The man named Katriel Strauss licked his lips, weighing his chances of survival now that his gambit had backfired. He didn't seem to have a backup plan in case he failed; poor organization had led him to this situation.

"Stop thinking so much of yourself, you loser bitch!" one of his companions shouted, and he ran past him with his sword drawn, ready to fight. "We're the Ghost Daggers!"

"No, wait!"

His scream didn't reach the furious bandit, who foolishly attacked knightess Silverthorn with a horizontal slash that she easily parried with her sword. With a reverse blow with knuckles, she knocked out several of his teeth and spurted a large spray of blood, bashing him face down.

By simply raising her sword and bringing it down on the bandit's sword at heart level, she ended his life, and soon the surrounding black ground began to be covered in a thin layer of blood.

"Drop your weapons and kneel," she ordered, so unwaveringly that Tristessa couldn't help but let out a sigh, accompanied by a small smile that played on the side of her lips.

"Shit, I don't want to die!"

Another of the bandits turned and ran away. But Astoria was quick: she lifted the dead bandit's sword with her foot, gripped it firmly over her shoulder, and threw it at him with such force that the blade pierced the back of his neck and split the center of his face in two, killing him instantly before he could even reach the stunned crowd, his body sprawling on the ground.

"Katriel…" one of his companions warned the leader.

"On the count of three?" he proposed, with a nervous smile, to the third remaining bandit.

"Let's go!"

The three brandished their swords and attacked, forcing Astoria to adopt a more dynamic stance to parry the blows of these multiple enemies. The crowd's excitement about the battle kept them mesmerized, alert, even Tristessa feeling almost like a victim of a spell that prevented her from averting her gaze.

She only raised it to the top of the wall, looking worriedly at the sentries who didn't even seem to bother to do something about an attack on the gate's sole guardian.

"They must trust Astoria Silverthorn's skill," she thought, with such warm admiration that the chill emanating from her Baptism in Ruins found a countervailing force against its influence. "You can do it!"

The clash of metal against metal continued to resonate; the bandits' savage screams juxtaposed with Astoria's strategic silence. She defended herself nimbly, surprising Tristessa with such remarkable skill with such a long and surely heavy sword, to the point that she wondered if the knight possessed inhuman strength in those arms that were neither robust nor accumulated muscle fibers for such a feat.

"Using such a long sword like that in close combat… Impressive," she heard Auron say, who had crossed his arms and was analyzing the battle in detail. "She takes advantage of its weight and momentum very effectively. She minimizes the weapon's natural disadvantages with her skill."

Yes, Astoria Silverthorn had serious difficulties defending herself against three opponents, something inevitable when using that type of weapon. She couldn't attack without risking being in an unfavorable position…and so, the blonde knight freed one hand and grabbed the wrist of one of the surprised bandits, while with the other she raised her greatsword and blocked two simultaneous attacks from Katriel and the remaining bandit.

"Such strength!" Tristessa exclaimed, and every hair on her body stood on end as she watched her kick the captured bandit in the knee, and, as she applied pressure, broke his kneecap and caused compound fractures. "Ah!"

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With such brutality, the bandit fell to the ground screaming in pain and clutching his shattered leg. But Astoria didn't stop there, and with one hand pressed against the blade of her great-sword, she pushed the other two bandits forward like a battering ram, knocking them off balance.

"This bitch is crazy!" Katriel's companion shouted. "Ugh..."

With the pommel of her sword, Astoria struck him several times on the helmet, managing to split the metal, driving several pieces into his face and partially blinding him. Meanwhile, Katriel had fallen to the ground and cut his forearms deeply with his own sword, unable to stop her enemy's advance.

"Wait, wa...!" The scream of the other bandit, blinded, was interrupted when Astoria brought her sword on him in a horizontal cut that severed one of his legs, knocking him to the ground in a spectacle of blood and broken bones, and then extinguished his life by plunging the tip of the blade into the center of his face.

"Damn, I can't believe Astoria fucking Silverthorn is going to be the end of Katriel Strauss of the Ghost Daggers…" True to his criminal title, the man who had gotten to his feet untied the ropes holding his armor in place and dropped it. Then he pulled the hood of his tattered uniform over his head and unsheathed two knives with curved blades made of a dark mineral, razor-sharp at the edges. "Give me the best dance before you send me into the void, yes?"

"If you surrender, you won't die."

"No chance."

Swift, agile, Katriel attacked Astoria with the skill of an assassin. He was so fast that even with her skill, she couldn't fight using her sword, so she dropped it and decided to face him unarmed.

"Really? You're truly crazy, like your ancestor!" the bandit mocked, attempting to stab her with multiple thrusts aimed at her vitals, but she managed to deflect them with precise blows to his wrists. "You'll end up losing your fingers that way!"

The protective plates on her gloves and forearms sparked as they collided with the attacks she couldn't block. Dodge, block, deflect, and withstand the impacts, always avoiding attacks that targeted areas her armor couldn't cover.

That was her strategy. To resist until she could find a space, a second of him being off guard...

"Tell me something, is it true what they say? That you've been living inside that inn for years, in that room, always alone?" Katriel asked, distancing himself from her a little to catch his breath. Even at Death's door, with no chance of escape, he was still strategizing like Astoria. Buying time, making the fight last longer. Just to stay alive for a little while. "Poor you... It must be hard to be so unloved. Even a cutthroat like me have the company of my boys...no, let me rephrase that, HAD, thanks to you. But the point stands. It's a waste, really, since you're so Gods-damn good looking... But every rose has its thorns, eh? And yours are silver-colored."

Astoria ignored the insults, though Tristessa could detect her guard lowering slightly. Her fists lowered a few inches, perhaps due to some effect those words had on her.

"All rumors, but there is always a certain degree of truth in words spoken by word of mouth. That's why, I wonder… Has it ever crossed your mind that you might die alone?" he asked, raising one of the daggers stained with blood and licking the edge. Gazing into the depths, red eyes of Astoria. "Yes, you did… You are. That's the face of someone who is miserable every day. It must ache… I pity you, truly. So much that I think I should… Give you a hand dying, eh?"

Katriel tried to use those words as distractions. But even when he rushed to her and tried to stab her in the neck, Astoria moved to the side and stopped the other dagger's trajectory with her forearm.

"Yes! Ignore that fiend's mental games! You can do it, Knightess Silverthorn... You can do it!" Tristessa encouraged her, one hand on her chest, unsure if she was gripping the imminent danger her Baptism in Ruins warned her about, or the frantic beating of her excited heart. "Win!"

"It's over."

With two swift movements, Astoria Silverthorn managed to immobilize Katriel's left arm by allowing him to pass his dagger under her armpit. With her other hand, she delivered a powerful punch to his solar plexus and another to the center of his face.

"Gah…!"

His diaphragm was injured and his center of balance disrupted; his hands dropped both daggers, and Katriel collapsed like an articulated doll, falling to his knees in front of his adversary.

"..."

Without saying anything, the knightess took Katriel Strauss by the head with both hands and, with two precise movements and absolute indifference in those red eyes, dislocated his neck, killing him instantly.

Only the sound of his lifeless body, collapsing against the blood-stained ground and with several of the stolen treasures that had been thrown out of the bag, was the only thing that was heard at that moment, at the end of the Abandoned Meridion Highway and entrance to the city of Entrana.

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