The black bird opened its beak.
Light gathered inside its throat.
The elder sister saw it first.
"Traveler—don't!"
The Traveler didn't turn.
The fire erupted.
He moved.
Not backward.
Forward.
For an instant, the elder sister thought he had simply disappeared.
Then—
BOOM.
He crossed the distance between them.
The edge of the fire caught him.
Heat tore across his shoulder and side.
His cloak ignited.
He didn't stop.
The elder sister stumbled toward him.
"Come back!"
The Traveler's voice came without turning.
"Go away."
Two words.
Cold.
Final.
She stopped.
The Traveler accelerated.
The world around him became traces.
The bird's wings.
The movement of its head.
The shift of its talons.
The gathering heat inside its throat.
He sensed everything.
Not with eyes.
With something deeper.
The creature fired again.
The Traveler was already gone.
The blast struck the earth behind him.
He appeared beneath the monster's wing.
The bird screeched.
Its enormous talon swept downward.
The Traveler ducked.
The claw passed above his head.
He drove forward.
Faster.
Much faster.
His feet barely seemed to touch the ground.
The bird twisted.
The Traveler was already somewhere else.
It fired.
He moved.
It struck.
He moved.
Every attack arrived a fraction too late.
The elder sister could barely follow him.
One moment he was beside the burning flowers.
The next—
he was beneath the beast.
Then behind it.
Then above a fallen corpse.
His movements had become almost impossible to track.
The black bird screamed.
Its wings exploded outward.
A storm of black feathers filled the air.
The Traveler stopped.
He sensed the entire pattern.
Every feather.
Every movement.
Then he moved through them.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
He passed between the gaps before the feathers reached him.
The bird's head snapped toward him.
Too late.
The Traveler had reached its body.
His hand struck the creature.
The impact shook its enormous frame.
The beast recoiled.
The Traveler landed several meters away.
His burned shoulder smoked.
Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
He didn't wipe it away.
The bird stared at him.
The Traveler couldn't see its face.
But he could feel it.
The creature was afraid.
Not of his strength.
Of something else.
Something it could sense.
The Traveler lowered his stance.
The red moon hung above them.
His empty eyes remained closed.
Then—
the black bird opened its mouth again.
The Traveler smiled faintly.
Not from amusement.
Recognition.
He knew where it would strike.
The fire began gathering.
And this time—
the Traveler vanished before the flame was even released.
The elder sister's eyes widened.
"Where did he—"
A shadow crossed the bird's back.
The Traveler had already reached it.