*"Hey, newbies! Get up and get ready. The Heartless could be here at any moment.”*

Rhea narrowed her eyes and placed her hand on her hip.

*Newbies?*

She was standing at the rear of the group, watching the wavering shadows closely. She observed eight small, hunched over creatures with yellow eyes and small antennae materialize from the darkness. They remained stationary, not advancing; their only movements were their subtle twitches. Their lifeless eyes remained locked on them. For a name as menacing as Heartless, these little guys didn’t look too scary.

Before anyone had a chance to react, the girl at the head of the group dashed forward, her gauntlet raised, ready to strike. Faster than their eyes could see, however, a man appeared in the woman’s path, his hand effortlessly stopping her punch.

The man, whom Rhea didn’t recognize, mentioned something about finding the Heartless that contained her heart, and about becoming Whole again… Her fist unknowingly clenched when she heard this.

The man then lifted up the girl and threw her back violently toward the group. Rhea couldn’t help but smirk.

*Who’s the newbie now?* she thought.

Her snide thinking were cut short, however, when the five Shadows that weren’t on the girl at the head of the group began to charge for the others. Being at the rear, Rhea had enough time to summon her weapon. Calling her weapon forth was something she was still getting used to, but it was becoming more and more like an instinct now, coming to her aid whenever there was danger.

The chain attached to her sickle rattled as she grasped it in both of her hands, letting the sickle hand a few inches by it. She twirled it around slowly, watching one Shadow that was approaching her slowly while the others engaged in their own battles.

“Why the cold feet, little guy?” she muttered. “Don’t be shy now.”

The Shadow took a few more tentative steps toward her, then suddenly sprung up high into the air. Rhea had slightly anticipated such an advance and she swung her sickle upward, knocking the shadow the shadow on its side. The blow wasn’t hard enough to knock it off course, however, and it came down on her, scratching her on her left arm.

Biting her tongue and trying to ignore the unusually sharp pain from just a small scratch, Rhea jumped backward defensively then rushed forward at the creature. This time, she held the sickle at its handle and spun herself around, giving the end of chain some momentum before smacking the shadow off to the left. Not stopping the moving chain, she twirled around again and struck the shadow from the top. She then pulled back the chain and held onto it.

“You’re a tough guy, huh?” she said, a little out of breath. The scratch on her arm throbbed.