🏆 THE AMBY AWARDS 2023 TOP PICK - DIVERSE LIT 🏆
It's Rin and Hye-jin against the world. Or so it should have been.
Nagara Rin and Joon Hye-jin, college sweethearts and passionate gamers, have lived a fairytale marriage. Not even a decade after did...
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The woman turned back to the man, leaving me to cower behind her shadow. Even that looked strong. "Step number one: face them head on," she said, lowering herself into a stance. "Step two: don't blink. Ever."
"What are you going on about, chick?" the man yelled, lowering his sword and charging. "Stop getting in my way!"
He was fast, reaching the woman with just a few steps. The woman blew a breath—the sound loud enough to float above the fur-man's screaming and the noisy clacks of wheels and chattering people in the main street—and clapped her hands.
Everything stilled, even Fur-Man.
The woman turned back to me. "Step three: take their toy from them and use it against them," she continued. The other two steps had long flitted out of my mind, because, holy mother of cows, she had just caught a broadsword between her hands. Before her, Fur-Man squirmed and attempted to dislodge his sword from her grip. It didn't budge a millimeter.
What...was this woman?
"Step four," the woman moved her attention back to Fur-Man as if she couldn't be bothered to look like she was struggling. "Make them bleed."
With a grunt, she pressed her hands harder against each other, the muscles on her arms and shoulders tensing. With a shriek, the sword—the metal and heavy sword—cracked before exploding into a shower of shards.
A collective gasp rang from the gathered crowd. Upon further analysis, most of them wore dark clothes coupled with pelts of different colors and shades. How many animals did they kill to be able to dress that many? Even the roofs lining this alley were full of black blobs silhouetted by the sunlight.
The woman, aware of how many of them were against her after attacking their leader, rolled her shoulders and faced them. "Anyone else?" she asked.
As an answer, they dropped their weapons and scampered off. Fur-Man couldn't have looked more desperate and betrayed. "Come back here, you fools!" he shouted after his comrades-turned-deserters. "I will hunt each and every one of you and make you suffer. I—"
His words were cut off when the woman's boot slammed against the side of his face. He slammed into the ground with the other cheek. Slowly, I scrambled backwards with my palms. I didn't want to be on the wrong side of that boot.
"Worry about your own ass before swearing to beat another," the woman crouched next to the man and gave him a tap on the arm. "Give your Captain my regards. Tell him Dragnasand would be giving him a summon one of these days."
Fur-Man's eyes widened, seemingly aware of his predicament and the meaning implied by the woman's words. He stumbled to his feet and, within seconds, was gone. The alley had never been this silent.
The woman kicked the shards that once had been Fur-Man's sword. Her eyebrows were drawn together, lost in thought. Or emotion. Either way, she wasn't to be bothered. I pulled myself to my feet, bracing the alley's wall. Her attention shifted to me.
