Ruban had to forcibly suppress the urge to yell at the man to get back into the goddamn car! But just at that moment, his eyes caught a glint of sunlight reflected on metal, and he saw his sifblade, protruding out of the dead Aeriel’s throat a little ways to the left of where he stood. Moving as quietly and carefully as he could, he crept towards the weapon even as the Aeriel descended on Ashwin with an enraged snarl, drawing its arm back for what Ruban could tell would be a forceful strike.

Before the arm could connect with his skin, however, Ashwin jumped, flipping mid-air to land a solid kick against the Aeriel’s skull. Before the latter could recover, he reached out a hand to grab onto the tails of the Aeriel’s feather-cloak to keep himself in the air and drove the side of his palm sharply into its exposed throat, even as the creature flailed to dislodge him.

Despite its disorientation, the Aeriel managed to catch the Zainian’s attacking arm in one of its hands at the last moment, trying to twist it mid-air and throw him off. Ashwin responded by bringing his left leg up in a swinging arc at the Aeriel’s throat, in an attempt to accomplish what the hand had failed to do. This too, the Aeriel managed to catch with its other hand, smirking triumphantly at the sight of the boy dangling awkwardly in the air, his limbs caught painfully in the creature’s death-grip.

This turned out to be a temporary relief for the Aeriel, however. With both the creature’s hands now occupied, Ruban finally saw what Ashwin had been meaning to do all along. Pulling his right leg back as far as it would go and using the Aeriel’s own hold on him as leverage, Ashwin aimed one final, crushing kick at the creature’s throat. With both its hands occupied in holding its opponent in place, there was nothing the Aeriel could have done to stop the inevitable. The kick connected with a resounding crack, almost breaking the creature’s neck, and causing it to lose its hold over Ashwin. As the Aeriel staggered back through the air, flapping its wings desperately to keep from toppling to the ground, Ashwin finally let go of its cloak and landed on the ground with his customary grace.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Seeing an opening, Ruban threw his recovered blade at the disoriented Aeriel, this time striking an outstretched wing. The blade tore clean through the appendage and came out the other end, losing momentum and falling to the ground with a thud. The Aeriel’s wing spilled light in all directions as the creature collapsed, writhing in pain.

Before Ruban could move, however, Ashwin had the blade in his hand, his body shaking slightly as he stood over the fallen Aeriel. “You don’t deserve it,” he was saying to the dying creature, so quietly Ruban almost couldn’t hear him. He strained his ears, moving closer to the duo. “But I’m going to end it for you quickly. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,” he murmured, sparing a quick glance at the Aeriel’s tattered wing, before burying the sifblade hilt-deep into the creature’s chest. “And you’re far from it.”

For a moment, light from the stab wound obscured the Zainian’s form, and Ruban thought he saw the afterimage of wings where Ashwin stood.

Then everything was quiet once more.