runmakitarun | Into the storm

As the last of the team files through the door Makita closes it firmly behind herself and leads the way over to the window. Down in the square below twelve people move purposefully through the snow.

The six women are mostly unremarkable. One stands out as being exceptionally tall, one is short enough to almost look like a child, and hair of various colors and lenghts and styles can be seen escaping from their warm hats. The six men, however, stand out. The smallest is six and a half feet tall and looks to weigh at least 270 pounds. All twelve of them move with the smooth grace of practiced killers.

Makita doesn't bother whispering as she points them out, "See how they move in pairs? Each sorceress has her Guardsman a few paces behind her. You can see that even in a group they're thinking in twos. When we hit them, I want us to concentrate on splitting as many pairs as we can. They operate much less efficiently when their teams are broken up."

"There's another square like this a few blocks down. If they're headed of our HQ, then they'll have to go through it. If we move fast we can get there first and set up." She shoulders her rifle and looks at her team again, "Let's keep it fast and quiet."

So saying, Makita leads the way out the door, heading toward the rear fire escape for the building.

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Too clumsy, too slow, too late - by the time his hands grasp for her, the spot holds nothing but cold air. She's already darting for the woman, and coming as close to a prayer as she's ever been. This is not going to be easy. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

The sorceress' eyes are already glowing as Miho moves in on her, but the rage behind them is clearly visible. She finishes a mumbling string of syllables with a yell, "Kasting!"

And suddenly, the ground Miho was standing on drops out from under her. A neat circle, about ten meters across, simply falls from around the sorceress. The only ground left is a small spire on which the witch stands and a narrow walkway connecting it to the edge of the circle.

A savage grin of triumph spreads across the sorceress' face. She may have lost her guardsman, but no one is fast enough to survive a Drop protokol.

Correction.

Almost no-one is fast enough. Miho, on the other hand, is moving before she consciously realises that the ground isn't there any more. When she felt the ground collapsing under her, she threw herself up and forwards - because going backwards just isn't an option. Legs that can soak a drop from eight stories can easily manage an olympic-calibre standing jump - and the witch is no longer alone on her spire.

She allows herself a second to grin, before her blade flickers towards the witch's throat. Miho doesn't take prisoners.

The sorceress throws up an arm to defend herself, managing to interpose it between her throat and the blade. The truth is that she's pretty good at hand-to-hand combat. But it isn't her specialty, and her guardsman was better, and look where he ended up.

She's still reeling in shock. The loss of her guardsman so quickly should have been impossible, but surviving a Drop protokol should have been really impossible. She's just not fast enough, or good enough, to do more than try to survive a few more seconds.

And against Miho, even that doesn't look too likely.

Blocking a master-made katana is never wise - even less so when the master was none other than Masamune. The blade goes through bone as easily as it would have gone through her throat, and the witch finds herself down one limb. Miho can't step back for another swing as there's nowhere to step to, so the woman will get a moment to appreciate her blood pumping from the stump as the little samurai re-groups for a killing stroke.

The witch screams. Some of that is because she now realizes that she's going to die, but most of it is shock and pain. She makes a quick decision: if she's going to die, then so will her killer.

Her eyes glitter as she leans forward to shove Miho off the tiny spire. It overbalances her, and if Miho goes then the witch is certain to fall after her, but since she's dead anyway...

Miho does, in fact, fall off the spire - except it isn't an uncontrolled fall. She stepas backwards and allows the witch to go past her - and as she drops, her left hand catches hold of a protruding edge of the spire. Her body jerks to a stop, and the witch tumbles down. She'll still be alive when she hits the bottom - it takes a surprisingly long time for death to occur after massive blood loss.

It's a long way to the bottom, and the sorceress' howl of thwarted rage has plenty of time to draw out as she hurtles toward what will certainly be a fatal landing.

Miho doesn't bother staying around to hear the ending - it's not as if it's unpredictable. Instead, she swings herself back up onto the spire, and trots across the narrow causeway-like bridge. Better make sure the others are okay. . .

The comm-link crackles slightly as Makita's voice comes through, "Makita here, everybody check in (http://runmakitarun.livejournal.com/7766.html)."

Into the storm

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