A young woman waits in an alleyway. She is wearing a long, gray jacket over a black dress that goes down to her ankles. She has on high heels that accentuate her beautiful figure. Her hands are in her pockets. Her hair is covered by her jacket’s hood. Her eyes look over at the man who just told her that she is being robbed.
Right now, she is holding a bit of money on her. She was working tonight as a prostitute, but two of her appointments were cancelled. She was going to call it a night and find some sleep, but instead…
“You fucking pieces of shit… small prick fuckers, ugly-looking bald cunts.” The beastkin man looking at her stops smiling. He’s not actually bald, but this young woman, Angelidis Triumvir, is really pissed. She continues spraying insults at each of the bastards surrounding her. All of them are beastkin men. These pathetic scumbags who are trying to steal her hard-earned gold.
One of them tries to rush at her in the middle of her tirade, but the leader of the gang stops him. The gangleader is a bit amused by Angelidis. His lips curve into a smile again as she continues. She’s very brazen. Far more brazen than he thought. He just told her that his crew was robbing her, but instead of surrendering in fear…
“You’re a bunch of absolute pussies. I know what you’re doing. You fucking cumstains are trying to rob me because I’m a whore. You saw a lone woman coming from that street filled with prostitutes. She’s walking home down an alleyway away from her friends, and so, you thought, ‘oh, isn’t she an easy mark? She’s probably got some funds from the guys she’s fucked, and now we can have that money instead!’ You assholes make me puke.”
She can tell that these pricks need money. Their clothes don’t look great and they look hungry. They’re probably just trying to get by. They seem to be guys who turned to this because they couldn’t find work. But, if it wasn’t her they found, it would have been one of her friends back in the street where she works.
What would her friends have done? They’re trying to feed themselves as well. Why do these guys think she and her friends are working as prostitutes? It’s been near impossible to find good work in this city. Especially for those of the non-human races. She couldn’t find work either. Her family needs support so what options did she have?
These street bandits should have tried robbing someone that didn’t need the money, but instead… Instead, they’re robbing Angelidis. Angelidis doesn’t like people skulking around her streets, picking off the weakest links first.
She is fully covered in clothing, so they can’t tell who she is. They just see her as a weak woman. Her blood is boiling.
“Well, fuck you! And fuck you! And you! And you! And–” Angelidis curses each of them out individually. The leader has had enough of this for now. He starts laughing a bit. Then, a lot. Angelidis does not respond to his attempt to look intimidating. He stops laughing and takes a deep breath in exasperation.
“Lady, there are eight of us. You really want to make this hard for yourself? Someone as pretty as you can make the money back in a day or two, you really want to get hurt over this?”
“Well, yeah. There are eight of you. it’s certainly not a fair fight if that’s all you’ve got. But, I’m gonna have to teach you a lesson. I can’t have guys like you lurking in the area where my friends and I work, now can I?” Angelidis takes her hands out of her pockets. She pulls down her hood.
“Your… hair.” The leader sees her bright blue hair. It isn’t the color of human hair, but she doesn’t have animal ears like beastkin do. He looks closer at it, trying to check if her ears are hidden or something. It also doesn’t look as if she dyed her hair. Actually, is that hair? It seems more like feathers. Thin, long feathers…
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The leader looks at her hands as well. Her fingers have long, black claws. Those aren’t just long, nail-polished fingernails. They’re very sharp. As her hands drop to her sides, the other men notice as well. Slowly, they realize that they have made a mistake.
They had assumed she was a weak woman that they could easily overpower. However, in reality, she is a race that they know to not confront in battle. The race of feathered, long tailed demihumans known as draconids. The leader looks back at her eyes as sweat falls down his brows.
“Wait, hold on now–”
“You’ve made your decision, haven’t you? It’s time to pay your price.” Her pupils that were circular become narrow vertical slits.
Shaula watches the battle from right outside the alleyway, hidden by the night. She is intrigued by a non-human race she had not seen yet. Rushing to her left, the young woman attacks the strongest physical fighter of the group first. He is almost seven feet tall, and although thin, he is quite well-built. As the woman moves, Shaula can see a long, pale-white tail moving around under her jacket for a brief moment.
The man tries to strike from above, both fists swinging down on her. She dodges him, and aims a left hook right into his belly. With only that, he keels over in pain. Shaula can see blood rush to his face and veins pop on his forehead.
This woman had her back turned to Shaula originally. As she moves, Shaula can see that her skin color is pale white just like her tail is. She has no animal ears, and Shaula sees her smile wide. Her teeth are all sharp and interlocking. Her hair is made of thin, long, blue feathers. She moves rather quickly. She uses her long tail to smoothly adjust her direction and center of gravity.
Two of the men try to rush her together. But, they become surprised at her agile dash towards them. One man tries to tackle her, but she only dodges him. She moves as if dancing, her form ethereal and elegant. The man falls forward into the man who had just keeled over, both of them falling down. It looked like a bowling ball crashing into a pin. Shaula laughs a little to herself.
“Wow, she’s pretty good!”
“Ajax, I told you to stay back there, right?”
“I heard the confrontation, Shaula. They became afraid of her. Their hearts started beating a lot faster, and the air became just a bit stuffier from their terror sweat. It’s clear that they’re fucked. You and I both know that all we’re gonna see is how the turn tables on them.”
“...Well, when you’re right, you’re right.”
Ajax and Shaula keep watching as, one by one, the interesting woman takes care of mugger after mugger. All of these men are beastkin, and each of them faces only pain whenever they approach her. The leader however, has backed away from her. His face looks a bit frantic and his teeth are clenched. He’s doing something outside the area of the fight.
“His hand is raised. Shaula, do you… Wait, why is his hand glowing now?”
“What is that? What is he doing?”
Ajax and Shaula can see the leader off to the side while his comrades fight in his stead. His right hand is raised and it’s glowing brighter and brighter each second.
“Ajax… that’s like… that’s like our power! So, so wait, there are some people here that have power like us?”
“His hand is glowing, but… it’s not fire, right? It’s not like my hands glow when I use my power. Shaula… your hands glow from the fire and heat, not like what that guy’s doing. Oh shit, he’s aiming his hand at the woman! Is he going to shoot something at her!?”
Angelidis has had a lot of fun taking care of these guys. She doesn’t want to kill them, she just wants to beat them until they shit blood. As they know that this neighborhood is where she and her friends work, they can go about their lives. She picks up one of them, by his collar. He coughs in pain as drool flows from his mouth.
“You learn your lesson?” She raises her fist.
“I-I’ve learned my lesson! Don’t rob prostitutes! I-I’ve learned!” Angelidis scoffs.
“Good. It didn’t need to be so difficult, you know. But, you guys just pissed me off, that’s all. You should never–”
Suddenly, Angelidis notices something. Why did It get a bit colder all of a sudden? She looks around her in caution. Behind her, she sees the gang leader pointing his right arm at her. She had thought he ran, but he stuck around a distance away… His right arm is glowing. Angelidis freezes in shock.
“Troud Lathim!” Angelidis hears the words of a spell incantation. For the first time tonight, she feels fear. Moving on pure instinct, she shields her face with her arms. She braces herself for some pain.