Metal clanged against the cybernetic beneath Akio's now shredded shirt sleeve.

The towering Draken sneered, showcasing his jagged teeth. His large, black-scaled head was held high with an air of superiority. Blue and green blood dripped from his spiraled and sharpened horns.

Akio shuddered, not wanting to dwell on the torment that her poor members faced before their demise. Perhaps it had been a mercy that they died.

A pungent odor of burnt flesh, blood, and feces hung in the air. Akio gagged. Nothing could lessen the stench of a gutted corpse. It was odd how little it bothered her beyond the initial findings. . . She had seen this too many times.

Blocking another swing of the long knive with her cybernetic arm, Akio grimaced at the sensation of the dent it formed. Indra was going to be pissed. It was one thing to injure her natural flesh, but to damage the carefully crafted, and quite expensive cybernetic was a personal insult to its engineer.

"The next time you break it, I'm going to take my cane to your ass!" Indra said, whacking Akio in the shoulder.

That had only been a few weeks ago. . . Akio wasn't looking forward to the expression on her girlfriend's face—or the cane.

The other five secret force members spread out, seeming intent on flanking Akio. Their black painted armor clanked, the capes over the top of it billowing from the speed of their movement.

Akio flicked out her knife and blocked another strike, managing to remove two of the Drakens scales in a quick attack of her own before returning to defense.

Sparks flew from the repeated impact of the Draken's long knife against her short one.

She ducked a swing from another Draken, before turning about to stab her first attacker in the hand. The amount of force it took to shove past their scales and through their palm was as if she were thrusting into a rock, possible, but difficult.

Thank the stars she still had the knife from the commanders, any ordinary blade would've broken.

Blue blood spurted from the wound, the Draken recoiled, smoke flaring from his nostrils as the long knife dropped from his injured hand.

Akio slid across the ground, bending back to avoid a baton to the head as she retrieved the long knife. Though she didn't often duel wield, it wasn't as if she had no training in it.

It would take a calculated move to land a hit to get through the armor. Even with Akio's enhanced abilities, there was a slim chance she'd be able to break through the metal. . . Unless she hit it after they used their fire. If she managed to provoke the Draken's into using their natural ability, the warmth it created in the chest plate could potentially make it softer, vulnerable. Though she doubted a dagger would do much damage regardless of the metal it was crafted from.

Internally, she face palmed. Shoulder scythes! Why did she keep forgetting she had starshitted shoulder scythes? Allowing herself a bit of distance would be immensely helpful when faced with this many enemies at once.

But, the movement to get them out would leave her vulnerable. Until Akio took out a few of the not so secret secret force, attempting to pull out her scythes was idiocy.

Akio used the dagger to block another swing, and the long life to slash at the hands of another attacker. Those were the only things exposed, beside their neck and head. But it wasn't that easy to reach the latter. Not that Akio wanted to, she could still get out of this without killing them. . . Maybe. Hopefully.

The worst thing that could happen would be if Akio allowed them to surround her. Six against one, even a weapon, wasn't great odds, considering the sort of training these members of the palace had in particular. They weren't just guards. They were spies, assassins, and the most deadly force within sector five. Aside from herself.

Claws slashed at Akio's side, leaving five gashes behind.

She cried out in surprise, returning the favor by slicing through the center of the bloody clawed Draken's hand, deep enough to sever the tendons within and render his hand useless.

Akio used the distraction the pain provided, and kicked off a statue to leap onto his back. She stabbed the short dagger into his neck in a non-deadly position to give herself something to hold while she put the hilt of the long knife in front of his throat.

Akio gripped it with both hands, pressing her feet into his back to steady herself when they attempted to get her off, and apply more pressure.

All it would've taken to kill them was stabbing into their neck or snapping it. They would've already been down, and Akio would be moving on. But she swore never to kill again, she couldn't. As long as there was another way, she'd avoid spilling more blood.

But they murdered your teammates. Surely that constitutes enough reason for murder.

The voice in the back of her mind whispered, attempting to find loopholes, to exploit her oath. It always did. Because Akio knew it was easier to kill, safer, it's what she was trained to do, it's what she knew.

Never. She'd never kill again.

A baton from another Draken slammed into her back, the spikes ripping through her flesh.

"Starshit! Just pass out already!" Akio spat, knowing just how vulnerable this position made her to other attacks.

Another hit struck her so hard it knocked the breath out of her.

There wasn't another choice, she needed to either give up on trying to knock the Draken out, or kill them.

Hit after hit of the baton made her lose her footing, causing her to hang only by the daggers.

I can't kill. I promised I wouldn't.

"Akio, it's a setup! Get out!" Indra's voice crackled in her ear, cut off by screams and static.

Akio's hearts clenched. "Indra? What happened, Indra!"

Stars. This couldn't have gone any more wrong.

This wasn't working.

The Draken reached back, scraping their claws across Akio's cybernetic, the horrible, high pitched whine was like needles to Akio's ears.

More hits to the spine combined with the noise was disorienting. Akio could feel her grip slipping.

The armor was impenetrable as it was, the strangalation to pass out, was not efficient. There was only one choice. Akio didn't want to make it, but if the others were in danger, she had to. They needed her.

She was their leader.

Akio prayed to the stars for forgiveness. A sickening pang of guilt settled in her gut. If she had been a better leader, two of her members wouldn't be dead, and she wouldn't be here killing. But she wasn't, and she was.

Without further hesitation, Akio stabbed the long knife deep into the Draken's neck, her natural arm trembling from the resistance of the scales.

May the stars guide your journey and leave you unforsaken. I'm sorry.

Regaining her footing, Akio kicked off their back, pulling the longsword and knife from their place in the Draken's neck. Blue blood splattered across her face as she flipped backward, and spun midair toward the Draken who had been repeatedly attacking her while she was defenseless.

Akio kicked the raised baton, then grabbed their sword, swinging around to the back of their body before the claws could reach her. Stabbing into its neck, she ended the Draken quickly, leaning back to balance as their body fell to the ground beneath her.

She didn't have a chance to recover when a spiked baton impacted her chest. Metal against metal, the spikes tore through the skin over her chest plate. The high pitched whine reminiscent of screams.

Slashing at the Draken's hand, Akio swayed, stumbling over herself. The exhaustion from the earlier fights was taking its toll.

The misstep resulted in a punch to the gut.

Akio coughed, her body longing for collapse.

"You're not going to win this fight, defective starshit," the Draken growled.

Throwing her knife into the Draken's eye she grabbed their forearm and used it to jump upward, gripping the knife and twisting it further, deeper with a stars awful squelch. She hated how natural this felt. An apathetic switch threatened to click in her brain to lessen the consequences of her guilt temporarily. But if she allowed it to turn back on, would it ever turn off?

"I have no intention to lose," Akio growled, kicking off his chest and landing on a bent cybernetic leg, her natural one extended straight to the side.

The burning pain riddled throughout Akio's body would've been ignorable, if not for the dizziness it brought. Akio needed to get out of here. Fast. Or she'd bleed to death. She planted her feet deeper into the ground to keep from stumbling when the world spun.

Stars, please be alive, Indra.

Two attacks aimed toward her at once, one baton grazing the side of her face as Akio rolled behind a statue.

Stone rained down from the swing that impacted where she was standing only a moment before.

There was no time to catch her breath when a stream of fire just barely missed her face. The tips of the oi'ek on her right screamed in agony, the stench of charred flesh filling the air.

Darkness blasted across Akio's vision longer than she had a chance to recover from.

Her body trembled in exhaustion. But she had to keep going. Indra needed her. The vigilantes needed her.

Akio raised her weapons, slashing blindly in the blurring world. The Draken's forms seemed to blend in with the walls as her sight went in and out of focus. 

A metal boot kicked her injured leg out from under her.

Akio slammed face first into the floor of the palace. Her head bounced back as blood gushed from her nose.

Starshit!

The next moments were a blur of agony and darkness. It was foolish to come back alone and injured. Now, Akio was paying for that choice in bones and blood.

Unrelenting hits stabbed into her flesh, tearing at it with barbed ends, the impact granting a crackle, accompanied by sharp pain.

Blood puddled beneath Akio's shuddering body. It would be easier to just lay here, to let everything she deserved come to fruition, atoning all the horrors committed by her hand. But Indra needed her, the vigilantes needed her.

Akio forced her blood-covered cybernetic leg upward, kicking with enough force to send one of the batons into the body of the one using it.

When another strike whooshed towards her, she blocked it with her arm, the barbs stabbing into her forearm like multiple daggers. Akio gritted her teeth, it took all the focus she had to stay conscious. Labored breaths brought forth pain in addition to the burning of bruises and gashes all over her body. At least two of her ribs were broken, hopefully not more.

Akio arched her back and reached across to her shoulder, doing a distinct twist to pull a scythe from its sheath beneath her skin.

Against logic, Akio forced her trembling body to rise, and slashed at the now weakened armor from the fire attack in an upward arc with the scythe that cut through the soft metal and up the midriff to the chest of the Draken, splitting them wide open.

Blood and guts splattered to the floor as they collapsed, writhing.

Akio heaved, stepping through the pile of gore in the direction of the other Draken.

She blocked a swing from the Draken in front of her, narrowing her eyes as they took a trembling step back. "Still confident you're going to win?"

"Y-you're unnatural," the Draken said, taking a few additional backwards.

"I prefer the term special," Akio said, kicking off the floor and using her the power of her cybernetic arm to sever the Draken's head with her scythe.

The giant head flew, the horns stabbing into the thigh of one of the remaining.

Two left.

Akio could do this. She staggered, spatting lavender blood on the floor. Maybe. Hopefully. Starshit, she had to!

Wiping the blood from her lips with the back of his hand, Akio narrowed her eyes, accessing the quickest way to kill the two. Time mattered, and it was ticking far too quickly.

If she stabbed the one closest to her in the neck with her dagger, her scythe would be ready to parry and slash at the other.

If, this was a big if. Anything could go wrong, and that'd be it.

Inhaling the deepest breath she dared, Akio prayed to the stars for luck. Shine down on me your favour, for favour is all I have.

Fire shot in her direction, foolish choice on the Draken's part. It would leave their neck scales raised for the next few minutes, making them more vulnerable.

Akio rolled to avoid it, then leapt from crumbled statue to statue, avoiding flames and daggers.

This was it.

In a final movement, Akio used what was left of her fading energy to kick off of the last statue, and embed her dagger deep into the Draken's neck.

They stumbled about, choking.

She grabbed their arm on her way down with her cybernetic hand and severed it from the elbow.

The Draken let out a gargled scream and collapsed.

Akio severed the head of the last one with her scythe, bending her knees in preparation for landing. Her natural leg gave out, sending her rolling, and the weapons falling far from her hands.

That was all of them. All six. Akio had lived, just barely.

Attempting to pull herself up, she failed, slipping in a mix of lavender and blue that had began to swirl purple in the center.

Starshit! Come on!

Metal footfalls on the floor made Akio stiffen. She missed one. How in the stars name had she missed one?

An armored boot kicked her in the stomach before pinning her to the ground by being placed on her chest. "Did you really think you'd make it out of here alive?"

Akio gasped, unable to move as the Draken put pressure on her exposed metal chest plate, making it impossible for her lungs to fully expand.

If she did nothing, she'd die.

There was no energy left to summon. Everything was spent and left her weak, twitching like a smashed insect on the floor.

She was going to die.

Darkness ebbed at the edges of her vision, only leaving the tiniest sparkle in the center.

"I'll see you at home."

That was a promise. Akio couldn't break a promise. Especially not one she made to her girlfriend.

The Draken applied more pressure, making Akio's body spasm, Lavender blood oozing around the edges of the plate.

Indra was going to kill her.

Akio did the only thing she could think of. The only guarantee. She slammed her cybernetic hand into the Draken's armored boot so hard it shattered, sending a deadly electric pulse through the elite's body as the exposed inner-workings touched the metal.

They fell, the pressure subsiding slightly.

Rolling to her hand and knees, Akio heaved, lavender blood splattering the floor in unrelenting waves, stealing her breath, nearly pulling her back to the floor.

She glanced at her broken cybernetic. If she made it back to the mansion, Indra would beat her to death. This wasn't going to be an easy fix. 

Akio forced herself to stand, retrieving the scythe and stumbled through the hall, grabbing statues for support. Somehow, she needed to get back to the tower, up the tower--out.

Before she could take two more steps, the darkness won, and she collapsed to the floor.

She swore she heard her name, then all was dark and silent.