Sineater

It took moments for a crowd to gather across the street.

Manticore weren’t common in this part of the world. The main colony was in the mountains on the western side of the continent. The six to seven foot tall winged leonins were banned from most Elf cities due to their violent nature that had eclipsed even the Camadt. While the four armed felines had gradually accepted that peace was in their best interest and begun working toward establishing a country that could interact peaceably with the other nations, the Manticore had leaned into their bloodlust, using the high density of deviants to justify killing sprees.

It wasn’t that the Manticore went on random massacres, but one could be certain that if there was a large scale offensive somewhere, the Manticore would be on the front lines.

The main thing that had me concerned was the poison from their tail. I could transfer it back to them, but that was only if I could do it fast enough. It was a neurotoxin, and one that was strong enough to slow down a Dragon or a Camadt, so I didn’t like my chances at being able to purge it before it knocked me out.

It was a big planet, but I had a feeling that I knew who was standing in front of me, if only by reputation. There was only one Manticore in this region that was on the Elves payroll. And as brazenly as he was attacking, he had to have some backing to not be concerned about the locals.

“Karse Dragonsbane?” I held up both hands as I started to back away to give myself more room to react. When he didn’t answer, I pressed him. “You already know my name, seems rude for me not to know yours.”

“What difference does it make what my name is once you’re in chains?” The Manticore lunged at me.

He was fast and his wings gave him even more speed, but not enough to slip past my guard. I held back as I deflected a swipe, then a jab, followed by a tail strike. I didn’t want to use my ability to weaken him. So far, I’d been able to mostly hide who and what I was, but my opponent wasn’t some backwater nobody or a simple guard that anyone could have taken out. If I used my power in a measurable way, I had an entire crowd of witnesses and that was if I was able to finish him off before we fled.

The good news was that he was only using combos. While the added threat of his wings to allow him to twist in the air to strike me did provide a challenge, it was a simple case of targeting his next attack. Vin could swing his arms in different directions and at different tempos, which had conditioned me to be able to adjust to a much more complicated form of brawling.

“Whiny!?” I deflected his tail as I backed up. “How’s it coming?”

“IF YOU THINK THIS IS SO EASY THEN WHY DON’T YOU COME IN HERE AND I’LL….!”

“Fight the Manticore?” I cut her off as I dropped under a swipe and kicked his left knee, then grabbed his tail. The appendage was a lot stronger than I expected and he yanked it out of my grasp.

“A WHAT..?!?” Starna stuck her head out of the room she was working in.

“More brewing, less gawking!” I saw the Manticore take a breath and knew what I was in for and I was too close to get out of the way.

Flames rolled over an ice barrier between me and my opponent. As I tried to roll away from him. I got to my feet and took another couple steps back. The manticore was adjusting to my counters and learning that it was going to have to attack me two different ways at the same time if it was going to make any headway.

“Thanks!” I waved at her. “Now get that thing done so we can get out of here!”

“If I brew this thing wrong, then I’ll burn her face off instead…”

“JUST DO IT!” I pulled out my sword. Hopefully, I had fought him off long enough for the crowd to decide that I was in fact being attacked. “Get it to where you can finish it on the ship and let’s go!” I swiped at the tail with my sword. The blade bounced off like the tail was wrapped in Dragon scale.

The Manticore started laughing. “You can’t win. Tell me where the princess is and I’ll let you go once I have her.”

“A very generous offer.” I lowered my blade as I saw guards in golden armor running up the road towards us. “But this fight is over.”

The Manticore looked behind him at the approaching Elves and laughed. “Yes it is.”

The guards flanked the Manticore. The one in the lead looked at the larger being. “What do you need us to do Sir Karse?”

I tightened the grip on my sword as I realized that if he was on the Elves payroll, of course the guards would take orders from him. But I smirked at knowing that I’d guessed who he was correctly.

Karse pointed at me. “Arrest him.” He nodded at the door to the lab behind me on my left. “There’s another one in there.”

I raised my blade. This wasn’t good.