[ON HOLD] Shadows of the Blessed | #Countryhumans AUOriginals

01: The Heist [Pt. 3]

Previously...

"آپ کو نیک خواہشات۔ "
(Best of luck to you.)

——————

"Там!"
(There!)

A voice shouted from behind her, raising the alarm.

Without looking back, the figure— China— broke into a run. In her moments of carelessness whilst speaking to her accomplice, she'd blown her own cover.

China knew that she had played her only purpose in the mission: to deliver the package. Now no one would be liable for where or in what state she ended up after. She was expendable. No longer of use.

Her primary goal was to get out alive. Dead, she would be of no use to anyone, including herself.

The guards were approaching from the back area of the kitchens; their footsteps were difficult to detect on the grass. However, the shuffling of their noisy equipment still sufficed. China darted back around to the stables in an attempt to elude them.

But when she got there, she came face to face with even more guards.

No!

One guard sprang toward her with a probing lunge of their sword. She rapidly parried their strike and cuffed them on the head with the hilt of her sabre, sending the guard down to the ground. Another followed in immediately; the rest dispersed around her.

Soon finding herself surrounded, she abandoned all rules of stealth.

They say people like her have one leg in the prisons and the other planted firmly in some ditch in the ground.

How many more times could she defy those words?

China inflicted a kick onto a guard who attempted to flank her. A sword swung towards her, aimed at her legs. She leaped, throwing her leg in a wide arc; her foot connected with the attacker's jaw, knocking their head sideways. She dove and rolled as they collapsed with a thud before she spun to deliver yet another kick to another guard's side.

Taking advantage of the mere seconds she'd cleared, China ran for the stables. She unlatched all the gates and swung her sabre at most of the tethers, then struck the blade as hard as she could against some horseshoes hanging on the wall.

In a flurry of chaos, some horses stampeded out of the stables in alarm. Others took this as a signal to head outside and they, too, joined the mess.

With the clopping of hooves, shouting of guards, and various sounds of havoc everywhere, the scene would have been quite amusing to watch if only there were time to waste. Now was the chance to really make her escape.

China slipped away and scaled a wall to the rooftops once again.

——————

The mist from before had grown into the likeness of a downpour. It washed down, drenching her. The freezing wind whipped at her face, making it hard to see; it chilled her to the bone.

So cold...

Halfway up to the second structure's rooftop, China was struck with the realization that she couldn't breathe. Panicking, she struggled to hasten her climbing.