The Game Before the Fall

Chapter 24: Erin Storm (Part 3)

"Stay right where you are," the man leading them pointed his gun towards us. They were all dressed in inconspicuous clothing, nothing that would say they were thugs. All of them could easily blend in to the crowd.

"So, the professionals I'm guessing," Vanter whispered to me. "Or at least part of them."

"Yeah, I'd say so," I replied and gently pushed Erin back in the car. "Stay here, it'll be safer."

She nodded afraid and unsure what was happening. The five men drew closer, some of them smirking.

Their leading man sighed but smiled twistingly, "You ruined my plan you know. You should have just let the girl get shot. Now you're going to die for it."

"Whoa, die?" Vanter let out appalled. "That's a big step. You sure you want to do that without even knowing who we work for?"

The man frowned, hesitating, his smile however didn't fade, "And who do you work for?"

"Same as you but a rival group," I replied pulling at threads, trying to get them to drop their guard. "Point is, we can tell when we've lost. No need to draw blood here and piss off the wrong people, right?"

"Really now," he paused trying to piece his information to our story. It was all the time I needed. His thoughts weren't on us and those that followed him began to slack. I leapt towards him, crossing the ten metre gap in a split second. To my surprise he dodged my fist and as his eyes met mine, I couldn't help but shiver. Something was wrong with him, and the smile he had shown grew wider. My instincts kicked in and I charged my Aura, making sure my knee ploughed into his stomach and sent him slamming into the wall. I targeted the closest next, sure that Vanter would handle those on his side. The man barely had time to turn before I appeared and ran his head into the nearby wall.

A gunshot rang but not from where I had expected. Vanter had taken care of the man closest to him and pointed a pistol to the furthest away, already firing to disarm him. I lunged at the wounded man before he could recover, knocking him unconscious as Vanter dealt with the remainer. Not even three seconds had passed since I our assault. When it came down to it, we were already acting on a level beyond human ability.

I breathed out feeling my body creak from the sudden expenditure of Aura. I still wasn't able to use it freely, let alone try combine it with mana.

"Where did the gun come from?" I asked Vanter as I made my way back to the taxi.

"Stole it off the driver," he replied easily, chucking it aside. "I felt my skin crawl using that. I swear I could hear Shin cheering in the back of my mind."

"It's a bit easier to conceal a gun rather than a bow."

"Yeah, only a bit," Vanter joked.

I frowned, looking towards the first man I had attacked, "That first guy was stronger than I expected."

"The smiling guy?"

"Yeah, he dodged my first punch."

"Well, that didn't stop you from beating him with the next."

"True, but it didn't feel right. We should be careful. The way he was smiling was pretty creepy."

"Drugs probably," Vanter commented. "We've seen some strange ones."

"But that was after the Merge," I frowned deeper in thought, trying to remember where I had seen a smile like the man's before. It clicked slowly, when the kidnappers had gone for Aria, there was that women in the back who had smiled the same way.

"Well," Vanter dusted off his hands. "I can't feel anyone else nearby but-." A glint of light reflected from the eaves of the warehouse.

"Move!" I yelled and dashed forward, pulling Vanter back in the nick of time as a knife plunged where he had been standing.