Chapter XXVII: Bar Brawl
Rapunzel scanned the room very quickly to see what she was dealing with. There were definitely more hostile enemies than allies to her. She only had Anna and Kai at her side. But, Kai was right now rocking around on the floor in pain because of his hand and Anna was taken a hold of by a much larger man. Anna could be of some help, but Kai on the other hand needed help. He didn't look like he was in great shape and Rapunzel assumed that from his groans and moans alone. She wondered why he couldn't just use his powers in this situation. Even if he was hurt, couldn't he just easily blast their adversaries away while on the floor.
The truth was that it wasn't that simple. Kai needed to focus on his powers and what he wanted to do with them in order to actually use them. After he learned the trick to controlling them, he never burned things accidentally because he wasn't focusing on his powers. Now, all Kai could focus on was the pain. The pain wasn't easy to forget and he knew that it wouldn't be. Until he was able to focus on something else besides the pain, he would be useless in their attempt to defeat these people and escape the pub.
Rapunzel saw about fifteen men remaining in the pub, not including the people who surrounded her. She was currently at the far left side of the pub counter where it touched the wall. The bartender and another man stood behind the counter a fair distance away from Rapunzel. She was cornered by three men, one of whom was holding Anna so that she couldn't escape. The men who were cornering her were not armed, but all the other men around the bar and rusty swords and axes. All Rapunzel had was a frying pan. For some strange reason, she didn't like these odds.
She knew that she had to free Anna from the man's grasp first. She would feel better if she had a friend to help fight her side by side. The men cornering her were only about two meters away from where she stood, meaning a lunge would be necessary in order to reach them quickly.
Rapunzel lunged at the man who was holding Anna. His height would be his downfall. Since he was much taller than Anna was, it just made it easier for Rapunzel to avoid hitting Anna with her frying pan. Rapunzel swung her frying pan above Anna's head and at the man's face. Upon impact, he let go of Anna who quickly moved to Rapunzel's side. The man then grabbed his face where he found blood dripping out of his nose. He fell to the ground on his back, almost knocking down the man standing behind him.
The man who used to be holding Rapunzel slowly approached the girls. Anna looked over to her side and found an empty bottle of alcohol on the counter table, belonging to the man who stabbed Kai's hand no doubt. Anna grabbed the bottle and raised it in the air. She then threw it over at the approaching man's head. Unfortunately, she missed her target as it flew right past his shoulder. He smirked at Anna.
"You missed." He said.
"Did I?" Anna asked, pointing down at the ground behind him.
The man looked down behind him and found that the man standing behind him, the one who stabbed Kai's hand, was now knocked unconscious laying on the ground with glass next to his face. The man looking down asked himself why Anna would aim for someone else besides him since it didn't make any sense. It would be more logical to have attacked a closer person. But, when he looked back over at Anna and Rapunzel, he found a frying pan coming right towards his face. The next thing he knew was that he was laying on the ground with little blue birds circling over his head.
The girls looked at each other, proud of their accomplishment. Then, they realized the fifteen other individuals staring at them angrily in the pub. Rapunzel managed a gulp, intimidated by the threats they posed. She looked over at Anna and found that Anna looked as confident as ever. She thought Anna was crazy to like the odds for this. Then, she realized that they had made it through worst. Back in the Bandit base, they took out many more men than there was here. Of course, Kai was there to help them though. He wouldn't be much help here. They just hoped he wouldn't be a burden.
"We fight in the count of three." Rapunzel said.
"Don't tell me when, I'm ready to go." Anna said.
"Three." Rapunzel said.
"I was born ready!" Anna said.
"Two." Rapunzel said.
Anna grabbed another empty bottle from the counter and raised it up, ready to use it.
"One!" Rapunzel exclaimed.
Together, the girls ran ahead to the main area of the pub where the tables were located and the men were. The fact that the men were spread out just made things easier for the girls to take them down. If they weren't grouped, they had a chance. Still, the men had all of their weapons drawn but the girls knew they didn't have to fear the use of the weapons. They needed to be taken in alive, so the men were hopefully smart enough to know not to kill the girls.
Rapunzel hopped onto a table where she stood at an elevated height. Two men were coming towards her from opposite sides with their arms raised in front of them, hoping to Rapunzel's legs. They were too stupid to realize how much of an advantage Rapunzel had over them and how vulnerable they allowed themselves to be. Rapunzel saw that one of the men had almost had his hands over the table. Her instincts kicked in, and she kicked him right on the jaw. Saliva flew out of his mouth as her foot gave him an uppercut, sending him flying back. She then quickly turned around, swiping her frying pan at knee level, hitting the man behind her in the face knocking him out.
Two down, thirteen to go. Actually, the bartender and the other man behind the counter were not included in the count, meaning that there was actually fifteen to go. That was okay, since they had fought against a bigger number.
Anna wasn't on a table like Rapunzel was. She was on the floor still, on the same level as her adversaries that were coming after her. She was in between two tables, the chairs were already knocked down on the floor. Two men were approaching her from ahead, the one in the front had an axe raised. They wouldn't harm her, would they? She didn't want to just stand there and find out. She threw her empty bottle at the head of the armed man, this time she was actually aiming at him rather than at someone else. It smashed and shattered upon impact, some shards of it stuck onto his face. He fell down to the ground with a thud, but unfortunately for Anna, the man behind him was still making his way towards her.
There was not a bottle she could use on either table next to her. The man coming her way was running at her, being able to do that because of the open space given to him. She didn't know how to take him out, so she did the instinctive thing. When he almost reached her, she crouched to the ground and put her hands over her head. He was running to fast to stop before he tripped over Anna's body. He flew forward towards the ground, after his legs hit Anna, and landed face first onto the floor. His head then bumped into the side of the counter, ultimately taking him out.
Anna couldn't keep her balance when she was hit by the running man's legs. She was knocked back and onto her back. Her eyes were closed and her arm was covering her face as she groaned. When she took her arm off and opened her eyes, she found another man standing in front of her, looking down upon her while smiling. He was so sure he could subdue Anna. Unfortunately for him, his legs were spread apart. Anna just shot her leg up from the ground and it hit his crotch. A tear came down his eye as he grabbed it and fell down over Anna.
The man fell over Anna's body, still grabbing his crotch. His weight was crushing her. Since he was still conscious, Anna grabbed his hair with her left hand and brought it up. She then used her right hand and punched him in the face as hard as she could. That successfully knocked him out, and his body went limp over hers. She sighed in annoyance. She pushed his body off of her and stood back up.
Five down, ten to go.
Kai was already considered dead to most of the goons in the pub. They didn't see him getting up any time soon. They thought he had been broken already. Unfortunately for them, they didn't know Kai. He was persistant, and he refused to just lay there and do nothing while his friends fought. But, he knew he had to treat his wounds before he could do anything else. He had to stop the blood from running out of his body.
Kai reached for his dagger which was usually strapped to his waist, but he felt that it was not there. He looked around for his dagger and found that it was nowhere around his body. But, when he looked ahead, he found it laying on the ground about ten feet ahead of him, under the shadow of the counter. It must've been detached from his waist and slid there when he was pushed down. Kai crawled towards the dagger with his stomach touching the ground. He tried his best not to use his left hand as all movement with it made it hurt more.
He slowly dragged his body to the dagger. When his right arm was able to reach it and the tip of his fingers touched the handle of the blade, he brought it closer towards him. He was soon able to completely grip the blade. He then sat up and leaned against the counter. He was surprised nobody had come to attack him yet, knowing he was better of dead than alive to them. He looked at the dagger in his right hand and readied to heat the blade. He knew it was going to be painful. Then, a thought came up in his mind. He could only use his right hand to summon fire as he couldn't imagine the pain summoning fire with his left hand would be. He couldn't heat the blade while it was on the floor since that would risk the wood catching fire. He couldn't lay the blade on his lap and heat it since he didn't want to burn his clothes off. The last thing he wanted was to be without pants.
Finally, he looked at his left hand. Though it was in pain, he could still use it. His four fingers worked perfectly. He had no other choice. He passed the dagger from his right hand to his left hand. When it was in the palm of his left hand, he closed his remaining fingers on it. Kai tried his best to not let the pain bother him. He then created a fireball that floated in his palm. He brought the fire to the blade and heated it until it glowed yellow.
He wasn't going to be a fan of what came next. His right hand took a hold of the heated dagger. He closed the fingers on his left hand until only the bloody stub of his ring finger was sticking up. Kai then clenched his teeth as he brought the heated blade to the wound. Usually, heat never bothered Kai and it never harmed him. But, for some reason, when it came to cauterizing, he felt pain. It probably wasn't the heat that hurt him. It was the affect on the wound. His hot blade met the stub, and steam came out of it. Kai gave a very loud scream from the agony. He wanted very badly to just take the blade off and be done with it, but a little longer was required.
Anna looked over at Kai as she was fighting to see what was up. She saw the glowing blade touching his left hand.
"Kai..." Anna said.
She wasn't paying attention to the thugs around her. When she turned back to keep on fighting, a hand came right toward her face. Her left cheek was smacked hard, making her head turn towards the right. To be honest, Anna had never been slapped in her life. No one every dared to slap her until now. She was angry. She was very angry. When she turned back towards the man who slapped her, her teeth were clenched and showing.
She grabbed his shoulders with her hands and brought him closer to knee him in the stomach. Anna kicked him back and he bent over to grab his pained stomach. She then clenched her fist and made it fly up towards the man's chin as hard as she could. When it made contact, she could feel something break in his chin, and he went flying upward. His crashed through the ceiling, the rest of his body lower body being stuck, dangling on the ceiling. His legs were flailing above the air. That tought him a lesson, Anna thought. Never lay your hands on a princess.
She once again looked towards Kai to see how he was doing. His left hand was on his lap and he was still leaning against the counter. He noticed Anna was looking at him and he looked back.
"Duck." Kai said loud enough for her to hear.
Instantly, Anna ducked by crouching and putting her hands over her head. Kai quickly raised his left hand up, pointing it above her. A fireball then shot out of his hand and at the thug who was running up behind Anna. Luckily for him, it didn't hurt that much since he didn't really need to move his hand in order to use his powers. But, he didn't see himself duel wielding weapons any time soon with his condition.
He leaned forward from the counter and got off the floor. He stood with his left hand in the cup of his right one. He then scanned the room to see what they were dealing against. Only a few men were left. Most of them were focusing on Rapunzel, while one was running after Anna. He looked in the running man's direction, and Anna instantly knew what was behind her. When she thought he was close enough, she hopped onto a table a kicked him in the head. He grabbed his face and fell to the ground. Rapunzel thought her that trick when Rapunzel did it herself.
Kai then decided to use his powers to help. He took his hands away from each other. He created a fireball in his right hand which floated on his palm. Anna smiled, hoping he was able to help in their endeavors. Then, out of hiding the bartender jumped a few meters in front of Kai with a pistol raised. Kai's eyes widened immediately and went blank. He was once again paralyzed and not able to do anything. A pistol was something he wasn't counting on. Anna saw how Kai wasn't doing anything. That perplexed her. She didn't know why he didn't just jump out of the way. Of course, only Elsa saw this before with their fight with Cade. Once again, Kai blanked out because of the pistol. He remembered Deren shooting him at that moment.
"Nice knowing you." The bartender said.
Anna jumped off of her table and ran towards the bartender. She grabbed his arm and moved it away from pointing Kai. When she did that, the bartender accidentally pulled the trigger. The bullet didn't hit Kai, not by a long shot, but it did hit one of the lanterns that hung on the walls. It hit the thing that was connecting it to the wall. It fell down to the ground, and the glass shattered as it made impact. The fire inside got onto the wood, and the fire started to spread.
It spread quickly.
The bartender cursed. Anna then quickly punched him in the face, making him walk back while holding his nose.
Anna ran towards Kai and stood in front of him.
"We should go." Anna said.
"The place will be in flames in a minute or two." Kai said.
Anna nodded. She then turned back towards Rapunzel.
"Rapunzel!" Anna yelled. "Let's go."
Rapunzel was able to hear her very clearly. Unfortunately, she had other things to worry about. The men would not give her a break so she had to continue teaching them a lesson. She was well aware of the fire that started and wanted nothing more than to just leave and be done with the whole thing. But, she had some things she had to take care of first.
She slammed a man's scalp with her frying pan. He had a thick skull since it didn't knock him out immediately like she was used to. Then, she smacked his left cheek with her frying pan. Immediately after, she smacked him on his right cheek. She continually smacked him around until she felt he had enough. When she stopped hitting him, he was just standing there unfazed. When he opened his mouth, his teeth fell out one by one. He started to fall forward, but Rapunzel sidestepped him, making him fall onto another man who was coming up from behind Rapunzel.
Rapunzel saw the man who was with the bartender when this all started. He jogged at her at a constant pace with his arms raised in front of him. He didn't expect Rapunzel to do the most simple thing. Right before he tackled Rapunzel, she stepped to the side and grabbed his head with her free hand. She then slammed his head onto the side of a table, taking him out.
Only about four to five hostile individuals were left in the room. Two of which were trapping her by coming at her from opposite sides. Had they learned nothing, she thought. Raounzel decided to just focus on one of the men currently. She threw her frying pan like a boomerang at the one in front of her. It hit his forehead and bounced off. The frying pan flew around the room, bouncing off many things and knocking down glasses. The man who was behind Rapunzel hid under a table, scared of the frying pan. The frying pan hit one of the two non hiding enemies, knocking him down flawlessly.
When the frying pan came flying towards the face of another enemy, he ducked and it flew over his head. He shot back up straight and smiled.
"Ha ha!" He said.
Unfortunately for him, the frying pan bounced off of the wall behind him at back at the back of his head. When it hit his head, he gave a funny face which was stuck like that. He fell to the ground, now unconscious. The frying pan then found it's way back to Rapunzel who caught it with one hand. The man who was hiding under the table peeled out to see if the close was clear. He stood up and looked at Rapunzel who had her arms crossed. Knowing he didn't stand a chance, he punched himself in the face, knocking himself out.
Rapunzel totally forgot about the spreading fire. She instantly remembered when she found it hard to breath. She looked behind herself and found the inferno getting bigger, spreading through the wooden walls and floor of the pub. She ran to Anna and Kai who were standing in front of the door out. Together, they exited the burning building, and out of danger.
Yet again, they left men to their fates. It wasn't something that made Anna or Rapunzel feel good about themselves. Kai honestly didn't care. He came to learn something in this world that he would live by; it's you or them. If they had attempted to save the unconscious men, the girls surely would've met their fates trying. Kai understood the risks of doing the right thing very well.
"That was..." Anna said. "Intense."
"We should get out of here." Kai said.
"We need to get you patched up." Anna said. "You need rest as well. We all do."
"We'll get rest once we're out of the area." Kai said. He looked around the empty patch. He saw nothing but the burning building behind them. "There could still be people around."
"Kai, are you sure that's a good idea?" Rapunzel asked. "I mean, you've lost a lot of blood."
"I'll be fine." Kai said.
"Are you sure?" Anna asked. "Because-"
"I said I'll be fine!" Kai yelled, angrily. He didn't want to raise his voice at his friends, but they needed to see things from his point of view for once.
Anna sighed. "Okay."
Together, the three walked off into the woods. The night sky was still above them. The North Mountain was visible in the distance. They still had a long way to go but it wasn't impossible to reach it before morning the next day.
When the three were long gone into the woods, two men came out of the burning pub, coughing. It was the bartender and the man who orchestrated the attack, the half blind one. They walked away from the pub and collapsed on the ground. They were miraculously able to knock out of their unconsciousness and escape their pyre. The others, however, were not so lucky as they were left to their doom all because they wanted to make some money.
The bartender got off the ground and wiped the snow off of his pants. He looked down at the other man.
"They're gone." The bartender said, looking at the footprints of the heroic trio.
"Are we going to chase after them?" The other man asked.
"We'll have no chance." The bartender said. "You saw how they fought in there."
"So, we're just going to let them go?!" The other man asked. "After all they've done to us? I want revenge."
"Don't worry." The bartender assured. "I've left my mark."
"What do you mean by that?" The other man asked.
"Not only did I cut off the man's finger, I also poisoned his drink." The bartender said. "I used a rare poison as well."
The other man smiled. "When will it take effect?"
"In a few hours." The bartender answered. "But, death is only the second phase of the poison."
"What's the first phase?"
"Insanity."
Author's Note: Hope you guys liked the chapter. I'm going to tell you guys this now; we're going to take a little break from Kai, Anna, and Rapunzel for now and focus on other characters and their whereabouts. So, I ended this chapter with a cliffhanger and you won't find out what will happen to Kai, Anna, and Rapunzel until a few chapters later! Mwahahaha! I also want to remind you guys that when this story gets 100 reviews, I'll release information on my next project. Ciao.