As a sword swung down, Naren evaded. Side stepping it, He spung around pivoting over his right foot, swinging his heel into the face of the man behind him. A slight crack could be heard as his nose bent. The man fell back, stumbling, holding onto his nose.
There were four more people. Two men, two women. Each held a dull weapon. Sword and shield, axe, mace, bow.
They locked eyes with Naren. Their hesitation lasted about a second before flowing out, replace with a more absolute determination. They'd committed to this. Too late to reconsider.
Naren stood studying the private. These guys were a joke. To Naren who was put through hellish regimens by Alice, these guys were making nothing more than practice dummies. They sold their surprise attack and didn't follow up on it. Instead, letting one attack disrupt their focus. Nothing more than a j—.
An arrow flew through the air from the back. The archer lodging another arrow onto the notch. Meanwhile, the three front liners closed the distance between themselves and Naren. All three surrounding him.
Behind him Iris stood, shaking slightly, her glow still strong however. Good, he needed that.
The man to his left thrust his sword at Naren. Naren ducked.
The axe came swinging down. Naren swept the girl's foot as she swung. The off balanced girl falling back, throwing the axe high into the air.
Just as Naren was getting back to his feet, the mace came swinging from the side. Naren barely putting up his guard.
Still, the momentum bruised his arm.
As his golden eyes swung at the man with the mace, another arrow whistled through the air. He took a step to avoid the arrow, but something else grabbed his attention.
The axe the girl flung was now coming back down right above him. It was either an axe or an arrow. He took the arrow.
The dull fletched shaft etched itself onto Naren's shoulder. Though dull, the arrow was still able to penetrate flesh.
Then the scream.
The big man with the crooked nose had Vera. Not a grab — a sword at her throat, her chin forced up by the flat of the blade, his forearm locked across her collarbone. Her eyes were wide, dagger uselessly at her side, unable to raise it without running her own neck into the steel.
The man opened his mouth.
Naren got there first.
"Go ahead."
The man stopped.
"Seriously." Naren turned the arrow over in his hand. "She's more trouble than she's worth."
The man's threat died somewhere in his throat. This wasn't the response he'd prepared for. He recalculated, grip tightening on the sword, looking for the angle where this still worked in his favor.
Vera didn't wait for him to find it.
She dropped her weight suddenly — all of it, straight down — and as her chin cleared the blade she drove her elbow back into his ribs with everything she had. He folded. She was already moving, putting distance between them before he straightened up, dagger back in her hand, shaking but raised.
She knew Naren meant it. That was the thing. She could tell that his words weren't empty, he meant what he said. Either she was useful to him or not. She couldn't argue. After all the time they've spent together she's been nothing more than a burden. So now she'd be useful.
The man with the crooked nose turned his resentment toward Naren. He rejoined the group, and now there were five of them, arranged properly this time — surrounding him, angles covered, weapons up.
All charged at once. All blocking off any viable exist, making sure to cover the others' weak points. Like wolves surrounding a lamb. He was dead.
"Move!"
Iris's voice cracked through the chaos. Her glow suddenly dimmed — not gone, just... concentrated. She'd pulled the light from the room into herself, flooding one side in shadow.
The archer hesitated, squinting into the sudden darkness. The sword wielder turned his head, distracted.
One second. That's all Naren needed.
A bloody arrow flew threw the little gap the group made, falling right in front of the archer. The glow of the clumsy girl leaving a slight glint on the metallic point.
Two bare feet stepped out of arrow, seemingly like magic. A scarf the tinge of blood slightly fluttered. Two golden eyes staring at a girl fumbling to grab another arrow.
His left foot was fast. He kicked three times in the time it took for them to notice. Once at her knee, once by her ribs, the last at her neck. Within a second, three sharp snaps rung out.
A tall man with a sword a shield, a girl with an axe, a short stuart man with a mace, and a bulky man with a crooked nose and a large broadsword all stopped. The lamb was gone.
As they snapped their heads to their last ally, a girl laid out on the floor. Not moving at all. Her leg bent awkwardly beneath her, hand pressed against her ribs. Her head lolled to the side, neck barely able to support its weight. She lay still except for shallow, labored breathing.
Naren exhaled a quick deep breath.
A boy stood over her. Drenched reddish-black hair plastered to his face, crimson scarf draped around his shoulders like dried blood. Iris' inconsistent glow cast his features in shadow — except for his eyes. Two golden pupils, sharp and cold, fixed directly on them. A slight smile barely noticeable.
Something in the room had changed. Not the temperature. Not any fable. Just the specific feeling of realizing you're choices were wrong. The feeling of dread that came with a horrid future.
"You almost got me."
Naren took a step forward towards the pack of wolves, or at least they used to be. Their wells of fury now replaced by fear. Sweat beads forming on their face. The tension thick enough to suffocate them.
They held. He'd give them that.
Another step. Their grips tightened. Weight redistributed. Feet pressed into the floor. They held again, knuckles white, jaws set.
One more step.
*CRASH*
The wall beside them exploded inward, rubble scattering across the star-painted floor. A figure came through it in a single motion — there, and then already swinging, the gap between entry and impact too small to be normal movement.
Naren got his guard up on instinct. It didn't help much.
The punch hit his guard hard enough to send him skidding back across the floor, feet dragging lines through the dust. He caught himself at the base of one of the snapdragon plants, hand slamming down beside the skull pods to stop his slide.
Naren peered through his guard, a slight smile lingered. No warmth in it.
"I was just looking for you, buddy."
The dust settled and the shadow was slowly illuminated by Iris' glow. A tall lean man with sunglasses held a smirk on his face. His speech now losing its dragged edge.
"You cursed son of a bitch."