currency

works hard for the money so you better treat her right!

        She walked towards the gate self-assuredly, promptly sticking a poisoned needle into each of the entrance guards who'd tried come forward. She kicked the gate open and strode into the courtyard. Four guards ran towards her, swords drawn, red sashes tied around their waists. Four more came from somewhere behind her, surrounding her. She drew her sword and dagger, blocking one guard's downward slice and parrying a sword thrust from the side. She heard a familiar growl behind her and noted the absence of two guards behind her. She ducked; a large battle axe whisked over her head. Working with the axe wielder, three other guards moved in to thrust their swords at her. She twisted out of range of one sword while kicking another, and rolled into the legs of the last sword's owner. She quickly stuck a pin into his inner thigh where his armor leaves a small gap to allow for easy movement. The man dropped in agony within seconds. She was already on her feet, running towards a building to prevent any opponents from finding places behind her. Whirling around and putting her dagger away, she used the newly freed hand to jerk a throwing knife from the inner lining of her cloak and sent it flying into the neck of the guard who'd been directly behind her. The guard following right behind hopped over his dead comrade, twirling a long sword and a short sword in front of him. Two men wearing long red and white robes emerged from a building across the courtyard. One ran towards the two men being harassed by the large black panther. The other shot a fireball directly at her, causing the swordsman to pause in his attack to back out of range. She dove after him, rolled, and kicked her leg out, tripping him. The guard holding the axe saw this opportunity to send his weapon downwards, targeting the small of her back. She did an easy back flip, landing with one foot on the flat back of the axe, driving it into the ground, the other foot on the axe handle, and lopped the man's head off with a clean sweep of her sword. Without missing a beat, she pulled her dagger out to block an attack from the left and sent a needle shooting into the man's inner wrist. She turned as a fireball hit her. The guard charging her faltered as her body became outlined with deep red light. She attacked viciously with her sword, not allowing the man even a moment to think, backing him up towards a wall. Then, hearing footsteps behind her, she turned to throw a knife into the oncoming guard's chest. Flipping her sword under her arm and jabbing back through her cloak, she felt the blade slip into the guard who'd predictably come at her from behind. She walked steadily towards the sorcerer in middle of a frenzied chain of spell casting. He threw spell after spell at her but each time she'd glow red. What he'd failed to notice was the charm she wore, glowing red then turning blue each time she was hit by his magical projectiles. He didn't notice until she was two feet away from him.
        "You!" he exclaimed.
        "Yeah," she smirked, "me."
        He drew out a dagger but promptly dropped it as his body convulsed with an unworldly pain spreading throughout his body from a small needle in his neck. She picked up the man's dagger and sent it flying into the other sorcerer's back right after he fired a spell at her cat. She watched as her cat threw a guard up to shield itself from a ball of dark red energy the sorcerer had just unleashed. The guard screamed as the spell hit, then visibly thinned, as if the life was being drained out of him. Suddenly, small balls of red light shot out of him into the body of the dead sorcerer. The sorcerer stood back up, already chanting another spell. He fired it at the big cat; though the cat jumped to dodge, the energy from the spell caught the end of its tail and suddenly it poofed into its unintimidated form, a tiny black cat. The sorcerer's triumph was short-lived as she drove her sword up into his skull from the base of his neck.

        They watched in dismay from a second story window as the cloaked, diminutive figure and her ferocious pet dispatched ten guards and two sorcerers within minutes. Dismay turned to horror as the cat started towards their building and the woman followed. When she burst into the room, only the unfortunate minions without the ability to astral travel were left behind to meet with imminent demise. She extracted as much information from the underlings as possible before she killed them.

        She took what money she could find as she proceeded to retrieve and clean all her weapons. The Red Mage was still one step ahead of her. But she was now privy to which cities he was to stay the night in the coming weeks on his way to the Mountains. If she could help it, he would not make it to the fourth city. She patted her now bulging money pouch and headed out towards the third city on the Red Mage's list.