Chapter Text
The clanging of swords can be heard. Two armies were duking it out, trying to prove which one of their generals deserved to destroy a small town off the coast of the Divine Woodland. Nobody on either side was giving any room to breathe.
And at the forefront of it all, stood two Demons who, in all fairness, shouldn't have been fighting in the first place.
However, that didn't stop them from instigating a brawl anyways! Bishop looks at Belsaic with a grin, and decides to taunt him a little. "Hah! See, we're not so different in the end. We both wish to rule over everything, don't we? Come on, we'll be killing those filthy Humans anyway, so..." Bishop raises his halberd. "Why the hell should it matter who gets to claim one measly town in the middle of nowhere?!" Immediately after saying this, Bishop charged at Belsaic, and the two entered a violent clash.
Knap was bored. She had been trying to find a desperate village to claim some youth for herself, but so far this year, everyone she met had seen right past her disguises. After some time wandering in the forest, she sat down on a termite-infested, half-eaten log, and sighs. "...I can’t keep doing this. Ugh, and most of the others are hitting their quotas, too...! Maybe I wasn't cut out for this." Knap paused for a moment, before continuing with her monologue. "...Wait, no, on second thought, I know I'm more efficient than Cyprian, at least. Still, that isn't really saying much, since, well, he's Cyprian..."
At that moment, she had heard the incessant buzzing of cicadas, then, the flapping of many wings swiftly approaching her location. She quickly turned around, expecting a Summoner's attempt at an ambush... only to see an amused Baya, who had stumbled upon Knap's bout of chattering to herself.
"Hehehe! Did I scare 'ya?" Baya, the Rider of Famine, buzzed up uncomfortably close to Knap, only to be swatted away as if she were a real insect. "Awww, come on! You know that hurts...!"
Knap looked as though she was about to hit harder, but seeing her friend act in such a playful manner seemed to have calmed her down right after her death glare. "Baya?! Girl, what the fuck are you still doing here?! You look as though you've gobbled up this entire forest already." Knap points to Baya's belly. "Come on, you know if you keep eating like that, you'll—"
Baya cuts her off, saying that she "—only wanted a little bite! It's not fair! I'm so, so, SO HUNGRY!! You don't know how it feels to be starving 24/7, little miss Rider of Decay!"
"Yeah, yeah, you have a point, whatever. Still, why stick around?" Knap inquired, wondering why Baya would stay in a place she had already eviscerated. Baya shrugs, and states, "Ehe... Well, actually, I was 'boutta leave to harvest the life out of a nearby woodland town, but then I saw you, and I just couldn't resist the urge to say hi!"
Wait, a nearby woodland town? Wouldn't that be...
"...The exact town that Bishop and Belsaic are literally fighting over?! If they learn that they got their kills stolen by you, they'd probably kick you out of the group!" Knap was appalled at Baya's audacity.
"Hey, hey, hear me out, I have an idea...! Why don't we split the stolen kills evenly between the two of us, so that they can't kick either of us out? Think about it; Bishop definitely wouldn't want to kick me out because I'm the second strongest in this group, and he wouldn't want to kick you out because that'd mean he'd have to tolerate Belsaic and Cyprian more than usual!"
"Ugh, Baya, if you think that I'm going to fall for your little deal—" Knap gets up from the log she had been sitting on for a good two minutes. "—then, you're right, 'cause I'm in. So, c'mon, where do we need to go to steal some kills, Very Hungry Caterpillar?"
"...Please don't call me that ever again, Knap."
Belsaic was panting hard. He had won a squabble for once. Bishop groaned at this loss, but gets up to congratulate Belsaic for his victory.
"Hah... Ha. You actually did it. Good job, Rider of Carnage. I, Bishop, the Rider of Doom, give you express permission to do what you will with this opportunity." And like that, Bishop walked away, seemingly unfazed by his loss.
Belsaic blinked a few times at where Bishop once stood.
What the hell...? We just fought for two days straight, and he could still afford to just... Walk away like that?!
He sighed, and marched onwards towards the town with what little remained from his army, but, when he got there...
He was greeted by the sight of bug-eaten skeletons and bodies with their youth sucked right out of them. Popping out from behind a building, Baya and Knap began to taunt the unamused Demon. "Ahaha, looks like you were too slow to get here, my man." Knap retorted, before motioning to Baya to signify that it was her turn to speak. "Oh yeah! That's right; girls rule, boys droo—"
Baya was swiftly hit with the back of Belsaic's spear, and the two began to fight in the same manner as how Belsaic fought with Bishop a few hours prior.
...And, as for Knap, she used this opening to slink away from the heart of the battle, snickering to hersalf all the way back to her hut in the middle of nowhere.