He had been following them long enough to understand their habits, not thoroughly, but sufficiently.
He wasn't close enough to be felt by Pluto, neither was he far enough to lose them in the weaves of the forest.
He moved in short bursts – small displacements through space that folded the distance between trees. Each shift was calculation at its finest. He never used two in quick succession unless necessary. Teleportation wasn't a spam resource, it was a valuable asset. It taxed breath, dulled perception and left muscles in unnatural angles when he jumped space. It was dangerous if ignored. Still, it was expected, at least from a technique that bent space like rubber.
From a branch up high, he watched. Silent, cold, calculating.
Pluto walked absentmindedly, listening and testing. But not for results, for understanding. He shifted his arm and watched how the eel tried to find balance each time. He studied it, paying attention to every scale that seemed devoid of heat.
He also studied himself, listening to his breathing that went deeper than the walls of his lungs. His senses that picked up imperceptible details. The strain of heightened awareness.
He felt headaches for every blink. His brain could not keep up with the input. Sometimes, it threatened to shutdown, other times, it persisted until it grasped clarity.
Mira followed a half-step behind, staring at every strand of wood that made up the log. She observed the refinement, carved to specifications that she never asked for. It was perfect. It was deadly – in the right hands at least.
Heat patterns bled all around them, a tapestry that Pluto alone could see. It was his GPS. Vague, but better than nothing. He always had an idea of where people were, but he wouldn't rush.
Timing was perfect. They had to be economical if they desired survival.
Allowing their enemies to grow was bad, but killing by impulse was arguably worse. Consequences always came, and careful decision could help to avoid to dire ones.
***
He inhaled slowly.
He wasn't in best of shapes, but his observations had told him that Pluto and Mira were amateurs. He would be able to kill them before fatigue disrupted accuracy.
He chose then and there.
'Kill now.'
He didn't look murderous, he looked clinical.
He vanished.
Appeared several meters closer.
Then again.
Then once more. And then he was in striking range.
His blade cut forward with precision, curving upwards in a clean arc.
The sound of steel wishing through the air reached Mira too late. She reacted, but it wasn't enough.
The blade bit into her shoulder, parted skin like butter.
It wasn't fatal, but it was staggering. It destabilised her counter attack, dragged her slash a few centimetres back from her attacker's face.
Pluto turned.
But the attacker was already gone, with not a trace remaining.
He reappeared ahead of them, carefully positioned at Pluto's blind spot. He blitzed forward.
Pluto caught Mira by the hand to prevent her from falling, but he didn't notice the blade inches from his neck.
Mira yelped and swung her log outwards.
It deflected the weapon just enough. Instead of striking Pluto's neck, it sunk into his back, a few inches from his spine.
The blade was ripped out before Pluto's mind could comprehend pain.
The next attack was his head.
Mira pulled Pluto back, increasing distance between him and certain death.
The attacker didn't reset motion for another assault, he simply changed the trajectory, right to Mira's chest.
She blocked defensively, using her hand as a pad. It tore through skin, but she had saved herself for another second. Maybe her last.
The attacker struck again, lightning fast and brutally precise. Mira didn't have enough time to even see the blurred blade moving, let alone defend against it.
But then, Pluto changed.
No dramatic charge-up. No flare. Just a burst of insight in a heartbeat, shaping by desperation.
He didn't gain power, he gained posture. His mind narrowing to a point while taking it all in. The eel synced with him, perfectly.
It was the same power that had saved him against the trio, the same one with the same consequences. But he would worry about that later.
His hand reached out, turning into a line of booming velocity. He didn't catch the blade that headed for Mira's ribcage, he caught the hand that directed it.
He swung high with the one hand, aimed for the jaw. The attacker disappeared. Then appeared a few metres away.
Then he attacked again, displacing himself towards Pluto's flank that had been momentarily unprotected by his attempt to run forward.
The blade cut towards his ribs. But Pluto had moved before the strike had been made.
His anticipation had matched his paranoia.
His forearm redirected the attacker's wrist the moment he materialised into space completely, since he could not clash against the steel.
The strike missed by a hair's width, piercing empty air instead.
' Interesting.'
The attacker vanished again. Then reappeared from above this time, blade descending in a downwards vector.
Pluto stepped aside nimbly, then feinted to the opposite side immediately after, causing the attacker's attempt to salvage the strike, turn into overcorrection.
There was no dominance, not anymore – the attacker had let that slip from his grasps.
It was balanced now. Equal skill, equal flaws. Pluto had become a mirror, imitating his opponent's actions down to breath spacing.
Mira steadied herself despite her two bleeding wound, both which she had taken in place of Pluto.
She struck nevertheless, weak in power and misplaced in aim. The attacker noticed and displaced himself before she completed her thrust.
He appeared a foot in front of Pluto, already attacking before reality accepted him entirely.
Pluto had anticipated it, placing his leg around the attacker's own, stopping his attack from gaining momentum or speed that it would have gotten if he had planted his foot down.
He palmed down against the attacker's elbow, disrupting his assault yet again.
The attacker stepped back slowly, dragging the pace to test for panic. There was none.
He smirked briefly, and just as he was about to engage again, the forest trembled.
Not in the usual subtle way it did when shifting terrain, it was a seismic roar that travelled faster than sound, rippling below the soil.
All three felt it. Wood splintering nearby under the weight of something that shouldn't have weighed so much.
The attacker turned first. He saw it. A massive shape of pus and vine squeezing through trees.
It was enormous, easily thrice the size of anything any of them had seen before. It was almost shapeless, conforming to whatever the greater of its mass wanted.
Slow.
But immense.
Pluto instinctively stepped to cover Mira. The attacker didn't comment, he barely even glanced. But he didn't attack either. A temporary alliance had been formed, out of necessity nonetheless.
The beast lunged.
Its strike was not fast, but it was devastating. Its reach crumpled everything in its path, trees and shrubs alike.
Pluto and Mira weren't in its reach,but the attacker was. He vanished to the right, reappearing near the creature's flank. He drove his blade into its body.
The outer skin might have seemed thin and permeable, but just below it was a liquid so vicious that even the blade stalled.
The beast growled and swung mass around, sending waves of vibration through the soil.
Pluto did not strike at the opportunity of distraction, instead he guided Mira backwards. Slowly.
The beast crushed down, pushing roots upwards, rearranging soil like someone dusting a bedsheet. The ground gave way and at the same time, shot up.
It turned towards the attacker, swinging a vine attached loosely to its side at him. Saul displaced himself again, repositioning at a higher point, striking another visible weakness. The blade bit deeper this time.
The creature convulsed, lashing out vines unpredictably. One tore through mist where Pluto had been an instant ago. He had acted sooner, pulling himself and Mira clear.
Another vine swept towards the attacker as he landed. He twisted like a sponge being wrung out but the sweep still caught him, although not as cleanly. He crashed into a tree shortly after.
Pluto focused his temporary heightened anticipation again, not on offense, but defence. He read the beast's slow arcs, the responses to the attacker's assault, and adjusted position just before impact landed on their prior location.
He wasn't fighting anymore, he was guarding.
His antics didn't remain hidden for long. The attacker took note. If he kept fighting, they would just kill him if the beast failed to. And if he killed the beast, his fate would still be the same. It was a win-win for them.
He made another aggressive attempt, displacing himself atop the beast's back and repeatedly drove his blade into multiple points.
The beast roared and twisted violently. Its force threw the attacker off, but he displaced himself again, reappearing just beside Pluto and Mira.
The attacker's vision flickered. He had used too many too quickly. He couldn't keep up with demand.
"Fall back," Pluto said calmly. Mira did just that without arguing. The attacker too. He had already made that decision independently. Retreat equalled survival.
They separated directions, then curved wide to avoid drawing pursuit towards the same choke point.
The beast pursued briefly, but eventually decided that they weren't worth the chase.
***
The attacker found them again once he had steadied his breathing. Not to fight. To assess.
They stood several meters apart, basking in tension that was thick enough to cut through. No one advanced.
Mira had bound her shoulder with thick leafs, but her hand was still bleeding.
Pluto's stance wasn't so tight anymore. He knew that the fighting was over, at least for today.
"You read me like a book," the attacker said calmly, as if he didn't even care that a supposed amateur could matter him in fighting prowess.
Pluto said nothing.
"You don't move faster," he continued. "You move sooner."
It wasn't just something he had noticed, it was acknowledgement. The attacker had studied him carefully enough. Enough to know that fighting now would benefit no one.
The forest creaked around them. " Ground won't stay stable," he said. " For now, conflict is detrimental to both sides."
Unspoken words flowed from Pluto, accept the temporary truce.
Silence ensued for a while. Glances shot between everyone. It wasn't trust or distrust, it was something in-between. It was utility.
"If we cross paths again," the attacker said as he stepped back. "Don't expect hesitation."
He turned to leave, then paused. "My name is Saul." Then he left.
He didn't ask for theirs, he just offered his. A fact placed between them.
Pluto held his footing a bit longer. But as soon as he was sure the attacker –saul– could no longer see him. He huffed tiredly and collapsed.