Slowly, a shadow appears from the ground and slowly forms into a man. At the very end of the crumbled building, another appears, and his burly body slowly manifests.
"Eh! Who would have thought that the one they were chasing would turn up here? HE! HE! Here I thought I'd become your backup. You take the little snake—I'll take this other one. I thought the boss would be joking when he said that he is the most elusive. We almost lost him despite having a marker on him." The burly man, who was about 2 meters tall, giggled. Other than his height, not much could be seen from his features, but he seemed to be wearing night vision lenses. The other shadow, on the other hand, seemed to be a guy 1.8 meters tall with pale white skin visible between the slits of a mask. They both seemed to wear the same black uniform, but the burly man seemed more of a brawler and the other an assassin.
"This is troublesome. If he and the other start cooperating, it won't end well. Don't take this too lightly—I could tell that whisperer knew I was coming. The mental suppressor must not work too well. We need to finish this while we have the advantage," the assassin comments before he dissolves in the shadows, and the burly man starts to move towards the two.
*'You okay, Jake?'*
*'I'm good. I can move just fine, but I think that weapon had a sedative.'*
*'Assassins aren't known to win in a straightforward manner. Can you still fight?'*
*'No problem. I can fight unaffected, but doing so might just get the assassin to hide forever instead of attacking again.'*
*'Don't worry too much about it. Just pretend to be wounded but use most of your strength—it'll get him to attack again. He seems to take material form when he attacks.'*
*'I noticed. I'll take him out when he comes at me.'*
*'No, don't bother. He might interact with the world when he attacks, but he is still a shadow. He only became flesh when he stabbed you with that shadow of a blade. Only then can the chance to kill him come, and failure to kill him in a single attack will simply have him and his marker on me. That is worse than anything else.'*
*'Wait—he is the one who marked you? When?'*
*'That bastard John had him in his shadow, I think. That is when I felt that horrid feeling, and considering what he is like, it's not farfetched as an idea.'*
*'Let's get that burly fuck then.'*
The two have a fast mental discussion before they both attack the burly man, who seems to have the same idea. They rush at each other with Jake and the burly man clashing first, with Aedar behind Jake, seemingly protecting his back. They hurl fists at each other, and with the first exchange seemingly ending in a draw. As they move to exchange, a blade made of shadows attacks Aedar as he reaches them, and it reaches for his shoulder, but he swiftly dodges. And just as it touches his clothes and when his attack lands, a small Swiss blade digs into the shadow's arm before it dissipates, and a groan is heard. Aedar turns to the burly man in confidence and quickly approaches him from the back with a blade in the other hand, and he plunges it to his side.
Just as the blade is about to deal a critical blow, he sidesteps to his left and avoids the critical blow. But just as he does, Jake attacks ferociously and pushes him back as he lands a severe blow on his chest, and the man steps back. Just as all seem to be going great, a great force acts on the two siblings and seemingly increases the gravity, slowing their assault as the burly man is pushed back. At the same time, a blade made of shadow moves for Jake's back and digs into his abdomen, and he groans in pain.
Just as the blade pushed in, Aedar's right hand, which had stabbed a blade into the burly man, appears again—only this time, a gun lays in his hand, pointed at the shadow's head, which had materialized into a fleshly form. A loud bang is heard as the assassin's eyes widen in horror as he falls on his back. At the same time, Jake, who was seemingly struggling, turned more feral and attacks aggressively. Aedar's left hand, which held the other blade, also whistles through the air as it stabs consecutively on the burly man's side. In a split second, the burly man lays down in a pool of his own blood as he looks at the two in horror.
"Fool, it's been 10 years—the hell you think we've been doing, twiddling our thumbs?" Jake says in contempt as the wounds on his back slowly start to heal, but he staggers for a second then shakes his head. "Was that fuck trying to kill me with so much tranquilizer?"
"We need to go. We've already drawn attention here," Aedar says as he takes out a bag and pours some dust from it on the assassin's head, and his head starts to visibly dissolve.
"What's that for?"
"Fear of the unknown is a great weapon in this changing world, brother. It'll do you well to remember that," Aedar says as he giggles away, and the two dash into a different direction from their original path.
"Where should we go now? I'm pretty sure, as long as there is anyone else who is hunting us, they'll all be veering towards this general direction now that the gunshot's been heard all around. The best safe haven that is anywhere close is at Amy's, but I prefer to keep her out of all this," Jake adds. Amy had been Jake's woman since he was sixteen, and he really seemed enthralled by her to some extent.
Aedar chuckles softly before answering, "Don't worry. I wouldn't want to land in between you couple's squabble. In any case, I prefer to have as less contact with all involved with us as possible. Additionally, it would be useless as those mechanisms there need Amy, and she ain't there, and the gunshot has assured her of her chance of escape as long as they are not actively looking for her. Remember that time when we were attacked by that strange tiger-looking bird?"
"HE! HE! HE! How can I forget? We had to hide underwater for two days, constantly clasping at air above water with our hands and pulling it down just to breathe, all because the damn thing tracked the breathing of all creatures above land. Not to mention its periodic trial and error at swimming to us every time we had too much trouble and had to poke our heads out. It was fun killing it in the end—its meat actually tasted great despite the disgust it left with every bite." Jake chuckles sinisterly, remembering the ordeal.
"What do you think made it so afraid of water, especially considering some of the meat near the core almost killed us after it exploded when we were cutting it apart?"
"HE! HE! Don't tell me..."
The two smiled and rushed on faster as the tranquilizer in Jake's system slowly wore off. Ahead lay what looked like a huge tank about 300 meters away. Just as the two were about to get there, several shadows appeared suddenly, and a sense of dread suddenly enveloped Aedar, and he screamed mentally at Jake.
*'Dodge!'*
Just after that, a couple of tranquilizers flashed past them and scattered across the ground, and more than a dozen people surrounded them from the front and a dozen more from the back.
*'Shit! How comes there are so many of these fuckers? I thought it was no more than three organisations that were after us. How the hell are there more than two dozen of these fucks surrounding us, not to mention there may be others who ain't here, and we ain't the only outcast in the bloody settlement?'* Jake asked mentally, looking more pained than ever.
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