As Naeem watched the boy running for his life, he glanced at Anisa.
Her face was pale with fear and filled with sadness. The boy—he looked about her age.
A thought pierced Naeem's mind like a dagger:
"What if that was Anisa… and no one came to help?"
Rage surged through him.
He knelt down quickly. "Anny, stay hidden here. Don't move until I come back."
She nodded, though fear trembled in her eyes.
Naeem vanished into the shadows. A moment later, he rose silently from the bandit's own shadow—swift, precise—and with one clean motion, slashed the bandit's neck. The man never saw it coming. He collapsed instantly, lifeless.
The young boy was still running. But when he realized no one was behind him anymore, he slowed down and turned around.
His eyes met Naeem's.
He was shaking. His skin was pale, his nose bleeding. Tears streaked his dirt-covered face. Slowly, he walked forward and gripped Naeem's hand tightly.
"Please…" the boy whispered. "My parents… they're still there. Please save them."
Naeem looked down at the child and gave a firm nod.
"I'll do what I can."
The boy's face was clear in Naeem's mind.
He thought to himself:
"Last time… I couldn't save Anisa's family. What if I fail again?"
For a brief moment, he considered running away with both Anisa and the boy. But then he remembered the pain in Anisa's eyes the day she lost her parents.
"I can't let that happen again."
He looked at the boy and asked, "Where are your parents?"
"Follow me," the boy said.
"Wait—just a minute."
Naeem returned to Anisa, who was still hiding. He knelt down and used his energy to cast a blanket of shadows around her. It blended her completely into the darkness.
"No one will see you now. Stay hidden. I'll be back."
The boy led Naeem through the burning village to its far edge. There, he pointed toward a house surrounded by chaos. A man was fighting desperately against two bandits, defending a woman.
"Is that your father?" Naeem asked.
The boy nodded silently.
There were three enemies. Two were attacking the man directly, and the third—likely the leader—stood back, watching the fight with a smirk.
Naeem had no time to lose. One of the bandits was charges an attack, aiming straight for the man's chest.
In a flash, Naeem threw his shadow dagger. It flew cleanly through the air and severed the attacker's arm.
The man seized the chance. With a surge of energy, he landed a brutal blow, crushing the bandit's face. The attacker crumpled to the ground.
But the man had reached his limit. He collapsed moments later, gasping for breath.
The second bandit charged at Naeem without hesitation.
Bad move.
Naeem melted into the shadows, reappearing behind him—and with a single motion, ended the fight. The man's head hit the ground before his body did.
Tonight, under the darkness, shadow power users were invincible.
In this battlefield of fire and blood, Naeem could move freely, never needing to defend.
Every shadow was his path, every shadow his weapon.
Meanwhile, the leader stood in shock, glaring at Naeem with rage and confusion.
"Who are you?!" he shouted.
"Why are you saving them? Are they your family?"
Naeem's expression hardened.
"No," he replied calmly.
"But people like you—bandits—killed my family just four days ago. I lost everyone. I won't let another child feel what I felt."
Naeem's thoughts were racing.
If I don't end this quickly, reinforcements might arrive.
The man stepped forward, his eyes full of arrogance.
"My name is La-Dan," he said proudly.
"I'm a lieutenant of the Red Fang bandits. That man on the ground," he pointed at the boy's father, "if you want to live, take him and run. That's your only chance."
Naeem stayed silent.
Then La-Dan smirked and pointed to the boy's mother.
"We're keeping her. We'll sell her—or use her to get compensation for the two men you just killed."
Naeem's jaw tightened.
"You know," he said, voice low and dangerous, "there are only two kinds of people I hate in this world:
One—rapists.
Two—people who think they can own others."
He took a step forward, shadows beginning to ripple under his feet.
"So I'm not accepting your options. I've got a better one:
You let me save them quietly, and I let you live."
La-Dan scoffed.
"Then come and try to kill me."
La-Dan, furious, summoned a glowing yellow sphere crackling with lightning. The sheer energy radiating from it sent vibrations through the ground.
This was the first time Naeem had seen anyone form an energy weapon similar to his own.
With a roar, La-Dan hurled the lightning sphere straight at Naeem.
It moved at the speed of light.
Naeem barely reacted in time—he used Shadow Travel and vanished into the ground just before impact, reappearing behind La-Dan. Without hesitation, he slashed with his dagger, but La-Dan was fast—he turned and blocked the attack with a burst of lightning from his palm.
Explosions of shadow and lightning lit up the battlefield—darkness clashed with raw electricity.
Naeem quickly realized:
If I don't end this fast, more enemies might arrive.
This is do or die.
The next time La-Dan launched his lightning sphere, Naeem didn't dodge it. Instead, he activated a skill he had only just started mastering—Matter Dismantle, the highest form of Shadow Ball.
His shadow sphere collided with La-Dan's lightning.
The lightning sphere warped—then shattered into sparks and vanished.
La-Dan's eyes widened in disbelief.
"How did you—? That's impossible!"
Naeem didn't give him time to think.
He lunged forward and slashed with his dagger.
La-Dan raised his arm to block it, but Naeem had already formed a Shadow Ball in his other hand.
The dark energy slammed into La-Dan's stomach—he barely managed to defend, but the impact sent him flying several meters back, crashing through debris.
Without wasting a moment, Naeem turned to the boy's father.
"Take your wife and son and get out of here—NOW!"
"But what about you?" the man shouted.
"I'll catch up! GO!"
Before leaving, Naeem quickly extracted the energy cores—the hearts—from the two dead bandits. Then he summoned his shadows, reached back to the edge of the village where he'd hidden Anisha, and pulled her into the shadows with him.
They escaped.
They ran for hours through fields, woods, not stopping until the sounds of chaos were far behind them.
Only when they were sure they weren't being followed did they finally take a rest.
The man turned to Naeem, breathing hard.
"Maybe they've lost our trail. Thank you—for everything. I never got to ask your name."
Naeem smiled slightly, wiping sweat from his brow.
"My name's Naeem. And this," he said, gently placing his hand on the small girl's shoulder, "is Anisha."
The man nodded, then introduced his family.
"My name is Jakhir. This is my wife, Radha. And our son, Ronny."
Ronny shyly stepped forward and gave a small smile to Anisha.
They were safe—for now.
And for Naeem, that meant something was finally going right.