While Rose was scouting ahead I waited for the guy in the window to go away, I didn't need to wait too long because someone called him from inside. I took advantage of this and move to the building. I checked the entrance and moved slowly. Once inside I decided to wait for Rose to get some information about the situation.
I moved around the first floor to get used to the layout of the place, which probably was the same or at least similar to the one on the third floor. It didn't take too much time for her to come back.
'There are just 2 guys, the third one was betrayed by them. I'm not sure why but they are planning to use people to pay some kind of fee to go somewhere. They didn't mention where is this place or why they need the people, but it can be related to the lack of people in this area'.
'It can be related but for now, let's focus on rescuing Dana's mother did you see her?'
'She is in a room with five more people, one of them is the third accomplice that was betrayed, the other four are the group they fought probably.
'What about the other two guys?'
'One went to another apartment's bathroom he is probably the melee fighter that you mentioned, and the other went to sleep he mentioned about moving in the morning'.
Now I understood the reason for the time limit. Probably they were going to just take a nap and move soon. I should take my chances and try to ambush the guy that went to the bathroom. Or try to make him leave the third floor.
I had to move up first, I arrived at the third floor and hide next to the stairs, as I thought the layout was the exact same as the first floor. Rose told me in which apartment was Dana's mother and where did the other guy go.
I waited there in silence taking deep breaths with my eyes closed waiting for the guy to go back to the other apartment. I changed my view to see week points and took the knife in my right hand.
'Can you go watch the other guy meanwhile? just to be sure he doesn't arrive in the middle of my fight'.
She nodded and left the place. I don't want her to see me killing someone in this way.
Now that I think about it if everything goes as I planned this would be the second time I kill someone. But this time it isn't in self-defense, I was the one striking first. Despite that I was calm, this people were dangerous and would even trade their friend to get… I had no idea what they were getting from it, but I couldn't even imagine trading G or someone for some kind of advantage.
The time passed slowly and there weren't any signs of the guy coming out. I started to think that he fell asleep in that apartment or something like that.
When I was considering going in by myself, the door opened.
"I knew that the meat wasn't well cooked… What kind of shitty technique is that".
The guy was complaining while leaving the apartment. I focused on him and noticed that his weak points were dimmer than those of other people. Probably his ability was some kind of defensive enhancement. Of course, they were still there, but the possibility of killing him in one strike without him alerting the other guy was null.
The guy started to walk towards the other apartment, there wasn't any light source here, so I moved from the stairs and got close without him noticing. When I was about two meters away I pounced and stabbed him on his kidneys.
This was one of the few spots I know that would disable him enough to get to fight the other guy one on one. It would be painful so even if I can't kill him before the other guy came his combat ability would be hindered.
The moment the knife came in contact with his skin I could feel a resistance similar to that of the boar. Luckily the skin wasn't as thick as the boar and I was able to pierce the kidney.
A groan escaped his mouth but it was clear he was an experienced fighter since he reacted fast and turned around ready to smash his elbow on my head. He was taller than me, with this view I could see his body state thus the moment he started to spin I pulled out the knife and crouch to avoid the attack.
Despite being badly hurt and in darkness the guy's intuition wasn't bad. He made something like a battle cry and punched down towards me. I jumped back using the impulse I rolled and with the assistance of my arms, I got back on my feet in one fluid motion.
[Skill Obtained Dodge Lv. 0]
'The other guy woke up'.
That battle cry had two meaning, the first was to vent the pain that was assaulting him, and to tell his partner. He steps forward like if nothing happened, but I knew that it was just an act. With each movement he made the blood loss was getting worst, and his condition was deteriorating fast, the reason he didn't charge was that those movements would just accelerate his own death.
"Who are you?!?!". He was clearly trying to kill some time for his partner to arrive. I didn't answer and got near him once again. I mainly used feints to make him move around for him to lose blood faster.
'The guy is coming out'.
His movements were getting more and more sluggish and it was at this time that I could stab him again, this time on the lower part of the abdomen. This time he fell to his knees with his hands pressing the wound. I heard the door open at the time I was following the stab with a kick to the head to leave him out of combat.
The guy that came out was a redhead with his hands surrounded in flames.
'Not good'. The moment he saw me and noticed his partner being kicked, a fireball was flying at me. I was barely able to avoid it since was finishing the kick motion at that moment. When the fireball passed by my side, I could feel the heat on my face.
Before he released the second fireball I went back to the stairs.
I went upstairs and a moment later a fireball passed through the place I was a second before. I continued moving to the roof but making sure that the guy was following me.
Fighting against him in a secluded place was going to just make more difficult to avoid his attacks, also I wanted him to underestimate me a little and trying to escape was a good method. I could hear his footsteps coming right behind me, he didn't even stop to look at his partner situation, not it's not like he can change the outcome.
The other reason I wanted him to go out was that he could burn down the building if he gets out of control. Since we were probably going to make noise it will attract the attention of beasts, thus the street was too dangerous to fight there.
I looked around and changed again my view, till now he has not shown any other ability besides throwing fireballs but I can't discard the possibility of another ability.
I saw around me and against my expectation, there weren't too many places to get cover, the only things were the entrance and a metallic box that I didn't know what it is for. The sound of footsteps came from behind. I quickly climbed a little more and got on top of the door. I put on the glove I bought to manipulate things in the workshop in my left hand and hold tight the knife on my right hand.
The door opened but no one came out. I could feel how it was getting warmer around me, so I quickly jumped down. And rolled to soften my fall. I felt another fireball coming at me, so I quickly hit the fireball with the gloved hand. It's was hotter than I thought.
I had to let the burning glove go but at least it prevented me from getting hurt once. I moved to the side to avoid another fireball and noticed a heat surge on the top of the door.
I was ready to dodge the next fireball. Right now, both his hands were out of fire. I could see the heat slowly accumulating on his hand and also at my right, I jumped left at the moment I noticed his hand surrounded by fire once again. At the moment I jumped, a fireball came towards me and a heat surge at my right melted the floor. Since I saw the heat surge before it happens it wasn't a threat to me. He repeated a similar attack pattern two more times, and I dodged right away. One heat surge and one fireball at the same time was his current limit.
I already grasped his timing and I had about 3 seconds before the next attack came. I surprised him by throwing the knife at him. He dodged easily and turned back at me with a mocking smile on his face almost ready to attack again. But two whistles broke the silence and he was pushed back by the impact of my two bullets. While he still hadn't recovered from the surprise I shot again at his chest and he fell.
The heat on his hands slowly disappeared but I could see a heat surge around his wounds. He was using the heat to cauterize the wounds and stop the bleeding.
I didn't let him do anything else and just ended it with a shot on his forehead before he could seal his wounds.
[Congratulation User on killing his first D-Ranked Human, 50 system points rewarded]