Objective Consequence (Book Two of the Subjective Justice series)

Chapter Three: Get out Alive

Metal clanged against the cybernetic beneath Akio's now shredded shirt sleeve.

The towering Draken sneered, showcasing his jagged teeth. His large, black-scaled head was held high with an air of superiority. Blue and green blood dripped from his spiraled and sharpened horns.

Akio shuddered, not wanting to dwell on the torment that her poor members faced before their demise. Perhaps it had been a mercy that they died.

A pungent odor of burnt flesh, blood, and feces hung in the air. Akio gagged. Nothing could lessen the stench of a gutted corpse. It was odd how little it bothered her beyond the initial findings. . . She had seen this too many times.

Blocking another swing of the long knive with her cybernetic arm, Akio grimaced at the sensation of the dent it formed. Indra was going to be pissed. It was one thing to injure her natural flesh, but to damage the carefully crafted, and quite expensive cybernetic was a personal insult to its engineer.

"The next time you break it, I'm going to take my cane to your ass!" Indra said, whacking Akio in the shoulder.

That had only been a few weeks ago. . . Akio wasn't looking forward to the expression on her girlfriend's face—or the cane.

The other five secret force members spread out, seeming intent on flanking Akio. Their black painted armor clanked, the capes over the top of it billowing from the speed of their movement.

Akio flicked out her knife and blocked another strike, managing to remove two of the Drakens scales in a quick attack of her own before returning to defense.

Sparks flew from the repeated impact of the Draken's long knife against her short one.

She ducked a swing from another Draken, before turning about to stab her first attacker in the hand. The amount of force it took to shove past their scales and through their palm was as if she were thrusting into a rock, possible, but difficult.

Thank the stars she still had the knife from the commanders, any ordinary blade would've broken.

Blue blood spurted from the wound, the Draken recoiled, smoke flaring from his nostrils as the long knife dropped from his injured hand.

Akio slid across the ground, bending back to avoid a baton to the head as she retrieved the long knife. Though she didn't often duel wield, it wasn't as if she had no training in it.

It would take a calculated move to land a hit to get through the armor. Even with Akio's enhanced abilities, there was a slim chance she'd be able to break through the metal. . . Unless she hit it after they used their fire. If she managed to provoke the Draken's into using their natural ability, the warmth it created in the chest plate could potentially make it softer, vulnerable. Though she doubted a dagger would do much damage regardless of the metal it was crafted from.

Internally, she face palmed. Shoulder scythes! Why did she keep forgetting she had starshitted shoulder scythes? Allowing herself a bit of distance would be immensely helpful when faced with this many enemies at once.

But, the movement to get them out would leave her vulnerable. Until Akio took out a few of the not so secret secret force, attempting to pull out her scythes was idiocy.

Akio used the dagger to block another swing, and the long life to slash at the hands of another attacker. Those were the only things exposed, beside their neck and head. But it wasn't that easy to reach the latter. Not that Akio wanted to, she could still get out of this without killing them. . . Maybe. Hopefully.

The worst thing that could happen would be if Akio allowed them to surround her. Six against one, even a weapon, wasn't great odds, considering the sort of training these members of the palace had in particular. They weren't just guards. They were spies, assassins, and the most deadly force within sector five. Aside from herself.