For the next week, Jett experienced hell.

Day after day he was beaten into a pulp.

He was filled with anger and frustration.

Still, he remained in one piece and was stronger for it.

Valeria progressively pushed Jett, each day rougher and more grueling than the next.

Jett thought his body would end up breaking. But with each rest, he was as good as new.

Surprisingly, her teaching method—not really teaching—actually worked.

He adapted his previous combat experience, combining it with the new options he had gained from adding another dagger.

Jett could say with certainty that he was proficient in using dual daggers.

As for his passionate and rambunctious teacher, she stood behind him, leaning against cobblestone.

Jett and Valeria were outfitted in similar dark leather armor, belts, masks, and cloaks, much to the ideal look of assassins.

They stood in a Lower City alley, waiting for their target, who would no doubt approach them soon.

So they waited.

And waited.

…

…

"Fuck. This is sooo~ boring." Valeria complained as she slid down the alley's wall, now sitting on the dirty alley ground.

Jett stood opposite of her, going back and forth from inspecting his steel daggers to keeping an eye out for their target.

"It'll be worth it in the end," he assured.

"No. You don't understand," she asserted. "It's always like this with Maros. Sends me on some stupid mission just for it to be the most mind-numbing, anti-climatic garbage ever."

Jett sighed. "Just keep it down, the target could be here any moment, and their den is right around the corner. Either we take him out, or we bust down the door, but we have to be ready. That means standing, at the very least."

"Alright, alright," Valeria conceded as she stood back up. "Put some damn respect in your voice, you're talking to a superior."

"Pretty sure Maros said we were partners on this mission?" Jett smirked.

"What? I'm stronger than you, older than you, and this is your first real mission. Why the hell would we be partners? Unbelievable. Don't believe a word out of that man's mouth."

Jett rolled his eyes lightheartedly. Some bickering to pass the time never hurt.

…

As if it was divine intervention, a man entered the alley the two sat in.

It was a man in a shabby cloak carrying a leather satchel in his arms, his expression quickly turning dark.

…

"Fuck…"

Upon seeing the two assassins in the alley, he immediately dropped the satchel and fled.

But he was stopped dead in his tracks.

When he looked down, a sword jutted out from his chest.

A look of pure terror laid flat on his shrouded, dying face.

Valeria dragged the man into the alley along with the satchel, holding her arm around his mouth to prevent any noise, imparting a bloody trail on the alley's stone.

She released both the satchel and body, setting them on the ground.

Standing up with a content sigh, she brushed her hands together.

"See where complaining gets you?" Valeria smirked.

Jett did nothing but stare, dumbfounded at the ridiculous and unfair nature of the universe.

"Search him," she instructed.

Jett strolled up to the dead man's corpse, rummaging through his clothes before pulling out a key ring.

Valeria searched through the satchel, taking out a red brick covered in a wet cloth.

"Fire Brick, these are our guys alright. Drug peddlers," Valeria put the brick back into the satchel, tossing the bag off to the side. "Let's go."

The pair walked down the alley, taking the only turn into a dead end.

In front of them was the alley's dead end.

…At least, to the less perceptive.

There was a slight depression in the wall containing a small hole.

Jett fiddled with the keys, trying each one with the hole until one fit, twisting it resulting in a resounding and satisfying…

CLICK

"We're in," Jett said.

"Get ready, stay low and quiet."

The fake stone door quietly slid open, revealing a darkened staircase.

Jett and Valeria entered, gently closing the door behind them.

There they descended, each step careful and soundless.

At the bottom of the stairs was an open door that saw into an underground courtyard.

The duo took both sides of the door, carefully peering into the open space.

A large, elongated, rectangular hall with a pseudo-second story. The handrails on the second floor kept the space open.

There were wooden crates stacked on top of each other in the center of the torch-lit room.

A poker table sat in the close right corner, with cards and Catas laid flat, chairs upended.

But the drug den appeared empty.

Valeria signaled to Jett.

The two assassins moved into the hall, seemingly in the clear.

Then Valeria paused, standing straight, and abandoning their previous caution as the pair found themselves in the open air.

"A trap," she whispered, as she rolled up her left sleeve.

The door behind them slammed shut.

Five archers stepped out of cover by the second-floor handrails, aiming at the intruders.

Out from behind the crates stood a massive

"You think we're stupid?" the large man on the ground floor bellowed.

"Hahaha," Valeria chuckled to herself oddly. "I prefer it this way."

Valeria pointed her muscular left arm forward, exposing black tattooed lines that spiraled down her arm like a caduceus.

In an instant, the black lines glowed white.

Then…

…BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The ensuing explosion nearly shattered Jett's eardrums.

Everything in front of them burst into an explosive flame.

The crates of Fire Brick combusted, creating an expanding grey smoke that covered the entire chamber.

The upper wooden veranda collapsed in the center.

An archer who stood there previously was completely incinerated, his corpse nowhere to be found.

"I'll take the Stalwart, you clean up the archers!" Valeria barked, shielded by the smoke as she dashed forward.

"On it," Jett replied, unsheathing both of his daggers, following closely behind Valeria before branching off to his right.

Under the cover of the smoke, Jett used the collapsed veranda to climb up to where one set of archers stood.

If not for their masks filtering the Fire Brick in the air, the two assassins would probably be very high.

"Where is he?"

"I can't see shit!"

Jett quickly approached two enemies, lined up in a tight column between a wall and the handrails.

Upon seeing the assassin approaching, the closest drug grunt tossed his bow to the side, unsheathing the sword from his hip.

The one in the back notched an arrow, ready to release.

Jett sidestepped, positioning himself in front of the archer's ally.

The swordsman held his sword outward to keep the dagger-wielding rogue at a distance.

It was futile.

A ridiculous burst of speed from his Soul-enhanced legs brought Jett to the man's openside.

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Jett drove both daggers deep into his torso.

His force pushed the swordsman backward as he wailed in pain.

Jett used the daggers to steer the now backstepping, half-dead man, using him as a shield to close the distance between the second enemy.

"Shit!"

The archer released a desperate arrow.

It pierced itself directly into his ally's head, blood and gore splattering onto Jett's hood.

His meat shield began to fall to the ground.

Removing his daggers, the corpse thudded against the wood floor.

Jett rapidly approached the defenseless archer.

"W-wait!…"

A swift flash of the dagger sliced his throat open.

The archer was left with his back against the wall, choking on his own blood as he slid down to the ground lifelessly.

Jett turned around to see that the smoke had cleared, a plethora of explosions and crumbling sounding in the near distance, caused by the duel of juggernauts.

He also saw the last two archers.

They had made their way to his platform, cornering him.

Two arrows released.

'No!'

Jett darted toward the wall on his right.

"Ah…!"

His shoulder felt a fiery pain as a steel arrow pierced his leather shoulder pauldron, sticking into his shoulder.

Jett's left arm was rendered limp and useless.

'Fuck. This hurts way more than being stabbed…'

He was better with his right anyway.

Pushing off the stone wall weakly, Jett readied himself and began to close the distance.

Both archers took out their swords and approached in a line, unable to surround the intruder due to the tight space.

Jett's legs burned hotter than his shoulder as Soul bolstered his muscles.

He dashed forward, sliding to duck under a horizontal slash, using his right dagger to slice through the front man's hamstrings, sending him onto one knee.

Both enemies were caught off guard by Jett's speed.

From his low position, he sprung upward, sending all of his momentum into a stab.

It pierced through the underside of the last man's jaw, the steel blade visible in his bloody mouth.

He hadn't even had the chance to swing.

Rather than digging his dagger out of the dead man, Jett handed the dagger from his limp arm to his good arm.

Turning his shoulders around, Jett threw the dagger with vicious force and accuracy as it whistled through the air.

The dagger punctured deep into the back of the last man's skull, his dead body limply tumbled to the ground.

Jett panted, near hyperventilating as he leaned against the wall.

"Hah…"

A sigh of relief, reprieve, and respite. It was exhilarating. Stressful, but euphoric.

Jett could feel his expended Soul reenter his body, sucked from his dead enemies as his breaths stabilized.

He wobbled over to both corpses, retrieving his daggers, then hobbled down the veranda to back up Valeria.

When he finally made his way to the backside of the large underground room, he saw Valeria sitting on the ground, her knees holding up her arms.

Her cloak, sleeves, and mask had all disappeared.

Valeria's flowing red mane covered her back as blood flowed down her face.

Creating a massive crater in the center of the stone brick wall was a giant man, his body scorched black.

"Everything's clear." Jett said, walking up to sitting Valeria.

"We need to leave. And fast." Valeria declared through tired breaths.

Jett outstretched his right arm, lifting Valeria to her feet.

The two partners in criminal anti-crime opened the locked door, jogging across the hall and back to where they entered.

Behind them, the entire drug den slowly went up in flames, pieces of broken wood and stone crumbling and falling to the ground.

Exiting through the secret front door, Valeria prepared to round the corner.

"Wait, stop!" Valeria whispered, outstretching her hand backward as she hugged the wall, peering around the corner to see the alley's entrance.

"Storm Wardens!" a booming voice announced. "Lay down your weapons and come out of the alley with your arms fully raised!"

A dozen guards sat in formation around the mouth of the alley, armed with swords, shields, and spears.

"Shit… I thought Mattias said we would be in the clear." Jett cursed.

"We were, but that doesn't include protection from loud explosions," Valeria calmly deliberated. "We can't kill them, we need to climb and run…"

Valeria scanned around the alley, planning the path to climb.

There were bricks, pipes, and metal bars that made the upward climb relatively simple and easy, left in place as an escape by the Fire Brick dealers.

Then she saw the bloody arrow, still lodged in Jett's arm.

She clicked her tongue in frustration. Valeria was still for a moment, thinking carefully about her next move..

She came to a necessary but difficult decision.

"Brace. This is going to hurt."

…

A blood-curdling scream rang out of the alley.

It bounced around the alley before blasting the ears of the encroaching Wardens.

The Storm Wardens shook with a clamor of metal armor and weapons. They gripped their weaponry tight in preparation for the worst.

Valeria tugged on the arrow, ripping it from Jett's shoulder and tossing it aside.

She applied her left hand to the profusely bleeding wound.

A white glow seared Jett's flesh as he wailed in agonizing pain.

His entire body shook and twitched as he clenched his jaw in anguish.

It took everything out of him to keep his shoulder in place.

A few short moments were given for him to recover, unconsciousness tugging at his eyelids.

But Jett forced himself to remain alert and active.

"Now climb!" Valeria pushed Jett towards the wall. "Reinforce your arm with as much Soul as you can."

Jett began the arduous and painful climb out of the alley as the Storm Wardens rounded the alley corner.

Every movement in his left arm tingled in agony, the burning sensation of Soul only exacerbated it.

Each stone he climbed, each pipe he held, each step he took was a personal hell.

He was pushing the absolute boundaries of what his body was capable of, feeling every muscle fiber pang with a fearful pain.

Valeria burst up the wall, quickly summiting it like an arboreal animal.

She stood at the top looking down anxiously, calling for the wounded boy to climb.

"Come on! Climb!" Valeria beckoned, bending over and extending her arm.

Each grip and push of his sweaty palms felt torturous, an eternity of suffering fitting into a fleeting moment.

Jett could hardly form a proper thought.

But he endured.

Eventually, Jett reached the top.

With his right hand, he took hold of Valeria at the peak of the climb and was pulled to safety.

Storm Wardens flooded the alley, yelling and commanding for their surrender.

They were too weary and heavy to climb up after the suspects.

Jett lay flat on his back, his chest bobbing up and down in a frenzy.

It was a cloudy afternoon, yet his vision was enveloped in stars.