“Do you at least have some combat experience?” Alexander quietly asked, hands in his pockets, as he followed two fresh sets of footprints in the snow through a forest with his companions.
“We can muck some folks up.” Lisa acted smug, despite the cold getting to her more than she liked to admit. “Last time we went on a trek through the woods, we met some guy who called himself a god. Can’t get much worse than that.”
“Gang, cult, not so different.” Said Yaroslav, completely unaffected by the temperature. “I guess one has more guns.”
“Not after Rufina.” Alexander shot him a concerned glance.
“We have her taken care of, how many times do I gotta tell ya that?” Lisa complained and stopped to catch her breath by a particularly thick tree. “You talk of these two like they’re a huge threat, is there something you ain’t tellin’?”
The two men stopped as well.
“I haven’t seen what Haemon can really do, but I’ve heard he’s the real deal.” He said with a side-eyed look. “If he sees you hurt Rufina… There’s nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose.”
“I’d like to see him try that with his whole body all stiff.” Her confident demeanor was briefly broken by a long exhale. “I get ya, Yaro, but how the hell are you holdin’ up so well?” She raised an eyebrow at Alexander.
The foxhound pulled his hands out of his pockets, and they were shining with incandescent heat. “Right.”
“You know that snow is a terrible conductor, right?” He frowned and promptly put his hands back.
“Yeah…!” Lisa lied, arms crossed. “Of course I knew that!” To her, it made no sense that frozen water would conduct so badly. She almost wanted to try it right there and then.
“Let’s go then, we ain’t got all night.” The foxhound urged and continued walking through the dark forest. Lisa shook her head at Yaroslav, he shrugged in return and followed after Alexander. With one more deep breath, she resumed as well.
They must have walked less than a hundred metres before Lisa picked up a faint scent coming from the direction of the tracks. She and Alexander exchanged glances. “Blood.” Said the latter.
“Don’t suppose vampires smell like blood, eh?” Lisa joked.
“Mad funny.” Alexander frowned. ”Sanguine Ones do. Just enough for us.” He put on a slight smile and led the way.
“Get ready for some action, Yaro.” Lisa firmly gasped her cane, the bear nodded back at her.
The scent grew stronger and stronger with each tree they passed by, anticipation rose within Lisa’s heart. She didn’t believe a word of what Alexander said about the bats, all it took was one shock of her sword to deter Haemon from fighting. Even with such a snowy disadvantage, she felt confident that she could take him on, let alone his sister.
They then saw the tracks abruptly end due to a short, but steep hill. Alexander signalled to Yarosalv to check, which Lisa didn’t like, even if he was just being careful not to get rusted. The bear edged up to the verge, looked down, and took a step back. He then beckoned the other two.
Feeling a tinge of fear, Lisa stepped to the edge along with Alexander, the latter of whom gasped upon seeing the sight: a wide pool of blood covering the snow. From a short distance around the blood, rusted pieces of metal rods were embedded in the ground and even the trees, along with pieces of wood.
“Yeah, that’s bad, alright.” Alexander remarked.
“Really, mate?” Lisa asked with a scoff. “What gave it away?”
“You don’t understand.” The foxhound said, worried. “A Sanguine One wouldn’t just leave behind so much blood when there’s a fight.”
Much to Lisa's surprise, Alexander then slid down the hill. He still had his hands in his pockets as he did that, and while Lisa hated to admit it, she found that pretty slick.
Lisa and Yaroslav exchanged glances once again, and with nods of silent agreement, followed the foxhound down the hill. The wolf came to a less than graceful halt, she would have fallen over, had it not been for the bear catching her by the shoulder.
Meanwhile, Alexander pulled one of many smooth pieces of wood out from the snow. It turned out to be the rusty remains of a rifle with a drum magazine.
“Can’t use this at all.” Alexander tossed it away and turned to see the other two. “Looks like they got auto guns, so keep your heads low.”
“What?” Said Lisa. “I expected pistols, not… This!” She looked on and saw the trail continued deeper into the forest, with many more footprints, some having a bit of red in them.
“Can’t you do something with these?” Yaroslav pointed at the metal pieces around the perimeter. “Shape them like you can shape your hands?”
Alexander shook his head. “Not with this much rust, they’d be dust before I could even figure out what to do with them anyway.”
“Can we address the wild elephant in the room?” Lisa chimed in. “They have machine guns, the fuck are we supposed to do against that?”
“We’ve got magic.” Alexander shrugged.
“Sure, Yaro’s immune to cold, but that doesn’t make us immune to bullets!” Said the wolf. “We ain’t like Luxor or that metal guy, they shoot us, we die! Are we sure about this, lads?” She felt her heart beginning to sink, the reality just setting in. Even with magic, it wasn’t like they could do much against firearms, as stupid as she found it.
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“Shaqie said she’ll send reinforcements, if shit hits the fan, they got us covered eventually.” Alexander reassured. “Unless they just pop one in our heads.”
“I’m more concerned about those tracks.” Said Yaroslav. “The bats lost. Even with their weapons destroyed, the gang beat them?”
“Now that you mention…” Alexander took another look at the metal rods around. Same as the rest, useless to him.
“Okay, what if we just wait for that reinforcement then?” Lisa suggested.
“Or they teamed up.” Alexander replied. “Unlikely, but it would still suck.”
“Maybe that’s why they left all the blood?” Said Yaroslav.
Lisa took a step backwards by a tree that hadn’t been impaled. “I say we wait for backup. I’m not dying for bloody Shaquia of all people.”
“What, we out?” Alexander furrowed his brows. “If the bats are out of the picture, we can easily fight whatever’s left.”
“We can argue about that all night long, or we can…” Lisa perked her ears and gestured for them to keep it down. A strange noise, terribly quiet, but she was sure she heard it.
“What is it?” Alexander asked, only to be shushed again.
“I… I don’t know.” Lisa said after a couple seconds of listening. “Almost sounds like a broken radio. Or maybe a-”
Crack, crack, crackle.
Suddenly, the snow around Lisa exploded in a white mist, covering her from sight for a couple of seconds. She felt something thin and hard against her and the next thing she knew, her body was thoroughly wrapped around that tree by metal wires, stuck in an awkward position with one arm over her and the other at her chest.
“Guys…!” She said, the wire was so tight that she could hardly even breathe.
Just then, all around them, mounds of snow rose up and revealed people, all in thick Winter clothes, goggles, ski masks and carrying wooden bats and sharpened sticks. Lisa looked around, as much as she could, and saw maybe a dozen of them.
“Rufina did her job at least!” Alexander cried and pushed his back against Yaroslav’s, both in a defensive stance.
The formerly hidden people ran right up to the two with their weapons ready, one swung a thick stick at Alexander, only for him to catch it and with one movement, twist it out of his hands. The foxhound then hit the aggressor on the head with a backhand strike of the stick, sending him to the ground. Another assailant attempted the same with Yaroslav, only for the wooden bat to be frozen and shattered in one spot.
Alexander snapped around and smacked yet another attacker with a metallic face slap, then a jab that sent him stumbling back. He looked so confident in his actions, every strike and movement deliberate to deliver as much damage as possible, leaving no room for doubt or mercy.
One gang member with his entire body covered in Winter gear barreled through from in between two others and wound back his fist, which was in turn struck by Alexander’s metal hand with a deafening clang. That same member didn’t even react, which visibly shook the foxhound. A strike that should have shattered his hand, if not his entire arm, shrugged off just like that. Alexander went in for a punch of his own, and was stopped by the gang member’s other hand, a clang once again rang out. Not just that, but Alexander actually seemed to struggle, even with his silver hands.
The sound of screaming metal was then heard as Alexander heated up his hands, causing the attacker to recoil. His hands slowly started to change shape, elongating to resemble claws. All the while Yaroslav was busy hurling one partially frozen over gang member at another; they carried the momentum right into a tree from which snow fell down and covered them both.
“Someone help cut the wires!” Lisa demanded, struggling against the wires holding her in place.
“A bit busy, toots.” Alexander briefly responded, standing there in the middle of it all, baring his now large claws, as if challenging his previous opponent, possibly another Metal One. He lunged forward to claw at the foxhound, and thus, took the bait. Alexander ducked under his high strike and brought him to the ground by forcefully yanking on his feathery tail. The rest went after Yaroslav, thinking him to be easier to defeat, only for Alexander to briefly join in and cut one across the chest with a deceptively swift strike of four claws. The bear’s icy touch took care of another, whose weapon was once again reduced to icy splinters. Him and his buddy both backed off away from them.
Alexander then turned towards Lisa. Yaroslav nodded at him, as if to say that he’ll keep an eye on the covered person, and the foxhound ran towards the wolf with leaping steps. Lisa saw the fight transpire, and was deeply impressed by, and grateful for, Alexander’s skills in both his combat and magic. Having to be saved by him was extremely patronising—she hated being unable to do anything, but she could come to terms with that after she made that patch of woodland look like an electrical pole hit it. “Guess we’re a li’l tougher after all.”
Crack-crack-crackle. Lisa heard the sound again, coming a little distance from behind the tree she was stuck to, and right as Alexander lifted his claws to cut her free, a steady pinkish purple arc of electricity hit it.
“What the hell?” The foxhound snapped at the direction from which the arc was coming, and found himself unable to move his arm. Then came another, then another arc, hitting him in the chest and other arm.
“No! NO! You’ve got to be fucking joking!” From behind the tree emerged a tall, muscular, burly owl with the purple lighting coming from the tips of his left hand fingers. “They have magic… We’re so, so fucked…”
“This isn’t fair!” Alexander said and got Yaroslav’s attention, who just finished off another assailant. With a movement of his hand, the owl sent the foxhound after him. Alexander’s legs made a futile attempt at stopping the rest of his body from floating through the air like a twisted marionette, and with but a simple twitch of his index finger, the owl brought Alexander’s claw down on Yaroslav. He moved out of the way just in time not to get slashed, but the palm still hit him over the hit with an almost comical clang. Regardless, he was on the ground, unmoving.
“YARO!” Lisa cried out, straining against the wires like a fish in a net. The covered person then finally removed his goggles and mouth covering, revealing a hooked beak akin to that of a buzzard. He looked at Alexander with a mockingly smug grin as the owl violently waved his left hand from one side to the other, sending the tethered foxhound straight into the hill, from which he practically ricocheted off of with a bounce. He let out one long, bloody exhale before falling face first into the snow.
The birds then turned towards Lisa.
“No, no, no, NO!” Lisa heaved, preparing herself for the worst. Her power was useless in the snow, the most it would do is to set the tree on fire. Her eyes darted from one gang member who was clambering up on their feet to the next, and noticed: they all had beaks, even if some had them behind a scarf or so, they most definitely were all birds.
The owl aimed at one of the less rusted metal bars stuck farther away in the snow, and with two arcs of purple lighting, he simply lifted it into the air, bringing it closer to Lisa.
“No! Please!” She begged in despair, but her words fell on deaf ears… Or so she thought, before the owl and the maybe metal bird glanced at one another, then grinned. “They… They understand me.”
“Listen, give me a moment and I’ll give ya a reason why you should let us go!” She made her attempt at appealing to the gang, or what was more likely just a small part of it, only to be laughed at by the buzzard.
The owl then spoke in a deep, ragged voice, two words Lisa couldn’t understand, and quickly lowered his hand, bringing the metal rod down on her head. Her vision blurred from the blunt force trauma before it all slowly went dark.