A flash of fire scorched the air as the scythe was swung towards a man who just managed to get out of the way of it. But the heat from the blade still made his clothing ignite from the radiant heat from the scythe blade which was made of formed magma. ”Just give me your leader and I’ll allow the rest of you to live.” Bianca spoke spinning their scythe around to keep her enemies at bay.

Bianca had come out here in search of a small group they had heard about that was working on some kind of blood magic. Being what they were Bianca was most interested to learn what this group knew, wanting to know if it was new information and something they already knew. Either way Bianca needed the leader of the group, the person who would know everything they had found out, and from her Bianca could get what they wanted. But that woman’s followers weren’t making it easy for Bianca, who was starting to wish they had waited for Illiana to come back so they could do this together. But, Bianca had started it and now they’d finish it.

There were four of them left, Bianca had left burning corpses behind when they had started the fighting at the group’s camp. As a consequence the camp itself was in flames and was still burning in the distance. The group’s leader was hopefully still there trying to gather her things, while Bianca had been chased a bit away by the four they were fighting now.

When they had first attacked Bianca they had responded with fire magic before drawing their scythe into their hands. The appearance of such a rare weapon had made the blood mages attacking Bianca back off. Bianca was clearly skilled with the weapon and their exotic looks, fire magic and the fact that when they had tried blood magic against Bianca, Bianca had shown that they were more than capable of matching them with the use of blood magic.

A full moon lit the otherwise cloudy, overcast night.  Looking down from a hill, a young man wearing crimson armor searched for something with his spyglass.  The flames from the burning camp illuminated the spot he was looking for.  Cautiously, he approached the camp.  He heard cries of anguish and fighting.  Sparks of flames erupted through the darkness some distance from the camp.

"This should make it easier to approach, but will I find what, or rather WHO I'm looking for?  And who is this person who raided this camp?"  Wondered the black and red-haired Knight  He finally arrived, a single person was fighting, and slaughtering group of people, the cultists.  He recalled what the tribal leaders from the village told him.  A group of powerful cultists had been raiding villages in the night, in order to kidnap people, presumably for blood sacrifices or what have you.  The Elder spoke of his daughter being kidnapped by these cultists, and it was risky to send the village guard to find them, when they were needed to guard the village.  So Hiro Kouen, Phoenix Knight, volunteered to find her.  He would be rewarded for his efforts.  They mentioned no other individuals who were hired to save the girl.

The person with a flame scythe was facing off against 4 other combatants.  The one with a flame scythe peaked Hiro's interest.  Was he or she (Hiro had trouble telling the gender of this person in the dark) another hired to save the girl, or maybe hired by another village to find other villagers that were kidnapped, or some other reason?  They didn't seem to be another cultist, since they were dressed differently.  Hiro decided now was the time to act after watching the fight.

Two fire bolt spells erupted from the darkness from behind a mass of shrubbery.  They flew true and struck their targets: two of the cultists got blasted in the chest by the fiery projectiles.  They cried out in anger and surprise, causing their allies to give pause.  They were under further attack.  Reinforcements?  It clearly wouldn't be just some random interloper.  What would be the odds?  Two separate attacks unrelated to each other in one night!

Hiro moved from the shrubbery and towards the side of the unknown mage with the fire scythe.

"Better give it up.  You can't win."

Hiro Kouen was dressed in crimson, ornate plate, with a fiery sword in his armored hand.  He had a cloak flowing behind him in the night breeze.  His blue eyes glowed brightly with power, and he had the slight scent of volcanic ash coming from him.  "Give up, or die.  Your friends in the camp are next."

Bianca felt the fire in the air a moment before it past their line of sight, from a source unknown in the trees. The fact it wasn’t aimed at Bianca themselves was at least a good sign for now. The fire bolts struck two of the cultists and set their clothing ablaze causing the rest to pause as a figure dressed in crimson plate stepped into view. This young man stepped up beside Bianca as he spoke, calling for the cultists to surrender, and Bianca thought they could smell ash in the air now as well. This young man was interesting, but a chat with him would have to wait until later, for now they other things to deal with.

”I only want their leader alive.” Bianca informed him just as the fight was back on again, this time Bianca kicked it off, pre-emptively attacking before the cultists could. Leaving two of them for their unknown ally Bianca’s scythe spun, leaving behind a trail of smoke, and lashed out at one of the cultists who had been trying to get the fire on his robes out from Hiro’s attack. He looked up in time to see the blade of magma coming at him and just managed to not get caught by the full of the blade, but heat radiating from it still again caught his clothing on fire and burned and bubbled his skin.

He cried out in pain and fell back as the other cultist came at Bianca with a short sword drawn. Bianca hopped back a step and swung their longer weapon at the same time, deflecting the short sword as they did. The cultist kept up the attack and Bianca was forced back a step at a time, but it was clear they were in control and waiting for a moment. That moment came when the cultist over stepped and Bianca swung their scythe horizontally, but this the cultist did have time to duck under.

But the scythe kept going as Bianca released it to spin rapidly, only stopping once it impacted and impaled the scorched cultist in the chest. The blade of magma instantly ignited his… everything, and he screamed in pain for only a few moments before he went silent and it was now just a corpse burning away with a large scythe sticking out of its chest. In that moment of the cultist with the short sword made the mistake of watching the scythe fly past her and into her companion, that allowed Bianca to strike.

The sword wielding cultist turned back to attack again but only had time to see a flash of movement before she started to gurgle and choke in pain. Bianca had drawn their blade of dancing heat and super heated it before gashing open the cultist’s throat. The heat of the blade cut deep but also cauterized the wound so it wouldn’t bleed, leaving the cultist partially choking from a half cut open windpipe but still able to get just enough air. But the pain would be torturous to say the least as they tried to cry out and scream only to keel over on the ground and whither in pain.

Smiling Bianca allowed their blade to cool before sheathing it and turned to see how Hiro was doing while walking over to retrieve their scythe from the charred corpse.

The woman (they sounded kinda feminine) he was assisting, told him that they only wanted the leader alive.  She seemed like the no mercy kind of person.  "Eh.  Whatever floats your boat."  Hiro usually gives his opponents a chance to surrender if given the opportunity to surrender.  They probably wouldn't have taken it.  Cults tend to be fanatical followers of their religion and their cult leaders.  Hiro didn't LIKE killing, he wasn't blood thirsty, but he was no pacifist either.  He just wanted to avoid pointless bloodshed.

The mysterious stranger cut through the two cultists with minimal difficulty, handling her fire scythe pretty well.  A scythe was an unwieldy weapon, usually a tool for gathering wheat, but as long as the person could use it effectively enough, who was he to complain.  Hiro kept his guard up but let the stranger fight without interrupting her or getting in her way.  He kept a look out for any other opponents that might approach them, he saw none.  Once she was done, she retrieved her weapon, and turned toward Hiro to see how he was doing.

"Nice fight there.  Hope you didn't mind me butting in earlier.  My name is Hiro Kouen, Phoenix Knight.  I was hired by a local tribe who had their village raided by these cultists, had the village elder had his daughter kidnapped by them.  There's been a spat of kidnappings lately by these cultists.  I intend to wipe these cultists off the map, and rescue the girl, and any other hostages they have in their camp.  What happens to the cultists themselves is not my concern as long as they are gone, the cult broken up.  Probably would be better if they were all dead, so the cult doesn't persist, now that I think of it."  Hiro explained to the stranger, kinda musing on the last point he made.  "Anyway, that's my deal.  Who are you, and what brings you to fight these cultists?  Did another village hire you to do the same or something?  Maybe a bounty of the cult leader?  If it's a bounty on the head of the leader or something like that, I won't ask for a cut of money from that, I just want to take out the cult, and rescue whoever I can that they kidnapped."  If this was over money, Hiro was more concerned about saving lives, than making bank off people in trouble.  Good deeds were their own reward, but everybody's gotta eat somehow.

Bianca’s glowing, fire orange eyes studied Hiro as he spoke, there was something about him that was almost familiar to Bianca. Aside from his use of fire magic, which Bianca was curious to see how much control and power he had with fire, there was still something else that was niggling the back of their mind. ”You can call me Bianca, I wasn’t hired by anyone, truth be told I didn’t know they had been kidnapping people either.” Bianca spoke bluntly, but at least they weren’t lying. ”I learned of their activities independently from other sources, I don’t care for the coin for their removal. What I am after is their leader, they have what I need, information.” Bianca thought for a moment to see decide how much to reveal, and decided to go all in and see what Hiro’s reaction would be.

”They have been studying blood, blood magic and rituals, and I want that information. You saw me using fire, but I am also capable of controlling blood. I want to know what they have learned to see if it’s anything different, the same, or more than what I already know.” Bianca paused a moment shifting their weight a bit. ”Help me get their leader alive so I can question them, and I have no problem in helping you remove every last trace of the cult from these lands.” Bianca paused again wanting to ask some questions directed at Hiro himself, but thought perhaps that could wait until later once the task had been completed. ”Deal or not, I’m not letting them escape me.” With that Bianca hefted their scythe again and took off towards the burning camp, just hoping that the leader of the cult would still be around when they got there.

Hiro pondered as Bianca spoke.  They were both a fire mage, and a blood mage.  That was interesting, because he recalled that his father was able to turn his own blood into fire, as a defense against vampires.  Most vampires wouldn't like drinking blood that immediately turned into flames in their mouths.  His father, Sabishii, explained to him that it was due to the fire elemental affinity in him, that allowed him to manipulate fire mana flowing through his veins.  Hiro could probably learn to do the same thing, but other manipulations of blood didn't interest him.  Hiro was mostly interested in the elements, and fire was by far his strongest one, the one he was the most in tune with.

"I see, I am willing to work with you on that.  We can wipe out the camp of cultists, get the leader alive, save any hostages, and you can get what you want from the leader.  As long as this cult never bothers anyone ever again, and I get to save lives, I'm happy with that.  You get what you want, and I get what I want, it's a deal?  I don't really care if you torture the guy, absorb his soul, or his blood, whatever it is you do with him, though maybe if I get proof of his demise, that might even satisfy the local villages.  I'm sure you understand how that works: 'the cult hurts, kidnaps, or kills our people, we get revenge or justice for it.'  So I'll help see that through."  Hiro started to follow Bianca.  "So, it sounds like our interests allow us to cooperate with this."  She was a fire and blood mage, she seemed to have something on her mind.  "It seems we might have at least a few things in common.  My magic revolves around the elements.  Fire is my primary element, it's the one both my parents specialized in, but I have learned to tap into more than just fire.  I learned fire, because it was such a part of my lineage, it's a part of me.  But I also was able to learn the other 3 elements as well: water, earth, and air."  He explained, maybe hoping to make some small talk, or get to know this person better.  He was always curious to learn more about magic, even if it was about magic he couldn't or wouldn't use.  He was naturally skilled, and curious as well.  It probably came from his father being a natural genius with fire, and HIro wanting to surpass his father.  "We won't let them escape."

Bianca was happy with Hiro’s reply, they would work together, they’d each get what they wanted, and Bianca could be on their way back to Illiana sooner than later. ”You can have his head for all I care.” Bianca shrugged and started in the direction of the camp, allowing Hiro to continue speaking. Ah, so he could use most of the elements but was primarily versed in fire magic, because of his ancestry he had said. Interesting indeed, Bianca did have more questions, but they could wait.

It didn’t take long for them to get close to the camp again, and by now while the fire still burned, they were somewhat under control. The last few of the cultists were trying to gather what they could from what was left of the camp hoping their comrades who had chased Bianca away would come back soon. There looked to be about ten cultists left not including the leader wherever she was, as Bianca walked in closer they had their dagger out. ”Let’s make an entrance.” With they used the dagger to gash open a wound on their own arm, but as Bianca made this profane sacrifice their magical clout ramped up noticeably to anyone able to sense such thing. A truly old blood magic spell, and some might consider vile, blood magic ability.

Using this newly augmented strength, Bianca shaped the blood they shed into six daggers that shot towards two of the cultists. Those two had just enough warning to turn around in time for the dagger to drive deep into their flesh, three daggers each; throat, heart and lungs were the targets of the daggers. With eight left and now the camp roused by the noise, because Bianca had no care for stealth as they sheathed the dagger and spun their scythe around to ready it, Bianca glanced to Hiro. ”Meet you in the middle, if you find the leader, call her out to me.” Bianca instructed, blood still oozing from the self inflicted wound, but they didn’t want to heal it, instead they left it, as long as the wound was open profane sacrifice would be active. Which meant that Bianca was a timer for how long this fight could last before blood loss was a problem.

"Dead, alive, it honestly doesn't matter to me, they'll probably stick that head on a pike or something either way," Hiro said with a grim expression, figuring he wouldn't want to face the village's own brand of justice.  The village seemed to punish evildoers harshly, when he visited them.  The way they talked, they didn't appreciate people breaking their laws, despite not having the resources to mount their own rescue operation.

Hiro and Bianca made it to the campsite.  Hiro drew the blade from the sheath on his side.  An ornate sword, long enough to wielded by two hands, but short enough to also be wielded one-handed.  "Empyrean, reach the highest heavens," he said with a small smile.  "Let's have blast," he glanced at Bianca, who had cut her own arm, making some kind of blood sacrifice to substantially increase her own magic power.  Hiro could feel the strength she was gaining as the blood left her body.  It was an old, but powerful, not to mention dangerous type of magic.  Hiro wore his armor to protect his body from harm, to prevent enemies from harming him, and would not injure himself like this for a short term gain of power.  But what she did was her own business and her own fighting style.  As long as she could handle herself, and not become too much of a burden, he was fine.

The Phoenix Knight pointed his blade at the enemies that were were assembled in the camp.  He saw around ten enemies gathered about, waiting for the others to return, there could be more.  Not to mention, he had to search for any hostages, including the elder's daughter.  Hiro channeled mana through his sword, sliding his hand across the flat of his blade.  He stabbed the point of his blade into the ground, channeling a stream of fiery mana through the ground as Bianca made her move.  He made sure not to catch her in the crossfire, and unleashed a fiery explosion ahead of her attacks, scattering a number of the cultists while letting BIanca's attacks ring true.  She moved in with her fire scythe, and Hiro moved in with his blade Empyrean.  He nodded to Bianca and focused on his fight.

He charged in like a flash, stabbing the first enemy that was trying to recover from being thrown like rag doll.  He thrust his still fiery blade into the cultist's chest, impaling him to the ground, while thrusting  his free hand to the side, summoning a blast of concussive wind that blew the next approaching cultist off his feet.

"Bastard!  How dare you!"  An enraged shout came as a cultist took jagged dagger, and started to slit his hand open, unleashing a stream of deadly, bloody projectiles from his own hand.  Hiro slammed his foot on the ground, a wall of stone erupted from just in front of him, just in time to protect him from the bullets.  They seemed to be solidified projectiles, the blood had transmuted into iron pellets covered in blood.  Hiro ducked under the earthen barrier, as more projectiles erupted from the cultist's hand.  He didn't seem to be the cultist's leader, but he was at least capable of magic.  Hiro slammed his sword pommel into the stone wall, a blast of fiery magic entered the wall, and sent a chunk of the wall flying as a molten brick, sledgehammering into the blood-bullet spraying cultist's stomach, knocking the wind out of him, burning his stomach, and knocking him to the ground.

"That's two down . . ."  Hiro turned to see the earlier cultist he knocked over with wind getting back up.  He simply pointed his blade at the cultist, and shot a flame bolt from the blade, burning through his chest, anguished screams escaping his lips.  ". . . Three down.  Who's next?"  Another cultist was chanting and weaving some kind of spell in his direction.  Hiro Kouen started to move.  He sensed something magical approaching him.  The body at his side, the one that he had stabbed in the beginning of his attack, started to surge and swell with putrid magic.  Magical blood-covered runes started wrapping around the corpse,  Upon noticing the sheer amount of magic entering this corpse, Hiro decided to move backward away from the body.  He didn't like the looks of this.  The chanting cultist smirked, taking a knife and tossing it at the body that was now ballooning in both size and magical power.  As soon as the knife struck the body, the corpse exploded in a shower of arcane energy and blood.

"What the f–" Hiro was caught in the explosion before he could even finish his sentence.  He was sent reeling through the air, his body feeling like it was burning from searing blood covering his armor and exposed skin.  It was indeed burning blood covering him.  The Phoenix Knight hit the ground on his back with a loud thud.  "Damn bastards, using their own comrades as bombs.  Wait . . ."  Hiro noticed he was laying near another body of one of the cultists he had taken out.  That body was starting to surge with profane power as the very same cultist was priming another corpse bomb.  "Not again.  Not this shit again!"  Hiro thought to himself.  He started channeling magic through his blade, this time, his blade was covered with dancing, dazzing bolts of lightning.  The lightning lit the night electric.  For this blood mage's spell to complete, Hiro noticed the knife he had thrown.  Hiro swung his blade in the direction of the enemy, unleashing the blast of lightning at the knife the cultist was preparing to throw at the primed, bloody corpse.  The knife was made out of metal, and attracted the bolt of lightning, allowing Hiro to more easily blast the cultist's arm off, quite painfully.  Getting back onto his feet, ignoring the pain coursing through his body, he channeled fire through Empyrean again and stabbed it into the ground.  Flames erupted from the ground around the cultist mage, incinerating what was left of him.

"Who's next?" Hiro quipped as he glanced toward Bianca to see how she was doing, moving away from the corpse that he was next to, the swelling magic having died away, and blood just gushing from what was left of it.

With at least four cultists to deal with Bianca didn’t waste anymore time making a fight of this as they closed in, leaving Hiro to take care of himself. One cultist gashed their own arm as Bianca had and threw more magical blood spears, but Bianca was prepared for that and used their scythe to knock them out of the air. Each spin of the magma blade caused anything close to it to catch fire, not that the camp needed more fire. Sending a fire ball in the direction of the cultist forced them to bring up a barrier to block it, but that also meant a very momentary loss of sight of Bianca.

They had vanished from in front of the cultist in that moment, and just as that fact registered in the cultist’s mind Bianca’s scythe blade removed his head, cauterizing the neck as it went through. Bianca turned away as the corpse dropped to the ground but stopped when they, like Hiro, felt the power building in the body and turned to look. Just as they did a dagger flew from somewhere and hit the now bloated body and almost too late did Bianca realize what was happening. The force of the blast threw Bianca off their feet and into a burning tent, thankfully they held onto the scythe as they went.

Shaking their head Bianca got up to their feet after getting some of the burning tent fabric away from them. Covered in boiling hot blood didn’t bother Bianca as much since by their nature their skin temperature was hot, and pain could be ignored. At least until a dagger was throw and just caught some of Bianca’s shoulder, enough to get their attention back into the fight again. ”Even by my standards that’s a dirty trick.” Bianca snarled as the cultists started to build up a spell as they shed their own blood.

As the spell was cast Bianca dived back into the fire, but this time they melded to it becoming one with it. Moving from fire to fire Bianca moved around the cultist that was attacking them, but then found another who had been trying to sneak up. Having seeing Bianca meld into the fire they turned their attention to trying to snuff out what fire they could and throwing magic around at it. But still thinking that Bianca was going after her initial target the one who had been trying to sneak up on Bianca wasn’t ready for Bianca to appear behind them.

The cultist jerked to a stop as the scythe blade flash around them, first taking off an arm, then both legs. With a gurgling painful scream he dropped to the ground in time for Bianca’s blade to drive through his chest the blade staking him to the ground as his body caught fire. Removing the blade Bianca quickly jumped back into the fire again before this body, despite the massive damage, also started to bloat with magical power.

Two more down, at least two more for Bianca to deal with and then find the leader. Bianca assumed they were still around, probably the one who had thrown the dagger to trigger the corpse bomb.

The boiling blood still affected Hiro, despite him being an elemental being, attuned to fire.  It was hot, but still blood, containing heat and all the elements of water, iron, and other bits that blood contained.  If it was just an explosion of fire, Hiro could just shrug it off.  Bianca took care of her enemies, and there were still three more enemies around somewhere, two mooks and the leader of the cult.  Just three enemies to take down, but Hiro didn't see them.  The camp fell quiet.  Hiro's senses were on high alert.  Did they escape in the chaos?  It would make sense if they wanted to escape and rebuild their cult.  But they had a hostage, at least one.  Did they kill her to cut their losses?  It wouldn't be easy to get away carrying away a girl, it'd be way easier to get away with just the three of them.

"Ow!!  My shin!  You bitch!"  An angry scream broke the silence, followed by the sound of a resounding slap.  One of the tents collapsed, revealing a girl, around sixteen years of age, having been slapped and knocked into the tent, causing it to fall apart.  An awkward silence resounded, as the three cultists, including the one who slapped the girl, were trying to sneak away with the girl in tow.

"Gods dammit Steve, you friggin' idiot," sighed a tall, thin cultist.

"Not my fault she kicked my shin, you didn't tie her up tight enough, Dave!"  A shorter, rotund cultist, and the one that slapped the girl, for he still had his extended palm out.

"You're both a bunch of dunces.  Make yourselves useful, and grab the girl, or we're all dead,  KILL THEM!" came an angry, frustrated feminine voice, wearing the most ornate robes of the group, she seemed to be the brains of the group, and seemingly the leader.

"Bianca, found her," Hiro said loudly, with a deadpan expression.  "They have her.  That's the elder's daughter."

The two goons started to move toward the girl, who had fallen over.  Her arms were tied and bound, but her legs were free.  She was barefoot.  She had long, curly black hair.  Her mouth was gagged as well, but Hiro could see the tears and fear in her eyes.  He had to save her above all else.  The two goons were closer to her than Hiro was, but not for long.  There was a wooden torch blazing in the dark near the fallen tent.  That would do well to suit Hiro's needs.  He glanced toward Bianca.  "Get the girl," Hiro mouthed to her voicelessly before he made his next move.

Hiro was gone in a puff of smoke.  Instantly, he reappeared from the torch, charging toward the fat cultist, Steve, and trying to position himself between them and the girl.

"Hey fatso."  He slammed his knee into the Steve's stomach, then slammed his armored elbow into the man's face with a loud crack, and a gush of blood, seemingly breaking the man's nose.  He collapsed back, dropping his weapons that fell from his robes, a large machete.  The tall man, Dave, thrust his halberd with some amount of skill at the young Phoenix Knight, who swung his body to the side to dodge the attack.  He spun about, and swung his blade down to slam his blade down into the halberd, then using his foot to pin the blade to the ground.  "Fancy weapon you've got there, shame if something should happen to it."  Hiro charged his foot with a powerful earthen energy, his boot became covered in extremely heavy rock, snapping the halberd's blade off from the handle.  Dave recoiled backward, dropping the remaining shaft of his now broken polearm.  Hiro raised his stoneskin covered boot, and slammed it down into the ground, shattering the stoneskin, and sending an earthen, pillar flying out of the ground, knocking over the the tall cultist once more, sending him fly him back.

Hopefully Bianca had gotten to the girl by then.  He had made sure he hadn't KILLED the two goons, would that prevent the leader from making corpse bombs out of the two of them?