<h4>Chapter 223: Thest stand II</h4>


    I closed the distance before they could draw their des. My fist connected with the first one’s throat, right where the mask met the tactical vest. I heard something crunch, and he went down choking.


    The second one managed to get his knife out. He shed at me, the de moving in a precise arc aimed at my carotid artery.


    I ducked under it and drove my palm into his sternum. The impact sent him flying backwards into the wall. He hit hard enough to crack the concrete.


    Then he just... got back up like he hadn’t just been hit with enough force to shatter a normal person’s ribcage.


    They were enhanced. Just like I’d thought.


    "If you want to get to anyone else," I said, rolling my shoulders, "you’ll have to kill me first. Or I’ll kill all of you. Either way works for me. I will also give you a chance because I am such a good person to walk away first, and I promise, I will let you go."


    The leader studied me. "Even if you are a Bloodborn Wolf, you’re outnumbered. This is a fight you cannot win. You do realise there’s only one of you and more of us, right?"


    "Less talking," I said with a smile. "More action."


    Then they came at me all at once.


    The fight was brutal from the first second.


    The Faceless didn’t fight like normal people. They fought like machines. They had no fear, no hesitation, no self-preservation instinct. They just kepting, wave after wave of perfectly executed strikes and would only drop out of a fight when they’ve been badly wounded or dead.


    I blocked a punch and countered with an elbow to someone’s face. Dodged a knife sh, caught the attacker’s wrist and broke it. Kicked another one in the knee hard enough to hyperextend it.


    But they didn’t stay down. The one with the broken wrist just switched hands. The one with the ruined knee adjusted his stance and kept fighting.


    They were relentless.


    A fist caught me in the ribs. I heard something crack. Pain exploded through my side, but I pushed through it and grabbed the attacker and threw him into two others.


    Suddenly, the door burst open as the rest of the group ran into the room. They didn’t even bother to take a break; they just joined in the fight.


    A de shed across my shoulder, not deep, but deep enough for blood to start soaking through my shirt.


    I was losing, and they were gaining the upper hand. Also, I noticed, they were hellbent on wounding me. So, I had to go on the defensive, to preserve my strength and my body.


    Punch. Block. Kick. Dodge. Over and over. My whole world narrowed to movement and pain and the next threating at me.


    I managed to get one of them in a chokehold. I held on until he stopped struggling, then dropped him and immediately had to deal with two more fighting me.


    My knuckles were split and bleeding. My face was swelling where someone hadnded a solid hit. My ribs screamed with every breath.


    But I’d taken down thirteen of them. Thirteen out of fifty were poor, but it was better than lying lifeless on the ground.


    The remaining Faceless backed off slightly, reassessing. I used the moment to catch my breath, spitting blood onto the floor.


    "Still standing," I said, though my voice was rougher than before. "That’s more than I can say for your friends."


    The leader tilted his head again. "You’re skilled. I’ll give you that. But it’s only a matter of time before you die."


    "Yeah?" I grinned through bloody teeth. "At least I’m not the one lying on the floor, and we could end this the simple way, or you lose more of your men. I am a Bloodborn wolf; it would take more of you to get me to my knees."


    I heard a cackle from the leader before he made some hand gestures with his hands, and the rest of his men fell into a butterfly formation.


    "Fuck me!" I muttered under my breath. These people were determined to kill me.


    "Let’s test the Bloodborn wolf theory," the leader said, crouching low.


    Then they resumed their attacks again.


    I was slower now and tired. The adrenaline was wearing off, and the pain was getting harder to ignore. ck, my wolf was doing its best to heal me as fast as it could, but my blood was literally pouring to the ground now. Every movement hurt, and every breath was agony.


    I could easily change into my wolf, but I wanted to wait until I got more numbers down.


    I deflected a blow and caught the person who had hurled the blow at me with a spinning backfist that sent him crashing into a wall. His mask cracked, and I saw blood underneath.


    I caught one with a spinning backfist, sending him crashing into a wall. Heard his mask crack. Saw blood underneath.


    The leader came at me with a knife. I blocked the first strike, then the second. The third one got through. The de sliced across my thigh.


    I groaned with pain, stumbling backwards, but stayed upright. I grabbed his knife hand and head-butted him; his mask cracked further.


    He staggered back, and I pressed the advantage. I struck him with a series of rapid strikes to his ribs, throat, face, wherever my fist could connect. Finally, he went down hard.


    But getting him down left me open. The room was still filled with his minions, who had paused as they saw their leader go down. Suddenly, something hard, maybe an elbow or worse, struck the back of my head.


    My vision blurred, my legs buckled, and I went down to one knee.


    About five of them approached me, kicking me in the ribs. I heard myself scream with pain as their boots connected to all the open wounds all over my body.


    I tried to get up, but I couldn’t. My body was too weak and wasn’t responding the way it should. I should shift now.


    <i>ck</i>


    <i>I called out to my wolf in my mind. Any moment now, you will take over. </i>


    <i>Ready when you are. ck responded immediately. </i>


    One of them grabbed me by the hair and yanked my head back. I saw the knifeing toward my throat. Instinctively, I caught his wrist with both hands and held it there. My arms shook with the effort, but I pressed on, still trying to ignore the thousand pains in my body and shift.


    We were locked like that for what felt like forever. He was pushing down with his enhanced strength, and I was holding him off with everything I had left.


    Then I heard it. A scraping sound behind me.


    I turned my head. It was a stupid move. One that I regretted as soon as I did it, taking my eyes off the threat in front of me, and saw movement.


    One of the Faceless I’d taken down earlier. The first one I’d hit had regained consciousness, and he was pulling a gun from a concealed holster.


    "Hey!" I called out to him, finally pushing the threat in front of me away. "Guns are prohibited from fights like this."


    But everything slowed.


    He staggered to his feet, and the gun came up, pointing at me. I saw his finger squeeze the trigger as the shot rang out, impossibly loud in the confined space.


    I saw the bulleting. I could track its path through the air. Dodging a bullet was one of the first lessons I’d been trained in. I could easily avoid this, but my body seemed stuck in a slowness I didn’t understand.


    I tried to move, to dodge the bulleting at me, but I was too weak, and damn that slowness.


    "Shit," I breathed as the bullet hit me in the chest, just below my corbone on the left side.


    The impact felt like being kicked by a horse. My whole body jerked backwards, and I fell.


    I hit the floor hard, trying to take in as much air as I could. There was so much pain. A burning, tearing sensation spread from the bullet wound through my entire chest.


    I could feel blood pooling beneath me, its metallic scent filling the whole room.


    My vision was going dark around the edges. Sounds became muffled and distant.


    I heard footsteps. The Faceless surrounding me, checking to see if I was dead.


    "Target neutralised," one of them said. The voice sounded like it wasing from underwater. "Proceeding to locate secondary targets."


    Secondary targets. Charis. ter. The others.


    No!


    I tried to move, and I had to warn them. Had to...


    But my body wouldn’t respond; nothing was working anymore. I could feel ck prancing inside me, calling out to me to change, but his voice sounded distant. Nothing worked. I was shutting down.


    Thest thing I saw before the darkness took me was the ceiling of the corridor. Fluorescent lights flickering overhead.


    Thest thing I thought was, <i>"I’m sorry, Charis.</i>"<i> I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise.</i>


    Then nothing.


    Just ckness.


    Cold andplete and final.


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