“Another one,” he rumbled, straightening to look down at this newcomer with all the friendliness of a wolverine.

The girl looked taller than the man he’d just smacked unconscious, about as fit, and seemed a lot less capable. He spared a glance down at the now-moaning body of the martial artist or whatever he was, then looked back up at her and wondered whether letting her past was really going to be a hindrance to him. It probably wasn’t. He didn’t know her, she didn’t know him. There was the risk of her running off to law enforcement or security or whatever it was they called the government bully-boys here. With the almost corpse-ified body of an upstanding and human citizen at his feet, that just made it more likely there would be police action.

Aredil very meaningfully looked at his axe. He hefted his hammer, as if testing the weight, and glanced quite obviously at the unconscious body he stood over, then looked quite calmly back at the woman. He flattened his eyebrows to produce extra menace, then took a slow, purposeful step into the center of the alley. With his bulk blocking the way through, he tossed the hammer back to the apron and set the butt of his axe between his feet. The message was clear enough: no.

“Going to tell anyone about this?” he asked, his tone and manner making it epically clear what his opinion was on that course of action. He frowned down at her and rested one arm between the heads of his axe, a gesture that was deceptively casual.