Page 103 of Dragon 7

I swore he’d been several feet away still heading along, but. . .Yoichi zipped forward and ripped off the man’s head with his bare fingers so fast I shuddered unsure of how he could do that. So fast. . .I wished I had told the twins to change their kitsune masks and not chuckle at him further.

And then the Silent Ones sped ahead of the Claws and Fangs, shocking us all. Their red hooded capes lifted as they ran, and within three strides they were no longer running at all.

They were damn near flying.

Oh.

The lead figure planted one foot against a fallen log and launched into the dark air above the field. I caught a quick glimpse of her long gray hair and knew it was a woman. The red cape opened behind her like wings. She cleared fifteen feet of grass without touching the ground. Her hood went back into place, swallowing it into shadow.

Then, she landed on a man with a rocket launcher.

He dropped the huge weapon.

A blade flashed once from beneath her red cape, and the man's head was gone from his shoulders. The Silent One had already pushed off the falling body and landed on another before the first body hit the grass.

Two more red figures came up behind her and even used the dying man's body as a stepping stone. The other picked up the rocket launcher and began blasting some of Akiro’s troops.

Fuck yeah.

Akiro's men started screaming.

And the Silent Ones who had somehow got to the men before everyone, were easily removing the threat of the rocket launchers. Each kill was so fast and so clean that the field could barely keep up with how many launcher-bearers and mine-placers were already dead.

Reo’s gaze darted from side to side. “Seven launchers down. No. Eight.”

Kenji bobbed his head. “The mine-placers stopped placing mines. Some of them are running away.”

I grinned. “But, most of them are dying.”

Perhaps, I’ll accept the Silent Ones’ apology after all.

I took in the wider field.

The whole of it had become chaotic motion.

To my left, Toma had reached the all-red assassin and the two of them collided in a flash of curved blades and ogre horns. Sparks lit up between them. Steel met steel three times in two seconds.

In the center, Kaoru was a blur of pink hair around violet. He moved like he was dancing with a partner who didn’t yet know they were going to die.

Further out, Rin walked through enemy soldiers in a bored stroll. Men who came within reach of his braids or tried to grab him, fell directly to their knees gasping. Rin stabbed them in the chest as he passed without breaking stride.

Some guy shot Rin’s way.

Rin turned, blurred to the man, and whipped his hooked braid at his neck. The sharp tip slashed at his eye.

The man screamed in horror, dropping his gun, and crumbling to the ground. Next his skin began to bubble grotesquely. Tons of bumps appeared along with green pus.

Ugh. . .that’s so fucking disgusting.

Rin nodded at the man and continued on, not even stabbing the poor guy out of his misery.

What the fuck did he put on those braids tonight?

Finally, the Scales had hit the front of Akiro's ranks like a wave. The red, black, and gray of the Scales swallowed the enemy line whole—one moment there was open grass between the two forces, the next there wasn't.

And then bodies folded into each other at the point of impact, masks and faces blurring together until it was impossible to tell where our people ended and Akiro's began.

It was like watching a fucked up painting come to life, with each stroke of violence creating a new masterpiece. There was this sick beauty in the clash of colors and chaos, in the symphony of screams, gunshots, and steel hitting steel.