The White Fox and The Red Briar Snake

Montague and Leo looked at each other and prepared for a fight. Leo leaped forward and threw a punch at him. Montague took the punch and barely reacted to it. He then grabbed Leo and lifted him up before tossing him across the room.

As Leo staggered up, he looked at Montague and said, "I guess they still call you 'The Indomitable' then..."

"Only people not from here." He replied as he started to walk over to Leo.

He stood in front of Leo and started helping him up. Leo put his hands out to stop him and got up himself. Leo dusted himself off slightly and raised his hands in a fighting stance, prompting Montague to do the same.

Leo threw a jab at Montague's face and his head only slightly bounced back. Montague did the same towards Leo and it rocked his entire head.

"Come on, you are like bobblehead. Dodge them, I know you can, you are like slippery cunt."

Leo's face scrunched up slightly in disturbance. "Don't say that, please."

"Where was error?"

"There wasn't really one, it's just weird to say that to someone."

"But dodge Mathias." He lifted his finger up like an instructor.

"Relax, I just wanted to see if you could hit any harder with old age."

"You watch tongue before I rip it out."

Montague threw a punch which Leo promptly dodged. Then another was thrown and dodged, this went on for a few moments until Leo found an opening and threw a few punches.

Montague then grabbled Leo and threw him again. Leo landed on a table before it flipped over and landed on him. Paper flew throughout the room and Leo groaned from the floor.

A piece of paper landed on his face and when Leo took it off, he discovered a fist descending towards him. Leo quickly turned his head and the fist landed on the floor. Leo wrapped his arms around Montague's neck which was now close to him, and pushed himself off of the floor, a spun around Montague.

Then, with his arms wrapped around his neck still, he began choking out Montague. Montague started stumbling backwards until he found a wall. Except it wasn't a wall. Instead, it was a hard metal refrigerator, and they were now in the breakroom.

Montague slammed himself against the refrigerator, or more accurately, he slammed Leo against it. But Leo still clung onto him. Montague repeated this a few times before he changed his tactic.

He ran forward slightly and flipped himself landing on Leo and ramming him to the floor. Nearly all the wind was knocked out of Leo and his eyes dimmed momentarily, but he still clung to Montague tightly. Montague reached his arm behind him and started swinging while ramming Leo against the floor.

While swinging his arm, Montague found the one of Leo's shoulders was slightly damp and instead of swinging, he felt around that area. He quickly found a hole and rammed his thumb right into Leo's bullet wound.

Leo grunted loudly through his gritted teeth as he held on, but it would be a lie saying his arms weren't getting weak. Montague gripped Leo's arm and slowly pried them away, taking a deep gasp as he did so.

Then, while they were still both on the floor, Montague reached behind him, grabbed both of Leo's shoulders by his shirt and threw him into another table. This time it was a kitchen table and some cold soup landed on Leo.

They both staggered up, panting while they looked at each other. A brief respite happened between the two as the caught their breath.

Then someone unexpectantly tackled Montague. Or at least they tried.

Montague was resting when someone jumped into them, almost knocking him over.

"What the fuck?" Luke muttered as he clung to Montague.

Montague grabbed his head and peeled him away. "It is friend of yours?"

Leo exhaled heavily and nodded, "Yeah…"

Montague then threw a heavy punch into Luke's gut, making him collapse to the floor, trying to keep himself from vomiting.

"Mathias, I've had enough of this shit." Luke muttered though gasps.

"You've had enough? Buddy, I've been thrown around all day today, if anyone's had enough, it's me."

They looked at each other and Luke laughed slightly. Montague waited for a moment watching the two.

Luke then looked at Montague, they stared at each other in silence. Then Luke lifted his hand and tore into it with his teeth.

"What the hell…" Montague said with a disturbed expression.

Then, from Luke's bloody palm, dozens of tiny snakes emerged, and a large one was slowly forming as more blood fell. Seeing this, Leo cracked his joints all over his body, his neck, his fingers, his arms, and his back, then he stretched slightly.

"Alright Monty, let's hurry this up."

Leo jumped forwards once more and Montague threw a punch to get the advantage. But a few small snakes appeared and wrapped around his arm, and instead Montague became restricted, and his punch failed to land.

Leo threw two heavy punches right after another into Montague's chin. Montague finally managed to get the snake off and he defended himself. Then he took the offensive and punched towards Leo.

Leo avoided all the punches he threw towards him. Montague then suddenly kicked Leo with surprising speed, sending him onto a countertop.

"Stop launching me into tables and shit!" Leo shouted angrily as he grabbed a plate and threw it at Montague. It shattered against his head, and he bled slightly. Montague started advancing towards Leo who was now throwing all manner of dishes and silverware at him.

But before he could get far, some snakes wrapped themselves tightly around Montague's legs and anchored him to the ground. Montague tried to stomp on the snakes but found it unexpectantly hard.

Then Leo started digging through the cabinets and he pulled something out. He lifted in his arms a large cast iron skillet.

Upon seeing this, Montague raised his arms and said, "No. No! Put that down!"

Leo ran forward and swung the skillet, but Montague dodged it despite not being able to move his legs. He then actually managed to snatch the skillet out of Leo's hands.

Leo back away and raised his hands urgently, "Yeah, yeah, I agree, let's put the skillet down."

Montague's brows furrowed and he threw the skillet at Leo. Leo dropped to the floor and the skillet flew past his head, smashing into the tile above the sink, destroying it instantly.

"Oh…" Leo's widened when he saw that.

Montague then finally managed to wrangle his feet away from the snaked and he stormed forward. Then the large snake finally fully emerged from Luke and flew towards Montague at incredible speeds. It aimed for his face, but Montague lifted his arms and the snake wrapped around it and bit.

Montague gritted his teeth, and he grabbed the head of the snake. He started peeling the snake off from his arm, but the snake constricted itself in defiance. Montague quickly ran towards Luke causing him to panic and quickly back up.

It was all for naught as Montague caught up with him and began choking him out with his own blood snake. Luke tried to peel himself away but failed, so instead he returned the snake to an unstable state, meaning it turned back into regular blood. He'd now have to spend some time to reanimate it to get it back to the size it was.

Montague started hitting Luke and Luke started defending himself, but he was getting injured fast. He used some small snakes to lessen the blow, but they were getting destroyed by Montague, and he was running out. The more blood and mana he used up, the dizzier he became.

He sent a snake towards Montague's face, but Montague grabbed it by the mouth and tore it in half. Luke's eyes widened and he started backing up, Luke tripped slightly and fell to the floor.

BONG!

Suddenly, Leo hit Montague in the back of the head with the skillet causing Montague to pause for a moment with blank eyes. He shook with head to get rid of the daze he was now experiencing. He turned and looked at Leo with narrowed eyes.

Leo took a step back, but before he could leave, Montague kicked him as hard as he could, and Leo was launched back, and he slammed into the fridge. Leo collapsed to the floor as the fridge door opened.

Leo started crawling away, holding his ribs, but Montague walked towards him and grabbed him by the hair.

"You know… Every time I see you, I forget why I hate you. And then, I remember after a while." He paused his speech and punch Leo in the middle of his face, breaking Leo's nose, "You are such an annoying little shit."

It was in that moment, from his position on the floor, that Luke had an epiphany. A chain of thought so absurd in his situation, one had to question his mental state. You see, in this moment, Luke saw a single grape on the floor.

Just one. Fallen from inside the refrigerator.

It was that single grape that made him think about its stem. How jagged they are sometimes after picking the grapes off of them, but not rough enough to do any harm. He remembered his favorite flower, a rose. He remembered getting pricked by the thorns as a child. He remembered his favorite bird, a shrike. A shrike killed its prey by piercing them on small thorns.

He mumbled to himself slightly with eyes in a daze, his head spinning.

"Ah… thorns… killing…"

From the blood on the floor, he started making a dozen small snakes and he sent them all towards Montague who was holding Leo. They all wrapped themselves around him and then, Montague screamed.

"Ah! Pasks lovar!" He cursed in his native language, it was the equivalent of, 'Fucks sake,' as thorns grew from the snakes. The snakes wrapped themselves around his limbs and started constricting themselves, driving the thorns in deeper. Some of the snakes overlapped on each other creating a visual not dissimilar to a briar patch.

But before any real damage could be done the snakes disappeared and Luke almost fell unconscious. But he held it together, he had used up almost all of the mana and blood available to him, so he wasn't doing too well.

Montague stumbled slightly as he bled all over, ever so slightly. Seeing this, Leo quickly got up and ran over to Luke, grabbing him and leaving.

While carrying Luke, Leo couldn't go that fast, but they did make it to the offices that Leo was tackled into earlier. If he went to fast, Luke wouldn't be able to rest as much. Leo could book it, if need be, but he'd rather not.

Leo placed Luke down and quickly started shifting through the paper, looking for either of his guns. After a moment, he looked up and saw Montague standing there ominously.

Montague raised his hand and Leo's old pistol was right there in his palm. Leo froze momentarily.

"I finally get to kill the Rat. Goodbye Mathias."

"Hey… Guess what?"

Montague sighed, "What?"

Leo instantly got up and grabbed Luke with a "Fuck you!" and sprinted around the corner as Montague fired his gun at them.

Montague quickly followed them, when he turned the corner, he noticed a door with an exit sign closing. He ran over revealing a small hallway and stairs going up and down. It seems that Luke had slipped on something so without thinking he aimed his gun, only for it to be hit away by Leo who hid behind the door.

Before Leo could do anything else, Montague punched him in the face sending him sliding across the floor. Behind Leo was a large window to the outside, the night lights shone slightly within, warping due to the water on the glass.

Montague walked over to Leo, but before he did anything, he passed Luke. He looked at look Luke for a moment and kicked him down the stairs that he was next to. Then he turned to Leo and grabbed him by the hair.

"Goddamn it, stop grabbing my hair!"

He lifted Leo and threw him out of the window…