4th of Light, 1849

Kant stood before the masked assailant, Kjallo, Astrid, and Valg behind. The wind began to blow through the broken windows, scattering papers around the room.

“Who are you?” Kant asked.

The man stood there, before finally answering. “You can call me Gin. I’m here to kill you.”

“That’s nice.” Kant placed his hands in a fighting stance. “I’d say this threat calls for a use of Tath. Valg!”

Valg threw his hands on the floor. Blue lines ran from his hand onto the floor, lacing over the desk and reaching the floor below Gin.

The assassin leaped to the ceiling as the stone floor began to change, then instantly shooting up as a pole, impaling the space next to him. Valg was Kant’s first agent, the two working together far before the Laveska conquest.

Gin fell down, landing on his feet. He outstretched his hand, and a gust of fire came at Valg, rushing towards him swiftly.

“The hell?!” Valg’s voice was muffled by the roar of the fire.

Kjallo shook for a second. Another Tath user?

When the blaze cleared, Valg was nowhere to be seen, only a hole in the floor. A fire had started in the corner of the room, slowly growing.

“Interesting,” Kant remarked, smiling. He turned to Kjallo and Astrid. “Oh don’t worry, he’ll be alright. But you might want to put that out.”

“Right,” Astrid responded, pulling the wind from the windows and setting the fire out.

“Is that Tath I see?” Kant turned to Gin.

Kjallo frowned. If that was Tath, then that could explain the way he leaped to the ceiling and how he shot the fire. So if he was a conjurer, then how would he go to the ceiling, maybe he used wind, but if so, then how could he use two elements that well? But most of all, if it’s someone who isn’t an Enforcer that can use Tath, he’s most likely linked to Eskir. But why here?

“Maybe it is,” Gin responded.

“Where’d you get it?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I would, that’s why I will know.” Kant grinned, and the floor opened up between Gin’s feet, and a hand grabbed his leg. The hand pulled him down, making him stuck in the hole.

“That’s a cool trick,” Gin noted. “Of course you escaped my fire. But!” He flew to the top of the room instantly, Valg letting go before his head would be bashed by the floor. Gin clicked his tongue. “Four Enforcers might be a little more than I expected.”

“Oh don’t back out now,” Kant taunted.

Gin chuckled, and crawled along the ceiling, exiting the room out the window.

“Kjallo, Astrid, take the stairs, he wants me to follow him,” Kant said, running and jumping out the window.

Now outside of the building, Kant focused his Tath on shifting his weight to the wall, and landed against the stone outside. Gin was running up the wall, not too far away from him.

“Shame I’m a Berserker,” Kant said to himself, dashing up the wall at an incredible speed.

Gin looked back and blocked Kant’s first punch, leaping into a backflip and landing behind the commander. Kant jumped back, placing distance between the two.

“You pushing yourself down with wind? That’s impressive,” Kant remarked.

“You must be a Berserker, unless you’re also a Conjurer,” Gin responded.

“You’ll see.” Kant’s foot stomped into the wall, and he darted towards the assassin, the two exchanging punches and kicks at a fast pace. Kant threw his arm forward, and Gin grabbed it, threw himself back while still holding on to the arm.

Kant’s head was going into the ground. He put his free arm out, shielding the impact. Kant kicked Gin away with his leg, and the Conjurer jumped off the wall, flying for a few seconds, until rushing towards Kant with an extended fist.

With no time to dodge, Kant caught it, kicking Gin in the stomach. He heard footsteps near him from inside the building.

“Kjallo! Lightning! Up, now!” he called, throwing the assassin up the wall.

Gin’s eyes widened behind his mask as a blast of scarlet lightning broke through the wall, engulfing him in electricity. It crawled over his mask and clothes, shooting him off the wall and into the roof of a house nearby.

Kjallo and Astrid looked out through the hole, the masked assassin slowly getting up nearby.

Gin looked up at Kjallo, holding the arm that made impact with the wood roof. “I’m gonna get you back for that,” he scowled, turning around and running off into the distance.

Kant threw his arms over the hole in the wall, pulling himself over. He sat down, looking at the assassin run off into the distance, heading towards the near forest.

“We need to follow him, if he has Tath that means he’s probably connected to Eskir.”

“You’re probably right,” Astrid agreed. The two looked at Kant as Valg came up the stairs and met them.

Kant chuckled, leaning back against the wall and shaking his head. “That took a lot out of me, I haven’t trained for shifting weight, that’s not my thing. We’ll stay back.”

“But—“

“We came here to evacuate the town, not to investigate Eskir, I don’t know why this is important to you, Kjallo, but we have another job to do. We’ll look into this tomorrow.”

He looked over to Valg. “Go get that mayor out of here and tell the others we can get the residents out, let’s get this finished.”

Kjallo sighed, “Why was that guy trying to kill you?” he asked.

“How should I know?” Kant frowned, he looked out the hole. “Gin, huh?”

Astrid stepped forward and shot an orange flare into the sky. It blazed in the air, lighting up the night. The moon looked over the town, shining on the river running through.