"Chief Matranda of the Aer tribe! Elders of the Bawin tribe! Monkey of the Gezercher tribe! Layas of the Seg tribe! Basla of the Lowat tribe!" Poia, the Orovir tribe’s representative at the tribal meetings, slammed her hand onto the table as she stood up and started the meeting with rage in her voice.
"There’s blood on all of your hands! This petty squabble has gone on too long! Today, it comes to an end before any more lives are lost!"
***
Several hours ago, the Orovir tunnel, right after the Lowat warrior spotted Sosora, Malak, Issa, and Tilo.
The four youths stared at the Lowat warrior. The Lowat warrior stared at them.
This was a situation neither side had expected. They were stunned.
However, out of everyone there, three were used to dealing with surprising situations and knew that acting was the best thing they could do. Three of them were used to action.
Sosora, Tilo, and the Lowat warrior dashed forward.
Now that it had come to this, there was no use pretending. The Lowat tribe warrior would only have one reason to be in the tunnel. It was to clear up any traces they might have left.
Malak’s deduction was correct.
Naturally, Sosora and Tilo had to subdue the Lowat warrior.
On the other hand, the Lowat warrior had to stop the four youths from spreading the information or getting away.
Words had no place here.
Air surged around Sosora’s raised fist as she stomped against the ground with her foot to transfer the momentum of her dash into her strike. The Lowat warrior had one hand on the hilt of the dagger on his hip. Of course, he was struggling to unclasp and free it at this moment.
He had to use his other hand to try and deflect Sosora’s punch by letting it slide over his forearm. Sosora pressed her hand toward the warrior’s shoulder instead, but the warrior ducked to the side and tried to spin around and get past Sosora. If he could get behind her, he could do all kinds of things to win the fight.
But Sosora wasn’t alone. Even if she had been, she wouldn’t have been in trouble that easily.
Tilo, who had hidden behind Sosora, took advantage of the Lowat warrior’s spin to hide in his blindspot before getting close enough to jam a dagger into his thigh.
"Argh!" The Lowat warrior shouted in pain and back-handed Tilo into the wall. The cracks that sprouted from the collision went unnoticed as the Lowat warrior finally freed his dagger from its sheath. He also had the dagger in his thigh.
He hesitated. Pulling it out would worsen the bleeding. But leaving it in during a fight would worsen the injury. Eventually, he yanked it out.
It was a Gezercher dagger, so while it would have been too small for someone like Sosora or Malak, it was the perfect size for someone of the Lowat tribe, who had almost the same average size.
The Lowat warrior had a dagger in each hand.
Sosora had no weapons, Tilo had lost one of his daggers, and Malak and Issa couldn’t fight.
The Lowat warrior had earned himself an impasse, and Sosora had to be careful.
However, there was a reason why she didn’t have any weapons when they were looking for Tair and Tair’s kidnappers.
She didn’t use them.
Some members of the Aer tribe used weapons, but Sosora always thought that they weighed her down when flying. She much preferred agility and being able to move freely without worrying about the uneven weight distribution of a sword strapped to her hip or a spear weighing her down.
She fought bare-handed.
She had to be careful of the Lowat warrior’s daggers, but she had trained for exactly this situation. So, she inched forward with her hands raised.
She wasn’t sure if Tilo had been knocked out or not, but it was clear that head-on fighting wasn’t his forte.
This was up to her.
The Lowat warrior’s gaze sharpened when he saw Sosora approach without a hint of fear in her eyes. He lunged forward and swiped horizontally with one of his blades, forcing Sosora to hesitate. At least, that was the idea behind his attack.
Instead, Sosora stepped forward and reached for the Lowat warrior’s wrist. She missed, and the tip of the blade scratched the back of her wrist, but she had succeeded in startling the Lowat warrior by doing the opposite of what he expected. She took another step forward and fully extended her body like a lone tree caught in a storm to punch the Lowat warrior in the chest.
It was a solid hit, and the Lowat warrior’s leather plate only did the bare minimum to soften the blow. He lost his breath and stumbled backward. He swung recklessly with the hand not clutching his chest to fend off Sosora.
Sosora looked for an opening, but when the Lowat warrior was panicking with two daggers like that, he was too unpredictable for her to get close. She had to be cautious and slowly close the distance.
However, she wasn’t alone.
Issa charged at the Lowat warrior from behind.
Sosora’s eyes widened. The Lowat warrior noticed that. Combined with the tremors his feet picked up, he knew what was coming.
The Lowat warrior used the reflection of the blade to look back and see how far away the Seg was to time it properly.
Sosora noticed the man’s sudden calm and moved. Issa arrived at the same time.
She raised her front legs to trample the Lowat warrior, but the Lowat warrior ducked and backed, ending up under her, crouched low. Before she could react, the Lowat warrior straightened his legs with explosive force and pushed against Issa’s chest with his shoulder, raising her up and knocking her head into the ceiling before tossing her aside into the wall.
Issa was disoriented and wouldn’t be able to defend herself.
Sosora lunged at the Lowat warrior.
At the same time, the cracks from Tilo’s impact reached out to the ones from Issa’s like separated lovers.