Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater, its characters, or its concepts!

Chapter 4: Vanished Knight

Running through the forest as fast as possible, the young meister wasn't sure if he would make it in time. Would he be able to live with himself, knowing he had failed her? It was pure luck that he'd been around the area to detect the unusual number of kishins. The single threat he'd noted had turned into far more, more than these two students were capable of handling alone.

Out of breath, he finally reached to the open circle of trees of where Chrona and Kale had been surrounded. "Chrona!" the boy shouted through the crowd of kishins that blocked his view. "Kale!" he screamed out as well. What kind of man would he be to only show concern for her and not for the meister she'd entrusted so long?

Chrona, still surrounded, tried her best to gaze outside her metal form (as did Kale), looking to see who it had been that came to help. The voice sounded familiar and yet… it was too muffled through the layers of bodies to tell, though they had managed to fight through a few so far. This one was a battle of persistence, but with help, they just might get through it faster!

Realizing he had no weapon partner with him, their newly arrived meister looked around for anything viable enough to cause damage. Gasping, he saw something he could use as he glanced to his side. Perfect! It seemed someone had previously left an axe leaning against a close by trunk… although it already had a few specs of blood on it. Another battle perhaps? Somebody had lost to yet another unexpected enemy…

There was no time to mourn for missing bodies, though. Running into the crowd almost recklessly, he swung the bloodied axe, severing head off head from the kishins around them. It wasn't a demon weapon, but he'd found himself to become proficient enough that he'd gained the speed and technique to eliminate one by one anyway.

At the same time, Kale continued to swing Chrona about, also killing off numbers of their enemies off at a time. The witch behind the kishin clones had at first managed to continue summoning more as they tore through them, bringing the number of their opponents no less than what it was before. However, now with two slashing at them, maybe they could finally narrow it down. Surely this witch had a limit, right?

Kill after kill, the witch grew more irritated. "How dare you! This is not your fight!" She immediately stopped producing the clones and was now lunging towards the intruder. If she could take him out, she could finish the business she'd began with Kale and Chrona! He wasn't a deathscythe, and would be an easy target!

The uninvited boy was not prepared for the speed she had to offer as she advanced toward him, extracting her claws from her finger tips and swiping him to the side like a cat hunting an injured mouse. Her attacked nearly knocked him out, as he was barely aware of what had just happened. Slashes were found across his face now, rather deep ones that would guarantee to leave scars.

"I won't let you kill them!" he shouted as he watched her walk slowly towards him. Gripping the axe still in his hand even tighter, he gritted his teeth, and threw himself back on his feet, swinging the weapon. She dodged too easily, though, knocking him down over and over. "Chrona! Kale! Get out of here now!"

The selfless command grasped Chrona's attention off the kishins once more. Realizing that they'd managed to take down most of the clones to get past them efficiently enough, she turned her attention to her meister. "Kale! We can't let her…!" the girl pleaded, pained to imagine what could happen if they failed to protect him.

"On it!" Kale answered, determination matching his weapon's. The duo leaped over the remaining few kishin clones, landing where the witch behind them toyed with their fellow student's life. By now, the boy the woman had slung around was slammed against another tree, knocked unconscious on the ground. His back was turned so they couldn't identify him yet. Still, he was a student, that much was obvious. "He is not your enemy! WE are!"

Without a word, she turned around to face the more threatening team and lunged at them with even more speed. Seems she'd been holding back... the attacks came twice as fast as they originally had before.

Chrona's mind was scrambled in panic. 'My mother didn't win by giving up… therefor I can't give up, either!' Then she perked up, a light suddenly turning on in her mind. "Kale... I have an idea!" Chrona, still in weapon form, was now fired with refreshed inspiration. In the reflection of her handles, a gaze of determination to come out alive sparked once again.

"We haven't perfected it. We can't guarantee its success." His words came off in a sense of caution. Kale well understood what she was thinking. After all, the two were still resonated. Performing this technique in progress would either make them or break them. Still, they had to do something!

Kale whipped Chrona's chain around. The two combined all the energy they had left. While in resonation, this was her potential unique ability as a chain-style deathscythe. Even when done right, they only had ten seconds to perform in this mode; else they would be caught mid-way in their attack, making them more vulnerable than they already were. The duo felt their will to live drive their strength to a level higher than it had ever been. It was a move that they'd discovered once while training in their spare time.

Suddenly, their vision of time's speed changed. Now Kale could see every tenth of each second that passed. The witches face grew closer and closer from the attack that she had started. In comparison, she still remained faster than they could have ever been from the beginning before they exhausted their energy. She had already managed to get close again in the time it took for them to merely start their move.

He twisted around her side, observing every detail of the shreds in her dress, which shifted from the once elegant appeal into a sultry one. While they had the advantage of time in their hands, Chrona's weapon form was now slung around the witch's neck, whom was unaware of the slowed effect.

The five seconds of the slowed rate ended quickly, and just as time fell back into its normal speed, the witch's head was sliced off in midst of the continuance of her vicious attack to consume them. Her body dropped to the ground immediately, vanishing into the air, leaving a single floating soul in its place.

Chrona immediately transformed back into her human form. She ran to where the boy who had interrupted their fight was slung to, only to find nothing but an open patch of grass. Gazing around at the now empty spot, she spotted a left behind souvenir. It was a red soft cotton wrist band with the letter "S" thickly monogrammed into it with yellow thread. She knew who's it was immediately. "Sloan?" That boy who'd challenged her so many times… had he saved her for the sake of getting one more try? Had he been… following her? What was odd was that despite how many times he'd been thrown around, there were no trails of blood to lead where he may have escaped to.

Now the Deathscythe picked up the bloodied axe he'd dropped when he fell. 'He… didn't have an actual weapon partner with him?' the girl thought to herself. Of all things, a simple axe with no magic at all managed to tear through numbers of clones at a time. This… this was raw skill… Just how much potential did Sloan actually have? If only he'd been capable of actually keeping a weapon partner, he could have done so much!

Her partner interrupted her moment of reflection with urgency. "We have to report to Death now, before another catches on to us, and I don't think we can handle something like that again." Something about the witches still left Kale with an unsettling distrust, despite the years of agreement there had been by now. Gently putting his hand on her shoulder, he tugged her slightly, encouraging her to return for their safety.

"But he… he's out there, somewhere!" She gazed further into the wooded area. "Sloan! Sloan, answer me!" the girl shouted.

Kale sighed, feeling helpless. He knew they were too worn out to face anything else alone and a trek to find someone who… well who might not even be there would risk their lives too. "We don't have enough energy left to fight anymore Chrona… Right now, we have to inform Lord Death, first. They'll send someone, I'm sure of it."

Chrona's eyes fell down back to the ground in wonder of whether he'd found escape or else… "Yeah…" The very reckless, notorious, immature boy who'd demanded a date of her had risked his life to save them, to save her, and she'd failed him.