- Heaven's Last Breath -

Trust

- Death -

---

As I followed after the two girls who dived headfirst off the mountain, I found myself calmly cruising down the sandy slope. I expected Ariel to be doing stunts down the slope but I was more than surprised to see Jade take to the ramp like a professional snowboarder.

"Now!"

Before I could react, a horde of shadows rushed out at me from just out of the corner of my eye. I let out a disappointed sigh, realising I would be keeping the girls waiting but I guess this bought Aaron time to do what he needed to.

"Quick! Jump him!"

I swung my scythe directly behind me, forcing me to a quick stop as the shadowed figures rushed toward me. I remained still, analysing the situation, seeing that the group were all wearing thick headscarves, bandanas and some were even wearing thick desert goggles. They were all wearing loose clothes and as I looked around, something caught my eye.

Easily, I evaded as one of the attackers launched themselves at me from behind. Another threw a flurry of throwing knives at me but I swatted them all away using my scythe.

I turned around, but as I did, what had caught my attention before was no longer there. My eyes followed the group as they circled around me, some taking the high ground.

Then I saw it again. Around one of the desert raiders neck was a silver chain pendant. The centrepiece was a delicately crafted silver shaped eye. But this was no ordinary eye. Its iris was replaced by a deep sapphire blue gemstone, glinting under the harsh sunlight. The design was extremely familar to me, the shaped to mirror that of the Eye of Horus.

Even though these raiders appeared to be the usual, run of the mill, desert thugs, I couldn't dismiss that they were in possession of such a valuable artefact. I would recognise the eye of my brother from anywhere and there was no mistaking what I was looking at.

"Oi, where did you get that chain?" I spoke up confidently, despite being surrounded by over twenty bodies.

The raider who was wearing the chain didn't respond, keeping quiet. I noticed that he was stood the furthest away from me but beneath his thick headscarf I couldn't tell what set him apart from the others.

"Hey you don't have time to worry about that!"

Once again, two more attackers tried to attack me from my blindside but I sidestepped out of the way, avoiding them as they charged forward recklessly.

I kept my scythe sheathed, knowing that I wouldn't even need to use it to get out of this situation. Another raider charged forward but instead of stepping out of the way, I caught his fist in my open palm, crushing his arm as I closed my fingers.

There was a collective gasp from the others as their ally collapsed to the floor, screaming out in pain. But I wasn't done there.

Still holding onto the man's broken arm, I swung him around, sending him flying into two more raiders. At this point, the swarm of attackers realised they had jumped the wrong man but they had already foolishly committed to the job.

Another raider carelessly rushed forward from behind. I spun on my heels, smashing my fist directly into the man's chest as he coughed up blood, the sound of his ribs shattering echoing throughout Sandrider's Slope.