Chapter 19: Stand up

-Warning: Sensitive content-

"Davina! They are ahead of us!"

The girl's desperate cry drew her eyes towards the front, where four guards were approaching with swords drawn. Looking back behind her, Davina saw their pursuers catching up to them as they had stopped, enraged at the fall of their comrades.

Up until now, the warrior had managed to dispose of over twenty men thanks to the narrow passages which blocked them from surrounding her. But now, facing a pincer attack, their chances of escaping unscathed grew slimmer. Her sword moved to intercept an incoming blade. She had to think fast.

'I could make it if I charged through on my own. I can't afford to fall here. Too much is at stake.'

Davina pondered her options for a second, but the sight of Neera drawing out the sword from her back with trembling hands cemented her decision. She couldn't leave the child behind.

"Neera, remember what we practiced! You will have to hold on to that side until I can move!"

"But I have never held a sword before!"

"The sword is just an extension of your arm! With how small these passages are, you won't have to fight off more than two people. Don't hesitate! They won't either!"

The girl just managed to nod before she had to dodge the spear of a charging knight. She almost fell to the ground, catching herself at the last second.

"He must be an accomplice! Take him down!"

The rest of the men tried to march forward, pushing the knight at the front and making him lose his balance. Like an instinct, Davina's teachings flourished inside Neera's body, blooming into a beautiful dance where her sword moved fluidly until it speared the man's shoulder where the joints of his armor exposed the vulnerable body beneath.

"Aagh!"

"Stop! Stop! We don't fit here!"

"Get them!"

"Don't push any further!"

Neera quickly drew back her sword, sickened by the resistance she felt. The blade was coated in crimson and the familiar smell of blood filled her nostrils. Her face lost all its color, while she desperately called out.

"Davina!"

"Don't hesitate, Neera! It is your life or theirs!"

The Ronna was still heavily engaged in fighting at the other side of the tunnel, where waves of knights just kept coming. The wounded knight stood up with the help of another man who pushed him behind himself. His eyes were murderous as he glared at his small enemy.

"You bastard! You will regret that!"

Through blurry eyes, Neera could see a large sword coming from above.

'My life or theirs.'

Her gaze grew dark while her hands tightened around the sword's handle. Her body sprang to life once more, this time even faster than before. The knight was confused for a second. The way the blade moved was something he had never seen before, he couldn't follow it's direction. Before he knew it, both weapons collided, almost making him lose his grip from the impact. To his surprise, his enemy had fallen to their knees, shakily holding their sword.

Neera's fingers were numb. She could still feel the vibration of the clashing metal. A glint of light shone in her eyes and she threw her body to the side, barely avoiding a fierce swing headed towards her chest.

From her crouching position, she lunged towards the knight's leg, lashing at his knee and forcing him down. From above his shoulder, another guard stabbed forward with a spear, grazing Neera's neck and cutting the fabric of her shirt.

The girl grit her teeth at the pain and charged again. Her knee met the fallen man's face, forcing his body on the spearman and pushing them back for some needed breathing space.

"Ugh!"

The clamor of metal against the floor was all Neera could hear as the knights at the back scrambled to pick up their comrades, pushing the wounded man to the rear of the group.

"He is clearly trained! It must be another assassin!"

The girl could barely even register the mistaken assumptions from the knights, when another heavy swing swooshed by her side. Maneuvering her limbs out of the way of the deadly slashes, she eventually found a steady rhythm in her stances, managing to land a few kicks and stabs with her sword. Her limbs began to burn, and her chest heaved while she blinked the sweat out of her eyes.

"Go back! Call another team on this side! He is not as experienced as the Ronna, if we have more people we can take him down!"

Obeying the orders from the group leader, one of the knights on Neera's side turned and ran down the passage to get reinforcements.

Her heart rose to her throat. If more people came she would be quickly overrun, blocking their only way out of here. Adrenalin rushed through her veins while her heartbeat thumped on her ears.

She had to clear this side, fast.

With renewed energy she ducked under a spear and ran towards the foremost knight. Surprised at her bold move, the man froze for a second, giving her enough time to land a stab at his side, between the metal plates of the armor.

"Bastard!"

"Pull him back!"

Clutching his side, the guard quickly retreated behind the cover of his teammates. Now, only the leader of the group was intact, covering the wounded knights with his silhouette.

"You guys hang in there! I will buy time until Terry comes back with the rest!"

"Yes, Sir!"

This man was comparatively bigger than the other three, and his face was marred with countless battles scars. He appeared to be a seasoned veteran.

"Come at me, you rat!", he roared.

His spear lashed out faster than Neera could react, and imbedded itself in her shoulder after she barely moved herself from its trajectory towards her heart.

"Agh!"

She fell backwards with the impact, feeling the blade tear out of her flesh along with the warm sensation of blood flowing down the skin.

"Ugh."

She tried to get up and failed, falling on her back once more. The knight lifted his spear again, aiming at her head this time.

"This is as far as you'll go, you bastard!"

In a desperate move, Neera struck her leg out, landing a kick on the man's knee. Betrayed by his own forward momentum, he was unable to regain his balance and plummeted onto her small body. Contrary to what she expected, Neera didn't feel the weight of the metal crashing against her figure, but instead noticed how the pommel of the sword she had unconsciously raised dug into the tunnel's floor. The smell of metal filled her nostrils and she felt something wet and warm dripping on her uniform.

The force of his weight had been so big as he fell that not even the sturdy metal plating that covered his body was able to protect him. With a sword through his chest, the knight could only move his lips, stabbing Neera with his eyes. A trickle of blood ran through his teeth, and soon enough he began to cough. The girl, unable to move, only trembled as crimson drops landed on her face.

She could not look away from his gaze. Pain, anger, but mostly fear were all she could see. 'I don't want to die,' was what it seemed to convey. The image of those unshed tears and quivering irises was burned into her mind never to be forgotten again, along with the feeling of metal tearing through the ribcage with a sickening crunch. Had it felt the same when the Duke stabbed Maule in front of her two years ago?

"Sir Rowly!"

"Oh, God! Stop the bleeding!"

"Kill that bastard!"

The voices of the two knights seemed to come from far away. Neera felt all her strength leave her arms when a sword directed straight at her face entered her field of vision.

Was this it? Had all those months of planning come to just this, a miserable death inside a dark tunnel only steps away from her final escape?

She could hear Davina calling her name, still struggling to fend off the attackers from the other side. Her eyelids fluttered as a tear ran down her face.

'I don't want to die.'

A small voice whispered inside her. It was barely noticeable, but insistent, rising in volume until every fiber of her body seemed to scream the same desperate anthem:

'I don't want to die!"

The sword came down, missing Neera's head and instead slashing at her back. The pain was searing but she had managed to turn to avoid it. She could still move. Her sword remained wedged in the leader's chest all the way up to the hilt, so she would have to fight barehanded from now on.

With trembling knees, she threw herself towards the walls of the tunnel, narrowly dodging the swings of the sword, but like a ravenous animal nipping at her skin, the cuts on her arms and legs increased by the second, reducing her mobility.

The knight himself had an injured knee. His eyes darted to his comrade behind him who, holding his wounded side, tried to apply pressure to their leader's ribs in order to stop the bleeding. What was taking Terry so long? At this rate the leader would bleed out before he came back. He noticed that the small assassin became slower and felt relief in his heart. This would soon be over. Just as he raised his hand to land the final strike he saw a flash of silver moving towards him. And then he saw nothing else.

Neera looked up towards the elegant silhouette looming over her. It was Davina. She had finally finished dealing with the other side.

The body of the knight fell on the floor, stunning his remaining teammate.

"You-!"

But before he could even stand, his head quickly rolled down. The tunnel was finally quiet, only their labored breathing could be heard, along with the gurgling coming from the leader's throat.

Davina kneeled next to him.

"He's choking on his own blood. He doesn't have long."

His eyes widened in pure terror when the Ronna held out her sword towards Neera.

"Here, finish what you started."

The girl hesitated.

"There is no saving him, Neera. By not doing it you are only prolonging his suffering."

Kneeling on the floor, Neera looked at the blood-coated blade suspended in front of her. Her fingers wrapped around the sticky handle, lifting it above her head. Her gaze met his, and she could see everything twirling amidst his falling tears. His desperate eyes said the same thing as hers.

'I don't want to die.'

The sword dropped to the floor with a loud clang. Neera's sobs echoed down the passage.

"I can't, Davina. I can't."

Davina picked up the blade while Neera turned aside. With a swift motion the man's life had ended.

"Let's go. Stand up."

The girl accepted the hand offered to her and stood to her feet.

By the time reinforcements arrived, they were met with the morbid scene of the corpses of dozens of fallen knights. One of them still had his eyes open, as if looking at the ghost of his killers while a sword remained lodged in his chest.