Miguel began to wonder if it was just a coincidence, but it was unlikely. He was thinking but alert to everything. "Is Elias the traitor? It can't be, I don't want to believe it. I need to focus on capturing the shooter, but what if it's a trap? Would it be too late to turn back? My suspicion would be too evident."
As the cars sped along, Miguel used the time to give some small orders.
"Mauro, use your wolf and try to track the shooter as soon as we arrive. No need to engage in combat until further orders. Elias, you'll stay with him and protect him if necessary. We'll intercept the suspect and make him talk, report to base, and act until they arrive."
"Did you hear that, Mauro? Babysitter Elias, behave, or you'll be grounded," Elias joked, laughing.
"Shut up, idiot!" Mauro replied coldly.
"Come on, man? If they attack us, I'll..."
"Shut up, Elias!" Mauro interrupted him.
"The mood isn't good, it seems. Could it be the many cases they've been handling? Maybe..."
A few minutes before arriving at the location, Elias exclaimed, pointing in the direction of a hooded figure riding a motorcycle.
"Catch up to him, quickly!" Miguel ordered, leaning partially out of the car.
Elias and Mauro stepped on the gas. The suspect began to lose distance until, looking in the rearview mirror, he saw Elias's car with Miguel hanging out the side and recognized them. He accelerated, widening the gap again.
"Mauro, try to cut through the side streets and get in front of him," Miguel ordered. "Elias, floor it and be ready to brake hard. I'm going to try something crazy."
Miguel leaned out, swaying, and climbed onto the car. Despite thinking about the traitor, at that moment, he needed to focus on catching that guy. "If we reach 200 and have a good distance, I'll use the brake's momentum to jump forward and catch him. It'll hurt, but the faster we catch this guy, the better."
Elias closed the gap, and everyone on the street saw the chase, with Miguel drawing a lot of attention from his position on the car. "Why am I so hesitant? What's going on? Focus, Miguel!"
"NOW!" Miguel shouted.
With a strong stomp, Elias braked sharply, and Miguel did as planned. He used the momentum to launch himself forward. In the air, with his right arm stretched out to grab the suspect, Miguel was close to reaching him, but the suspect noticed and dodged Miguel, who now fell short of his target. Instinctively, Miguel unfurled his scythe and used it as an extension of his body to bounce off the ground, gaining spinning force to throw his scythe at the motorcycle's rear wheel, blowing it out.
Miguel and the suspect rolled across the street. Elias caught up and jumped out of the stopped car. The suspect got up and entered a narrow right-hand street. As Elias chased after the suspect, Miguel stood up, his right shoulder and calf aching from the impact.
"I won't lie, that hurt..."
Miguel started running. The narrow street had vendors and merchants complaining about their damaged stalls. Miguel apologized to a few but quickly resumed his run, seeing Elias firing arrows in the distance.
"Damn!" Miguel cursed. "Mauro or Pedro, anyone on the line?"
"We're tracking Elias in real-time, sir, to set up a brutal interception: brake, and he'll hit the metal!" Mauro responded, excited.
Miguel caught up with Elias, who was running after the shooter again.
"Damn it!" Elias grumbled, running alongside Miguel. "This guy is agile, dodged most of the shots, even the arrows."
"Did he reveal his shadow?"
"No, but he used some crazy equipment, almost ninja-like."
Miguel found the comment strange but continued running when he saw a faint, thin reflection ahead and quickly warned Elias to duck. It was a line that could decapitate them.
"I told you he had strange equipment!"
"He doesn't want to kill us with traps," Miguel said, looking around. "He wants to lure us into an ambush. Elias, run faster!"
Miguel still seemed to have the energy to run. They were almost on a main street when a wolf appeared at the end of the street and charged at the suspect, who, performing some acrobatics using the walls for support, cut the wolf, which dissipated. But he didn't expect Mauro and Pedro's car to stop right in front of him.
"Oso sugiru!" he said softly as he was about to hit the car.
"Got him..."
Miguel didn't finish his thought, as the suspect used the impact to spin and get past the car, but Pedro unfurled his shadow, creating a barrier in front of the fugitive. Using his hands, the suspect climbed up the barrier, but Pedro kept unfurling it. However, the fugitive moved very well. When he was almost reaching a rooftop, an arrow shot by Elias hit him in the waist, making him fall and be surrounded by Elias and Pedro.
"Anata wa osoito sudeni iimashita," the suspect said.
When the suspect landed on the ground, Miguel quickly closed the distance, holding his scythe at the suspect's throat, who laughed, but Miguel didn't understand.
"Take off this idiot's hood!" Miguel ordered.
As Elias reached to touch the suspect's hood, an alarm sounded throughout the area, startling the squad. "I knew it was a trap!"
Miguel ordered Elias and Pedro to grab the suspect, but they were stopped by a tranquilizer dart that took them both down. Then Miguel looked back and saw Mauro with his wolf unfurled, staring at him.
"Mauro, what the hell is this?" Miguel asked.
"Just allying with the strongest!" Mauro said as Miguel was about to be hit by a tranquilizer dart. "Right!"
Miguel dodged, jumping toward Mauro, who sent his wolf to attack Miguel, but he easily sliced the shadow in two.
The suspect got up, and Miguel looked back, starting to see men in suits surrounding him.
"Mauro, were you the seventh guy Rubens saw talking to Lúcio and the thugs?"
Mauro laughed, moving quickly to the suspect and helping him up.
"Of course I was, why?" Mauro questioned. "I'm just allying with a sensible ideal, but that doesn't matter now..."
Miguel had been hit by a dart and began to stagger. Even so, he didn't give up. Unfurling his shadow, he began fighting the hooded man and two more thugs who had unfurled their shadows. But as soon as he took one of them down, Miguel was hit by another in the knee, took a cut to the face, and the dart was strong. Miguel fell to the ground and lost consciousness.
23:00 hours that night
Miguel felt a terrible headache as he regained consciousness. Still with blurry vision, he realized he was in some kind of cell. "Where the hell am I?"
"Sir, sir!" a voice yelled.
It was Elias, who was in a cell opposite Miguel's. Elias was injured, and his clothes were in tatters. There were other cells, but most were empty.
"Elias, where are we?" Miguel asked, standing up, but his feet were wobbling like a drunk.
"Inside a luxury building that operates as a kind of betting house," Elias replied.
"What happened to you, man?"
"There's an arena here where apparently people bet and have some very unbalanced fights..."
"What do you mean?" Miguel questioned, still confused.
"Zeks vs. humans, sir."
Miguel showed fear, remembering Pedro was missing.
"Where's Pedro, Elias?" Miguel asked nervously.
At that moment, two male silhouettes entered the room. Miguel could only see who they were when they approached. It was Mauro with a bag and another guy in a gray coat.
"Well, well, Mauro, Sleeping Beauty woke up just in time for the little present."
"You bastard traitor!" Elias cursed.
Mauro looked at him and, making a face covered with pure disdain, said:
"Shut your snout, Miguel's little dog..."
"You piece of shit!" Elias complained, grabbing the bars. "Let me out of here, and I'll break every bone in your shitty face!"
"Girls, girls, please stop!" said the man in the coat.
"Come on, Rodrigo..." Mauro grumbled.
Miguel remembered that Rodrigo was a former NF of rank S. His shadow was a Kusarigama.
"Mr. Miguel, I wanted to say it's a pleasure to meet the person who is the 'Prodigy' of the NF."
Miguel stared firmly at Rodrigo, who took the bag from Mauro's hand and slowly approached Miguel's cell.
"I have a welcome gift for our most illustrious visitor," Rodrigo said, putting his hand inside the bag and beginning to pull something round out of it. "I imagine this skull belongs to your friend... What's his name? Pedro."
Miguel was horrified at what was in front of him. It was the head of his friend Pedro.
"YOU BASTARD! WHAT DID YOU DO?" Miguel yelled, filled with rage.
"Hey, watch your language, officer of the law!" Rodrigo mocked.
"Let's say... He lost his head!" Mauro said.
Miguel was grinding his teeth in anger while Mauro and Rodrigo laughed.
"Did you see the look on his face?" Mauro taunted.
"It was exactly as you said!" Rodrigo replied. "Such a pathetic look."
Miguel was furious about his friend's death but needed to regain his composure.
"What do you want with us?" Miguel asked, stepping away from the bars.
"Simply, entertainment." replied Rodrigo while going through his pocket and throwing Pedro's head on the floor. "Boys!"
Six men in suits appeared from the door and surrounded the exit from the cell where Rodrigo was apparently to open the cell where Miguel and Elias were.
"Without being funny, get out of your cell now, Mr. Prodigy." said Rodrigo.
Miguel, suspicious, slowly walked to the entrance of the cell, where he was pulled and immobilized by security guards.
"Today you will entertain our punters who are looking forward to the Grand Finale of the night." said Rodrigo, lifting Miguel's head by his relaxed orange hair. "You better not disappoint them, "Prodigy", because they are waiting for your pool to open to bet, and my friend... What bets, what bets!"
A few minutes later, Miguel was in a kind of elevator and the henchmen were still holding him and talking to each other.
"Does it last longer than the other?"
"If he's at least decent, he might actually make it."
"Kid... Don't travel! Today's monsters have a very large disparity in strength compared to others and, not to mention that, for an S-Class candidate, we will have surprises.
The closer the elevator got to its destination, a voice on the loudspeaker announced:"
"Dear guests, it's time for the main attraction of the night. While in the first round between Humans and Zeks, soldier Elias secured a point for the humans, in the second, Pedro, the little soldier who fled in fear, was easily beheaded, bringing a point to the Zeks and tying the match. With that, we will have the final round. So place your bets! On one side, a Class A Tezek and, on the other, another soldier loyal to the New Force system. Some call him a Prodigy, a candidate for Class S. With you, Mi-Gueeeeeeeeeel!"
Suddenly, the security guards kicked Miguel out of the elevator.
"A fighting arena, as Elias said earlier, but how do I get rid of these handcuffs?"
A grating noise was heard. The audience's murmurs stopped before Zek was there, who was advancing towards Miguel.
"A Tezek Armadillo, what the fuck!"
Miguel still had his shadow inhibited by the handcuffs, but he still had his high mobility and jumped to the left, quickly dodging the creature that let out a roar, making the audience entertained by the event. Meanwhile, the voice made comments to encourage betting:
"Will this law enforcement officer make it? With those handcuffs he's still a civilian in trouble, running from inevitable death to a hungry Zek!"
"Screw you, you piece of shit!" Miguel raged, as he quickly looked around, looking for a way to get rid of that thing on his wrists.
In one quick movement, Zek turned into a ball due to his nature and was now rolling ferociously towards the unarmed Miguel. He tried to run, but the impact threw him against one of the walls of the arena.
"That's not possible, these inhibitors are rubbish. Think, Miguel... THINK!"
Miguel ran towards Zek in front of him and the audience went crazy with the boy's run, who, in front of Tezek, jumped towards the creature's mouth, which opened its mouth to deliver a fatal bite.
"Has Miguel given up the fight and is he going to surrender?"
"If you give in, it's a bitch..."
With a quick aerial whirl, Miguel hit the chains hard on the creature's teeth and saw his handcuffs being broken into pieces.
On guard and on the ground, Miguel brings out his black Scythe, drawing gasps from the audience.
"How many slices do you want me to split you into, you ugly creature?" Miguel asked with his scythe raised towards Tezek who roared shrilly at him.