An eagle circled the skies overhead.

If Kari had followed the boy further into the alley behind him, he would’ve been done for.

Water flowed around the hydrohand like a dragon.

As the Wrights watched, even more of the clear liquid flowed up from the cracks between the tiles paving the street. Kari had been ‘carrying’ water in the sewer drainpipes belowground the entire time.

It was admittedly quite fortunate that Rhaspalaka’s little thief had decided to run into one of the sidestreets connected to the sewer system. If he hadn’t, Kari may have been forced to give up the book for nothing.

But, that hadn’t happened, and thanks to Kari’s preparation and sixth sense for danger, he now stood a chance.

Because of Kari’s hidden water supply, it was impossible to tell how much of the critical resource he had on hand. He could feign weakness, only to strike unexpectedly with renewed vigour.

Kari stared up at Rhaspalaka and the other two Wrights that were with him when he heard footsteps approach from behind. Two more Wrights. Their number now totalled five.

“I have already given you many chances to return what is not yours. And now, I can show you no more mercy. It brings me no joy to do this. You know too much… and so, you must die. ” Rhaspalaka declared.

“What gives you the right?” Kari growled from between gritted teeth.

At that moment, one of the two Wrights behind Kari struck. Kari reacted even without looking, feeling the subtle changes in the layout of perspiration on the woman’s skin.

It was an overhead blow at superhuman speed. A fist clasping something. Any normal person wouldn’t have been able to stop it.

But Kari was different.

At once, the water coiled around Kari lashed out like a whip at tremendous speed, striking the woman in the ribs with great force. A great crack resounded as her ribcage shattered. Her body was sent flying away, rolling to a stop, motionless on the still pave stones.

“Are you really trying to argue that you are any better than me, Kari the hydrohand? I know all about your exploits west of Joruz’s Rest. And I can see that your thirst for violence has not been quenched in the slightest.” Rhas preached from the rooftops.

Whispering came from all around.

Kari glanced behind him.

There came a flap of cloth and a flash of light from above.

At the same time, an attack from the other Wright behind Kari.

Kari split the water around him in two. At the front, he spread and froze it into a thick, icy barrier. Behind, he shot out in another whip-like strike at the Wright’s centre of mass.

Thrown knives clattered against Kari’s barrier.

But the hydrohand’s attack on the grounded Wright failed. The water Kari had fired suddenly froze, and in doing so, Kari lost control of the flow. His strike barely missed the Wright, who lurched to the side. The massive ball of now ice, flew off to the side, smashing into the wall of a nearby residence, creating a crack that ran up the side of the three-storey building.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

A scream rang out from somewhere inside.

Kari, who was taken by surprise at his Gift malfunctioning, was wide open.

The Wright struck with a dagger from below.

There was a loud cracking sound as the packed ice Kari had hidden beneath his shirt failed. His stasis bracelet grew hot as the pressure at the tip of the dagger overwhelmed its enchantment, already stretched thin holding water in the sewers.

The dagger found its way through Kari’s icy armour, and the tip of the cold metal sank a few centimetres into Kari’s gut.

Despite the wound itself being relatively small, the force of the strike Kari forced the wind to be wordlessly driven from Kari’s lungs. Spittle flew from his mouth, and the sudden urge to vomit welled up in his stomach.

Kari stared into the eyes of his assailant. He seemed to be a man in his forties. His eyes were filled with determination and faith, but had he been in a different setting, Kari may have been able to imagine the man on the street with his family.

Kari gritted his teeth.

They are all murderers!!

Strength suddenly manifested itself, and Kari found his fist clenched tight. He threw a powerful right hook straight into his assailant’s jaw, sending the man reeling. However, he was not knocked unconscious as Kari had expected.

A flash from above.

Instinctually, Kari split his frozen barrier in half and sent one to either side of his body.

Four more thrown daggers fell to the sandstone street, successfully blocked by Kari’s adjustment.

“Your survival instincts are something else. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps you would benefit from joining our ranks?”

Kari stopped to catch his breath, reflexively feeling his wound with his hand. He had been stabbed before, but this wound burned terribly numb.

Poison.

Kari’s face twisted with pain as he pulled the dagger from his abdomen. The blade of the blacksteel weapon was coated in some kind of oil. The weapon clattered to the ground. The sound of it echoed in Kari’s mind.

“Too late, though. You can feel it already, can’t you? That poison will kill you in just a few minutes. Stop struggling, you might last longer” a distant-sounding voice taunted.

With no antidote, there was only one thing Kari could do.

Not even stopping to think, Kari reached into his own body with his Gift and drew a shocking quantity of dark red blood out. It splashed onto the floor.

“…!”

Even Rhaspalaka was shocked into silence.

Kari’s vision swam and darkened at the sudden loss in blood pressure, and the hydrohand involuntarily fell onto one knee.

Kari sealed the wound with his Gift, freezing it shut. The excruciating pain of doing so drew a deep, guttural groan from the man.

“Gu-gaahhhhhh!!”

He panted, finding his strength.

One of the Wrights leapt from the rooftop, landing with a quiet thud a few meters away from Kari. Another male. This one seemed a bit younger. Now there were two of them, circling the kneeling man.

I’m not going to survive. One nick from a knife and I’m reduced to this state. And they somehow interfered with my Gift.

Kari glanced down at his feet.

Hold on…

The blood that Kari had evacuated from his body formed a pool. That blood was mixing with the tiny puddle that lingered from when Kari had drawn water from the sewer earlier.

It gave him an idea.

He was reminded of Universal Law. Blood was a part of his body, was it not?

The sound of bubbling water could be heard from below.

The Wrights on the street rushed at Kari, weapons drawn.

Kari closed his eyes. Water rushed up from below like a tapped spring, drenching both of his attackers in bloody water. Then, he caused the water to evaporate into steam, and in doing so, drew copious amounts of energy from their surroundings.

The Wrights stopped in their tracks, their bodies frozen solid. One, the older one, toppled to the ground, landing on their elbow. Their rigid arm snapped off at the shoulder, exposing bone. A bare dribble of blood flowed out of the grievous injury.

Kari himself felt his hair frozen to his face and scalp. Even his feet were frozen to the ground, but it was a fate far less severe than his would-be killers. He melted the bloody water beneath his feet, and forming a fine needle, sent it flying towards the exposed eyeball of the younger Wright who stood in frozen terror just two meters away.

A blacksteel dagger intercepted the attack, shattering the reddish ice into a million pieces.

Kari turned his attention to where the dagger had been thrown.

At that moment of distraction, a different thrown dagger sank into Kari’s shoulder. His eyes widened with pain.

“You will not kill any more of us,” Rhaspalaka growled.

His anger was but a candle in the wake of Kari’s rage which relentlessly burned like the unquenchable inferno of a Dragonfire Furnace.

Kari painfully pulled the dagger from his shoulder and tried to draw out the poisoned blood once more, but something deep inside him would only let him draw out so much.

He was at his limit.