Lukas rushed off faster than he had ever before. His legs moved with an almost perfect rhythm and at the speed of a gazelle. His body felt lighter than before and moved nearly on instinct before the thought of movement was fully formed.
He wasn't as fast as Skyla or Kai, but he was faster than before. Especially now that he dashed as fast as he could. It was hard to avoid the trees in the dense forest, but he managed to only graze by a couple.
It took less than a minute to reach the source of the whistle. The person who called the whistle was injured, but not in dire need of medical attention. One of her arms was limp but still intact. She was holding her own against a ghast.
However, it too struggled. It likely wasn't too strong, only injuring the scout with the element of surprise. The scout had held off the ghast long enough for help to arrive. As soon as she saw Lukas, her face lit up with a weak smile of relief.
She let go of her weapon and dropped down below the ghast. The momentum carried the ghast forward, away from the scout.
"I can run back to Mistfell. Make sure the ghast is dealt with!"
The scout quickly picked up her weapon and ran off towards the dreary town. Lukas swiftly slashed at the ghast's back legs. Now the ghast couldn't run, but it also knew Lukas was a threat.
To Lukas, however, the ghast before him likely wasn't a threat. Not a fatal one at least. So he wasn't too worried about fighting flawlessly. No, rather he wanted to see how much stronger he had become since he started his assignment.
So he sheathed his tachi and held the kusarigama between his hands. He began to spin the chain in his right hand, ready for any sudden attack. But what he wasn't ready for, was how he would react to it.
When the ghast did inevitably leap at him, his body moved before his mind could. His mind broke down everything he saw before he himself could understand it all. The chain flew forward and the sickle blade passed right by its neck.
Then he pulled the chain back, digging the blade into the back of its neck. It had dug halfway through by the time it stopped. The ghast hadn't even touched Lukas, everything just happened so fast. Both Lukas and the ghast briefly stopped for a moment.
'What... what just happened?'
Lukas tried to understand what happened, but it was all a blur to him. He knew what he did, but the thoughts of what should do came after he had already done them. It was confusing, how could his body act before his mind had thought of the very actions he committed?
None of it made sense, maybe he was just tired. There was no way that he understood things correctly. He was tired, surely. If by the morning things were the same, well he could deal with it then. For now, he was in a fight, and he needed focus.
However, he overestimated his opponent. When the ghast managed to break free of the chain and sickle buried deep in its neck, it took a clumsy jab at Lukas' chest. It barely knocked him back and only left minor tears on the surface layers of his gi.
It seemed he had weakened the ghast a significant amount with the two strikes to its neck and hind legs. But even then, it was laughable how weak the ghast was. It must've tried to ambush the scout but failed to kill her. Now all it can do is softly try to slash at Lukas with its claws.
Unfortunately, this meant it was of no challenge to Lukas. He couldn't see if had become stronger if his enemy wasn't a good match for him. At least he had no worries about dying. But it meant that this entire fight was a waste of his time.
'Wait, what am I thinking? I just saved someone, how is that a waste of time?'
By the time the thought had left his head, his kusarigama was already in the ghast's heart. The fight was over just as swiftly as it began. Not even a single drop of blood was on Lukas.
He cleaned his blades and went back to Mistfell for the night. He was tired, confused, and slightly annoyed that his time had been wasted. Even if he had saved someone, anybody else could have done the same. The scout likely could have escaped on their own.
Tomorrow he would continue his scouting with Oak. Hopefully, soon he could see how far he had come.