Nightsea Outlaw

Shing.

Sayed deflected the oncoming blade, sending it to the side and away from his thigh. Even as he did so, another came, the point thrusting toward his gut. Sayed swiped down at it, catching the flat of the blade with his fist and knocking it off course.

Thwack.

He swung his own sword behind him, catching two more blades with his own and sending them to the side. Sayed used that opening, rushing through the two knights and rushing toward the nearest wall. Once he had a solid wall at his back, he turned to face his opponents.

"One thing I know." He breathed out in short breaths. "Is that so many fighting one man is not a fair fight."

"Surround him, attack at the same time!" one of the armored knights yelled, though it was not Garrick.

Garrick had taken Harut to task alone, though they were surrounded by their own ring of knights. Not one dared raise their blade under Garrick's order. One-on-one was much better than how Sayed was being treated.

"Why will you not give me the same courtesy?" Sayed grumbled as he eyed the surrounding knights with flaming swords. "Surely, it would be a better test of each of your might to take me on alone."

One of the knights paused, his helmet tilting at the question. Sayed doubted he would change his mind. He was just buying time as he took on a stance.

"Harut may have fallen, but he is still of noble blood," the knight's voice echoed through his single-eyed red visor. "You do not have the honor of a single duel."

"Hah," said Sayed, laughing and shaking his head as he reversed his grip on his khopesh. "How unfortunate. My blood may not be noble, but I am more than worthy of honor. Demon's Gate!"

Shing. Crack.

Three slashes cut through the wall behind Sayed. With a grunt, he spun on one foot, kicking the wall with all his might as his muscles bulged with strength. The wall cracked, folding inside and giving him a path to escape.

"Get him!"

Swords came for Sayed's back as he jumped into the darkness. He hit the ground in a roll, coming up on his feet facing the newly created opening. A knight burst through the door, and his sword illuminated the room around Sayed.

Immediately to his right was a small bed, not one for an adult. A small stuffed animal rested against the covers, haphazardly left on its face as if it had fallen asleep on the bed. The covers were ruffled, like the person had been taken out of the bed as a surprise.

On his left was a larger bed, with two pillows.

A dresser lay bisected on both sides, the victim of Sayed's initial strike, and tattered clothes lay scattered across the ground.

Sayed recalled the mysterious gate that Alex said they had taken the people through. Perhaps it was not just the people on the lower tiers but also the people of the castle. Fire burned through Sayed's body as he gripped his blade.

"Demon's Wind!"

He charged forward into his opponent, and six cuts came for the knight at the same time. The blade burned hot orange, not the flames of the knight's flame, but Sayed's own heat, a gift from God.

Ting. Ting. Shing.

Two cuts. That was the extent to which the knight was able to block Sayed. Orange light cut through the knight's helm and across his entire right side. Sayed's blade cut through the armor with its heat, and the knight fell to his knees at Sayed's feet.

Clatter.

The flame extinguished as the sword hit the floor.

"I apologize for what I must do," Sayed said, raising his foot before slamming it into the knight's chest and sending him crashing back into the street. "But I must make room for the next opponent."

Clank.

Another knight came through, his flaming sword in his hands. He was in a guarded stance, with the sword held close to his chest on the side. One move was all it would take to initiate a swing.

Sayed reversed the grip on his sword, taking in a deep breath as he dropped into a low stance. There was something he wanted to try that he didn't get to do often, and the man's stance made the situation almost perfect.

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"Saint's Reverse!"

Ting.

Sword met sword, and Sayed's khopesh slid along the back of the knight's long sword. Metal clattered against metal, and the knight tried to force his blade down toward Sayed's head. It almost made it, except for the hook on the back of his blade.

Sayed's sword was a khopesh. It was rightly described as more of an axe than a sword. The blade extended up before curving backwards and ending at a curved point. It wasn't suitable for thrusting, but that didn't stop Sayed from using it that way. It was built to hack and slash through an opponent, to cut through any resistance with its forward-bent blade.

However, one unique feature of the blade was a small hook on the back. A barb on the unsharpened edge raised just before the ending point. If it could catch the opponent's weapon, it could be used to rip away shields or blades.

Clatter.

The sword hit the ground a few feet away, the blade extinguishing the instant it left the knight's hands. Sayed smiled as he rose. The knight stood in shock, his hands empty, frozen in his finished swing.

"Sorry." Sayed raised his foot back again, kicking the knight out through the door and into the street. "It looks like your tale was just to add to my own."

Sayed rose, taking a stance as he waited for the next knight to stop through the door. He had to congratulate himself. The strategy of narrowing down his opponents' paths to attack to one would give him the ability to fight them individually. So long as they kept walking in, he could handle each one easily.

"What are you fools doing?" one of the knights yelled outside. "Cover the exits and burn the building down!"

"Ah." Sayed shook his head. "That will complicate things."

Fwoosh.

Fire raced around the entrance in front of Sayed, and he backed away, holding his sword ready for a knight to pop through. However, no one came. Sayed knew that they were going to wait and flush him out. In the civil war, it was a common tactic to push out rebels from buildings.

They had stone then, so it was as simple as burning a building down around an enemy. However, applying wheat and oil at the entrances would provide more than enough smoke to drive out the enemy or cause them to come running out.

Then it was a simple matter of cutting them down or retrieving their suffocated remains.

Sayed gulped as the heat and smoke spread around the wood, rising from the stone foundations and crawling up the walls outside. It wouldn't take long for the fire to burn through the wood. When it did, Sayed would be trapped with fire all around him. With the smoke, he would be an easy target."

Cough. Scrrch.

He didn't have long. He reached down, ripping away his shirt with a quick twist and tearing off the circular cloth beneath his leather chestpiece. Once he had it in hand, he dropped low to the ground and wrapped the cloth over his mouth, folding his beard down as he walked deeper into the home.

Running out wasn't an option, at least not yet. The knights probably expected him to race out and chance a fight with one of the groups surrounding the building. He would be blinded, coughing, and easy to cut down in all the distractions.

That wouldn't do.

He couldn't stay in the house for long, either. Eventually, the smoke and fire would catch up to him. While he was a master of heat, and the fires of God were part of his blessing, they did not protect him from natural fire.

No, there would be a moment, a gap where the fire and smoke were close to subsuming him, and the knights thought him dead. That would be the moment to strike and force his way through one of the groups. Then he could find another way to defeat them.

Cough.

He closed his eyes as tears fell from them and onto the cloth. Though the wrap did block some of the smoke, it didn't block all of it, and his lungs burned as they began to fill with the black ash. However, Sayed did not move from his spot.

Instead, he focused.

He drew power from the aether around him. Even with the ash, there was still aether in the air that he breathed in. He fed that into his gate and called on his blessing. He stoked the flames inside even as the fire burned all around him.

This was what the rebels had faced so long ago during the civil war: cowering in the dark until the light found them or the black smoke claimed them. Sayed couldn't let himself fall into the same fear. He couldn't let himself bend and break.

Now, he could appreciate how vile the tactic had been.

"It is easy to ignore the pain you cause when it is the enemy," he whispered out a held breath before taking in more aether and feeding it into his gate. "They were wrong, but they did not deserve this."

More aether filled his gate, ramping higher and higher. Like a bellows at a forge, more heat pushed out from his skin, even as the heat outside approached his body. Sweat trickled down his back and arms and dropped to the stone ground beneath him.

Tap. Hiss. Tap. Hiss. Tap. Hiss.

"I say this now," Sayed whispered, his eyes closed as he focused on the power flowing through him. "I pray that I make it through this trial, that you will guide my hand and help me find the right moment to fight. I know I have not been perfect, but I strive to be better. Let my story not end here. Let me carve through these knights to find their freedom."

He opened his eyes for a moment. All around him, orange flame licked up the walls. Sayed did not stand, for the heat would be much higher where his head would be. However, he knew it was time.

There were four exits, but he did not need to go through all of them. However, he needed a distraction. He knew just what to use, and his blessing already had his answer.

"Desert Mirage."

He opened himself to the second level of his curse. Light wavered around him as multiple images appeared. A child, a man not too different from Sayed, and another copy of Sayed himself appeared around him.

However, they would not be enough. What Sayed needed was an army of images. He would not fight alone when he stepped outside. He focused, pouring more aether and multiplying the images. Alex stood beside him, a staff in his hand. Erin stretched vines out from her green cloak where her arms had been. Jean stood with Eliza, a ghost and a skeleton, ready to dance. Wen raised her revolvers, her jacket flowing behind her as she walked toward the door.

He needed one more.

"A knight of my own," Sayed whispered, though he didn't have full memories restored. "To know I am not alone."

A flash of blue in front of Sayed marked the knight's arrival. He wore a close-fitting chain mail and held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. The shield was white, blue, and grey, and his short white hair shook around his head.

"Now, we are ready." Sayed stayed crouched as he advanced toward the door. "Let us show them how this story ends."