The Spectre

Chapter Seven - Two Sides Of The Coin

As the blades were approaching Strycore and Ivana, they stood back to back not knowing what to do. Ivana said with a sarcastic yet scared tone "hey you wouldn't happen to be able to scare the blades would you...?" and with a disappointed frown on his face Strycore turned and said, "do you really think humour is the best thing right now? Can't you go invisible and just take out Boron?". Having already considered this option Ivana replied: "my seal gives invisibility, not intangibility! The blades are everywhere I can't escape". Strycore sighed and closed his eyes, "I didn't want it to come to this but looks like I have no choice, it's time" and with that, he seemed to become more relaxed and focused, he folded his arms and suddenly the blades stopped in place. Ivana with a shocked expression asked "are you doing this?" Strycore sighed with an annoyed expression and said, "Ivana if I were the one doing this you would know, matter of fact everything in a 50-meter radius would know so focus, you're an assassin use your observation skills and you'll see who is doing this". Having taken his words to heart Ivana calmed herself and looked around the area, she noticed a dark figure behind the trees and immediately threw a dagger at it but to her disappointment, the dagger stopped halfway there. The figure got out from behind the tree and moved closer. Boron shouted at it "stop right there! Or else there's going to be a few pieces missing from you" but the figure moved out of the shadows and it was a man in a blue outfit, it looked very formal and high quality and on his head a top hat. The man spoke "now Bory, is that any way to speak to your father?" he spread his arms and pulled all the coin blades towards him making them drop at his feet, "let me introduce myself" he said with a gentleman's tone "my name is Magnus Von Steel, a pleasure to meet you and you are?". Boron looked angry to see him and said: "stop messing around and just leave, I won't let you steal my coins again". With a sinister and deceptive smile Magnus replied to him "how rude of you to interrupt my introduction to these two fine people, and no I'm taking these coins, they're very valuable I can't let you just have all this wealth wasted on combat".

The argument began to escalate with Boron looking as if he was ready to fight to get his coins back from Magnus, though in the meantime Ivana and Strycore who were now free from danger were just standing there observing the argument. And a few moments afterwards the battle for the possession of the coins began with Boron using his seal itself to attack. His particular seal was a silver coin that had mystical markings on it and in the middle was a seal core, this meant that he was one of the few people who could battle using their seals directly.
He enlarged the size of the seal to be like that of a shield and sent it flying towards Magnus who tried to control it with his seal ability but couldn't and so instead dodged out of the way to avoid a direct hit. "Your magnet seal can't affect this coin father, this is directly linked to me," said Boron triumphantly, Magnus who was now angry to have wasted so much time there rose all the coins off the ground and shaped them into a structured sphere with him inside. "I'm sorry to cut our little conversation short but I have business to attend to, until next time Boron and please do find more coins for me to steal", with that Magnus levitated himself up and flew off towards the city.

Boron was left devastated and powerless with none of his coins remaining, his anger was immense and Strycore could sense that and so he approached Boron who without hesitation tried to use his seal to push him back but as the spinning seal came forth Strycore without even looking at it stretched his arm in its direction and flicked it back. "Listen, you moron! I'm offering my help so be appreciative, we will help you get back the coins if you know where that guy went" puzzled as Boron was, he just explained to him that Magnus most likely went to sell the coins to the underground market since that's the most secretive place in the city and since Strycore was familiar with the area he told Boron they will help.

Boron resized his seal back to a normal coin and put it back in his pocket and they began walking back to the city.
While they were walking Boron asked "I know I should've asked before... You know, trying to kill you two but what were you doing back there?" to which Ivana answered with a frustrated tone "we were trying to get you to join our team you moron" Boron seemed to find the whole turn of events funny to him and started laughing "well why didn't you say so earlier?" said Boron to Ivana who at this remark was ready to punch him but Strycore stopped her and telling her to control her emotions, they had a task at hand and Boron will get his choice once they had returned his coins to him. Boron was inspired by his level of focus, Strycore was very mission-oriented and his words didn't sound like those of a hopeful fool but those of a man with the power to accomplish the task at hand.

Once they had gotten to the underground market entrance Boron was ready to attack full force and so was Ivana, after the events back in the forest they could both use some stress relief and attacking the lawless underground seemed like the perfect thing to do, but as they took a single step through the entrance they both felt overwhelming fear instantly. Ivana knew this feeling all too well and looked to her side to see Strycore missing and just a silhouette of him farther down the stairs going downwards. The feeling wore off quickly and Boron was rattled to his core having never experienced this before so Ivana explained to him that this meant Strycore did not need their input in the matter and preferred to deal with this himself, "don't mind him, but you can rest assured he will bring back your coins" Ivana said to Boron with a reassuring tone "that power of his is unlike any I've ever seen and believe me when I say that no one can rival this kind of fear, you felt its paralysis yourself". Boron replied "oh yeah that was unlike anything I've ever felt, but how did he get down there without either of us seeing him?" Ivana didn't know either so she couldn't answer with certainty, but she did know that something wasn't right with Strycore, he was hiding something from her and she was determined to find it out.

Mere moments later they saw Strycore walking up the stairs and behind him, Magnus followed, upon further inspection they saw that Magnus was carrying a well-decorated treasure chest in his hands. Ivana and Boron stood up from the steps and got battle-ready just in case. When Strycore got back up the stairs with Magnus, Magnus apologised for his actions and handed the chest to Boron, who with his ability knew that the coins were indeed inside, but being the cautious type Ivana opener it anyway and all the coins were inside and in prestige condition too. A few seconds later Magnus fell on the floor unconscious, Strycore then said "pay him no attention he's completed his purpose, Ivana let's go. We will continue our search tomorrow" he then gave Boron a nod of respect then proceeded to walk away with Ivana who also said her goodbye, but as they walked away Boron yelled, "wait for me, it's rude to leave a member of your team behind you know".
They stopped and looked back, Ivana with a warm smile said to him "well what are you waiting for? Let's go" while Strycore with his usual blank expression said nothing but nodded once again. And with that the third member had been recruited and surely together they would accomplish great things.