There was a pause, and even Sagiri’s squad held their breath. One moment, he was below in the canyon, and the next, the space where he had stood was empty.

Nokai was the first to appear mid-air. Its killing intent was pulsing, almost drinking in all the life of the place. The soldiers above barely had time to react before something flashed across the defensive wall. The blade cut through the night in a single line of pale light and passed through the formation surrounding the commander. Men beside him froze. Soldiers behind him stopped mid-motion. They did not have time to move anyway. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Before their head could roll, a heartbeat later, Sagiri appeared. He dropped from above and landed directly in front of the commander with enough force to crack the stone beneath his feet. Dust burst outward across the platform. The commander instinctively stepped back, and Nokai returned at that exact moment. The blade fell through the air and struck into Sagiri’s waiting hand with a sharp metallic sound that echoed through the canyon.

Sagiri rose slowly from the landing, blackened from the fire, burned cloth moving in the cold canyon wind, while faint smoke still lifted from his shoulders. Behind him, the soldiers finally moved again. One dropped to his knees. Another collapsed sideways. Then the rest followed, bodies and weapons hitting stone one after another. Sagiri stood between the fallen and looked directly at the commander. His voice was calm.

"I have given you too many chances to live, haven’t I?" He tilted Nokai slightly and looked toward the closed gates behind them.

There gasps as sagiri held the commander by his neck and suspended him mid-air.

"I am yet to decide whether you deserve my blade or toss you over the wall. Decisions, decisions?" Sagiri said. The commander’s eyes were opened with horror, but he couldn’t say anything because of how hard Sagiri had him in a chokehold.

Right then, the arrow launchers clicked. It was clear they were ready to launch another round at sagiri. Sagiri released Nokai, and this time the blade split into twenty. He had grown in strength yet again, and right at the moment, he was burning with the need to test how far he had grown. Sagiri turned his head slightly before he snarled.

"If you launch those. They will be the last thing you ever launch!!"

His voice echoed in the place, and everyone froze. They had seen him at work, stop hundreds of arrows and survive a whole fireball. They knew that he was not bluffing after he killed the dozen soldiers standing beside the commander.

"Sagiri, don’t do it!!" Sagiri barely heard N’varu yell. It was clear they were running on top of the canyon, looking for a way to reach.

"The commander was turning with, and he would soon die either from choking as Sagiri contemplated a deserving way to kill him.

"It will disgust me if you die in my hands." Sagiri sighed. Without warning, he tossed the man over the wall. The commander’s eyes widened. He had not expected that, but well.

"Commander No!!"

Gasps erupted across the canyon as soldiers rushed toward the edge. The commander disappeared into the open air, falling quickly down the wall with nothing to stop his fall but solid ground.

A second and he would meet his death. A fitting end for a stupid commander.

Then, suddenly, a sharp sound split through the night. An arrow tore across the canyon. It moved too fast for anyone to follow, wrapped in a thin stream of sand that peeled away behind it and glittered under the firelight. The shot came from somewhere beyond the walls. Nobody saw who released it.

In a flash, it crossed the distance and struck. The arrow drove clean through the commander’s coat and buried itself in the stone face of the wall behind him. His body snapped violently to a stop. One second, he was falling, and the next, he hung suspended over the canyon edge, pinned by his coat against the cliff with space beneath his feet. Silence spread immediately. Soldiers froze. Heads turned. Eyes searched the darkness beyond the walls. Only a faint trail of drifting sand remained in the air.

Silence still hung over the canyon after the arrow pinned the commander to the wall.

Even sagiri retracted Nokai into one and turned around. That was an accurate shot and a deadly one. To stop a moving object with that accuracy while avoiding killing the commander in the process. He had only ever seen one other man with such a lever of skill in the bow and arrow. Captain Salka. He was sure, however, that this was not Salka.

Soldiers searched the darkness, trying to find who had fired it, when suddenly something dropped into the center of the shattered impact site below. The landing echoed through the canyon. Stone cracked with the impact of their landing. Dust rose in a circle before slowly settling. When it cleared, a man stood at the exact place the fireball had exploded earlier. He held a bow in one hand with its lower end resting against the broken ground. He wore dark brown southern war robes layered beneath fitted armor marked with old gold lines and carved insignia across the chest and shoulders.

Cloth moved around him in the night wind while fine streams of sand drifted lazily around his boots despite the still air. He did not speak. He simply stood there and looked forward.

Then the others came.

Interesting.

Figures began appearing behind him from the canyon paths, upper walls, side routes, and stone passages hidden within Thazir. They arrived in silence and formed ranks without command. Most of them were moving almost as N’varu had. One line formed. Then another. Then another. Over a hundred warriors assembled behind the man until the canyon floor looked occupied by a small army.

Every movement was sharp and controlled. They carried different weapons, bows taller than men, curved blades, and hooked spears, but wore the same dark brown colors and southern markings. Their armor was lighter than the wall guards’ and their faces harder. They looked like soldiers sent to end wars. Even the men guarding the walls unconsciously straightened and lowered their voices.

"We greet the Kai!!" The soldier on the wall fell to one knee, both hands crossed to the chest in tight fists.

The kai huh?

So this man was the general of the war of the South. So he was not the one who gave the command to flatten him with a fireball.

General of the War of the South.

He was truly worthy of that name. His aura screamed calmness, yet so much power. Sagiri could see how domineering he was.

"Finally, someone worthy of killing with my blade," Sagiri said in a cold voice before he moved.