Tor sucked in a deep breath, the salty smell of the ocean assaulting his nose as they were carried by the night breeze. He could hear his heart beating loudly with equal parts fear and excitement. Kneeling on one knee on the roof of a huge warehouse that allowed him to get a good view of a particular factory, he could clearly see that the security of the factory was particularly overpowered. And his job was to sneak into the factory, leading a small team of three including himself to open it from the inside for a larger squad to rush them.
This mission was a defining moment for Tor, one that would make or break his status in the Special Operations division of the Rune Knights. He had received the mission brief personally from the Director himself, an indication of the mission’s importance. Not only would this showcase his abilities as a Special Ops member, it would also be an indication of his ability to lead a squad.
As another breeze blew by, filling his nose with the same salty smell of the ocean again, the other two Rune Knights of his three-man cell landed lightly on the other end of the roof and approached him with silent steps. They had been tasked with scoping out the entire area to get a clearer view of the entire dock’s situation while Tor kept his eye on the main prize.
“How was it?” Tor asked softly as he turned slightly sideways, so that one half of his face was toward his two squad members. His eyes darted back and forth between the target factory and the other two Rune Knights.
“The entire place is too quiet. It’s like the entire docks have been reserved just for their use tonight,” Minami reported. Hailing from Hargeon, Minami has often been called the “Ace” among the members of her intake, standing at the very top of her group. She was decisive and strict, and was a model Rune Knight that could carry out orders to the tee. However, that also made her slightly inflexible and unable to adapt to sudden changes in her situation. Her bisento, an unwieldy weapon in the hands of most mages, when coupled with her ice magic was artistically deadly.
“Same result on the other side of the docks. It’s too obvious that something is up. But it also makes it easier for them to sniff out anything wrong,” came the voice of the third member.
The other member of the trip was Scott. A young man, twenty one of age, he was one of the slightly louder members of the Special Ops division besides Tor due to their flashy magic. Scott had two sets of magic, each being on opposing ends of the spectrum between silent and loud. He had an extremely handy teleportation magic that was short-range yet low-cost that allowed him to just rapidly blink all over the place, paired with Explosion Magic, which allowed him to create explosions outwards from just any part of his body.
“I see. Then we will have to sneak our way through. There’s three layers of security that they’ve employed. The first layer are the normal grunts, just hired muscle for the normal folks. These guys patrol around the factory, scattered around the factory itself and the buildings in the immediate vicinity. The second layer are mages, mixed within the normal grunts that are patrolling around the factory. Some of them are on top of the factory too. And then the third layer, you can see that they are slightly more different. They are all wearing the same uniform but there’s nothing on them to identify who they are,” Tor briefed on his own part.
“Some mercenary mage guild?” Minami chipped in when she heard the description of the uniforms.
“So we have to take down the individually hired mages as well as a mercenary mage guild?” Scott asked as he looked with squinted eyes at the factory that was about four buildings away from them. The only reason the three of them could just hop on and off the rooftop of the building they were on was due to a shielding and stealth artifact of Minami’s. Once activated, it would create a small invisible area for them to hide in.
“Yes. And we have to do it silently and quickly. So, Scott, we will be using just our weapons. Minami, I leave it up to you to decide if you want to switch out to a shorter weapon. You can still use your ice magic,” Tor instructed. “No prolonged fights, so pull out all the stops and just take them down by any means necessary. Our only objective is to neutralize anyone in the shortest path to the rooftop, find a way in and then open the way for the cavalry. Is everyone okay with that?”
Minami and Scott both nodded once. They had never worked with Tor prior to this, but they recognized the fact that the Director had placed this mission in his hands. There was no room for doubt here. Everything was to be decided through their actions.
“I will lead the way,” Minami volunteered. “Ready?”
This time it was Tor and Scott’s turn to nod. All three of them were in their Special Operations uniform with the hoods and scarves pulled up to protect their identity, leaving only their eyes visible. Minami waved both her hands simultaneously and the artifact that had been shielding them was deactivated while plates of ice formed and floated in the air, creating a path. Without any further words, Minami dashed to the edge of the roof and leapt into the air, stepping on each ice plate as she made her way forward towards the roof of the factory.
Like Tor had mentioned, it was the shortest and fastest way across. Being unable to use his short-range rapid teleportation due to the distance between the buildings, Scott followed behind Minami, trusting in his own ability to follow after Minami’s footsteps as well as her magic, taking each quick step with trust, knowing that a single misstep or mistake from Minami would cause him to plummet down to the ground.
With his sheathed sword behind his back, Tor chose to use his own teleportation spells instead, so that Minami wouldn’t have to exert so much magic power to maintain the ice tiles. Tor disappeared from sight when Scott took his first step on the ice tiles and reappeared beside Minami in a burst of black shadows. Scott effortlessly crossed the distance within seconds and again the team of three took the same approach to close the distance between buildings.
When they reached the layer of buildings that were two layers away from the factory, the trio began encountering enemies but they were already prepared for it. The first few targets they took down were normal grunts hired to do muscle work. Nothing that the trio couldn’t take down without sweat. The three of them were equally adept at their chosen weapons. Tor fought with his weapon sheathed, striking at the enemies’ heads to instantly knock them down. Scott used his sword in the same way, while Minami used her ice magic to encase them in ice immediately.
So far, the three of them had managed to approach the factory with a considerable speed without being noticed but the true test was still yet to come. Directly in their way to reach the rooftop of the factory were five mages involved with the gang and the three other mages that they identified as mercenaries.
The first two mages fell quickly enough to the combined attacks of the three Rune Knights. Tor was the first to strike, catching the first mage by the neck and slamming him roughly into the ground while Scott followed behind him, his sword unsheathed and slashed across the man’s chest, leaving a gaping wound that was then sealed up by Minami, along with freezing the downed mage to the roof, his mouth covered as well.
“Shh. If you try to melt this ice, you will bleed out and die. If you know what’s good, then you will wait here quietly until my colleagues come to get you the medical attention you need,” Scott spoke in a hushed tone to the first mage with a cheeky grin behind his pulled-up scarf and sped off behind Tor and Minami.
The second mage fell to the same method, but the remaining three were more of a handful. Each of them took one each with a tacit look exchanged between them and they sped off towards their target like spectres in the night.
Minami was the first to arrive at her target. What was originally a full-length bisento had been magically transformed, the shaft of the weapon shortened to a length befitting a sword while the blade part remained the same, giving her a machete instead. A layer of diamond-like ice powder coating her blade glimmered slightly in the moonlight as she swung it. The mage never knew what was coming when he turned around to find the Rune Knight approaching with a bent posture, her blade extended behind her.
A quick uppercut was smoothly executed, but there was no blood. The trio weren’t here for mindless killing, they were Rune Knights after all. The ice coating the blade had sealed off the cutting edge, making it a blunt weapon. The mage was unable to react in time, the blade striking his chest and his chin and sent him upwards off his feet but before he could attract any attention by the sudden rise, ice erupted from Minami’s left hand and caught up to the mage’s body and wrapped around him, suspending him in mid-air. The female Rune Knight then slowly lowered the unconscious mage to the roof.
Scott was the second one after Minami to make contact with his enemy. He was slightly more unfortunate. As he was approaching from behind, closing the distance with three bursts of his rapid teleportation, the mage turned around just in time to see Scott right in front of him. Normally, his first reaction was to straight up engulf his fist with his Blast magic and throw out an exploding punch but the mission objective dictated otherwise.
The sudden hiccup was taken in stride, not a single ounce of hesitation in Scott’s actions as he spun around to the back of his enemy. His sheathed sword was quickly put in front of the enemy’s neck and he grabbed both ends of the weapon to pull it back towards him. The sword sheath slammed into the enemy’s neck, tightening as Scott exerted his strength to choke the enemy. He wasn’t a very tall guy, shorter than his current target. Typically, the taller one would be able to break out of the choke hold but the typical shorter one wouldn’t have Scott’s strength.
Gritting his teeth, Scott pulled his weapon in as far back as he could and then arched his back, lifting the taller enemy off the ground while waiting for the chokehold to eventually snuff the breath out of the enemy. When he could finally feel no more resistance from his own target, Scott quickly released his grip on the end of his sheath, freeing the unconscious mage to drop to his knees and slump back to the roof.
The third to reach his target and the fastest to finish off his target was Tor. Appearing silently behind his target, the leader of the trio had easily dispatched his target by clutching the back of the enemy’s neck and released a quick burst of lightning, instantly knocking the mage unconscious. Traces of a grin emerged on Tor’s mouth as he looked at the other two, just in time to see their enemies fall like dominos.
It was going well so far.
But not for long.
The three mages hired from a mercenary guild would be utterly useless if they would not be able to sense the sudden thinning of the security lineup. The eyes of the three hooded Rune Knights met with the three mages in uniform.
“The Suizame clan!” Minami hissed as her eyes caught the one defining characteristic of the mercenary mages that turned around to face them.
“Wow, I definitely wanna know which dentist they go to,” Scott quipped the same instant he saw what Minami had seen. All three members wore huge grins on their faces, their exposed teeth eerily similar to that of a shark.
“You know them?” Tor asked warily, refusing to acknowledge Scott’s joke although he had chuckled slightly on the inside.
“Yup, they are said to be a clan with a bloodline dating back to a mythical shark monster. All their clan members carry shark-like characteristics. Their magic is all about water,” Minami explained succinctly as she kept her eyes on their grinning enemies.
Unlike their enemies that were taking a more cautious approach to their unknown counterparts, the Suizame trio were more aggressive. It was also in the Rune Knights’ favor, as the three of them had chosen to single mindedly leap into battle without sounding any sort of alarm to the rest of the security lineup around the factory. Battle and blood was the only thing going through their mind right now.
“One on one would take too much time. We’ll regain the element of surprise if we take them down fast enough,” Tor instructed as golden lightning danced around his fingertips. “Also, strike to kill.”
The eyes of his colleagues widened in surprise at the order but a second later, they nodded. Against the three new enemies, going in blunt might jeopardize the entire mission.
Tor was the one first to act. He disappeared in a burst of lightning and reappeared right in front of the first Suizame mage to arrive. The sudden invasion of his space coupled with not being ready to strike cost the Suizame mage his mobility, as Tor’s left palm covered in lightning slammed squarely into his chest. The palm strike stopped the mage in his tracks, the lightning stunning him in place. The next blow arrived within seconds, but it wasn’t from Tor. By then, Tor had already sidestepped to the left and dashed for the second Suizame mage that was the second to arrive on the roof of their building.
The first enemy was dispatched by Minami,who dropped down from the air, bisento extended to its full length, slashing downwards. She was already moving to the third enemy before the first one fully touched the ground.
The teamwork and coordination that the three of them displayed were top notch. Each Rune Knight would land the first blow on their own target each, before swapping to another target to land the killing blow. Having landed the last hit to the enemy that Tor initiated, Minami swiftly moved to the third mage and once again swung her bisento with a deadly grace into the air, striking the Suizame mage upwards into the air. This was then finished by Scott who appeared in the air above the airborne mage, flipping in the air and smoothly pulling off an axe kick to slam the third enemy down the rooftop.
He had transitioned over from the second Suizame mage, having initiated it with a flying sideways kick to the side of the enemy’s head and sent the latter flying towards Tor who pulled out his sword from the sheath on his back with a reverse grip and slashed diagonally downwards, cutting him down to the rooftop.
“Are the Suizame clan members so lousy? Or was our teamwork so perfect?” Scott asked with a bemused expression on his face as he looked at the three Suizame mages on the roof. He had hyped himself up thinking it would be a tough battle but it only took two strikes to take down each of them.
“They must be the lower-ranked members. Otherwise you won’t be able to get three at once,” Minami replied nonchalantly as she swung her raised bisento back to her side with a swoosh, positioning the blade to face downwards beside her.
“Alright, this is it guys. The three of them were guarding that skyline on the roof of the building. That’s our entrance,” Tor said as he pointed to a specific part on the factory’s roof.
The trio looked down the massive piece of glass that acted as the factory’s skyline. The entire factory floor was fully illuminated in bright white light, and it was easy to identify the separate sections of the whole production process. However, the skyline didn’t cover a large enough portion of the roof for them to carefully gauge out the level of danger they would be throwing themselves in.
“Is there any way at all to enter quietly?” Scott asked as he scratched the side of his face with his index finger. Minami kept her silence but she was thinking for a solution as well, her face scrunched up. Tor’s expression was different than the other two. His eyes were exuding a deathly glare as he looked down at the production line. It was like a science lab down there, the people making the drugs wearing protective equipment, with rubber gloves and even masks as they went about the mixing, distilling, processing, and packaging process. If he didn’t know better, the people down there looked like there were doing something good.
A few faces flashed past his mind as suppressed memories threaten to rise up from the depths they were locked in. Tor closed his eyes tightly, taking a moment to organize his thoughts and then opened his eyes again to look at the same scene with eyes full of determination instead of hatred.
“No going around this. We leap right into the mouth of the tiger. Minami, strike it with your bisento whenever you feel like it,” Tor spoke as he looked at up at his two teammates, a smirk hidden behind his mask.
“Finally, we are talking,” Scott replied jubilantly as he punched his fists together. Minami rolled her eyes as the immature Rune Knight but withheld her tongue. Like a goddess of war, the female Rune Knight raised her bisento and held it up high, moonlight glinting off the blade before it was swung downwards in a firm and powerful slash. A layer of ice was protecting the blade of the bisento, using blunt force to smash down on the glass.
The glass shattered on impact, pulling every single pair of eyes down below to the chaos above. As the shards of glass rained down on parts of the production line directly under the skyline, the people manning the various stations shouted and screamed in panic as they ran around with their hands over their heads like headless flies. The others that were not under immediate threat were on full alert as their eyes were focused on the gaping hole in the roof, watching in amazement as three dark figures drop down from above. Among the panicking screams were forceful shouts by the people in charge, calling for an organized reaction to the sudden attack.
“Split up! Find out how to open the doors!” Tor called out his own orders as they landed on the ground gracefully, each with their own methods. The other two Rune Knights nodded and acted immediately, the trio splitting up three ways. Like lions in a flock of sheep, the three Rune Knights were neutralizing everyone else with non-lethal attacks as they moved among the people scampering around in panic.
However, the situation only lasted three minutes when alarms blared out loudly from above and metal bars began to close down vertically on all the factory doors. Head turning around like it was on swivel to get a sense of the changing situation, Tor’s ears quickly picked up something that was out of place. The sound of armored feet running. At him. From behind. Followed by the sound of whooshing air.
Tor’s sword appeared in his right hand and the Rune Knight spun and leapt back at the same time to face the assault from the back. The moment he turned around, he laid eyes on a man entirely decked out in a black combat suit swinging a longsword horizontally at Tor. Tor managed to defend against the strike, but he had been caught mid-leap and was pushed back a few feet before finally managing to find his footing.
“Rend,” Tor called out as he recognized his opponent. As far as he knew, Rend was an up-and-coming star in the dark guild Night Silver, his combat prowess stemming from his mastery of weapons instead of magic like the other powerful members of his guild. In comparison to the former dark guild that Tor had hailed from, Night Silver was a far more powerful organization in Fiore’s criminal underworld.
“Sorry, I don’t know you. I’m glad you know who’s gonna kill you anyway,” Rend replied without much expression in his voice. “Boys, kill.”
Tor turned his head to get a grip of the current situation and easily he could see Scott and Minami faced with their own enemies. Each of them were facing two enemies, and from the way they were dressed and their weaponry, Tor could confidently venture a guess that they were probably trained by Rend himself.
“I heard your orders earlier. You wanted to open up this place right? It’s too bad though. The only way out of here is with this remote control,” Rend spoke up again to pull back Tor’s focus on him.
“Then I guess, there’s nothing much for us to say,” Tor replied and without waiting, charged forward at his enemy.
The two combatants clashed with their swords, exchanging blows as they each moved around to avoid the other’s attacks. Tor held his own against the infamous Rend, a name that had made its presence known among other dark guilds in the criminal world as a terrifying opponent, but it was obvious that in a match of swordsmanship, Tor was going to lose. The exchange had only lasted five minutes when Tor’s sword was completely snapped in half by a twin-bladed dagger that Rend pulled out from the weapons belt across his torso and kicked Tor in the gut in the process.
Letting out a gasp, Tor rolled back. He glanced at the broken sword in hand, a painful expression on his face over the loss but he wasn’t given time to think too much about it. The glimmering sword in Rend’s hand was already coming for his neck. Lightning crackled in Tor’s right hand as a sword of lightning took shape, swinging it to meet against Rend’s sword. But even with his magic, Tor found it difficult to keep up with his opponent.
Whether steel or lightning, a sword was still a sword, and Rend paid it no heed as he moved on from his blocked attack. The dual-bladed dagger had been swapped out for an axe, which he expertly swung from the side at Tor’s shoulder. The Rune Knight threw himself to the ground once more. Lightning accumulated around his hand again when he pushed himself off the ground, throwing out a spear of lightning at Rend but again, his enemy’s reflexes were monstrous.
In a battle of close quarters, Tor was unable to keep up with Rend.
‘I’ve got to make some distance between us!’
Tor disappeared in a flash of lightning and reappeared behind Rend with the intention to cut him down with a blade of lightning around his hand. Rend managed to turn around, anticipating where Tor would have appeared but this time, he was too slow. He could only spin around and swing his sword horizontally, forcing Tor’s attack to go off the side but Tor still managed to lightly slash at his enemy.
While that minor wound couldn’t turn the tables on the battle, Tor began to see some hope in defeating his enemy. The slash of lightning had caught Rend off guard, and Tor began to press the attack. Compared to his amateurish sword skills, Tor was in a whole new environment with his lightning magic.
‘Lightning Air Blade!’
Tor kicked off his attacks by starting with kicking and releasing a wave of lightning that sliced through the air towards Rend. Although off balance, Rend skillfully righted himself by spinning his body vertically in the air and slashed both sword and axe simultaneously perpendicular to the lightning air blade. A discharge of magic energy from the weapons in his hands nullified the lightning wave.
Tor smirked when he saw that.
‘So, the legendary weapons master of Night Silver depends on magic weapons as well.’
‘Then I guess, I will just have to overwhelm him!’
Unperturbed by his enemy’s use of lightning magic, Rend continued to lunge at Tor, his weapons slashing whenever he found an opening, not giving Tor the chance to use his magic. On the other hand, freed from having to clumsily defend himself with a sword against a master of Rend’s caliber, was fully focused on evading and using his magic. The only unfortunate thing was that, Rend’s relentless chase usually ended up in the two of them having to take the attack of the other in order to land their own.
The end of the fight didn’t take too long to arrive. Tor took a thrust to his left shoulder, in exchange for smashing a lightning-charged fist into Rend’s stomach, and the two of them quickly separated for a quick breather.
Tor was breathing heavily, bleeding profusely from multiple cuts on his body, with the most severe being the combat knife jammed through his shoulder. His left arm hung limply by his side. His left thigh was cut on the inner side, hampering his movement. It took all he had to not slump down on one knee, as he stared at his target with unfettered rage.
Rend wasn’t faring too well either. He had his fair share of cut wounds from Tor’s weapon-based lightning spells, but what really troubled him was the residual lightning from tanking all those spells. Despite donning a magic-resistance armor, it wasn’t able to entirely nullify all of the magic damage. His control over his body was slipping as lightning raged across his nervous and muscular system, leaving his attacks wanting for precision and strength. Taking a few more lightning spells in the face would really immobilize him.
‘One more. I can feel it. Just one more and down he goes.’
“Haaaa…” Tor let out a great sigh through an open mouth before disappearing in a flash of lightning.
“Ha!” Rend laughed out loud as he spun around, slashing around himself. He had seen Tor use this tactic one too many times. And he couldn’t understand how the foolish Rune Knight would choose to use this again.
The spinning swordsman’s dual swords cut through air, and only air. There was no Rune Knight reappearing from his side or back to sneak attack him as he had expected. A look of confusion quickly took over his indifferent expression, but it was washed away by pain as an arrow of lightning struck the swordsman right through the chest, pain and lightning bringing him to his knees as he howled like an animal.
Above him, Tor was slowly descending, lightning coating his entire body. He knew that Rend was more than capable of intercepting his Lightning Slicer spell no matter how fast he was, and he had used that overconfidence against him. Instead of reappearing near him to strike him down as fast as he could, Tor had reappeared in the air. His lightning magic gave him limited flight capabilities and he had hovered in the air, using his Lighting Archer spell to shoot an arrow of lighting instead. He knew Rend would never see it coming, and his gamble paid off.
As Tor landed clumsily on the ground, his legs buckled beneath his weight and the Rune Knight dropped to one knee as well. Rend, who was lying on his side on the ground near Tor, hands gripping the lightning arrow that was stuck through his chest, looked at Tor with seething hate.
“What’s your name?”
“If you must know, Tor. Toril Fulgur,” Tor replied with a bloody smirk on his face, before forcing himself to get up and walk over to Rend. His right hand snaked into the swordsman’s chest pocket and pulled out the remote control he had been shown earlier. “I guess I win.”
Nothing stopped Tor from pressing down on the remote control, and it worked as advertised. The horizontal metal bars that reinforced the factory doors retracted and another press on a second button unlocked the doors themselves. And as the doors opened, more and more Rune Knights could be seen at either doors, prepared to barge in and put the operation to a stop.
Tor looked around and found Minami and Scott bearing marks of their own battles, but in much better shape than he was.
“Good job, Private Fulgur. My name is Lieutenant Commander Gunther, the squad leader for the reinforcements. The medic is coming over to patch you up,” a bulky man in Rune Knight uniform approached him, while two others quickly moved to his side and lent Tor their shoulders, pulling him up with his arms slung over their shoulders.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Commander. I leave things in your capable hands then,” Tor said as he allowed himself to be carried away towards Minami and Scott who were being tended to by the medics as well.
The three of them grinned at each other when they were finally sat down together while healing magic was being used on their wounds.
“Slightly banged up, but we did good right?” Tor laughed.
“Not the most ideal result I would like,” Minami replied, back in her straight-laced manner while Scott just laughed out loud.
[5001 words]
This mission was a defining moment for Tor, one that would make or break his status in the Special Operations division of the Rune Knights. He had received the mission brief personally from the Director himself, an indication of the mission’s importance. Not only would this showcase his abilities as a Special Ops member, it would also be an indication of his ability to lead a squad.
As another breeze blew by, filling his nose with the same salty smell of the ocean again, the other two Rune Knights of his three-man cell landed lightly on the other end of the roof and approached him with silent steps. They had been tasked with scoping out the entire area to get a clearer view of the entire dock’s situation while Tor kept his eye on the main prize.
“How was it?” Tor asked softly as he turned slightly sideways, so that one half of his face was toward his two squad members. His eyes darted back and forth between the target factory and the other two Rune Knights.
“The entire place is too quiet. It’s like the entire docks have been reserved just for their use tonight,” Minami reported. Hailing from Hargeon, Minami has often been called the “Ace” among the members of her intake, standing at the very top of her group. She was decisive and strict, and was a model Rune Knight that could carry out orders to the tee. However, that also made her slightly inflexible and unable to adapt to sudden changes in her situation. Her bisento, an unwieldy weapon in the hands of most mages, when coupled with her ice magic was artistically deadly.
“Same result on the other side of the docks. It’s too obvious that something is up. But it also makes it easier for them to sniff out anything wrong,” came the voice of the third member.
The other member of the trip was Scott. A young man, twenty one of age, he was one of the slightly louder members of the Special Ops division besides Tor due to their flashy magic. Scott had two sets of magic, each being on opposing ends of the spectrum between silent and loud. He had an extremely handy teleportation magic that was short-range yet low-cost that allowed him to just rapidly blink all over the place, paired with Explosion Magic, which allowed him to create explosions outwards from just any part of his body.
“I see. Then we will have to sneak our way through. There’s three layers of security that they’ve employed. The first layer are the normal grunts, just hired muscle for the normal folks. These guys patrol around the factory, scattered around the factory itself and the buildings in the immediate vicinity. The second layer are mages, mixed within the normal grunts that are patrolling around the factory. Some of them are on top of the factory too. And then the third layer, you can see that they are slightly more different. They are all wearing the same uniform but there’s nothing on them to identify who they are,” Tor briefed on his own part.
“Some mercenary mage guild?” Minami chipped in when she heard the description of the uniforms.
“So we have to take down the individually hired mages as well as a mercenary mage guild?” Scott asked as he looked with squinted eyes at the factory that was about four buildings away from them. The only reason the three of them could just hop on and off the rooftop of the building they were on was due to a shielding and stealth artifact of Minami’s. Once activated, it would create a small invisible area for them to hide in.
“Yes. And we have to do it silently and quickly. So, Scott, we will be using just our weapons. Minami, I leave it up to you to decide if you want to switch out to a shorter weapon. You can still use your ice magic,” Tor instructed. “No prolonged fights, so pull out all the stops and just take them down by any means necessary. Our only objective is to neutralize anyone in the shortest path to the rooftop, find a way in and then open the way for the cavalry. Is everyone okay with that?”
Minami and Scott both nodded once. They had never worked with Tor prior to this, but they recognized the fact that the Director had placed this mission in his hands. There was no room for doubt here. Everything was to be decided through their actions.
“I will lead the way,” Minami volunteered. “Ready?”
This time it was Tor and Scott’s turn to nod. All three of them were in their Special Operations uniform with the hoods and scarves pulled up to protect their identity, leaving only their eyes visible. Minami waved both her hands simultaneously and the artifact that had been shielding them was deactivated while plates of ice formed and floated in the air, creating a path. Without any further words, Minami dashed to the edge of the roof and leapt into the air, stepping on each ice plate as she made her way forward towards the roof of the factory.
Like Tor had mentioned, it was the shortest and fastest way across. Being unable to use his short-range rapid teleportation due to the distance between the buildings, Scott followed behind Minami, trusting in his own ability to follow after Minami’s footsteps as well as her magic, taking each quick step with trust, knowing that a single misstep or mistake from Minami would cause him to plummet down to the ground.
With his sheathed sword behind his back, Tor chose to use his own teleportation spells instead, so that Minami wouldn’t have to exert so much magic power to maintain the ice tiles. Tor disappeared from sight when Scott took his first step on the ice tiles and reappeared beside Minami in a burst of black shadows. Scott effortlessly crossed the distance within seconds and again the team of three took the same approach to close the distance between buildings.
When they reached the layer of buildings that were two layers away from the factory, the trio began encountering enemies but they were already prepared for it. The first few targets they took down were normal grunts hired to do muscle work. Nothing that the trio couldn’t take down without sweat. The three of them were equally adept at their chosen weapons. Tor fought with his weapon sheathed, striking at the enemies’ heads to instantly knock them down. Scott used his sword in the same way, while Minami used her ice magic to encase them in ice immediately.
So far, the three of them had managed to approach the factory with a considerable speed without being noticed but the true test was still yet to come. Directly in their way to reach the rooftop of the factory were five mages involved with the gang and the three other mages that they identified as mercenaries.
The first two mages fell quickly enough to the combined attacks of the three Rune Knights. Tor was the first to strike, catching the first mage by the neck and slamming him roughly into the ground while Scott followed behind him, his sword unsheathed and slashed across the man’s chest, leaving a gaping wound that was then sealed up by Minami, along with freezing the downed mage to the roof, his mouth covered as well.
“Shh. If you try to melt this ice, you will bleed out and die. If you know what’s good, then you will wait here quietly until my colleagues come to get you the medical attention you need,” Scott spoke in a hushed tone to the first mage with a cheeky grin behind his pulled-up scarf and sped off behind Tor and Minami.
The second mage fell to the same method, but the remaining three were more of a handful. Each of them took one each with a tacit look exchanged between them and they sped off towards their target like spectres in the night.
Minami was the first to arrive at her target. What was originally a full-length bisento had been magically transformed, the shaft of the weapon shortened to a length befitting a sword while the blade part remained the same, giving her a machete instead. A layer of diamond-like ice powder coating her blade glimmered slightly in the moonlight as she swung it. The mage never knew what was coming when he turned around to find the Rune Knight approaching with a bent posture, her blade extended behind her.
A quick uppercut was smoothly executed, but there was no blood. The trio weren’t here for mindless killing, they were Rune Knights after all. The ice coating the blade had sealed off the cutting edge, making it a blunt weapon. The mage was unable to react in time, the blade striking his chest and his chin and sent him upwards off his feet but before he could attract any attention by the sudden rise, ice erupted from Minami’s left hand and caught up to the mage’s body and wrapped around him, suspending him in mid-air. The female Rune Knight then slowly lowered the unconscious mage to the roof.
Scott was the second one after Minami to make contact with his enemy. He was slightly more unfortunate. As he was approaching from behind, closing the distance with three bursts of his rapid teleportation, the mage turned around just in time to see Scott right in front of him. Normally, his first reaction was to straight up engulf his fist with his Blast magic and throw out an exploding punch but the mission objective dictated otherwise.
The sudden hiccup was taken in stride, not a single ounce of hesitation in Scott’s actions as he spun around to the back of his enemy. His sheathed sword was quickly put in front of the enemy’s neck and he grabbed both ends of the weapon to pull it back towards him. The sword sheath slammed into the enemy’s neck, tightening as Scott exerted his strength to choke the enemy. He wasn’t a very tall guy, shorter than his current target. Typically, the taller one would be able to break out of the choke hold but the typical shorter one wouldn’t have Scott’s strength.
Gritting his teeth, Scott pulled his weapon in as far back as he could and then arched his back, lifting the taller enemy off the ground while waiting for the chokehold to eventually snuff the breath out of the enemy. When he could finally feel no more resistance from his own target, Scott quickly released his grip on the end of his sheath, freeing the unconscious mage to drop to his knees and slump back to the roof.
The third to reach his target and the fastest to finish off his target was Tor. Appearing silently behind his target, the leader of the trio had easily dispatched his target by clutching the back of the enemy’s neck and released a quick burst of lightning, instantly knocking the mage unconscious. Traces of a grin emerged on Tor’s mouth as he looked at the other two, just in time to see their enemies fall like dominos.
It was going well so far.
But not for long.
The three mages hired from a mercenary guild would be utterly useless if they would not be able to sense the sudden thinning of the security lineup. The eyes of the three hooded Rune Knights met with the three mages in uniform.
“The Suizame clan!” Minami hissed as her eyes caught the one defining characteristic of the mercenary mages that turned around to face them.
“Wow, I definitely wanna know which dentist they go to,” Scott quipped the same instant he saw what Minami had seen. All three members wore huge grins on their faces, their exposed teeth eerily similar to that of a shark.
“You know them?” Tor asked warily, refusing to acknowledge Scott’s joke although he had chuckled slightly on the inside.
“Yup, they are said to be a clan with a bloodline dating back to a mythical shark monster. All their clan members carry shark-like characteristics. Their magic is all about water,” Minami explained succinctly as she kept her eyes on their grinning enemies.
Unlike their enemies that were taking a more cautious approach to their unknown counterparts, the Suizame trio were more aggressive. It was also in the Rune Knights’ favor, as the three of them had chosen to single mindedly leap into battle without sounding any sort of alarm to the rest of the security lineup around the factory. Battle and blood was the only thing going through their mind right now.
“One on one would take too much time. We’ll regain the element of surprise if we take them down fast enough,” Tor instructed as golden lightning danced around his fingertips. “Also, strike to kill.”
The eyes of his colleagues widened in surprise at the order but a second later, they nodded. Against the three new enemies, going in blunt might jeopardize the entire mission.
Tor was the one first to act. He disappeared in a burst of lightning and reappeared right in front of the first Suizame mage to arrive. The sudden invasion of his space coupled with not being ready to strike cost the Suizame mage his mobility, as Tor’s left palm covered in lightning slammed squarely into his chest. The palm strike stopped the mage in his tracks, the lightning stunning him in place. The next blow arrived within seconds, but it wasn’t from Tor. By then, Tor had already sidestepped to the left and dashed for the second Suizame mage that was the second to arrive on the roof of their building.
The first enemy was dispatched by Minami,who dropped down from the air, bisento extended to its full length, slashing downwards. She was already moving to the third enemy before the first one fully touched the ground.
The teamwork and coordination that the three of them displayed were top notch. Each Rune Knight would land the first blow on their own target each, before swapping to another target to land the killing blow. Having landed the last hit to the enemy that Tor initiated, Minami swiftly moved to the third mage and once again swung her bisento with a deadly grace into the air, striking the Suizame mage upwards into the air. This was then finished by Scott who appeared in the air above the airborne mage, flipping in the air and smoothly pulling off an axe kick to slam the third enemy down the rooftop.
He had transitioned over from the second Suizame mage, having initiated it with a flying sideways kick to the side of the enemy’s head and sent the latter flying towards Tor who pulled out his sword from the sheath on his back with a reverse grip and slashed diagonally downwards, cutting him down to the rooftop.
“Are the Suizame clan members so lousy? Or was our teamwork so perfect?” Scott asked with a bemused expression on his face as he looked at the three Suizame mages on the roof. He had hyped himself up thinking it would be a tough battle but it only took two strikes to take down each of them.
“They must be the lower-ranked members. Otherwise you won’t be able to get three at once,” Minami replied nonchalantly as she swung her raised bisento back to her side with a swoosh, positioning the blade to face downwards beside her.
“Alright, this is it guys. The three of them were guarding that skyline on the roof of the building. That’s our entrance,” Tor said as he pointed to a specific part on the factory’s roof.
The trio looked down the massive piece of glass that acted as the factory’s skyline. The entire factory floor was fully illuminated in bright white light, and it was easy to identify the separate sections of the whole production process. However, the skyline didn’t cover a large enough portion of the roof for them to carefully gauge out the level of danger they would be throwing themselves in.
“Is there any way at all to enter quietly?” Scott asked as he scratched the side of his face with his index finger. Minami kept her silence but she was thinking for a solution as well, her face scrunched up. Tor’s expression was different than the other two. His eyes were exuding a deathly glare as he looked down at the production line. It was like a science lab down there, the people making the drugs wearing protective equipment, with rubber gloves and even masks as they went about the mixing, distilling, processing, and packaging process. If he didn’t know better, the people down there looked like there were doing something good.
A few faces flashed past his mind as suppressed memories threaten to rise up from the depths they were locked in. Tor closed his eyes tightly, taking a moment to organize his thoughts and then opened his eyes again to look at the same scene with eyes full of determination instead of hatred.
“No going around this. We leap right into the mouth of the tiger. Minami, strike it with your bisento whenever you feel like it,” Tor spoke as he looked at up at his two teammates, a smirk hidden behind his mask.
“Finally, we are talking,” Scott replied jubilantly as he punched his fists together. Minami rolled her eyes as the immature Rune Knight but withheld her tongue. Like a goddess of war, the female Rune Knight raised her bisento and held it up high, moonlight glinting off the blade before it was swung downwards in a firm and powerful slash. A layer of ice was protecting the blade of the bisento, using blunt force to smash down on the glass.
The glass shattered on impact, pulling every single pair of eyes down below to the chaos above. As the shards of glass rained down on parts of the production line directly under the skyline, the people manning the various stations shouted and screamed in panic as they ran around with their hands over their heads like headless flies. The others that were not under immediate threat were on full alert as their eyes were focused on the gaping hole in the roof, watching in amazement as three dark figures drop down from above. Among the panicking screams were forceful shouts by the people in charge, calling for an organized reaction to the sudden attack.
“Split up! Find out how to open the doors!” Tor called out his own orders as they landed on the ground gracefully, each with their own methods. The other two Rune Knights nodded and acted immediately, the trio splitting up three ways. Like lions in a flock of sheep, the three Rune Knights were neutralizing everyone else with non-lethal attacks as they moved among the people scampering around in panic.
However, the situation only lasted three minutes when alarms blared out loudly from above and metal bars began to close down vertically on all the factory doors. Head turning around like it was on swivel to get a sense of the changing situation, Tor’s ears quickly picked up something that was out of place. The sound of armored feet running. At him. From behind. Followed by the sound of whooshing air.
Tor’s sword appeared in his right hand and the Rune Knight spun and leapt back at the same time to face the assault from the back. The moment he turned around, he laid eyes on a man entirely decked out in a black combat suit swinging a longsword horizontally at Tor. Tor managed to defend against the strike, but he had been caught mid-leap and was pushed back a few feet before finally managing to find his footing.
“Rend,” Tor called out as he recognized his opponent. As far as he knew, Rend was an up-and-coming star in the dark guild Night Silver, his combat prowess stemming from his mastery of weapons instead of magic like the other powerful members of his guild. In comparison to the former dark guild that Tor had hailed from, Night Silver was a far more powerful organization in Fiore’s criminal underworld.
“Sorry, I don’t know you. I’m glad you know who’s gonna kill you anyway,” Rend replied without much expression in his voice. “Boys, kill.”
Tor turned his head to get a grip of the current situation and easily he could see Scott and Minami faced with their own enemies. Each of them were facing two enemies, and from the way they were dressed and their weaponry, Tor could confidently venture a guess that they were probably trained by Rend himself.
“I heard your orders earlier. You wanted to open up this place right? It’s too bad though. The only way out of here is with this remote control,” Rend spoke up again to pull back Tor’s focus on him.
“Then I guess, there’s nothing much for us to say,” Tor replied and without waiting, charged forward at his enemy.
The two combatants clashed with their swords, exchanging blows as they each moved around to avoid the other’s attacks. Tor held his own against the infamous Rend, a name that had made its presence known among other dark guilds in the criminal world as a terrifying opponent, but it was obvious that in a match of swordsmanship, Tor was going to lose. The exchange had only lasted five minutes when Tor’s sword was completely snapped in half by a twin-bladed dagger that Rend pulled out from the weapons belt across his torso and kicked Tor in the gut in the process.
Letting out a gasp, Tor rolled back. He glanced at the broken sword in hand, a painful expression on his face over the loss but he wasn’t given time to think too much about it. The glimmering sword in Rend’s hand was already coming for his neck. Lightning crackled in Tor’s right hand as a sword of lightning took shape, swinging it to meet against Rend’s sword. But even with his magic, Tor found it difficult to keep up with his opponent.
Whether steel or lightning, a sword was still a sword, and Rend paid it no heed as he moved on from his blocked attack. The dual-bladed dagger had been swapped out for an axe, which he expertly swung from the side at Tor’s shoulder. The Rune Knight threw himself to the ground once more. Lightning accumulated around his hand again when he pushed himself off the ground, throwing out a spear of lightning at Rend but again, his enemy’s reflexes were monstrous.
In a battle of close quarters, Tor was unable to keep up with Rend.
‘I’ve got to make some distance between us!’
Tor disappeared in a flash of lightning and reappeared behind Rend with the intention to cut him down with a blade of lightning around his hand. Rend managed to turn around, anticipating where Tor would have appeared but this time, he was too slow. He could only spin around and swing his sword horizontally, forcing Tor’s attack to go off the side but Tor still managed to lightly slash at his enemy.
While that minor wound couldn’t turn the tables on the battle, Tor began to see some hope in defeating his enemy. The slash of lightning had caught Rend off guard, and Tor began to press the attack. Compared to his amateurish sword skills, Tor was in a whole new environment with his lightning magic.
‘Lightning Air Blade!’
Tor kicked off his attacks by starting with kicking and releasing a wave of lightning that sliced through the air towards Rend. Although off balance, Rend skillfully righted himself by spinning his body vertically in the air and slashed both sword and axe simultaneously perpendicular to the lightning air blade. A discharge of magic energy from the weapons in his hands nullified the lightning wave.
Tor smirked when he saw that.
‘So, the legendary weapons master of Night Silver depends on magic weapons as well.’
‘Then I guess, I will just have to overwhelm him!’
Unperturbed by his enemy’s use of lightning magic, Rend continued to lunge at Tor, his weapons slashing whenever he found an opening, not giving Tor the chance to use his magic. On the other hand, freed from having to clumsily defend himself with a sword against a master of Rend’s caliber, was fully focused on evading and using his magic. The only unfortunate thing was that, Rend’s relentless chase usually ended up in the two of them having to take the attack of the other in order to land their own.
The end of the fight didn’t take too long to arrive. Tor took a thrust to his left shoulder, in exchange for smashing a lightning-charged fist into Rend’s stomach, and the two of them quickly separated for a quick breather.
Tor was breathing heavily, bleeding profusely from multiple cuts on his body, with the most severe being the combat knife jammed through his shoulder. His left arm hung limply by his side. His left thigh was cut on the inner side, hampering his movement. It took all he had to not slump down on one knee, as he stared at his target with unfettered rage.
Rend wasn’t faring too well either. He had his fair share of cut wounds from Tor’s weapon-based lightning spells, but what really troubled him was the residual lightning from tanking all those spells. Despite donning a magic-resistance armor, it wasn’t able to entirely nullify all of the magic damage. His control over his body was slipping as lightning raged across his nervous and muscular system, leaving his attacks wanting for precision and strength. Taking a few more lightning spells in the face would really immobilize him.
‘One more. I can feel it. Just one more and down he goes.’
“Haaaa…” Tor let out a great sigh through an open mouth before disappearing in a flash of lightning.
“Ha!” Rend laughed out loud as he spun around, slashing around himself. He had seen Tor use this tactic one too many times. And he couldn’t understand how the foolish Rune Knight would choose to use this again.
The spinning swordsman’s dual swords cut through air, and only air. There was no Rune Knight reappearing from his side or back to sneak attack him as he had expected. A look of confusion quickly took over his indifferent expression, but it was washed away by pain as an arrow of lightning struck the swordsman right through the chest, pain and lightning bringing him to his knees as he howled like an animal.
Above him, Tor was slowly descending, lightning coating his entire body. He knew that Rend was more than capable of intercepting his Lightning Slicer spell no matter how fast he was, and he had used that overconfidence against him. Instead of reappearing near him to strike him down as fast as he could, Tor had reappeared in the air. His lightning magic gave him limited flight capabilities and he had hovered in the air, using his Lighting Archer spell to shoot an arrow of lighting instead. He knew Rend would never see it coming, and his gamble paid off.
As Tor landed clumsily on the ground, his legs buckled beneath his weight and the Rune Knight dropped to one knee as well. Rend, who was lying on his side on the ground near Tor, hands gripping the lightning arrow that was stuck through his chest, looked at Tor with seething hate.
“What’s your name?”
“If you must know, Tor. Toril Fulgur,” Tor replied with a bloody smirk on his face, before forcing himself to get up and walk over to Rend. His right hand snaked into the swordsman’s chest pocket and pulled out the remote control he had been shown earlier. “I guess I win.”
Nothing stopped Tor from pressing down on the remote control, and it worked as advertised. The horizontal metal bars that reinforced the factory doors retracted and another press on a second button unlocked the doors themselves. And as the doors opened, more and more Rune Knights could be seen at either doors, prepared to barge in and put the operation to a stop.
Tor looked around and found Minami and Scott bearing marks of their own battles, but in much better shape than he was.
“Good job, Private Fulgur. My name is Lieutenant Commander Gunther, the squad leader for the reinforcements. The medic is coming over to patch you up,” a bulky man in Rune Knight uniform approached him, while two others quickly moved to his side and lent Tor their shoulders, pulling him up with his arms slung over their shoulders.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Commander. I leave things in your capable hands then,” Tor said as he allowed himself to be carried away towards Minami and Scott who were being tended to by the medics as well.
The three of them grinned at each other when they were finally sat down together while healing magic was being used on their wounds.
“Slightly banged up, but we did good right?” Tor laughed.
“Not the most ideal result I would like,” Minami replied, back in her straight-laced manner while Scott just laughed out loud.
[5001 words]
