Zero Sum

Sword whisperer

The crew make their way through the dank wet musty underground corridor. It looks almost as bad as it smells.

"Leaving Emmet alone to stall that glass eyed freak was a bad idea," laments of of the crew members.

We didn't have a choice, they knew where to find us, so they clearly know what I am after, Clancy thinks to himself. "He will be fine," is the best retort he can offer. "We need to keep moving."

The crew have unknowingly been pursued in their desperate retreat. 

"Who there goes?!" Clancy can't even make out the words properly.

The single figure in the shadows starts to approach them. Too frightened to move they stand still. She stops several paces away and whispers an inaudible message. 

"What the hell are you saying?" Yells Antonio, he has always been one of the more bolder members of the crew. 

She, being their lone pursuer, doesnt seem like much of the threat, it is three of them versus one of her. Still she seems totally at ease, no signs of faltering from her.

Now she levels her eyes at them. Explaining, "it is an incantation of death." She bats her eyes at the three of them. "There are three of you then?" Her mouth moves wordlessly again. "There that should be enough for you lot."

In anger and in a cry of vengeance, Antonio hastily sizes himself against her, and attacks in retaliation to her seemingly idle threats. "The only one dying here today is you!"

Amateur. The shadow whisperer thinks to herself. Year after year of excruciating training, keeping herself calm and composed in extreme situations is second nature. The brute is going to feint with his right hand. She stretches one of her hands fingers facing outward palms up in response. Straightening her arm in front of the charging brute. 

Now without really understanding his pursuers' method of attack Antonio continues his charge forward. He will prepare a right hook, but at the last minute switch to a sweeping lower kick. Her legs are close together, he tries to reassure himself, so she will go down hard and fast. 

In his last instance of life before he can even reach her, Antonio sees a glimmer extend from her outstretched arm, and in a swift swipe of her wrist, this glimmer of hers removes his scalp from its place in his skull, falling on the ground in front of his allies.

"What the hell kind of cheap trick was that?" Yells out Clancy, pretending to be tough, but inside feeling like his insides are going to pop out.

Instinctively he and his remaining ally now go on the defensive. They huddle up back to back. With the strange glimmer still a mystery, they are only left to guess what her next move will be. 

No, I've come too far to be stopped here. Clancy thinks to himself.

"Take her down!" He yells out, shoving his ally forward towards the vicious shadow woman.

He gives a look back at Clancy as if saying, what the hell do you expect me to do against that?

No time for that now, he composes himself. He needs to stay on guard, focusing on what they know. Keep an eye on her arms, that is where her next attack is coming from. Even the slightest motion of those arms could leave him a dead man.

In a bit of an amateur blunder he decides the best recourse is to pin her arms to prevent that deadly swipe of hers. Inch by inch it seems he moves his feet towards her.

Unfortunately for him, his shadowy attacker has already anticipated his plan. In a few seconds he will feel confident enough to attack. Just a couple paces away from being face to face with her. He side steps left at the last moment trying to get around her. 

However she herself steps forward at the same time, leaving herself seemingly exposed on her left. He thinks he is now poised to tackle and pin her wicked arms behind her. 

Instead she escapes with a full body somersault out of his grasp, over his vision, and poising herself using the same foreboding swiping motion, this time with the outstretching of her leg.

Continuing the somersault as she propels herself over the now hapless defender. Using the spinning momentum as she lands and diverting it to her outstretched leg, and sweeps across the ground, which again releases that momentary glimmer.

On this instance Clancy can more clearly make out that this glimmer is actually a brief almost imperceptible sword slash, with her body acting as the blade. This time cutting through and through. A detached torso falls to the ground. For a moment you can see the tendons, arteries, bone fragments, all neatly sliced in one single cut.

"That leaves one more incantation left, just for you, make your next move," she says. Still in the hunched down position she landed in as she came down from her somersault.

There is nothing left for him to do, it is hopeless, he thinks to himself. Every fiber of his being tells him that if he turns his back and runs she will cut him down all the quicker. But none of that seems to matter now, as he finds his legs have already brought him into a full retreat before he even knew what was happening.

Behind him the shadow whisperer raises her outstretched foot. Raising it above her, both legs creating a near 180 degree angle. She holds her foot above her for an instant longer, and then brings it down, like a guillotine coming down, and slices him right down the middle. She would have made it an even cut with his spine split evenly in two. If only he had ran away at a consistent pace and not frantically throwing his limbs all over the place as he stumbled away like a one legged ostrich.