The smell of battle.
Agashi rushed through the woods with scarcely a pair of pants and his saber held tight in the palm of his hand.
Yu rode his shoulder shouting happily as the wind brushed past her and intertwined with her hair flowering into a long trail of silently screaming apperitions which quickly disappeared as though caged within her hair.
The crimson wolf vanished back into Agashi's body.
Tree's passed by like lights on a dark night.
His senses had risen sharply.
Swiftly he passed through the familiar Durlivanian woods as though he had made a connection between the tree's and himself.
Soon enough, he arrived in a secluded place far away from Durlivan, at least a days ride away from the city, though, it took hardly an hour on his own feet.
"...fuck." He couldn't help but curse looking over the wastes below for the flags he saw layden among the countless tents were not unknown tribes but a truly known symbol.
A symbol which once made the continent tremble at the very sight of.
Kendogan Empires Silver-Fire Cross.
Stabbed into the arid ground the Silver-Fire Cross radiated a terrifying intent which reached Agashi even from so far away.
He frowned tightly.
"I'm surrounded." Lightly, he turned looking around.
If not for his heightened senses, he may not have even noticed.
Such was the level of the experts surrounding him.
Without a shred of hesitation, he whispered a few words and in the next moment in the eyes of those experts, his physical form vanished.
The woods stirred.
Agashi fled quickly through the woods under Yu's enhanced stealth ability.
However.
Those experts from Kendgoan bearing the Silver-Fire Cross emblem were quick on the uptake and no longer relied on their physical vision, but the sensation of the mind.
Following his energy signature they chased through the woods following around him tightly.
Just slightly ahead, Agashi grit his teeth.
I can't bring them back to the city or else while we will take them down, it'll be an indescribable massacre.
Coming to such a conclusion, he stopped in his tracks.
Yu vanished upwards into the sky, bursting forth back to Durlivan whilst Agashi stood still in the center of a these woods, powerful energies probing him causing a virulent chill to run up his spine.
In response, he released a sharp killing intent which shook their mental probing but ultimately was brushed off.
Agashi prepared for combat.
He couldn't even begin to imagine the level of strength of these experts.
"A fairy, sabers made of a demonic wolf alphas claws, and such a powerful, sharp killing intent which can even shake the minds of my Silver-Fire Cross Guardians who are each Intermediate Adepts," A voice passed on the breeze through the clearing, "Scarlet Demon, Agashi D. Durlivan, I presume?"
Agashi silently turned to the origin of the voice his voice low and cold, "A ladies voice, intelligent, layden with arrogance and ambition under a thin facade, Kendogan's very own Princess Anesthesia, I presume?"
"Hahaha..." She giggled lightly yet the threat underneath it was clear enough, "...Correct. I am the very Princess Anesthesia who seeks to conquer your lands and make them my own. I suppose you won't simply open the gates for me, oh keeper of the border, Mister Scarlet Demon?"
"No." Agashi took a sharp breath under the immediate and mountain-like pressure which had descended upon him, forcing his knee's to buckle but not bend.
"I heard about you, you know?" She said as steps echoed along the deathly silent forest, "The Scarlet Demon, named so by his wife on the day when he, alone, walked into an army of thousands and massacred his way through to their leader, crushing his head between his fingers despite being riddled with arrows and stabbed by many swords, your quite famous along the border, you know?"
"The rumors seem to only spur greater opponents." Agashi replied with a cynical smile.
What good is a great image, if all it does is call forth greater figures to challenge it?
The foot steps paused and she burst into a lady-like fit of laughter, a tinge of freezing cold laced under each word.
"True, very true, the sharpest blades will be sought after by those who wish to prove their own," Her lower half appeared from the glitter of moonlight through the forests leaves, "So tell me, how stubborn a blade will you be?"
"Death," Agashi began slowly as blood trickled from the corner of his lips, "Is not such a scary thing."
"Is that so? ...I've heard word of it. A champion brought by the traitorous deity, Veru, who plunged the world into eternal battle all those years ago. So, you do not fear death and refuse to surrender? What is a princess like me to do to break a blade like you?" Her eyes glowed an oceanic hue behind the thin veil of night, "What will make you... give in?"
"Is it your wife?" Agashi twitched slightly, "Perhaps, that Summer Prince? The one whom you appear to hold so dear? Or even that city, Durlivan, was it? Perhaps if I swear to not plunge it back into a terrible wreck, you will surrender?"
"You will not win." Agashi said calmly as his body slowly began to heat up.
"My army is more than twice the size of your own. My soldiers better trained, my backing that of kingdoms, and you? What makes you think you will win?" The mocking smile which littered her face could be heard clearly in her voice as her eyes glistened like a predator eyeing a delectable meal.
"If we only talk of the sizes of our armies then you would surely win," Agashi smiled recklessly, "However. If you wish to defeat my army, you will need to grow your own by many times more. Durlivan will not fall to her enemies."
"Durlivan is nothing without you. A castle without a gate." Her eyes narrowed into slits as though she were enjoying herself.
"Even so," Agashi's legs slowly straightened as a terrifying pressure rose from his body to fight against the immovable weight upon his shoulder, "We will not kneel."
"Then I will cut off your legs." She smiled coldly.
"We will not fall." Agashi's legs were cut deeply and he fell to the ground.
"But you have fallen." She said almost cynically, "How can you say you will not fall, nor kneel, as you have fallen now to your knees before me?"
"Have I?" The air changed.
Agashi's tone was low, husky even as his blood fell out in great waves, his body was losing strength and quickly going pale as he had been struck in an artery.
Yet, his eyes remained calm, his voice collected.
There was a moment of silence.
Soon, there was a short laughter which was cut still by a sharp madness which enveloped her eyes.
"Mister Scarlet Demon. I see now. I've seen other's like you, strong, capable, but I've never seen you. You are interestingly different. Who else on their knee's can say they will not kneel? Who else who is fallen can say they will not fall? Who else at deaths' door... can still have eyes fallen to such depths of calm," She took a half step forward revealing a breathtakingly dangerous beauty, "Become mine."
"No." Agashi's husky voice returned.
He leaned against his saber and tremblingly towered to his feet, his sunken gaze calmly gazing into her own.
"We will not kneel," He raised the saber in shaking hands the blood had dried and the wounds sealed by fire yet the blood would not return, "We will not fall."
"Durlivan will brave the fire with you, then?" She looked up at him hiding the lower half of her face behind a colorless fan.
"We are the fire." Agashi's saber suddenly exploded with terrifying might.
The forest was rattled as everything happened in a split second.
Countless flashes of light erupted all around.
A moment later, Anesthesia who had stood perfectly still smiled.
The saber was stopped by four blades.
"It took all of my guardian's to stop the attack of one weak, and dying man. How shameful," She reached forward putting a hand on Agashi's cheek, his eyes dark with nary a light twinkling within.
She traced his cheek with her thumb before bringing her hand back and trailing it along the thin line of blood which he had managed to draw from her flawless shoulder.
In a moment, that blood had turned into a devilish lipstick turning her lips blood red.
Her eyes turned to crescents and with one finger she pushed Agashi back.
It had taken all of his strength to throw out that attack, and it had taken what little gas was left to stay standing.
Yet he did not fall.
Stumbling back he remained on his feet.
"Despair, hopelessness, regret, anger, sadness, these emotions are all on the face of a dead man, but not you? You hide a terrible ferocity underneath that calm look in your eye," Anesthesia said with a lightly curved smile, "We will not attack Durlivan."
She turned.
"Why?" A voice trailed behind her.
"Because, Mister Scarlet Demon. Your right. Durlivan will not kneel, nor shall it fall. Though its walls may crumble and the houses fall to fire, becoming ash, the price would be far too steep. In your single move, I saw the entire battle unfold." She raised her hand still slick with a smudged trace of her own blood.
"Those people of Durlivan will not surrender, forcing my hand into genocide to seize control of the city, turning it into a ghost town. The once strong bulkhead of Dra shattered, it would soon become a town filled with crime subject to countless rebellions," She sighed lightly, "To bring down Durlivan's walls, it would take a great army. To conquer Durlivans people, however, would require a miracle."
"Ha...." Agashi chortled out a husky laugh.
The corner of her lip tugged upward as she spoke, "Laughing? Did you think I would leave you here after catching my eye? Durlivan's walls may require a great army, it's people needing a miracle, but to take you? I simply require a word."
Just as soon as she had spoken, the Silver-Fire Cross Guardian's moved forward towards him, their bodies too were exhausted just from defending against Agashi's all out attack.
The explosive power of Scarlet Qi is simply too powerful.
Despite their apparent weakness at this moment, Agashi was in no place to take advantage of it as he couldn't move his hand anymore.
The only reason the saber remained in his palm even to this moment was because of his own will power, and Sir Clegane's teachings.
The ground shook once a voice rumbling through the great woods, "Leave him."
Princess Anesthesia raised a brow, "A fairy? No, a fairy chieftain. How rare, and brave, daring to show yourself. Don't you know? Those Fairy Master's seeking to increase their strength always wish to find their own pet chieftain."
"I will not be threatened by a mortal child," The voice rumbled once more through the woods, "I have killed your kind before as I will surely do again in the future. Do not test me, child."
"Oh?" Princess Anesthesia stood her ground with a thin-lipped smile, "A nature fairy killing living beings? I've never heard of such a thing. You all don't have the heart to take lives, even that of those who have wronged you."
"I am not a fairy who loves life," Suddenly the tree's shook and began to wither slowly, "My name rings within songs of ages past. I am Lirik Khan, Chieftain of Durlivan's Fairy Ring and master of these woods. Leave now, or pay the price of stepping upon the roots of a Khan's Forest."
"Khan?" Princess Anesthesia smiled coldly, "So many interesting toys here in Durlivan. First, Mister Scarlet Demon who could turn an army around with his conviction alone. Now, an ancient fairy who has taken lives and corrupted themselves of their own will. The next time I return, I will conquer."
"Should you come again, you will not leave." Lirik Khan replied in a tone that shook the forest.
With that, the Silver-Fire Cross Guardian's and Princess Anesthesia left in no hurry, leaving the forest with light steps.
Agashi leaned against a tree.
His wounds were as if he were made of porcelain, and he had just been jostled and thrown by some petulant child.
Long charred cracks ran along his flesh.
The hilt of the saber and his palm had fused under the extreme pressure and strength he had brought to bear alongside the extreme heat which had been trying to heal everything.
Gritting his teeth, Agashi ripped the sabers handle from his melted flesh releasing a pained groan which was quickly swallowed back.
Light rose from the withered tree's and flowered into him nourishing his Scarlet Qi and speeding up his recovery.
"...thank you." Agashi's voice was almost nonexistent as it fell to the level of background noise.
From breaking through to the Low Adept Realm, to immediately being chased by strong Adept Experts of the Silver-Fire Cross, to then throwing everything out.
Agashi felt an inconceivable feeling forming in his chest until eventually, it ended in a sigh.
"This was no break at all."