Page 18 of A Soul to Touch

He fell to his hip in one swift move, his axe twirling through the air before landing in the snow.

On her back, she placed her hands behind her head, brought her knees up to her chest, then pushed off while kicking. The momentum tossed her to her feet, and she landed in a crouch.

As she stood, she stepped back swiftly as the dagger holder, who was still foolishly holding it with both hands, ran at her with it pointing forward. She easily dodged him by stepping back because his eyes had been fucking closed while he’d been running for her.Idiot!He stumbled and nearly slipped face-first into the snow.

Just as dagger boy was steadying himself on his feet, Mr Axe was getting back to his own.

She dove and rolled forward to be closer to her weapon so she could reach for it if the need arose. She landed on her feet and turned. Mayumi expected to see the sword holder, but as shespun in a quick circle, stomping her right foot around to help her turn, he was... gone.

Where’d he go?

She kept searching until her eyes brought her back to Mr Axe, who was digging in the snow in search of his weapon.

Dagger boy, or man, she couldn’t tell how old he was, finally put his weapon in one hand. He started swiping it sporadically through the air.

Mayumi just backed up, darting her head one way and then the other as she shot it back to avoid being struck in the face.

“Stop this foolishness!” she yelled, using both hands to messily capture his arm.

Once she had a good grip of it, she pushed his hand back, twisted his arm, and overextended his wrist.

“AH!” He winced as he dropped his dagger to the snow with a plop. “Please! That hurts.”

She pulled him forward as she lunged back, forcing Mr Axe, who never found his weapon, to punch his own comrade in the face with his mighty fist.

She threw crying dagger boy to the side and swiftly faced Mr Axe.

She brought her leg up to kick him in the head with the front of her foot. He backed up to dodge before coming forward to hit her while she was slightly turned away. Mayumi merely bounced her foot off the ground and kicked him with the back of her heel as she rotated to be forward-facing again.

Constantly eyeing her surroundings, she’d thought the one holding the sword would reappear, but he never did. Dagger boy backed off, his trembling seeming to worsen now that he no longer had his weapon.

His dagger was somewhere underneath her and Mr Axe’s feet as they fought over the top of it.

He did eye her sword.

“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” she warned, as she started raining punches against Mr Axe.

She first hit him in the right side of his gut to his kidney, then used her left fist to catch him in the diaphragm.

He keeled forward just like the sword wielder had and incidentally brought himself down to her level. Mayumi grabbed his hair through his beanie and shoved his head down while bringing her knee up. The crunch of his nose breaking was drowned out by his yell.

A glance upwards told her dagger boy had picked up her sword and was pointing it at her. Mayumi gave him little of her attention since he looked uncertain.

Instead, she wasted no time with Mr Axe who was on his back. She straddled his torso and used both hands to punch him across the face, tossing his head left and right.

Because of her short and slim stature, nobody ever suspected that she would have such a weighty punch to her.

Mr Axe passed out when she hit him in the temple.

As soon as he did, she looked up to face dagger boy, her eyes narrowing on him. With blood coating her knuckles, she began to stand.

When she stood with her legs spread over the unconscious man below her, she rolled her shoulders back. Mayumi only paused when she saw his trousers were wet, and yellow was beginning to stain the snow at his feet.

“You’re joking. You’re really pissing yourself?”

She thought she’d put on a good show, but she wasn’t actually scary. She was five foot and one inch for heaven’s sake. She was swift and strong, but she never truly compelled fear.

“Oh. Ha. Ah.” He couldn’t even formulate a word, only sounds fell from him. It took her far longer than it should have to realise that he hadn’t been looking at her.

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