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I don't think I've given the Commander enough credit on his intelligence. He's obviously planned for us needing an escape route. Which makes me wonder if this trap is for Bram and I, or if it's for Dimitri and Eric. And if it was for the latter...could they have actually escaped?
My thoughts end as hunter two ducks under my arm and manages to throw me to the floor. The impact hurts a lot, and I gasp in pain.
Even so, I push through it, and scramble to my feet. I'm not sure why the two hunters let me do it. If I were them, I'd have attacked while I was down.
Lack of planning on their part I guess?
My sai remain on the ground, and I curse myself inwardly. Not helpful. But it's a good job I have spares on me already, takes the pressure off being weaponless.
But I need to figure out a way to get the two hunters unconscious, then they can't get hurt, nor can they do any more damage.
They both come at me at once. Big mistake on their part. We were even taught at the guild how to deal with this kind of situation. I duck, and the two men crash into each other. Hunter one, whose name I really wish I knew, clutches his head and wails a little. Good, that's one out of commission for the moment.
Hunter two is quicker to recover though. I think his name might be Derek. That feels right and familiar. I think these two must have been sent on different missions to me, I don't recall having much to do with them at any point.
Derek, and I'm more certain with each moment that's the right name, comes at me again, waving a knife in my direction. I raise my sai, and block the attack, using my cross guard to hook his knife and send it skidding across the floor. He stares in horror.
"I'm sorry," I say, before hitting him over the head with the butt of my sai. I hope I didn't hit too hard, but worry I did as he crumples to the floor.
One down. I can check he's okay once all the hunters attacking us are dealt with. I'll check every single person if I have to. Just to make sure no one needs urgent medical attention. I'm not what I'll do if that's the case, we can't linger here too long. But no way am I leaving anyone in danger of serious injury.
"What do you even want here?" Hunter one demands, as he faces me. Why is he talking? If I were him, I'd be slinking away and hoping I wasn't next. Then again, I'm pretty sure I was this stupid while I was hunting too.
I'm walking, talking, proof of my own stupidity.
"Just to go home," I answer despite myself. While it's stupid to talk while having a fight, even if I did the same thing earlier, it would also be rude of me to ignore his question.
He ignores me, and attacks again, trying to hook my arm with his. Only problem is that this time, he doesn't have Derek to distract me, and I dodge easily enough.
It takes mere seconds for me to have caught him, and knocked him out. I do catch him though, and lay him down gently next to Derek.
I glance at my friends, or my more-than-friends, that bit still confuses me, and see that they're doing perfectly fine without me. And by that, I mean they also have a line of unconscious hunters next to them, with Eric moving between them and checking they were okay.
I smile to myself. They've actually listened. I know they did back in the empty room, but it was another thing seeing them doing it in the heat of a fight.
Checking the two downed hunters, I assure myself they're still breathing perfectly fine.
Grabbing my sai from where they fell, I sheath all my weapons, and walk back over to the guys. Dimitri is just knocking out the last hunter as I get to them, and we all exchange relieved glances.
"Shall we?" Bram asks.
I nod. "Yes, please get me out of here."
If it's up to me, I don't think I'll ever come back here. Though I know that's wishful thinking. Realistically, we have a lot of unfinished business with the hunters.
Chapter 9
All that goes through my head as we're travelling back to the den was how much still needs to be done. Escaping was half the battle. But now we need to win a war.
Sounds a little bit ominous if anyone asks me. But they haven't. Mostly cause we're not talking about it. Or anything.
The van is filled with complete silence. Dimitri himself is driving, apparently he can put up with the tiny bit of sun coming through the tinted windows because he's older.
Which has left me sandwiched between Eric and Bram. Both of them have hands clasped around mine. I'd find it weird, but really, it's offering a strange amount of comfort for me. There's something about having such strong bodies on either side of me, and knowing they're there for me, that just sets me a little bit more at ease about the whole thing.
"How bad is this going to get?" I ask once we've been travelling for a fair while. From what Dimitri said earlier, we should be about three quarters of the way home by now. Home. Huh, how did that happen?
"It depends. I think we'll try and keep it small and contained," Bram says eventually.
