Cade rotated in the air before falling back to her feet and being engaged again by the masked duo. She materialized two short blades that were in line with her hands. She then proceeded to block the strikes from both sides.

Only after one encounter, she could tell the pair of bounty hunters had top-tier skills, including motionless magic and excellent chemistry. Their attacks complimented each other perfectly, making avoiding all their attacks almost impossible. Not impossible enough for Cade, though.

Her materialized blades faded, as she got a sense of the pair's attack patterns and leaned back to dodge a stab at her head. She then grabbed the hand of the one who tried to stab her before leaning forward, and letting the blade miss from her other side.

She then rotated and grabbed the hand of the other hunter before pulling on both hands she had a hold of. And as the pair were readying follow-up attacks as a reaction, Cade jumped into the air and, with a complete rotation, kicked both in their unprotected stomachs, launching them back almost enough for them to fall off the roof.

She looked down at her feet, where broked tiles lay. This wasn't a very optimal place to fight, and due to the rain, they were slippery.

Cade looked to her sides before sprinting forward. She maneuvered on the rooftops around town, the hunters right on her tail. However, when she plunged down into an alley, they seemed to lose her. At least she lost them. She continued running but tried to make her steps as soundless as possible. It wasn't very possible, though. The puddles weren't very good friends of stealth.

Once she came to an intersection, she was then met again with the hunters. No, just one. Without thought, she lunged forward. It was a golden opportunity.

Then she was rammed from the side. By the other hunters who had stayed out of sight.

Right. They were bounty hunters. Of course, setting little traps wasn't below them.

Cade tumbled in the dirty, brown puddles of the alley before continuing her momentum into a move up to her feet and sliding to a halt.

She then materialized a pair of daggers and hoisted them up as she looked at the pair of bounty hunters before her in the narrow alley. In such an environment, Cade wasn't sure if she held the advantage or not. Running away would be harder for sure, but having her opponents line up was nice, as long as they didn't get on both of her sides.

She hissed out an exhalation before the battle started up again as she dove in. The hunters lined themselves up purposefully, and only one of them engaged Cade when she attacked.

She tried for the throat, the hip, and the eyes, but all three attacks were swiftly blocked or dodged before the hunter jumped over her. They wanted to get on both sides of her. She couldn't let that happen.

She rammed into the hunter, who had rammed into her previously, and felt the difference in strength. She knew herself to be stronger than the hunter before, but she was even stronger than expected. Or maybe it was the other one that had rammed her. The pair got so confusing.

Despite the strength difference, the hunter wouldn't let her through. She couldn't just push or throw her away because the hunter was holding onto her so tightly. She also couldn't seem to land a significant hit on her.

Cade grunted as she sensed an attack from behind and got down, slamming the hunter into the ground. She knew she wasn't safe, thought, and turned around to see the faint blue blade above her coming straight down at her eye. A shield rushed into reality as he held up a hand. The knife met the shield, and a dent formed that spread cracks all over.

Cade pushed the shield and hit the other hunter in the process, sending her back enough for Cade to be able to switch her focus to the hunter behind her.

The one she'd slammed to the ground hadn't stayed down for long. She would make sure that wouldn't happen again, launching a full-force kick at the head of the hunter.

Unexpectedly, the hunter didn't try dodging, which wouldn't work, as the hunter, didn't seem to be in a position for such a sudden movement. Instead, the hunter tried to block the kick with her forearms and a small shield.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Cade smiled as the shield shattered, and the kick dug into the hunter's forearms.

Her smile faded quickly, when the hunter managed to catch her foot as it was going down and kicked her one remaining leg from under her.

Cade fell into the muddy puddles and immediately had to roll in order to dodge a strike from the other hunter, who had rejoined the fight. She then put her hands on the ground before spinning her body, sweeping the other hunter's feet from under them before going back onto her back and kicking upward at the hunter who had knocked her down.

The hunter managed to block it, but fell back in the process, so Cade rolled back and jumped to her feet before engaging the one hunter she had swept to the ground.

The encounter was brief and all hands. Cade then managed to land a palm on the hunter's chest, pushing her back to her partner.

The second round was over, so to speak. Cade was completely exhausted. She would have liked to use materialization more in the 1-on-1 moments, but the hunters were too good for her to trust she could get it done with one hit, so she wanted to preserve her energy.

It seemed such a strategy had backfired, though. She was breathing heavily, while the pair seemed just fine, both dusting off their clothes like it was just another day's work.

Then, before Cade had managed to calm her breathing, it started again.

The pair launched at the same time.

Again, their attacks came in pairs. One attack came, and then the other. Before Cade could recover from blocking or dodging one attack or the other, the next was on its way. There was time for counters. Damage from blocks and grazing hits was starting to accumulate.

More and more of Cade's hair kept getting cut as it moved wildly along with her movements, even with its weight amplified by the moisture from the rain.

Finally, Cade saw an opening. She ducked one attack as she lowered her center of gravity and materialized a blade, aiming it at the exposed side of one of the hunters. Instead of going straight through the hunter's ribs, however, the blade simply grazed the hunter, as he somehow managed to move out of the way of the lightning-fast attack.

Cade had been lured into attacking in that exact way.

Time seemed to freeze for a second as she came to the realization before a tremendous kick to her stomach sent her through a brick wall and the one behind it. The hunter had put their all into that one.

Shrieks resounded in her ears. It was dulled by the ringing in her ears after hitting the back of her head on the walls. There were civilians here. She couldn't endanger them. She had to run.

She tried opening her mouth wider to suck in a breath, even if it was just a gasp. However, she couldn't even do that. Only a flood of blood came out, and nothing came in return.

She propped herself up and watched as the hunters entered through the cloud of dust and looked around the room where a family or two were running out, making some noise Cade couldn't register.

The hunters noticed Cade's location immediately and dashed forward, but before they could finish her off, she hastily compressed some essence into a ball and pushed it into the floor. Another cloud of dust was kicked up into the room, and wooden shrapnel flew around.

The hunters guarded themselves with shields, and when the dust faded, they found Cade standing with her hands outstretched in front of her, the tips of her fingers pointing at them.

A vacuum sound dominated all the noise in the room for a brief moment, and when it faded, the pair of hunters lay with their backs against the brick wall opposite the one, Cade had been kicked through.

They had apparently both maintained their shields, seeing as they were both alive. Cade had still held back on the beam, to not endanger any non-targets.

Cade approached while swiping her disheveled hair from her eyes.

'Should I call for Aurelius again?' she thought, but decided against it. 'Not necessary. This is nothing I can't handle.' She put her hands forward as she entered the narrow alley drenched in rain, her opponents only a few meters from her. 'I won't die in the rain. How could I? I'm the strongest.'