"You bitch!"
He pulled out his weapon and charged me.
I kept my distance from him for a moment, right until he swung at me. It went wide. He overextended trying to hit me as I leaned back. Then I stepped into his guard, and
stabbed.
The blade nicked some flesh. Blood dripped off the tip of my dagger, but the man managed to dodge in time. He brought his sword down at me again, and this time, I could not get away from it in time.
I brought my dagger up and parried the strike. But he did not let up. I continued deflecting flurry of attacks as I tried to get out of his reach. He was incessant. He swung wildly as I took another step back, barely moving my head out of the way from the tip of his blade.
I took that as an opening to close the distance and strike back. The man raised his sword to block my attack, but it never came. It was a feint.
A false attack.
I moved laterally around him, finding his back. He whirled around, swinging as he did, and I ducked under it. I moved closer once again as if I was going to stab him. He was about to dodge again—
When I kicked him in the balls.
The man did not immediately crumple over, incapacitiated. Rather, he simply staggered for a moment, but otherwise bore the brunt of the hit. However that moment was all I needed.
I jabbed my dagger straight into the man grabbing his sword hand as he tried for a counter. It plunged into his stomach, and he screamed. The man only managed to struggle for a second, before I finished him off by slicing up.
The jagged edge of my blade left a huge opening, and blood gushed out. I felt the man’s arm go limp, as his sword clattered on the ground.
He was dead.
I finally let go of him, as blood continued to pool up on the dirt floor. I glanced between the two dead bodies and flicked the blood off my dagger. I let out a sigh.
I did not feel the need to throw up. It was not like the situation with Victor at all— I didn't even know these people. I had seen plenty of people die even before I killed my former friend. And although I still found it disgusting, I had lost the urge to vomit from seeing it even before then.
But I killed them.
There was nothing else to note; the deed had been done, and if it was my second or third time doing it, maybe my heart would have continued racing for a while longer. But the Free Lands was not a kind place; traversing through it alone as a kid attracted a lot of unwanted attention which sometimes turned deadly. So after a minute, the adrenaline stopped pumping, and I was calm again.
I kept my dagger out as I made my way to the warehouse. I was wary of making too much noise, since I was not sure if anyone was even awake other than these guards. And if everyone was asleep, I was hoping they did not wake up due to the sounds of fighting. Because maybe then I’d be able to go back to Plan A— the original sneaky plan.
I did not like Plan D; if anything, I would have liked to avoid Plan D as much as possible. Unfortunately, I knew from firsthand experience that things never went the way I wanted it to. And it did not. I heard footsteps coming from just behind the front door, and tensed up immediately.
Plan D it is.
The plan for if I screwed up immediately. Plan ‘Destroy everything with magic and leave no one alive’.
Plan ‘I Don’t want to do this, but I have no other choice’.
Or some other stupid name like that; it was just the fourth plan I came up with— accounting for the fact that I could not fight an entire gang of thugs with just my dagger alone, I made this plan.
I raised a hand, and felt the magic gathering around it. The spell circle was just about to form as the door swung open.
"Hey what’s—"
There was a loud crackle, followed by a flash coming from behind me The man on the other side of the door did not even have time to react. A beam of light went straight through his brain, and he dropped dead.
Ears still ringing, I spun around to see where the shot came from.
A figure stood amongst the trees, his black clothes blending in with the darkness. But even though I could not see his face, I knew who it was.
The Plague Doctor.
He lowered a rather ornate looking revolver, and quirked his head to the side.
"Need some help?"
I warily backed up as the Plague Doctor approached me.
"There’s no need to be so tense," he said, raising an arm placatingly, "I’m here to help."
"And how would I know that? How do you even know what I’m here for?"
I was not sure if that was the correct response; I might have been paranoid instead of simply acting cautious, but I asked the question anyways. I was not sure if he saw anything, but if he even saw the slightest sliver of my magic, I could not trust him.
"Well, that is a difficult question." The Plague Doctor took a step forward. The pale silver moonlight illuminating his mask and revealing its birdlike features. Its long beak swayed from side to side as he shook his head. "Perhaps it was bold of me to assume, but I recalled your presence at the orphanage. I presumed we were both here to return Ms Hannah to her home, by force if necessary."
I had expected something like that: either
