, the harder Kaito slipped away, weaving through the attacks like smoke, knife always darting back in to bite at the openings.
And for the first time, Con's grin wavered.
Con's jaw clenched. The hum of his magic filled the campsite as the sickle ripped through the air, darting toward Kaito with inhuman speed. The blade swerved mid-flight, bending its path unnaturally, straight for Kaito's chest.
Kaito tilted his head, wide grin splitting his face. "Whoa, does that thing chase me? That's cheating!"
He sprang sideways, the sickle grazing past him. Con yanked it back with a magnetic tug, but Kaito was already moving, rolling forward and springing up behind him. His hunting knife flashed, tap-tap, two quick strikes at Con's shoulder and thigh, shallow but precise.
Con hissed, stumbling back. "Quit playing with me!"
"I'm not playing," Kaito chuckled, bouncing on his toes. "Well… maybe a little."
The sickle snapped toward him again, but this time Con pulled at the knife in Kaito's hand, the magnetic drag wrenching it sideways. Kaito yelped, his arm tugged off balance.
"Oooh, I get it!" Kaito said, eyes sparkling with amusement. Instead of resisting, he let the pull drag him forward, twisting his body into the momentum. His knee shot up, slamming into Con's gut.
Thud!
Con gagged, nearly dropping his sickle.
Kaito flipped backward out of reach, landing in a crouch. "Ha! You pull me in, I hit you. Seems fair, right?"
Yukki, still on the ground, stared in disbelief. "He's… joking around…?"
Con roared, swinging wildly now, metal shards from the campsite's cookware rattling and clanging as they were ripped into the air, swirling like shrapnel toward Kaito.
"Ah! Dinner's attacking me!" Kaito laughed, weaving through the storm of forks and knives. Each movement was unpredictable, one moment bending low, the next springing sideways, the cutlery slicing past his hair by a breath.
Before Con could regroup, Kaito was inside his guard, his knife flicking forward. The blade stopped just shy of Con's throat, the edge teasing his skin.
"Boo."
Con froze, sweat dripping down his temple.
Kaito's grin softened. "Relax, I'm not here to kill you." He flicked his wrist, smacking the flat of his blade against Con's temple. Con crumpled to the ground unconscious, the magnetic hum fading instantly.
Kaito twirled his knife once, then he jogged over to Yukki, extending a hand to help him up.
"You okay? You looked cool for a while there," Kaito teased.
Yukki groaned, taking the hand. "You… idiot… you were playing the whole time?"
Kaito winked, helping Nyla peek out from behind the cracked earth wall. "Hey, someone's gotta keep things fun, right?"
Nyla's frightened expression melted into relief as she hugged him tight. "Thank you again, Kaito."
The fight was over.
Con lay on his back, chest heaving, bloodied and battered. The sickle that moments ago had threatened to tear them apart lay useless in the dirt, its faint magnetic hum dying away. Kaito coming back over to check on him.
Yukki staggered, pressing a hand to his side. His eyes locked on Con, sharp and merciless.
"Kaito. End him."
Kaito, crouched near Con, froze. He looked back at Yukki, stunned. "What? You mean… kill him?"
"Yes," Yukki rasped. His voice shook, but his gaze did not. "If you don't, he'll come back. He's after Ms, Nyla, and who knows if we'll be around next time."
Kaito's smile slipped away. He stared down at Con, breathing heavy beneath him, and his grip on the knife faltered.
"…No," he said at last, his voice quiet but steady.
Yukki's eyes widened. "No? Kaito, this isn't a game. You can't-"
Kaito's tone rose, cutting him off, sharper than anyone expected from him. "I said no. I don't… I don't kill. That's not who I am."
Con coughed out a bitter laugh, though blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. "Mercy? From a fighter? That's… new." His eyes flicked up at Kaito, filled with disbelief. "You beat me, and now you… spare me? What kind of an idiot are you?"
Kaito blinked at him, then smirked faintly. "Maybe I'm the kind of fool you needed to meet." He twirled the knife once and sheathed it. "But I can't let you go for nothing. So…" He leaned closer, eyes glinting with curiosity. "…give me something instead."
Con stared at him in silence. He had expected.... well, anything but this strange boy demanding a reward for sparing his life.
Slowly, with a grunt of pain, Con reached into the air in front of him. And a sword materialized from the air, with a soft glow.
"This," Con muttered, voice low, "was taken from a Beario monster. A sword from an appraisal stone. It answers only to the one who holds it. I kept it as a prize. A reminder of what I killed." His gaze hardened.
Kaito took the sword carefully, eyes wide. The weight of it thrummed against his palm, and when he let go, it vanished into nothing. He blinked, startled, then laughed softly. "It comes back when I call it… That's amazing."
He looked down at Con, his grin fading into something gentler. "You don't understand mercy, huh? That's fine. Just remember this feeling. Someone let you walk away when they didn't have to."
Con's jaw tightened. He tried to hold onto his usual smirk, but it faltered under the weight of Kaito's words. "You're insane… sparing me like this."
Kaito tilted his head, smile returning, though softer this time. "Nah. I just think there's more to people."
Con pushed himself up, staggering toward the shadows beyond the camp. His voice was low, unreadable. "We'll see if you still think that… when we meet again."
And then he was gone.
Yukki sank back against the earth wall, bloodied and trembling. "You're… reckless, Kaito. He'll come back."
Kaito dismissed the new sword, the glow vanishing from his hand, and turned to Yukki with a crooked smile. "Then we'll just beat him again. But this time… maybe he won't come just to kill."
Nyla crept closer, her small hands clutching Kaito's sleeve. He ruffled her hair, eyes still on the place where Con had vanished.