I couldn't help but smile wryly as I waved my free hand. Ah, this is awkward, but at least he's not trying to kill me. Not yet, anyway. But I'd prefer it if we kept it this way, thank you very much. Crows take things way too seriously if you ask me.

Seconds pass, and that annoying voice posturing in the background feels like nothing but white noise as I... what was I doing again? Ah, right.

Absolutely nothing. I'll have to make my move soon.

26 seconds.

Corvus tightens his knuckles for a second, knuckles slightly whitening as he took a deep breath. I could almost hear the cracking of his knuckles even from this distance.

23 seconds.

He breaths out with a quiet sigh, posture relaxing as his thumb types down on his phone.

"Truce." You're not really asking me a question here, are you?

20 seconds.

Regardless, I nodded and as I made an effort to make my smile seem friendlier. I see his lips move slightly, but I didn't quite catch what he said.There's movement in the crowd.

"Take him out." He typed again. "Quietly."

The sound of an alarm suddenly rings out across the room, accompanied with the occasional voice of a girl whisper shouting "get the fuck up!"

17 seconds.

Excuse me?

A few heads turn, as if right on cue, guiding everyone's attention towards the other side of the room, away from my position.

Crap. I stepped forward and braced for a quick draw, making just enough noise so that only the guard in front of me would notice. turns towards me. As soon as he turns, drew Chiri and cut his throat and pushed him slightly towards the wall with the scabbard.

16 seconds.

The guard chokes and gurgles as his back met the wall and then dramatically slides down as he slowly lost consciousness. I think he's calling for help? There's snickering down below as someone acts embarassed. An act?

I see two people crouch and pull out guns, taking aim into the space in front of them which was of course filled with people. A few take notice, probably not Crows, but someone nearby shushes them, pulling out their masks as they did. They settle down, though most of them seem tense.

13 seconds.

"Look out!" Someone shouts out, and points at...

Me?

That scheming, backstabbing piece of shit!

I met eyes with the leader(?), Chiri was still drawn and the tip still had blood on it. Something clicks in his head as he raises a hand and points it at me.

"Open fire!" He shouted, which was quickly followed by gunfire. I flinched and lost focus for a second as my eyes shut close.

Hm? Y'know, I often hear that you won't really notice when you're shot but...

Hm, this seems a bit much. I opened my eyes, and took a look at myself; there's a patch of red on my clothes. I gave it a quick pat but there didn't seem to be a hole.

Oh, it's not mine. Must be from earlier.

I shift my gaze towards the podium, and I see two dead guards with red splats on the wall behind them.

There's confusion as the guards by the entrance beneath me move, taking aim at my approximate position.

Shit. I dived forward before the frantic bangs of gunfire burst out, peppering my previous positions with holes and lead.

The bullets stopped almost immediately after the first couple of seconds.

Curious, I looked down and saw all of the guards below held in chokeholds as knives came down on them in simultaneously with practiced ease. To be honest, they looked like a murderous flash mob down there.

Heh, crows. Murder.

Goddammit, June. Focus, for fuck's sake!

8 sec-Is there even a point in counting anymore?

I catch movement on the roof of the other building as Crows in the building make their way to the exit, joining the others outside. They form groups of five and circle in on the patrols outside without any communication whatsoever.

...I'll try to be nicer to them from now on. But fuck Corvus.

"Seven!" I heard someone yell out, voice tinged with anger and desperation. "Get me out of here, dammit!"

Seven, right. God, I hate numbers.

I took a quick glance at the podium and saw Corvus looming over the last merc in the room. The leader was on the ground, shuffling away pathetically with one lame arm hanging dragged across the floor. Corvus, on the other hand, carried his collapsible bat on his.

Something gets in the way of my view, covering their position with... a roof?

A black shroud lunges at Corvus from... whatever that thing was, but he swerves to the side, avoiding the attack and grabs the shroud with his free hand. He spins around and redirects its momentum and throws it back.

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So that's the teleport. Looks more like a portal if you ask me.

It clumsily stumbles forward, away from Corvus but manages to stay on its feet. As much as I want to see him get his shit kicked in, it won't be happening anytime soon. Well, that and I can't waste any more time.

If that thing gets away now, then it's definitely going to come back and bite me in the ass later.

I sheathed Chiri and braced myself for a jump as the shroud steadied itself and entered a low stance. A pale thin arm stuck out from the shroud, fingers tightly grabbed on what looked like a long, sharpened piece of polished black gemstone.

What's it called again? Onyx? Can I sell it?

It dashed forward and I dropped from my position, landing a foot on its back with a heavy thud. I heard a shrill grunt, as it stumbled forward, followed shortly by an irritated sigh.

"Rough night, huh?" I wore a mischievous grin on my face, one I almost dropped as soon as I heard an annoyed groan coming from Corvus. You don't get to complain, bud.

She hissed, muttering something under her breath in a distinctly effeminate but low voice. It was a her, apparently. Well, I definitely remember her now. She muttered under her breath, and I could see a yellow-ish glint underneath that... thing she wore over herself.

It looked like a rag. Well, like a garbage bag, really, if they didn't shine. In fact, it didn't even reflect any light at all. It seemed a little too light to be fabric, judging by how it swayed, but a little too thick to be just plastic bag. It's flaking at the edges, but didn't seem to get any shorter.

Cool. What's it made of? Can I have one? I bet it'd look really nice as a scarf. And not that I want to peek or anything but why can't I see under it?

While I was distracted, I suddenly a leg materialize from thin air, floating right in front of her. Wait, it was stepping on something. Cement? That sock seem awfully familiar too.

She makes a swipe at it, just as the realization dawns on me. My right leg jolts upward, almost as if on instinct, but the cut still connects.

Shit.

I lost my balance for a second, maybe I might've put more weight into that than completely necessary. Big mistake.

She closes in rapidly, and I drew Chiri in a panic. She stops in her tracks, just right enough that the swipe grazed her hood.

I thrusted the scabbard towards the ground to stop my fall and push myself to a more upright position. As soon as I was comfortably on my feet, I used it as a makeshift cane.

"Really?" I asked no one in particular as I gathered my wits. Breath in, breath out. Like mum used to say; 'I'm not angry, just disappointed.' And just like those times, said feelings were also directed towards myself.

The cut wasn't that deep, but it'll get in the way if I try anything drastic. Fucking swell, I'd dare say.

She didn't respond. Well, at least not vocally. She makes a step forward and tries to stab her weapon into my neck. I leaned to the side, just enough that it completely missed.

I grinned as I swung at the stomach with the blunt edge of Chiri, knocking the wind out of her as she was forced backwards. I think I heard a crack, but I'm a little preoccupied with being a little peeved to be concerned at the the moment.

Ah, that felt quite nice, if I had to be honest.

She takes a deep breath, carefully watching me as she did while taking a few steps back. There were a few seconds of tense silence between us as she paced side to side. Does that still count as pacing back and forth?

Shut up, focus.

Her eyes were focused behind me, watching something that I might've completely forgot was there for a moment. I took a spare glance without taking most of my attention of her. I winced as I saw a knife being hammered into a thigh with a bat, followed immediately by a hoarse scream.

The fuck? What the hell is he doing back there?

I catch movement from Seven, another swipe at a leg. What is it with you two and legs? A fetish?

Judging by the angle of that... projection(?), it looked like it was a cut aimed at the back of my left tendon. I moved the tip of my scabbard to get in its way, and there's a resounding thunk as it met resistance.

She stiffens, but continues her assault. Maybe she was planning on making consecutive cuts, but didn't expect me to do anything about it, or something along those lines, but whatever it was; the result was a sloppy chop.

I parried, shoving her weapon aside with Chiri before smacking her in the head with the sheath. Before I could think things through, my right leg was raised up to my chest for a spartan kick.

Ah, crud. My foot thrusted forwards, digging into the cloak, but fails to make contact with her torso. I felt a sharp pain on it as I pulled it back, and I bit back on what would've been a rather undignified yelp that threatened to leap out of my mouth.

She seemed relatively unfazed, at least for someone who just received a questionably amount of head trauma, as another hand darted from underneath the cloak and reached towards me. I tried to fend of her hand by scaring her off with Chiri, but she doesn't react as I expected. She changes targets and instead grabs my arm and then...

I felt my vision blur for a second, and as soon as it cleared out, the warehouse was empty. Wait, Corvus and that other guy was still there, completely unaware of us going missing.

I hear winds howling at my ears and the furious flapping of cloth, accompanied by furious breeze blasting against my back. My feet were off the ground. I feel blind. Disoriented. I blinked, dropping the perspective from inside the warehouse. Useless, waste of effort.

I refocused my eyes, and was promptly overwhelmed by the sudden jump.

Where am I? I looked in front of me, seeing the thin pale arm sticking out of a billowing black cloak that grabbed unto mine. Seven. Her hood was now off, instead frantically flailing as it trailed behind her head in tandem with white hair that seemed to glow silver beneath the moonlight. Her eyes, carrying a dim golden glow, locked unto mine, strangely impassive.

And from behind her, I could see the disdainful gaze of the moon looming over me.

"If this is about the puke, then I'm sorry, alright!?" I shouted as I felt my heart just wailing on my poor, hapless ribcage.

"What?" I was pulled out of my thoughts by a rather weak voice. Right, I'm still going to die.

Oh, almost forgot she was here. She had her head slightly tilted, with whatever coldness she had on her face was completely replaced with confusion.

Suspension Bridge Effect. It's definitely that, I swear. She's not cute at all. Alright, maybe a little.

I looked behind me and saw the docks seconds worth of falling away from me. I grabbed Seven's wrist with my free hand and pulled with both arms. There's panic on her face as my legs wrap around her back and I attempted to switch positions with her. I heard a rather sharp yelp as my vision blurred again, we barely had a second to spare before we had an unsightly reunion with the ground.

I immediately caught a glimpse of the two of us and I almost felt motion sick as I felt suddenly gravity shift. It felt like we were falling, even as I saw the two of us shoot towards the sky.

Y'know, I once read something about space shuttles. I forgot the specifics but it was something about how it was necessarry to gain enough height and speed that they could essentially "fall" forever, using gravity to slingshot their way into space rather than bruteforcing their way up with rockets. Is this what it feels like..?

I felt bile form a lump at the back of my throat, and swear I could almost taste it. God, please no. I've had enough throwing up for one day. Actually, let's make that a week.

My vision blurs for another time, and sure enough, I lose track of us again,

The next thing I noticed was us slamming into the floor with a heavy thud. I hear the familiar clatter of steel and something skidding across the ground. My hands feel empty, must've been Chiri. Lost my grip on Seven too.

I'm still on the floor as I tried to regain my sight again. It's still outside.

There's blood rushing in my ears and I hear nothing but a frantic, unsteady beat. Everything hurts.

Still alive. Must've lost enough momentum. That's... good, right?

Slight smell of salt, dust and rust. Maybe it's blood? Smooth floor, enclosed space, going by the sudden disappearance of the wind. Back at the warehouse?

"Alright." My ears quiet down a little, and though my hearing was still a bit muffled, I somehow managed to make the words out. "That's enough."