"Silas!" Raven was dumbstruck when she witnessed the bones of her companion whom she know for ages getting his bones clamped through by the horde of gators. Internally, she vowed to exact revenge. "Damn, you!" Her eyes were bleeding thick inflammations as she glared over at Hao.
"Hmm?" Hao felt the penetrating gaze burning into his flesh and zoomed in on Raven. But he couldn't stay focused on her for long because the other thugs were quickly joining him on the other side of the tunnel. They were careful enough to leap out of his range of influence.
"Get that punk and make him bleed for feeding Silas to the gators!" The mob were quickly piling up against Hao. To his dismay, he found it difficult to keep up with their advances.
"The area is becoming too crowded for me to manoeuvre properly, plus I don't want to end up down there." His sight drifted to gator filled drain. Because of his unique vision, he saw better than anyone else just how many of those vicious creatures were down there. This prompted his future instances of behaviour.
Clang!
Deflected another strike, Hao noticed a brief opening in the mob's formation. Seizing the opportunity, he began sprinting toward the tunnel exit while he fended off his pursuers. The rain outside continued to pour down relentlessly, it drenched him as he burst into the open area beyond the tunnel. Now in the open, he took a moment to scan the scene, desperately searching for an escape route.
"Come here you!" Raven launched at him from behind with her daggers hitching to peel through his flesh like plantain. Hao reacted quickly by executing an adroit backflip that launched him above Raven. Still in mid-air he reached down, grabbed her hair then slammed her face down on the muddy concrete.
Boom!
The shock her jaw received forced one of her teeth from her head then she lost consciousness immediately.
Scar saw this and shouted, "Now you've done it, kid. I can no longer restrict these derelicts from cutting you apart."
Scar let out a piercing whistle, reverberating through the rain-soaked district. Within moments, reinforcements arrived, drawn to the sound like moths to a flame. Hao soon found himself surrounded by over a dozen sword-wielding thugs, each eager to exact their revenge. Their arrival was dramatic, the cockroaches were crawling out from the corners, some leaping from rooftops, others emerging from alleyways, all with their blades drawn and ready to taste blood. The area echoed with gritting metal as the menacing group closed in on him.
Realizing that he was quickly getting cornered by enemies who hated his guts, Hao shouted, "I've already given you guys my most prized possession, what else do you want from me?" He was confused and he tried to reason with them, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
"Dammit, they won't see reason. Guess I have no choice but to fight my way out of here."
Though he was outnumbered by twenty to one, Hao fought valiantly, his skilful swordplay cutting down several enemies, but more showed up to take their place. He spun and weaved through the crowd as he found the gaps in their defences. The rain created a hazy veil over the battlefield, but Hao's Vibe Sense guided his every move, allowing him to press forward against the seemingly endless tide of adversaries.
Clang! Clang!
Countless ripples were being formed in the wet ground that was slick with blood and mud. Hao danced around his adversaries with greater agility even under the weight of his sorrow. His sword travelled endlessly from left to right in the muted light as it found its mark again and again.
Rain continued to pelt, soaking the combatants and rendering the battlefield a treacherous morass. Hao sprinted through the downpour, nimbly evading lunges and slashes from all sides as he fought to stay one step ahead of his relentless pursuers. He was parrying attacks from multiple opponents as he weaved a deadly path through them.
"I got you now!" A thug lunged at Hao with a vicious overhead strike, however, Hao deftly sidestepped the attack then countered with a swift slash across the assailant's chest. The man crumpled to the ground, gasping for air as blood spilt from his wound.
"Stay steady and die!"
Another enemy charged, brandishing a wickedly rusted sword that looked as if it hadn't seen a file in decades. The edge was so corroded that if it struck someone, they would probably be poisoned.
"Huh!" Hao ducked beneath the incoming blade, he slid onto the muddy ground then swung his sword upward in a graceful arc. The edge of his weapon found its mark, biting into the thug's abdomen and drawing a spray of blood as he continued his forward momentum.
A third attacker tried to take advantage of Hao's vulnerable position by thrusting his blade downward in a savage attempt to skewer him. Hao, however, was prepared. He rolled to the side, evading the attack by a hair's breadth and sprang to his feet. With a powerful swing, he drove his sword through the attacker's shoulder, severing the arm in a shower of gore.
"Kyah! My bloody arm! He took my bloody arm!" The man's screams were discerned by all who were paying attention to the ongoing onslaught, some of Vicky's crew even backed away in fear of being Hao's next target for dismemberment.
"That guy is crazy good with a sword." Said one of the onlookers. "I thought he was supposed to be blind."
"That's what I heard during the briefing. Is that blindfold only for show or what?"
"I don't know. Why don't you go over there and find out?"
"Screw that. I don't want to end up like Gorn who got his arm cut off. What am I going to use to fap with when I become armless. Screw that shit, no way I'm going over there."
"But somebody has to take that sucker down, otherwise, we would have to bring bad news to the boss and we all know how scary she gets when she's upset."
"That's true." The few thugs who procrastinated to deliver their attacks to Hao were brought about by their uncertainty and fear of dying.
"Hmm…? Looks like I've got them frightened." Hao noticed right away that he was no longer being charged by random opponents. Thinking of taking this opportunity to find an opening where he could escape, he began discerning a familiar frequency pattern popping up in the environment.
"Huh? Are those Tunes?" Yes, they were Tune Points popping up all around from the enemies he fell and fatally wounded. In order for him to upgrade the Sword Spirit of his Vibe Edge he needed Tunes to aid with this process. With this thought in mind, Hao decided to delay his escape to collect the surfacing Tunes in the vicinity. "Alright."
"Huh! He's coming this way!" One of the mobsters perceived Hao charging towards him and fell backwards on his bum, only to realize a few seconds later that Hao leapt over his head. "Huh, I'm still alive." Looking at where Hao had gone, he witnessed something shocking. Hao was dancing around in the rain like he was a street performer.
"What the hell? He's mocking us. Let's gut that son of a bitch!" Thinking that Hao was belittling their cruel mien, the gang restarted their attacks. They combined their efforts to charge him directly.
"How dare you make fun of us by dancing on our friends' corpses? You're going to regret doing that!" The sound of clashing metal became the main song of the Wranglers district once again.