Page 7 of The Wind Dancer
By pure chance I managed to dodge the spiky creature’s attempt to claw at me as I made my mad dash to the window. Lunging into a roll, I narrowly avoided the toxic spitball it hawked at me. I launched myself up at the end of the roll, jumping onto the windowsill. The moment I had proper footing I smashed the glass, sending shards flying everywhere. They cut my hands, and the pain almost made me slip up. But I was too close to freedom to let that happen.
I grabbed the window frame and pushed myself out head first. Flipping mid air I grabbed a grappling hook attached to my belt with a long chain and threw it upward, praying that it would reach the roof. My life almost flashed before my eyes as I lost sight of it in the dark distance.
And then my body snapped to a halt, almost dislocating my shoulder as the hook caught. I grinned through the pain. I was out of that cursed house, alive and mostly unharmed. I wasout of immediate danger, but I still needed to leave this mess behind me.
As if on cue, a guttural roar echoed from below.
I didn’t dare look at what made it. I just started climbing, trying to get to the roof as quickly as possible. Once I rolled onto the cool tiles, I realized the sounds had returned to the estate.
“To the Demons!”
I stood up. I was a master at the art of rooftop getaways so I began to run. And I ran like the wind, every cell in my body screaming for me to put as much distance as possible between me and that cursed place. Darn it all, this was a catastrophic burglary. Not only did everything go wrong, I also had to get in a fight. And I didn’t even want to think about the whole deal with the dragonblood mess. At least I was just a rooftop away from where I had stashed my Heavenly Wing. With it, I’d just disappear into the night.
As it had already happened so many times tonight, Fate laughed at my optimism.
Five men slipped out of the shadows ahead. Judging by the fact that they wore the same outfits as the three cultists from earlier, I knew this night’s poor luck was yet to end.
I came to a halt on the roof, cursing absolutely everything.
“And here’s our Shadow,” one of them said, grinning and pointing his dagger at me.
“Give back what you stole, and we’ll give you a nice quick death,” said another.
They seriously thought I’d believe that after everything I saw tonight?
I would’ve been flying to my hideout by now, but these bastards came here and pretended to be tough? And then I noticed they really were pretending... their stances were awful, their weapons held unskillfully. They thought I’d get scared because I was outnumbered!
“Let’s see it then!” I lunged at the nearest man.
That fully took him by surprise, and he didn’t even do anything with the dagger that he had paraded just a moment ago. But mine was already making a red fountain out of his neck. I continued my attack before he even dropped to the ground. I couldn’t let them get their bearings.
I rushed at the two on the left. One of them had a sword, the other a chain.
Predictably, the one with the chain tried to swipe at my feet and trip me.
I just halted for a moment, letting it swish in front of me, and then I lunged at him, stabbing my dagger into his eye. He flailed trying to get me away, and the dagger got stuck in his eye socket. The second it took for me to dislodge it almost allowed the swordsman to slice my side open, but he wasn’t nearly as fast or as skilled as me, so when I twisted out of the way, his blade only cut my shoulder. It hurt, but I wasn’t about to let that slow me down.
I pretended to recoil in pain, the cultist saw his opportunity to attack and swung at me with such a telegraphed move, that it felt almost too easy to duck below it. And then I punched him between the legs. I wasn’t above fighting dirty, especially on a night like this. I moved up as he bent in pain,grabbed his head and slammed his face into my knee. The sound of his nose crunching was music to my ears right now.
He screamed, clutching his bloody face. I then grabbed his sword arm and twisted it sharply, the bones crunched followed by the sword clattering on the ground. I then stabbed him in the chest, repeating the tearing motion from earlier in the evening.
I was now down to two opponents. And they were clearly uncertain about their chances now. Thankfully for them, they couldn’t see that I was grinning behind my mask.
“Maybe we can all just be on our way?” I knew there was no chance of that happening, but it gave me a moment to breathe. They exchanged glances.
One of them spat and rushed at me, thrusting his blade forward.
What an idiot.
I just stepped to the side, grabbed his arm and used his momentum against him.“Have a nice flight,”I thought as I sent him over the roof edge. His scream was cut short by a nasty crunch of bone against stone.
The last man started backing off, pale with fear. They didn’t expect a Shadow Walker to know how to fight, let alone fight like this. My mentor didn’t half-ass anything. He taught me everything he knew.
“Don’t,” he began.
“Too late,” I cut him off.
And I punched him right in the solar plexus. He doubled over, wheezing, and I slid a dagger across his neck. No witnesses.
