Bandaged

Echo's situation looked dire. 

The knight unhurried, took back his sword and stabbed towards Echo's direction in one swift motion.

 Echo saw this and again was one breath away from being gutted by it, before he jumped down towards the hall to try and reach the entrance of the cathedral. He can't even go back to the roof since the bastard is standing between Echo and it. 

'Shit shit.' Echo forced himself to calm down, and think of this situation rationally, because even if he go out of that entrance he's sure to be chased by the knight after it.

Bang

Echo heard the knight jumping down, he didn't even have to turn back and just continued sprinting before he felt the knight behind him getting closer and closer, it swung its sword once again. Echo didn't have anytime to think and just jumped to the side to avoid it, the sword barely grazing the back of his armor.

 Echo rolled and was finally near the door, His eyes though calm was laced with desperate hope to get out. 

'I just died damnit.' He grimaced before he felt the knight's footsteps speeding up. 

Seeing its prey about to flee from the cathedral, the knight sprinted with more speed this time, when they were only a foot before the door, raising its sword the knight was about to swing down, he saw his prey summoning something akin to a net. A perfectly timed interruption causing a one second lag before he can swing fully. 

'Caught a big fish.' 

Echo opened the door of the cathedral got out and closed it as fast as he can, but he didn't stop there he sprinted with ragged breath and with blood dripping from his torso, and hid in a house a couple of blocks away form the cathedral. 

'It seems like the bastard, didn't follow me out.' Echo can finally breath, he dismissed his armor. took a piece of cloth that he could find to stop the bleeding. Although it was shallow not only did it cause him to lose a lot of blood but it might get infected in the future, so he summoned his memory that carried a couple litter or water and rinsed his wound with it, before he wrapped it in damp clothes.

'Hngn, I need to get out of here, before it gets dark.' Echo winced and felt a pang of pain, before he stood up and went towards the house where he stored those already cleaned up meat he got.

Echo carried it on his back and cautiously went back towards the hill of the castle. It didn't take long before he was already standing in front of his house at the edge of the outskirts. He didn't have time to knock and just entered it.

'Nephis is not here.' He observed, though there were still used utensils so probably she just went out a bit. But he didn't care much.

He was too tired anyway. Echo dropped the bag that carried the meat and just plopped down towards the bed.

—

Echo didn't know how long he slept, when he opened his eyes everything in the hut is dark, he summoned a lantern memory, to light up the whole room. That was when Nephis entered the house, she noticed the bag near the door, and the cloth that wrapped around Echo's torso. They stared at each other for while before Nephis finally asked. 

"What happened?" 

"I encountered a Fallen, It was a dark knight in the ruined cathedral." Echo's voice dropped, and scratched the back of his head, he confidently said he would be a reliable pathfinder, and here he was beat up and barely alive after he 'accidentally' encountered a Fallen creature. 

"I see, we wouldn't accidentally encounter a fallen if we go out and you are our pathfinder would we?" Nephis joked and went near Echo.

"That isn't a good joke." Echo said begrudgingly, and noticed extending her palm towards Echo's wound and summoned a fire, this cause Echo to pull back due to instinct.

"Stay still, I'll heal you." Nephis put her other arm on Echo's shoulder and he stayed still before he felt a warm feeling near his torso. It was healing at a very rapid pace, his torn skin healed almost instantly the numb sensation around it disappeared and most of all he felt it fully healed.

"That was amazing, thank you." Echo said and took off the cloth that wrapped around his torso. He added:

"I didn't know you can heal." Echo said. and sat up towards the edge of the bed while Nephis moved, to sit down near the table. 

"It's part of my Aspect ability." She said. The atmosphere turned awkward after that, they really don't know what to talk about, that was until Echo asked. 

"Have you eaten?" Echo stood up to get the bag near the door.

"No, not yet." Nephis said

 "I'll cook, wait for a bit."

—

The room was full of aroma of cooked meat they both sat down at the table and ate their fill. 

"So… you said you wanted to form a hunter party right do you have anyone in mind?" Echo asked Nephis. 

She looked at him and said. 

"Yeah, I do. That's actually what I came here for, I wanted to discuss my plan in future. The first one I want to recruit was Effie, do you know her?"

Echo's face changed a bit when Effie's name was mentioned this didn't go unnoticed by Nephis though.

"I actually do, we entered the dark city at the same time." He said with a forlorn expression. He continued.

"We were part of a party once, we met near the Dark City when the solstice came, at the time we were weak but there were five of us so we had enough fire power to kill our way and scale the wall. After some time an incident happened, we had a falling out, and the party was disbanded, that was when I joined Gunlaug's ranks." Echo said somberly, reminiscing about the memory of the past Echo. 

Even though its not his entirely, he knew he had to live with it, this is his life now whether he likes it or not, all the past Echo's enemies, allies, friends, acquaintance, problems and emotions are now his. Though he it also means he can have a fresh outlook on it, all the past Echo's prejudice and bias, will be perceived on a new light.