“Any time wastin’ ere isn’t my doing.” The man said and stepped forward one menacing step towards her employer. “I see the little girl with the sword but I don’t see no church knight come to your rescue. Hand it over.”

It was enough, or rather it was too much. The time to act was now. Instinct, training, reflexes all stood well in the place of her nerve which was shot. She lunged, her shaking sword whipping out and clanging against his blade with a loud clang and it flew out of his hand in a lovely arch to land in a puddle of runoff and who knows what else. She couldn’t have planned it better if she wanted to. She swallowed, the sound audible in the silence that followed as the eyes of the thugs all turned to her.

He’d been too drunk or two stupid to have had a decent grip on his blade, else he’d been simply a complete moron to have dismissed her, anyone with a weapon in hand so nearby. Whatever the reason he’d dismissed her and now she’d given him a reason not to. 

“Piss off.” She said again and gestured contemptuously to the now unarmed man. 

They didn’t piss off, just her luck. No, the two idiots behind her charged her and the usual scuffle such occasions brought occurred. Instinct, training, reactions, they stood her in good stead again as she engaged two men who greatly outweighed her. Her equipment more than paid for itself as the shitty blades skidded along the leather just over her kidneys. She whirled and tried to engage. There was a flurry of blades, limbs flying and then the third man dove into the refuse for his knife and then waded in. It was fast and furious and she didn’t have time to think let alone be afraid. But she had a sword and there wasn’t the room she’d have liked and she barely escaped a few of their blows connecting. 

“Make noise!” she shrieked at the ink-stained man, leading by example. The guards couldn’t be that far off. “Shout and get attent-fuck!” She cursed as a blade scored her cheek.