The rain was hammering down over the city, fierce and frozen as spears of ice. Wufan was drenched in it from head to toe, his normally dark brown hair turned black and plastered to his head. His loudly pants echoed in his ears as he ran, searching for cover. Skilfully he maneuvered in twists and turns through the labyrinth of hidden pathways and passages sprawling through the city. He checked over his shoulder furtively and scooted under the edge of an overhanging rooftop, chest heaving as he took in the gulps of the air his tired body screamed for. Wufan tightened his grip on the sturdy handle of the knife in his hand - whether it was slippery because of the rain or his sweaty palms, he couldn't tell. The whites of his dark eyes flashed in the gloom, and hesitantly he stepped back into the rain. 

Squinting up into the downpour, he scanned his surroundings. He could hear nothing over the crashing of the rain, which was also rendering his eyesight fairly useless. Wufan growled quietly to himself at this feeling of helplessness, eyes still darting suspiciously for any sign of movement. There. Wufan whirled on the spot as he glimpsed the water of a puddle thrown up, disrupted by the quick, purposeful steps of a foot, accompanied by a frustrated hiss as the person realised they'd been discovered. With reflexes like lightning he hurled the knife in his hand with all the strength and precision he could muster towards the target. When he heard a grunt and a slight splash as the person fell to their knees he turned and sprinted again, panic notching up his speed.

Too late was Wufan aware that he was heading straight towards a road, back into the main streets of the city. Not willing to risk venturing into the open, he leapt sideways in an uncoordinated panic, scrabbling to his feet as he leaned against a brick wall and fumbling with his belt for another knife. To his immense frustration, his fingers had grown numb due to a combination of cold and terror, and he managed to pull out a knife only for his shaking hands to send it falling towards the ground.

Wufan had just managed to scoop up the knife when dull splashes and crunching gravel told him his pursuers had caught him. Slowly he raised his head and met the gazes of the two who had caught up with him. Letting out a wordless growl, he deliberately tightened his grip on his knife as his panicky clumsiness dissipated and was replaced with an intense, deliberate concentration. His eyes flickered from one of the pursuers to the other, noting that they had a knife and an unknown weapon between them. 

The atmosphere was so thick it could have been cut with a knife, and that it almost was when Wufan surged forwards with unexpected speed and buried his knife into the abdomen of one of the two men. Using all the strength he could muster, he sprang away with his knife in hand and whirled to attack again when he was met head-on by the uninjured enemy, who stabbed forward just a bit too quickly for Wufan to dodge.

The blade pierced his left shoulder, quick and fierce as lightning. Pain blossomed from his arm through his body violently, forcing a cry from his mouth. Stumbling backwards, he shook his head in an attempt to shrug off the pain and focus. Meeting gazes with his attacker, he planted his feet on the ground and prepared to launch himself again, righting his grip on his blade and struggling to ignore the agony now radiating from his shoulder. 

All the while his enemy waited, patient, calmly aware he had the advantage as he took stock of a situation that Wufan hadn't. The man who Wufan had successfully stabbed had collapsed onto his side in the shadows, but had managed to right himself onto his knees and was now pointing a handheld gun in Wufan's direction that the younger man was completely unaware of. Wufan took a step forwards unwillingly towards the standing man, and went to right his balance as the second man's shaking hand managed to pull the trigger.

Wufan's carefully calculated thoughts snapped out of his mind as the shot echoed down the alleyway, and his gaze dragged down to the raw gunshot wound in his leg. Disbelievingly he cast a glance towards the one who'd shot him, now slumped barely conscious in the gloom. Wufan's mind filled with a fog thicker than smoke as the pain hit home, and he barely held his previous intent to attack in his mind as he feebly stumbled forwards a few paces before losing control of his body and falling forwards into the harsh icy coldness of the ground.

His assailant grinned, and then laughed coldly, pacing around to Wufan's side and crouching slightly so he could stare into the eyes of his victim. Wufan's dark eyes were wide as saucers, unfocused and unseeing, and his chest heaved unevenly as he fought for breath. His assailant laughed another time, kicking rainwater into Wufan's face before the headlights of a passing car alarmed him back into the shadows. Hoisting the body of his comrade over his shoulder, he disappeared into the city's hidden depths without any further hesitation, leaving Wufan alone mere metres from the sidewalk as the defeated man let consciousness flee him.

A/N: Whew, first chapter! Hopefully someone'll read it and enjoy it, anyway ^~^