"The most gorgeous of people are often the most deadly."
"I'm sorry, but please explain to me when it became acceptable for a gentleman such as yourself to accost a young woman, especially in such a manner?"
The man froze, his hands gripping the woman's wrists tightly, and his eyes peered into the darkness. "Who ... Who's there?"
A chuckle was his immediate answer, followed by a silky voice from above.
"Oh, just a little thing called karma ... And you're about to have an entire feast of it, you piece of scum!"
The man had only a flash of light, skirt-like material, far shorter than what is deemed acceptable in the time and age, before the feeling of something crushing his face enveloped him. He let out a grunt and flew to the ground, his hands slipping from the young woman's wrists, and he bounced, his palms clutching his injured face. Blood oozed between his fingers and dripped down his hands, undoubtedly from a broken nose and busted lip, and he squirmed, cursing and shouting expletives.
Axel turned to the young girl, gently resting a hand on her shoulder.
"It would probably be best if you went home. Don't tell anyone what happened - I'll take care of this sorry excuse of a man for you."
The girl sniffed and nodded, lifting her heavy skirts only high enough so she could run off. Axel waited until she was safely out in the street, which was bustling with merchants and salesmen, before turning to face the man.
"Alright, little boy," she said, moving her head from side to side, cracks echoing in the darkened area between two buildings. She crossed towards him, cracking her knuckles as she strode. "We can do this the easy way," she said with a sigh, "Or the hard way." With that, she grabbed the front of his shirt, lifting him higher than her own height, so that his feet dangled in the air. His face was already swelling, and tears mixed with blood on the disgusting skin of the pervert.
"Do we have a problem here, boss?"
Axel paused, the voices hitting her back and reverberating in the small alleyway. She chuckled softly, shaking her head as she did so, before chucking the man to the ground.
"K-k-kill her!" he cried as he landed.
Turning, she heaved a sigh as she caught sight of the six men. "Such a shame .... I really don't want to mess up delicious-looking faces such as yours, but," she drawled it out as she reached down, easily plucking up a long wooden pole from the ground, "I suppose I haven't any choice in the matter, now do I?" she asked, swinging it up and over her shoulder. The men looked at her for a moment, turned their eyes to each other, and then promptly burst into laughter. One braced himself against the wall as he laughed, while two others bent over at the waists, clutching their sides.
One stepped forward - the leader of their little band of thugs-for-hire - and snickered. "Listen, little girl - maybe you should run back and perform your womanly duties before we actually get serious about hurting you." More laughter ensued, but it took Axel only three steps before she had crossed the area between them. On the second step, she dropped her weight to her right, her right fist clenching, and as she pushed forward into her third step, she swung under and then up, promptly hitting the jaw of the 'leader'. He grunted and stumbled back, tripping over a pile of rotting wooden cartons, before he fell to his back and into a pile of equally-rotten food. Rolling on the ground, her writhed from the pain of a broken jaw.
It was only a second later before his entourage reacted, and they threw themselves into the fight, brandishing their own home-made weapons, both including blades and not. Axel moved solely upon reaction to the most immediate threat, her fists flying through the air in a style of fighting that she had made all her own.
She had taken out two of the five remaining before she was seriously injured, but by then she was falling into a bit of exhaustion. Due to such, a dodge was weak, and a blade sliced cleanly through the meat between her hip bone and her rib cage. Pain immediately flushed through her, blood escaping out and at first dotting her top. It slowly began to spread, but the adrenaline that kept her moving shoved the pain back, allowing her to further fight.
Finally, she spun, swinging her left leg out and kicking it up in the same motion. The heel of her foot caught the cheekbone of the one remaining assailant, and the attack sent him flying into a nearby wall. He struck it hard, his head cracking back and against it, before slumping to the ground and going still. Axel straightened, brushing off her shirt as she did so. Her hand rose, the back of it wiping a few droplets of blood from the corner of her mouth.
Spitting in their direction, she scoffed. "How disgusting .... To consider yourself men is an insult to human kind. You're nothing more than rodents - pathetic scum that need to be wiped from this world."
Axel grimaced, a gasp escaping her lips. She stumbled into the nearest wall, her blood-smeared fingertips clenching against it, while her free hand moved to her side.
"Just my luck to get injured on a day as important as this," she scowled. Taking a step forward on a slightly-shaking leg, she cringed as the movement sent pain through her body. Sparing a fleeting glance at the poor victims of her attack, she pulled a face. Another bout of luck just for her - the assailant of the young girl was none other than Sir Datlon Riaron, of the House of Riaron - a high-up family with quite a lot of money. During the attack, he had somehow ended up with a spear directly through his neck. His eyes were frozen open in shock, already glazed over with death, and his mouth hung open, blood dripping down from it and mixing with that at his throat. The six thugs were among similar states - one had a dagger through his forehead, and another had a homemade battle-ax through his chest - but they were of no matter for her.
Turning, she approached Datlon, the hand that wasn't clutching her side searching through his clothes. She found three pouches of money and one with precious jewelry within, and without hesitation, opened all four and scattered most of each across the ground between all of the bodies. She positioned Datlon closer to the thugs, making it more believable that it was either a behind-the-scenes deal gone wrong, or a mugging and robbery that had gone wrong when the thugs couldn't agree on a fair, share able profit between them all.
With that done, she pulled a string at the top of her skirt, and immediately underlying layers fell to their full-length. Taking a dagger that she kept hidden at the top of her skirt, she cut the skirt in several places before smearing blood across it. Turning to her bodice, she cut several holes in the top, giving it a tattered look, before turning to the street. Pulling in a deep breath - or as deep of one as she could manage, what with the injury in her side, she disheveled her hair and stumbled to the street. "Show time ..."
Tears were streaming down her face before she even reached the light, her hand outstretched while the other clutched her side.
"Please ... Please help me!" she cried, stumbling into the day light. She bumped into a make-shift stand that sold vases, before tripping and grabbing on to a nearby guard. "Please ... Help me ... H-he tried to sell me ... To them ... There ... There was a fight ... I got away ... But ..." She cried out, doubling over and clutching her side.
The guard immediately grabbed her in an attempt to keep her from falling. A order was shouted for his comrades to investigate the area that she had come from, while one was sent to fetch a doctor.
"Don't worry, you're safe now. You'll be just fine."
A twisted grin crossed Axel's lips, for her head was ducked out of view. In her trembling voice, despite the grin, and managed to whimper out, "Thank you ... Thank you so much," before collapsing into the man's arms, feigning unconsciousness.