When Love Met Destruction

Chapter Six

The air was crisp as Sloan made her way back towards the village after another unsuccessful attempt at mastering her fire spells. She once again had the aftermath of large burns, however this time they were on both of her hands. She had plans to leave to another village the following morning, though she had grown very fond of the place and of Lady Eiko, she highly doubted that her destiny was with an old lady in a dinky little inn. Or maybe I'm just thinking far too highly of myself and this is the best that life has to offer me. Her thoughts were interrupted in that instant when she heard the sound of metal splitting the air. She placed her wounded hand on the hilt of her sword, though she soon discovered that she had reacted too late. Before she'd had the chance to unsheathe Dragonbane she felt a sharp pain searing through her left shoulder. She whipped around towards the direction of her assault, grabbing the handle of the projectile and ripping it from her flesh. She flung the object that she had identified as a kunai ungracefully back in the direction it came from, though her inexperience in the art of projectile throwing showed clear as day when the kunai landed mere feet away from her. She couldn't decide what was more pathetic, her throwing skills or her reaction time. She was getting rusty and still had no experience with this lands style of fighting.

            "Whoever you are, come out and face me!" She shouted into the treetops, unsheathing Dragonbane and scanning the tree line. "Unless of course, you're too scared." She raised an eyebrow daringly, hoping that her bait would work. She did not have the energy to fight an opponent she couldn't see. As if on cue, a figure dropped from the trees, followed by another, and another.

            "You talk tough for someone who can't even manage to throw a kunai." The man chuckled, sizing her up.

            "I may not be skilled with kunai, but trust me, if you underestimate me you will regret it." The man who appeared to be the leader of the three laughed dryly at her.

            "We know all about you, girl. You use ice style, and that's perfect for us." He smirked at her and Sloan's eyes narrowed in confusion.

             "How do you know about me? What is it that you want?"

            "We've come to make sure you die a painful death for what you did to Michi!" The one immediately to the right of their leader shouted vehemently at her, his eyes burning as he glared at her. That one is too emotional. He will fall easily. If I push his emotions enough, he will surely slip up and give me an opening. Her eyes shifted back to their leader.

            "I'm sorry, is that name supposed to mean something to me? It's just that I meet so many people in a day and that name doesn't particularly stand out to me. He must not be very important." She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly as her eyes scanned the leader. He's going to be a problem. He's fairly composed and he already knows about my frost spells. But what did he mean when he said that my 'ice style' use was perfect for them?

            "You humiliated him in front of the village and you don't remember?" The emotional one shouted, taking a step closer as if he was ready to launch himself at her. She smirked discreetly. So that's what this is about. Little man wants revenge and he sent his lackeys to get it for him. How cute.

            "Calm down, Hajime." The leader could clearly see the liability that his teammate was showing himself to be.

            "Ahh right, I did manhandle a drunkard in the streets a few nights ago. Must be this 'Michi' you speak of." She spoke casually as if the conversation held little interest to her. The boy named Hajime was clearly seething at every word she spoke. Just a little more. "That explains why the name didn't ring a bell. I only bother to remember important people, not wastes of space." She shrugged lightly and in that instant, Hajime let out a scream as he charged at her, kunai in hand, ready to stab her. You poor fool. She raised her sword swiftly with her right hand and blocked his kunai, taking the opening he left to land a swift kick to his stomach. Blood erupted from his mouth as he stumbled backward. She quickly charged up a frost spell into her left hand, her body screaming the entire time. She ignored the shooting pains in her arm and soon enough frost was enveloping the space around her hand, ready to be released. She swiftly shot an ice spike at Hajime.