"We were… trying to… uh… "
Karise becomes quiet. Then, her voice starts trembling.
"W-We were… *sniff*... We…"
Tears start flowing down her cheeks and she starts quietly sobbing. Ajax looks at her with surprise while continuing to hold Orin's neck. He doesn't notice Orin reaching into his pants pocket for the second that Ajax was distracted.
"Hah!"
Orin tries to stab Ajax in the eye with the serrated dagger in his left arm. Ajax catches the knife with his right hand, both having seen it coming and hearing Orin’s shout. He is quite in shock by how sudden Orin's action was though. He holds the dagger while Orin tries to continue pushing towards his eye. Though he doesn’t budge.
Ajax was trying to calm them down from their initial hostile reaction, going easy on them and limiting the bigger threat between the two humans. He purposely wished to display his strength as well as his reasonable nature. This man seemed to move directly towards murderous intent.
Ajax remembers once again that he doesn't know if he is immune to attacks on his brain. If Orin were to continue, would the blade destroy his brain? Could he heal from that injury? Even if he could, would his memories remain intact? Would he forget his home? His family? He doesn't want to consider this, but he can help but do so, his mind falling into panic.
He feels this fear for a brief moment from this attempt on his life, to Orin’s benefit.
Ajax unconsciously loosens his arms long enough for Orin to wriggle out of the rear naked choke and leap back, leaving behind the knife in Ajax's hand. Ajax looks at the knife for a moment, astounded, which makes him nearly miss the glowing knife flying directly at his face from another attacker.
Karise had used Ajax's short but obvious distraction to try and kill him by throwing her poison edged blade.
He sees the tip of the blade about two inches from entering his right eye socket. He raises his arm faster than he could comprehend and catches the blade in his left hand, a couple millimeters before it was able to touch his cornea.
However, he looks down at his left leg. He had been so focused on the knife being thrown in his eye that he didn't notice the second one Karise had thrown at his thigh. A single knife sticks out of his leg, though it only produced a single sharp pain that was immediately dulled by his healing factor. He doesn't even feel the blood flowing out any longer.
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His leg is merely waiting for him to pull the weapon out.
Karise looks at Ajax who remains sitting on the ground with slight terror. There were maybe a dozen people who were watching the exchange and now also seem fearful of Ajax. Some of them look away at the dagger sticking out of his thigh. First, he so easily caught the first knife, the one that Orin had tried to use, with his bare hand; his right hand started bleeding.
That was one thing.
Then, he caught the knife that Karise had thrown at his eye by its hilt. She didn't even see his left arm moving to catch it. For a moment the knife was in front of his face. Then, his hand was holding it. Furthermore, his right hand is still bleeding… or is it? It's not bleeding anymore and she can barely see a cut remaining on his right hand, though there is still some blood.
Did he use healing magic that quickly? But… I still don't sense any mana. When does he use his mana? Is it an artifact? Could someone like him afford a healing artifact? He doesn't look rich at all, his style isn’t of the nobility either, at least not any I’ve heard of…
Karise considers the knife she threw at his left leg. She isn't an expert in anatomy, but throwing a blade that's able to stab that deeply into someone's leg should cause a lot of bleeding, right?
He's not even in pain! She thinks to herself. Ajax is only staring at his leg in curiosity. And… why isn't he paralyzed at all!?
Her daggers are coated in a magically activated paralytic, something that was supposed to work within a couple seconds to incapacitate someone his size.
Ajax stares at Karise and Orin, his eyes watching them carefully for any further attacks. His gaze radiates coldness. They don’t even notice that they can see his breath now, Ajax unconsciously using his cold power. Without too much warning, Orin pulls Karise away from the spectacle to escape Ajax. He was not expecting someone like Ajax to stand in his way today.
Karise as well, though not as cautious as Orin seems to be, understands Ajax's true nature a bit and feels no need to remain. They have already failed their earlier task, and getting into a fight with an unknown, strong adversary is not in their best interests. She had felt terror when seeing his eyes.
Throwing her knives at his face and actually stabbing him with one felt like picking a fight with a dragon.
Ajax decides not to follow them, instead examining the dagger that Karise had thrown at his face.
He examines it carefully, the dagger was made in such a way that pulling it out of any wound would cause a lot of pain, sort of like pulling out an arrowhead. He looks at the identical dagger in his thigh. He decides to treat it like a bandaid, and yanks it out quickly.
Ajax grits his teeth from the sudden pain.
The dagger is covered in blood which flows momentarily from his thigh wound. It had caused some additional bleeding from being pulled out. It hurt for a couple seconds. He examines the second dagger and realizes that it's not glowing anymore.
Must have been magic too then…
Ajax sighs in relief, realizing how quickly he came to death and how he's still alive. However, he feels like he doesn't want to just let the two of them go either.