"You're fucking useless, Stom," the pride-less, cowardly human cursed upon seeing me noticing their deceit. Immediately, he gave up on distracting me, and instead of waiting for his deceitful pack mate to get closer unseen, taking me by surprise, he threw his fist at my face - something he should have done in the first place. Having to dodge a punch did a much better job of taking my attention away from the illusion-covered-up male and his careful footsteps than the big human's talking.

'Righ, left, right.'

The saying, 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks,' seemed to be true here, too. The pattern in his strikes was getting easier and easier to read. Not that it made his punches any less dangerous or distracting.

Heck, with illusions proving to be beyond the ability of my domain to see through, I even lost track of the hidden, deceitful male for a while at one point. The size of the courtyard between the buildings in the back alley played to his disadvantage though. As soon as he took another step, I found him.

"Be a good cunt, and stay still, will ya?"

I didn't, of course.

»Make me!«

The overconfident bark aside, after dodging the first half dozen blows, I went for a strike of my own. Seizing the opportunity the gutless craven gave me, I pounced, slashing my claws across his hands.

"Fuck! How come you're still moving?"

The question I asked myself and had no better answer than: 'Because of the beast.'

»Because you're still here,« I growled back while biting down on my lower lip, a stupid habit that made me swallow blood alongside the pain ravaging my broken body.

If it weren't for that pride-less, cowardly human, if it weren’t for him and his whole pack of twisted monsters relentlessly going for me, if it weren't for the beast, its fury feeding my resolve, and my almost frightening regeneration, I would no doubt have slumped to the ground long ago.

'The illusionist!'

The inner scream snapped me into focus outside of dodging the cowardly human's fists. Risky, for sure. But under his illusions, the deceitful male took another step. He got too close to my liking. So when the air to my right rippled, I swiped my hand across the spot.

"Aaaa...fuck!'

Along with the blood that splattered the wall that the mage was creeping along, as my claws sunk into the flesh, a pained scream ripped through the alley. It still echoed painfully in my skull when the illusion lifted with the sound of metal hitting stone like a morning mist in the Esulmor and unveiled a terrified male holding his arm, eyes down on the dagger he had dropped.

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And it was a damn familiar dagger. The blade still had my blood on it.

Then came my time to scream.

Too distracted by the shitty dagger, I failed to dodge a blow from the cowardly human in time. His fist hit my shoulder, sending me spinning to the ground. Of course, I did my best not to stay there for long. Not wanting to give him another chance to pound me when that one punch broke bones and rendered my left arm utterly useless, I rolled to the side over my good shoulder and sprang to my feet.

"Fuck this. Sorry, Kif. I'm out," the illusions-wielding human stammered after seeing me get back on my feet and baring my teeth at both of them.

"Out my ass," the gutless craven grunted. "Can't you see she's almost done?"

Annoyingly, he was not that wrong. I could barely stand. Every breath I took hurt like hell. My left arm was useless, and despite all the fury coursing through my veins, fatigue began to eat away at my focus.

Nevertheless, as predictable as he turned out to be, I avoided a few more punches from the stupidly big human. Strike with the right hand, followed by a jab with the left and the right again. It wasn't that hard then to deliver in a claw swipe or two myself - one in this case. Having only one usable arm did a number on the effectiveness of my pounce.

"Are y-you fucking blind? So are we."

"Don't you need the money? One hundred gold pieces, both of us," the cowardly human sputtered and tried to hit me again while the other put a few steps of distance between us.

"T-then make it two hundred for yourself. I won't enjoy the coins much if I end up like Ravel or Yara - or in a brig."

"They were... dumb," the gutless craven grunted, managing to avoid my pounce this time. "And forget the brig? Your illusions..."

"Why the fuck don't any of you ever listen? They are mere illusions - that's all. Honestly, with all this racket, I'm surprised that this alley is not swarming with guards. No, Kif, I’m out."

"Fucker...just...tss," the big stupid human said, hissing in pain as I managed to sink my claws deep into his side. "...t-take that brat, this cunt won't dare..."

»Don't you dare!«

'Touch Ria, and you're dead!'

"Oh! No, no, no, no...calm down, lady. I'm not suicidal - I didn't like the idea in the first place."

»Then LEAVE!« I growled, leaving another bleeding gash on the big human while making sure the pup was still there on the barrel lid.

"Tits. A bit longer and I'd understand you. Well, I'd like to say it was nice to meet you - but no, it wasn't," the illusions-wielding male said, swallowing the pain as his hands began to make weird movements in the air.

"You fucker! Bail and I..."

"Good luck, Kif." With those words, the air around the illusionist shuddered, and he disappeared from my sight.

'Don't lose him, Korra!'

Having learned my lesson, I pricked up my good ear and followed the male's footsteps through the back alley until I lost him in the din of the street. Relief hit me so hard at that moment that I lost my rhythm and almost failed to dodge in time. On the other hand, the stupid, cowardly human had lost all his previous confidence and now was glancing towards the exit, no doubt considering following his pack mate's example.

'Good.'

That meant his focus was gone while he had my full attention - dwindling as it was. And of course I immediately took advantage of it, ducking under his punch, clawing at his body as I shifted into a clumsy, painful dance around him, intent on ending this as quickly as possible.

'Come on, give up.'

»Run!«

As annoying as it was to admit, despite the number of bloody wounds, I was afraid, or rather quite sure, that at this rate, he would outlast me.