As Xaryus' [Solaris] soared towards the hooded emitters rushing through the treeline, he followed closely behind.
The awakened to the front immediately slid to the ground, avoiding the attack.
Their ally wasn't so lucky.
The searing beam caught them off guard and rammed into the side of their shoulder and head, sending their body spinning with their initial momentum.
In a single hit, the emitter's entire upper body was charred.
Not even knowing if their ally survived, the first emitter immediately got his footing and swung his arm through the air.
As he did, arcs of lightning danced across his arm before jolting forward as it reached its apex. Two bolts of violent electricity arced towards Xaryus with great speeds.
Xaryus sped up and leaned forward, barely skimming past the lightning ability.
With his speed, he closed the distance between him and his opponent and forced his foot into his chest.
The emitter groaned in pain, even with his animus enhancement he felt like he was going to pass out. His body lifted off the ground and flew back into a tree before spinning off to the side.
Reeling in pain he quickly shifted his attention to Xaryus, not wanting to take his eyes off him.
There, in the air with a demented smile and glowing eyes, Xaryus descended with his sword overhead.
Raising his arm, the emitter pointed his fist towards Xaryus and poured animus into a ring aspect on his finger.
From it, a layer of animus appeared, leaving a faint shimmer in the air.
Xaryus' blade collided with the shield and bounced back.
In that brief moment the emitter formed a connection with Law and a strong surge of electricity began to form around the arm not maintaining the shield.
As the man tried to lunge his lightning encased arm forward, Xaryus smiled…
"Solaris."
His sword suddenly flared with light energy and fell down and through the shield like a guillotine; destroying it and cleaving through the man's lightning-encased arm.
His blood would have spurted through the air if the wound wasn't partially cauterized.
He wailed in pain just before Xaryus dropped the guillotine once more, severing the hand with the ring aspect.
Falling to his knees, the man looked up from beneath his hood.
Xaryus had already sheathed his blade, the expression on his face jarring. He looked down at the man, not in pity or sadness, but joy.
A small, satisfied smile sat on his face as he watched the man bleed out. Satisfaction rested deeply on his heart as the man fell on his side, his skin going pale.
Xaryus looted the bloodied ring off the corpse's finger, then he looked away for a moment as if seeing something approach him. After a moment or two, the smile faded and his gaze returned to the felled opponent.
"Did I black out again?" He asked himself.
***
Xaryus walked back to the now stopped carriage, where Zadius was pointing one of his daggers towards the female archer.
She was on her knees, her hood pulled back revealing her greying hair and her stern face. One could easily tell she was a beauty in her younger days.
But her once beautiful face contorted in pain as she tightly grasped her left hand with a cloth Zadius provided.
The piece of cloth had long been soaked in blood, some of it dripping down onto the two set of fingers on the floor which Zadius had severed.
To her left sat her bow, cut in half.
"How are your reserves?" Xaryus questioned Zadius.
"I used a bit more than I wanted to, but I'm fine." Zadius responded, keeping his gaze on the woman in front of him.
By the time Xaryus returned, Rosaly had also made her way over to them.
She seemed unbothered by the whole ordeal, but something was off about her.
"How did you know that I was going to Castillan?" She asked bluntly.
The older woman looked at Rosaly with contempt before spitting across the floor in protest.
Rosaly glanced at her spit for a moment with a cold expression before she let out a frustrated sigh, "Please pick your next words wisely, my patience is running thin."
The archer woman stayed silent for a moment, she then glanced across her fall comrades and steeled her nerves.
"Do your worst." She said, her words laced with venom.
Rosaly sighed once more in response to the woman's declaration of loyalty.
"Kill her." She said abruptly.
Surprised, Xaryus and Zadius glanced at each other before turning their gaze to Rosaly. After issuing her command she turned away and made her back to the carriage.
Feeling Xaryus' and Zadius' gaze she spoke again, "Make it quick, I have a bad feeling about all this." She ended as she stepped back into the carriage.
Zadius sheathed his dagger and turned away whilst Xaryus stepped towards the woman.
He drew his sword and plunged it deep into the woman's neck. Seeing the shock in her eyes, he gripped the blade tighter, twisting it slowly.
He observed the pain expressed through her widened eyes and the muffled groans she made.
After her life slipped away, Xaryus and Zadius moved all the felled awakened off the road and deeper into the forest. They took any valuable items from their person and shared it amongst themselves.
They removed all their money; a total of ten gold coins. Additionally, Xaryus gave the ring aspect he looted to Zadius.
***
The journey after was a bit quieter.
Rosaly had inspected the ring that was looted and informed Zadius it had three more uses before it would be destroyed.
That was a common downside to many utility aspects, they were not renewable. The runes engraved into them often brought about activatable effects that could be used a finite number of times.
Said effects were generated by drawing animus from the surrounding areas (Extrinsic Aspects).
Artificers had found that to negate the finite uses of an item, they could use the wielders animus as a drive (Intrinsic Aspects); However, creating an intrinsic aspect requires a vastly longer amount of time to create compared to an extrinsic aspect.
After inspecting Zadius' ring aspect, Rosaly instructed Henry to travel as fast as the horses could bear. She had not verbalized it, but anyone could see that she was troubled.
"If they knew when and where I was going, they would know about that… If they get their hands on it, I would be losing years of work." She thought.
Eventually, Rosaly reached into her dress and revealed a thick metallic circle with a blue gem embedded in its centre. She focused and poured animus into it before it began to faintly glow.
Staring at the glowing gem, she spoke hesitantly, "Hello?"
"Yes, Rosaly?" A female voice responded.
It was Rebecca, leader of the Crimson Guard.
"I believe we have been compromised, bandits have attacked our carriage, and another looks similar to it. I'm aware of your evaluation of Xaryus and Zadius but I have a feeling this might be more dangerous than you bargained for." Rosaly said, stress beginning to fill her voice.
"We might have a mole within the manor, maybe even within uncle's close circle. Every fibre of my body is telling me someone is after my project." She ended.
Rosaly's words hung in the air, her last sentence leaving a long pause before Rebecca responded.
"Are you sure?" Rebecca responded, her words direct.
"I'm almost certain." Rosaly replied.
There was another pause and Rosaly decided to speak again.
"Should we return or keep pushing forward?" Rosaly added.
"You're asking me but we both already know the decision you're going to make. Xaryus and Zadius are capable are they not? Velmo himself assured us of their competency." Rebecca replied, "When you arrive, avoid all our contact, we don't know who leaked the information. Assume everyone is an enemy." She ended.
"And reinforcements?" Rosaly questioned.
"They'll meet you there, don't worry about finding them, they'll find you." Rebecca responded, her stern and direct voice seemingly becoming softer and softer.
"... Be safe Rosey." She ended, a hint of worry resting in her voice.
And with that the gem subtly lost its glow.
Rosaly returned the device into her dress and leaned back in her seat.
The carriage now held an intense silence as it quickly approached its destination.