Do or Die

POV Change (Sapphire):

-Step Step Step

My restful slumber was suddenly interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching the cabin. I quietly put the picture back in the trunk and grab my sword. Now there sound to be four sets of steps, all seem humanoid, so they are probably not Grimm. They also are coming from the direction of the city, so they are probably people.

'Are they pursuers, but why now, they haven't come after me in years' I think to myself, as I hear the footsteps grow closer.

I hear the group split up, two to the door and, the other two move around the back. Acting quickly I rearrange my pillows and blankets to make it look like I'm still in it. While It won't hold up to close inspection, it will keep them from realizing I'm not asleep from just a glance. After I finish I silently jump up to the rafters to hide, and wait for them to enter.

I hear one of them approach the door and,

-Click

Unlock it, probably through the use of a semblance, as I didn't hear anything inserted into the lock. The person, now identified as an armed man in his early twenties, gingerly opens the door in an attempt to reduce the noise it makes. The man has short dark brown hair with a matching full beard, and he appears to be human. He has on what looks to be leather-based armor. After the man fully opened the door it allowed me to see the other person at the door. It was a woman, armed and of similar age to the man. The woman, also human, has brown hair, but it's dark and shoulder-length. The man then slowly makes his way over to the bed, as the woman stays by the door, probably to prevent escape.

Seeing the man come directly underneath me, I jump down and slam his head into the ground and breaking his aura, and immediately incapacitating him. Knowing that was going to be loud and notify the other two pursuers that something was wrong, I immediately moved to attack the woman at the door. Before the woman was able to recover from her surprise at her partner's swift incapacitation, I dashed and thrust my sword toward her stomach.

The attack was intended to break her aura and incapacitate her, but it just pushed her back. Noticing that, I close the distance, jump up, and knee her in the chin. This knocks her on her back, but before I incapacitate her the other two come around the cabin and engage.

The two, both human, their weapons already drawn, and move to surround me. One of the men has short red hair with a cleanly shaven face and wields two daggers that he changes into pistols and starts firing at me, forcing me to dodge and leave the woman. I send a powerful gust of wind toward the red-headed man, launching my adversary into a nearby tree. The impact temporarily downs my attacker, so I turn my focus to the other guy, only see him stab at me with a spear. I quickly step to the side and in, bringing myself closer than a spear's effective attack range. I charge lightning into my sword and deliver a swift diagonal slash to his torso. Knowing this won't be enough, I adjust my grip on the sword and smash the pommel onto the man's nose, breaking both his aura and nose. This swiftly brings him down for the fight, but this altercation has given enough time for the other two to recover and reenter the fray.

The woman swiftly brings her weapon, a war ax, down onto me, while the man resumes shooting me from a distance, but I notice something, a mistake. I quickly drop my sword and step into the woman's strike. I take advantage and throw the woman over my shoulder. The woman's ax was too far forward. This caused her center of balance to be too forward as well. Which in turn allowed me to easily take advantage of her momentum and toss her.

After tossing the woman, I grabbed my sword and dashed toward the man shooting at me, as he was a bigger threat, having already landed a few shots in that short exchange, and damaging my aura a little.

The man quickly tries to gain distance, but I use my semblance to freeze one of his feet to the ground. This coupled with his sleight panic, caused him to trip and fall, and I used this opportunity to kick him in the face, and then bring my foot down on his gut, breaking his aura, and knocking him out.

Now for the last one. I refocus on the woman as she stands up, and readies her weapon at me. I close the distance and make an ice spike come out of the ground on her left side. Predictably she dodges right, and straight into a slash from my sword. This finally shatters her aura, so I deck her in the face and she drops, unconscious.

"Whew," I breathe, letting out a relaxed smile, as I had taken them all down.

Suddenly I hear more footsteps approaching from behind me. I quickly turn around to face the new enemies, only to be stuck in place as I see a familiar blonde huntress accompanied by a group of what I assume to be huntresses on huntsman as well as a strange white-haired man with a steaming mug in his hand and a slight grin on his face.

"Impressive, four on one, and you defeated them with nary a scratch. I have to say well done, young lady," The white-haired man says with obvious amusement.

I glare at him and ask, "What do you want!?"

The man just brushes of my glare and says, "Well, you of course, what else."

'I knew it, but there's too many to fight, and I can't run, not without that picture, I have to fight even if it's hopeless

"Don't try it," I hear the white-haired man warns, but I pay it no heed.

I fire a bolt of lightning at the blond huntress, causing her to release her hold on me to block. Seeing as I'm free, the rest of the group starts to move, while the blond huntress and that white-haired man stay back. I attempt to keep the group from staying at range by attacking anyone who tries with an assortment of fire, wind, lightning, and ice, but my attempts are thwarted by people rushing into melee. The group proved themselves to be much more skilled and experienced than the previous one. I was taking hit after hit from both close combat and ranged, while my opponents were sitting pretty.

I was quickly accumulating damage to my aura, and while I had a lot of it, I couldn't take this forever.

Seeing that if I don't change things quickly I will go down, I tanked a few hits in exchange for time. Time I used to charge a blast of wind that I sent outward in all directions. This launched the aggressors away from me, but I wasn't in a good position. My aura is dangerously low and I'm hurting quite a lot, as aura only stops damage, not pain.

Unfortunately, My opponents gave me no time to recover,

"ARGH!" For the first time in this fight, I am forced to make a pained yelp, as after the dust cleared, the blonde huntress sent one of her purple projectiles straight into my side, shattering my aura, and sending me tumbling onto the ground.

"I told you not to try it," The white-haired man said with a sigh, as he approaches me with the blonde huntress.

It seems that he has already assumed that I can't fight anymore.

That I was done.

I wasn't.

"Go to hell," I barely get out over my labored breathing, as I shakily stand up. The group grows wary, as they assume I aim to continue the fight.

They are wrong.

I feel tears well up in my eyes.

I look at my sword.

I look to the cabin.

I'm not ready, but there's no choice.

"Sorry, guys," I whisper aloud, as tears fall from my eyes.

'I'd rather die than go back to that facility,' I finish in my head.

Then, to the group's surprise, I raise my sword,

And flip it around.

"What are y--," I hear from the blonde huntress, but she is interrupted by my next actions.

I plunge the sword into myself.

And as everything went dark, all I could think is,

Sorry.

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