Hunted

⭑ · · ᯓ 𐃈 ᯓ · · ⭑

Crow’s words hung in the night air like a guillotine over their necks.

He’s here to kill… me?

“I’m not the hero anymore; I’ve left that life behind.” Felix tried to parley. “You’ve no reason to chase us any longer.”

A gravelly laugh escaped Crow’s throat.

“You think you get to decide that?” He shook his head. “No, it doesn’t matter what you call yourself now; a contract is a contract. Once you’re dead, we’ll leave.”

“Then why’d you injure Kite?!” He gestured to his friend who still shook with fear. “Is she in your contract too?”

“The girl should know. My arrow only hit her because she got in the way.” Crow reasoned. “Had she taken off without you, we’d have left her be. I don’t work for free.”

Felix considered the weight of his words and what they implied. They saved each other, so he didn’t feel a sense of debt. But if simply being around him would put her in further danger, that was absolutely something he had to take into account.

“In that case,” Felix began. “Allow me to take you on by myself.”

As Felix stepped forward with his axe, Kite reached out to grab his arm with a shaky hand. She shook her head ‘no’, trying to catch her breath.

“He’s different, Felix,” Kite said. “He’s not like the others.”

“In what way?”

“Huh?” The question itself was baffling to Kite.

Does he not feel the same pressure, she thought. How?

They both glanced over at Crow at the same time. He hadn’t moved an inch. If he’d blinked at all, Felix hadn’t noticed. Crow watched them intently as if waiting for them to come to a decision.

The dozen or so assassins blocking their way hadn’t moved a muscle either, many shrinking in the presence of the lanky enemy in front of them. Just based on the respect he commanded, it had become clear to Felix that he was a cut above the others.

“But even so…” Felix’s determination didn’t falter. “They won’t stop, Kite. Not until one of us is dead, Crow or myself. He just said as much.”

“Right you are.” Crow nodded. “So?”

He’s letting us make the choice, is it?

Kite let go of Felix’s arm, coming instead to stand beside him. She was in awful shape, even without an active bleed. Felix smiled; that alone was enough.

“You watch my back,” Felix said, placing a hand on Kite’s back. Then he tapped his chest. “And I’ll hold down the front.”

“…Okay.”

After deciding to stand together, Felix and Kite encircled Crow, his eyes following neither of them. He spoke.

“Come.”

Felix charged in first, swinging widely where Crow’s head had been just moments before. The assassin ducked deftly underneath the blade, just in time to see Kite charging in with a fist. A redirection of her magicked strike, and one kick in the center of her back sent her crashing down into a roll.

Next, Felix moved to impale Crow with the pommel of his axe, but the man once again moved too quickly, doing a backflip as he evaded. He landed moving forward, slashing at Felix’s center mass like a praying mantis with his scythes in a cross pattern.

Felix could sense he had the strength advantage, even as he was forced to the back foot. However, every single strike was perfectly executed by Crow, with no wasted movements for Felix to take advantage of. Felix pressed harder, refusing to let his opponent dictate the rhythm.

“Try this!” Kite collected herself, growling and vaulting off the arch to perform an aerial dive kick. Crow caught the brunt of it with his left forearm, the colliding force sending a burst of air around them.

His right-hand scythe was already sweeping to sever Kite’s leg at the shin, but Felix used the axe’s handle to bar Crow’s arm as he headbutted him with as much force as he could muster.

Crow’s head snapped back, and he staggered for half a step backward, dazed.

“Heh.” His long tongue tasted the blood that dripped from his nose with an eerie smile. “Not bad.”

Felix found himself feeling disturbed by something, and it wasn’t the gross display of apathy in front of him.

When I hit him, I felt resistance, but not like a person’s body. It felt more like…

Crow smiled with his pointed teeth.

. . .

“Time’s up.”

The horde of waiting assassins charged into the fray without warning, forcing Kite to back off and pull them away.

“There’s too many of them, Felix!” She said, evading the first thrown dagger. “Fall back!”

Felix wouldn’t get the chance. Crow tossed his scythes aside, his muscles tensing enough to reveal every tendon and blood vessel beneath his pale skin. He exploded forward like a bolt of lightning, unleashing hell on Felix with nothing but his fists.

“So fast—!“

Crow never slowed, even when his own knuckles split open against the flat of Felix’s axe. He continued to beat Felix purple with every uppercut and hook that connected with his face and body.

Even Kite lost track of Crow’s movements as Felix reacted like a dancer, changing poses with each blow. Her eyes widened as the gravity of the scene set in, and the victor was becoming clearer.

“Felix!”

“HRK—!” One final drop kick to the chest sent the larger Felix somersaulting backward against the wall, knocking the wind from his lungs and sending his axe skidding across the cobblestones with sparks flying.

. . .

Felix’s vision wavered as he drifted in and out of consciousness. Kite’s desperate calls were garbled, drowned out by the ringing in his ears.

“Pick it up!”

“…”

Felix’s hand reached for his discarded axe before faltering to his side. Eyes half-swollen, he coughed once, moving to wipe the blood from his chin. He couldn’t even do that without it smearing uncleanly.

Damn this body of mine… Why, when I finally get to go home…?

Kite retreated backward until she reached Felix’s side, the weapons of the assassins all surrounding them and awaiting the call for the execution. They dared not finish off Crow's prey in front of him.

“Does it frustrate you?” Crow asked without a hint of mocking. “It should. No one should accept weakness. Least of all, you, Hero.”

“Felix isn’t weak!” Kite glared at Crow. “There’s no one I know who’s stronger.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” Crow shrugged. “But even the strong die when their bodies can’t keep up with their ideals.”

“That’s…” Kite passed an uneasy look to her friend. “That’s bullshit!”

“Really?” Crow looked around at the assassins surrounding them. “Then show me something.”

Kite closed her eyes, thinking desperately for a solution. Somehow, she feared Crow wouldn’t give them the sort of time to wriggle out of the situation as he did for them to get themselves into it. A stinging sensation made her instinctively reach for her wound.

Wait a minute, she thought. That’s it!

“…”

Kite reached into her satchel and grabbed a sack of money, what remained of the change the gold coin had produced. She made a show of holding it, a serious expression on her face.

“Planning a bribe?” Crow scoffed. “Hope you brought more than that, girl.”

Without answering, she knelt down in a vulnerable position in front of Felix, her back to Crow and the other assassins. The display finally piqued Crow’s interest—but not for the same reason as his underlings.

They were looking at the money, good.

Kite’s life savings weren’t robust, but it wasn’t a small chunk of change either to a fledgling assassin.

In the underworld, there was one simple rule: to the victor goes the spoils, which meant that the one who killed her would get everything she had. They were already counting coins in their heads, and that’s just what she was counting on.

“Oho.” An amused sound escaped Crow as he narrowed his gaze. “I see now.”

Kite took off her satchel and held it at her chest, leaning in to whisper to Felix, who was only just keeping it together.

“When I give the signal, you run like hell.”

Felix smelled sulphur and looked down to see a lit match in Kite’s hand illuminating her face slightly.

He could immediately see where this was going without needing to agree. Something heavy landed into Felix’s lap. Without looking, he tucked it behind him. The match disappeared before Kite turned around and stood up, holding her satchel by the shoulder sling.

“You greedy bastards want what’s inside?” Kite said. “Then go get it!”

Kite used a concentrated blast of wind magic to hurl the satchel against the bottom of the arch above them. The less disciplined of the assassins leapt, scrambling over each other to gain possession of the bag. The rest hesitated before Kite yelled out.

“NOW!”

The satchel exploded, bringing the stone arch down on top of them all. The assassins who weren’t eviscerated by the blast scrambled to escape falling debris instead of focusing on the two who ran right by them.

His axe in one hand and Kite’s sack of coins in the other, Felix limped behind his speedy friend as fast as he could manage while dodging chunks of rock. Kite grimaced under the pain of her own injuries. One or two assassins made a move to grab her, but she dodged them with ease.

“You losers should know by now,” she flashed a toothy grin. “You can’t catch Kite!”

Felix, meanwhile, drove through them with his shoulder, those who were unfortunate enough to fall down getting crushed. Crow watched this all go down unmoving as a huge chunk of rock loosed above him. He looked up as it tumbled down.

“Well played.”

His body squelched under the weight of the stone from the arch, crushing him flat in an instant.

. . .

They didn’t turn around after hearing the loud crash behind them, going back to ducking in and out of alleyways. Kite nabbed two thick cloaks from a nearby clothesline, covering herself and Felix each in black to further avoid detection. The latter didn’t have the heart to nag about the theft.

Their quickest route to the depot was now blocked off, and driven to the east edge of town the complete opposite way, they had to find a wagon to escape in before the assassins regrouped.

Injured and exhausted, finding one so late at night wouldn’t be so easy. Dante’s favor wouldn’t avail them without it being the prearranged carriage.

“Kite, is that…?”

But fate had already provided another way out.

“It is!”

A warm glow, a hanging lamp on the side of a covered wagon lit up a side street. It wasn’t a stagecoach, nor did it belong to any private transportation company they recognized. However, they hopped in the back all the same, amongst the owners' supplies.

“Hey, what in the world are you two—?”

“Here, mister!” Kite whispered sharply, tossing the sack of coins to the driver through the back. “Take us as far as this can buy.”

Felix was tempted to stop her, but he kept his mouth shut as Kite handed over every last coin she possessed.

“Okay…“ The driver, meanwhile, looked more puzzled than afraid by their sudden appearance. “But where shall I take you?”

“Anywhere but here.” Kite said, “But make it fast; we’re in a really big hurry.”

“To be out as late as you are, you certainly must be… very well then.”

They didn’t have the time to discuss locations, and the unusual man didn’t ask any other questions.

“You’ll help us?”

His jester’s cap jingled slightly as he nodded in the dim light, agreeing to their request.

“Yes, it might make a good story to tell.” The man chuckled. “I’ve just the place to go, but it’ll be a long ride, young miss.”

“That’s perfectly fine by me.”

. . .

“What could have caused something like this?”

“Beats me.”

Two city guards dug through the rubble of the collapsed arch as they waited for backup. The city grounds crew wouldn’t be by for a few more hours when the morning came to clean up.

A spindly man watched them through a looking glass from a nearby rooftop, kicking his legs rhythmically as they hung off the edge.

“Guess I overdid it.”

A shadow appeared at his side, an assassin kneeling down on the tiles beside the man observing the guards.

“The Hero got away, Master Crow.” The newly arrived man said. “We tracked them as far as the east side before they suddenly vanished.”

“Vanished, huh?” Crow put down the looking glass, wearing a bored expression on his pale face. “Pack it up, then, rookie. We’ll try again later.”

“Sir…?” The rookie assassin didn’t move at first. Frozen under the pressure Crow emitted, he somehow squeezed out a question. “We’re not going to go after them?”

“No.”

“But they’re weakened.”

That much was true, and Crow could have cut them down if his curious streak hadn’t made him wait to see what they were capable of. As for why they couldn’t continue the hunt that same night, however…

“What did the contractor say when we got this job?”

“To complete it by any means necessary.”

“And, go on. What else?”

“…and to keep a low profile.”

“Exactly. Does that look low profile to you?” Crow gestured to the ruins just beyond them as the rookie assassin sank beneath his icy gaze. “I’ve taken their measure, and our intel underestimated them. That’s all.”

Especially that girl. What was her name again…?

A parting greeting resurfaced in Crow’s mind from before his magicked doppelgänger was eliminated.

“You can’t catch Kite!”

“Kite…” A smile crept across Crow’s face. “We’ll see about that.”