As they were cleaning, Chasity had her eyes and mind fixated on one person: Trent.
"What does he do?"
"Is he dangerous?" She couldn't take the suspense anymore and right when she was about to blurt something out, Trent calmly says, "Let's stop cleaning, I want to explain all of this to you..." Surprised, she shakes her head 'yes', as Trent takes her hand and leads her to the couch, taking a deep breath.
"Look, I know you probably have a shitload of questions for me, but I want you to know now... I would never put your life in danger. With that being said, I want you to also know that I like you a lot and I understand that for most people? Seeing something like this-" He glances around the now tattered room before continuing "would be a deal breaker, but if you can just give me the time to explain, although I'm not quite sure how to justify ANY of this, I just hope you'll stay... I don't know what I'm hoping for.." Trent stops and puts his face in his hands as Chasity just stares at him. She takes a breath and holds Trent's hand, "I only want to know two things, who are you and what do you do. I won't run away, and it's not like I'll leave, and you'll never see me again, I mean I only live down the street anyway." She gives Trent a warm smile, "Just don't lie to me. Ever." Trent nods and sighs, "Can we just tiptoe around this for a bit? I'd want to give you information to ease you into this, instead of just coming right out and saying it." With a confused look she says "Sure?".
Trent continues "Do you consider yourself somewhat of a gamer?" Chasity still looks confused and thinks about it for a second "Yeah, I've been considered that, why?"
"So, with your knowledge of games, do you know the generalization of what the "Dark Arts" are?" Trent asked. Chasity responded, "Umm, yeah, isn't that magic?" Trent smiles, "yeah that's one path I guess, although I doubt magic exists, but mostly if you're practicing the "Dark Arts" you're practicing the art of assassination, to become an Assassin. That's what I do and who I am. The whole story in a nutshell is: me and Derric were recruited early to become alumni's' in the Dark Arts." Trent was thinking how she would react to hearing something that sounded so far-fetched, but Chasity's face was a mix of confusion and amazement, "Ok, it's very weird that you make a living KILLING people. It's weird you can get a good night's sleep and go out normal and civilized like-like-like a regular 9 to 5 average person! With that being said, you must have unimaginable stories, experiences, are you afraid of ANYTHING? Is your leader strong? Does he move faster than sound? Does HE know magic? Wait, magic isn't real right? Or IS it?? I can't even wrap my head around the fact that I KNOW a real assassin! I LIVE near an assassin!" Chasity is up pacing back and forth through the cleaned living room, asking questions, "answering" those questions with even more questions, not giving Trent any time to at least try and answer any of them, so he just sits there looking at her with a weird face and a smirk. Chasity finally sits down and quickly asks "So the people you kill, they're bad right?"
"Of course. We don't get assigned innocent people. We're assassins yeah, but we have hearts too."
"Good, good. Do you have someone that's in charge? The head honcho of "hell", El Jefe of death blades? I like that second one. Can you give yourself that title?" Trent laughs, "You're really getting into this, no I can't give myself that title, as much as I'd want to, also I'm not exactly sure if there is a "King assassin", as long as we've been in here, we haven't heard of one. I say "we" because if Derric knew, the WHOLE organization would have known about him already."
Just as he said that, Derric slowly comes down the steps "Speaking of, El Jefe of death blades just told me to pimp smack a person named Trent, it's of the upmost importance." Chasity gets to her feet and yells at him "What the hell are you doing Derric!? You NEED to stay in bed, or you'll reopen your wounds!" Derric chuckles a bit "I'm tougher than you think Doc, but I appreciate the concern. And I promise not to mess up your hard work too." He takes a seat on the couch, "I'm surprised you're still here even after hearing-" He starts whispering to Trent "you did tell her our profession, right?" Trent nods as Derric continues his first statement "after hearing that we're "Assassins!" He whispers loudly in a mysterious voice as he stares at the ceiling with a small smile.
"You have some issues, Derric." Chasity chuckles "Are you sure you're ok though? I don't want you to overexert yourself." Derric shrugs it off "I'm fiiiiiiiine okay? Plus, there's no time for me to be laying on my ass and I know Trent would love to just sit there and talk with you all day, but we have a massive amount of work ahead of us." Derric takes his robe off, underneath he already had his gear on, an intricate green and black design raced down his deadly decorated outfit, to Chasity it looked like hands reaching at his weapons. She sits there awestruck as Trent kisses her cheek "He has a great point; I'll be back in a bit." Trent heads upstairs to get ready as Derric asks Chasity "Do you plan on staying or do you have any other plans for today?"
Chasity blinks and shakes her head "Uh… yeah, yeah I do have something to do today actually-" She checks the time and sighs "Work has no sleeping patterns so I have to be there in about thirty minutes or so."
"Ahh, you get to miss the best part-" And as Derric said that, Trent walks downstairs and cuts in "-Yea you get to miss me beating Derric at any challenge we can think of." Chasity looks at Trent's blue, grey and black outfit, the design looked like a spider with swords and daggers lining its waist, just like how it was on Derrics. "Wow..." Chasity whispered to herself then said aloud "It's different to see you actually in uniform, everything's ACTUALLY starting to sink in now." Trent and Derric looked at each other, then Trent turned to Chasity and sat next to her, she didn't budge, Trent nodded his head a bit and asked "You aren't scared of us are you?" Chasity smiled "No... It's pretty much the opposite; I'm amazed at both of you guys' courage to do something so dangerous." She kissed Trent, "I have to go but make sure you don't get hurt please... I don't know how I'd react and if you need me call me at this number anytime and I mean ANY time Trent." She gives Trent a serious look and writes her number on a piece of paper as he nods his head "I won't be getting hurt but if I do, I promise I'll call you first." Chasity hugs Derric and quickly leaves, as her pager for work goes off.
"You know, if she ever joined our profession, she would be one hell of a shadow." Trent said.
"Why do you say that?" Derric asked as he and Trent start walking out to Trent's backyard.
"Her intuition, I don't know how but she just knows when something's off, how she just randomly got up and then her pager goes off, yesterday at the restaurant, I had a great excuse to why I knocked her drink over, because it was drugged although I didn't say that, but I had a great excuse and on the way home, she knew I was hiding something." Derric looks at Trent puzzled "We've been practicing our lying faces since we were young and you're saying someone who you've "known" for like 3 months but only actually spoke to for a week, can tell when you're lying or if somethings not on the straight and narrow?" Derric asked as they started walking through a path in the woods, Trent just nodded his head. "Hm... I'll have to test that myself then." Derric said as Trent replied "Be my guest, but let's hurry to the spot, I don't want to waste any time." Derric nodded and in a split second they both took off sprinting, quickly side-stepping trees to avoid hitting them, jumping over fallen trees and swinging across ropes over deadly ditches slightly covered in leaves. "Derric, remember when I told you I had Leech over the house a few months ago and I told you he did renovations?" He asked while still running as Derric responded with a "Yeah, why?"
Trent smiled and said "Well get ready." And as he said that, one of them stepped on something that triggered a barrage of shuriken and kunai at the both of them, they both wasted no time in sliding under it and as they slid, Trent felt a small tug on his uniform and screamed "JUMP!" They both jumped, dodging a massive "bear trap" meant to kill anything that got inside the huge cage of spikes. Trent's eyes gleamed with what looked like excitement, as Derric asked "Do you know where the traps are??" Trent responded "No, I told him to just go out here after my Death Pit and set up traps leading to my training grounds." Derric looked around suspiciously "You know Leech is very cunning... his mind works weird." "Exactly why I didn't ask anyone else to do it, I don't know how he works, so I'm in for a surprise running through this-"
And before he could finish they both took a long fall, through a gigantic hole in the ground into a pool, "SPLASH!" they went deep into the murky water. Trent tried surveying the area while under but could barely even see Derric, who was a few feet away swimming to the top, Trent followed suit. As they surfaced, Derric and Trent looked around the slightly lit cavern, there were four areas of land they could swim to, two well-lit areas north and south of the cavern and the east and west sides were dim. Trent was shocked and whispered "Wow Leech… this is what your mind looks like huh?" Derric interrupted Trents amazement "Yo, there's an opening on the east side of the cavern, should we take it? It seems a bit too....obvious, you know? After seeing what Leech is about, I don't want to take anything easy from him." Trent nodded his head and said "Then again, maybe that's what he WANTS you to think-" And at the same time they said "Trust your first instinct." And at that second a huge "fish" Jumped out the water, a few feet away from them. While in the air, it made a terrifying, loud screeching sound "RAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHRRRR!!" then, went back in with a huge splash. They wasted no time swimming east, but as they swam, the predator started chasing its prey. "Derric, keep swimming and provide support when you can." Trent yelled, "Understood!" Derric yelled in return, as Trent cut left and headed toward the north land, the mysterious sea monster headed towards Trent. As the beast got close to him, it opened its mouth and prepared to eat him, Trent allowed himself to get on its teeth, took out one of his swords and held it up, stopping the giant beast from chomping down. Trents boots had a thick soft padding on the bottom to muffle sound, and under that padding he had a thick metal plate, it was virtually impenetrable, so as he stood on one tooth and held open the mouth, he quickly jumped, swinging in front of the beast and landing on its head and with a quick thrust, stabbed the fish on top of the head. The beast roared loud "RAAAGGGHHHHRRR!!!!" Trent tried controlling it to swim back near the east land, it worked, as it headed to the place Derric almost was. Enraged, the beast started going back into the water, so Trent took his sword out of its head, sheathed it and jumped in the water to start swimming, he was a few strokes behind Derric. "HURRY!" Trent yelled "It's sure to come back!" They swam for the land, as fast as they could, that was only a few more feet away. As they were, the beast resurfaced showing only the fin on its back and a huge wave heading straight for them. As they were about to reach land, the beast was only 3 seconds away from eating them both and as they got onto the land, the beast jumped out the water, onto the land, its mouth wide open, as Trent and Derric turned, looking straight into the abyss that was the beasts' mouth, back flipped with no hands and threw shuriken and knives at it four at a time, two in each hand. First inside its mouth, the beast roared and closed it, the next flurry of projectiles they threw hit the monster from its left eye all the way across to its right eye but the target area, right in the middle of its head, had the most damage. In total the both of them, together, threw 48 projectiles at the beast. It slid on the ground and stopped right in front of the two of them, dead. Derric looked at Trent who stared at the beast "What.....The....Hell" Derric said "How does he even GET a beast like that down here?! How long did he work on this project?" Trent slowly turned to look at Derric "He was only here for two days..." Derric's face was shocked "You… mean he only worked 48 hours on ALL of this?" Trent surveyed the area some more as he said "No... take about 10 hours away. Derric, I don't like being in this part we need to move now." Trent urged as Derric thought about what he just heard "38 hours?? Unreal..." and then they saw a bubble arise from the water, as it popped they heard an even louder, deeper roar.
"GGGGRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" The roar sounded angry and Trent back stepped a bit "Lockpick!" He yelled, and they both turned and ran through the dimly lit entrance, into a narrow hallway. They felt a strong breeze straight ahead, so they knew an exit was nearby. Trent was in front and as he went through the doorway, he had to quickly stop to avoid falling to his death and put a hand out to stop Derric, they were on a huge cliff overlooking spikes and in front of them, a wall with one path leading left, and another leading right but both connecting to the other side of the wall. Trent was speechless, so Derric started "Dude.... 38 hours of work and he comes up with this..." He decided to take a seat "Trent, I need to know what you told him specifically, I'm going to pick his brain." Trent nodded his head "Ok, I told him I needed obstacles to get to my training ground, he asked me what I had in mind and I said it didn't matter as long as it got me there. He asked me if I wanted it to be a high survival rate and I told him to make it skillful." Derric cut in "So I'm guessing it starts off with a high survival rate and slowly the percent drops." Trent nods, "I was thinking that myself, but the worst part is coming up now." Derric gives Trent a serious, intense stare "What did you just figure out?" Trent takes a deep breath "He asked if I'd be taking anyone else to my training spot, I told him of course either you or Kong, can't count Leech since he's building it, which he understood, but now I think he just set this part up to separate whoever's with me. He knows I work excellent with you guys so he's going to make us rely on our own abilities."
"Makes sense... but how is this part going to separate us?" Derric said as he looks at both paths and thinks, "Actually, those paths don't look very sturdy... like the lightest touch will make them collapse." Trent nodded "Exactly, so we can either A, try and run across together and risk falling, or B, we each use a path, still risking the fall, but when we get to the other side we use sound to keep track of each other." Derric thought about it for a second, scanned the ground for a rock and threw it on the right path. Nothing happened as he looked back at Trent and shrugged, and then one of the platforms on the right path fell and they heard it break against the spikes "Takes a while for the platform to fall though, we can make it." Derric said. "Yea but that was only a rock you threw, plus, I bet each platform has different falling times. I don't want to take chances, we're dealing with another Assassin, one who's been in this way longer than us, you underestimate one of us and, you've seen what happens, we both have." Trent said as Derric nodded and responded "True... ok, when you get to the other side whistle twice, pause, then whistle twice again, I'll do the same and whenever you hear that pattern, respond like that." They did their handshake as Trent took the left path, dashing through it, just barely having enough time to make it off some of the falling platforms and Derric took the right, having to jump over the already fallen platform. They both made it on the other side but Trent was first so, in a low tone, he started the signal "whistle whistle" pause "whistle whistle" after a few seconds he heard the same pattern in a high tone, Trent smiled. No one said anything but they knocked on the wall to make sure the other was at the same spot. Trent pulled out a gold coin, he always kept at least three on him during any mission, you never know what the situation may call for and he seen the perfect opportunity for it and with a "Ting" he flipped it into the air. Derric heard the noise and knew Trent had used his coin and looked up at it, as the coin was in the air, as soon as it went higher than the wall two arrows hit the coin at a fast pace. They both stared at the spot the coin got hit, still amazed at how much work went into this in so little time, Trent whispered "What do you think is waiting for us in here?" Derric could only shake his head "I don't know, but I'm sure we'll be getting into at least one fight, separated to the point that we can't even communicate and I would guess we'll end up in different places for a bit also. What do you think?"
"You stole the words right out of my mouth. It's a no brainer that this is a maze we're in, meaning there's most likely booby-traps, as far as the battles go? I want to doubt we'll run into anything of the sort but after that trick he had in the other room I'm not too sure anymore. It's been about 3 months since he made this so if he does have people down here they have to be dead, unless he's found a way to provide food for them."
"Or they found their own food..." Derric said, Trent thought about the idea and shuddered "Eating rats or worst, that beast in there, sickening but impressive if they did. Let's head out, but keep knocking on the wall, whistle when you have to turn and after that I WILL meet you at the end." Trent said. "I'll make sure I see you when you get there." Trent chuckled a bit "Heh, making competition out of a situation like this?" Derric started walking forward while knocking on the wall, "Gotta keep it fun and interesting somehow." Trent followed the knocks, doing the same but quickly came to a left turn as he did the signal, Derric said "I'm still forward, be careful bro." They never called each other "bro" or "brother" unless they were worried. Trent looked back at the wall, nodded and started sprinting through the maze, "The first right there is, I'll take." He thought to himself as the long path continued. As he ran, the floor under him suddenly turned into a steep slide "Whoa!" Trent said as he started sliding down, the only thought running through his mind was "What surprise is waiting for me?" As he went down, he quickly pulled both his swords out anticipating the worst and then the slide stopped and he took a big fall but landed on his feet and quickly got into his fighting stance, immediately scanning the room for enemies. It was basically pitch black, Trent was fully alert and took big leaps backwards, while spinning to make sure nothing was too close, trying to find the nearest wall to stand at. "TING!" his sword hit a solid object, so he stopped and put his hand on what he thought was the wall, "This wall has arms..!" He thought to himself and not even a fraction of a second later he jumped up into the air, upside down and slashed at the spot where he figured the head would be but cut nothing. When he landed, he swiped at the same area he heard his blade connect to but to his surprise, he caught air instead.
"How did you get here?" A mysterious voice said, Trent pinpointed the voice to his left about 50 feet away, "Quick feet you have, but the better question is how YOU got here?" Trent heard a small growl opposite from the voice "A man AND a beast... fucking Leech. Derric careful bro... careful" he thought to himself. "You smell like air... fresh air... Tell me, how did you become stuck in here? I'm not interested in fighting you. If I wanted to, I could have killed you when you fell down here, I heard you yell, I heard you slide down here, and I smelled you enter this area, you have another partner here as-well but he might not be so lucky. The area he went to is far more dangerous than your particular.... predicament. Sheath your swords and listen to my tale, after that I'll take you out of here." Trent stayed battle ready, looking directly in the direction of the voice, still wary of the beast growl behind him. On the other side, Derric ran into a set of stairs, did the signal and waited.... no response "He must be pretty far by now anyway." he thought to himself as he went down the staircase. At the bottom, he entered a huge bright room, walked to the middle and surveyed it as the door to the staircase quickly closed, "I guess there's a "no back-tracking" rule." As he finished saying that, a different wall opened up as a beautiful lady appeared "Cute" Derric thought "10 out of 10 she's bat-shit crazy and just as deadly, I've learned my lesson." He stared at the mysterious lady before asking "And you might be?"
"I have no name, but you may call me Anita, and what would your name be, strange visitor?"
"I go by Lockpick. Now I won't lie to you, I'm a bit interested in how you got here but I'm more worried about how to get to the end of this area, so if you could point me in that direction I'd appreciate it." Anita bowed "Certainly, but I must warn you Lockpick, getting through will not be an easy task for the likes of you." Derric narrowed his eyes at her "For "the likes of me" what's that supposed to mean?" Derric didn't touch his weapons but he was ready for evasive action, Anita bowed again "I meant no disrespect by that statement Lockpick, please follow me and I'll show and explain to you why we can't leave." Derric nodded and held out his hand for her to lead the way as he thought to himself "She said "we", she must be stuck here also." She took Derric to a corner of the room, pressed a stone on the wall, as the wall opened showing a narrow hallway. "See here lockpick, this hall looks easy to get by but" Anita picked up a rock and beamed it down the hall, the rock went at least 200 mph and the hall made sure every trap in there activated in attempts to catch the rock. Flames, arrows, pendulums, floor spikes, ceiling spikes and saws from the wall all activated quickly, Derric's first thought was "This chick has an arm on her, well I can count a hand job out of the question" his second thought was "but how the hell do I get out of here then?" Anita interrupted his thought process "The other man you came here with, he took the left path yes?" Derric looked at her puzzled "How did you know I came with anyone else?" She smiled "I'm blind if you couldn't tell, so my senses are beyond normal. I felt a set of vibrations, yours and someone else's, I stopped feeling his a few minutes ago though."
"So you knew I was coming here even before I hit the stairs didn't you?" Anita nodded, Derric continued "Hm... you would have had an excellent chance to kill me Anita. As for my friend, he took-" And at the same time Anita said with Derric "The left path." Anita continued "There's a monster over there, he lost his human soul long ago, and your friend is in grave danger. This "man" is cunning; he uses tricks to lure his target into comfortability and strikes them down when their guard is low. He lives in darkness, so his eyes are well adjusted to it, like he's in a room like this, that's how it looks for him. You can get to your friend, but you must get through that hall first." Derric thought for a second "Has anyone else been here?" Anita put on a puzzled face "Only Master, but that was months ago." Derric nodded "And how did he get out?"
"Sadly enough I don't know, he disappeared after he gave me this gift-curse."
"Gift-curse?" Derric responded
"Yes, Master sent me down here and blinded me, but in return I have incredible sensory skills, to put it lightly."
Derric thought for a second "Is your master Lee-" And before he could finish his sentence, Anita was behind him with a dagger to his throat "NEVER speak my Masters name." Derric stayed calm "she's that fast... but can't leave... doesn't want me saying Leech... but still respects him enough to call him "master"... she loves him. But won't leave because of his orders I bet." He said to himself before saying "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you either Anita, your master is a close friend of mine and my friend." Anita nodded and lowered her blade, "I know you are, he told me I would have visitors soon enough, most likely one by the name "Lockpick" and here you are." Derric plopped down and sat on the floor next to Anita, she got on her knees and sat on her legs next to him as he thought to himself "Leech.... HOW do you know our moves so well?" After a few minutes, he turned to Anita "Have you tried escaping?"
"Multiple times." She lifted her shirt halfway showing multiple scars "And multiple times I've almost died."
Derric sat there a bit longer looking at her wounds, got to his feet and quickly put a blade to her neck "Drop your weapon slowly and get up..." Anita gasped "Lockpick what are you doing!?" He pressed his dagger harder on her neck "Do as I said Anita." She dropped her dagger and slowly got to her feet, Derric grabbed the dagger and lead her to the dangerous hallway. "Walk." Anita hesitated as Derric pressed the dagger into her back "I know you're fast, extremely fast actually, but I wouldn't recommend trying anything funny. I've already examined your body, so I know you have no more weapons on you. You may have impeccable sensory skills, but I have ways around that too, now walk." Anita smiled "Smarter than you look..." She started walking and basically right on her back Derric followed, no traps went off. "How did you know it wouldn't go off when I walked through? Or was it just a lucky guess." Derric cautiously looked around "When you got mad at me for saying his name I knew you both were lovers, he needed a favor from you without putting you at risk so here you are, warning me about the traps, being polite, so I wouldn't make a hasty decision on hurting you. I do have a question though." Anita responded with "Ask away." Derric continued, "If we weren't skilled enough to get through this maze, would he come to help us?" Anita smiled, "Yes, either him or I would but you would need to be on the verge of death. This room is to test your brain, Trent's room is to test his brawn, as well as reflexes. Hopefully he can pass, if not, there may be no saving him." Derric laughed "Tex is a lot stronger than he might appear, he gives off a strong vibe and his reflexes are better than mine, that's who I learned from after all."
"That's cute Derric, I'm positive he'll be fine." They got to the end of the deadly hallway, unharmed, as Anita continued "After this, you're going to have to be really careful, this room was your safe haven, 100% survival, after that door that percent drops to 15. Good news is you're almost out. Good luck." And before Derric could respond she disappeared from in front of his face. "She could have done that at any time..." Derric took a seat at the wall before the next door and took a deep sigh of relief. As Derric was figuring a way out of his room, Trent was doing the same as he stood in the dark room, "I don't want to be rude, but I'm not really interested in your story. You see, I have someone who I have to meet after this room so I don't have any time for unnecessary hold-ups, I'd appreciate it if you just told me how to exit." The mysterious voice chuckled "5 minutes of your time won't kill you." and as he said that he silently took out two shuriken and hurled them at Trent. He heard the two shuriken flying toward him and blocked them with his sword, "TING TING!", Trent then decided he should keep track on where the projectiles landed "One on the wall to my right, near the ceiling I guess, the other on the floor to my left a few inches away, I'll use the one closest to me if he tries something again." He thought to himself. The mysterious voice was surprised Trent was able to block them "Those shuriken were virtually silent, he has great senses. He won't be easy to manipulate, especially after that stunt." Then he said out loud "What was that sound?" Trent slowly put his sword in the middle of the shuriken but as he did, the shuriken revealed 3 more blades that closed in on Tex's sword "So only the original thrower can use them, impressive. If those were fingers..." Then he responded, "I was wondering the same thing when I heard them flying, straight from you I might add." As he said that, the beast started walking toward Trent, he heard the nails of the beast getting closer, although the beast was very silent also and as it got a few feet away from the unmoved Trent, it jumped at him, mouth wide ready to kill. Trent side stepped to the left, as the beast jumped past him very quickly as Trent tried cutting the beast in half but was only able to catch its tail as the beast let out a small yell of pain and landed on its feet next to its master. The beasts' eyes gleamed a faint hue of purple, enraged, looking straight at Trent, as the mysterious person said "I guess there's no tricking you, you're not like most people I've met before coming here. I am Gore, what is your name?" Trent responded "Tex." but right before his battle, in the middle of nowhere, hours away, Leech sat in his observatory watching the whole thing on cameras he set up. Leech heard a knock on his hidden door to his secret lab, "It's about time you got here," he said as he opened it, "you were about to miss the best part you know." He was talking to the guy that was at the restaurant with Trent "I wouldn't miss this for the world, you should've known that." They walked back into the viewing room as the man from the restaurant said to himself "Trent, what kind of show will you put on for me? I wonder." Leech interrupted "Do you plan on making him an initiate Raven?" He smiled, "Let us see how he handles this situation first shall we? Leech nodded and continued to watch the show. "Tex..." Gore said "I've heard stories about your work, you have very impressive skills, which is why I guess you're in this room. Lets test those "legendary" skills I've heard about." Gore tosses two more shuriken at Trent, then sidesteps to his right, Trent blocks them again and just barely hears Gore land to Trents left. Trent listened for the beast, but it was completely silent. Gore did the same thing again but sidestepped to his left, Trent blocked the shuriken again but dashed forward to where he thought Gore would land, and slashed at the place his legs would be, Gore was moving to the exact spot Trent was cutting at and barely had enough time to evade, just getting a small cut on his calf. The beast decided to jump in, smelling that his master got cut, and quickly charged at Trent.
Trent thrusted his sword toward the sound of where he thought the beast was coming from but hit nothing "Did it just disappear??" He decided to use one sword to cut in an upwards arch, then both swords to cut in a circle. As he spun cutting in a circle, he felt his sword just barely catch something. He heard no sound but seen the purple hue again "A hit.." he thought to himself, but as he was in thought he felt a slight breeze on his neck and put his guard up to the right, blocking a huge kick, and Trent went flying toward the wall, hitting it hard. Trents outfit was padded so it reduced the damage, but it still hurt. Trent quickly recovered as he decided to go on the offensive "I flew about 10 feet, that kick of his wasn't normal, it felt like he had weights on, that's probably how he blocked my first attack too, weights on his feet and hands. This room, if I'd have to guess, is about 25 feet in width, I have some room to run." He dashed diagonal from the way he was kicked from, then dashed up, toward the place he figured Gore would be standing. With swift silent movements Trent dashed at Gore "Tell me you aren't dead Tex, that would be a real le-" Trent jumped in the air, spinning into a deadly tornado and tried cutting Gore's jugular, Gore used the weighted bracelets as a shield. "How did I not hear him!?" The surprised Gore thought but Trent was trying to leave no time for a thought process, as he dashed away and sent a flurry of 10 projectiles to Gores area. Trent heard 6 "Tings" and then silence, he knew Gore moved and figured he would have jumped into the air, he was right. As Gore was in the air, his back started to glow. All Trent could do was look in amazement "What IS that?..." Gore took out his glowing blade but right when he was about to throw it, he gets electrocuted, "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Gore yells as Trent takes the brief moment of light to scan the ceiling "Did I just see a blackened window?" he thought to himself as he hears two loud sounds "THUD!" and "TING!". Trent didn't care what happened, he just wanted to see if that was a window and throws one of his swords at the spot, as the window shatters, letting in a massive amount of light. As that happened, back at Leech's house, Raven shakes his head, "I gave him a warning about getting too serious, and this is where he dies." Raven puts a button down and gets ready to leave as another person knocks at Leech's door, "Can you grab that for me please? I can't take my eyes off this." Raven opens the door revealing "Anita" as Raven says "Oh Melodny, it's only you, I thought it was someone important." The woman named Melodny responds "Raven, you love starting trouble with me don't you? We're Assassins but we aren't of the same faction, and look at how unarmed and vulnerable you look." She smiles and gives him a deadly, cold look but Raven just smiles and does a quick hand sign as six daggers on his back, inside his coat, start to glow "I'm never unarmed Mel." He whispered to her as the glowing on his back stops, Leech cuts in "So does this mean Derric passed his test Mel?" She gets on one knee and bows her head "Yes master, I used all the hints you told me to use. It seems that Trent has been slowly rubbing off on Derric." Leech smiled "Excellent. Raven, a moment if you will?" Raven was almost out of the door "Yes?"
"Exactly why do you want ONLY Trent? They work best as a team, so wouldn't it make more sense to take them both, instead of handing us one and you taking one? I've seen their work as a team, it's very impressive." Raven turned to the screen, showing Trent breaking the glass on the ceiling, letting in a mass ray of light right on top of Gore and the beast. He screams as his unadjusted eyes start to burn, Trent wasted no time making the killing blow to Gore stabbing him in the head, the also blind beast was jumping around wildly and Trent quickly thrusted his blade into its mouth, going all the way through it. Raven smiled "No. To be perfectly honest, Derric would be the one to get him killed if they both came. Don't get me wrong though, Derric is talented, he'll flourish training with the shadows, I can already see it. But he wouldn't be able to grasp the Spiders concept. Trent on the other hand, he has a mass amount of..... untapped potential, and I'm looking for someone to replace me. Trent can and will surpass me, plus he has a certain... aura about him. I need him so I can test something." Leech looked at Raven with inquisitive eyes "Please, go on." Raven laughed "I forgot you're a scientist first. I can't let you in on my factions' secrets, what kind of leader would I be otherwise?" Melodny cut in "You're already a shitty leader, it can't be much worst anyway." And as she finished her sentence, there was already a ball of paper thrown at the middle of her forehead "Imagine that as a shuriken, smartass." He played with two of them in his other hand that Melodny didn't even notice, she rolled her eyes "Whatever, bye." She says as Raven leaves.
Trent stood over the two bodies as he hears part of the floor opening, it was in the middle of the room. He walks over to it and looks down "Another slide." Trent sighs, never sheathing his swords, and jumps down. Derric gets up, "I guess he's in the other room or something, 5 minutes of waiting is long enough." a hole in the ceiling opens up as Derric jumps back and gets battle ready, pulling out two daggers. Trent lands and quickly turns around with both swords in hand, quickly getting in his stance, as the two assassins stare at each other. Trent drops his guard and sheathes his swords, "Holy shit man, the room I got sent to was crazy. Glad to see you're fine though." Derric sheathes his daggers as they did their handshake "Mine was surprisingly easy actually, I had to pick up on a few hints but it was moderately easy to figure out. I heard you had a fight on your hands eh?" Trent looks at Derric with a puzzled face "yeeaaaah, but how did you know?" Derric smiled "Dude, Leech has his hand in everything going on RIGHT now. I met his lover in the other room, very cute by the way, but she's the one that told me what our rooms were about. Mine was brains, yours was brawn and reflexes, also, she said before now, our survival was 100% any indication of us about to die and we would have been saved. After this door however," He gestured to the next room "our survival rate drops to 15%. Anyway, how'd your room go? I need some details now." They start walking into the next room as Trent says "Well I was in a pitch black room with some dude and his mutant dog, it was really intelligent though, the dude kept trying to trick me into letting my guard down, I never did. When he seen that wasn't working he decided to try and off me, so he threw these shuriken at me, the most silent throw I've ever heard man, he was skilled. To make a long story short, he did something weird with his sword and it started glowing-" Derric cut in "He had a glow in the dark sword? Tex, you know you sound retarded right?" Trent grabbed his shoulder "I know how I sound but I'm telling you what I SEEN! His sword started glowing and I felt this... this aura, it was unreal..." They both walked on a narrow path leading into a huge circle in the middle of the room "So how are we talking right now if he was getting ready to open up a can of whoop ass on you?" Derric asked.
"Well, right as his sword started glowing he got electrocuted. I don't know by what, but he got electrocuted and then there was this window on the ceiling, I exploited his sensitive eyes with light and killed him and his beast. What about your room?" They get to the middle of the circle as the narrow path they took falls "Well all I had to do was sit there and talk to Leech's girlfriend, there was this long hallway booby-trapped out the ass and she took a pebble and threw it down the hall at like 200 mph and EVERY trap went off. Long story short, Leech wasn't going to put her in danger so the traps didn't activate when she walked through, and I was right behind her the whole time."
"Interesting stories you two." They heard, as a random man appeared in front of them. He had a tattered black cape, a dark purple face mask covering his mouth and nose, showing only his burning amethyst eyes. His outfit was mostly black with a design of a green, black and purple spider on the front. He had a hood on with a gold trim, and as far as Tex and Lockpick could see, no weapons. "I don't want to incapacitate you two, so put these hoods over your heads and come with me quietly. You will be separated, that's all the information I'm going to give you." As he finished, another individual appeared, out of nowhere, by his side. "I'll be taking you Lockpick, Tex you're with spiderman here." The lady voice gestured at the man, "Hey Tex, I think you have a knack for attracting dudes." Derric said as the lady laughs "Funny, I like you, but no more jokes." She throws a bag to his feet "Put it on, and come nicely." She had a grey outfit on, with an intricate design on it, outlined in gold. Her mask had spikes extending from her jaw, to the back of her neck. "I'm digging both the outfits-" Derric said "-but if Tex isn't next to me, I don't plan on going anywhere." The lady sighs "You got the warning that your survival in this room is 15%, we're giving you the option to make that 15%, 100% and Lock you're fucking it up I have to say. Tex you're smarter, please throw that bag on will you?" Tex said nothing, he was stuck in a trance, staring at the amethyst eyes of the masked man. Tex was lost in thought "This-this feeling... I... his eyes… are GIVING off aura? It doesn't seem dangerous, but it can turn that way FAST… Just do what they say..." Trent made the slightest twitch, and they all noticed. The masked man smiled and threw a bag at Trent, who quickly picked it up and threw it over his head, Trent whispered "Lockpick do it, please bro..." Derric was shocked at two things, the first was Trent actually showing a sign of being scared and the second was Trent calling him bro. He stared at the man with amethyst eyes but felt nothing "Why the sudden shake of fear?" The lady turned to the masked man, "Raven, how did you do that?" Raven laughed "I don't know what you're talking about, I was just standing here. Tex just knows losing battles when he comes across them. Plus he knows it's better to come willingly, rather than make a scene. Well now if you'll excuse me, I have a pupil to teach, and you have one you might have to fight." Raven chuckles "By the way, Phantress."
"Yes?"
"Try not to be too long, they need to be on the field training in... two hours. So you only have about 3 minutes of play time here." Phantress scoffs "Don't lecture me, I have my way of dealing with my team, and you have yours." Raven puts his hands up "No harm. Catch you later then." He picks Trent up and in a second, he disappears. Derric stood there confused "WHY Trent!? Was he THAT intimidating? What did you see that I couldn't??" Phantress cut in "No need to rack your brain about that, Tex is fine. The fact that you weren't as scared as Tex, means you ARE the perfect candidate for me or "us" I should say." Derric gets in his evasive stance "Who's "us"?" Phantress smiles "Lockpick, I know your evasive stance, I know your battle stance, and hell I even know your drunk stance. Drop your guard, one and only warning. Also, to answer your question, stop asking them and it'll all be answered soon enough." Phantress' Blue, yet greyish eyes went from playful and calm, to serious and deadly, Derric felt a cold chill run down his spine, and around his body, like just her eyes were trying to strangle him, he started breathing faster. Phantress starts doing fluid movements, like a dance, as Derric stares at her, the designs on her outfit start looking like swirls, and waves to him, and in an instant he falls out.
Trent felt his breath get taken away as they left and a second later, a different person takes the hood off his head. Trent looks around, he's in a huge decorated cave, slightly lit by chandeliers and a collection of assassin armor, weapons, face-masks and at the far end of the room, at the end of an amethyst carpet, a raised circle with a throne chair in the middle of it, with the masked man "Raven" sitting in it. Trent stood at the beginning of the carpet, as Raven used exactly what he did in the underground cavern again on Trent. "Tell me something, what do you feel Trent?" Trent wanted to back-step away but in an instant, someone had their back to his, heel to heel and whispered to him "Don't try moving away, if anything, more forward. If you value your life that is. Answer honestly, "lie and die" is our motto, and you have no need to be scared, throw that away now."
"Widow! Enough of those helpful hints let him figure it out." Widow bows "Apologies." Raven nods, "Trent? I asked you a question. I'm patient but it's not too difficult to answer." Trent snaps out of his trance "I-I feel… an aura..." Raven nods "What does the aura feel like to you? Threatening, warming?" Trent shakes his head "No... it's... it's... weird, like it has the ability to be the most threatening aura I've ever felt but it's... hiding? No… sleeping is better. This aura is mostly enigmatic, I also feel a warming aura but its feint." "Excellent." Raven says "Pinpoint that aura if you can." Trent didn't have to even think about it "Your eyes. It gives off strong aura when you want it to." Raven applauds "Most people aren't able to pinpoint the source of my aura that fast, impressive. Do you know who I am or why you're here?" Trent shakes his head "I don't sir." Raven chuckles "Heh, no need to call me sir, my name is Raven. I will accept Mentor as well." Trent stared at Raven on the throne chair, then, in a second, he appears next to Trent. Trent wasn't fazed by it, he sort of expected something like that to happen sooner or later, especially surrounded by so much talent and so many different auras. "Done being surprised and scared?" Trent nodded his head "I'm close to being amazed, after this shock leaves." Raven puts his hand on Trents shoulder "Soon enough." He says before back flipping with no hands to the end of the carpet, then jumping into the air and swiftly landing in front of his seat and sits, he gestures for Trent to join him inside his circle "A moment to talk with you, I want to explain why you're here and who we are." Someone sitting near the weapons says "Oh, I HAVE to watch this. I wonder how newbie's going to do." Then Widow says "Strife, just shut up and watch if you're so curious. There's a reason Master Raven goes through this, and it's not for spectating." Strife looks in Ravens direction and sees him staring directly at him, he bows "I'm sorry." Trent watched at how, without even saying anything, Raven demanded respect for the ritual he was performing on him, Trent slowly walked to the end of the carpet, the beginning of Ravens circle. "Come up, I want you to stand in front of me." Trent hesitated for a bit "I have a weird feeling, not like something bad is going to happen... but like I'm being tested in different areas." He lifts his leg up over the step and when his leg gets inside the circle; his foot instantly gets slammed onto the floor. "What the hell!? So much gravity in this area... no wonder why he's so fast… I can barely move my leg!" His thought was interrupted "Trent, stop messing around. I want to get you back to your training area before it gets too late and I have some important events to attend today as well."
Trent nods and summons all the strength he can to get on the platform, as he gets his whole body on the platform, he feels as if he'll be crushed by the weight but manages to stand up straight right at the edge of the circle. Raven smiles "Are you just going to stand there or will you stand face to face with me? I mean, that is the respectful route to take, wouldn't you agree?" Everyone in the cave was pretty impressed he managed to stand straight up, but they were anxious to see how far he could make it without being slammed to the floor. Trent was about 12 steps away from Raven, he took his first step "WHOOOOOOOOO alright grande weboooooos!!!" Someone said and then a female says "you're such an idiot." with a small laugh, the first dude responds "Haha, well I don't know about the rest of you, but for a fact I'm rooting for the kid, plus Widow's taking a liking to him and I think it's pretty obvious MR has a favorite now too." Raven laughs "Muffle, firstly, ALL of you are my favorite, I created this faction and made all of you into family, and second how long will you call me "Mr"? Why not just Raven?" Muffle chuckles "Well technically, I DID call you Raven, that's what the "R" in "MR" means, "M" stands for Master." Raven just shakes his head "After years of this you would think I'd learn." He says to Trent "You only have 11 more to go Tex." Strife cuts in as Trent takes another step, shaking under the weight "PFFFT! Nice name "Tex"" He mocks and chuckles, Trent was quick to snap back at him "Way better than "Strife", let me guess, YOU picked it didn't you?" The whole cave erupts in laughter as Widow says "OUUUUUCH! He hasn't even been here an hour and already he knows you're slow AND uncreative." Raven laughs and says "Ok, enough enough, he picked Strife for a good reason. Also, Tex is very good considering why he picked it. 10 more steps Tex." After seven steps, Tex is dripping in sweat, shaking uncontrollably trying to stand and the whole cave is at the outside of the circle amazed, seeing if he'll be the first person ever to make it all the way to Raven on the first try. Muffle says "Hey big man, you only have 5 more steps, FIVE MORE, you can DO this!" Trent looks over at him "Muffle was it?" He nods "I'm not going to make it..." Trent says as he gets slammed to the ground, unconscious. The whole cave "Awwws" as Raven quickly takes Trent out of the circle "Not bad at all Tex...."
Derric wakes up "What the hell happened?" He says as everything starts coming into focus, he's on the floor in the middle of a bright room, decorated beautifully with expensive looking crowns, jewels, paintings and anything else expensive you can think of. He looks around seeing no one "Did I somehow die and end up in rich people heaven?" He says with a puzzled look and shrugged "Mistake or not, time to fill my pockets." He tries opening a case to a diamond encrusted crown and as he touches the glass, someone appears next to him with their hand grabbing his wrist, "What do you think you're doing Sir?" a strange butler asked as Derric looks around confused "I was POSITIVE no one was around, where did this dude come from?" Derric looks up, and the butlers grip gets harder as Derric yells a bit "OW! Hey what the fuc-" Derric looked into the butlers eyes and got a similar feeling he had before he was hypnotized, the butler sternly repeated "I asked what do you think you're doing sir?" Derric started to see why Trent was scared of his "challenge" and said "I was admiring your treasures..." The butler let go, "Ah, it is a nice piece isn't it? This was obtained by master Phantress, she killed a very important and powerful person to obtain this. It's said to have mysterious powers imbued in it but no one has yet to unlock it." Derric looked at it in amazement "Fascinating, may I try to use it?" Derric asked. "Why of course, but if you try to take it, you'll be dead before you turn, I WILL make sure of that." He went to open the case as Derric said "Never mind, I don't want to be tempted." the butler nodded. "Master Phantress will be with you in a second, please wait." And before Derric could say anything the butler disappeared. "Assassin butlers? Who are apparently stronger than I am. What next, assassin puppies that breakdance with shuriken?"
"No, they do ho-downs." Derric turns to see a smiling lady, dressed in a black and pink assassin suit with no mask, Derric chuckled "Heh, well they weren't assassins but I seen some dogs salsa before. I'm Lockpick." He held his hand out for a shake "Let's see how you do during proving ground, maybe I'll give you a hug afterwards, IF you're as good as I've heard." Derric smiled "You're going to be in love with me after proving ground." She laughed, "We'll see." and a second later the well decorated room was filled with assassins, if Derric was to blink he would have seen an empty room one second, and then assassins with eyes on him the next, he looked around shocked. Then, Phantress comes walking down the corridor, everyone makes two lines and gets on one knee as she comes walking in-between them to her chair under a chandelier. As she takes a seat everyone rises, "Let us all welcome our potential family member, Lockpick." Everyone touches their knee, then their heart and then their head. "Um...Thank you all." He bows and looks Phantress in the eyes, "May I ask you something Miss Phantress?" She takes her mask off and smiles "Sure we have some time for a quick Q & A, what is it?" Derric clears his throat before asking "What is it you did with your eyes? Also, how did you do that with the dancing thing?" The whole room erupts in whispers and the first lady he was talking to smiles "I might actually owe him a hug." She thought to herself as Phantress puts a hand up, the hall quiets down. "What I did with my eyes, was control the wind. When I dance, the designs on my outfit turn into a lethal tool you see. Questions?"
"Controlled the wind? How's that even possible?" Phantress gets up "See, now that question will have to wait until you're officially in. Enough questions for now-" She looks at the time, "I have to get you back soon but before you leave, I have to test your.... finesse." She gestures to a huge open area in the next room "Do you mind?" Derric shrugged "It's not like I have anything else to do, plus I have no idea how to leave anyway, so nope I don't. Ladies first." The room chuckles, as well as Phantress "A gentleman. Stand in the middle with me." They both get in the middle, as the rest of them take stairs to a walkway on top of them. The stairs go into the wall. "Derric, do you like to dance?" Derric looks puzzled "Yeah, I've been known to kill a dancefloor or two." Phantress smiles "Good, I hope you have some dancing shoes on." She says as half-inch projectiles start flying from the wall only a handful at a time. Phantress fluently spins and ducks the projectiles, Derric handstands between some, flips over some and spins on his back avoiding some. The room laughs at how different they look but amazed nonetheless. "Not too bad Lockpick." She snaps her fingers, then more projectiles start coming. "After 4 more snaps, we'll be at max projectiles, if you make it past the next one, you'll be a first." Derric quickly spins and dodges, occasionally kicking some away "Piece of cake!" From each side of the room 12 projectiles are being shot, first the north side, then east, then south, then west, all arriving in the middle where Phantress and Derric where "dancing" a fraction of a second after each other, so there's no time to look around, only time to dodge and survey while dodging. Derric quickly gets cut 7 times but it doesn't faze him. Phantress says "It's bad to get cut, these are coated in a paralysis potion. Too much can kill you also." She snaps her fingers as Derric says "Thanks for the late warning." 24 projectiles start flying from each side at a time. Phantress is still untouched, as Derric flips into the air kicking away multiple projectiles, he lands and goes straight to his back, and does a windmill. His hand starts to go numb as he falls but springboards up, avoiding 9 projectiles coming for his head but getting caught with 3 in his leg. After 5 minutes, they're both still standing "My left leg is completely numb, my right arm is numb, I can't feel my cheeks and I might have a boner, life blows right now." Derric thought to himself as he hears "Impressive, can you make it all the way though?" She snaps her fingers, 48 projectiles. Not even 5 seconds later, Derric gets hit with 30 projectiles and falls as Phantress immediately double snaps, stopping the projectiles. "And you only had two more snaps too. Although you have some great moves, you'll be excellent for our organization." She says to the unconscious Derric.
Trent wakes up in a well-lit room with gorgeous decorations "From the entrance hall, I wouldn't have guessed to see a room like this." He thinks to himself. To his left there was a tray with apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, two slices of toast and some orange juice along with a note, Trent picks it up and reads it; "Dear Tex, eat this food left for you. It's guaranteed to restore you to 150% in no time, after your performance earlier, you're going to need it. Mr should be in soon after you finish this letter to talk. Hope to work with you soon." Trent smiles "Muffle." He says, as he takes a few grapes and drinks his orange juice. Just then the door opens as Raven steps in, "Feeling better?" He asks. Trent nods "Now I am, this food is delicious."
"I know it is, to keep it short, we have special people that grow the food we eat here and it has amazing properties." Trent stares at his last grape "Impressive..." Raven continues "As much as I'd love to chat about what makes our food that much better, we have something of far more importance to discuss, like why you're here. Trent, do you want to possess the power you've witnessed? If you say no, I will erase any memory of me crossing paths with you, you won't remember anything for the past 3 days. However, if you say yes, our history will be yours in no time at all. You will be reborn as a member of the WoundedSpiders and knowledge, as well as skill and power, will be yours for the taking, with a bit of effort of course. You're free to choose." Raven stared at Trent who stared back and thought about it "His eyes are relaxed, mostly a warming aura, aura he uses on people in his "family", family..." He snaps out of it "Can I ask a few questions before I answer?" Raven shrugged, "I don't see why not, go for it."
"Was Gore part of your faction?"
Raven nodded "He was, I told him not to get to serious when fighting you, unless he wanted to die. He disobeyed orders and you know the rest. The plan would have went perfect so he wouldn't be put in a situation for death, if he would have just listened, but no matter now."
Trent nodded and thought for a second "Can I use aura? Also, can aura kill?"
Raven chuckled "Almost everyone has the ability to sense aura; like if someone scares you, without doing anything, you sense that there's a reason to be scared, few have the ability to unlock and use their aura knowingly and even fewer have the ability to manipulate aura. My faction has the ability to do all three and I see it inside you, it just has to be unlocked fully. As for it killing? No, it can't but it can be used for serious intimidation to the point of paralysis. Or vice-versa, it can be used for good purposes, to give a friend added reassurance, it all depends on how you decide to manipulate your aura. Maybe it can kill, if your intent is strong enough. I've been in that situation but my aura hasn't killed yet."
"Wow... I'm ready to answer now Master Raven." Raven nodded his head "No need to say anymore Initiate." Raven hugs his new family member, as Trent hugs him back. Then, in a second, the whole room turns black as Raven stands up and gestures Trent to do the same. Trent stands next to Raven and looks around, and as he was about to say something a raspy voice starts talking "Marquis, who is this person you laid on my sacred bed?" Raven takes a knee "First Master, this is a child I feel has the potential to be a Great One. Please, take a look in his eyes and tell me if he has the "gift" and even if he doesn't Master, I still have a strong feeling he can at least take my place in the order." Nothing was said as Raven still kneels and Trent stands there, then out of nowhere, Trent gets a "vision" of a hideous giant spider that appears one second, directly in front of his face, and disappears the next, he never budged. "Ohhhhhh-" the raspy voice said "-he DOES have the gift and a certain aura in him that is very strong. I need one more test to be sure though, just for the time being, I will unlock your aura fully." Trent feels his whole body become a hundred times lighter, he feels a thousand times stronger, his mind starts working differently and he feels like he has a deeper understanding of everything that's happened, like he created it all. "What do you feel young one?" The raspy voice says as it releases a gigantic amount of aura, Trent looks in amazement "Wow... this aura is dark? But it feels holy like I'm basking in a radiance of light, to be honest, it feels like I'm relaxing on a beach. I feel a few other strong auras within this one, trying to spread knowledge through aura?" The raspy voice stops his aura and chuckles "Hehehehe, Raven good thing you took this one before Phantress, his potential is phenomenal." Raven stands "I appreciate it First Master, I figured he had something great inside him when he accurately pinpointed the source of my aura first try."
"Your anthrax." Trent cut in as the raspy voice chuckled "Were you trying to pinpoint my aura young one?" Trent responded "Yes, and I felt it resonate strongest from your anthrax, uhm First Master." and bows. "The raspy voice laughs "Priceless! Young one, I am not your first master. To you, I am Old Master, Marquis or "Raven", is your First Master. Raven is my pupil, even after death, so I am to him and all his brethren he grew with, First Master. Now about aura pinpointing, you are correct, but wrong. The source of my aura is my room, which you are in, but once you get in the realm of my aura, my anthrax does become the source. You have my approval Marquis and I'm proud of the decision I made but more of the progress you've made." Raven smiles "Thank you First Master."
"TRENT!" The raspy voice booms, as the startled Trent responds "Y-Yes Old Master!" "I have confidence in you, not from what I've tested, but from my best pupils' recommendation." Trent feels a warm hand on his head, but no one in sight "I bestow upon you, the title of being an Initiate in the WoundedSpiders. I will pass some old knowledge into you to get you started, as you train in the present, you will become more knowledgeable of the past, to further advance you in the future. Remember our Ancestors."
A second later Trent jumps out of his sleep, drenched in sweat "What the hell just happened? Where am I?" The confused Trent whispered to himself "I must have fell harder than I thought, but I feel like I'm forgetting something." Trent looked to the side, seeing an untouched tray of apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, two slices of toast and orange juice along with a letter that read; "Dear Tex, eat this food left for you. It's guaranteed to restore you to 150% in no time, after your performance earlier, you're going to need it. Mr should be in soon after you finish this letter to talk. Hope to work with you soon." Trent smiles "Muffle." as he eats a few grapes and drinks his orange juice. Just then, Raven steps in the room, "Feeling better?" Raven asks as Trent rubs his head "Now I am, this food is delicious. Although I hear this weird voice in my head saying "Remember our ancestors", I don't know who it is or why it's in my head either. It's gone now but I just figured I'd say something to you about it. Do you know what it means?" Raven smiles "Honestly, I have no idea what you're talking about but I'm glad to see you're doing better Initiate. Soon you'll be leaving to start training for your assignment with Leslie, after that you'll be on the road past the pinnacle of regular assassin's." Raven says as he gets up and heads out the door, Trent smiles "I can't wait Mentor." After Raven leaves, Trent sits there and says to himself "Remember our Ancestors..."
Elsewhere, Derric wakes up in a luxurious golden room, wrapped in bandages, as he groggily says "This is why black people don't ballroom dance. I need some liquor to put me back in the game after that." Phantress chuckles, startling Derric "Always in a joking mood, that's a good trait to have in our line of work." She was sitting in the corner next to the bed. "How long have you been here?" He asks and goes on in a joking manner "And am I NAKED!?" He lifts the covers to see his pants still on and drops the covers. Disappointed, he says "Damn, I was hoping." Phantress laughs "No Derric, I didn't take advantage of you but one of our members did make numerous attempts." Derric sits up intrigued "Well why didn't you let her??" Derric exclaims. "Well HE has a pretty weird definition of "fun", if you catch my drift." She says with a small laugh. Derric just stares at her "If you're kidding, that was a really bad one." Phantress shrugs "If you think it's a joke than it is. On to more pressing issues, did you enjoy the moves I demonstrated?" Derric was still stuck on the last thing she said "W-wait, there was a DUDE trying to touch me?!" Phantress laughs and rolls her eyes "It was a bad joke Lockpick, now your turn to answer my question." Derric thinks back to what happened "Actually yeah, your moves were extremely fluent, swift like wind. If I wasn't dodging for my life and trying to put on a good show, I would have been mesmerized completely. You must be pretty damn evasive with moves like that." Phantress smiles "Stop, you're too nice.... go on though." She cockily but playfully says. "How do you move like that? I'd be honored if you taught me. I don't usually get impressed by people's actions to the point of me wanting to copy and transform what I seen, into my own. Not since I met Trent." Derric struggles to get up and bows at her feet. Phantress is surprised by his actions and puts her hand under his chin and lifts his head to look into her eyes "Derric, this right here surprised me greatly, I'm also flattered and impressed that my performance humbled you to this. I want more than anything to make you a part of my group but it's not my decision. Get up carefully and follow me. You're still pretty hurt." She helps Derric to his feet and they walk out the room. "Where are we going Phantress?" She doesn't respond, Derric thinks to himself "I guess this is a serious matter, I trust her though and that's what's important." They enter a giant room, "Stand in the middle please." Phantress says as Derric nods and moves there. A few seconds later, a gust of wind, from all four sides, bursts out at Derric making him unable to move or breathe. "I-I-I CAN'T BREATHE!" He says to himself, then a second later he feels the wind surround him, as he gasps for breath and yells "THANK GOD!!" WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS TH-" He stops in mid-sentence as he sees a man made of wind standing in front of him, along with Phantress "Amazing..." Derric whispers. The wind man holds his hand out "Derric, I've seen you in action and I must say you're a cut above most I've seen." Derric shakes his hand as he thinks "Am I actually HOLDING wind?" He snaps out of it "Thank you, I'm honored you think so Mr?"
"Heh, I, unlike most deities, have no name and I only go by "Wind", I don't like people calling me master either." He responds to Derric. "Tell me something, how did you become skilled in evasive maneuvers?" Derric thinks for a brief moment "Well to make a long story short, in my childhood before the orphanage, my parents used to constantly throw things at me, for my life I dodged. After that, I just implemented those experiences into my job." Derric throws on a puzzled look "Why did I just say that?" Wind cuts in "In this place you cannot lie, your inner secrets can be pulled out without struggle. That is how I pick the perfect candidates to bestow unimaginable powers to." Derric nods "Tricky but I'll be damned if it isn't the smartest idea ever." Wind chuckles "There's a test I have for you. I asked Phantress to be here because I figured from the kind of person you are, you wouldn't do it otherwise." Phantress laughs "Yes, you're definitely right about that one."
"So what's the test?" Derric asked, as Wind replies "Just make it to the wall, that's all." Derric looks at Wind suspiciously, "What's the catch?" Phantress talks "If I may, the catch is, you have to do it within 5 minutes. After that he disappears and you stay here one more day, no one gets it on the first try so after the first fail, you get one clue and then the second test. If you can't figure it out by then, we made the wrong choice." Wind cuts in "But we didn't, I can tell. Although it might be close, I can't quite pinpoint it, and that's what intrigues me the most. Ready to start?" As Wind finishes his sentence, Phantress holds out her hand for Derric who says "As ready as I'm going to be." Wind smiles "Good luck, and Phantress, move like him please. I don't want him learning from your movement." Phantress nods "I understand."
As they finish talking, Wind disappears and then a massive gust of wind bursts from the end of the room, pushing Derric to the wall hard, Phantress on the other hand, stood in the middle of the room like nothing even happened. "It didn't even hurt though..." He thinks to himself as Phantress takes his hand "Well, let's advance to the wall shall we?" Derric couldn't even move his other arm, let alone his legs or any other part of his body "HOW though?? I can't move!" Phantress just stares at him as she takes the hand she's holding and slightly moves it down, diagonally. Derric picks up on the small hint "If I cut the wind, I can move a bit better." He thinks to himself, Wind caught the hint also but decided to let it slide "Phantress, are you smitten?" He says to himself happily. Derric cut his whole body to the bottom right and does a windmill, Phantress follows suit right next to him, as he finally gets off the wall and plants his feet to keep his place. "Weird, I feel as if this is the new limit the wind pushes to." He says to Phantress as she replies "It is, with every step you take, you make a bookmark. Now if you wanted, you could move back a few inches to the wall and take time to assess the situation, but for warning, you only have about 2 and a half minutes left. It's not hard if you remember everything we went through." Derric's brain goes into overdrive as he thinks about the first time he seen Phantress' moves "She moves like the wind...when I first seen her, it felt like her eyes were making the air strangle me...become air?" Derric closes his eyes and pushes against the force of Wind. At first he's having a hard time standing but slowly he starts feeling the wind shift, spots where he could move. He starts doing a choppy but mesmerizing break-dance as Phantress tries to copy, after a few moves, she couldn't find the rhythm and starts doing her own to keep up. Derric quickly starts moving through Wind like he was an expert, finally grasping how she did it "Become wind. Embrace it... then manipulate it... make it your own path." Phantress moved through Wind watching a beginner move like he's been at it for years, on the first try nonetheless, she was amazed as Derric was only a few more feet from touching the wall. When he was a foot away, the wind shuts off, a split-second later Derric touches the wall.
"WHOOOOOOO!!! I FUCKIN' DID IT!! Holy shit! That's amazing how this works!" He yells, jumping and laughing. He runs over to Phantress and gives her a hug as she hugs and laughs a little bit but it quickly turns into a frown then, Wind appears. "Excellent job Lockpick." he says with a serious demeanor, Derric didn't even notice "Thanks! I don't know about you guys but I love doing that!" He starts laughing, Wind says "Yes, it is quite enjoyable, I'm positive you'll pass the second time around." Derric quickly stops smiling "Wait...WHAT!? I made it there a split second before you stopped though!" Wind shakes his head "It was the other way around." Derric drops into a crouch, crosses his arms and puts his head down. After a few seconds he gets up "PLEASE Mr. Wind, you can tell I know what I'm doing, and you know if I had ONE more second, I would have made it, so I'm begging you, please let me pass and allow me the knowledge of your faction." He drops down to his knees and lowers his head. Wind stares at Phantress, then at Derric and asks "Why do you want to join so badly?" He looks up at wind "I don't act like it, but I'm a pursuer of knowledge and I have a deep feeling that being here with you all, will give me exactly what I'm searching for. It almost feels like I belong here… This faction can not only make me a better assassin but a better person, I can't miss an opportunity like this just because of slow problem solving." Wind nods his head, pacing back and forth "But you have a second try, why not wait?" Derric chuckles and immediately responds "Because knowing Trent, he made it first try and he's waiting for me back in his training ground. I can't afford to waste any more time, no matter how important the task at hand may be." "Interesting." Wind says "So you just want to keep up with Trent?" Derric shakes his head "No, I just don't want him waiting on me, thinking something happened." Wind smiles, helps him to his feet and hugs him "Ok, I now grant you access into the ShadowPhantoms." Derric starts feeling weird, as Wind simply turns into wind "I feel like… I'm part of the wind, when it blows I blow... no homo but amazing." He thinks to himself, looks at Phantress and said "So now what?" She smiles "We introduce our new family member, come on."
She takes him to the main room where he first seen the butler and the rest of the faction. Phantress blows wind out of her mouth, as Derric feels a weird sensation "What is that you're doing?" Phantress stops, "You felt that?" puzzled, Derric responds with a "Yeah." "Most people take a few weeks to learn how to feel that, I was sending a message to everyone via wind. We can feel Winds aura and manipulate it to our advantage. That's what you did in the other room, manipulation, right now I manipulated wind to spread a message without sound." As she finished, the whole room filled as they stood in the center of the circle "And this is the result." Phantress smiled at the amazed Derric and continues "Everyone! We have seen hundreds of candidates get recommended for a spot in our illustrious faction, few make it pass the butler test-" Derric thinks to himself "Test??" And looks at the "butler" who was now in his assassin gear, he gives Derric a thumbs-up. Phantress continues "And even fewer can impress Wind to the point of letting someone in on the FIRST try." The hall erupts in cheers, as people come up and high five him, pat him on the back and punch his arm playfully as one lady in a black and pink assassin suit comes walking up, Derric smiles "The mysterious lady from before, do I get a kiss instead of a hug?" The lady laughs "No, I promised a hug if you did well, and I have to say you demolished my expectations of you." She hugs Derric and whispers in his ear "My name is Cherish, but I go by Sleek. See you around Lockpick." She starts walking away as Phantress holds her arm up for silence, "I know you all want to talk and get to know our new member, but before you can, you must wait until he returns. This was a brief visit from him." The room "Awww's" and "Booo's" as Derric smiles "Guess I'm a big deal here." and scratches his head shyly. Phantress continues "When he returns in a few weeks, everyone will have PLENTY of time to get to know him, as well as train with him. IF that's ok with you Lockpick?" Everyone stares at Derric, who was unprepared for the spotlight "Oh-Uh… well of course! I look forward to seeing everyone's skills, as well as showing mine off a bit." The hall claps as Phantress taps Derric and gestures for them to get going, he nods and follows her down the hall. "So how do I lea-" And before he finished the sentence, she knocks him out cold "Can't let you know where this place is yet, sorry."