I stared down the enemy, with Levi right next to me.

  “What do you want?” He asked them.

  “Who the hell are you?” the one with the axe asked.

  “Forget this; let's get them!” The bigger one screamed. He made a move, but his partner stopped him.

  “Wait…let’s hear them out before we kill them.” He smirked.

  My fingers were twitching. I so wanted to grab my blades and slice him, but Levi glanced at me with a harsh look.

  “Yeah, I’d like to see you try.” Levi removed his blindfold and tossed it to the ground.

  That put off the enemy.

  “Hey!!” The big one dashed at us, but Levi looked at him.

  He fell to the floor with a large crash.

  “Jargus!!” his partner yelled.

  I was shocked. I looked over to the girls, and they were surprised as well.

  “Now, we got direction to kill you guys.” Levi didn't take his eyes off Jargus.

  “Uqyaes!” Jargus muttered, “Get him!!”

  “Uqyaes?” Levi frowned. “That's a funny name!”

  “You bastard!!” Uqyaes yelled and reached behind him.

  “Look out!” Keisha yelled as Uqyaes threw a circular object at us.

  We all dashed out of the way as a smoke screen blocked our vision.

  “Damn it!!” Levi muttered.

  It was a distraction to get Levi to release his gaze on Jargus.

  “Still going according to the plan?” Vey asked over the radio comm.

  Levi tapped his helmet. “Yeah, stay hidden. They've no idea you're…”

  I saw a flash in the corner of my eye; it was headed for Levi. I reached for my blade and tossed it towards him.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  A split-second decision saved Levi as I blocked Jargus’ sword.

  “Guh!!” Jargus grinned as we rebounded from the amount of contact.

  He charged again but stopped abruptly. Confused, I turned behind me and saw Levi looking straight at him.

  “Don't just stand there! Cover me!” He yelled and pointed behind him. I dashed behind him and blocked Uqyae's axe.

  “What synergy!” Uqyaes smiled and did a backflip. Keisha and Liv stood beside me.

  “We got you!” Liv yelled and made a katana.

  Keisha cracked her knuckles. "Yeah, leave it to us.”

  “Can't hold on much longer!” Levi yelled. I turned around and got into a fighting stance.

  Levi blinked, and the brute rushed at us. “I'll kill you!!”

  I rushed to him, and we clashed.

  “You seem to be distracted…” Uqyaes smirked. I grit my teeth.

  “Don't get fazed, Jett.” Levi yelled at me.

  “Team issues?” Uqyaes swung his axe. I ducked and hit his shin. He didn't flinch.

  “Terrible choice.” Uqyaes swung his leg. I'd just kicked. I didn't have time to react, but Keisha covered me.

  She blocked the kick with her arms. “You're pretty tough.”

  "Why, thank you.” Uqyaes gripped his axe. I didn't wait for him to strike; I lunged at him and attempted to chop his hand off.

  “Is that the best you can do?” He blocked my blade with his axe and drew back.

  I flicked my blades while Keisha sidestepped beside me.

  “Any ideas?” Keisha asked.

  I had none. “We have to wipe him out in one hit" was the best I could come up with.

  “He's countering everything…”

  “Then we hit him with anything!” I flung my blade towards him. Then I warped.

  “This again?” Uqyaes stretched his hand out. In desperation, I threw my other blade back towards Keisha, but it was too late.

  “I have you now!!” Uqyaes held my throat, and I couldn't escape.

  “Jett!!” Keisha yelled. I felt faint as he choked me to death. But I motioned her to stay there.

  “Tell me something, you're aggressive. Any reason in particular?” Uqyaes grinned.

  “Shut up!!” In one swift motion, I raised my knee and kicked him squarely in the jaw.

  “Guh!!” His grip relaxed, so I struggled and broke free from him. I retrieved my first blade and warped to the second one next to Keisha.

  “Jett!!” she held me as I coughed hard.

  “Impudent fool!!” Uqyaes was angered. He reached for his axe and charged at us.

  Keisha… I dashed in front of her as Uqyaes swung his axe.

  “JETT!!!”

  Uqyaes's axe struck my ribs, and I fell to the floor. I felt my side, and it was warm.

  My visor beeped red. Not good.

  “How chivalrous.”

  Keisha rushed to me and pulled me up. “Are you okay?” She reached into her back satchel and took out a strip of cloth. She tied it around my chest to minimize the blood loss.

  “Now…” Uqyaes stood in front of us and towered over us.

  I have no idea if my vision was wonky, but I'm sure of what I saw…

  One second Uqyaes was standing, the next second, his entire top half was blown to bits. Then we heard a deafening noise about a second later.

  It was a ‘blink and you miss it’ kind of situation.

  Vey jumped down from her hiding spot and sprinted up to us. “Jett, here.” She took out a syringe and pricked it into my chest.

  “It stops the bleeding and makes the wound numb. You won't feel a thing.” She explained.

  "Thanks," I muttered.

  "Well, that was a close one..." Levi strode over to us calmly with his gun in hand. It was smoking hot…

  “Levi, what was that?” Keisha asked.

  Levi lifted his gun, and I saw that it was attached to his backpack. The butt of the gun had a long tube attached to the side of the backpack; it seemed like an energy container of some sort…

  “I fired a bullet. It needs energy buildup; that's why I stalled. I needed enough time to charge it up.”

  I took deep breaths. The pain had subsided, but I'd come upon a daunting realization: I could have died…

  “How'd you deal with the big guy?”

  Vey grinned and pointed at her sniper. “I had a clear shot, and I took it. It wasn't easy, though; Liv and Levi couldn't latch on to him because he kept moving around so fast.”

  “C’mon, let's get going. I got a lot of paperwork to fill out." Levi turned around and headed back towards the jet.

  Paperwork?? “What paperwork?" I asked. “I didn't do any paperwork."

  “That's because your mission was a failure. Mine was a success…”

  “Levi!!!” Liv hushed him.

  “I didn't fail; I did what was asked of me.” I angrily stood up.

  "That...and more.” Levi cocked his head towards me.

  “If you were in my shoes,” I walked up to him, "what would you have done?”

  There was a terse silence that lasted for about two minutes. Then Levi grinned.

  “The last order," he said. “Mason's tough. He'll come back… eventually.”

  “Eventually?? You’d be willing to bet it on a possibility?”

  “So, your emotions got the better of you?”

  “My humanity got the better of me.”

  A sharp noise pierced the air, and I felt the impact of a bullet tear between Levi and me. We turned around and saw Vey with her sniper raised and aimed at us.

  “Knock it off. Both of you.” She loaded up another bullet and aimed it at us again. “I'm not joking.”

  Levi grinned.

  “Let’s go.”