Chapter 65: If you insist!
"You can stay dead, too," she said, and swung her blade in a quick arc.
Rauk barely managed to lift his weapon in time. The two blades clashed with a sharp, jarring ring. The force traveled up Rauk’s arms like a shockwave.
"Hold your sword, you fool!" Chef snapped as she struck again.
Rauk lost his grip. The sword flew from his hands.
Kaedros lunged while she was distracted, aiming a thrust for her side. He shouldn’t have bothered.
Chef turned leisurely, brought her knife down to parry, and in the same breath her free fist snapped forward.
It collided with Kaedros’s face.
He stumbled back, eyes stinging, blood trickling from his nose. He lifted his sword in defense, but Chef had already shifted, now clashing with Taria’s spear.
"How...?" Kaedros muttered, wiping blood from his upper lip. She was too fast. Ridiculously fast. Even leaping up for attacks didn’t slow her down.
Taria held her own, but only barely. Kaedros thought she might actually have a chance but Chef disabused him of that notion quickly.
They disengaged. Chef landed lightly on her feet, holding her knife casually at her side.
"You’re better than the other two," she said to Taria. "But not by much. See? You relied too much on mana."