Penelope fell back to the ground as the man freed himself from her grasp. The knight laid there for a moment, trying to catch her breath. Her body was throbbing with pain from the punches and kicks, so much so that she barely even felt the bleeding cut on her cheek. She flickered her gaze over to Crow as the man reclaimed his short sword. A fresh wave of panic washed over the knight as the mercenary was armed yet again. Her eyes flickered around franticly, trying to come with a plan anything that would get them out of this situation. 

[i]Even if I managed to get the sword away from him... I can’t take him. And even if I found a way to beat him in combat, he’d still find a way to kill us..[/i] The knight’s gaze landed on a large rock that was nearby. It had might have been part of the road at one point but now it merely laid pushed up against one corner of the alley way. The knight froze slightly at the thought of her own plan. Despite having been in multiple fights, Penelope had never aimed to kill before. She usually took a more defensive approach to fighting rather than an offensive one. She might have been responsible for a couple deaths, mainly involving enemies that refused to back down, but she had never delivered a finishing blow. They would collapse due to blood loss or the like rather than being stabbed through the heart with her sword. [i]I have to it. I have to do it.[/i]

Her gaze shifted back over to the two men, unable to understand what they were saying but grateful that it would buy her time. The knight slowly took the rock in her hand and began to crawl closer to the two. She had to remain low to the ground, seemingly defeated so that the mercenary wouldn’t catch onto her, and keep close to the wall so she’d have something to push off of since she guessed that she’d be a bit shaky on her feet now.

Luckily for her, his attention seemed to be fixated on Crow. She felt fear building up alongside her sense of panic. The knight tried her best to focus on that rather than unsettling feeling that came at the thought of taking someone else’s life. It helped to see the man looking at Crow so sadistically. [i]I can’t lose him...[/i] She clutched the rock in her hand tightly and began to shift her legs to push her up. The less she thought about her plan and the more she lived in that feeling of fear and panic, she was able to find a surge of adrenaline that fuel her will to survive as well as save Crow. 

There was no hesitation as the knight flung herself at the man in one swift move. There was a fearful, wild gleam in those normally kind green eyes. The mercenary barely had a moment to let go of Crow and shift his sword to attack. His sword drove a fairly deep cut into Penelope’s arm but it didn’t slow her down as she smashed the rock against his head. The man staggered at the impact. Penelope let out a cry, a mixture of pain and battle, as she raised the rock and slammed it against his head again, not giving him another second to recover. 

The mercenary fell with a heavy thud to the ground. Blood trickled from the nasty wound Penelope had inflicted. The knight staggered back from him, dropping the rock to the ground. She panted and collapsed to her knees, legs suddenly feeling much too weak to hold her up right. Tears began to form in her eyes, formed purely from the fear she had felt. Fear of killing, fear of death and the fear of losing Crow. The knight took in a few more shaky breaths as she looked at the man. She wasn’t sure if he was dead yet or if she had just merely knocked him out with a bad head injury. Either way, she didn’t want to focus on it. 

Penelope turned around to locate Crow, concern for him quickly taking over. “Crow... Collin, are you ok?” She asked, her voice just as shaky as the rest of her. She wiped some of the blood off her cheek and clutched her bleeding arm, trying to hid it from him best she could as she recalled his issue with the sight of the stuff.