Bonn sat by the Rhine.
It was a city growing out of a small village, which once made its living on ferrying and fishing; the earliest records of the city could be traced back to 2000 years ago. Bonn was both bucolic and modern—despite the urban style of the city, the natural landscape was kept intact as well.
Right now, in a pub in the downtown area, a man and a woman were chatting over their drinks. The man was blonde and had a wonderfully pretty face; the woman was a brunette with beautiful green eyes.
She was quite young—in her early twenties at most. Her face was bare of any makeup, though her fingernails were painted bright red. Her slender fingers raised the glass to her lips, which she took a sip from. She then said in resignation, "I don't know what got into Sophia's head, sending us two newbies to attract fresh believers, not to mention to a dangerous place like this."
"She doesn't have much choice. Our group is so weak that even the HQ doesn't have people to spare. Those imbeciles have been making such a scene out there and they have to be prepared." The man did not look any happier than she did. "Be positive. At least you're a level II witch and I'm only a level I. If anything, you stand a much better chance at escaping than me."
"You think I'll just ditch you if it gets dangerous?" The woman clinked his glass with hers and looked around in boredom, complaining, "This lousy place is deserted and full of old and ugly dumbasses. Guess what? I haven't got laid for six months."
"Haha, actually, we've been talking. We wagered how much longer you can hold that off and I've put in a heavy bet!" teased the man.
"Damn you, Benn! That's it, I'm telling that little boyfriend of yours what you did last night— hm?"
The woman stopped mid-sentence and fixed her gaze on the entrance of the pub. She looked captivated and full of lust, as if she had just spotted a soft and comfortable bed with a naked handsome man on it.
"All right, I give up! The hell with abstinence! I'm over it!" She bolted to her feet and click-clacked towards the man in her 8 cm heels, grinning. "Hey, cutie, you alone?"
'Huh?'
Gu Yu was surprised by this greeting. 'What's happening? Someone's hitting on me?'
He looked her up and down before saying with his dabbler English, "Hello. I'm alone. You the waitress?"
"Teehee, me the waitress?" The woman grinned wider. "I'm Andrea, can I buy you a drink? I'm more than happy to offer you other things if you're interested."
She was enthusiastic, up for many things, and not shy with showing what she got: red slip dress, bare fair thighs, and collarbone too pretty to be ignored.
"..."
Gu Yu scanned her with his mental force and figured her out right away. As he also detected an unusual fluctuation from her, he replied, "Sure. This is my first time in Bonn. Oh, I don't speak good English."
"Don't worry about it. There's a lot we can do that doesn't involve talking."
The woman led him back to the bar and ordered him a Martini. Benn twitched his mouth at this. He then spotted a cute black-haired guy himself and slipped away to hunt on his own.
"Are you from Germani?"
"Nah, Uncle Sam. You? Are you a tourist or…"
"I'm here with friends, interesting in that, um, thing. I studied myself…"
He was playing the perfect newbie, his equivocation making his performance all the more convincing.
"Oh, I see!" Andrea had obviously taken him for some reckless guy venturing out to the wide wild world with the little magic he knew. "You're bold to come here. Bonn is the most dangerous city in the world at the moment."
"Haha, we only live once. I want adventure."
The two chatted on about random things.
The woman liked Gu Yu better by the minute. She had seen her fair share of handsome guys, but not someone like this one: tall, leggy, slender yet powerful, with a remarkable temperament and that oriental reserved and mild quality.
All in all, she saw a very promising night!
Hence, her red nails began to half-intentionally tickling at Gu Yu's pinky and the tip of her pointed-toe heels was caressing his shin.
She had taken him for some innocent lovely thing. Little did she know, Gu Yu was considering her in the same way. Both found this encounter amusing, strange, and as if they were watching a child's play. Neither meant any harm.
After another while, Andrea felt the mood was set and she rubbed her temple, apologizing, "Um, I'm sorry, but I probably had a little too much to drink. I'm dizzy and it's too loud in here."
"Do you need me to take you somewhere?"
"That'll be great. The back alley is pretty quiet."
The woman almost hung herself around Gu Yu's neck as they slowly walked out of the back door into a secluded and dark alley.
"Creak…"
"Mhm…"
Before the door of the pub was closed, Andrea gave Gu Yu a shove and pressed him onto the wall.
Sh*t!
Old Gu blanked out instantly and was subconsciously looking up the sky to search for any striking divine lightning. He was only planning to do some prying. That was a very passionate woman!
"Teehee, I've never met someone so delicious before…" Andrea pressed herself against him, her red lips moving closer and closer. "Don't be nervous, sweetheart. I'll be gentle— who's there?"
She moved away from Gu Yu abruptly, facing the deep, dark alley and again yelling, "Who's there?"
"Hoho, I see my cover's blown. No matter, you'll be my pet in a moment anyway."
A shadow shook violently under the dim light and a black dwarf rose up as if he had just emerged out of water.
Bare-chested, he had cloth wrapping around his lower half and odd ornaments around his neck. With his protruding forehead and prominent facial features, he reminded one of some primates.
"Bablu! You've followed me all the way here!"
The woman's red fingernails flickered as her hands flipped around; there was a pair of rosy, short-bladed weapon in her hands, which was halfway between a saber and a sword. She whispered to Gu Yu, "This man is very powerful. Sorry for dragging you into this. I'll stall him. Run as far as you can!"
"Who's he?" asked Gu Yu curiously.
"He's from Haiti, a Voodoo practitioner!"
Andrea was very resolute. After giving Gu Yu the instruction, she swept the two blades across the air and dashed towards the dwarf in a gait that looked unnecessarily complicated but was in fact very swift.
"My dolls, come out!"
With a wave of his hand, th dwarf sank back into the shadow. Meanwhile, from the entrance of the alley behind him, about half a dozen figures appeared, all moving in a somewhat rigid way.
"So many walking corpses!"
Andrea's face darkened a little, but she rushed into the enemies without hesitation.
Her combat style was a straightforward one. The blades were wrapped in an energy reminding one of Qi with an incredibly sharp edge. With a flash of red light, one of the walking corpses was cleft in half.
She did not stop there and kept pushing forward. Turning a blade horizontally, she swiftly slid it across the air, cutting two walking corpses side by side open across their waist.
Whoosh!
Just then, the back of her neck prickled a little and she hurriedly thrust her left foot against the wall, followed by her right. The next moment, she was in mid-air, enabling her to dodge the strike. She finished the backward somersault in her heels and landed on the ground, her red dress flapping in the wind.
Standing in front of her was none other than that walking corpse she hacked down first, which was now back to a single piece again.
"It's getting better at self-healing!"
Andrea was secretly astonished. Back on the American continent, her magic group and the dwarf's were mortal enemies. The two sides had had over a dozen confrontations in the past few years, with ups and downs on both sides.
Under normal circumstances, she could at least get herself out of this safely even if she wasn't her opponent's match. However, now that she had a "plus one" with her, she had to give all she'd got.
Whoosh!
Bam! Bam! Boom!
The two sides had exchanged quite a few blows in a matter of seconds. The walking corpses were not good at moving around, but that self-healing ability was a pain in the a*s. What was more, both their teeth and sharp claws were poisonous.
Andrea was losing ground. After fending off another walking corpse, she crossed her blades.
"Cross, rose!"
Whoosh!
Two streams of flame gushed out abruptly as the two blades made a forward slash. Boom!
Flames roared out in a cross, filling the entire narrow alley. The half dozen walking corpses were charred instantly. Seeing this, Andrea called out to Gu Yu, "Kiddo, run!"
"Do you seriously think you're gonna win just like that? No one is going anywhere today. Get up, my babies!"
The dark shadow guffawed, squirming disgustingly again, reminding one of some mollusk. Some powder sprinkled down at this movement, covering the charred corpses. The next moment, they shook off the black crust like breaking egg shells, and rose to their feet once more.
F**k!
Andrea spat at the ground, realising the chance of getting out of this alive was little. "Sorry for dragging you into this— what do you think you're doing?!" she cried out with wide open eyes. One of her weapon had just flew out of her right hand and landed on the guy's palm.
"Nice blade! I'm gonna need it for a minute!"
Weighing the short blade in his hand, Gu Yu looked up and grinned. He then turned into a cloud of mist and charged into the corpses.
"You…"
Andrea almost forgot to breathe. The next second, red light flashed across the air.
Whoosh!
The short blade moved smoothly with his hand and hacked down at an impossible angle. The blade then turned so that the tip was pointed forward, slitting through the air like a red fish splitting waves.
Shew! Shew!
Thump!
Three walking corpses dropped to the ground at the same moment.
"Hoho, that won't work. My walking corpses are— that's impossible!" the dark shadow screamed as the three corpses began to sizzle. Black smoke then rose from the corpses and they soon melted into a pool of putrid liquid.
"Who, who on earth are you? Aaaah…"
Astonished and enraged, the dwarf switched to his mother tongue without knowing it, which was completely incomprehensible.
"Oh, shut up."
Short blade in hand, Gu Yu moved through the alley as if the weapon was part of his body; his stances looked the most natural thing. It was as if he was simply taking a casual walk down the street. As the red blade swept across the air, blood splashed out like blossoming roses, marking the merciless harvest of his enemies' lives.
In half a heartbeat, all walking corpses had turned into stinky pools of liquid.
"You'll pay for this! Voodoo does not forgive!"
Despite being scared out of his wits, the dwarf still managed to leave a threatening line. The shadow then bolted up the wall, trying to flee into the darkness of the night.
"There!"
Gu Yu restrained from using his sword energy, but used his spiritual essence alone, which easily devoured the energy the original owner left on the blade. He then tossed it out.
"Aaaaaah!"
The shadow had slithered to the entrance of the alley when the divine weapon fell out of the sky, which stabbed right at his weakest spot without missing one centimeter.
"Pffft… mhm…"
The shadow struggled violently like a fish pierced by a harpoon. It soon stopped moving, turning back into that dwarf.
"You… you…"
However blunt her instinct might be, by now, Andrea knew perfectly well that this man was no "cute kiddo". After the astonishment passed, though, she was even more excited and found the man more attractive than before.
"There you go!"
Gu Yu tossed the short blade back to her and stopped her from talking. He then turned towards a dark corner unlit by the street lamps, chuckling. "My friend, it's time to show yourself. You have been following me this entire time."