By the Seven!I’m barely a level one. I’m no match for the likes of him.
Another dozen shards of metal peel free from the rubble behind him and rise into formation, their sharpened edges turning toward us in perfect unison.
I won’t be able to defeat him with my current strength. So my only option is to outsmart him—if that’s even possible.
Moe’s hand is on my shoulder, giving me silent comfort.
She realizes how precarious our situation is, too, but she’s trusting me to make the right decision. She’s trusting me with her life.
I stare at the myriad of weapons pointed at us, ready to strike at any moment. If we wait, we’re targets. If we move… maybe there’s a chance.
“Hold onto me,” I whisper to her.
She wraps her arms and legs around me, and I lunge forward.
The instant I move, every blade orbiting him tears through the air.
Metal shrieks as it comes for me from all directions, so fast it blurs.
I throw myself sideways and drag shadows toward me with urgency, black tendrils rising around my body like shattered shields.
Steel whistles past my face, my throat, my chest. One knife grazes my shoulder and opens flesh to the bone. Another slices across my calf deep enough to buckle my step. I take hit after hit, but with Moe on my back, the only other option is for her to be hurt, which is out of the question.
The male stands there, relaxed and amused as he watches me struggle toward him with detached interest.
Then he lifts one hand and something snaps tight around my ankle.
A discarded chain buried in the rubble lashes upward and coils around my leg before yanking viciously.
I pry Moe off my back and push her aside before I hit the stone.
“Agh,” I groan as I crash so hard my ribs flare white-hot with pain.
Before I can recover, more metal surges toward me.
Three blades slam into the floor around me in brutal succession—one beside each hand, one between my knees—pinning my torn shirt and trapping me against the stone for one fatal second.
“Nyk!” Moe cries out from a short distance away. She’s on her knees, her arms covered in scrapes. Tears gather in her eyes as she looks at me, but the only thing I can think of is that she’s wide open. She’s too far from me to cover her. Too far?—
The male laughs.
“How touching.”
Moe’s mouth sets in a grim line as she glares at the male. She snatches up a broken chunk of masonry and hurls it at the back of his head with all her strength.
A thin stream of blood emerges from the impact site.
His lips twitch, and in the next moment, a dagger shoots toward her, stopping only a breath from her throat.
“No!” I cry out.
Everything inside me goes cold.
Moe is frozen in place, her eyes moving from me to the male.
“Stop. Don’t do anything else,” I grit out.
The male smiles faintly at her. “Move again,” he says, almost pleasantly, “and I’ll remove your head before it touches the floor.”
