"Hello, this is Mary. Field Commander, do you copy?" Mary said with a sharp breath. Her words echoed at the dark walls at her sides that soon hid the pale skies from her view.
Bearing the pain that burned her forearms, she kept her arms steady as she held her radio over her mouth. She waited for a few odd seconds, keeping her pace as she dodged a few piles of trash that obstructed her path with utmost vigilance. Mary kept her eyes open as she dashed forth, knowing that something might come out of the darkness and surprise her.
The air soon gave weight upon her shoulders. Mary only heard the sound of her feet clacking upon meeting the cold concrete floors. Her pace began to quicken, and she gritted her teeth. She felt the sudden urge to talk to someone as beads of cold sweat began to crawl down from her forehead and so, she did. She looked into the radio in her hand once more and right when she was about to press its button, a man's voice sprang out and said, "Tell me you love me, baby girl!���
"Fuck off!" Mary shouted.
The man's voice began to tremble. "Wait... What?"
"What… I mean… I'm sorry, Field Commander. I'm in a rush, and I was scared, sorry." Mary stole a glance through the alley and into the fading building at her back. "That girl is dangerous."
"It's a woman?!" The Field Commander screamed in disbelief.
"Yessir… and yeah, fuck, she's fast," Mary said and both of them shared a bit of a laugh. She gazed at the space around her again, feeling that same coldness of dread that loosened her jaws. "The files that were handed to us were pretty accurate. I assume that the metal that was produced from the farms was so tough that it cannot be sharpened properly. They're most likely relying on their pure brute strength to cut through their enemies. She didn't look like a newbie as well. I think she knew what would happen to that weapon if she swung that shabby slab of metal against a thick concrete wall; I was lucky."
"Great… that's just great… we'll be there in no time, we've met a few enemies… which was pretty quick. I recalled all of the sentries around you so you're all I have to give us the news, you better be careful. Yeah, I checked with it with the other field commanders around your sector, and it looks like there were quite a few souls following the lead of that woman right there. They seem like they're always a few blocks away from her though… and so, I coordinated with them. We're sending in a team to cover the area around you and box them in. All you have to do is take cover on those walls and wait for us to save the day. We'll get this over with and you'll be safe—"
"Actually," Mary pursed her lips as she interrupted him with a sharp breath. "I may have… kinda… abandoned my position due to the risk of enemies flying over there to help…"
"You what!"
"I… kinda… didn't know… that her subordinates were just one block away. I thought that they might just be hiding in a nearby building soo…" Mary gave him an awkward chuckle as she ran.
"Oh fuck, I forget to check your vital signs on the map!" The man behind the phone shouted in panic and slammed his fist into the table. "What are you doing in an alleyway?!"
"I… thought it was a good chance to…" Mary blurted out, and she cut her words by taking a deep breath. "I looked around the map where I was in charge of. It was full of intersecting alleyways like this. I figured that it would be a good chance to force my enemies to fight me one on one, considering that the file claimed too that they cannot produce guns just yet. I figured that they can't shoot me with anything."
"Girl, you're acting like a teacher's pet right now," the man commented with a chuckle.
"Nope, I just know the asshole who made them," Mary smiled beneath her mask but it disappeared when her eyes caught a glimpse of a shadow falling from the sky in the far distance behind her. It almost made her legs freeze but she got through by picking up her pace.
"I… fooooooouuunddd yoooouuuuu…"
Mary heard an ominous voice that seemed so distant but came as though it was whispered with a smile in her ear. Her breath was cut short. She felt a sudden surge of electricity that straightened her body and urged her to move forward without even bothering to look behind her. Soon, her chest then began to burn, making her feel like her lungs were being boiled as her limbs cried out like they were about to shatter and break off.
"Who the fuck was that?!" The man's voice came rushing through the radio.
"You heard it too?" Mary shouted back as she stole a glance behind her to see nothing following her trail. She couldn't help but scratch the back of her head. "It's probably their leader."
The man threw up a nervous sigh behind the phone. "Don't tell me…"
"Funny story," Mary laughed and looked at the nearing wall in the distance that diverged her path into two. "Remember the time when I hugged the wall to protect myself? It turns out that what triggers her the most is losing against someone. Come to think of it, I think it's the thing that kept her bound here. When I noticed that… I trash-talked her. She might've gone berserk because I rubbed my victory in her face before jumping down?"
"Why would you do that?!" The man shouted in a panic once more. "Triggering their desire to live or… whatever, I don't fucking know! That should've been the least of your priorities, why did you do that?!"
"I… I figured that it would be a good way to drag her here… since I thought that someone else might go there and fuck me up?" Mary tilted her head. Then, with a tone that was shaken and shy, she whispered, "I'm sorry?"
"What the fuck—"
The call got disconnected. It made Mary click her tongue in panic as she tried to check what happened but then, she felt at the back of her head that something huge was coming. She didn't turn her head to look, she chose not to. It just made her lean forward and break her sweat even more as she kicked the ground to propel herself even faster. What came next was a laugh that had been carried by the wind into her ear.
Mary furrowed her brows and gritted her teeth. It was getting closer and closer by the second as her heart beats; it was as though her body was drowning her with warnings that something that was even faster was coming. Then, giving up to her body urging her to stand her ground and fight, also with the sense that something was indeed flying towards her, she took a sharp breath and made her body turn.
Mary grunted; she felt like she pulled some muscles on her right leg when she twisted her body, but that didn't stop her from delivering a punch that in turn, caught nothing but air. All she heard was a laugh passing by her ear, followed by a soft thud on the wall that she was heading for earlier. She relaxed for a bit. She thought that it was just her imagination but she caught a glimpse of something that made her eyes widen.
Now caught in a moment of panic with half of her brain screaming that she would die, she took a deep breath and decreased her weight. Mary found herself staring into the floor at the next second as a gust of wind blew her over like a piece of paper. That sudden change made her feel a bit lightheaded. It made her want to throw up, but she shrugged it off and followed her momentum. Mary used her arms to control her fall and make herself roll before breaking into a run without even turning to look at her.
"Cheaaaatttteeeerrr," the knight groaned as she presented her blackened skin and white fangs towards her. She staggered back, almost losing her balance as her lips twisted into a sad smile. "Don't… leave… me… fight me… you coward…"
The knight fell onto one knee with a chuckle. She pressed her fingers to the ground as she leaned forward like a runner waiting for her mark. And as the feeling of defeat tightened its grasp on her heart, she kicked the ground and sent herself forward.
The knight caught Mary's back within a second. It made her widen her smile and stretch her arms to get her enemy into her reach, but the reaper seemed as though she was waiting for this moment. Left with nothing else to grab and use to change her direction, the last thing that she saw was Mary jumping and her feet crashing into her face.