Zycon was annoyed. At the beginning, he was hoping that it would be a quick job and that the usual trick of a sudden manifestation of hand grenades inside a closed space would do the trick. Even if it wasn't fast, at least it would be a quiet one. Now, with this amount of commotion, he would need to go into hiding; otherwise, he would reappear on the Atlesian military radar once again.
'I should demand more pay once this is all over.' He jumped into the air, timing his phasing so he wouldn't sink into the ground before he returned to being tangible. He could bomb this place; yes, his remaining few grenades should be enough to raze this place to nothing. He would prepare that. But alas, his employer was a paranoid asshole who demanded clear proof that the target was dead, such as a piece of them or a pic of their corpse.
'Where is he? I am sure they fell around this area.' He wandered around the ruins, stepping on burnt wood, brick piles, and shattered metal. He searched for Simon and the others, hoping to find their corpses. 'Did they get buried?'
Flames from the explosion still lingered, and a column of black smoke rose from the ground, calling upon the curious crowd. He really didn't have much time. Just as he was considering a tactical retreat, he caught a glimpse of something; buried under charred wood and debris was something shiny and glittering. White smoke gently rose from the gap in the debris, blending in with the black smoke.
'Found you.' It was one of the oldest Atlas military tactics; it's called an ice casket. As its name suggests, the user encases themselves in ice using ice dust, often used to hide in icy terrain, in snowy lands, and to survive the cold nights of Solitas. Of course, since it is made of ice, it can be used to survive burning buildings like this. He drew his ice axe and switched the ice dust with fire dust.
'Clever move, but I am no stranger to it.' He had gotten his fair share of experience with them during his service time. He got closer to it, brushing away a few pieces of debris and revealing the crystalline ice shell hidden underneath. With a smirk, he caressed it with the tip of his axe. The ice axe blade, covered in fire dust, quickly heated up, creating a fine line of white mist as it dug deeper into the ice.
Dust ice might be as hard as concrete, but fire dust is hot enough to melt it. Once the axe blade dug deep enough, he yanked it, tearing a piece of the ice shell away. Now, with a hole big enough to fit his arm in, he pulled out his pistol and aimed inside. Better to be sure than caught off guard.
Just as he was about to fire a few shots inside, something unexpected happened: a thin, single-edged blade launched out from the gap he created, destroying his pistol. Zycon quickly jumped back, throwing away the destroyed pistol before the dust inside it detonated. 'Fucking Schnee.'
He was sure Winter had run out of aura, and to think even without one she remained conscious enough to attack him. He picked up a few vials of dust and shook them. He had just lost his secondary ranged weapon, and his primary one was too destructive, so he had no choice but to waste a few vials of dust. He quickly threw lightning, wind, and mist dust vials. Once they collided with something hard, the container shells would be damaged, mixing them and causing a chemical reaction.
With a boom, a black cloud swallowed the ice casket; one could see faint traces of electric arcs from the outside. 'Come on, come out, you little bitch.' He knew that through the gap he created, the casket was now filled with a thundercloud. Without an aura to dampen the damage, one wouldn't last long there.
Just as he was preparing to face Schnee head-on, a sword jumped out from the sphere of thunderclouds; it was the same sword that had destroyed his pistol. It was clear that the cloud he created obscured her sight; it missed him by half a meter, but still, it had done its job to distract him enough to slow down his reaction.
With the sound of an explosion and something shattering, a figure jumped out from the dark clouds, swinging a giant warhammer that left a trail of flame and smoke. Screaming at the top of her lungs, she smashed Timber into Zycon, sending him flying.
He quickly activated his Semblance, his existence flickering out for a moment, which saved him from being impaled by iron rods sticking out of a pile of debris. Still, he needed to roll on the ground once or twice to kill the momentum; his aura flickered a little, indicating it was reaching its limits.
He would admit, he got a little arrogant there. Slowly standing up, he started walking. Even if that took him by surprise, he noticed something. Elm was bleeding, which meant her aura had broken; perhaps she was even running on just adrenaline. Elm didn't rush toward him; her breathing was heavy, and she used Timber to support herself. Zycon glanced at the dark clouds; he wasn't sure why the others hadn't come out yet.
'Perhaps she is the only one that's still conscious.' That meant the only thing in his way was this injured woman. He spun his ice axe a few times, testing if that hit had affected his combat mobility; then his axe glowed red, the air around it distorted by the sudden heat. "You are a resilient one," Zycon said. His voice was cold, but there was still a mocking tone hidden behind the coldness.
"How about we make a deal?" he said, circling towards the ice casket. But before he could get too close, Elm picked up Timber, determined to combat him.
"Fuck off," she said. Zycon only shook his head, but he didn't take a step forward toward the casket anymore.
"Is it really worth risking your lives for a criminal?" He raised his axe toward the casket. "How many lives have been ruined because of him? How many families? What he is facing now is simply the consequences of his actions catching up with him. Why get in our way? Take your comrades and leave... I won't chase you."
"I said... fuck off." Elm took a step forward. Zycon tilted his head before taking a step toward her. He hated her type: headstrong, inflexible; once they've decided, they are easy to falter against. Fighting them is a hassle, but sadly, he had no choice but to do so. A job is a job; he got paid, so a professional has to do what they have to do.
"You know, I was like you once—a soldier. Loyal—" But he never finished his speech. Elm lunged toward him, swinging Timber with all her might. Activating its rocket boosters, she made her swing faster and stronger, but Zycon saw its flaw right away. It was a weapon meant to be used with aura enhancement for maximum destruction and minimum flexibility. He simply side-stepped the hammer. The ground shook, but that's the only thing it hit. Zycon swung his axe around, the air distorting as its blade cut through.
Elm barely blocked it by using Timber's handle, and she quickly let it go as she felt the metal handle start heating up. She threw a punch, ignoring her muscles screaming in pain. Zycon easily countered it with the handle of his axe. Her fist made a cracking sound; pain told her she probably broke a finger or two. Zycon wasn't done there; he closed the distance, punching her in her lower ribs.
Elm grunted in pain, quickly catching Zycon's axe by the handle just below its burning edge; she could feel the heat tickling her skin. She tried to go for a grappling move, where her size and weight would give her an advantage, but before she could reach forward, Zycon let go of his weapon with one arm, moved to the side, and delivered multiple shots to her ribs.
Elm swung the ice axe forward at him, but he stopped it by catching her wrist and delivering a painful palm strike to her elbow. With a sickening crack, her extended elbow twisted, causing Elm to fall to her knees. Zycon quickly snatched back his axe from her open palm and slammed the handle into Elm's temple. She fell to the ground, unconscious and bleeding from the head.
Zycon looked down upon her, then at his axe. He could finish her—one clean swing, and she would leave this world peacefully. But he didn't do so; he wasn't lying when he said he was once like her. A soldier fighting for his duty, he glanced back at his right leg, his combat pants damaged, revealing a metallic black exoskeleton hidden underneath. Everyone praises heroes, but nobody remembers the fallen ones.
"You are lucky I have to hurry." He then headed towards the casket; the thundercloud had long dispersed; it was just a quick mix of small dust vials, so that made sense. With his still-burning axe, he shattered through the shell, expecting to see several unconscious people, but there was nothing inside.
It was empty, but that was impossible. He put his head inside and looked around in confusion until he noticed a small hole in the back, one that was just big enough for an adult to crawl out. Understanding what had happened, he couldn't help but laugh. He laughed in anger as his eyes locked on Elm.
Because it was at the backside, hidden under debris, he hadn't noticed it. The fucking bitch had played him like a fool. All that attempt to stop him was an act; it was probably she who had used Winter's sword. He gritted his teeth in anger; perhaps he had time to finish her off after all.
He didn't have time for a search; he could already hear the distant sound of police sirens and Bullheads coming. "Still, I should have enough time for one quick slash to end it all." Just as he was about to reach Elm, he felt a strange sensation. His jaw tightened, and he felt his teeth shaking inside their sockets as if trying to escape them. "The hell?"
He muttered this before noticing something had cast its shadow upon him. He looked up and saw a creature resembling a giant jaw hanging from the remaining few pillars of the collapsed building. On its back, countless souls burned in blue flames, wailing in pain and extending their hands toward him. The creature, with its gray, metallic, bony hands, pointed at him with its bloody fingers as if calling him to come closer.
'Is that a fucking Grimm in Mantle?' The first thing that came to his mind upon seeing its bony exterior was that it was a creature of Grimm who also wears bone armor. But something was telling him it wasn't; whatever it was, it was beyond Grimm.
He tried to take a step back but stopped when he felt a sudden jolt of pain in his mouth. With a groan, he opened it, and blood mixed with spit fell to the ground along with several teeth. Seeing this creature laugh joyfully—a strange, sinister, alien sound hard to even classify as laughter, yet he just knew it was laughing—and seeing the creature's wide predatory maw, which was filled with jagged, uneven teeth forming a crescent moon shape, he couldn't help but be filled with unnamed fear.
'Tsk, fuck this shit.' He glanced at Elm; even if he didn't finish her, this creature would, so it was no loss. With that, he rushed out to escape, but to his surprise, the creature chased after him, ignoring the easy prey that was Elm. 'Fuck!'
He could feel each passing second; his teeth were loosening, ready to fall off at any time. He glanced back; even though he was running at full speed, the creature didn't fall back; it was even catching up. With no other choice, he activated his Semblance, phasing through the ground to the sewers. But the creature had no intention of letting him go, digging into the ground to follow him. For it had one command given to it by its master: 'Hunt him down.'
As they disappeared, Simon slowly rose from among the rubble. Beside him were the still-unconscious Winter and Robyn. He came beside Elm and placed his fingers on her neck, checking her pulse. Feeling it was stable, he let out a sigh of relief. Luckily, he had woken up in time and summoned [Fear Of Lost Teeth]; if he had simply woken up a little later, perhaps she would have died.
'You are lucky; I thought you had value to be alive.' Otherwise, he wouldn't have released his only entity in system storage this easily. Still, he wasn't thankless enough to ignore the fact that she had saved his life. Though his thanks came in taking a form of a rather unorthodox method of releasing a monster in the city, he looked at his arm, which had turned a bluish pale from the ice dust; he couldn't feel his arm beyond the elbow, but that was okay. It was better to lose an arm than a life.
So he fell to the floor beside her. Even if the pain of his frozen arm was gone due to nerve damage, his ribs remained damaged; aura isn't almighty when it comes to healing. "You are a real fucking hero, Elm, a real fucking one." With that, he just decided to wait for the reinforcements to force their way in.
***
"Fuck!" Zycon yelled as he jumped out of the water. Behind him, [Fear Of Lost Teeth] tailed him relentlessly. He had already lost half of his teeth, and his aura was down after deciding to face it head-on. How the hell was he supposed to face it when the souls behind it flowed out and overwhelmed him, ready to tear him apart? "Why the hell are you tailing me?"
He could blow the cursed creature up with his remaining grenades, but without an aura to activate his Semblance, he would be buried here once the sewer collapsed. He threw away an empty dust vial onto the ground again. He had almost used up his dust vials; only hard-light dust remained. He really didn't want to use it; not only was it rare to get your hands on, but it was also expensive as hell.
"I'm definitely asking for more pay once this shit settles." He loaded the hard-light dust and activated it. His ice axe, which was originally more similar to a pickaxe, turned into a proper battle axe, creating a holographic half-circle blade. If he had no chance of escaping, he might as well gamble for survival.
[Fear of Lost Teeth] let out a shriek before rushing forward. The souls on it extended their hands, ready to tear him apart. Just as he was about to accept his fate and was thinking about taking the creature out with him, the floor below it glowed yellow before a pillar of flame rose, swallowing it.
With a pained screech, [Fear of Lost Teeth] ran away. Its order was to hunt Zycon, and good hunters know when to retreat and wait for an opportunity. Seeing [Fear of Lost Teeth] run away, Zycon quickly looked back, searching for the person who had rescued him.
"I see I've come at just the right time." The voice was feminine and a little immature, probably still in her teens. He looked in the direction the voice came from. There she stood: a girl with glowing amber eyes and raven-black hair. "I assume you are Mr. Zycon. I am Cinder Fall. I think we both have a mutual friend."
He examined the girl, his eyes landing on the dual short swords hanging from her waist. He knew those swords; they were once gifted by him to a dear colleague. "Rhodes," he muttered, then looked at her. "So that makes you the girl from the Glass Unicorn he was talking about."
"Indeed. I am happy to meet my dear teacher's friend." She extended her hand toward him, helping him out of the sewer water.
"How is that bastard doing? Nobody heard from him after the Glass Unicorn incident. Some even thought he had died," Zycon asked, looking at her curiously. "Maybe he has a reason to hide after all." He then looked at the area where the pillar of flame had risen; the water was still bubbling there. "He was always the luckier one between the two of us; he even found himself a bloody good heir."
Cinder didn't say anything, simply smiling. Zycon then turned around, standing in front of her. "Now then, why the hell did that bastard send you after me? I am sure it wasn't something like inviting his old friend for a drink."
"Oh, he misses his old friend, all right. But his circumstances are rather complicated. He told me you are one of the best in the industry and that you can help me gain more experience." Cinder smiled sweetly. Zycon looked into her eyes for a few seconds before letting out a sigh. To him, that just sounded like what Rhodes would have done.
"You bet bloody well I am. Well, I just got a job to test you. Let's go," he said and started walking, already planning how to use her for his current mission. Cinder simply followed after him with a smile.
"Happy to help," she said as the glow in her eyes intensified.