Phoenix Reign

Chapter 7

"Hey, who do you think you are?" One of the middle aged guards exclaimed, peering at Leeca.

She immediately put her head down so that her hood would cover her face, "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't see you there."

"Of course you didn't. Your eyes are pointed straight at the ground." He grabbed her chin and tilted her head upwards, "Now, if you could just tilt your head up, you could watch where you're going." His eyes widened in recognition of the necklace that slid from behind her shirt.

While he was doing this, Leeca gave the signal to get as far away from here as possible. We had been lightly trained on this, but now it was time to put that training into action. So when she bolted, we knew just what to do.

We were split up and were supposed to sprint in all four different directions. Because the enemy was in front of us, I ran backwards with my partner Rydan. Iwulf and Ria ran out one of the front windows by the left and right corners of the tavern. Rydan and I sprinted passed the tavern workers and out the back door.

The back door led to an alleyway that separated the back of the building on both sides of the street. We bolted down the alley and turned on to the cobblestone path that cut between two buildings on the other side of the street.

We could hear the clanging of armor behind us, so we knew that more guards were on our tail. Rydan led me down crowded streets and alleyways in a winding path. All the while, I could see the three guards tailing us out of the corner of my eye.

Finally, Rydan stopped at the dead end of a wide alley, "We are going to have to face them soon enough."

I nodded in agreement just as the guards were entering the alleyway.

"No where to run, criminals." One of them said, his mustache twitching as he talked.

"Fine then, but we're not going down without a fight." Rydan challenged them.

They drew their swords as we drew our own weapons. There was a slight pause as to who would attack first, then one of the guards charged at Rydan.

Another charged at me, with his sword pointed at my stomach. I dodged his attack and he shifted his momentum and tried to arch his sword down at me. I blocked him with both of my daggers and kicked him away. I then rushed at him and tried to side swipe him, but he dodged my attack. He lunged at me again and I dodged him.

I kicked his feet out from under him but he was able to pull me down with him. I kicked at him but he jumped up and dodged me. When I got to my feet, he was arching his sword at me. I rolled to the side to dodge him. I sprung up and lunged at him, but he jumped back to get out of my range.

I was at a disadvantage. He had a much longer and larger weapon and in a battle of sheer strength, he would surely win. But I did have speed on my side and if I played my cards right I could win this.

I kept my eyes moving constantly, noticing every little move my opponent did, and looking for his weakness. As I dodged his swing, I noticed his left arm basically doing nothing. To a regular opponent, that would be inconsiderable, but I fight with two weapons. If I could disable his dominant right arm, he would be nearly unable to fight.

I changed my stance slightly and started to aim for the tendon running down his thump. I swung at his left side and he blocked me. This meant that his blade was preoccupied. I used my dagger to nick his thumb and his sword clattered to the ground.