“Those mages you got up there aren’t bad, I gotta say. Didn’t think it would take me so long to deal with them,” Ren said, dripping confidence as he descended the stairs.
Owen gave a small, ridiculing smile. “The idiots couldn’t even deal with a child with nowhere near the experience they had. They are a disgrace to Fight House and mages everywhere.”
Ren smirked. “And you still haven’t dealt with Ruby. I dare say, the same could be said for you, no?”
Owen deigned not to respond, instead hurling a small chunk of stone at him, debris from a crushed sculpture. In the hands of a mage like Owen, the stone was like a bullet, zipping through the air as it hurtled towards Ren’s head.
Ren moved like a blur, side-stepping in the fraction of a second that he had. Immediately afterwards, he jumped off the stairs and onto the ground between me and Owen. “You good?” he asked as he landed, still looking at Owen.
I nodded, still clutching my ribs. “Yeah, I should be. Just need a second.”
“Oh, by the way. This is no longer a war we are fighting. Now, we fight to escape.”
Dread seeped into my gut, but truthfully, there was no surprise. A small part of me had figured it out when Owen had first mentioned it, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it. “We’ve been sold out?”
“Yep,” Ren answered, cheery despite the dire news he had just confirmed.
Owen burst out laughing as he heard our conversation, revelling in our misfortune. “I’ve been waiting for this moment ever since I first heard of your plan. All this has been for nothing. Your plan was doomed before it even started. You were never fighting for control over my gang, you were fighting to survive.”
Ignoring him, I asked Ren: “Casualties?”
Ren tossed a disapproving glance back at me. “Ruby, they turned on you. Why is that your first thought.”
“They didn’t all turn on me,” I refuted, indignant, before thinking for a second. “...right?” I added, giving him a hopeful look.
Ren sighed. “No, not all of them. About half of them are captured. The rest were turncoats from the beginning.”
That hurt. It stung more than my broken ribs, more than any of the blows Owen had ever given me, in fact.
“Oh, yes. I love this,” Owen gloated. “Those thugs, even after everything you did for them, they were all too willing to accept the offers we made them. You see, little girl? The world doesn’t run on such naive ideals as loyalty and gratitude. It runs on power, and you just don’t have the power. Some resisted, but eventually, all the ones we approached gave in after a little taste of the power we had. I wanted to get all of them before your attack, but you just moved so fast. Nevertheless, they will all eventually end up in my hands anyway. On that note, I must thank you. It takes quite a lot of money for gangs like mine to nurture people up to the standard you did, and for you to simply deliver them to my lap is truly generous. Although some of them seem to still be holding on to a sense of loyalty to you, it’s no matter, really. I’ll just put them on the frontlines of the war I will eventually wage on the other gangs in the city, and they’ll die off anyway.”
I was speechless. Or rather, I simply could not find the energy to talk back anymore. So I remained silent, as did Ren.
Owen continued on. “You might have been able to deal with those ten mages, but what about hundreds? My men are likely on their way as we speak. They may not be of the same calibre, but they are far stronger than the street thugs I’m sure you’re used to fighting.”
As he spoke, I finally succeeded in overpowering the instinctive barrier in me, sucking in all the surrounding Flux at a violent pace. Waves of pain wracked my body, making me double over again. My lips parted in silent agony, but I refused to make a sound. Within seconds, however, the pain was gone, replaced by a cool glow.
Letting out a deep sigh, I turned to face Owen once again. “Well then, I suppose it’s just the two of us again,” I said to Ren. “What’s the plan?”
“Pretty sure it’s too late to run, not that you would ever consider that with some of our people caught. Only other option is to fight till we drop,” Ren said with a smile.
I mirrored him, my dampened mood lifting slightly. “Can’t say I hate the sound of that.”
“I will warn you though, Ruby,” Ren started again, his voice uncharacteristically serious. “If we want to come out on top, it’s not gonna be easy. You’re gonna have to Revive a lot. And when I say a lot, I’m talking somewhere in the hundreds. That kind of insane pain does something to you Ruby. It changes you.”
Hearing his words brought up the familiar bittersweet concoction of memories as before. But I was touched by his concern. “I know, Ren,” I said with a small, sad smile. “I’m not as sheltered as you think I am, y’know.”
Surprise flashed in Ren’s eyes as he studied my face, before solemnly nodding.
“Pah! You idiots think you can actually fight your way out of this?” Owen, who had been unusually quiet for our conversation, finally broke his silence. “You, boy. You seem like an intelligent young man. You should know by now that sticking to her side is pointless. It’ll only bring you pain and constant fighting. Why not join me instead? Someone of your calibre won’t be mistreated in my gang. With you at my side, the day we rule this city-”
Before he could finish his sentence, Ren half-lunged out towards him, moving with a sudden ferocity and violence that I’d never seen before - his terrifying aura had returned, if only for a second. Owen retreated so quickly he practically jumped backwards, his arms a blur as he raised them in front of his face to block the vicious attack he expected. But no such attack followed. He slightly lowered his arms, curious, only to be greeted by nothing more than the cocky grin painted on Ren’s face. In reality, he had only taken a step towards him.
“Shut up, old man. No one asked you to speak. Either fight us or run back to that coward’s seat you call a throne.” As he spoke, Ren calmly walked forward and grabbed his fallen walking stick. “Besides, ruling this city? Ruby’s ambitions lay far higher than that. Not to mention, the reason I joined Ruby in the first place was to fight as much as possible. Being at your side as you struggle your whole life to control a single city seems boring.”
Owen glared at Ren, a dangerous, almost maddened, hatred flickering in his eyes, but he did not ask again. For a man with his pride, it was a feat itself to make him personally ask once. For Ren to throw it in his face and embarrass him on top of it probably stung more than any of the injuries I’d given him.
“You will regret those words when my men beat you into a bloody pulp. The both of you will regret ever showing your faces in front of me!”
Ren did not answer him, only watching him with his confident grin; his gaze the gaze of a predator.
With a gruff grunt, Owen took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. He stuffed his hand into his pocket, pulling out a slim smartphone. Cracks spiderwebbed the screen of the phone, obviously a product of our fight. With a glance at the screen, a savage grin grew on his face, morphing his lips. Turning around, he walked to the broken gate of his hotel.
“Now then, the guests have finally, at long last, arrived. Let us begin the real party!” As he spoke, Owen spread out his hands like a showman, except he was facing the other way.
My confusion quickly dissipated when the sound of cheers came from outside. Peering over his shoulder, I caught a glimpse of the gathered crowd and swallowed, my throat suddenly a little dry. “I know I said I liked it when the odds were stacked against us, but this seems a little too unfair, doesn’t it?”
Ren chuckled. “No such thing as too unfair in this world. Only survival of the fittest,” he said. “You ready?”
I nodded, steeling my nerves. The fight that was to come would undoubtedly be the hardest of my life. Death was not just a possibility, it was the most likely outcome. Torture would be the moderate consequence of failure. And worst of all, the fates of my people lay in this battle.
And yet, my blood screamed with excitement. My eyes burned, the flame within them alive. Every inch of my body brimmed with anticipation. The world seemed brighter, more in focus. This is it, I thought to myself, this is what I was born for. This…this is what I live for.
