"So this is the underground market, huh?" Hamar walked through the door and fell into the real centre of this new world.
He had seen in from the alley he found himself in but he turned his back, now his was in the centre of it all. The door behind him instantly fizzled into pieces of light into the air.
The second he touched the ground he began to get pushed every which way, the huge tidal wave of people didn't flow around him; instead they crashed directly into him.
He tried to force through, but he couldn't and almost fell on his back when he was caught by his outstretched hand.
"Get up, come on!" Troy yoinked Hamar from the air and walked through the flow of the crowd like a native. This was the difference between someone experienced and a newbie.
Hamar caught up and nearly shouted to get his voice over the commotion, "How are you walking through this?"
Troy leant his head but shook it, shouting, "[Request whisper]!"
Inside Hamar's vision he got a prompt, "Do you wish to initiate [whisper] with [Troy]?" He blinked a few times processing the site in front of him despite the chaos behind it, "Yes, uh, [accept]!"
Instantly, the noises of the outside world became intensely muffled, as if a wall had been placed between himself and the crowd beside him.
"You can hear now, yeah?"
"Much better. I was asking, how are you walking through crowd? I just get bumped and knocked around."
"Pay attention, use your senses. See if you notice a pattern."
Hamar furrowed his brows but did as he was told. As he followed Troy's pattern of walking, he tried looking around at the same time. He did so but still didn't notice any rhyme or reason, sometimes Troy would even go backwards.
"I still don't get it, what am I looking for?" Hamar became frustrated at his uselessness in this new body and disguise. Why couldn't he just use his aura?!
Troy stopped in the middle of the crowd and stomped his foot, as he did a blue force field rose from the ground. The crowd looked at it oddly but flowed around it. He pulled Hamar behind and rolled his eyes.
"Use. Your. Senses." After each word he poked Hamar in the forehead, "You're not thinking. You have more than the basic five physical senses, don't you?"
"Intuition?" Hamar shrugged without much confidence.
Troy sighed, "You're not thinking. Pay attention to the mana wavelengths. Doing that you should be able to detect how people move, then using that data you can find openings. "
Hamar looked up and thought, "mana wavelengths..." He tried to feel the mana but instead of anything comprehensible, he only felt a massive wave of mana attacking him.
He winced and held his head, his microchip tingled with heat. Troy looked over the force field a moment and looked back to Hamar, "Well looks like we have trouble. This is perfect, you go fight and figure it out. Using the mana wavelengths you should be able to predict where somebody is going more predictably."
Troy peeped over the force field again and shouted, "Clear!" And quickly, the crowd seemed to vanish. Hamar didn't pay attention to that, but to the group of six people approaching.
Five of them held weapons, or something like that, something that Hamar could not identify. He leant to the side to get a better look and one of the five figure whistled.
Then they all pointed the weapons to Hamar's exposed head and pulled their fingers. The weapons all lit up with a bright blue light and bolt of mana shot out.
"Mana rifles!" Troy pulled Hamar behind the shield. As the pellets hit the shield, they caused ripples. Troy looked to Hamar, "You deal with big guy there without a rifle. I'll deal with the rest."
Hamar nodded, Troy gestured with his hand to push forward. He ran out and ignored the enemies with rifles. At the same time Troy ran out and brought the five away, distracting them.
***
Back to the present,
Hamar used the mana circuit he had been given earlier, flashing out of existence. Where his body used to be a chainsaw-enhanced arm flung down and crashed into the ground.
Hamar appeared a few metres away and slid across the slick wet ground. He mentally began a count, "1,2,3,4..." He had a minute before he could use them mana circuit again.
'Mana wavelengths...'
The enemy with a chainsaw arm ran forward and smashed at Hamar, "You need to die! For He!"
Hamar smiled awkwardly and started at the man, and the fight happening behind him. Behind, Troy fight on 5 different enemies at once with ease. He chuckled, "I don't suppose...He can forgive me?"
The man didn't react and instead started to charge forward. Hamar looked around and saw a trashcan lid, he picked it up and threw it in front of him. As it covered the enemies vision, he ran to the side and chuckled nervously while looking at the chainsaw arm.
He picked up a metal rod of the ground and felt the weight quickly, "This'll do..." He pretended it was a sword and his mentality shifted, he could use swords, this was easy.
With the addition of a 'sword' in his hand, Hamar relaxed. He breathed out and focused on the mana he could detect. He tried to separate all the ambient waves of mana, to just the ones emitting from the enemy in front of him.
The chainsaw man jumped off the ground and swung downwards. Hamar used his footwork and moved out the way, as the man fell to the ground, Hamar used his 'sword' to slash at his head.
However, he did not hit of course. The man easily contorted his body to dodge, unsticking his chainsaw arm from the concrete.
Hamar and the man begun a fierce exchange of blows. Hit, deflect, dodge, parry. Mid way through the exchange, Hamar begun to get a hold of the mana wavelengths.
Moments before the next attack, Hamar could detect the next move. This was not intuition, it more more 'real'.
After a few more exchanges, Hamar took his chance. Just as the man begun a big swing, Hamar feinted a weakness. He pretended to trip, causing the man's form to loosen.
Just as the chainsaw was an inch away from Hamar's body, he activated the mana circuit; it had been a minute.
He vanished, the man's chainsaw stuck into he ground and limited his movement. Hamar appeared behind him and stabbed down with the metal rod which had become sharp after being shaved by the enemy's own weapon.