Eric equipped his long blackcoat, black blade and dual hand cannons before quickly rendezvousing with Kate under the cover of night. Clouds coated the night sky allowing them to easily manoeuvre through the city in the shadows.

Northwest of the city beside the docks was a vast depot full of storage-containers and warehouses. Their intel stated that was where Mr. blade was operating. It didn’t take them long to travel to the northwest section of Elysi, the ground changed from streets of grey brick to a layer of small stones and gravel indicating they were in the right place. They carefully treaded across the ground, making as little noise as possible, as they travelled deeper into the depot past rows of large steel warehouses and storage-containers stacked on the gravel.

They eventually came to a stop, hiding in the shadow in between two warehouses. Eric turned to Kate who was currently studying her phone. It’s colour like her coat had been changed to black as a result it barley projected any light. However, his attention was quickly directed elsewhere. Something or someone was with them. It was only for a split second, but he definitely sensed something.

“This way” she whispered however, suddenly her head tilted and like Eric she also turned around “Something’s triggered one of my alarms”.

“I know, sensed it only for a moment. They’re good at hiding themselves whoever they are but triggering your alarm exposed them” he whispered. On first look it looked like they were alone surrounded only by warehouses and the quiet howl of the wind, but Eric knew better. Quickly and silently, he vanished from beside Kate with a burst of speed and mana carrying him back around the warehouse they’d just passed. He now stood behind a figure crouching in the shadows, still yet to notice him standing behind them. Standing behind her.

“Lucina” Eric sighed “What are you doing?”. Lucina was crouched infront of him dressed in all black with a combat style jacket. Alarmed, she quickly spun around and stared up at him with startled eyes. Before she could respond he covered her mouth, grabbed her arm, and dragged her towards Kate. She didn’t attempt to resist.

“Lucina?” Kate asked confused, her voice low.

“Hi” Lucina stated as if she was also shocked to see them.

“Why are you following us?” Eric asked.

“I’m not”.

“Lucina don’t start. Not when I’m on a tight time frame. Go home” Eric said sternly.

“Please let me come along” she pleaded “You said you would let me come on some assignments”.

“What?” Eric questioned baffled “I know what I said but this isn’t what I had in mind-”. Before Eric could finish Kate cut him off.

“We don’t have time to send her home” Kate informed them, a slight tinge in her voice. She was annoyed. “Lucina follow us, keep low, don’t speak and if we tell you to do something you do it”. Lucina gave her a determined nod. Silently Kate led them along the shadows, avoiding any areas that were lit by spaced out lamp-posts or old lights attached to the warehouse entrance’s. Eventually Kate came to a halt and turned toward a warehouse with ‘J17’ marked on the front in yellow paint. Beside the warehouse large shutter door sat a single steel door layered with four locks.

“This is the one” she told them while putting away her phone. Like Eric had seen many times before a faint golden glow engulfed her pupils as she seemingly scanned the warehouse. “Quite a few alarm sigils and I can sense a single silencer sigil seemingly lower than the other sigils”.

“We’ll head there then” Eric stated. He then turned to Lucina “Are you sure about this? These aren’t like the ordinary criminals you usually sneak out to fight”.

A slight tint of red flushed face for a moment, she obviously thought that was a secret then Eric thought. She quickly composed herself “Yes” she confirmed.

“Fine. But if looks like it’s getting too dangerous, and I tell you to leave. You leave” he stated. She gave him a nod and Eric turned to Kate who was already drawing a golden symbol in the air with a small orb placed on the end of her index finger. After finishing the symbol she glanced to Eric who gave her a nod, she instantly flexed her fingers wide and her symbol shattered, dissipating into golden dust, and sending a wave of mana through the building.

“All sigils are down. I don’t sense anyone inside do you?” Kate asked looking back them.

“No” Eric confirmed, and Lucina shook her head. Eric grabbed the locks on the door and infused mana into his technique, small blue sparks danced from his hand, and with a smooth click, the locks began to unlock one by one and fall to the gravel. After he removed the last lock, he pushed down on the handle and cautiously opened the door.

Inside the warehouse, ceiling lights hung from the roof, weakly lighting the room. The centre of the room was filled with what seemed to be a few crates covered by black sheeting, Slowly walking towards the centre, they discovered their senses were correct, they were alone.

“Where was that silencer sigil?” Eric asked, confused on why they need one in an empty room. Kate led them around the covered crates and came to a stop beside the wall opposite the entrance and crouched down.

“It was down here” she said, while brushing her hand across the concrete floor.

“Bastard’s got an underground passage. Must be how he’s been getting in and out of the city undetected” Eric muttered.

“All intel pointed to these being the most important assets In his possession, the fact of all the security sigils and no one around to generate mana signatures and attract attention, it all supports the intel. I imagine that passage surfaces somewhere close, if these are so important he’ll always want to be close” Kate stated gesturing to the crates.

“What’s in them?” Lucina asked, walking towards them.

“Don’t touch, he might’ve booby-trapped them. If they’re as important as we think they are he probably won’t be taking any risks” Eric told her “We’ll find out what they are after I deal with Blade”.

Lucina backed away from crates “So what now?” she asked.

“We wait” said Eric while taking a seat against the wall “He’ll come for his merchandise, and we’ll be here. If the buyers with him we take them out to”.

Lucina quickly took a seat next to him, she remained silent for a few minutes nervously tapping her feet before finally turning towards him “Can I ask a slightly personal question?”.

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“Go on”.

“What happened last year? Why do feel so responsible for this guy?”.

“That’s two questions” Eric smirked.

“Can I ask two?”.

“I fucked up” he said “It was one of the first operations under the military I led. After months we’d finally gotten him trapped. I let him escape. Got greedy. I rushed the end of the mission and missed an important detail.”

“What was it?”

“I didn’t shut down one of the transport routes. I was tasked with shutting them all down and as we got close to the end I focused more on confronting him and preventing his escape. As a result I didn’t find out the routes existence until it was too late. After we fought he was able to escape the country and by the time I figured out what happened he was long gone. A Drug lord, serial killer and one of the biggest traffickers in this country’s history is still on the lose because of me” he explained.

“Everyone makes mistakes” said Lucina trying to comfort him.

“You’re right. But mistakes like that can’t be excused” he said coldly, unable to stop imagining the amount of deaths Blade had been responsible for since his escape.

“Well I -”.

“But its fine” he stated with an abrupt grin, causing her to give him a confused look “because tonight I’m going to fix my mistake. I’ll avenge everyone he’s harmed and stop him ever hurting anyone again”. His grin spread to Lucina’s face. However, her expression quickly crumpled.

“Will you kill him?” she asked.

“That decision will be on him” Eric responded frankly. As much as he’d love to kill the man and stop him permanently Blade was better use to the military alive so if Eric could he’d bring him in alive. No matter his feelings.

“Alarms have been triggered” Kate suddenly spoke up and quickly jumped to her feet. In an instant Eric and Lucina were off the floor as well.

“Where?” Eric questioned.

“Shutter door” she stated. They quickly moved around the crates to hide from the shutters view.

Not long after there was a loud clank followed by the mechanical hum of a motor and the shutters began to lift.

‘Wait the locks I took off fuck’ Eric thought worried he might’ve just destroyed their element of surprise. He grinded his teeth annoyed at his own incompetence. ‘Great now we just have to hope no one sees it’ Eric thought.

Outside light leaked into the warehouse generating the shadows of four figures and fresh voices began to bounce around the warehouse.

“Are the sigils still intact” A pressing voice emerged into the room. ‘Blade’. “It won’t be long until they’re here”. Footsteps wandered over to crates and the sheets ruffled.

“Yes sir. The sigils are intact the crates are the right ones” A female voice answered. Good Kate thankfully isn’t fucking up like him.

“Good. Last thing I need today. Were you ever able to find out what’s in the crates?” Blade asked, curiosity coating his tone.

“I apologise sir I wasn’t able to, but I’m able to keep researching” she replied solemnly while returning to his side.

“Don’t bother” he stated bluntly “They obviously don’t want anyone knowing and it’d be best to not risk problems arising”. Someone Blade doesn’t want problems with, the idea caught Eric off-guard and by Kate’s reaction she felt the same. Only the thing Blade’s ever avoided was the Elysian military higher ups.

In that moment Eric weighed his options, he quickly decided it was too risky to wait for whoever this mystery buyer was. He tapped Kate and Lucina on the shoulder and wandered out from behind the crates. Beneath the shutter stood four people, two figures whereby the walls their faces concealed by black cloaks embraided with a grey material, the only thing not covered was there black pants and muddy boots, by the shape underneath the cloaks he assumed the right one was a man and the left a woman. The women he’d heard had short orange hair and brown eyes beneath her glasses, she wore a black jacket and held a bag full of what looked like documents. Beside her stood the killer himself.

“Blade it’s been a while” Eric stated casually. The man stood there wide eyed initially unable to hide his shock. Mr Blade was a tall broad man standing at six feet three inches. He had a black shirt on that clung to his skin revealing his muscular physique and black trousers. The light from the warehouse shined off his clearly shaven head and highlighted his infamous scar that ran across his eye his and down his neck.

“Eric. What a delight” he said while quickly composing himself, his gaze then hovered on Kate, “Miss Lock good to see you again. So nice of you to have shut down so many of my operations this last month”.

“My pleasure John” Kate responded happily. His face grimaced at someone calling him his real name.

“And who is this?” Blade asked his eyes switching to Lucina.

“Lucina Athra” she responded calmly.

“Lewis Athra’s sister I assume” Blade stated with a grim smile on his face. It was subtle but Eric saw the cloaked figures demeanour change when Lucina stated her name. They were growing hostile. People Lewis had pissed off he imagined.

“What are those documents?” Kate suddenly asked. The girl beside Blade paled slightly under Kate’s glare.

“This has been a fun reunion but I’m afraid I’m quite busy” Blade stated his irritation leaking through his composure. He made a quick gesture with his hand, and it was followed by the sound of heavy running on gravel. Instantly a group of men and women lined up behind Blade.

Blade then looked to women with the documents on his left “Leave” he commanded. Instantly she sprinted off and Kate didn’t waste a second sprinting off after her. The male cloaked figure dashed forward however, there was a flash of silver and the air crackled. Lucina’s whip cut across the side of its hood tearing it apart revealing a man with short black hair and dull brown eyes. The force of the attack sent him recoiling back into the gravel. The second cloaked figure leapt at Lucina, but Eric stepped forward. He grabbed a handful of fabric and threw the figure back. Without hesitation Lucina augmented her body and darted forward shoving her boot into the figures chest sending it skidding across the ground and instantly Eric was on Blade preventing him from intercepting Kate. He threw a straight right into his jaw and sent him tumbling onto the ground with a front kick. The group Blade had just called quickly gathered in front to protect their boss from Eric. Sparing a glance to his right he could see Lucina duelling with the cloaked figure he’d tossed its hood now down revealing a woman with dark hair and crimson eyes. Lucina was seemingly winning the duel not letting her opponent recover from having the air kicked from her lungs but suddenly the cloaked man sprinted across the gravel straight through Blade’s group knocking it apart and leapt at Lucina.

She noticed last second and defended his takedown with a sprawl. They engaged in a grapple however, the man had bought his partner the time she needed to recover. She lashed out planting her leg deep into Lucina’s side. Lucina grunted and reeled back. The cloaked man dragged his fist across her jaw sending her stumbling back. Before Lucina could recover the cloaked women grabbed her combat jacket and a red glow rose in her arm’s mana veins.

‘Crimson’.

Eric attempted rush over and help, but it was too late, in an instant a red glow leaked from her palm into the air infront of Lucina and clung to her body like an aura. A rapid spark shot from the women’s hand and the aura ignited. A crimson eruption that engulfed Lucina, the force rocketing her across the depot and sending her crashing through the shutters of a warehouse the next row down, a smoke trail lagging behind. Instantly they quickly pursued after Lucina.

‘Shit’ Eric quickly attempted to end her attackers but was quickly forced to leap back. Blade’s group launched a plethora of fireballs, jade orbs, and other magical spells towards him.

“Enough” he growled. Before they could ready their next spells, Eric unleashed his silver hand cannons. Bullets flew through the air at ridiculous speed and not a single one was off target. They all dropped to the ground, some lay there groaning others didn’t. His attention then fell onto Blade who was looking at his people with a disappointed gaze. He then turned to Eric and raised his hand, a golden ring with a red gem was wrapped around the third finger. He infused mana into his storage ring and in a stream of red energy his machete was moulded into his hand. It was a long, large grey blade with ancient writing inscribed onto both sides, its handle wrapped in old blood-stained brown cloth. It was his renowned weapon and how he gained his title.

“It was only a year ago that we were in this exact situation was it not?” Blade asked him.

“Yeah” Eric responded coldly, drawing his black blade from the sheath on his back ‘But this time I’ll fix my mistake’.