Dante looked around and could see Thalia and the others tying up the few guards that were lucky enough not to be charred and barbecued like pot belly ribs. The smell of burned flesh filled the air. Dante finished wiping his blade and walked over to where Valerie was holding Shrek down with the heel of her black boots. "You are going to regret this! If you remove your foot, then maybe I will forget this even happened. I will even let you go free after all of this is said and done." Heinrich said, gasping for air.
Valerie sucked her teeth and gave a demonic grin. "Oh, really, you will let me go if I remove my foot from your fat little neck?" Heinrich nodded his head vigorously. "Yes, I promise." Valerie started to pull her foot up really slowly. Heinrich took in a large breath of relief. "So you are reasonable after all. Who would have known a woman of your beauty could be so violent and ill-mannered?" Valerie let out a small laugh before dropping her heel down on Heinrich's manly hood. He let out a yelp that would put a banshee to shame. "How is that for violent and ill-mannered?" She said, chuckling.
"Ahem....." Dante coughed into his hand. He was a little terrified by what he just saw play out. Every day, he is thankful that she is on his team instead of the opposition's side. "Did you kill him?" Dante looked over at Heinrich lying on the ground. Heinrich's hands were covering his nether regions. Dante shook his head. Valerie shrugged nonchalantly and kicked Heinrich hard in the stomach. He grunted and began coughing.
Valerie went to take a step toward Dante but stumbled. Her head started spinning, and she began to feel faint. She tried to take another step, but her legs started to wobble, causing her to stumble. Before she knew it she collapsed forward right into Dante's arms. Dante caught her effortlessly and scooped her up into his arms.
"Is she ok?" Thalia asked, looking worriedly at Valerie.
"I don't think so," Dante said taking a closer look at her body. His eyes narrowed when he found a small puncture wound on her right thigh. "I think she has been injected with something. It's a drug that causes the body to lose all motor skills. It also works as a paralytic." Dante looks down at Heinrich, who was still clutching his nether regions.
"Did you inject her?" Dante said, glaring down at Heinrich.
Heinrich let out a nervous laugh. "Wel,l you see..." Dante lifted his boot and pressed it against Heinrich's throat.
"This is your last chance to tell the truth. If you lie, then I will know. Do you understand?" Dante asked.
Heinrich's eyes opened wide with fear as he nodded. "Yes, I injected her, but it's not my fault. I was given a needle and told to stab her if I got the chance to. I didn't want to, but he would have killed me." Dante removed his boot from Heinrich's neck.
"What do you mean he?" Dante asked.
"Well, his name was Malachi, but we called him Chameleon." Heinrich pointed over to the handless man lying on the ground.
"Yes, I know who the Chameleon is, but he is dead. So what are you talking about?" Dante said impatiently.
"He has a twin brother." Heinrich gulped.
"What is going on over here?" Alexander said, his voice filled with glee. Dante looked up and noticed that Alexander and the kids were back. Alexander was carrying the relics, and the hooded freaks in multicolored outfits were swinging around.
Dante was trying to put all the pieces of this situation together. It was apparent that something weird was going on here. Their mission initially was to eliminate the Papillon twins. It was supposed to be an A-rank mission. However, the appearance of the chameleon, who held a place on the ranked 100, already made this mission outside the scope of a simple A-ranked mission.
If it were any other retrieval team, they would've all been wiped out before they even gleamed the twins' location. All that new information aside, Dante found it hard to wrap his head around who could've possibly ordered this termite to target our only healer. Everything started to feel a bit unsettling. Dante needed more information to properly decide what their next action would be.
"Hey, Captain. Is everything okay? What's wrong with Valerie?" Thalia said with a concerned look on her face. Her question snapped Dante out of his thoughts. He looked back at the boys and over at Alexander. His team was exhausted and deep in enemy territory. Their only healer was currently using all of her energy and aura to fight off the paralytic agent in her body. The information that was provided for this mission was insufficient for the number of unknown variables popping up.
"Hey Cher, are you okay, love?" Alexander rushed over to Dante, opening his hands and gesturing for her to be passed over to him. Dante placed her in his arms. "I am fine. I just got caught off guard. This poison is strong; it is going to take me at least an hour to expel it completely. Although I should be able to walk and move around again in 25 minutes, " Valerie closed her eyes once again, concentrating on expelling the poison.
"I am going to kill you! How dare you touch my...." Alexander's golden aura swirled around the area so intensely it was becoming visible to the naked eye. He takes a single step forward, causing the rubble and rocks to shake and lift into the air. Dante puts his sheathed blade against his chest, holding him back.
"I know how you feel. However, I still have some questions for this waste of space. So for now, watch over Valerie." Alexander's eyes went from filled with rage and contempt back to concerned as he looked down at Valerie. She was struggling; her green aura emanated from her lab coat, wrapping her body in a soft green glow as her face dripped with sweat. "It's okay, Cher, you have got this!" Alexander turned around and walked over to where the boys were sitting, trying to catch their breath.
Dante turned his attention back to Heinrich. "I just saved you from a horrible death. He would've probably encapsulated you and brought you back to his laboratory to turn you into one of his experiments." Heinrich's eyes grew wide in fear. "Now tell me who this older brother is and what relation do you have with him and the Papillon twins?"
Heinrich struggled to sit up, propping himself on the back of his produce cart. "I can't tell you anything about his brother because I have only met him once." Dante stood over Heinrich. "When was that, and why did he give you instructions to poison Valerie?" Heinrich began coughing up blood. "Shit, I should've known. Fine, that bastard wants to kill me. I will tell you everything I know." He wiped the blood from his hand onto the ground and closed his eyes.
"I was approached by a man in a expensive green suit he introduced himself as "X". He called Malachi his little brother. He told me that a group of foreigners would be entering Hells Gate in the next couple of weeks. I was to prevent your entry to Hell's Paradise." Thalia interrupted him mid-sentence.
"Wait, what is Hell's Paradise?" Heinrich begins coughing this time, getting up to throw up blood. After wiping his mouth, he gives her a twisted grin. "It is not so much a what as it is a where, girl." Dante grabs Heinrich by his sweat-soaked leather garb. "Stop jerking us around and spit it out, what exactly is going on here!" Heinrich's smile faded slowly. Dante's stomach sank, and just as he looked to his right.
"Hell's Paradise is the training ground for pandemonium's Dar....."
A Kunai flies right towards him, causing Dante to lean back, just barely dodging reflexively. When a spray of blood shoots towards him, forcing Dante to jump back. The kunai landed directly in Shrek's jugular. Thalia quickly hops up and scans the area to find where the Kunai came from. A loud rumbling noise came from the direction of the gates that they initially broke down.
Dante closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, focusing all of his senses. He can hear the sound of foot steps, and he hears a lot of them. He is only guessing, but if he were to give a number, it would be more than 20 people. He can also hear the footsteps of no less than 20 people coming from the opposite direction.
"Predators on your feet! Get ready for combat." Dante pivots to see Alexander, who is still holding Valerie close to his chest. Tyler's bow is fully manifested, but he isn't holding it with his dominant hand. Theo slowly unwraps both of his hands with a solemn look on his face. The three of them are on guard but still look exhausted.
Dante's heart began pounding out of his chest. All he could think about was how did this happen? They were trapped like rats down here and he had sickening feeling that the predicament they are in was no accident. Dante had a feeling that they were in someone's spider web and it made him feel sick. No one corners him and lives to tell the story. He wanted to fight until he killed every last one of the rats scurrying in his direction.
However, he had to look at the condition of his team. Thalia was arguably the only other person in any condition to fight, and she was the most limited one. Since they were still underground, her powers were cut down by more than half.
Dante had limited stamina and aura. Now that they were closer, Thalia could feel the presence of the people rushing towards them on both sides.
"Captain, I can sense that there are 2 people with alarmingly high aura outputs. They are more than likely Contractors or bloodline users. What's your order?" The entire team looked to Dante, whose heart was still pounding.
Dante took a deep breath. "RETREAT!" They all looked at him with pure shock on their faces. Even Alexander was caught off guard; it was as if he never thought Dante would be capable of uttering those words.