A large black smoke screen covered the entire area, making it almost impossible to see. The unfortunate few who had been caught in the smoke could only stumble around trying to find their way out of the dense clouds. There were many who didn't move from their spot for fear of stumbling on someone or getting impaled by their own swords. Zero and Agnis were still trapped under the heavy metal net.
Zero coughed from taking in a bit too much smoke. It felt as if something was stuck and was making his throat dry. His eyes clouded over, making it difficult to see. He held his hands over his mouth and nose. Flashes of light sparked around, loud fire crackle like sound echoed, and the sound of metallic swords clashed upon each other.
"Gah!" yelled one of the guards trapped inside the smoke. He stumbled around blindly. Zero saw silhouettes of human figures dropping to the floor. Struggling in the metal net, he began to chew at it; he hoped that his Crunch skill would activate while he was still in his human form.
"Agnis, are you alright?" Zero grunted between chewing.
"Yeah," Agnis mumbled while coughing. "The smoke is irritating my eyes. Did you get out yet?" Agnis sneezed as a portion of the smoke cloud entered her nose, making it difficult to breathe.
"Not yet. It's not breaking!" Zero cried out as he vigorously tried to pull apart the net with his hands while continuously gnawing on it. No matter how hard he tried, it would not break apart. Instead, his efforts only rewarded him with a painful throbbing jaw. He wished he had a bolt cutter on hand.
Swwssh!
Out of nowhere a katana that was glowing with a brown aura suddenly appeared from the smoke slicking apart the smoke. In one quick slice the blade arced down and cut through the metal net. This allowed Agnis and Zero to crawl out with ease.
"Who?" Zero looked confused as Zeraph helped him pull the net off. He peered up at the imposing silhouette.
"Zeraph." Agnis beamed gleefully. Zeraph's knightly silhouette extended his hand toward Agnis. She gracefully took his hand and was hoisted to her feet. Excited, she hugged him with pure happiness.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Agnis smiled as she pranced around in joy. Her knight in shining armor was here. She was just about to jump onto him and give him another big hug when Zeraph raised his hand and stopped her.
"No time," Zeraph said simply as he motioned in the direction of their escape. Already, they could hear multiple loud metallic footsteps heading towards them.
"You're here?" Zero looked at Zeraph with surprise. "Wait! Why are you here?" Zero corrected his question as they ran. It was strange to see someone like Zeraph in such an area. He usually was in places of nobility or in some kind of parties.
"I heard the cry of a beautiful lady and I couldn't resist," Zeraph smartly replied as he winked at Agnis. Zero gagged at Zeraph's cheesy response.
"Really?" Zero eyed him funny. He couldn't believe the crap that was spewing out of Zeraph's mouth. To him, Agnis's wails reminded him of nails scratching down on a chalkboard. He was unable understand where that supposedly "beautiful cry" came from. At times like this he considered Zeraph a hopelessly delusional individual.
Zeraph smiled widely and laughed heartily. "Yep. Plus I was just passing by. I had some errands to do here." His hands on his belly chuckling away.
"Errands? In a slave festival?" Agnis's eyes widened.
"Don't worry," uttered Zeraph as he waved his hands at her as if to say it was nothing. He noticed she still had her shocked expression. "Don't worry," he repeated. "I'm against slavery. I didn't come here to buy a slave for anyone." He gave a dazzling smile to Agnis. Zero eyed him suspiciously, but his musing was interrupted by a sudden downward cut of a sword.
Side stepping out of harm's way, Zero moved behind the guard and retaliated with a low side kick on the back of the knee. The guard buckled. In that same moment, Zeraph's katana sliced through the guard like a hot knife through butter. Their movements fluidly synchronized.
"Nice. Thanks for getting us out of there." Zero gave him thumbs up as he grinned. Zeraph raised his eyebrows and smirked.
"Do you have a plan? I'm completely out at the moment," Zero asked Zeraph as they ran side by side towards the front gate. Its metal gate was rapidly descending and quickly closed, barricading their escape.
"Zeraph," said Zero with worry, "our only option of escape just closed itself."
Zeraph smirked as he regarded Zero like one looks at an idiot.
"Watch," retorted Zeraph confidently.
From his black trench coat, Zeraph pulled out a dagger and threw it above the metal gate. The dagger hit its mark on a hidden rope that Zeraph had placed beforehand. A large, square camouflaged blanket fell from the ceiling. Thousands of metal piercing caltrops dropped down onto the ground, scattering everywhere.
The guards that followed after them ran into the trap, where loud screams of agony could be heard. Many of the guards jumped around in pain, holding their feet as if they were on fire. Some were pulling out the caltrops that were embedded in their boots.
"Not done yet," added Zeraph wickedly. His eyes glinted with mischief. Zeraph motioned them back. "Stand back and cover your ears."
Zero and Agnis moved back as Zeraph moved towards the gate. Flinging back his long trench coat, he turned his body to his side. He placed his hands on his sword and took a step forward. He flicked his left thumb to his sword hilt as it propelled the sword loose into his drawing hand. He leaned forward as electric sparks of energy gathered behind him. Using multiple simultaneous movements of his body to multiply his speed, he quickly drew it in a seeming arch of light.
He slashed through the gate in three slices. In a blink of an eye the gate fell into multiple pieces on the floor.
Zero caught glimpses of the attack, but Agnis only saw him place his sword back into its sheath. A moment after the sword entered the sheath; a sonic boom reverberated throughout the surroundings. It blasted throughout the mansion, shattering windows into thousands of pieces. People who had not covered their ears were temporarily deafened. Even Zero, who had managed to cover his ears, heard a single constant obnoxious buzzing tone as an after effect. Agnis's jaw dropped in complete surprise.
Zeraph chuckled when he saw Agnis' reaction. So far he was enjoying every moment.
"How?" She stuttered.
"Because I'm a genius," Zeraph replied. His aura around him seems to dazzle with light when he stated that. "Sadly, I can only use this skill once. It depletes all my mana reserves," Zeraph commented. "If it wasn't for this restriction, I would have wiped them all out."
Zero gazed at him in amazement. "Is that one of the Iaido draws?" He had never seen Zeraph fight before, especially using Iaido techniques.
"Iaido?" asked Agnis confused at what he was talking about.
"It's a Japanese martial art of drawing the katana. It involves developing an accurate cutting technique, removing the blood from the blade, and returning the sword inside the scabbard. Usually doing one of those draws was very difficult and dangerous to perform if not done properly," said Zero. Especially seeing how Zeraph held his sword, Zero knew he was a master swordsman. Zeraph laughed heartily.
"Ah, I see," she replied.
"No time to waste!" Zeraph shouted as he ran out of the broken gate. Agnis and Zero looked at each other dumbfounded and followed right after.
"You idiots! Catch them or your lives will be forfeited!" Dion raged as he manically pointed towards Zero's group. He had veins popping out of his forehead and was tempted to throttle the nearest guard he could get his hands on.
The guards tried to move around the caltrops, but by the time they had gotten around the trap, Zero and his companions were already out of the mansion gate. They dashed into the cover of the night and went deep into the woods toward their destination.
"This way!" Zero yelled as he dashed toward the location where he was supposed to meet Tino and his group. They ran through dense undergrowth and weaved around trees. While running through the forest, he jumped over many fallen logs, even the forest were eerily silent. Zero suddenly halted and raised his hand up, motioning the others to stop.
"What's wrong?" Agnis asked.
She stopped mere inches away from slamming into Zero, and he pointed down towards the cliff. If they hadn't stopped they would have taken a leap of death. Agnis gulped as she peered over the edge. Her eyes widened in fright.
"We need to go upstream where Tino's group will be. Zeraph, do you have some rope?" Zero asked.
Zeraph had already handed him the rope by the time Zero had finished speaking. He was surprised at Zeraph's quick response.
"How?" Zero stopped and stared. Huh. He must have read my thoughts, thought Zero as he picked up the rope from his hand.
"Because I am a genius," replied Zeraph with a flick of his hair.
"Yeah, yeah," Zero countered not listening to his wild delusions. He tied the rope around a solid-looking tree and tossed one end down the cliff. After evening out both ends, he handed it to Agnis. Agnis looked at the rope and then looked back at Zero with confusion.
"Ladies first." Zero motioned her down towards the cliff, "Then Zeraph. I'm going stay up here and keep an outlook."
"Um. Zero. I have never climbed down a cliff before." She bashfully gazed down in embarrassment. He didn't fully comprehend why she would be embarrassed over not knowing how to do it.
"My lady. I can help you." Zeraph sparkled. Zero stopped him half way before Zeraph said anything else weird.
"Keep hands on both ends of the rope," said Zero. He put his hands over Agnis's to show her the process. "Do not let go of either one. If you do, you're going to fall to your death."
We'll also be out of rope, he thought to himself. "Make small jumps and make use of your knee and ankle joints to absorb most of the impact." He showed her the process by bending his knees and gave her a small demonstration.
Agnis shakily held onto the ropes. Her steps faltering as she took small baby steps. A small squeak was heard when she peered over the cliff She took a deep breath and began to descend down the cliff. Zero started to teach Zeraph what to do. He assumed there was a high chance that he did not know as well. Before he got to say anything Zeraph was already looping the rope around a tree.
Zeraph knew what he was doing.