THE COMBAT BEGINS

Ana continued to run, trying to avert tumbling. she swung her arm as if she was in a marathon race. her eyes straight forward but occasion back to check how closed her opponents were.

She has been running for thirty minutes. Yet she continued to run like a cheetah.

She peeped back to discover that her pursuers were now on motorbikes.

She was smart enough to know that no matter how she runs, she would never overturn a sports motorbike. Talkless of more than dozen of motorbikes.

She gazed for a narrow or hideous place, but there was none.

She halted.

They all respited in front of her. they were laughing mysterious at her, showing their brown and decayed teeth.

She began to count

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven,"

She smiled. She brought out her combatting shaft.

She swung it up above her head.

They charged against her. She used the shaft to knock them as they charged at her one after the other.

Within two minutes, they were all down panting.

She sauntered to where their leader is, she removed his hood and helmet.

“Why do you want to waste your life?” she asked.

The gang leader laughed.

She kicked him on his ball. He groaned.

“Who sent you to me?” she asked him.

He spat saliva on her face.

She cleaned it with the back of her palm. She wanted its kick him again.

“Stop !“ she heard from her back.

One of the guys pointed a gun at her.

He ridiculed her.

“You think you are smart. Just say your last words," he said.

She kneels feigning that she was praying.

He shot the gun but she dodged it. It went directly to their leader’s forehead.

The guy who shot the gun was terrified the gun dropped from his hands as he was shivering.

Ana picked the gun. She went to one of the motorbikes, climbed on it, and zoomed off.

Leaving the gangs to their havoc. She heard gunshots.

She ignored. She keeps racing. Until she was out of their sight.

She packed far away from her hideout. She was very convinced that the motorcycle has a tracking device mounted on it.

She may be a pauper, but she was smart. Her late dad trained her.

Every day, she practiced on her own. In swordsmanship, combat, arms, and mental.

She had grown up to be a strong lady like her dad.

Her dad had been one of the guys she just beat. They were working for the bad guys who held the political pillar of the country.

His bravery and intelligence made the bad guys love him and had appointed him as their overall killer.

The others ganged against him. And had fibbed against him, the bad guys don’t believe them until they sent him on a mission. But he declined.

They ordered his murder alongside his family.

Ana wasn’t at home. She had gone for training as usual.

She was on her way home when she saw armed guys loitering around. She was smart to discover that those are not friends.

She thought they were robbers.

She tiptoed to the window to listen to their conversation.

“Liam, you don’t need to do this. you are my best friend,“ her father said.

Liam burst into laugher.

"Albert, what is happening? Do You know them?“ her mom said as she pulled her younger to her covering his face and his ears.

“Caro, I can explain,“ he said.

“I am listening, it is why you usually train and you are dragging my daughter in with you. I have swallowed all your lies that you are a guard in the rich man’s house, so all your money is blood money. I regret insisting on my quest to marry you. I left the guy my parent betroth to me just to marry you. I labor with you,” Ana’s mom said as tears fall from her eyes.

Ana's father tried to touch her. But she slapped him.

Liam slammed the table beside him. Ana's mom and brother flinched.

“Albert, you think you get it all. You think you are smart. I may be your best friend. I wasn’t because I love you. It was just to know your weakness,“ Liam said as he smirked wickedly.

He corked the gun in his hand and shot Ana’s brother. His mom wailed.

“Liam, spare me and my wife's lives. I promise I will go to a far place. It will be a top-secret between us," Ana's dad said in tears.

Liam laughed.

“I will go to a far place, Liam spares me,” Liam said mimicking Ana’s father mocking him.

He corked the gun, he shot Ana’s mother.

Ana's father screamed. They heard a sound by the window

.

Ana had screamed at the shot of her mother. All eyes were at the window include Albert, Ana’s father.

Liam walked toward the window. Ana hid when realized a figure coming

Liam saw a figure of a girl hiding.

“Ally, get that girl at the window,” Liam said to the guard at the door.

“Ok boss” ally said as he stepped out.

Ana heard him. She was uncertain whether to fight alongside her father or she should run.

She heard her dad's whispering. It was like their communication of running.

So she ran before ally can get her. He only saw a figure running into the bush.

She has never gone there again.

She was at their burial. She tried to be strong so that she doesn’t give herself out.

But they discovered. They had known that she will be there.

She had to leave unnoticed when she saw a guard whispering to another.

They observed her absence. They started looking for her until she was discovered. they pursued her.

She had run off again. They lost her.

She sat inside her new home. It was her dad’s old cabin which he used before he joined the bad guy squad.

It was hidden. No one could suspect a soul was staying there.

He removed her hood. She had cut her hair short so it could free her head.

She brought out the food in her bag. She has her private card which her dad has stocked with a lot of money that couldn't be traced.

The next day, Ana went to bathe in a nearby river and to get drinkable water, when she observed a movement around her cabin.

She flinched.

The man had noticed her, he alerted the others.

Ana fleed and they pursued her.

She ran into a desolate road. Her pursuers continued to run after her.

She ran into another street, it was a bit busy.

One of them halted a car. He dragged out the driver, fled him on the road, and hopped in. He signaled to others five of his guys to hop in. They obeyed.

Ana keeps running, she saw a car following her.

She was startled.

How can she escaped without her combat tools which were in the cabin

A car halted beside her. She wanted to ignore them, but she recognized him.

“Lord Lucas, the royal heir. My lord!” she said as she bowed.

He signaled her to hop in.

She brightened to see that her pursuers have halted their car.

They’re staring at them, they can’t make a move because they feared Lord Lucas.

Ana smirked at them. Before she hopped into Lucas’s car.

She would hear them anathematize and arguing.

She smiled.

She just desired to get the security she longs for with lord Lucas.

__________________________ _____________________

Lucas had wakened by the beeping of his phone.

He knew who the caller was.

His mom, the Queen.

“Her highness,” he said as he picked the call.

“Lucas quit the formal, Lucas, I want to see you,” she said over the phone.

“Mother, you know where to find me,” he said as he sat up from the bed.

“Come to my private villa in thirty minutes,” she said, it was just like an order.

“Mother, let me check my schedule,” he said.

“Don’t tell me that, I know you haven’t been to work for a week,” she said. He was not that shocked. He knew the mother he has.

“Okay,” he said.

“Your minutes start now!” she ordered

“Mother, thirty minutes is too insignificant. You can see that I have just woke up," he said

“That is why I allow you thirty minutes, now get up, you have wasted five minutes grumbling,” she said. She hanged up the call.

Lucas stood up from the bed.

“Aces” he called

A guard stormed in.

“My lord, Aces is at the gate guarding,” he said.

“Oh, get the red Lexus ready, I will be going out alone,” he said as he walked to the bathroom.

“Ok, my lord” he bowed.

Lucas decided to pass through the less busy road. So to soothe his mind. He wanted to be able to think before he could be able to face his mom.

He drove through. When he caught sight of a lady running.

Her pursuers were males. He looked towards them. They were undercover guards.

His outrage boiled. But he calmed down.

He decided to salvage the lady.

It is long he yearned to review those undercover guards. But he wasn’t ready yet.

Until he was ready to avenge his fiancée's death. He would.

He drove to the lady. She was so shaggy. She must be one of the paupers. But she was beautiful.

He signaled to her to hop in.

She was stunned, her expression showed that she recognizes him as the prince.

He gleamed.

She smirked wickedly to her pursuers and she hopped in.

He zoomed off.