AN - 15 - Pain

“Kill her!” Baraka shouted at the guard, and then sprang at Liu with his clawblades extended, his robe flapping back from his body.

“I don’t think so,” Liu said.

Readying himself for certain pain, Liu deflected Baraka’s jabbing blades with his bare hands, feeling their razor edges bite into his palms and fingers. Then he launched himself toward the wall with a series of handsprings, yanked out the energy-blade fragments he’d shoved into it, and began to scale the wall toward the cage, the notches cut by the blades service as improvised handholds.

Blood streamed from the cuts in his hands, sliming his knuckles, running down his arms to his shirtsleeve. Liu ignored the wounds and scrambled upward, his eyes locked on Kitana. She’d been holding off the nomad with a cyclonic barrage of spin kicks, but it had hung onto the cage, and was now prying apart the bars in an attempt to get inside.