Arthur managed to angle his block enough such that when it came down, the momentum of his push and the hardness of his enhanced body had the parang slide sideways even as his hand slipped down the blade and contacted her hand. He felt the pressure, the deep wrongness of the blade slicing into flesh and skin, parting muscle and sending nerves ablaze. He gripped her hand, tight, the Yin energy from the Imbued Strike still running through his body and pulsing into her.
She jerked her hand back, yanking blade out of his flesh, parting it further and almost sending the flap of cut flesh to the ground. At the same time, his fingers, already half-numb slipped from hers as she pulled back. On his butt, he kicked a leg backwards to give himself room, the woman stalking forward with focused intensity.
No time to think, or defend himself as the blade raised again, intent on chopping through his arm. The block wouldn't work the next time, even as his Yin energy began to slow her down. Instead, he tapped into the Refined Energy Dart he'd stored so recently, releasing the attack out of his middle eye.
It tore through the air, only a last minute twist of the woman stopping it from punching through her heart but tearing a line along her armour. Off-balance for a moment, Arthur capitalized on it as his flailing leg caught the ankle closest to him, causing her to tumble. He grabbed at arm, battering it aside so that it was across his body, her back now turned to him. His other free hand clamped down, even as he noticed the other captive start thrashing around, trying to free himself at last.
The pair squirmed and fought, Arthur desperate to keep her arm from coming free, grateful that the longer blade of the parang and it's single edge meant that she could not just twist it around and cut him that easily. Alll the while, he kept the Imbued Strike running, yanking energy upwards with all the strength and force he could as he pumped it into her through the shared contact of their bodies.
Little grunts and cries, a warm body and a pained sob from the prisoner stabbed in the stomach behind him. Arthur kept fighting, keeping his head near hers and just to the side, avoiding the headslam that was tried, ignoring the hand that tried to lever itself away and then found his open wound, digging in deep, deep, deep. Squirming inside his body a little, pain so great it nearly tore his concentration away.
If not for the sticky energy of his own body, that allowed him to more easily grasp it. If not for the Yin body that gave him a degree of imperviousness to the pain, a dulling of the agony. If not for hours and days and years spent training, slamming fist and leg into hard objects and getting slammed in turn, he might have given up.
Eventually though, that thrasing slowed, weakened. Stopped. He rolled her off, drew enough of a breath to scream, and then hesitated long enough to aim a kick at the tied prisoner who was nearly out of his bonds, slamming the other man's head back into the column he'd been tied to before he cried out for help.
Then, and only then, did he release the Imbued Strike and his control.
He tried, of course, to utilize his Accelerated Healing. But there was only so much that his damaged body could take, and he'd hit that limit as he reached inwards, questing for that energy.
Arthur never even realised he'd fainted.
***
He woke up, bound. After an initial jerking motion as he tried to move, Arthur stilled himself. Eyes opening a little, he tried to grasp what had happened, why he was tied up. Motion out one side, voices low and murmuring, a soft - but not mattress soft - place he was resting upon. Right arm was actually free, it was just his left that was tied off, tight to his body. Legs were numb. More than that though, he was in agony, strained muscles, cuts and stabs and a couple of broken bones he was sure.
"You're awake. Don't move, you'll just open up your wounds again," Mel said, exasperated. "Really. What did we say about going places, alone?"
Opening his eyes fully, Arthur let out a little relieved breath. Even that motion was enough to make his chest hurt, those bruised - broken - ribs thrumming, that blasted knife attack that had gone in like a poker inside him. Lucky that it hadn't made his lungs fill with blood or something like that.
"What happened?"
"They had a second plan, to get to you. Or maybe someone had an added plan," Mel said, frowning. "Or maybe it was all one plan, and they wanted you dead from the start and just didn't want to make it public."
"Or it was just an opportunity," Noor added.
"Sorry, boss. I should have been there," Yao Jing said, coming in from the other side with a grimace. "I shouldn't have left you..."
"Not your fault. Or Jan's. We were supposed to be safe, with half the Clan here." He sighed. "Was she, is she, one of us?"
"No. She just snuck in. With all the additions, none of us realised she wasn't really part of the Clan," Mel said.
"Told you. Should have tattoos visible," Yao Jing said, patting his own shoulder where his was.
Mel shook her head, not wanting to get engaged in that argument. Instead, she continued as she explained to Arthur, "We're questioning her, but she's keeping her mouth shut. And we're not exactly willing to torture people." Hands on her hips, she glared at him. "Right?"
"Of course not."
"Good, because I caught Jan dragging one of the men outside about to cut his fingers off," she said. "She told me you okayed it."
"I didn't!" A pause. "Well, I did threaten to do it, but I didn't mean it..."
That had Noor snort and Yao Jing grin, triumphantly. "I told her lah."
"Maybe, but you didn't stop her." Mel sighed. "We'll try to get the other girl them to talk, but at least one of them gave us some information. The one you kicked in the head." He waited, content to gently pull at his refined energy. Weaving it slowly into the Accelerated Healing method to speed up the patching. "We got confirmation that the head of the 04 gave the orders. Whether he chose to do it himself or not, we don't know." A darker look. "She's not part of them, I think. So either an add-on or..." a shrug.
"Why?" he asked, coughed. Yao Jing bent down, helped him up a little so he could sip at the cup. He found himself draining the entire thing, his body craving the liquid after all the blood loss. Accelerated Healing could do a lot, as did the Tower, but physical aid made a difference for sure.
Noor was the one who answered his question once he was able to focus. "They're not known to have women. In fact, they actively discount women. Send them off to us or the other gangs like the 6 or the UN." She shrugged. "Not that the 6 are big here anymore." At the look the others gave her, she answered simply. "Their best left a few months ago. We - the Lotuses - actually picked up a few new girls because of that. Though, how long they'll stay..."
Arthur understood. You didn't join a gang because you wanted to for the most part. You did it because they offered protection, a way forward. And the Lotuses in the real world were a non-entity.
"Then.... who?" he asked.
To that, no one had any answer. In the end, he dismissed them all, knowing that they'd do their best to get answers from their prisoner. In the meantime, all he could do was heal himself and get ready.
Because one thing was clear. Someone really didn't like them and the moves they'd made. And Arthur somehow doubted, this one - or two, depending on how you counted it - attempt at his life was the end of it.