Chapter Fifteen
Yun
I steadied my breath and went back through what those stupid self-defense classes had taught me. I’d hated every moment of them, but suddenly I found myself at least somewhat grateful.
Sure, the others would do what they could, but I refused to be a burden, especially when a lot of this was happening because of me. This wasn’t just a dungeon, but rather our own Guild targeting us because of me. I refused to sit this one out.
The clash between monsters and espers was a thing of beauty, a fight of opposites, good versus evil and all that. It was flashy and so easy to identify. This proved much more difficult to watch.
When all the participants were human, it made it a challenge to see anyone as overtly evil, and the appearance of red blood instead of purple brought it all home.
Ingram stood there one moment, gone the next. A scream drew my focus up to the rooftop, to espers I hadn’t even noticed. Ingram ran a blade across the throat of one, the body falling from up there like trash.
My stomach rolled at the sight.
I didn’t blame him—this was survival, after all—but seeing it still stuck with me. It made it clear that this wasn’t some game, that the stakes were high no matter how casually Carter spoke.
Ingram moved again before the body had even hit the ground, though the next esper—another on the roof—was prepared for it.
I would have continued to watch him if there wasn’t so much else going on.
The espers swarmed, and another blast of air knocked me down. My hands ached from the impact, the small, sharp stones that littered the street embedding into my palms.
Someone grabbed me—too rough for it to be Kenyon or Shear—and yanked me to my feet. There was a man, one who hadn’t spoken, his eyes searching around us as though to find a path.
Which told me he planned to get me out of the middle of this. I wasn’t dumb enough to think that was some favor to me, of course. Instead, he wanted to finish this and have me secured—and possibly even use me against them—as quickly as possible.
I didn’t plan to let that happen.
I still held the pistol from earlier, tucked into the holster at my waist. Actually killing an esper was a bit far for me, but I didn’t mind wounding one when needed.
He yanked me against him, the air around us crackling in a way that made me guess he was an elemental, that he planned to take off with a speed that even Carter and Ingram couldn’t follow.
I didn’t give him the chance. I withdrew the pistol—freshly loaded, thanks to Carter’s help earlier—and unloaded a single shot into his foot. He screamed, releasing me and collapsing down to clutch at the wounded limb.
I couldn’t help the way I both mocked him and sent out an apology in my mind. No one wanted to be shot, but at the same time, he was an esper. He shouldn’t collapse quite that easily, right?
I hadn’t used my defensive powers because I wasn’t sure when I’d need them. The last thing I wanted was to risk over-exerting myself too early.
I slid away from him, not giving him the chance to take revenge. I wasn’t about to give in, but I could still see how they outmatched me.
Shear dealt with two of the espers—at least, I assume he did given his focus on them and the way the two shook their heads, stumbling around as though they couldn’t get their feet beneath them or make sense of the space around them.
Carter kept separating from the woman who had spoken, then crashing back together. She seemed to be a combat esper, given that she could go toe to toe with Carter.
I had always envied espers that, at least, that women were every bit as strong and dangerous as men.
Because the power didn’t come directly from the muscles or frame, size didn’t matter much.
It meant this woman, despite being shorter and smaller, could go hit for hit with Carter.
The same held true for other esper types as well.
The sex or gender of an elemental didn’t change their power or strength in the least. It meant there was a truly level playing field when it came to espers.
Kenyon went to the esper I’d shot, and at first I thought he’d heal him. Instead, he set a hand over the man’s chest, and a moment later, the man’s screaming stopped because he went silent.
Dead?
Kenyon glanced toward me and shook his head. “If I can get in close enough I can put people under, but I’m not about to kill someone like this.” He paused, then added on, voice soft, “At least not if there’s any other way.”
Him not having killed the esper reassured me, like Kenyon was still very much the same man as before.
Something glanced my arm, and pain shot up through it. It was strange that a touch that could both feel so light as to count more as a brush than anything else could also hurt that damn much.
It took a moment for me to realize what it was—the woman had reached for me, but Carter had intervened, not allowing her to get a good grip.
And thank god for that, given the throbbing of my shoulder, as though that tiny touch had been enough to nearly dislocate the thing.
Kenyon was over to me a heartbeat later, hand over my shoulder, a warmth easing the pain.
I didn’t watch what he did, instead looking up on top of the building just in time to see shadows engulf the esper up there, like a monster consuming a flesh and blood person. A scream, and when the shadow cleared, only Ingram remained.
He winked, then disappeared again, this time headed to help Shear.
Shear could distract multiple people, could disorient them, could turn their minds, but it was far easier to have someone else disable them entirely.
Ingram seemed that ‘other’ person.
At least, I thought that until Ingram stumbled, falling to his knees, something I’d never seen before—something I hadn’t even thought possible. I took off in that direction, but Kenyon caught me before I could go. “Don’t,” he gritted out, then gestured at Ingram’s arm.
Green pustules covered his arm, large and almost neon. He coughed, blood spitting from his lips and raining down on the pavement. “It’s an esper who can spread disease. There aren’t many of them around, because they usually end up killed when they first present—too dangerous for fieldwork.”
“You can heal him, right?”
“Probably,” Kenyon hedged. “I won’t know until I try, but if I get close enough for that esper to touch, I won’t be able to do a thing. You either, so keep your distance.”
The esper walked past Ingram as though he were unimportant now, like he’d already died and didn’t matter anymore. Ingram fell forward but didn’t fully collapse, instead trying to drag his body on his hands and knees. If Kenyon hadn’t still held me, I’d have rushed over there, dangers be damned.
He’d have done the same for me.
The esper Carter fought broke off for a moment, slamming into Shear, at the same time Carter took the opportunity to snap the neck of the other esper, leaving only the woman and the disease spreader. Shear shook his head, but he didn’t seem able to get up again.
The woman and the other esper stood side by side, staring back at the three of us like we rested on opposite sides of a battlefield.
“You know that letting me end you will make this all a lot easier,” she said. “If Blake here touches you, death is slow and painful. I can make it quick, at least.”
“That seems like a pretty terrible offer,” Carter said, though his words came out more winded than I’d expected. It seemed that this whole fight had taken more out of him than he wanted to admit.
“It’s not. You’ve done this long enough to know that a quick death is the best we get.
It’s the most we can hope for, and I’m offering it here for you.
You’ve got my word, okay? You basically just go to sleep, no pain, no suffering, no risk to your little guide there.
Easy, right? If we keep going like this, there’s always a chance that she gets caught up in the middle.
It wouldn’t take much for Blake here to accidentally brush against her, and if that happens?
Well, nothing your healer can do will save anything short of an esper from what she’ll end up with. ”
Carter glanced around, as though trying to work out a plan.
He was always trying to do that. With Ingram and Shear down, we didn’t have that many real options, but them dying just to save me was sure as hell not the path I planned to take.
“Maybe,” he said softly, leaning over to speak to only Kenyon and me, “it’s worth thinking about.”
“She won’t be safe then,” Kenyon said. “It’s not like we can trust them to handle this, and they’re going to just let her go. She won’t be in a better position.”
“She’ll be alive. That’s a better position than dead, don’t you think? What do we learn from day one?”
Kenyon sighed. “That what matters is continuing the fight.”
“Exactly. Sometimes the best you can do is to keep moving forward, to make sure you can make another stand the next day. I don’t love the idea of her going to the Guild, but it’s better than dying. It’s better than her getting killed here, isn’t it?”
Kenyon shifted, not answering, and that suggested he agreed but refused to say it.
“Not a chance,” I said, shaking my head.
“Yun—” Carter started.
“No. I’ve been at the mercy of someone before, and I won’t ever do it again.
You can say all that shit about accepting things so you have a chance for later all you want, but that’s not real life.
I endured for six months, and I will never do it again.
I don’t give a damn if I die here, but don’t you dare give up.
” I swallowed hard, then gave Carter a chilling look.
“I told you before to stop hiding, right? Well, why don’t we both do that. ”
He blinked slowly, staring back at me as though the words took a while to filter in. Once they did, he offered me a lopsided smirk, pulled up higher on one side. “You do realize that if we survive this, I’m going to punish you for not listening, right?”
“Well, that should give you a pretty good reason to survive it, huh?”
He nodded, then turned his gaze back on the others. Something shifted inside him, like it had earlier, like he removed all those chains he normally wore.
I took a step forward, away from them, toward my would-be captors. My legs trembled with each step, but still, I moved.
The woman smirked, as though thrilled that she’d won. “Good choice,” she said. “It’s better for everyone like this.”
My nerves were real, even if the entire thing was a ploy. It sold our story, so I didn’t hide my fear, my sickness, my unease. Behind them, Ingram had fallen fully, though he still breathed—gasping and shuddering as it was.
Just a little farther…
I played my part, leaning into the weak guide stereotype. I limped a bit, favoring the arm she’d touched, trying to ensure I looked like no threat. It would have them let their guards down, keep them relaxed.
When I stood just before the two—far closer to the woman—I paused, gaze down.
“Don’t be like that,” she said, voice sickly sweet. “You’re going to have a nice time with us, you’ll see.”
“Before they sent you here, did they tell you anything about me?” I asked.
“A little. Just enough to know that you’ve yet to find a squad who can handle you. They’re going to need to research you, but I’m planning to volunteer taking you on personally. Our squad can easily tame and train one little wild guide.”
I smiled even as I kept my face averted from her.
So she didn’t know, huh? They hadn’t bothered to warn her about me, about what I’d done to others, about what I could do? Normally being underestimated annoyed me, but right now?
It helped.
Fingers touched my chin, grasping tight, no doubt an attempt to remind me of my place. She lifted my face toward hers, her touch far stronger than I could even hope to resist.
That was the point, though. I could never outfight an esper, couldn’t stand against their speed or their strength, but that didn’t make me helpless.
She froze when she caught sight of my expression. I wondered if warning bells played against the insides of her skull, but even if they did, it was too late. She’d made the mistake, had touched me when she hadn’t had a damn reason to.
I didn’t hold back, letting my powers consume me.
That overactive skill that I’d hated for so long, that I’d blamed for so many of the troubles in my life…
I sent a private apology for all the things I’d said about it.
The waves of power slid through me, sharp and painful and yet welcome and familiar.
I didn’t try to hold it back for the first time, didn’t give a damn if I burned out every last neuron in her brain.
She’d threatened my men, had hurt them, had planned to kill them. She didn’t deserve a second chance, and I didn’t plan to give her one.
She screamed, but her fingers remained locked on my chin like the muscles had frozen in place, like she couldn’t let go at all. Still, I didn’t pull back. Instead, I shifted my gaze to the side, to see the other esper there, eyes wide, full of fear.
Not of the espers, not of Carter or Ingram or Shear, but of me.
Between one blink and the next, he was gone. I couldn’t twist, not with the woman’s fingers still gripping my chin, but a flash of silver that had come along with it gave me a pretty good idea of what had happened.
I focused everything on the woman, her eyes having turned red, blood vessels breaking in the white, one after the next. Even still, I didn’t stop, didn’t pull back. Her mouth remained open, but no sound escaped her.
Finally, she went lax. Not like passed out, but instead like every muscle fiber in her body had turned to gel, like nothing solid remained inside her. She fell into a heap at my feet, no longer the strong esper she’d been before.
She was nothing, now, turned to that by me.
I swallowed, not with of guilt, but at the lack of it.
I turned my gaze to find Kenyon crouched over Ingram, not touching but working on him. Carter was beside Shear, helping him up.
A good thirty feet away I spotted Blake, the disease esper, or at least part of him. A huge sheet of metal covered his face, pinning him between the metal and the wall of a building, red leaking from the bottom.
It meant we’d just survived this, and, for once, I really thought we might just make it out of all this in one piece.