Rontu barely had time to dodge the fist flying towards him, weaving under the woman’s arm as he rolled down the remainder of the slope. He got to his feet and into a mediocre fighting stance quickly as he could, sensing that staying immobile was probably a death sentence.

‘Just like Archie taught me...I’ve got this.’ he thought to himself, though trying to stand on the balls of his feet in armored boots was something he had yet to really practice.

The woman struggled for a moment, wrenching her hand free of the stone it had embedded itself in. She wiggled her finger in sequence, making sure the rotating blades were still operational. Slowly she turned toward Rontu, looking at him with a bright orange gaze formed from the shape of two jagged blades. Her armor stood out against the dirt and rock of the canyon, an almost fluorescent yellow-green occasionally broken up by the light gray under armor.

“Damn. I thought you’d be slower,” she whistled, putting a hand on her hip and resting it against the skirt of large knives around her waist. Every inch of her body seemed to be covered in some sort of blade or jagged edge, from the large chainsaw horn jutting from her forehead to the sets of spikes jutting from her heels. Past the excessive weaponry though, Rontu couldn’t get past the disturbing grin pasted across her helmet, wide with sharp, triangular teeth that could devour him at any moment.

Rontu didn’t let his guard down, still backstepping and putting as much distance between them as he could. “What do you want from me?” he snapped back at her, fully prepared to knock her block off if he had to.

She laughed, deep and restrained as she made her way down the slope with ease due to the way her feet seemed to impale the earth with every step. She was unrefined and lacked grace, but she seemed to have quite the grasp on her abilities. She let out a shrug. “What else you got besides that rig?”

“Nothing for you-” Rontu barely spoke, jumping to the left as she swung her leg towards his head. He didn’t have much time to breathe, bringing his arms to cover his face as a flurry of rapid punches sent him tumbling to the ground. Even on his knees, the onslaught didn’t stop, his forearms accumulating multiple tears and dents across them despite the heavy plating. Rontu swung his leg out, catching her by the ankle and sweeping her feet out from under her to send her into the dirt alongside him. He took this time to crawl away, picking up a large rock before stumbling to his feet and bracing himself along the cliff face.

“What…” he huffed, trying to catch his breath. “Not even gonna let me answer?”

The only response he received was a sharp growl, the feminine figure recovering to her feet much faster than he had.

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Rontu’s hands worked quickly, squeezing the stone in his hands. It was roughly the size of a baseball, his powers working their way into the compound and softening it so that he could flatten it into a disc. He ran his finger along the edge, sharpening it with flecks of diamond.

The female Shutok paused for a moment, perhaps a bit weary at the sudden use of his ability. Rontu knew she probably wouldn’t have a good gauge on what he was capable of, so as long as he could bluff, he was a bit safer.

Rontu looked at her, doing his best to aim directly for her chest. He folded his arm back and over his shoulder, suddenly swinging it out with as much force as he could muster and chucking the disc right at the enemy Shutok with a loud grunt. It left his hand at a high speed, spinning like mad as it sailed in her direction.

Both of them watched as it shattered against the wall of the canyon, curving off course and easily missing the woman without her having to move an inch. They slowly turned their heads back to face each other, the woman tilting hers slightly in confusion.

“Was...was that it?”

Rontu couldn’t help but shrug.

“Yeah. That’s all I’ve got.”

At the very least, this caused her to laugh quite hard. She clutched her gut for a moment as she doubled over, a hearty chuckle causing her whole frame to shake. She slowly raised her head back up, staring back at Rontu with that crooked visor of hers.

“Let me show you how to throw,” she said in an almost friendly tone, holding up her arm as an array of bright orange blades seemed to spring forth from it like bristling quills. She plucked three in between her fingers, splaying them out for Rontu to see. She held three rough and serrated blades, each several inches long.

He held his hands up and shook his head. “No, really. You don’t have to. If you want a place to stay I don’t have a problem with you just-”

With his back to the cliff, Rontu could only watch as she effortlessly flicked the shower of pointed saw blades at him. His meager training with Archie sprung back to his mind, Rontu raising his chunky arms to shield his face as he kneeled down to make himself as small as possible.

A shadow momentarily washed over what little he could see behind his arms. Rontu heard the rough screeching of metal clashing, peeking between his arms just in time to see one of the orange blades bury itself into the ground of the canyon.

“Are you alright?”

Rontu looked up, his face only a few inches from the outstretched hand. He immediately recognized the red and white stripes that wrapped around each digit, hastily grabbing hold as he was helped to his feet.

“You’ve got good timing.”

Shen inspected his sword, noting the new notches that had nicked into the steel. “It would have been even better if you weren’t wandering off.”

The woman looked between the two of them, her shoulders visibly drooping. Rontu would have guessed she was pouting, but the sharp jawline across her mug kept it from looking too childlike.

“Shit. Didn’t think there’d be two of you,” she said, though she stood her ground.

Rontu felt a bit more confident with Shen by his side, easing up to stand next to his companion with a renewed swagger.

“Careful Rontu,” Shen warned, flipping his sword so that it hung from the bottom of his hand.

“What? Don’t tell me you’re scared now that there’s two of us,” Rontu jabbed at the woman, inspecting his upper arms and the damage caused.

She chuckled, rolling her shoulder and pointing at Shen with one of her chainsaw fingers. “He’s one. You’re like...a half.”

Unfortunately, Rontu agreed with her.