The hunters' bodies on the ground and the smell of blood rising from the earth made a great contrast with the beautiful trees lit by moonlight. While in the darkness, the unknown kept watch for the two Wind Emissaries that were highlighted by the area contemplated by the light of the moon.

“Grrr!” 

Luther yanked the dagger from his shoulder unceremoniously, blood spattering his overcoat, and he gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.

For him, the pain would help him stay even more alert and magical regeneration would take care of the rest.

This is all my fault! I should have gone back to camp with Jasmim and joined the others as soon as I suspected something was wrong, Luther thought as he regulated his breathing.

The emissary, narrowed his brown eyes in search of more enemies and Jasmim aimed at a fixed point in the darkness of the forest.

The smell of blood disturbed the emissary's nose, but she was sure that the fight was not over yet. Being in similar situations, she could feel that someone was watching them.

“Don't worry, Luther, the others will come looking for us. This little warm-up of ours is not your fault.”

“haha, you know I'm not worried about that. Really, I just didn't want to delay your beauty sleep”, Luther said.

“In that case, you can relax. Our opponent won't take much of our time, will he?!”

"No matter how many warlock plagues I encounter, arrogance is always present," said the voice from the darkness.

Luther heard the sound of a small movement coming from the bushes in another direction and turned ready to attack, but contrary to what both emissaries expected, two daggers cut the air heading towards them from another path.

As they entered Luther and Jasmim's field of vision, they cast a spell to protect themselves:

— Elemental Art: Wind Shield!

The daggers just ignored the air mass created in their path and hit Luther in the right side of his rib and Jasmim in his left arm.

“By weak magic I'm going to assume contrary to what they were trying to show. They are tired,” said the voice.

Out of the darkness came a man removing his hood. Even with a full beard, one could see, on the face of the red-haired man, several scars and and despite his cold voice, his eyes burned, full of fury.

As he tried to maintain his patience, Luther found himself even more agitated by his opponent. The emissary stared his enemy straight in the eyes, without any fear of the hatred that was being directed at him.

"You bastard, don't you dare call us witches!", Luther said.

“Ha! What is the problem?”, said the man.

Drawing his sword, the man advanced to attack the emissary and Luther did the same. Their swords met and as soon as they were face to face, Luther had the feeling that he knew his opponent from somewhere.

“Who are you? Are you and this band of hunters responsible for the murders in this region?!”, Luther said.

As soon as he heard Jasmim's whistle, Luther moved out of the way. She with her free path followed with her blade to cut off her enemy's left hand. However, he managed to defend himself from the attack and retreated quickly, leaving the emissary's reach.

"It's no use introducing myself, or explaining anything to two corpses!", said the man.

This time, the emissaries' opponent was the first to act, charging at Luther.

“Elemental Art: Wind Boost!”, said Jasmim.

Jasmim put herself in front to prevent the enemy's approach, manipulating the air around her with and launching a strong mass of air against him.

The man tried to dodge, but the attack partially hit him, throwing him against the trunk of a tree. Even so, he rose without difficulty and removed his cloak, revealing a light armor of high quality that seemed to have a long history with its owner from the wear and tear on its surface.

The armored man threw more daggers towards the emissaries, this time they managed to dodge the attack.

“If you really plan on killing us tonight, you're going to have to do better than this”, said Jasmim.

Within seconds, Jasmim was back at her enemy with quick, precise lunges that would have cut any less experienced enemy to pieces.