Hajin slammed his fist into Jonas's jaw while the axe was still whistling past behind his shoulder.
Teeth clicked, and Jonas staggered sideways with his forward knee folding under all that wounded pride.
'Okay, that answers question one, now let's see if he learns faster than yesterday's deer.'
"You're dead, gutter rat, let's see you grin without knees!" Jonas spat blood, his face purpling as he ripped the axe free.
"Bold plan," Hajin said, "but your mouth keeps spending coin your knees don't have—"
The axe came sideways before he finished, sweeping low for his legs this time.
Hajin slapped the haft down with his sword's flat and stepped inside, ramming his shoulder into Jonas's wide open chest. The dressing tugged across his cut and he hissed, but the wound stayed closed underneath, so he kept on shoving.
"Ow, ow, fuck, worth it!"
His pommel cracked up into Jonas's mouth, and two teeth went flying into the pine needles beside the fallen axe. A kick hooked the knee, an elbow clipped the temple, and Jonas landed on both hands with his weapon abandoned.
Hajin stopped beside the axe and waited, because stabbing a man's back felt too much like a family dinner.
'One Ring on alley tricks, and this two-Shard idiot keeps handing me every opening for free.'
"Cassie, Toby, a little help here?" he whined, blood dribbling down his chin as he craned toward the road.
Neither companion budged, and he scowled at Hajin like that betrayal was somehow his fault too.
"Your teeth are over there," he said cheerfully, wagging his sword at the bloody fragments by the haft, "pick them up, they're the only loot you're leaving with today."
Jonas grabbed the haft and dragged himself upright, one glove clamped over his ruined mouth.
"I was taking it easy on you," he snarled through the fresh gap in his teeth, "now you die."
Both Shards above his arms flared bright, and mana poured along the blade until the edge trembled above the dirt. Hajin knew that cleaving stance from the Flint drills he watched for years before the family finally threw him out.
'Sidestepping won't save me from that reach, so I take the wrists before he swings anything.'
"Come on then, swing it, show me the—" He slid forward grinning like an idiot, sword beside his cheek and eyes locked on the nearer wrist.
Cassie crossed from the road and chopped her palm into the back of Jonas's neck before the cleave ever left. The light burst apart along the blade, his hands went slack, and the axe thudded down into the dirt first.
She caught his collar and tugged his face clear of the edge while Toby slid the weapon away.
"...Seriously? I was about to do the cool part." He pouted at the limp body, sword raised for nobody.
"I apologize for Jonas, his greed was inexcusable, and his next mistake would have been worse." She bowed low over her staff, cheeks flushing pink with embarrassment.
"You stopped him before I finished asking questions, terrible timing, he won't answer anything solid for hours."
"An overcharged cleave leaves no room for another warning, and I prefer bringing a fool home to burying one."
"Then take him home, I was sleeping before your party showed up to make work for everyone."
"Which guild holds your contract, if I may ask?" Her brows lifted as her gaze dropped to his wrist, then crept back to his face.
"None, I'm not registered."
Her eyes narrowed over the blood on his shirt and his notched sword, and plainly neither story matched the other. Hajin let her wonder and kept quiet about the house that decided neither contract nor son belonged among its possessions.
She bit her lip, then perked up with her staff on her shoulder, "Our roster has places, we can arrange an introduction, and nobody needs to mention this morning at the counter."
"Pass, sleeping alone already brought me plenty of company, and my business doesn't need witnesses signing beside it." He batted the offer away with a crooked smirk, like swatting a polite fly.
Her face turned serious, and she pointed her staff east, "Watch the eastern checkpoints, the Knight Guild tightened registrations after irregular Gate reports in the foothills."
"Patrols are detaining unregistered hunters with high-grade cores until they decide the goods are contraband, and a buyer won't help if they take your pouch first."
"Wonderful law," he drawled, rolling his eyes skyward, "steal a man's proof of work, then ask why he can't pay to register, thanks for the warning."
"You're quick, but a patrol won't care if the right crest calls you guilty, so don't hand them a blade as proof." Toby hauled Jonas over one shoulder and gave the sword a deadpan stare.
The joke drained from his face as he sheathed his sword and grabbed his coat, "One noble house already decided I'm guilty, I don't need a uniform repeating the speech."
"Fortune on your journey, then," Cassie said with a sincere smile, strapping the axe beneath the pack, "and keep that core covered until someone means to pay instead of borrow."
"Fortune can tag along if it likes, I'll watch whose hand shows up first."
"Try leaving the next traveler enough teeth to explain himself." He shifted the limp weight higher, his mouth twitching toward a reluctant smile.
Hajin snickered and waved two fingers at the fragments near his breakfast, "Tell him when he wakes, he owned those until he tried buying my core with my blood."
Their footsteps faded around the bend until the road went quiet again.
Hajin crouched by the fire stones and bit into cold venison, which tasted twice as good without any axe-swinging witnesses. The single crystal sat unchipped inside its wrapping, and the pouch seam held despite the axe handle pressing it earlier.
'Two fights in two days, and still not one copper, honest work pays terribly around here.'
"He guessed twenty silver, so maybe the buyer agrees, and I could use bread, a room, and a whetstone." He retied the pouch knot and chewed while planning out loud.
[ Stream | Active, resumed upon host waking ]
[ Viewers | 2 ]
[ New settled donations | 0 ]
[ Wallet | 30 Credits ]
The letters popped up beside his sight, and he brightened so fast he nearly dropped the venison.
"Oh, hey, two watchers stuck around for the lesson, hope the screaming explained something useful."
[ CringeSlayer91: wait is that blood practical effects? ]
Hajin squinted at the marks on his knuckles, left there by somebody else's broken mouth.
"Ask the guy who dropped his teeth, he seemed convinced, practical enough for you?" He wiped them on his coat and wiggled the hand with smug pride.
[ CringeSlayer91: what render engine is this? ]
"Render... what? Is that a stage thing, I own a sword and most of a shirt, and that's my whole engine."
A new row explained that viewer attention gathered Soul Energy, which fed his Fragment Recovery while the broadcast stayed active. Sleep paused both along with the stream, so this morning counted as watched but earned him no extra kill reward.
He dismissed the explanation, saving his thirty credits for emergency salve rather than every ordinary bruise.
He climbed above the boulders until the branches opened south, revealing a game trail curling around the guarded eastern approach. Beyond the hills stood ramparts and spires, with a hawk banner snapping above one tower he knew far too well.
His hand drifted to his mother's pendant before he caught it and lowered it to the Ring instead.
"Same city, different morning, I wonder how long before they notice." He tipped the banner a mock salute, jaw tight.
The southern approach would do, with buyers in streets he remembered better than that household behind the banner.
Back at camp, he sat with his sword in reach and opened the summon row still glowing above the venison.