The unbeareably long three hours came to an end.
We covered our faces with hoods, the scarf below our uniforms.
And we both sprinted towards the warehouse, as fast as possible without being too suspicious and risk someone following us.
We're finally here.
"Here we are..."
"Yeah..."
"..."
"Any last words?"
"Not funny"
"A man can try, by the way what's with your uniform?"
"Custom made"
The warehouse has only 2 entrances, and 6 windows that are divided between the two walls that make for the warehouse's terrain.
3 windows in one side, the other three in the other.
There are windows above the entrances too, but they are blocked.
As are the entrances.
So we sneak the same way we sneaked in.
By the middle window of the left wall, there's a roof near that window, so we just need to climb the house.
"Ready?"
"As ready i can be".
I jump first, landing quietly inside one of the plywood houses.
Jack jumps after me and i catch him so that he does the least amount of noice.
Alright, we're inside.
It's all dark, but i can see very clearly what's in front of me.
"Let's move"
I feel a nod at my side.
He's not nervous or trembling, but he's tense.
Taking advantage of the darkness, we both sneak around the place.
There's a map in our heads that we made yesterday.
I recognize the 'streets' that we walk through and quickly make my way to the middle.
There's smoke coming out of this weird hobby-like structure.
I can't really explain it in another way.
It looks like a place where you just wait to get your name or something like that.
Through the glassless windows i peek to see two man who appear to have started talking not so long ago.
"...if they are just ordinary murders?"
"Then we report that and go back to searching, we're not taking risks here, Why are you so unsure of being here?".
"I have an ominous feeling about this place".
You're right about that Dire, you're definitly going to die here.
Maybe the Hamon is alerting him with it's prophecy granting properties.
Either way, prophecies can't be evaded in this world.
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[Quest : The Masters Of Hamon]
Through your actions, you will soon be in a fight with important individuals for the progression of the new fate of this world
**The Results of this quest will have consecuences in the fate of the world**
**You will recieve indications about your reward as you finish the quest**
Tasks:
-Kill or Neutralize Straizo (0/1)
-Kill or Neutralize Dire (0/1)
Failure conditions:
- Die Against one of the Hamon masters (0/1)
- Let your companion die against one of the Hamon masters (0/1)
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Would you look at that?
Now I'm motivated.
Shame it's not the white haired guy at my right side the one saying this.
"Now, how do we start this..."
I murmur to myself.
Unfortunately it seems that Jack only heard the ¨Start¨ part.
And well, he started.
Taking in huge breaths of air,, he dashed towards the smallest man in the camp.
That alerted them, but Jack's sneaking right now, so I'm the one who they will focus on.
He closes in behinds him as the soon-to-be victim looks to my general direction, quickly spotting me.
Not knowing there's someone lurking behind him he yells to me.
"Who goes there!?"
"Not telling, come here and find out".
Jack finally reaches him and goes for a quick punch towards the neck.
Unfortunately.
"Argh!"
Dire was quick to notice him and Blocks the scarlet punch to the neck, sustaining burn damage.
Straizo, quick to act, tries to hit Jack's stomach with his left.
"Hey, focus here".
I creep behind him, one of my needle-like knives in my hand.
And i pierce towards his armpit.
I wasn't fast enough apparently, as he dodges.
Not completely though, my senbon is stained with a bit of blood.
These aren't senbon right? I couldn't use them, since they aren't classified as swords.
These are more of shortswords.
Straizo backs off with large jumps.
Leaving Dire, who got kicked in the arm by Jack, and also tries to back off.
Before Jack punches him in the gut, stunning him for a bit and I sever two of his fingers.
That makes him react and punches the ground, throwing the two of us out of balance.
Using this chance he retracts.
"Haah... Haahh..." He breaths loudly, trying to not scream
"WHO ARE YOU TWO!?" Straizo screams.
"None of your business".
"I'll answer you as you die".
I exchange a glance with Jack.
We both know what to do, we have already practiced this so many time.
We sprint.
We have to separate them or we won't have a chance.
We aren't as experienced as they are in teamwork.
We already lost the element of surprise.
We have to win this.
Dire and Straizo are in parallel to the both of us, with us at the center.
I go towards Dire and he towards Straizo.
"...guh!"
"Shit!"
They both scream before running away to hide among the plywood houses.
Obviously, to no avail.
I find him in a rather small house, only two connected rooms.
Dire now has a cloth wrapped in his right hand, where the pinky and ring should be.
He's more serious now, as expected of someone at his level.
He wastes no time and lunges to me, trying to grab me.
I dodge by advancing to his right, but his hand follows me and strikes me a bit.
I breath in.
The Ripple goes through my body.
He breaths in.
The Ripple goes through his body.
"A Hamon user! So you were sent by the temple..."
"I don't know what temple are you talking about man, i just don't like you too much".
My speed and small size are my best allies now, i need to use them.
"No need in denying, I already understand everything!".
He grabs a piece of the wall, throwing it at me.
I back off and he follows throwing three punches in quick succession.
He doesn't notice me as i do a down rush by his left, going behind and kicking him in the back of the knee.
I try to pierce with my senbon, but he turns around and punches me.
*Boom*
I fly towards the wall of the house, breaking it and falling into the street.
Thankfully, i managed to make my armor just in time to parry it and not suffer too much.
Still, that was a grown man punching me.
Some damage is to be made.
"I would've thought an assassin with a small body like you would be down with that punch already".
Did he made that rush with that wide opening so that he could punish my hit?
Makes sense.
"What do you mean assassin? I'm a proud knight".
I start running down the street.
I know that he's going to follow.
And he does, scared that i may go to help my friend in his fight.
What he doesn't know is that i have the advantage in the terrain, this dark atmosphere perfect for my stealth skill.
I turn a corner.
And i crouch, tensing my leg muscles.
And when he goes to turn...
I burst forward, my legs acting as a spring, senbon in hand, aiming for the left part of his torso
He's not going to fall for such a low level tactic though, so he tries to knee me on the way.
Half succeding in doing so, but i also have a half victory in harming him
I use the momentum to run behind him.
He attacks, thinking i was at his back.
I put some distance.
This is awkward.
This fight is now a blow trade basically, i can't harm him without him hitting me back, and if we go by that, then he will win just by enduring.
Well, I have an idea.
We're standing in the middle of the street, looking like a cowboy fight.
The sounds of houses being trashed some distance to my south-east are loud and getting more frecuent.
It seems Jack has the edge over there.
I run towards them, going inside a house.
Once again he follows me.
I have a better strategy now.
Instead of waiting at a corner, i make him go through the houses, leading him to an open circle between them.
Standing in the middle of the arena surrounded by connected houses, he goes to one of the houses, seeing that there's a yellow shine over there.
He appears in guard, thinking that there is going to be a trap there
I'm in the house to his left though.
I just need for him to step forward a bit.
To get fully aligned with the other house.
Once again, i turn my legs into springs, summon my Dawn and i rush by his back.
This should be game over
I try to cut him completely in a horizontal way, but...
My dawn does some damage before it unsummons itself.
"Here you are!"
Turning around, he punches the air, as i already was in my way to the house infront of me.
Alright, what was that?
My dawn got unsummoned?
Defended? Ok, Blocked? Ok, Unsummoned? That's another thing.
It cut through his clothing, doing some damage because of the hit, but the actual blade is undone.
I can create it again, but it would be pointless if it just gets undone, better to use my fists and my actual weapon
He's running toward me right now though, no time to think.
In a rhino-like fashion, he charges through the walls of the house, bringing it down and almost crushing me under the debris.
Once again, i sneaked away, and he continues to attack like a savage through all of the connected houses.
I already escaped by one of the windows, but it looks like he wants to destroy all of the arena.
No point in doing so, i'll just go to another.
He finally finished, his clothes tattered and torn.
I look to his torso and there's this red silk wrapped around his body.
The Satiporoja Scarf!
Didn't it belong to Straizo?
He lended it?
Well, the good part is that Jack won't have problems with that.
The bad part is that i will.
Once again, we stand like two cowboys in a duel, seeing who will do the first action.
I'm standing in a better postion now, his reckless trashing did a lot of work for his stamina and durability, seeing as how he's breathing loudly.
I on the other hand, haven't sustained any significant injuries and even if i had, my skill, burning spirit would have helped.
I can see myself winning.
Which is weird.
I haven't used anything that i didn't had three days ago.
That doesn't mean that my new skills are useless, it means that he's faking it.
If he were to fall this easily, i wouldn't have died a the end of her vision.
Or at the very least, he would have been dead too.
"No need to act tired, I'm not going to get fooled so easily".
He stops breathing heavily.
And takes a deep breath, charging his hamon.
"Shame, it would have been so much easier for the both of us if you were to be a bit more foolish".
"Nuh uh".
I need to hide.
A direct confrontation is going to end in me losing, my best course of actions right now is to hide and make him drop his guard before striking him in one of his weak parts.
Armpits, back of the knees, aquiles tendon, waist, neck.
Any point that's vital to his stance.
I need to think.
I'm going to win this, no matter how.