Soren continued to run through the narrow alleyway whilst both Rin and Talia followed behind him. The wound on his leg started healing again slightly making the chase a bit more bearable for him but he couldn't last too long like this otherwise his magic reserves would try out. His breathing grew heavier as he turned another sharp corner, his hand briefly brushing against the cold stone wall to steady himself
'I can't keep running like this'
Behind him he could hear the heavy thud of Rin's hammer striking the ground as she pushed herself forward, her footsteps far louder than his own
"Stop running!" Rin shouted from behind him. "You're just making this harder on yourself!"
Soren didn't respond. Instead he focused. His empathy magic stretched behind him again, feeling the sharp killing intent chasing after him like a burning torch in the dark
Rin was leading
Talia followed slightly behind her, her intent calmer but steady as she manipulated the ground beneath her feet to maintain her speed
'Two of them…'
His eyes flicked down briefly toward the blood still trailing faintly from his injured leg. Then an idea formed
'If I keep running they'll wear me down. I need to take one of them out now!'
Soren suddenly twisted his body mid run and swung his injured leg in a wide arc. A splash of blood flew through the air behind him, scattering across the narrow alley between them
Rin's eyes widened slightly
"Watch out he's gonna explode it again keep your distance!"
Before either of them could react Soren clenched his fist
"Detonation"
The blood exploded instantly and a violent burst of force tore through the alleyway as shattered stone, dust and fragments of brick blasted outward. The walls cracked under the sudden pressure and the ground erupted with debris. The confined space turned the explosion into chaos as dust and smoke filled the entire alley within seconds
Both Rin and Talia still pushed forward through the smoke both of them still unrelenting until Talia started to pull again. Talia stepped forward carefully, raising her sword slightly
"He's trying to escape through the smoke"
Rin wiped some dust from her cheek, her eyes scanning the thick cloud
"Then move!"
But within the smoke Soren stood perfectly still
His eyes were closed
'I can't see them.'
The dust was too thick
He sent out his empathy magic again stretching it behind him. Two presences, one sharp and aggressive the other steadier and more focused
Soren opened his eyes
'Ill take care of that one first!'
He brought both of his hands together again as blood gathered rapidly at the tips of his fingers and then the roof of his fingertips all exploded. The crimson droplets trembled under the pressure of his magic and the compressed stream of blood shot forward like a railgun, slicing through the thick smoke with terrifying speed
Outside the cloud Rin suddenly sensed something wrong
"Stay alert I can sense it something is coming"
A violent impact echoed through the alley
Talia's eyes widened as the crimson streak tore through the smoke and punctured a hole directly into her side. The force lifted her clean off her feet. Her body crashed into the stone wall behind her with a heavy crack before collapsing to the ground and her sword clattered beside her as she struggled to breathe, the impact knocking the air from her lungs
"Talia!" Rin shouted
The smoke slowly began to thin and Rin's eyes darted across the alley until she saw Talia slumped against the wall, barely conscious
She sighed in slight relief, 'She's alive'
Then her gaze slowly lifted. Soren stepped out from the fading smoke, breathing heavily but standing steady. His eyes were locked on her now
The chase was over
Now it was just the two of them
Soren stepped out from the thinning smoke, his breathing heavy, chest rising and falling as he tried to steady himself. Dust still drifted through the narrow alley, clinging to the broken stone walls and cracked ground. Across from him, Rin slowly straightened and for a moment the alley fell silent. Talia was down behind her. The other two bounty hunters had already been taken out of the fight. Only the two of them remained now, standing in the confined space between the tall stone walls
Their eyes locked. Neither of them looked away. Soren moved first
Blood gathered instantly at the tips of his fingers, trembling under the pressure of his magic as he forced it together. His hands aligned and the compressed blood began to vibrate violently between them. The sharp crimson stream tore forward through the alley like a railgun, ripping through the dusty air as it shot straight toward Rin
Rin didn't flinch
Her grip tightened around the shaft of her war hammer as she stared directly at the oncoming attack
"I'll give it my all now"
The words left her mouth slowly, but there was no hesitation in her voice
"I'll put my everything into this last fight"
Then she shouted
"Magic artifact!"
The hammer reacted instantly
A deep frost blue light erupted from the weapon, glowing along the entire head of the massive war hammer. Thin veins of ice crawled outward from the metal, spreading across the surface as the ends of the hammerhead began to glow with concentrated frost
Cold air burst outward from the weapon
Rin swung
The massive hammer cut through the air with brutal force, the frost surrounding it surging forward as the weapon collided directly with Soren's incoming railgun.
For a split second the alley seemed to freeze
Then ice erupted outward from the hammer and a thick layer of frost formed instantly at the point of impact, the freezing energy wrapping around the incoming blood stream and forcing it off course. The crimson railgun shattered against the barrier of ice and deflected violently to the side, carving a deep line into the stone wall beside them as fragments of frozen blood scattered across the alley
Cold mist spread through the air
Rin lowered the hammer slightly, frost still clinging to the glowing weapon as the temperature around them continued to drop
Rin lowered her hammer slowly, frost still clinging to the glowing weapon as the blue light pulsed faintly along its head. The artifact hummed with power in her hands, the metal steaming slightly in the cool night air
Soren stared at it.
'An artifact…'
His breathing was already heavy. His injured leg still throbbed despite the slow healing from his regeneration spell, and he could feel the constant drain of magic tugging at his reserves
Rin stepped forward
The stone beneath her boots cracked softly under the weight of the massive hammer resting against her shoulder Then she swung. The weapon came down with terrifying force. Soren's empathy magic flared outward a split second before the impact, a violent spike of intent flooding his senses. His body moved instantly, throwing itself to the side just as the hammer smashed into the ground where he had been standing
The alley exploded
Stone shattered outward in every direction as the impact crushed the pavement. A wave of freezing air burst from the hammer, frost spreading across the cracked ground as shards of ice crawled outward from the point of impact
Soren rolled across the ground, barely regaining his footing before Rin ripped the hammer free from the shattered stone and swung again
The second strike came horizontally
'Fast!'
His empathy magic screamed again, the intent cutting through his mind like a blade. He detonated a small burst of blood behind him, the explosion blasting his body sideways just as the hammer tore through the air in front of his face
The weapon struck the wall behind him instead and the impact shattered the stone like glass. Chunks of brick rained down around him. Soren staggered as he landed, his chest tightening as he forced himself upright again
'She's stronger than me'
Another step from Rin
The hammer dragged slightly across the stone as she advanced, leaving a thin trail of frost behind it
"You're good at running," she muttered quietly
Then she moved again. Soren felt the intent before he saw it. He twisted his body and fired another railgun shot, the compressed blood tearing through the air toward her chest
Rin reacted instantly
The artifact hammer came up again with brutal speed. The glowing head smashed directly into the incoming attack, ice erupting outward as the frozen barrier formed again and forced the crimson beam aside causing the railgun to tear into the alley wall behind her instead
Rin pushed through the dust without hesitation and her hammer came down again. Soren barely avoided the blow, throwing himself backward as the ground beneath him cracked open from the impact. Ice spread across the stone beneath his feet, making the ground slick as he tried to regain his balance
Another swing
Soren stumbled as he dodged again, his injured leg threatening to buckle under the strain
'She's going to crush me if this keeps going'
He fired another blood shot, smaller this time, forcing Rin to block again as the freezing aura around her hammer burst outward. Each exchange drained him more. Each swing from Rin felt heavier than the last. But Soren's empathy magic kept screaming warnings in his mind, every surge of intent guiding his body just barely out of reach of the weapon that would crush him if it landed
Rin noticed it
Her eyes narrowed as she watched him twist and dodge again, slipping past another devastating swing
'He's reading me'
Rin swung her hammer with brutal force, the frost-blue artifact gleaming as it cut through the alley air. The sound of displaced stone and ice echoed with every movement, a warning of the raw power behind her strike
Soren's empathy flared instinctively. He felt the intent behind the hammer the weight, the trajectory, the timing. His body reacted before his mind fully processed it, twisting sideways and rolling just as the massive head of the hammer thundered past him
It missed
For a heartbeat, he exhaled sharply, thinking he had dodged. Relief hit him like a wave
Then it came
The follow-up was nothing like he expected. The first swing had been a feint, a calculated misdirection designed to make him commit to an escape path. Her real strike came from a completely different angle, a vicious hook aimed at his side. Soren's breath caught in his throat as pain exploded along his ribs. The force slammed into him, forcing him to stumble, one hand gripping the wall to steady himself. His vision blurred slightly as the impact jolted through his body.
'Damn it,' he thought, teeth gritted
The hammer's strike left Soren reeling. Pain exploded along his ribs, sharp and stabbing, radiating down his side and up into his chest. He gasped, one hand pressed against the wound as his vision flickered at the edges. His side burned, but something else was happening too. A creeping cold started to spread across the struck area, frost forming along his skin where the hammer had made contact. Tiny ice crystals snaked outward, biting into his muscles, forcing him to shiver despite the heat of the alley. The combination of bruising, the lingering impact, and the freezing aura of Rin's artifact made each breath a struggle
His gaze flicked to Rin, to the frost-blue glow of her hammer. She was strong, skilled, deadly. But the bounty on his head was a lifeline. She couldn't kill him. She wouldn't. That knowledge steadied him, gave him a dangerous kind of courage. He clenched his teeth as his blood magic flared at his fingertips, trembling with the effort to control it. His side screamed in protest, his leg burned with fatigue, but he forced himself forward. Every movement counted. Every fraction of a second was life or death
Soren's mind narrowed, filtering everything into one constant: survive. He pushed his fear into his body, letting it drive him, letting it sharpen his reflexes. A plan formed in his mind, born from pure desperation. He compressed the blood at his fingertips, intent sharpened to a razor's edge. Every movement of Rin's body, every pattern he could read from her intent, fed into the calculation. He didn't hesitate. He fired.
The crimson railgun shot surged toward Talia. Rin's eyes widened in shock. Her warrior instinct screamed, and she threw herself into the path of the attack, raising her hammer, forcing her body into the line. The beam slammed into her, the impact reverberating through the alley, sparks and shards of frost flying everywhere. She couldn't brace herself against the attack properly, causing her whole body to be thrown back and her hammer to fly out widely in the air
Soren didn't waste a second. He surged forward, closing the distance with a desperate lunge, and incapacitated her. He didn't strike to kill he simply pinned her down, restraining her just enough to keep her from continuing the fight
She groaned, breath catching painfully as she pushed herself upright, hammer clattering to the stone beside her. Blood dripped from a cut along her cheek, frost still glinting in her hair, and she glared at him with wide, furious eyes. "You… you bastard… monster! You'd do that to her just to save yourself?"
Soren's chest heaved, side burning, leg throbbing, frost biting into him like fire. His voice came out sharp, raw, desperate. "What? I knew you'd save her anyway! Is what you're doing to me any different? If I'm captured, I'm dead too!"
Rin struggled beneath his grip, her eyes wide with shock and anger. Soren tightened the blood restraints just enough to hold her, leaning close, his voice low and sharp. "You're going to get me out of this city,"
Her chest heaved, and for a long moment, she said nothing, the weight of the situation pressing down between them