Trash [Job]

Job details:

Shane stood in front of the job board, the expression on his face ominous. His eyes were filled with a cold, murderous rage while his right fist clenched tightly. His left hand was holding a job sheet, a job that he accidentally stumbled on when he was checking up on new jobs as he always did every morning when he was in the guild headquarters. Normally he would keep his eyes peeled for those that had high stakes, dangerous jobs that he would as challenges to his abilities. But today was going to be different.

Turning the job sheet over, Shane hastily wrote his name on the back of the sheet in an unruly handwriting and slotted it into the box prepared on the desk. The silver-haired mage, stormed out of the room, making his way towards entrance. Anyone who passed him, those who had grown accustomed to his constantly smiling expression, would be surprised to see the furious expression he had on.

Within two hours, Shane was standing outside a large mansion. It was the mansion of an extremely wealthy businessman. The owner, the president of Tatawa Industries, was Soja Tatawa. He had built his company from nothing, depending on himself and his skills as a baker and from there, built his biscuits empire and his fortune. He was a man of extremely virtuous nature, a great philanthropist. But that could not be said for his son. His son was literally his greatest embarrassment, the foil to his great success. The stain on his reputation. But still his son, nonetheless.

As explained in the job sheet, a request posted by a grieving mother, Andis Tatawa had along with his friends, raped a girl called Mion when they were drunk and high on drugs. The girl, unable to take it, had eventually committed suicide. A police report had been filed, but no action had been taken. Shane had no doubt that the elder Tatawa had used his influence to pull some strings. And so, desperate to see justice for her late daughter, the grieving mother had submitted it as a job instead.

The job was simple. Storm Tatawa Mansion and bring Andis Tatawa to the police station. Shane had already gave the client a call through his iLac, and she would be waiting for him at the police station with her attorney.

The more troublesome part was the three mages that now stood in the mansion’s compound, having been alerted of Shane’s arrival. They were dark mages, hired by the older Tatawa to prevent the exact situation they were facing from happening. What separated them was only an iron gate. Which would never stopped Shane’s fury. With a simple swing of his right hand, a set of three wind blades, their edges whirring as they flew through the air, easily cut through the iron gate as if a hot knife through butter.

Before the gates had even dropped to the ground, Shane was already rushing into the compound, opening with one of his favourite moves.

“Sky Demon Slayer’s Lotus Flight!!” Shane roared as he charged at the first mage he saw. His raised knee crashed heavily into the mage, the impact sending him flying backwards in a heap. Shane never bothered to find out if his attack had caused enough damage to the first mage, quickly moving on to the next target. Spinning to his left, Shane quickly took another step to his side as a stream of flames raced through the air, flames blasting through where he had once stood.

The fire mage moved quickly as he cut off his spell and quickly moved into Shane’s fighting range. The two were exchanging blows within seconds. Shane threw a straight jab followed by an uppercut, to which his opponent evaded the first jab but took the uppercut to his jaw. The fire mage stunned from the blow, but before he could recover, Shane had just lifted his leg and planted it squarely into his stomach with a front kick, knocking the mage over.

Shane was fighting too quickly, completely different from what he would usually do. The moment the fire mage was down, Shane spun around again to lunge at the third mage. But when he turned around, he couldn’t find him.

“Up here!” was all Shane heard as he was thrown slightly forward a few steps by a powerful gust of wind. Caught by surprise and yet still smiling, the Sky Demon Slayer’s smile turned into smirk as he turned around. This time, he was using another spell, a spell that resembled his Gale Claw a lot.

“Furious Wind Blades!” the wind mage yelled as he swung his arms forward multiple times, each time releasing a large crescent-shaped blade of wind in Shane’s direction. For the first time since he had obtained his Sky Demon Slayer magic, Shane stood stock still and exhaled. The moment all of the air in his lungs had been pushed out, Shane opened his mouth wide and inhaled as the blades of wind approached. As if a vacuum, the surrounding air began to be pulled in towards Shane’s mouth, the blades of wind included.
Not a single one was missed when Shane finally stopped consuming the air. He merely smirked at the dumbfounded expression on the wind mage’s face, his face pale and mouth open, from what he had just witnessed.

“You are a Dragon Slayer?” the wind mage asked, mouth agape.

“Nope. Rarer. Demon Slayer,” Shane replied casually as he side stepped, this time avoiding a sword slash without even having to look. As quick as lightning, Shane withdrew Breaker from its sheath, in sword form, and pressed down on the sword as it reached the ground at the end of its swing. With his left hand pressing Breaker down on the sword, Shane spun on his left feet and sent a roundhouse kick to his assailant’s head. The effect was instantaneous and near comical, as the mage was immediately faceplanted into the ground and then collapsing to the ground.

With one down, Shane then targeted the wind mage first. Pushing himself forward at breakneck speed with Burst, Shane appeared beside the wind mage with a whoosh, leaving a dust cloud behind him as he came to a halt. With the speed of a cobra striking, Shane pushed his right palm, sheathed within a wind shell, into the mage’s chest and expelled him with tremendous force. The mage flew backwards and did a few flips on the ground, before coming to halt, lying spread-eagled on the ground.

The final opponent Shane needed to take care of was the fire mage, who had been clever enough to steer clear of Shane when he was dealing with the other two mages. He was studying Shane, watching the silver-haired mage fight and figuring out a way to counter him. He seemed to possess an extremely sharp mind, appearing to have already come up with a way to subdue Shane, from the way he took the initiative to attack him.

“Ifrit Gauntlet!” the fire mage called out, as flames began to appear around his limbs, converging around his fists and feet. With the swiftness of a martial artist, the fire mage began engaging Shane in a flurry of punches and kicks. The Sky Demon Slayer, possessing no such reinforcing spells, was forced to fight back with his bare fists. It upped the stakes for Shane as they were quite evenly matched in terms of close combat, making the fiery fists and feet all the more dangerous.

Every once in a while, the fire mage would send a blast of flame following a punch or a kick, forcing Shane to evade haphazardly and be caught off guard by a few calculated punches or kicks. There was no tempo to it as well, making it useless for Shane to try to find a pattern. When he tried to disengage to put some distance, the fire mage would pounce him, unrelenting.
Suffering from minor burns here and there, the fight had finally reached the thirtieth exchange of blows with Shane on the losing side, before the two of them finally broke apart when a stream of fire struck Shane square in the chest, blasting him into the air before he dropped back on the ground a few feet away.

The silver-haired mage got up with a groan, his shirt a sizzling mess which he just tore off and threw to one side, leaving his upper body naked. He had been overwhelmed in the fist fight, outgunned by the fire mage’s combination of martial arts and fire magic. His opponent lunged again, arms to his side, palms pointed forward as flames began to spiral around his arm. Halfway through the lunge, the fire mage pushed his arms forward and sent two streams of flames that spiralled around each other.

“Twin Serpent Bite!” the fire mage had roared when the flames flew from his arm, rushing in Shane’s direction.

“Guardian Ward,” the Demon Slayer calmly whispered as three orbs of wind appeared behind him. Charging forward into the flames, Shane easily manoeuvred two of the spheres, transforming them into shields of wind that he used to divert the twin flame streams. The silver-haired mage had cut through the twin streams of flame, and jumped out directly in front of the fire mage. In return, Shane had also had six arrows of wind, his Stingers spell, spiralling around his right arm. With a pushing gesture, the silver-haired mage launched all six arrows flying straight into the fire mage at near point blank range.

The arrows, lethal at close range, broke skin and drew blood as they stabbed into the fire mage’s body, the driving force behind them sending him flying as well. He laid on the ground in a heap, six small bloody holes on his torso. Gasping for breath, Shane began to walk towards the mansion when a gunshot rang out from the second floor, clear and loud in the now-silent courtyard. Everyone and everything stopped moving, Shane included.

He had been caught off guard, never expecting there was a hidden shooter on the 2nd floor balcony that overlooked the mansion’s courtyard. Fortunately, when he had ended the fight, he had only used two of the three wind spheres. The third one had remained unutilized, Shane leaving it to expire on its own. He hadn’t expected this very decision to save his life, presumably from a headshot, as he watched the crumpled bullet, press against the shield of wind that had automatically barricaded itself above Shane’s head.

The wind shield dispersed a second later and the bullet dropped to the ground harmlessly. His eyes flashing upwards to look at the shooter, who had been stunned as well, Shane wasted no time in leaping upwards, clearing the first floor easily and landed on the balcony with ease. A palm thrust carrying with it a shell of wind was fired off from his left hand at the shooter, throwing him across the balcony in a sprawl.

Shane slowly approached the panicking shooter, who was still on his back, and stepped down on his chest. Taking a clear look, Shane realized it was the man of the hour, Andis Tatawa himself. And behind the curtains, at the doorway of the balcony was Soja Tatawa himself, the King of Biscuits, head bowed and in his hands with his wife standing beside him, clutching his arm tightly as they watched their son underneath Shane’s boot.

“Mr Tatawa, Mrs Tatawa. You know very well what your son has done. I will be taking him with me to the law enforcement,” Shane exclaimed, his voice even. Before they could even retort, Shane briefly took his foot from the young man’s chest and violently kicked forward at his face, putting him out like a light. With a light nod to the couple, Shane bent down, hoisted the young man on his shoulder and leapt off the balcony. He landed on the ground without a hitch and coolly walked out of the mansion, no one daring to obstruct him.

[2018 words]