The two stood a few feet from each other. Michael took a step back while Ruby enjoyed her drink. The two competitors didn't move as Sylvia began calculating different ways to defeat him, but Rafael just leaned forward.
Woosh.
He appeared instantly, his left sword thrust forward, and his right sword prepared to swing horizontally. His eyes seemed more detached, striking a nerve.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
She parried and blocked, then thrust her rapier, aiming to graze his neck. Rafael pulled back and kicked her with his right leg to her stomach, pushing her a few meters back.
Clang!
She landed on one knee in the sand, but Rafael was able to appear above her and swung his two swords down with a controlled amount of force. She raised her rapier in defense, feeling the weight pushing down, so she jumped back.
"Come on, you wanted the spar, so where's the retaliation?" Rafael asked, tilting his head, his right sword resting on his shoulder.
Sylvia gritted her teeth and used her speed and agility, beginning to land random blows, no longer elegant. She focused on injuring him, but Rafael found a counter for each attack.
Smack!
"Eep!" Sylvia yelped when Rafael sidestepped, exposing her back. Rafael used the flat side of his blade and whipped her, not too hard, on her ass. Michael chuckled slightly, and luckily, no guards witnessed it.
"Bastard," she said in a low growl. Rafael shrugged and smirked a bit.
"Come on, a small provocation like that can get you killed. You must realize the difference in our skills, so…" he paused and signaled her to come at him. She took it personally as she charged one last time and swung her rapier down, to which Rafael swiftly responded.
Swoosh! Ting! Baam!
Rafael swung his right sword horizontally and dropped his left sword. He clenched his left fist and punched her right in the face, which sent her flying back, landing a few meters away in the sand.
"Rafe, you overdid it," Michael commented as Sylvia lay unconscious in the sand. Rafael approached her, knelt on one knee to the ground, and lightly caressed her cheek.
"Learn to adapt, Sylvia. Maybe next time you can beat me," Rafael spoke and carried her inside so he could get some ice for her left eye.
"Well, that was entertaining," Ruby spoke, smiling.
"Tell me about it. And now I've noticed that you're the one passively getting close to him?" Michael commented. He had no interest in having a love life, as it was too much for being the manager of Atlas Corp.
"Well, I have no strengths since I'm very well protected, but I do have the power of information. So, I'll tell you that insurgents plan to attack us tonight," she said. She had obtained that information from some informants before entering Southern Leyte.
"Who's their target?" Michael asked, not really shocked since he had received earlier information that insurgents were still active.
"Sylvia," she said and started walking back.
"Well, as you saw earlier, Rafe and I are prepared. Plus, I have a few questions for your intel network," Michael asked, also heading back to the house. Ruby vaguely explained her network.
"Well, since my family thrives in information gathering, I decided to create my own network. I realized my father monitors the information that flows, so I created the Rossin Retter agency, which specializes in high-demand information," she said and began diving into her escapades in several intelligence agencies, most notably entering the Russian FSB and the UK MI6.
"Okay, can you enter a certain group's ranks with your intel network?" Michael asked.
"Sure I can, it depends on how secretive they are," Ruby responded.
"Okay, I want you to infiltrate a Russian mafia family. In exchange, I will give you some exclusive photos of Rafael," Michael said, thinking, 'It's for the good of information, Rafael, sorry.' Ruby instantly agreed, and Michael would deliver her reward when she got in.
Later that night, Sylvia, still out cold, missed dinner, which Ruby enjoyed with extra servings that Rafael cooked up. He sent packed food with the extra servings meant for Sylvia to the guards, who were also alerted through a note and burned it after reading it.
"So what's that?" Michael asked while he began loading 40mm HE rounds into his grenade launcher, slinging it over his shoulder with more rounds, while Rafael checked his machine gun.
"We have a killzone near the front gate. So when they try to storm the gates, our guards will be in different ambush points, and we'll open fire while our guards cut off any attempts to escape. For the aftermath, we storm their camp," Rafael said and checked the time. The two began heading to their positions. Rafael grabbed the rounds of ammunition and began stacking them near an elevated position while Michael loaded some ammo and guns into an off-road jeep.
An hour later, Michael, using night vision binoculars, saw movement a few feet away from the house. Since the house was connected to a highway, he saw some rustling in the forest.
"Rafe, here they come," Michael spoke. Rafael, who was cradling his machine gun, stood up from his camping chair and placed the machine gun, which had a bipod, on the edge of the wall and activated the thermal scope.
"Ready," he replied. Michael did a final check on his grenade launcher. As they saw the insurgents entering the opening of the killzone, with over 25 people armed with different pre-Cold War weapons—
BRRRRTTTTT!
Soon, Rafael began firing on them, killing the first five people while the rest tried to find cover. Michael began firing his grenade launcher and laughed crazily.
"Fuck, this is a trap!" the new leader of this insurgent unit shouted. He saw lifeless eyes and fired back. The rest of the insurgents began firing back, and soon, a round explosion was heard. They saw grenade ammunition landing near them, and they ran around like flies. Rafael smiled.
"Run around, children, you just attacked a fortress," he muttered. Michael reloaded and fired again while the hidden guards looked at the onslaught and silently prayed for the enemies.
"[All units, open fire! It's time to end this]," Michael's voice was heard on their comms. They smiled and came out of their hiding spots, beginning to fire on the group of insurgents, who were whittled down to six people. They were already screaming, and seeing no escape, they made their last stand, but—
BOOM!
Michael, this time, accurately fired the grenade on their position and killed them.
"Half of you, stay in the house and guard it! The other half, with me and Michael, we're storming their base!" Rafael shouted, slinging his machine gun over his shoulder. After placing it inside the jeep, he pulled out a Glock pistol and smiled.
"Let's go hunting," Michael said. Soon, a convoy of vehicles left. Meanwhile, back at the insurgent camp, the commander was alerted of the loss and began building up their defenses, but saw a convoy, and Rafael was on top of the jeep, firing his machine gun.
BRRRTTTT!
"Enemies!" he shouted, hoping they could defeat them easily.
Thirty minutes later, Rafael looked at the burning base and pulled out his pistol, firing a shot at a man crawling to his left. He holstered it back and saw Michael using a mobile flamethrower, just cackling like a madman while the guards eliminated any remaining enemies.
"Good work, let's fall back!" Rafael shouted and saw the time was already midnight. Soon, the team fell back while the remaining bases and supply caches were handed to the Philippine Army, who immediately stormed them and shut down the remaining insurgents, basically freeing the area from them.
The next morning, Sylvia woke up with a black eye and was not happy, so Rafael gave her a three-course meal, and she enjoyed it. Ruby asked Michael for weapon lessons, where he taught her the basics, and Rafael agreed to tutor her on self-defense.
To be continued.