Lay was a normal person, she thought. A rationale she made to cope with a harsh life in her vilge. Men would e with guns, tearing both homes and families apart as they took away every young boy who was of age to be indoated. Any parent who resisted was gunned down with a bullet, sometimes more than one. Screams of both parent and child could usually be heard after the guhe loud sounds reverberating, hurting her young ears.

  She supposed that it was only a matter of time that her parents were taken away from her as well. Her thoughts did nothing to soothe her tears that day, however. She cried again as she saw a masked figure take out his on at an inhuman burst of speed and aim it at her. “This is it. I’m sorry I couldn’t live for you. I’m ing…Mom…Dad.”, she thought g on the ground, shaking with the fear of an agonizih. But, the killing blow never came.

  “I’m sorry if I scared you.”, they said, their voice surprisingly soft ale.

  The surprise at hearing their voice made her open her eyes, her eyes seeing the figure’s visage. She noticed that the clothes were baggy and didn’t fit the figure well, there was a good ce that this person was a woman.

  “...No, I am not.”, the man, now known to her as August, crified.

  She felt embarrassed for the first time in a while at his respohe man, August, was fairly respectful to her, something she didn’t get from a lot of people besides her parents. His voice was strangely soft from other men she had heard before. It was strao her, but he didn’t harm her, so she didn’t care that much about it. He offered her an escape from being in this building, the first sign of hope and salvation taken immediately after her shock at the offer wore off.

  “But even miracles aren’t safe here.”, she thought as she saw the se before them outside her home.

  “On sed thought, go baside. This will take a minute.”, August said as his miauging the threat these new enemies posed.

  “Thirteen batants. All male. Automatic ons in hand, magazine fed clearly. Assume thirty bullets as always. Threat assessment: High. Best case sario: All die in under 1 minute. Worst case: This will hurt and the girl behind me wil-”

  August realizes that the girl, Lay, was still standing beside him, not moving. “Most likely in dread.”, he thought as he moved to stand in front of her.

  The leader of these armed men, burly with a thick beard, raises his rifle, aiming directly at August. Lay clutches August’s hand at the rifle being aimed at them.

  “Stay behind me, Lay. I will protect you.”, August says as he lets go of Lay’s hand, walks two steps forward, and draws his sword at a leisurely pabsp;

  The bde slides out with a low, menag hiss, drawing immediate attention. The extremists' eyes loto the gleaming steel as he holds it at his side, its weight perfectly banced in his hand. The leader barks a and in pashto, and his men spread out, their ons trained on you, as Lay whimpers softly. The tension is palpable, every sed stretg into ay as the standoff tinues.

  August remains calm as he simply puts up his hand aends his middle fioward his enemies, smiling behind his mask. The defiaures draws an immediate rea. The leader's face twists with rage, and he shouts what sounds like a prayer before opening fire. Bullets tear through the air toward August as Lay screams, falling to the ground as chaos erupts.

  At least seven bullets are sent flying at August, travelling at speeds of a maximum of two thousand nine hundred eighty-eight feet per sed. The bullets are indeed fast, travelling over twice the speed of sound.

  “Too bad I’m faster.”, August thinks as he moves his bde at near his maximum speed. The bullets are deflected by short, quick moves of his sword. Most of the projectiles are sent to the ground harmlessly, uhe three that are sent at the armed men, hitting two of them. One mas hit in the head, the bullet pierg his brain as he colpses dead on the spot. The other is hit twice, on his knee and on the shoulder as he falls on his back screaming in agony.

  “Kill her!”, the man barks loudly to his surviving men, who aim their rifles and open fire all at once.

  August feels the annoyaurn into frustration at having his gender being misidentified for a fifth time today. The frustration fuels his movements as he now deliberately moves his sword with extreme precision, refleg the bullets back at his targets now instead of simply defleg them away like previously. All bullets reflected at the armed me in mass death of their entire group. Only one remains, the one who was hit in the knee and shoulder.

  The st o looks at August’s masked and robed figure approag, screaming, “Witch! Alh will have his judgement on you, murderer!”

  “You first, hypocrite.”, August responds softly as he makes his way to his target and drives his bde through the man’s chest, the sheer force of the on’s dest, resulting from his lingering frustration, explosively depresses the man’s heart in his chest.

  August removes his bde from the unnamed corpse and flourishes his sword quickly, the blood flying off as he sheathes his on uhe bzing suurns to look back at Lay, who stands deathly still with widened eyes, gazing at the massacre id out in front of her.