Morning had barely settled in when a group of adventurers came down the forest path, dirty from an overnight mission and already arguing like they hadn't spent the last few hours fighting side by side.
"I am telling you, the best cut should obviously go to me," one of the men said, shifting the pack on his shoulder. "If I didn't pin that thing down, both of you would still be running around screaming."
"Pin it down?" the other shot back with a laugh. "You got thrown into it by accident. If anyone earned the best cut, it's me."
The first man scoffed and kept walking.
"Earned it how? By swinging late after the hard part was done?"
"Late?" the second man said, turning toward him. "Who was the one yelling for help ten minutes in?"
They kept going like that, each one talking over the other while the girl walking with them stayed half a step behind.
Cassie heard this exact argument before, just with different monsters and different claims, so she kept her hands together in front of her and focused on the road.
"Cassie," the first man said, glancing back at her, "tell him I am right."
"Yeah, go on," the other added with a grin. "You saw the whole thing, so who carried that fight?"
Her shoulders stiffened a little when both of them looked at her at once, "uh..." she smiled nervously, eyes flicking between them. "I think both of you did well."
"That is not an answer," the first man said.
"It kind of is," she said softly, though even she sounded unsure about it.
Before either of them could start again, her eyes drifted past them toward the path ahead, and the weak smile on her face slowly dropped.
"Wait," she said, lifting a hand and pointing forward.
The two men stopped mid-argument and looked at her first, confused.
"What?" one of them asked.
"Over there," she said, her voice tighter now.
They turned and followed where she was pointing, and a second later they spotted him too. Someone was lying near the side of the path beside the remains of a camp fire, motionless.
"Is that an adventurer?" the second man asked, squinting a little.
The first man frowned and looked him over from where they stood, "maybe," he said, "but I don't know him."
"Have either of you seen him before?" Cassie asked, still not moving closer yet.
Both men shook their heads.
"No."
"Never."
They slowed down after that and started toward him carefully, all three drawing their weapons once the distance got short enough to matter.
The first man kept his sword low while the other held his axe across his body, and Cassie stayed behind them with one hand near the small knife at her waist.
When they got close enough to see the ground around him, the second man noticed the half-finished meat first.
"He was eating," he said, looking from the dropped food to the body on the ground. "So what happened?"
The first man stared at Hajin for a second, then at the dry blood on his clothes.
"Maybe he died after," he said. "Wouldn't be the strangest thing."
Cassie looked at Hajin's still body, then at the state of the camp and the blood around him, and a small nervous look crossed her face.
"We should just leave him alone and go," she said quietly. "If he's dead then there's nothing we can do, and if he's not then I don't think we should be standing over him like this."
The first man was about to answer when the other one suddenly looked down near the dead fire and smiled.
"Lookey here," he said, crouching a little.
Cassie's eyes followed his and saw the two crystals on the ground near Hajin's things.
"Those are monster crystals," the man said, already reaching down. "He won't care about them if he's dead."
"Wait," she said, the word coming out fast, but she was already too late.
The moment his hand moved close, Hajin's eyes snapped open.
It happened so fast that for a second none of them reacted, because there was something wrong about how suddenly he moved. This was not dazed blinking or a confused flinch, his hand just shot out for the sword beside him while his body twisted off the ground in the same motion.
The man barely had time to look up before Hajin's leg came around in a hard back spin kick that slammed straight into his chest.
"Ughk-"
The hit sent him flying backward so hard he lost his grip on the axe and crashed into the dirt several meters away.
Hajin landed in a low stance with the sword already in his hand, breathing rough and keeping distance between himself and the three of them.
Cassie froze, staring at him while her heart kicked hard in her chest.
'What just happened?' she thought, tightening her grip on the knife at her waist, 'he looked dead a second ago.'
'I already checked him with my magic,' she thought, eyes fixed on Hajin, 'his condition was terrible, his mana was low and that flow inside him felt strange even then,' she narrowed her eyes, still using her magic to scan him, 'but now it's even worse.'
Mana moved through him in a way she had never seen before, not clean like a normal adventurer but not broken either. It kept circling through his body in odd patterns that made her eyes sting a little.
Then she noticed the ring of light orbiting his wrist slowly and her breath caught, 'what is that?' she thought, her pulse climbing even faster, 'shouldn't there be a shard there?'
'No, something is wrong here,' she thought, a cold warning crawling up the back of her neck, 'we should leave, right now.'
Hajin's eyes moved across all of them, sharp and cold despite how rough he looked, then the tip of his sword came up, pointing straight at them.
"Who the fuck are you people?"
"We should go," she whispered, not taking her eyes off him. "Something is wrong with him, let's just leave."
The man Hajin kicked coughed behind her and pushed himself back to his feet with a curse.
"Leave?" he said, rubbing his chest once before his face twisted. "After that bastard kicked me?"
"Don't," she said quickly, turning toward him. "I am serious, we need to go."
He ignored her, power rolling off him in a sudden burst while two crystal shards rose around his arm and started orbiting slowly.
'Dammit, this idiot, why is he provoking him?' Cassie thought, getting more and more nervous.
"You got one cheap shot in," the man said, picking his axe back up and glaring at Hajin. "Try that again."
"Stop," Cassie said, louder this time, reaching for his arm. "I said leave him alone."
He shook her off and stepped forward anyway, "stay back Cassie, this guy needs to be taught a lesson in respect," he said, launching forward and swinging his axe.