Mel’s vision blurred and she shook her head slowly. Surely she wasn’t actually looking at Derrick, Elaine, Tango, and a tricycle right now? A chuckle escaped her lips.

  “What the actual fuck?” Mel blinked her eyes closed hard and then took the scene in again. Yes, Elaine was closest, her body wrapped protectively around the pangolin who looked much worse off than last time she saw him.

  “Hi Tango, long time no smell.” Mel laughed again then frowned. That wasn’t all that funny, must be the blood loss. Further away, Derrick was on his hands and knees, scampering towards Elaine. Mel was surprised to see an expression of distress on his face. She was used to him being clinically dispassionate and in the brief time she’d spent with him, torturing emotions out of him had brought her great joy.

  “Every one of you is dead!” Aventus screamed over the chaos as he leapt to his feet, spinning in a circle with his knife outstretched. Mel watched Cassia move to engage him, a knife of her own held in a reverse grip. As the two clashed, Mel felt her mouth drop open. Cassia really was a better fighter than she was. She’d refused to believe it but watching her move, the fluidity of her strikes, it was impossible to deny.

  As Cassia scored a strike on Aventus, a slash along his upper thigh, Mel began to notice the other wounds that marked his body that she hadn’t seen before when she was fighting for her life. Several fresh wounds marked his lean figure, a jagged gash on his neck, blood stains on the back of his legs, bumps and bruises where Derrick and Elaine had crashed into him. Mel smiled. If he could hurt, he could die.

  Stay on the offensive, don’t let him find his footing. The crash unbalanced him, keep it that way. Cassia struck out again, nearly slicing off the tips of Aventus’ fingers. She moved quickly and with her innate grace. There was a beautiful recklessness to her form, she knew this was a product of her healing ability. There were wounds she could not recover from, of course, but not having to worry about minor stabs and cuts gave her a vast edge.

  Aventus could heal as well. She knew this, though his healing was not innate. It took time and effort on his part. She couldn’t give him the opportunity. Cassia struck again, a thin, shallow slice appearing on his cheek. She couldn’t kill him this way, attrition wouldn’t be enough and Aventus was too clever to expose his heart or throat. Eventually, he would collect himself and even she wouldn’t be able to heal from what he could do. She had to buy time for the others to get away. Dodging under one of his swipes, Cassia glanced around for Eli.

  “The tricycle, Eli!” Cassia slipped between Aventus and her friends that were slowly pulling themselves off the ground. Eli was among them trying his best to staunch Mel’s bleeding but his magic could only do so much away from his home world. She needed real medical attention. From the glimpse of her Cassia had gotten, it was shocking she was alive at all. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Eli begin to pick up the three wheeled jumper and continued to attack.

  Aventus was quick despite his fatigue, Cassia could tell that he was worn down from a series of fights but even so he was the most formidable combatant she’d ever faced. She’d been trained for this yet she’d been told every day of her training, she could not beat this opponent. She gritted her teeth and tried anyway.

  Derrick helped Elaine to her feet and tried to assess his surroundings. Mel was clearly dying, the leprechaun crouched over her. He fought to clear his mind, who could he help and how? Over his shoulder, he heard Cassia cry out something but didn’t process it. How had he gotten so distracted? He felt a shiver across his face, it was changing on its own. Derrick closed his eyes and exhaled, bringing his appearance back under control.

  Something suddenly was being pressed into him and he looked down as Elaine deposited the beat up pangolin into his arms like a newborn. He opened his mouth to protest but she was already rushing away towards Eli. He watched as she tried to help him with the damage to the tricycle. Everything seemed to be moving so slowly and yet he couldn’t catch up. He couldn’t force himself into motion to help. When had Elaine gone from a timid bystander to a hero? Derrick shook his head, looking at Tango.

  The pangolin had taken a beating and although Derrick knew nothing of its anatomy, it looked like it would survive just fine. The bloody cut across its face was the biggest concern. Without thinking, Derrick lowered the creature to the asphalt and began pulling out the few medical supplies that remained on his person. He had a small amount of antiseptic cream that he rubbed on the wound while Tango licked at his chin.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  The mundane task jumpstarted his brain and Derrick suddenly looked around with alarm. Mel. He could help Mel. Patting his pockets for medical supplies, he searched frantically. Mel was not on the ground where she’d been a moment ago. Scanning further, he saw her. She was slowly crawling across the blacktop. He moved to catch up to her and then paused as she rolled over, some kind of gun in her shaking hands.

  He was beginning to move quicker, to strike more precisely. Cassia dodged away and realized she now sported a dozen cuts. Even a body that healed as fast as hers did would die if it lost enough blood. She glanced over to Eli, he was fiddling with the tricycle and Elaine was now peering over his shoulder. Good, the sooner they jumped the better.

  Cassia continued to fight, though her movements were more defensive now. Aventus had settled into the fight, no longer distracted, no longer off balance. It was only a matter of time now till she was dead. She was determined to go down swinging though. She let Aventus inside her reach, earning a slash across her ribs for it but in return she sunk her blade deep into his right bicep.

  He snarled, switched hands and continued the assault. With ease, he cut a shallow gash across her shoulder then nicked her earlobe as she pulled back. Cassia tried leaping back into him but Aventus was too quick, slashing her across the thigh before blocking her own slice with his blade. Instead, Cassia kicked out his right leg causing the two of them to tumble, wrestling over the knives. It was foolish, he was certainly stronger than her but it gained her a few seconds reprieve from his swift strikes.

  “Eli?” She called as she rolled, trying to control Aventus’ knife hand.

  “Almost!” Elaine, of all people, shouted back. Cassia’s brow scrunched up in exertion and added confusion as she managed to get on top of Aventus, attempting to use gravity to force her blade down into his chest. The next moment she was flying, Aventus had used both feet to kick, flinging her over his head. She rolled to a stop and quickly brought up her guard. He was faster than any human, following her through the air and attacking almost as soon as she landed.

  Cassia felt a searing pain as the blade dug into her side, the worst wound she’d sustained in the fight so far. A gush of blood splattered the pavement as Aventus reared back to stab again. Cassia kicked out shoving free of him, scrambling backwards to try to get her footing. Aventus wasn’t far behind, stalking after her with burning rage in his eyes.

  “Now, come on!” Elaine shouted suddenly. Aventus turned sharply, wary of letting anyone escape. Cassia followed his eyes to where Elaine was now seated on the tricycle with Tango in her lap, Eli perched on the handlebars. Cassia began to open her mouth to tell them to go when her eyes caught the sudden movement of Derrick diving to the side. His leap revealed the badly bloodied figure of Mel leaning on one elbow, her other arm extended in front of her with a strange gun shaking in her grip, pointed right at Aventus.

  Without hesitation, Cassia grabbed Aventus tightly around the waist. She watched realization dawn in his eyes and he began to stab into her back. Once, twice. The third time the blade ripped into her back, she closed her eyes and listened to the series of shots. She felt a strange limpness pulse through the body she clutched and then both of them collapsed in a bloody heap.

  Mel’s aim was true, despite her wounds. Cassia opened her eyes briefly and took in the bloody mess of holes in him. She sighed. She could feel a weak pulse still in his chest. She’d worry about that in a minute. She closed her eyes and willed her body to put itself back together. She’d never lost this much blood before and she was feeling very woozy.

  “There.” Derrick wiped sweat from his forehead and leaned back. They were sitting in the abandoned factory and, after an hour, Derrick had finished cleaning, stitching, and bandaging all of Mel and Cassia’s wounds. Several of Cassia’s were half closed on their own but when she lost consciousness they’d stopped and continued to bleed. He looked down at the two anxiously and then over at Elaine. She’d held instruments for him and cleared away dirtied rags and bandages, a perfect assistant. Both of them were covered in blood from the work but Mel and Cassia both still had a heartbeat which was something.

  “He’s still out.” Eli stepped into the room, pointing over his shoulder. Cassia had briefly gasped awake telling them they couldn’t kill Aventus. It seemed like delirium and Derrick refused to actively repair his wounds but she wouldn’t relax until they left the near corpse alone in a separate room. Eli had teleported to a closed rural veterinary office and stolen a sack full of supplies and they had pumped Aventus full of bull tranquilizers hoping he wouldn’t suddenly wake up.

  “Now what do we do?” Elaine looked between them. Fear gone, her expression was one of determination. He’d been ready to run with her only a few hours ago and now she seemed committed to seeing this through. Derrick sighed. He supposed they had to as the only ones here and conscious. A sudden motion caught his attention.

  “Varynn!” Cassia gasped as she sat up. Her body still weak from blood loss, she teetered slightly but tried to push herself to her feet anyway. Elaine rushed to try to calm her but Cassia grabbed her tightly then looked around at the three of them.

  “We must go to Varynn now!” She paused looking at Mel’s broken form. “And we must bring the body.”