After listening to Sarah's instructions while enhancing his reflexes and strength, Kalen jumped to a branch directly above the girl. He checked one last time the distance to the pursuers, then let his body fall to ground.

He dropped in front of the panting girl. She froze, her blue eyes widening in complete surprise. Kalen quickly placed one hand over her mouth, moving closer to prevent sudden movements from her body. He then used his index finger to indicate she should be silent.

The girl was probably too scared — and tired — to even try resisting. With his head, Kalen pointed towards the tree Sarah had mentioned. Its aerial roots extended through a wide area, creating a gap where the terrain changed elevation. There was space for at least one person to hide in there. He pointed at the girl with his finger, then at the roots again.

If the girl had been interpreting Kalen's intentions correctly, he didn't know, but it seemed she had understood he wasn't trying to attack her.

Kalen slowly removed his hand from her mouth. She nodded, beads of sweat moving down her forehead. Crouching, he conducted her quietly to the hiding gap. After she was in, he shuffled the dirt around intending to mask any trace of her presence, then jumped back to a branch close by.

Once he confirmed the girl was safe inside the shadows below the roots, Kalen focused on the hunters approaching. He had been wrong, there were three instead of only two.

Frowning, Kalen focused on their signatures. There were still only two, which meant the third person—

'One of them isn't a wielder.' Sarah said in his mind.

'That's convenient.' Kalen noted. 'I am not sure I would be ready to take on three wielders.'

"Where are you?" One of the hunters called out, still a few trees away. A muscular women with a trapezius muscle larger than Kalen had ever seen in a female body. "I know you are around here somewhere, sweety. No point in hiding."

"Your senses are all over the place tonight, Tonia." Another hunter said, not bothering to disguise his lack of patience. "Are you sure she came this way?"

"Bite me, Draz." Tonia snapped. "If you're not happy, why don't you do the area scanning? Oh, I know, because you can't!"

Draz was a tall man, even more muscular than his female companion. He looked ready to forget about the girl they were hunting and get into a brawl with Tonia instead, but was held back by a hand falling on his shoulder.

The third hunter held a placating smile in his face. "Calm down, you two. Let's focus on the prize. The girl is a wielder, so there's good money to be made. Now, scatter around, she can't have gone too far."

Begrudgingly, the two bulky hunters stopped growling at each other, moving in different directions as they covered the area surrounded by trees.

'Not good, Kal.' Sarah said. 'The girl is probably not able to focus right now, she is not hiding her presence well enough. We're easily sensing her and that Tonia woman only needs to be half as competent to eventually figure out where she is.'

As if wanting to confirm Sarah's words, Tonia was getting dangerously close to the tree with aerial roots.

Kalen closed his fist, cursing internally. 'No use waiting any longer.'

He let his body begin to fall from the branch he stood upon. Just as gravity's grip on him increased, he pushed the thick wood beneath his feet with all his strength.

Kalen darted towards Tonia. The loud thud resulting from his push must have grabbed her attention, because she turned in his direction. But it was too late. By the time Tonia's reflexes allowed her to raise an arm trying to defend herself, Kalen had already thrusted his tightly compressed thingers in a spear-hand attack at the base of her neck.

The female hunter was pinned to the ground, with Kalen using her body to cushion his fall. Her face twisted into a mixture of surprise and despair as both her hands held her throat in a futile attempt to save her from choking to death.

Startled by all the sudden noise, the other hunters reacted.

"Bryce! Tonia! What was that!?" Draz shouted.

Bryce shouted after that as well.

Draz wasn't able to wield anima, so Kalen's shadow appearing swiftly in the dark of night must have been impossible for him to detect.

The brawny man's eyes bulged when Kalen sunk his fist in the hunter's sternum. There was a sound of bone cracking, then Kalen followed with an elbow to the side of his head. Blacked out, the man's big body fell like a puppet with its strings cut.

When Bryce appeared from the direction he had previously gone, his expression couldn't hide the rage caused by seeing both his companions on the ground. He was smart however, instead of charging against Kalen in an angry fit, the hunter opted to keep his distance.

"Who the hell are you!?" Bryce demanded.

Kalen maintained eye contact with his last opponent without answering, while slowly reaching for the knife sheathed in Draz's leg.

The remaining hunter wasn't as muscular as the other two, but his lean physique at the very least suggested he was used to exercising. Bryce pulled a sword out of his spatial domain, prompting Kalen to assume a defensive stance. But when the hunter took a small step forward, Kalen only drove his knife in Draz's heart.

Two down, Kalen thought, one to go.

"Bastard!" Bryce shouted, losing his initial composure and lunging toward Kalen.

The hunter's strike wasn't polished, still, Kalen chose to jump back and study the man's movements. A series of slashes came next, all avoided by Kalen, but it had become clear Bryce had the minimum skill required with a sword to at least pressure an unarmed opponent.

'You need my Stormwielder.' Sarah pointed out.

'Seems I do.' Kalen replied.

After a few unsuccessful attacks, Bryce's anger seemed to have swelled when he swung his sword down at Kalen. The hunter's furious attack managed to open a gash in Kalen's chest, but he had overextended. Using the opportunity, Kalen landed a kick in his opponent's side, gaining some space to focus on opening his own spatial domain.

A spatial domain allows the wielder to store itens for later retrieval in a pocket dimension connected to their soul. The ability took one full day for Kalen to learn. Between gaining the insight and controlling the manifestation, he had to solely focus on that from sunrise to night time.

A steel spear appeared out of Kalen's domain. He assumed a new stance holding the weapon, but inviting Bryce to continue taking the initiative.

Stormwielder had been Sarah's spear, and luckily for Kalen, their souls were now linked. That had granted him access to her spatial domain as well. When she mentioned the weapon to him, he couldn't help but smile at the convenient coincidence. Despite being a skilled swordsman, he too favored spears.

It would be common to hear that swords were the most well rounded weapon of combat. There were many advantages compare to others. However, if the wielder of a spear was truly skilled with it, then there was a good chance they would gain the upper hand against a swordsman. After all, the distance from which a spearman can control the fight often negates the range a sword can strike.

Bryce dashed toward Kalen, his movement more contained now that a spear could block his attacks. The clash between metals producing sparks, momentarily lighting up the dark forest.

The hunter's sword drew a diagonal arch, and Kalen moved his spear to block it. Bryce tried maneuvering his weapon to knock Kalen's spear upwards. That would leave Kalen's defenses open, but he already expected that move, so he quickly disengaged, shifting his weight and bringing the spear down in a slash that ran through Bryce's left arm.

As a stream of blood slowly painted the hunter's shirt, he grimaced and cursed Kalen in a number of creative ways. He then took a few steps back, trying to maintain his sword leveled to block. Kalen, on the other hand, remained still, managing the space.

"You piece of shit!" Bryce cursed again. "You're already dead! But I'll kill you a second time just for for this!"

I don't think you can, pal.

When Bryce desperately swung, Kalen parried with minimal effort and thrusted the spearhead into the hunter's neck. After a few seconds, there was no more resistance in Bryce's body, his sword fell to the ground and his eyes lost all color.

Three down.

'Nice work!' Sarah said.

'Went without hiccups.' Kalen replied, putting Stormwielder back in his spatial domain. 'But I admit I am feeling a bit tired.'

'To be expected. You just dealt with a trio of hunters.'

'By the way, what should I do with their corpses?' He asked, walking back to the tree the girl had been hiding at.

'Don't worry.' Sarah said. 'The animals will clean it up.'

'Convenient.'

Once Kalen was near the tree, he reached with his hand inside the gap.

"It's safe now." He said. "You can come out. I promise I don't want to hurt you."

The girl grabbed his hand and slowly came out from under the roots, no longer as tired, but still scared.

"Thank you for saving me." She said awkwardly.

Kalen smiled softly. "Don't worry—"

Abruptly, he felt dizzy and his vision started to blur. He staggered, his legs losing all their strength. Then, he looked at the gash throbbing in his chest.

Ah... That's what he meant by 'you are already dead'.

'Kal!' He heard Sarah shout in his mind. Just before darkness enveloped him.