One Shots & Short Stories

Going Down Fighting (Asaki & Fauna)

I pull the firbolg child to my chest and mumble to them, "We're going to be fine." Fauna lifts her head up, her eyes filled with fear,

"I'm sorry... I should've stayed put..." I scan the armed bandits that are slowly closing in on us,

"I've had worse, we'll be fine" I reassure her quietly as I ready my throwing knife in my sleeve, I set her down on the ground and give her a wink - something I don't do often. I examine the crowd again and pick out the weaknesses I see, our time slowly running out as I make a choice. There's six bandits total that are backing us against a wall, two humans, an orc, a tiefling and one of my own - a dragonborn. I set my target on one human, a boy who couldn't be older than 30. He walks with a small limp on his left leg. In one smooth motion, I slide my blade out of my sleeve and throw it at the human. His cry of pain reverberates against the narrow walls and I take their momentary distraction as a chance to attack, I dart to the tiefling - they don't seem to lean towards either gender but their skin was a deep purple and their eyes a dark red - I slam into them and rip their sword from their hand before jumping back so I can see the full crowd again. Their attention switches between me and the tiefling, the orc grunts out.

"You ok, Iaris?"

"You're not supposed to reveal out names, thick skull." Iaris sneers then turns to look at me, "Now I believe you have something of mine."

I spin the blade in my hand then reverse my grip on it, I scan their positions and make up an attack plan in my head just in case, "You want it, come take it." The orc - as expected - rushes me first, I narrowly avoid his slash at me as I duck and embed the sword in his nearby calf before I slide it out and push off from it. He cries out in pain as I roll across the floor before coming to a stop and crouching to examine the crowd now, the orc is holding his calf and wincing, the tiefling and the human male are hanging back, which leaves the other human - a female - and the dragonborn to deal with me, I ready my blade and wait for them to strike. Thankfully bandits are predictable in battles, especially humans. The female takes a wide swing at me which I easily avoid then launch a kick at her kneecap, she takes a step back then stomps on my leg, I groan in pain is I feel my leg dislocate, I slice at the humans shin then crawl back as fast as I can. The dragonborn keeps an easy pace with me, causing me to curse under my breath. I look up at them, my face revealing no emotions, "Never thought I'd be looking up the blade at one of my own."

"Asaki Tadashi the dragonborn bounty hunter, I've heard a lot about you." The dragonborn snarls, I feel the tip of their blade brush against my neck. Now that I examine the dragonborn I can see that they're female, her skin is a rust color and her cold eyes were gold, a small smirk hints at the edge of her lips "Not as strong as you're made out to be..." Her smirk is replaced with a disappointed look, "Pathetic." She looks up at Fauna as her smirk returns, "Maybe you just need some encouragement?"

My attention is ripped from the dragonborn as the last sound I wanted to hear grabs my attention. The human male has his arm around Fauna's midsection as he picks her up. I growl and watch him carefully, "Fauna, remember what I taught you." My voice has a weak growl to it as I watch. The firbolg looks at me then gives a small nod. Before the bandit can properly process our short conversation, Fauna shoots her head back and smashes his nose, which causes the bandit to drop her with a cry of pain.

"Little bitch!" He holds his nose with one hand and goes for his sword. In the moment of distraction I push my leg into place, then sweep the dragonborns legs out from under them, then roll back and onto my feet. My eyes dart around for my sword, I notice it back where my leg got fucked up so I dive for it then roll onto my feet. I spin around the face of the dragonborn with barely any time to parry an attack, I glare at her and wait for an opening. I'm so focused on trying to combat the dragonborn that I don't notice the human coming up behind me until his sword is buried into my trap, I let out a cry of pain and lose the battle to the dragonborn, her sword slices from my opposite shoulder to my stomach. My vision blurs from the pain and I collapse on the ground, I weakly try to crawl away but the human plants his foot directly over the dragonborns cut, I groan out in pain and I glance around for Fauna just in time to see the dragonborn backhand her and growl.