The Venom

Offense-Defense

     Tiger and Panther fought alongside the teacher against the Venom assassins. Tiger deflected two incoming sword strikes, and dodged the third. Tiger swung his sword, clashing against an assassin's blade. Tiger blocked the attack of another assassin, before kicking the second assassin to the ground. Panther blocked a sword strike, and pushed the assassin back. Panther saw another assassin rushing from the side, and Panther dived out of the way. Panther stood up, and blocked two attacks, before kicking one of the assassins in the side. Before Panther could attack, another assassin deflected his sword. The teacher faced off against the last two assassins. The teach mixed up attacks, and quickly deflected and blocked incoming attacks. The teacher was able to swiftly transition from blocking and attacking against the two assassins. The teacher slashed an assassin in the arm, and slammed the pommel of his sword into the side of the other assassin's head. 

     Tiger and Panther were being backed into each other. Tiger and Panther bumped into each other, and were forced to fight back-to-back with each other. Tiger saw an incoming attack, and pulled Panther out of the way with him. Tiger blocked the next two attacks, and Panther moved past Tiger, slashing one of the assassins. Panther deflected an attack, and Tiger rushed in, impaling another assassin through the side. Tiger clashed swords with an assassin, and Panther deflected the attack of another. Panther finished off his assassin, as Tiger dodged an incoming attack. Tiger lurched forwards, stabbing his sword into the last assassin's neck. Tiger and Panther nodded to each other, before turning to the teacher. 

    The teacher was facing off against the two assassins, and Tiger and Panther rushed to help. Before they reached the teacher, incoming throwing knives made them stop and react. The teacher swiftly killed the two assassins, and turned to Tiger and Panther. "Get somewhere safe!" The teacher yelled. The teacher turned to see an incoming attack. The teacher tried to dodge, but was snagged by the incoming attack. The teacher fell to the ground, as King Cobra stood over him. "It's him. King Cobra." Panther said. "What?" Tiger said in disbelief. Three Skulls showed up, and rushed into the fight with King Cobra. King Cobra spared no time, easily blocking and countering any attacks thrown at him, swiftly taking out all of the Skulls. 

     King Cobra approached Tiger and Panther. "And who might you two be? Skulls in training?" King Cobra said through his visor with the signature snake insignia. Panther readied his sword, and Tiger did the same. "You two are merely kids. Leave." King Cobra said. Tiger and Panther attacked. King Cobra easily dodged their attacks. Cobra kicked Panther to the ground, and knocked the sword out of Tiger's hand. Cobra grabbed Tiger by the throat. "I said leave." Cobra reaffirmed, throwing Tiger to the side. Suddenly Grim Reaper showed up. "Leave them be!" Reaper yelled through his visor with the Skulls insignia. "You never fail to amuse me, brother." Cobra said. "We share blood, but we are not brothers anymore." Reaper said, unsheathing his frequency sword. "The Reaper's edge will cut you down." Reaper said. Cobra sheathed his original blade, and unsheathed his frequency blade. "The Snake's Fang has always been faster." Cobra said, before rushing at Reaper. 

     Reaper and Cobra clashed weapons, and exchanged rapid sword strikes. To Tiger and Panther, their swords were moving so fast, that the swords appeared to disappear, only being replaced by Reaper's red blurs, and Cobra's green blurs. Tiger stood up, retrieving his sword, and Panther got up. "We must help him." Tiger said. "Are you crazy? These are master swordsmen, with frequency blades that can cut through any material, except for itself." Panther said. "Frequency blades?" Tiger thought to himself. "We can't really do much for now." Panther said. "Agreed." Tiger said. 

    Reaper and Cobra's rapid sword clashing rang throughout the air. Reaper blocked Cobra's rapid attacks, and swung a kick. Cobra deflected the kick with his leg, and swung his sword again. Reaper deflected Cobra's sword, and blocked the next sword strike, meeting it with two rapid attacks. Cobra blocked both of the rapid attacks, and they pushed each other back. Cobra and Reaper looked at each other. "Why do you fight against me?" Cobra asked. "Because there's no forgiveness for what you've done." Reaper said. "You realize that I did what I did to save you." Cobra said. Cobra and Reaper clashed again. "But you caused the deaths of two of our best friends, and let those damned Seterans live." Reaper said, pushing Cobra back. Reaper and Cobra blocked and deflected each other's attacks, before clashing again. "Eitherway, the realms are safe!" Cobra yelled. They pushed each other away again. 

    Cobra and Reaper stared at each other, their visors hiding the unending rage towards each other. They both looked at Tiger and Panther, who were just watching. "I'm not going to continue this. I'll be back soon, and you'd better set your mind straight." Cobra said, before sheathing his sword. Cobra then rushed away, jumping off of the rooftop. Reaper gave chase, but Cobra vanished over the edge of the rooftop, and was nowhere to be seen at the bottom. "Damned man." Reaper said, before turning to Tiger and Panther. "You two did well against the Venom's assassins." Reaper said. "Thank you." Tiger and Panther said, before handing over their swords. "Keep the swords. You've demonstrated that you two are worthy of joining the skulls." Reaper said. Tiger and Panther kept the swords, and looked at each other. "Follow me to the Skulls hideout, before another strike-team shows up. 

      Panther and Tiger followed Grim Reaper across the rooftops, reaching the Skulls hideout. They made their way down to ground level, and Reaper opened the door, leading to a stairway underground. Panther and Tiger followed Reaper down the stairs, where they walked across a catwalk overseeing a large room down below. Several Skulls members were forging swords, and light armor plating, as well as making other Skulls uniform accessories. "Let's get you two outfitted to join our ranks." Reaper said. Reaper called over a Skulls assassin. Reaper's visor split in half, retracting to the sides of his head, revealing his face. "Take these two to the armory, get them outfitted." Reaper said. The assassin nodded, and Panther and Tiger followed the assassin down the hallway. 

    They entered the armory. "Take a standard uniform, and any kind of armor you want." The assassin said. Tiger and Panther grabbed a uniform, and began to dress into it. The uniform was a longsleeve, loose, black shirt with red accents on it. The pants followed the similar style. The boots were tall, halfway up the shin, and had metal plating on the toe and heel. Tiger went to the armor racks, and took the pieces he liked. Tiger fitted sliding plates over his stomach, and more armor plating to his chest. Tiger set a pair of pauldrons on his shoulders, and fitted metal vambraces on his forearms. The vambraces had hooks, to catch an opponent's blade. Panther equipped the same sliding plates and chestplates. Panther had no armor on his right shoulder, but a small piece of shoulder armor on his left. The shoulder armor was rounded to deflect attacks. Panther's vambraces were also rounded for the same purpose. 

     Tiger and Panther were given the signature carved masked that the Skulls members wore. Tiger chose to have a hood and shoulder cape, while Panther chose a piece of clothing that covered his head, with a section cut exposing his face, as well as a black shemagh around his neck. Tiger and Panther dawned their masks, and the assassin nodded to them. Another assassin joined them, handing Tiger and Panther slips of paper. Tiger looked to see it was an assassination target. Panther was tasked with the same target. "You two will work as a pair, until you two have completed three contracts." The assassin said.