SHOW ME HOW ─── the mandalorian

xiv. ASHES TO ASHES.

            Just before them, the raider's tent stood tall and proud. A target that would serve them well. So, motioning with their heads, the trio burst inside the curtains with their blasters drawn. Inside, the base was dark and empty. The only source of light was shimmering out of a vat of glowing blue liquid in the centre of the room, dancing upon the velvet walls. The Mandalorian moved forward and affixed a charge to the tent post. But before the trio could safely retreat, an echo of footsteps disrupted their silence. Cara stepped back just in time to avoid the incoming flurry of Klatooinians.

The charge read three minutes until detonation.

             Lia reached for her blades but a heavy foot sent them flying from her fingertips. A hand came up sharp to slap her out of orbit when the Mandalorian excited his vanguard and lit the raider on fire. Screaming, he lunged forward and doubled over into the vat to die quietly. With anger, the second bandit attacked and Cara curb-stomped him upon the pole of the tent. In a matter of seconds, each of the hunters were up and fighting with their own herd of enemies.

Two minutes until detonation.

           A thick Klatooinian arm came to choke Melancholia from behind, making sure to keep her in place as his other friends attacked. Charging forward, the first came face to face, quite literally, with the bottom of Lia's boot as she jammed her heel into his eye. Bringing her other foot upwards, she drove the tip of her shoe into his chin until the momentum knocked him out cold. And in a haze of violence, the Mandalorian ended up shooting his bandit trio dead whilst Cara dunked her's within the scathing blue liquid.

One minute until detonation.

        With the gunshots acting like a Klatooinian beacon, it wasn't long before the tent was crawling with enemies. They knew they had to flee ━━━ and quickly too.

The Mandalorian fired towards the exit, trying to carve out their path.

30 seconds until detonation.

"Go!" Mando called out to the women as he tried to hold them off.

         Cara dived out of the tent for all she was worth. Melancholia, hesitating to leave him, stopped for a moment to turn around and go back.

15 seconds until detonation.

            The girl slid upon her knees as she desperately lunged for the forgotten Sai blade she had left behind. Clutching the handle off the ground, she turned and plunged it into the nightmare behind her and got to her feet.

10 seconds until detonation.

"Lia!"

           The fist that came raining down into her cheekbone felt like an explosion of heat, tearing into her flesh. The tip of his knife had not yet penetrated into the wall of her mouth, but instead glided against her skin and sliced open a deep laceration just above her jaw. Stunned and still, Lia witnessed the Mandalorian shooting him dead and throwing an arm around her waist, high-tailing it the hell out of there.

THREE. TWO. ONE.

          Melancholia heard the explosion before she felt it. A deafening rumble that tore apart the very ground she stood upon. She became only mildly aware that they were in the air now, leaping into the darkness of the night as the blast jutted them forwards. It was only then that she experienced the following blow. Almost as if some mystical energy had thumped and thrashed against her spine, it slammed her into the ground and left her winded. The mud of the ground mixed in with her open wound and she blinked away tears. It took all her strength to roll over onto her back to witness the amber firestorm before her. The rain that begun to fall now was violent enough to put out the blaze before it reached an inferno, so the trio didn't focus too harshly upon it. Instead, they desperately reached for another in the dark.