Kate and Larry - a Fragments Side Story

The battle had just begun in the distance and the lone mage stood and watched, waiting for her moment to attack. It was the same as always: things were fairly even at best for her allies. At worst, they would be getting slaughtered by the dozens, which was sadly more common of them. She gazed upon the battlefield with unyielding golden eyes and took a deep breath. The time for her intervention drew near. She began to conjure a mass of fire within her right hand, yet stopped as she heard footsteps approaching from behind.
“I assume you aren’t here for my benefit.” She said calmly.
The footsteps stopped and she turned around. Standing behind her was a man dressed in a black trench coat. He wore a hat that covered his eyes and was looking downward. His face could not be seen. He replied just as calmly: “No ma’am, I’m not. I’m Larry, and I was sent here to kill you.”
“You must be pretty confident in your abilities to announce yourself so plainly. I assume that Douglas guy put you up to this?”
“Yup.” The assassin answered.
“In that case, you know who I am? Or has he told you everything?” The woman questioned.
“What do you mean by ‘everything’? Generally, it’s not good for assassins to go around questioning things, but my curiosity is getting the better of me today. Your calmness is... slightly unsettling.”
“And yours isn’t? You’ve been sent to kill a person, and here you stand having a conversation with them. In any case, you would not be the first sent to kill me. If it's Douglas again, I should just go rid myself of him. He never forgave me for that game of billiards I beat him in.”
“You mean to tell me that he paid that much over a game of billiards?!” Larry lifted his head, revealing a scarred face.
“Well, yes and no. After the game, he walked over and picked me up by the collar of my shirt. I asked nicely for him to put me down, and told him not to be a sore loser. He just kept bitching and pulled back his arm for a punch.”
“I don’t think I understand. This happened and he sent me after you? That makes no sense.”
“Well, after he reached back for that punch, I decided to stop being so nice. He got his ass kicked twice last night. The 1st was in billiards and wounded his pride. The 2nd was me just beating the hell out of him. I left him lying bloody on top of the pool table. Seems he was kind of important though, to be able to keep sending people after me. You think he’d learn.”
“That explains the calmness. Well then ma’am, how many have been sent after you?”
“You would be number 9.” She said calmly while planting her feet into the dirt. She continued to gaze upon the battle below. She quickly continued creating the fireball that was interrupted before. “Might wanna step back for a moment, or things will get a bit hot for you.” She let loose the fireball on half of the battlefield, annihilating most of the forces her allies encountered below.
She then turned around; her orange hair flew in the wind as she summoned another, smaller, fireball. “By the way, my name is Kate. I’d say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but you've been sent to kill me. You get this 1 chance since I’m in a good mood: are you sure you want to continue this? It’s not too late to stop you know.”
“Oh, now it finally makes sense. Took me a minute, but I just realized exactly who you are. You have a reputation among assassins now, miss Kate”
“All the more reason for you to leave me alone.”
“We didn’t get paid to leave you alone.”
“We?!”
She looked to her sides. There were others on either side of her, some meters away. Larry spoke up “No use runnin’ ma’am. There’s even 1 at the bottom of the cliff, should you decide to do something crazy.”
“Looks like he finally decided to start taking me seriously. I assume that means you won’t accept my offer to withdraw?”
“No ma’am” Larry replied as a dagger slid down his forearm and into his hand.
Kate looked at the fireball in her right hand. She began to summon another in her left. “Looks like I’ll just have to use both hands then..."

A response to Tyrdal's "The Fires of Creation" competition.