Ways to be Wicked - Descendants 2 AU

Chapter 21

Alya was having trouble dodging Alix's blows. What the other girl lacked in height, she made up for in sheer tenacity like most of Juleka's band of not-so-merry men. Alya had been backed into a corner, attempting to stave off her pink-haired enemy and keep from going over the railing into the bay below. She didn't need to look to know that Nero Jr and Brutus Jr were circling beneath, never far from their master.

"What's the matter, Alya?" Alix giggled gleefully, showing just enough of her teeth to expose a gold molar. "Tick Tock got your tongue?"

"Enough teasing, more fighting!" Alya hissed, using her panic to fuel her moves as she lurched forward, hooking an arm under Alix's armpit. With a great heave, she launched Alix over the ramshackle railing, head over foot. Alya managed a satisfied grin when the sound of Alix's high pitched scream was cut off by a loud splash. After allowing herself a brief moment to bask in her victory, she turned her attention back to her charge. Adrien had been backed into the corner by some second rate thug. That would have to change quickly.

Adrien's swings weren't making an impact on his opponent's defenses, every one of his strikes being parried by a well calculated block. He knew he hadn't been fencing nearly as much as he had been pre-coronation, but this was getting to be a bit ridiculous.

The thug gave him a self-satisfied grin, obviously reveling in the power he felt in that moment, only to have it quickly fall away with a very sharp blow to the back of his head with the hilt of a sword.

"I'm sorry," Alya said with an amused smile tugging at her lips as the thug collapsed to the ground, unconscious at her feet. "I thought you were the Captain of the Auradon Knights fencing team?"

"I'm just a little out of practice," Adrien panted, righting himself against the shack wall behind him.

"That's an understatement," Alya huffed before putting a firm finger to the young king's chest. "Keep your head down and when in doubt, play dirty."

"I don't think I like that idea," Adrien said but Alya had already turned her back on him.

"Tell me that after you've tried it!" The pirate retorted before slashing her sword across an enemy that had Nathaniel pinned.

Back on the dock, Juleka and Marinette were trying in earnest to out maneuver one another. Their blades crossed, drawing them just close enough for Juleka to spit a few more insults in Marinette's direction.

"You just had to come in and try at something, didn't you?" Juleka snarled as she tried to overpower Marinette, their blades creaking. "You useless, poisonous and utterly horrendous street rat!"

"Can you at least try and be original for once in you life?" Marinette spat back before kicking at Juleka's knee. The taller girl crumbled with a cry, giving Marinette just enough time to knock the sword from her hand. Without sparing her a second glance, Marinette fled back to where her friends were waiting for further orders.

From where he hid, Adrien had managed to at least disarm two more pirates before Nathaniel or Alya showed up to take care of them, each reprimanding him for not having stayed behind them well enough. If this was what it meant to be king, constantly having others fight your battle, Adrien wasn't a fan. He would definitely need to reassess his physical activity and training sessions with Coach D'Argencourt when they got back to Auradon.

He was about to leap back into the fray, abandoning the rules the others had set for him, when there was a sharp prick to his back, the edge of a blade pressed into his jacket.

"You really should be more aware of your surroundings," Luka said darkly from where he had appeared up a back staircase. Through all the madness and fighting, he had managed to slip around, unnoticed and unseen, and find his way to where the others had Adrien squirreled away between their blockade and the drainage pipe.