There was once a nameless warrior on a nameless night,

He rode a nameless horse under the moonlight,

The only thing that had a name was the ground alight.

The Nameless Warrior

Edwin stepped out of inn Mist Light, to find the source of commotion. He pushed through a crowd of people who were trying to achieve the same.

What Edwin saw first was smoke. Grey smoke curling its way through the skies, dancing as if it was their last dance. Blurring the vision of what lay next just so that their dance found an audience. Then Edwin saw the source of the smoke. Flames engulfed the houses on the opposite bank. Screaming and shouting could be heard, the sound mingled with laughter and metal.

A raid.

The dance of these flames far outshone the dance of the smoke. For the flames had music. For the flames had colours. It was in this crimson symphony that Edwin found himself lost.

They brought forth another symphony Edwin had taught himself to forget. Out of all the things he learned, oblivion still evaded him. This symphony had the same notes and shades of crimson.

...The flames had seemed larger. Menace they showed him. Despair they taught him. The people who he had learned to love, the whole of the village, succumbed, to the mercy of the flames. It was a time long forgotten, when he still had a name, he had long since not uttered. The nine year old boy, Edwin, watched all for he had a name. He remembered all in a time forgotten. How he heard the clang of metal, how he heard the sound of the pleas. Red men had murdered those defenceless. The flames had consumed the rest. All remained but a boy with a name...

Edwin's left hand had curled into a fist, his sword now in his right. He did not recall when it came there, nor did it concern him in the least. He gritted his teeth as he saw raiders, dressed in red, make their way from across the other side of the bridge. He failed to notice how people around him tried to scamper for their lives as the men dressed in red, laughingly walked along. For his eyes were red with rage.

He knew not when his feet left the ground. He zipped like an arrow, before the raiders walking on the bridge could blink an eye, he was on the other side sword at an angle his back at an arc, head bowed low.

The arrow has been shot.

It seemed that time had stopped for the raiders on the bridge as they stood without moving, laughing instantly ceased. Only to be contradicted by the moving water below. Various cuts opened, their red clothes reduced to rags. A man standing near the edge toppled over, as blood oozed from a cut across his chest, and fell down the bridge with a splash, to join the flow of the river.

Edwin stood straight as he walked towards the burning structures on the other side. His eyes still widened with rage.

He spotted a man dressed in red armour seven foot tall, five men around him. An old man stood grovelling at their feet," Please, we can't pay taxes to the King. Sir please," A younger man, probably his son, beat up to the point of unconsciousness.

The man in the red armour laughed. That was his final laugh.

Edwin jumped, his left hand locking on the man's lower jaw. Both Edwin and the man were flung in an arc in air, before hitting the ground. The weight of the seven foot tall raider's body left his neck distorted at an angle. And so was the reason he could not laugh.

The five men stood in stunned silence. It was what cost them. Four of them fell victim to Edwin's sword in that moment, the fifth managed to raise his shield. The shield was shattered in two as his sword broke the raider's ribcage. He closed in to cut his throat and end his suffering.

"Thank you so much Sir," mumbled the old man, but Edwin had no ears for him as he walked on, a now bloodied sword in hand.

Two men in red armour were busy setting fire to a home, he heard a child shrieking. And footsteps. The family trying to escape.

To their own death if they make it out in front of those two.

The two armoured raiders saw Edwin come at them. For a moment they were paralyzed but soon one of them raised a huge round shield, while the other got behind him. A volley of spikes shot at Edwin when the one behind touched the ground with his bare hands. Before the spikes could ever reach their target Edwin had already ducked to the right his sword lodged in the neck of the man with the circular shield. The alchemist behind, shook with fear as he attempted to change the ground Edwin stood on.

That did not affect him in the least, for he leaped. His sword making a smooth arc before he landed behind the alchemist. The red armour torn in two, blood gushing from his neck, the alchemist joined his companion. The whole event took place in less than three seconds. The family only ever saw the back of the man who had saved them.

Edwin moved from street to street among the structures aflame. His eyes to match the hue.

He reached the town circle where a large group of raiders had assembled, about thirty raiders. He heard the laughing and the pleading again. And he heard the clank of iron and steel. The red men.

The nearest raider met his death when Edwin's sword met the back of his neck. Five of his companions rushed at him, noticing the event. Edwin moved his left hand in a pattern through the smoke filled air. A split instant later, not only had the smoke directly in front of him cleared but also the five men were thrown away, their armours pock marked with holes, blood oozing out from their limp bodies.

Edwin soon caught the dead raider next to him by the back of his collar, and raised him in front. A few arrows shot at him just to intercept the dead raider in time. As the dead raider fell a second time, Edwin was no longer in sight.

This smoke will dance to its content tonight.

Edwin used the thick smoke cover to duck inside a house around the town circle. He climbed up the roof of the two storey building. Soon an archer fell screaming in the town circle below.

Edwin moved from roof to roof till he was directly above a group of about fifteen men. He sheathed his sword as he made a pattern with both his hands in thin air. The ground caved in as if a massive stone had just landed on it. The men inside the immediate concave cavity fell, and confusion ensued. Edwin leaped down to the town circle through the smoke, his sword unsheathed before he landed. Confusion was a symphony to Edwin as he moved through the smoke. He slit the nearest raider's throat from behind while his left hand grabbed another. He pulled his left hand as his sword arm swung towards the raider's heart. His breastplate tore as the sword pierced him.

He disappeared in and out of smoke, screams of raiders could be heard, stabs and strikes. The shouts moved in a circular pattern along the town circle. Soon the whole town circle fell silent. None of the laughing, clanking, now audible.

The smoke danced as Edwin had promised.