I stepped forward slowly, effortlessly, like its heavy fist was not even on my forehead at all. The metal in its joints creaked as I stepped down, using the pressure on my head solely to push the mechanical figure back, making it stagger on its feet.
Back on the bleachers, Ryo, out of thin air, summoned flames in front of himself and pulled a large blade out of it. The blade was of medieval make, and the hilt was red with carved flames made of tough metal, tungsten. It was so huge that he had to drop it down to his side because it was bigger than him. When it dropped onto the seating area next to him, the ground shook, and the fakes that I scattered away from my dash twitched at the mere impact of its landing. A claymore forged by the fires as passionate as he was, pulled out from the same small magic item he had put away his bomber jacket into earlier, and then infused with his magic just as he had pulled it out.
He bolted toward the mechanical figure that I pushed back in the arena. His bolt was so fast he left lightning streaks in the air that burned some of the fakes in his way, carving a path for himself and his sword to meet it smack center on the head.
It looked up, only to witness Ryo's blazing glare and his large blade, which was burning electrically as he swung it right down between the eyes.
CRASH!
Shattered into pieces, the mechanical figure blew up in all directions, unable to withstand the plunge. Some of its metal pieces were melted as it decorated random parts of the ground in the arena—raining pieces of itself everywhere.
The audience was in shock as we made our entrance there, and so were the DJ and MC and others with them hovering above us. The music even seemed to stop just at the right time we appeared, with the DJ scratching his turntables.
"Uh… Awooo? Looks like we have some unexpected party crashers, yo… What the hell was that, chat?!" the MC voiced, his slang and mannerisms part of what was pissing me off so much. His words initiated the crowd to start booing and throwing trash at us afterward.
Pieces of garbage were flying toward us. Ryo and I simply stood there and took it, shadows over our eyes. Letting them belittle us. However, as a piece of trash flew toward the young girl, I saw it and swatted it away, protecting her from the shame.
She looked up, and her eyes flashed as she found me. Through the shadows over my eyes, I glared at the one in the crowd who threw it. He winced and staggered back even from the distance he was at.
"EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!" a male voice from up top said. His voice sounded like stacks of paper ripping.
This figure was on the same floating pedestal that the MC and girls were on; the one I spotted earlier. He sat slack on a throne-like chair as half-naked girls wearing fake Black Wolves jackets coddled all over him.
The pedestal lowered down to us, pushing the dirt from underneath it away as it was situated in place, hovering there. Once it stopped, he stood up, leaving his throne and the girls dragging at his feet as he walked away.
"Well, how honored are we…" he said as he dragged on his words and stood at the edge of the pedestal looking down at us. He was dressed like me, with a fake Black Wolves jacket. His hair was black, and he had a rat tail on his right side. His wicked, sinister smile… I recognized him just as he finished his sentence, "… to have the Captain of the Black Wolves join us tonight! This is actually perfect. We are really going to have some fun now."
My rage built up inside of me as I stood up. "You call this fun? Making an innocent girl fight to the death?!"
The male chuckled before answering. "Aw, don't be like that, 'Captain'… I'm just doing what the Black Wolves do best. And looks like your crew loved every bit of it," he said mockingly, spreading his arms out and showing me the crowd as they roared.
"This is not my crew," I said bitterly.
"Vice Captain Terek," Ryo's strong voice shot in, stern, authoritative. "I demand an explanation. What are you doing here with these fake Black Wolves, and why are you dressed like them? Are you not of the Blue Phoenix Knights?"
"Questions, questions, questions… I fucking hate questions, Ryoku of the Crimson Dragon Knights. I could ask you the same. Looks like you're wearing a Black Wolves jacket too. Seems our influence is spreading, don't you think, Captain?" Terek replied, now looking at me towards the end.
I stayed silent a bit before talking back to him, my eyes like shadows. "So, it was you,"
I said sternly, my voice low. Not a question. A confirmation.
"Was what me?" he asked sarcastically. Chuckling a bit as he said it.
"At the Guild meeting. The hourglass. The kidnapping…" I paused before continuing. "All of that was you, wasn't it?"
He was silent. Then, in a low tone, he started laughing dramatically slow… then hysterically. He put a hand over his face, stopping him. Then, he looked at us with vicious eyes through the windows of his fingers. His eyes were like endless gray spirals as they locked on us.
"Got me," he said wickedly, his voice now matching the wicked smile he no longer held back.
I bared my teeth in response as he said, "So I'll let you in on the plan…"
"What plan?" I demanded.
Terek jumped down from the pedestal and onto the dirt arena with us. He then made an intricate hand sign. Right then, a black pentagram formed at the bottom of his feet and in random areas of the arena around us. Heads and bodies of some kind were emerging from them—more mechanical puppet figures. As they came out of the ground, they surrounded us.
Then, behind us, a bigger pentagram had formed. What emerged, I might as well have already known. Humanoid head, six arms, no legs, floating, and that damned mechanical monster head for a chest. It looked as if it crawled out of the ground from the pentagram that it came out of.
When the mecha monster finally emerged behind us, Terek—the Puppet Master—finally replied,
"The plan to Hunt the Wolves."