Anya raised a slight brow. That had lifted a slight weight off her shoulders. She would have felt insanely stupid if they had been following her about and she hadn't noticed. Still, even if they weren't out for her, this would be considerably easier on Sage if she wasn't there for him to worry about. It had taken her a moment or so to realize he was storming off towards the forest again. She was just kind of left standing there, her head slightly tilted. Now her breathing was almost back to normal, meaning she could think a little bit more clearly. What was he doing? Surely things would be easier out in the open.

Sage wasn't really thinking about what would be easiest, or best, or really anything at all besides the fact that he totally wanted to sucker punch all of the people following them. Or stab them. Stabbing was also good. He didn't have a plan or really know what he was doing, but that was pretty typical of him. He had the tendency to jump into things like an idiot. Which was exactly what he was doing now. Anya was probably confused, and she had a right to be, since the clearing would be much easier to fight in. But this way was better, he replied on speed, which meant he could duck around trees and play a deadly game of tag. He'd just have to be careful since he didn't know how many people were out there. He had counted at least four, but there were most likely more. Whoever was following them was coordinated, and had good weapons. In other words, they weren't really from the slums, they were higher than that. Which also meant they were probably hired by someone, which meant they weren't the actual issue, which meant that sage was just getting more and more angry and annoyed as he thought more.

Anya watched as Sage disappeared into the shadows of the forest. It worried her, of course it did, but she trusted that the boy knew what he was doing. And she wasn't so much concerned about Sage anyway. She just wanted to get home untouched. She thought about that for a moment. Not long ago, she would have followed him, put herself in harm's way just to see that he had gotten out of whatever was about to go down safely, even though it most likely wouldn't have helped. Perhaps not seeing each other had helped as they had hoped. It was an odd thought to have come up at a time like this, but really, unless it looked like she was going to be attacked herself, why should she care? Sage could look after himself however he saw fit, and if push came to shove Anya could run and hide. The village wasn't far, so she would just have to push herself a little to get ahead of them all.

Sage stomped into the woods and threw a knife as soon as he was out of Anya's vision, killing the man in the tree. It was a good thing too, because he was the one with the long range weapon. The others dropped from the trees and converged on him, and while he was a good fighter, he was up against four huge men with large swords and shorter swords. One of each for each man...double blades. That would make it difficult. Even so, he knew he couldn't just stand there, so he kept forward and cut down one of the men before they could react. Once they did react, though, there was a flurry of crazy motion, and for once sage found himself to be on the losing side. Or rather, the side that seemed to be losing. He was still fighting, but was getting nicks and bruises already. He was likely to have a major wound if he kept this up, he knew that, so he just pressed the men harder and harder until he was fighting at his very peak of skill. He was holding his own now, but he was sprinting while they were jogging....he would wear down soon.

Anya stood motionless in the clearing, trying to see whatever was going on. It was dark, though, so the most she could see was shadows lurking about. She could barely make out Sages as he floated through the trees, only to hear a loud thump just a few seconds after he disappeared into the darkness. It had been silent for a matter of moments.. eerily so before an eruption of shouting came from the tree line. It scared her a little and made her heart jump again. It almost hurt this time though, having barely recovered from her little breathing issue. Although she wasn't overly worried about the boy, she didn't think about walking off as she had before. She wanted to see him walk out again, no matter what state he was in. She saw the shadow figures rushing about, only to realize just how much bigger these men were than Sage. She had seen him for larger people before, so that wasn't a cause for concern, but there were lots of these guys. Four... maybe five of them. Still, she tried not to let that get to her. If she did, then she would most likely end up getting in the way, and that wasn't what anyone needed.

Sage knew he would have to push himself to win, and for once actually doubted if he could do it. He was already bleeding from at least half a dozen wounds, and while none of them were serious, combined the could be an issue. And he would only get more, or worse, wounds the longer he kept himself going at his full potential. He was already panting too, a line of sweat breaking out on his forehead. He didn't get a moment to wipe it away though, and barely had the time to blink it out of his eyes as he ran around, barely making a dent in the men. They were trained... actually knew what they were doing, and how to take advantage of his weaknesses. And he had a lot of them, at least compared to these men. It took him well over five minutes to bring a single man down, and that had taken a lot out of him. He was exhausted, his legs and arms even trembling. He heard a slight noise behind him, and he turned just in time to hear a gun shot tear through the trees. He ducked, avoiding the first, but the second shot hit his sword arm and he cursed, barely managing to keep his hand tightened around his dagger. He couldn't see the person shooting, but as he heard the trigger click he lunged to his feet and took off, this time sprinting back into the clearing and yanking Anya after him. He knew she probably needed more rest, but they had guns, and he couldn't fight that well with just a dagger. Especially not if he couldn't see who was shooting. Besides, if he could push through it so could she...they were both exhausted, though her breathing had gotten to it's regular pace again, and he was hurt. Getting shot, in his opinion, was worse than a stab wound. If he got stabbed he could just sew it up, but now he'd have to dig the bullet out of his shoulder before he could fix this one.

The girl's eyes widened slightly as she heard the earth-shaking bang of a gunshot slip through the air. Shit. Now she could really worry. Everything went still for a moment before she saw Sage running out from the treeline. Thank hell. She squinted her eyes slightly, just to see blood running down his arm. That wasn't good, not at all. She let out a small squeak as he dragged her along before trying to pick up the pace again. The gunshots, they didn't stop as they ran... they were still coming for Sage, or Anya, whoever they wanted. The girl dared to glance back as they re-entered the forest on the opposite side, only to see two men running behind them. That made alarm bells ring. Two, there were only two of them. There had been more than four of them, and she didn't know what went on in the forest, but she doubted there were only two of them. So where had they gone? And where was Sage running? She glanced back at him as her voice raised a little. "Where are we going?" She almost shouted, trying to get the words out between breaths. Her breathing wasn't so bad now, but it had taken another little while to sort it out again.

Sage glanced back at the girl and shrugged. "Didn't think that through," he yelled back. "Away from them. There's plenty of places we can hide out." He thought of a place in the forest, but it took knowing where it was to see it. Anya would be surprised when he pulled her through the wall of ivy, but he didn't have the breath to warn her. Besides, yelling it could make the people chasing them know their destination. He darted through the clearing, changing directions so as not to get either of them shot. He ran into the trees and turned a few times before running through the ivy wall, still pulling Anya behind him. It looked and felt like a solid wall except for a small spot, so they should be safe here. He let go of Anya and had to force himself not to double over. He sat down hard, not willing to walk around. If he got muscle cramps, he didn't really care.

Anya closed her eyes as they went through the ivy wall, attempting not to let out a sound. She trusted Sage to some extent, you could say with her life, but for whatever reason, she didn't trust him enough not to drag her straight into a stone wall. Once they had gotten through, though, she just kind of stared at him. She wasn't sure what had happened in those last few moments, so was trying to put it all back together as her breathing slowed again. She stayed quiet until she heard footsteps rushing past before finally letting out a soft sigh. She looked Sage over again, watching as blood started to pool around him. The girl wrinkled her nose slightly before bending down just in front of him, her brows slightly furrowed. "What in the world just happened?" Her eyes were still wide, nervous, but she tried to come off calmer. She had to force herself to glance at his arm, trying to figure out whether he had been stabbed or even shot. It didn't look clean enough to be a stab, so went for the latter. The poor boy really wasn't having a good night. "Are you alright?" She took a short breath before shaking her head. He obviously wasn't. He was bleeding out and had just run god knows how far to get out of harm's way. She jerked her head towards the wound. "Can we do anything about that now?"

Sage lifted his head and scrunched his face up. "I can't fight a damn gun with a dagger, that's what happened. Also, they're trained and good at what they're doing so fighting five of them all at once was taking too much energy." He shrugged "I can pop the bullet out but I highly doubt you'd want to watch." He cocked his head slightly, glad she was still thinking through things even if she was just scared out of her mind. And in all honesty, if the bullet was in his shoulder bone, he wasn't sure he could get it out himself. But he could find something to wrap it up with if that happened. He'd have to figure out what other wounds were bad enough to be stitched or wrapped and which weren't. Anya was fine, though, so at least one good thing was happening. He heard the men run past them, so he knew it was safe to talk, but his voice was still quiet...his head was spinning and his should was hurting heck of a lot more than he let on.