"Now go!"
Yeah, Cooper was terrified. But terror could be ignored.
Right?
He heard echoing footsteps running away before pulling his mind back to the current situation. He had learned the basics from Percy when he was younger, so he was nowhere near close enough to Ryan's level, but it was enough that he could keep himself from getting hit.
"Look at you, being all...heroic."
"I do my best."
"Your best, as you call it, is shit, actually."
"I know."
"I-"
"Hey, can you shut up for, like, two seconds?" Cooper drove her backwards. "Trying not to get hurt over here." She lost her footing or a second and the tip of Cooper's sword grazed her cheek. They both ignored it.
"Why not? Pain's great. It lets you know you're alive."
"Your voice is bringing me pain. So shut it."
"No witty banter?"
"Nah. Not my thing. Especially not when the other person's trying to kill me or something. Which," he narrowly missed a particularly vicious swipe, "while we're on the subject, I wouldn't mind, but I know someone would probably be annoyed with me, so nope."
"Eh, that's fair." Ryan knocked his sword out of his hand. "Good thing I'm winning."
"You're so kind."
"I'm aware. Now, I'll give you a choice." She backed him up against a wall, sword pointed towards him. "You're funny. I like funny people."
"Thanks. I like not being killed."
"See? Funny. Anyway, you have two options here." She held up a finger. "One. You double-cross your friends."
"I'll take option two."
"Don't you want to know what it is?"
"It's probably gonna be better than backstabbing my friends."
"That's yours to decide. Option two: I kill you and leave you here alone."
"...Well, that's morbid."
"Tick, tock, boy."
"I-"
"Too late." Before Cooper could dodge or say anything, she reached out and pressed a small knife to his neck, smoke flitting around the blade. "Option one it is." Ryan shrugged. "Not like there was a choice, anyway."
Cooper glared at her, blinking rapidly.
"Now listen, bud," she hid the knife again, "this is some weird Artifact-powered knife Aki and Alex made, and if I'm not mistaken, it should activate along with all your pathetic friends' once Aki powers it up. So until then, it should just be Alex's memory block so you don't ruin the surprise. But once Aki says so," she laughed, walking away as Cooper dropped to the floor, "it's all over for your little gang of heros."
YOU ARE READING
Shadowstruck
FantasyA girl wakes up in a forest with her memory wiped. Now they have to figure out who's behind The Uprising and, more importantly, how to stop them. If they can stop them. They're losing time. And the gods aren't on their side.
