Cameraman Never Dies

The bright morning sun cast long shadows on the dilapidated old village. The stone structures stood as crumbling monuments to the lives that once filled this place with laughter and firelight. Burn marks scarred the stone, marks even time couldn't erase — silent echoes of battles past.

Two figures walked through the village, illuminated in full by the golden light. Their gait was easy, even casual, as though they were tourists in some ancient ruin. But the ease was a mask. Beneath it stood two women born and honed in violence. They walked like dancers trained in silence, every step deliberate. No gravel shifted. No clothes brushed. Utter silence.

They listened.

"Storm's mercy," came a whisper from the trees on the left — too soft for ordinary ears, but enough for Eleyn and Seraphis.

Eleyn turned instinctively, her eyes narrowing just in time to see the ripple of light racing toward her.

But the lightning was already approaching her. But it was not a strong principle, it was like a sunshower, unusual but weak. Lightning ethercraft normally traveled in a straight, slightly curving line, taking only sharp turns, so it was unusual since this approached by coiling like a snake.

Swish!

She swatted the principle away and turned her concentration onto the side. The impact cracked the air like split wood. Her body moved before her mind fully processed it, already shifting her weight, expecting the follow-up

Seraphis, on the other hand, looked for any other figure hidden in the shadows.

The next two principles came in quick succession, giving Eleyn barely enough time to block the next lightning ethercraft, but this was stronger.

A beam, swirling with colors like oil on water, came right after, aimed straight for her chest. Fast, direct, and far more dangerous.

"Siste!" Eleyn said calmly, extending her hand, the spell stopped its advance in its tracks. Halted mid-flight as if hitting an invisible wall. A flicker danced across her fingertips. Always read at the source—MV@LEMP@YR.

She opened her mouth again.

"Disrumpe"

The word left her lips in a breath. As soon as she said it, the beam just broke apart like a shattered glass and faded from existence. As if it never existed.

"Finally got our tail, I see." She quickly took out her wand.

Seraphis sprang forward. No words — just action, she sensed another figure toward the left, but a little aside from the initial voice.

Like a hawk diving from the sky, she lunged toward the hidden figure. Her blade still sheathed, but her intent unmistakable — violent precision.

Clang!

A masked enemy met her, barely raising their sword and blocking in time. Sparks burst like fireflies as her force crashed into the blade, and her opponent was flung backward through the air, crashing through a tree and embedding into the next. Bark split. Wood shrieked; its trunk caved in.

"This forest," she muttered, eyes scanning, "is a bit restricting."

She extended her arm. A crimson glow bled from her skin — not blood, not liquid, something like light turned liquid. Ether, weaponized.

"Eleyn, watch out!"

The glow hardened in an instant into a long, curved blade. She spun — a full arc that cleaved the entire area around her into a shallow crater, slicing up tree trunks and moss with brutal disregard.

Eleyn sighed and leapt above the strike, avoiding the slash that cut an entire area around Seraphis and twisting lightly in the air before landing like she had done this before.

"Can you just stop being so ruthless?" Eleyn grumbled in a low but audible voice, "No wonder people are calling you the brute phoenix."

Seraphis didn't pause. "Hey, that's when I go around wearing that black phoenix mask." She looked at all the figures present, five in total. Eleyn was engaging one, she the other. Three of the figures stood there, surprised.

All of them had masks of different animals — a fox, a rabbit, a rather menacing pig, a dog, and a cat.

And Seraphis was taking on a cat of all beings.

Not wasting time, she quickly resumed her attack.

She flicked her blade to the side. The cat-masked fighter rolled out of the crater, groaning, barely recovering before Seraphis was on them again. This time too, she didn't unsheath her blade, making as if it was beneath her to do so, a pure red ether trailed behind her like a comet's tail.

Their swords met in a flurry.

Steel sparked against the sheath. Seraphis struck low, twisted her wrist, reversed her grip, and brought the blade upward — a vicious angle that forced her opponent to leap back.

But the dog-masked attacker moved to flank her.

Too slow.

Eleyn had her own fight to do, but she decided to aid Seraphis since this felt too boring to take seriously. But she never let her guard down, that was the surefire way to lose.

"Confringe"

The dog-mask's weapon exploded in their hands — not violently, but neatly, as if it had rotted in an instant. Their hands sizzled. They cried out in surprise and stumbled back. It was just a moment, but that moment was what all Seraphis required. She kicked them square in the chest with enough force to audibly hear a few bones break.

"Amateurs," she muttered.

Their masks seem to be enchanted to protect their identity, even their voices were indistinguishable between a man to a woman.

Eleyn vomited some saliva on the ground. Surprisingly, breaking that single weapon had taken a vast amount of her ether. Which in itself was grand. Her head ached due to her exerting so much of her psyche.

The rabbit mask struck from behind, making use of the chance they got.

"In the light of the eclipse!"

A jet black ball, surrounded by a thin membrane of orange light shot out toward Eleyn's defenseless back.

This time, it was her turn to be flung across the neatly cut trees and hit a tree that was not cut down.

Her clothes on the back had burned, but her skin was untouched. A faint blue glow could be seen on her skin like scales.

"Wow," Serapphis laughed while dropping down to dodge a slash. "Some real moves there, Eleyn," she sweeped her leg to counteract any upcoming attacks that she wouldn't be able to dodge. "Keep it up."

"Shut up," Eleyn spat blood this time as she got up. "This will end quickly."