"Sixty percent, and that's me being generous, I took its charge with my face!"
Jonas puffed out his chest, hauled the bounty pack higher, and planted an elbow across the forest road.
"You took its charge into a bush, very heroic, I almost thought you planned it." Toby stepped around the elbow with a lazy grin.
"The bush was tactical—"
"The bush was a bush."
Cassie rolled her eyes, wondering why a contract finished before dawn never finished their arguing.
Jonas swung around and nearly clobbered Toby with the pack, "Tell him, my shield was in front of you both the whole damn time!"
"Everyone worked," she sighed, tapping her staff into the rut ahead of his foot, "so everyone gets paid, preferably while the bounty office is still open."
At the next bend, smoke curled up beyond two boulders, carrying the smell of last night's cooking fire.
Cassie snagged a sleeve with one hand and swung her staff across the path with the other, "Wait, someone's lying by that fire, and I can't tell if he's breathing."
The arguing stopped at once, and steel rasped as both companions reached for their weapons.
"Adventurer, or somebody who never made it to the gate?"
Jonas unhooked his axe and stomped ahead until the boulder stopped hiding a folded coat.
"No badge, either of you recognize him from a tavern?"
"Never seen him," Toby drawled with a shrug, "but anyone that skinny finds a kitchen before a tavern."
Cooked venison sat beside the ashes, and a cleaned skewer lay beyond the embers, well out of the stranger's reach. Blood crusted his shirt around a shoulder dressing, and a loosened strip of cloth bound his ribs beneath the coat.
Jonas crouched by the ashes and pointed his axe handle at the stained shoulder without touching it.
"Probably cooked dinner and then bled out, wouldn't be the first idiot who mistook eating for surviving."
Cassie set her staff against a root and sent a sensory thread toward the exposed shoulder.
The current under his skin moved steadily, with none of the leaking she expected around wounds like those.
'Alive, definitely alive, so why does the flow loop back instead of passing through a Shard?'
"Leave him alone, he's breathing, and his circulation isn't something I can poke at while he sleeps." She reached for Jonas's shoulder with her free hand.
He shrugged her off just as the corner of a pouch slid out from under the coat.
Toby wandered downslope after a poking antler and found the deer, its mouth punctured.
"Two-Shard mountain deer, sword went straight through the roof of its mouth, whoever did that earned his loot." He climbed back and paused beside the notched blade, whistling low.
Jonas flipped the pouch flap open with his axe handle before Cassie could block him with her staff.
"Whoa, a core, a good one too, that's twenty silver at least, and he's just napping on it."
She jammed the staff between his arm and the pouch and caught his sleeve, "Don't touch it, I told you he's alive, and that sword isn't there to decorate his dinner."
He jerked his sleeve free and reached around the staff, fingertips already brushing the wrapping.
"Leave his payment alone, we came to see if he needed help, not if his pockets did." Toby kept his sword angled toward the road, his voice flat.
Cassie saw the stranger's eyes snap open a heartbeat before those fingers closed on the wrapping.
His elbow hit the dirt, his legs folded, and his heel slammed square into Jonas's chest.
The kick launched him into the brush, his axe dropped by the ashes, and the stranger snatched the pouch shut.
"Gahh—! Fuck, my ribs!"
'Pouch first, sword second, he knows exactly which of us touched what wasn't ours.'
Toby froze with his blade low and lifted his empty hand where the stranger could see it.
The stranger rolled into a crouch and drew his notched blade without advancing an inch.
His sleeve slipped back, baring a band of light that finished the mana route she could not explain.
"Hnngh, okay, who ordered the wake-up service?" He yawned hugely and pointed the sword at the bushes, keeping his belongings behind his heels.
"Morning collection, was it?" he grumbled, scratching his head. "I sleep one night, one night, and some jerk's already digging through my stuff."
"We saw smoke and thought you needed help, I never touched your things, and I'm not starting now."
"Yeah?" He shifted the blade across the opening and kept his free hand by the pouch. "Your buddy searched my pockets enough for all three of you, so keep that hand up, or I start inspecting."
Jonas dragged himself out of the brush, one arm clamped over his chest and pine needles stuck in his hair.
Cassie hurried toward him, staying clear of the blade, and caught his forearm, "Leave it, we're walking away, he saw what you did and he's still letting us go."
"He kicked me without warning, and you want me to say thanks and leave the bastard sleeping?" His face went blotchy as he shook her off and spat dirt beside the brush.
"You were robbing me, what warning did you want, a bell? A little song?" The stranger batted his lashes, all wide-eyed fake innocence.
She grabbed a fistful of his sleeve as he bent for the fallen axe, "Look at his wrist, that's what I was trying to tell you, we don't know what this is."
Toby slid his sword back into its scabbard and took one slow step toward the road.
Two Shards flared around Jonas's forearm as he tore free and hefted the axe in both hands.
The stranger changed his footing instead of backing off, raising the sword close beside his cheek.
"Lucky kick, try it while I'm standing, and we'll see who needs help getting off the ground." Jonas spat again, scowling, and dragged the haft over his shoulder.
The stranger tilted his head at the hands strangling the haft, grin going lopsided, "Stand wherever you want, your grabby fingers already told me how this goes."
Toby tugged her cloak from the road side, pulling her away from the space beneath the raised axe.
'We can still leave, and he keeps picking the one answer that turns a core into a funeral.'
Neither companion stepped up beside him, leaving the axe alone above the place where the argument could still stop.
---
Hajin watched the woman back toward the road, holding her staff where it threatened neither his face nor his stuff.
'Ribs ache but don't stab, shoulder's still closed, and hey, the Ring's actually answering for once.'
Jonas favored his bruised chest, twisting his shoulders farther than his front foot could recover.
Three years of alley fights taught Hajin to wait for that mistake, especially when pride kept shoving it forward.
He slid one foot toward the opening, keeping the coat and pouch behind him without giving up room to move.
'Don't chase the other two, just teach grabby hands what happens when a pocket's already occupied.'
Jonas stomped forward, red-faced and spitting, and dragged the axe up into a full cleave, "Registered two-Shard vanguard, you little gutter bastard, remember that before I split you in half!"
"Ooh, registered, fancy, I'll remember that when I send you back for repairs." Hajin wiggled his fingers in mock awe, then rolled onto his front foot with the sword beside his cheek.
The axe dropped toward his collarbone, carrying its owner's full weight past any point a warning could stop.
He stepped into the swing instead of away, letting the edge whistle behind his shoulder while his sword stayed ready.