Jason Jones against the Centaurs

The centaurs charged into the dojo. They had the heads of men and the torsoes of horses, and, to complement it, the lower bodies of... something that Jason couldn't really identify. Each of them held in their half-equine arms a weapon; a spear, an axe, and a shorter spear with curving spikes. Jason and the others of his class that he could see stood poised, ready to fight or talk. Jason held himself back by an act of will. He reminded himself of the old man's warning; if fighting at the wrong time were ever to cause his death, it would be in attacking foes as dangerous as the centaurs appeared.

Then strange scooping wings unfurled from the centaurs and shot them forward and one impaled Tina and Jason Jones charged the centaurs with a toothy grin.

Jason observed, as he closed on the closest centaur, that the centaurs did not share the weak points which he was accustomed to in his, hitherto human, opponents. Seeking to exploit similarities, Jason ducked under the centaur's spear as it jabbed towards him and bounced up with a fist aimed for the centaur's face. It recoiled with a shout of pain as Jason broke its nose, covering his arm with slightly oily red blood. The attack was designed to do psychological, not physical, damage; and while this succeeded, the centaur was not deterred in its attack, and Jason was forced to retreat in an undignified manner as the spear came down for another blow.

Taking a breath, Jason looked at what the rest of his class was doing. About half of the class was staying away from the fighting; worthless. Some were attacking, but Fred was bleeding in several places, and another boy, who Jason didn't recall the name of, was down on the floor; still breathing, but not fighting. The instructor was fighting well, but the centaur he was fighting seemed to be holding its own. Then Jason jumped to the side as the centaur he'd punched resumed the attack and there was no more time to watch the others.

Jason ducked and dodged as the centaur with the long spear harried him, watching its movements, repressing his bloodlust. Then he saw an opening, and with a shout he again smashed his fist against the centaur's nose; and this time, as the centaur reeled in pain, he grabbed its hands, broke them, and wrested its weapon away from it. It looked at its hands, shocked, and Jason turned the spear around and thrust it into the centaur's belly.

There was surprisingly little resistance.

The centaur fell limply to the ground, and Jason yanked the gory spear loose; not without the least bit of revulsion. His bloodlust overpowered it, though; and as he turned to see the other centaurs charging him (perhaps furious at the death of their comrade, or fearing the only armed opponent in the room), Jason felt a perfect joy.

It didn't outlast his noticing the other spear-centaur dropping its weapon in favour of a rifle drawn from its back. As Jason's mind yammered why didn't it use it from the first? he thought and acted and charged, running as fast as he could toward the centaur who was even now aiming the rifle. The axe-wielding centaur, bloodied from its fight with the other students, unfurled its wings and with one beat flew directly onto Jason. Its axe, swung with deadly force, flew wide as the centaur's grip loosened. Jason's spear had punched all the way through its body. The rifle-wielder held its fire until too late; the instructor knocked its rifle away even as the centaur's fingers closed on the trigger. Fred and the other three students surrounded it.

The fight was over.

Jason took the axe, lifted it up, ran towards the centaur and buried it deep within the centaur's breast. The students gave way as it fell. "It killed Tina," Jason explained.

He heard no objections as he walked outside. Looking around, he could see no more enemies, though other people were coming to investigate the fight and the gunshot. Jason looked into the bright blue sky. A bright blue bird circled slowly overhead.

Jason Jones turned to go back inside, to wash the blood from his hands.