Bring down the Syndicate [Job/ Sara and Shane]

Shane was thoroughly surprised when Sara entered at the moment when he was almost done interrogating the bald executive and when they were finally done, Sara had walked over to the bleeding executive, the floor already a pool of his own blood. The female made had knelt down and the unmistakable aura of a healing spell. Not knowing what her purpose was, Shane had made to step forward and stop her when her words stopped him in his tracks.

At the words that came out of her mouth, Shane was completely floored. Eyes wide as he looked at Diamante and what he had done, Shane felt himself sway on his feet before quickly steadying himself. For the sole purpose of getting information, he had left the man in a bloody mess and although he spoke of having his fellow Rune Knights pick him up once everything was over, he understood very well he was leaving the man to bleed to death before he could even end this whole affair.

But he was a dark mage, one part of his mind tried to justify his own actions.

Is this what I’ve become? Shane thought as he stood rooted to his spot. When did I lose my way?

But deep down he knew. The day his ideals was broken, his sense of justice warped. His memories returned, to remind him of what had completely transformed him and he was transfixed by it, never realizing the degree to which he had deviated from his path. And like a mist being pierced by sunlight, Shane managed to achieve a clarity of mind that had been far from his grasp for a long time. It was time to reconcile his actions and what he truly believed in.

He looked at the gun in his right hand, to how he had once loathed firearms. But when he looked at it and then looked at Diamante, whose bleeding had been staunched, Shane realized that it was the hand wielding the firearm, the man providing the intention to the shot fired that mattered. Any object can be a weapon, as long as the wielder wills it. Shaking his head as if to clear all the doubts away, Shane finally restored the gun into his storage dimension, leaving his hand empty.

He then lifted his head to look at Sara who was already on her way out. She had agreed to his suggestion. Golden wings appeared out of her back and the female mage shot up in the skies. Left behind, Shane merely nodded, reserving the thank you that he would later say to the girl once after this was all over. Back into mission mode, Shane exited the warehouse the same way they had gotten in and quickly navigated the alleys.

He had a general sense of the direction of the city square and moved towards it, occasionally looking upwards to align his direction with Sara who was flying overhead while he made sure to keep himself out of detection. It was the fifth time that Shane looked up again to look for Sara’s bearing when he saw the girl flying above and a kick suddenly connecting with her. Eyes narrowed, Shane was prepared to leap up to the roof by kicking off the walls when he heard the voice of some old speaking.

The descriptions that Diamante gave connected, allowing Shane to identify the person engaging Sara as Dellinger, the one with the inhuman kicking strength. And the one that was slowly approaching him from the another alley, dressed in a horrible red and blue spandex, was the old martial artist Lao G. The old man walked forward without indication that he was wary of any threat, even when Shane was right in front of him. He was fearless, for he had the right to be so. But it didn’t matter to Shane. Regardless of his strength, it was Shane’s duty to take them down today.

“So there’s two of you, eh?” the man spoke, arms still crossed behind his back as he smirked at Shane.

“More than enough to bring this whole circus down, I’m sure,” Shane replied, keeping his body loose and relaxed as well while he stood facing the old man. “I mean, I love the way you dress.”
Lao G was barely irked by Shane’s words, grinning. His calm was real. But he still regarded Shane with little more than disdain. An old martial artist that had already seen the world, Lao G wasn’t the typical run of the mill henchmen. The only reason he had joined Doflamingo’s guild was to seek out strong opponents, to find people worthy of challenging him and to further improve his fighting skills. He had no interest in the Syndicate’s goals or Doflamingo’s ambitions. What he truly wanted was for someone to ignite the spark of adrenaline within him. And so far, Shane had done little to create the spark.

“Chatter away, young one. Words won’t harm me. In fact, I’m not even sure if you can harm me,” Lao G replied, grinning one moment and lunging at Shane the next. But the Rune Knight wasn’t unprepared. Already garbed in his EX-22 black combat suit, Shane’s already heightened physical abilities was enhanced a step further by the combat suit and managed to stand his ground, his right fist extended as he met Lao G’s own punch heads on. The resulting clash of strength created a shockwave, blowing up dust in the alley around them as the two combatants pulled back from each other.

“Not bad, young one. You have potential. But let’s see how long you can last!” the old man exclaimed as he pushed forward once again with a diagonal kick upwards. Shane was surprised as well when the old man had managed his punch, a very rare occurrence that only happened against non-human combatants. But he saw it as an opportunity. With catlike reflexes, Shane ducked low as the kick sailed past his head and attempted another right punch at the man’s chest. The move connected, but only barely, as Lao G immediately transitioned from his kick to an axe kick, dropping his ankle in a nimble move.

Shane was quick to defend against it, pulling back his right arm before he landed the full punch and held up his arm to defend against the kick with his forearm, the ankle impacting his forearms with so much force that it would have fractured the bones had he not pushed it aside. But the two wasn’t done. Despite the pain, Shane threw another kick towards the martial artist’s chest with his left foot, putting all his body weight into it before flipping backwards. Lao G was thrown into the wall behind him, mildly surprised by Shane’s abilities.

“You should be able to give me a decent workout,” Lao G remarked before throwing himself into the fray again. Shane welcomed the man’s lunge but as the fight progressed, it began moving in Lao G’s favor. Befitting his status as a martial artist, the man’s movements transitioned so fluidly and perfectly that Shane had to depend on his fortitude to take hits as he threw his own. His own fighting style was cruder, often allowing him to prevail because of his superior strength and speed but Lao G was taking him apart with quick combos and variations.

However, it wasn’t all lost. He could definitely take a beating, and as the fight continued, Shane finally found an opportunity when sidestepped in response to Lao G’s straight kick forwards. The martial artist had finally overextended himself and Shane was quick to take the chance. With a quick jab with his left fist into the old man’s stomach, Shane then grabbed the man by his face as he pitched forward from the attack. From there, it was one of his spells as Shane reinforced the strength of his left arm for that one move, holding the martial artist up into the air and smashing him back down into the ground with utmost force.

Lao G’s body bounced up slightly from the impact, coughing up blood from his mouth. Shane stepped back as the old man picked up from the ground, and immediately followed up with Hosenka Smash, slamming the base of his right palm into the disoriented martial artist’s face before ending with a roundhouse kick that send the man slamming into the wall. He was a powerful martial artist and he could handed Shane’s ass to him on a plate, but the latter was highly durable and could definitely take punishment which Lao G was not.

The spandex-clad martial artist slid down to the ground in a heap, eyes rolled upwards in unconsciousness but Shane wasn’t taking any chances. He looked around him and found some materials that he could use in addition to the rope that he had brought along from the warehouse earlier. Tying up Lao G and still having a long length of rope left over, Shane threw the untied end of the rope in to the air and allowed it to loop over the horizontal bars of a fire escape by the side of the building. Once it went over, Shane leapt up and pulled down on it, in effect lifting Lao G until he was six feet off the ground.

Shane quickly tied the rope to a large trash bin and left the unconscious man dangling in the alley. Just as Sara’s own opponent sailed through the air and landed on the ground, the force great enough to leave a crater in the ground. Shane looked at the horned fellow, obviously unconscious from the fall and whatever hit him and then at Sara.

“Remind me not to piss you off,” Shane casually remarked with a grin. He had no rope left to secure Dellinger, but he was quite sure that the pervert wasn’t going to wake up soon. So far, out of the nine executives, they had already taken out three which to Shane was good progress. But the ending of the two battles had caused too much of a noise and the Rune Knight could hear the footfalls of troops beginning to home in on their position.

“We have to get back on the roofs. Their ground troops are going to surround us if we stay here,” Shane said, aware of the footsteps that were quickly approaching them. Sara had her wings so it wouldn’t be a problem for her. With a deep breath, Shane leapt off the ground at an angle that allowed him to collide with the walls that formed the alley, immediately kicking off the wall when his feet touched it and sprung upwards in the same manner from both sides of the alley until he landed on the top of the roof.

When he looked down, the Syndicate grunts were already milling around where Lao G and Dellinger was.

Shane was glad that the girl had a sense of humor, able to enjoy a joke or two in their dire situation. After the self-reflection, despite having hit him hard mentally, it was apparent that his mood had taken a turn for the better, a burden off his shoulder. What had earlier been the burden of enacting justice by cost of blood and pain weighing him down and his decisions, Shane could be considered renewed with a new outlook on his goals and the ways to approaching them. And capping it all was a clear conscience, unafraid of any judgment.

Sara came to hover at roof level as well, keeping level with him as they moved across the roofs as they spoke. He agreed with the scenario she had conjured, knowing that there would me a few more tough fights to come. But from what he had seen, he was sure that Sara’s magical abilities was a notch above his, having settled the fight with Dellinger within record time. He glanced at the girl from the side of his eyes, at her golden wings that kept her hovering a few inches above the roof, sometimes still mystified how such a large amount of power could be contained within a petite body such as hers.

Sara had offered him to be healed with her spell, but Shane politely declined. His fight with Lao G had went surprisingly well, although he had taken some hits. But his body’s durability and self-healing properties was a slight step better than normal mages and he was almost back to square shape. When they finally came to the last roof, which overlooked the town square, Shane wasn’t surprised to see the three executives on the ground awaiting their arrival.

The townspeople were gathered in front of them, for whatever reason the executives had thought of, possibly as hostages to prevent Shane and Sara from hurling long-range spells at them. Which honestly, was Shane’s first idea as he thought of his grenade launcher in his Requip magic’s storage dimension. The two of them stood at the edge of the roof, Sara having deactivated her golden wings earlier to avoid announcing her arrival. All three executives were staring in their direction.

The white-haired mage, known as Gladius was wearing a pair of weirdly shaped goggles over his eyes while wearing a neutral expression. The fatty in a swimsuit, Machvise was leering at them but Shane knew the immoral man was looking at Sara in more detail compared to him while Broly, the green-haired muscled freak hefting his axe over his shoulder was fixing his fiercest gaze on him while wearing a smirk. All three of them were waiting to commence combat with the two light mages, and with the disdain that they oozed, it was obvious that they were absolutely confident in their abilities.

However, it seems that the two light mages had miscalculate the level of despicability the dark mages had. Gladius’ arms shot up straight and without hesitation, fired a barrage of red crystals, slicing through the air. Sara had acted fast, putting a golden shield around the two of them and the portion of the building they were standing on. When the white-haired dark mage saw that his crystals were bouncing off the barrier, he adjusted his aim downwards and within seconds the very building that Shane and Sara was perched crumbled under the barrage of explosions beneath their feet.

Fortunately, his body was like a tank despite his slim stature, as Shane pushed off a large piece of debris and stood up from the pile that had been a building just earlier. Sara was unscathed as well, coming up near him with concern.

“Yeah, I’m good. I’ll take Broly, he has a debt to pay,” Shane growled, his mask of calm suddenly giving way as anger leaked. His hands alternated between clenching and unclenching. His eyes were fierce, especially the red one. “He should be lucky that he has only one life to give.”

As he spoke, Shane had activated his Requip magic, equipping his EX-22 combat suit. He clenched his fists again, feeling the resistance from the stiff combat gloves that came with the suit. As he watched the big man, an urge to kill him right there and then began to rise within him, but he was still clear minded. It would better for the man to pay behind bars, regretting he had ever shown his face rather than just ending his life.

Shane hadn’t mentioned any of it to Sara, but the information on the brute had been obtained in exchange for the lives of four Rune Knights. He had only told Sara that his fellow Rune Knights had tailed the wrong guy and got his information by mistake. But what he had withheld was that Broly had realized he was being followed. The massacre in the bar had actually been a cover for him murdering four of the Rune Knights, while the last one managed to escape with the information. When HQ had gotten wind of this news, Shane had been one of the first to volunteer to take down the maniac but even when he tried to get it approved as a Spec Ops mission, he had been denied.

His commander had told him he was a Rune Knight, not a bounty hunter or an assassin. A truth that had failed to resonate with him until Sara’s words hit him like lightning.
But now, this was his chance to avenge his fallen comrades. A chance for redemption, to bring this man into custody.

Shane walked away from the rubble, entering the town square, his eyes entirely on Broly. He trusted Sara with his life, knowing she would take care of the other two. As their eyes met, the green-haired brute guffawed, howling, “I will snap you like a twig!”

Shane narrowed his eyes, but kept himself silent. And he moved first. Using Burst immediately to put himself above and behind Broly, the Rune Knight took a swipe at the man’s neck with Breaker in sword form, holding it as he would a sword. But his target managed to evade it, lightning quick reflexes hidden beneath the mass of muscles, and swung a backhanded punch with his left fist. Shane moved with equal agility, grabbing the swinging left arm as it came towards him and used it to push his entire body upwards and clear of the wild swing, before planting his right foot into the man’s face just as he completed turning around.

While the Rune Knight righted himself in the air with a flip after the kick and landed gracefully, his dark mage opponent stumbled backwards from the kick, before he violently planted his right heel into the ground, stopping his retreat. His right hand, holding the axe, which had taken the heads of so many with unmatched brutality, was already prepped, accompanying the beastlike roar as he charged forward at the Rune Knight.

Too absorbed by the last four obstacles whose eradication would herald the end of the job, Shane noticed at the last minute that they were surrounded on all sides by the lower-ranked minions of the Syndicate. Everywhere Shane looked, it was the same color of their matching colors, a sea of maroon every which way he looked. And it hit him again, the realization of the massive numbers that was in the organization and how ingenious the leader had to be, to be able to take over an entire island without anyone knowing about it. Had the townspeople not send out a request for help, practically no one would find out about this invasion until it was too late.

He could only grit his teeth as the four of them said their piece and left the site, leaving Shane and Sara to survive their predicament. Shane nodded as he agreed with Sara. They could fight their way out of here, but it would leave them drained to even pursue any further action against the last of them. Shane mentally cycled through all his available spells while he kept any eye on the ocean of men slowly closing in on them, their raised spears glinting dangerously in the sunlight as it neared them.

“Better yet, let’s just skip fighting them. I apologize in advance though,” Shane said. Without warning, the Rune Knight looped one arm around Sara’s waist and kicked off the ground with a sudden burst of strength, leaving a small crater in the ground as the two of them sailed high above the mass of foot soldiers and landed at the top of the buildings where the last of the executives were standing on minutes earlier. All of this had happened within two seconds, Shane having used Burst to instantly cover the distance. He quickly withdrew his arm, and then stood with one foot on the roof’s raised edge.

Bloody Mary, his trusty grenade launcher pulled out from the sheath on his hip that he had yet to return to the storage dimension after his fight was Broly, was held in his right hand. A single pull of the trigger sent out a grenade with a hollow-ish pop, similar to the cork popped out of a highly-shaken bottle of champagne, and the moment it landed on the ground, where Shane and Sara had been standing seconds earlier, it exploded and send out an expanding ring of rice. Everyone within the blast radius was stunned, their lower body frozen to the ground while those that had happened to avoid it, quickly scattered.

Shane slotted the weapon back into its sheath, and looked at Sara. Another plan had formed in his mind at the moment of the grenade shot, a plan that would reduce the number of opponents they had to fight but would definitely go against their morals. Especially after the realization from earlier when Shane had rediscovered himself. He rolled the words around in his mind, trying to justify it.

“I don’t know about you, but I think I’m really pushing the limits if I say I can take on two of them. I believe you aren’t in that great a shape as well. I will be honest. I have the spells to pull off an assassination, or at least a non-fatal version of it. I can go invisible, hit them with my strongest move. Risk-wise, it would be easier for me to knock out one of the remaining executives leaving us to fight the remaining two executives and the boss. Another option with a higher risk would be to carry it out on Doflamingo himself. That would see the job to its send. I strongly believe knocking out Doflamingo would be more advantageous for us. From what I have left in my tank, I think I can pull it off twice.”