A more careful approach

I felt the rage bubbling in my stomach. It was hot, almost painfully so, but I forced myself to be careful. This horrid witch had a decade of cunning cruelty under her belt, so there was no way that she would expose herself so recklessly without good reason. I launched the blade I had stolen into the wall halfway up the staircase. Athrain chuckled, “Oh boy, you missed, and by a lot. Do you want to try that again, Curse?”, she mocked me. I ignored her words and followed through with my plan. The arrogant elf was unaware that I had not missed at all.

The muscles in my leg bulged, then I launched myself into air, far up the staircase. The sword had sunken into the wall to the hilt, so I used it as a step to jump the rest of the way up the stairs, closing the distance between us in less than a second. Athrain’s eyes went wide, and she raised her blade, but it was of no use. Her weapon harmlessly glid off my stomach without even leaving a scratch. A moment later my hands was squeezing her neck, and I lifted her off the ground. “Fucking… monster…”, she pressed out with eyes full of hate. I sunk my fist into her stomach which produced a pained yelp from her… such a beautiful sound.

She was now hanging limp in my grasp, no longer resisting. I got close to her and whispered, “How long has it been since you experienced true pain, elf?”. I could hear her shaky breath; her lips lost all colour, and her eyes were filled with fear. Delicious, primal, true fear.

I raised my hand again, this time intending to knock her out, when I heard a door bursting open behind me. A chain made of golden light wrapped around my arm and held it in the air. At the same time a heavily armoured paladin crashed into my side, causing me to drop Athrain to the floor.

“Good timing, Thalia.”, Athrain was coughing on the ground, seemingly addressing the blonde paladin standing in the open door who had cast the chain-spell against me. Her eyes were still glowing with holy magic, and she barked orders, “Restrain that curse! Protect the Mistress!”.

More paladins pushed past her and surrounded me, readying their blades and shields. Athrain crawled away and then rushed through a door in the back. This was bad, she could get away at this rate.