Fourteenth Encounter

Odd. A crowd of five men entered this time.

“Sam! I heard what happened, and I’m coming to take you back!” (man 1)

“What? No! I’m not going back!” (Sam)

“I just gotta kill this bitch. You’re mine, Sam. No boss bitch is gonna take you from me.” (man)

Yeah… I didn’t really have much hope of fighting 5 men at once. Sam tried to help me, but wasn’t much help. There was only one thing I could do: Not hold back.

“Fuck! She’s using lethal moves! That wasn’t part of the deal!” (man 2)

“Don’t be a fucking pansy! This should be easy with all of us!” (man 1)

“Fuck that! She broke my sword! You aren’t paying me enough to replace it!” (man 3)

I was getting better at this. My defense wasn’t any better than before, but now that I was trying to cause serious harm I learned very quickly how to cut and pierce. The same power that let me block blades, could be used to turn my tendrils into spears. Very sharp spears.

Their morale was slowly wearing down, but I was taking a lot of damage and losing lots of body parts. Death by a hundred cuts. So, when I saw an opportunity, I took it.

“Gah! Damn bitch!” (man 1)

Got him. The bastard who thinks Sam can be owned. I took a sword through my chest because I didn’t block or deflect it. I focused my power on a counter strike instead. With a tendril through his gut, and one through the side of his chest, I didn’t think he’d survive this. Sadly, I wasn’t going to stay conscious long enough to be sure.

“Lily!” (Sam)

I passed out.

---

“I don’t like watching you die, Lily.” (Sam)

Not the nicest first thing to hear upon waking, but it’ll do. 

“I don’t like dying. We’re in agreement on that. Did I get him?” (me)

“They and you all vanished at the same time, before I could be sure what his fate would be. If he has a good enough healer, he might live… you scared me. I saw you vanish. It wasn’t until I saw you lying on the bed, unharmed and breathing that I knew you were okay. It was terrible.” (Sam)

“I’m sorry.” (me)

“It’s not your fault. That bastard is responsible. I didn’t realize how horrible he was before, but seeing his reaction now… thinking on his behavior in the past… it shames me to realize how long I’d trusted him.” (Sam)

“We can’t be expected to know it all from the start, Sam. Some things take a while to learn. Sometimes we only learn the hard way. That’s just how life is.” (me)

“I should’ve listened to my friends. David tried to tell me he was bad, but I wasn’t willing to listen. I thought I’d found someone who valued me. I suppose I wasn’t entirely wrong, he did value me, just not as a person.” (Sam)

“I value you. You help me hold onto my values and morals. You remind me that they still matter. That I’m not wasting my time and effort.” (me)

“Thanks, I needed to hear that. Thank you.” (Sam)