"What's the meaning of all this?" Malthe said as he approached Hudson. The bodyguard kept his arms wrapped underneath his cloak as he walked to the Union leader. Quang and Vic watched in silence as Hudson stepped back from the approaching man. "I thought you were concerned with getting this project done on time. And here you are having trouble dealing with..." Malthe slowly turned his head to look at the other two men. "A few hooligans?"

"They're more than just a couple of hooligans, sir!" Hudson muttered. "They've been sneaking around and destroying our hard work!"

"Do you need me to take care of them for you?" Malthe said.

"I... uh..."

Malthe pushed Hudson to the side with one arm. As the Union leader staggered back, the bodyguard brandished his folded spear, exposing his body armor to Quang and Vic as his cloak spread open. With the press of a button, the weapon unfolded and the blade of the spear pointing straight up.

Quang took a step back when he saw the metal tip glimmer from the moonlight. He turned his head to his friend. Vic stood with the two opposite ends of his sanjiegun in separate. The left side was angled downwards while the other pointed upwards as the middle section hovered in front of his chest. Vic kept his knees bent as if he was ready to lunge at a moment's notice.

"That's the guy that you saw by the café earlier?" Quang whispered.

"Gotta be," Vic whispered back. Malthe walked forward while keeping his spear at his side while holding it with his right hand. "Never seen a swan mask like that anywhere else."

"You didn't tell me that he wore a bullet proof vest! Or that he's built like a professional linebacker!"

"You know I can sometime forget the smaller details."

As the body approached, Vic refined his stance. He spread the sections of his sanjiegun further apart and lowered his stance. Malthe's path went unhindered. He continued to move at steady yet deliberate pace towards the pair of intruders. He stopped a couple of feet in front of Vic while keeping his spear at his side in one hand.

"Crossing the Ingwersen family is punishable by death." Malthe took hold of his spear by both hands and pointed the end towards Vic. "Are you ready to die?"

Vic smiled. "Are you asking me?"

Malthe's response was a forward thrust towards Vic’s chest. A swing of the section of Shondell in his left hand and a sharp twist of his upper body allowed him to deflect the attack just enough for it to miss. As Malthe brought his spear back, Vic created space between himself and the bodyguard with a short hop. He then crossed the two end-sections of his staff to protect his body.

"Come on Vic," Quang said in a low voice as he put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Let's get Selene and just get out of here! I didn't think we'd be fighting anyone from the Ingwersen family!"

"You two can go!" Vic remained fixated on Malthe. "But I've got a bone to pick with this guy!"

"Because he chased you away from your meal of scraps?"

"Yeah! Besides, you know how rare it is to fight someone that uses a spear these days? I need the match-up knowledge."

"Oh, in case you ever have to fight another armored lunatic with a spear?"

Vic nodded. "Exactly Quang! Now you're thinking like me!" Vic took a step forward. With a single fluid motion, he transitioned both of his hands to hold onto a single segment of his weapon. With the momentum of the movement, he swung the staff low towards Malthe's feet. The bodyguard angled his spear downwards, intercepting the movement of the sanjiegun. There was a fierce clang as the middle section of the weapon clashed against the blade of Malthe's spear. With the attack stopped, Vic snapped his arm back and withdrew his weapon back.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Come on Vic!" Quang blurted out. "Let's get going."

Vic returned to his defensive pose. "Not until after this fight's done."

"But this guy is trying to kill you!" Quang pulled on Vic's arm once more, only to have him shrug his shoulder away.

"I told you already! I'm not going anywhere!" Vic looked at Quang with frustration for a moment before facing off against Malthe again.

"You heard him," Hudson said with his hammer slung over his shoulder. "Man wants to stay and fight. Maybe you should follow your friend's example. Going around and messing with someone's hard work? Then you gotta stay and face the consequences."

Quang looked at Hudson. He withdrew his nunchucks and twirled them in a circle at his side. "Ironic coming from you. But I'm sure we've brought that point up before."

Hudson lifted his hammer above his head and slammed it downwards in Quang's direction. Quang rolled to the side, avoiding the hammer as it drove into the dirt and making a smaller crater in the ground. "All about running, huh?" Hudson exclaimed.

"And take a direct hit from that thing?" Quang said as his eyes angled at the metal head of the weapon as Hudson lifted it from the ground. Hudson then primed his weapon by twisting his arm to the side. A long reach horizontal swing sent the head of the head of the hammer towards Quang's side at a deadly velocity. Quang ducked down so the hammer travelled above him. During his crouch, Quang leapt forward with his arms in front of him. He took hold of Hudson's waist and brought both him and his opponent to the ground together.

"You're grappling with the wrong guy!" Hudson shouted out. Quang landed on top of the Union leader's arm. He could see the hammer had been dropped a few feet to his side. With his nunchucks in hand, he struck Hudson in his cheek and the eye. The man's face went red from the attack. He kept the struck eye closed as his teeth grit together. Without hesitation, Quang followed up with another swing to Hudson's face. The blurted out an obscenity before reaching with his one free arm and grabbed Quang by the wrists.

"Ack!" Hudson's grip tightened, making Quang's fingers open wide. The nunchucks slipped out of his hand and landed on the dirt between them. With his wrist still captive, Hudson held on tighter and pulled his arm down to the side. The arm that Quang had pinned underneath his body began to move too, slowly moving him off the dirt.

"Remember that suplex?" Hudson barked, his face red and eye swollen. "I've got more moves like that!" The Union leader forced Quang to turn around by holding both of his arms and contorting them. Quang let out a drawn-out groan as Hudson continued to forcibly move him. With his back now to his opponent and both of his arms seized, Quang resorted to moving his legs. He lifted his left foot and began stomping and kicking at Hudson's shins and feet. Despite the attacks, Hudson's stance remained steady.

"Let me go!" Quang shouted as his arms were moved behind his back. One of Hudson's arms released its hold, shifting to pressing against his forearm against Quang’s neck.

"Once you stop breathing!" Hudson shouted. He pressed his arm further into Quang's throat, making him cough and wheeze. Quang freed one of his arms and placed it over his captor's bulky arm. His fingers dug into the skin of the arm that suffocated him but did nothing to ease the stranglehold.

"Looks like I'm going to have to put you out of commission once and for all!" Hudson whispered. He bent backwards, lifting Quang off the ground by his neck. Another weak grunt came out of Quang's mouth while his legs flailed about, suspended a few inches in the air. The movement of Quang's lower half slowed as the air supply in his body dwindled.

"Q-Quang!" Selene called out. As her voice rang through the night, Hudson tightened his grip even more.

"Fátima!" Hudson shouted. He looked at Selene as she limped towards him with her tonfas in both hands. She dragged her foot along the ground and kept her head low, but she advanced at a steady pace. "Fátima! Can't you do something about your friend here?"

"She tried," Selene said with limited breath. "But it seems like she doesn't have much experience in dealing with... unorthodox tactics." She stood up straight, getting into her hapkido stance. Her body angled to the side with her right arm extended forward as she aimed the end of her tonfa at the Union leader. "Let him go," Selene said with certainty.

"Pathetic. The whole lot of ya!" Hudson barked. "You need an entire team just to take me, eh?"

"And you need an entire construction crew and a dojo to deal with Rodney!" Selene blurted back. "This is where it ends, Hudson!" Selene lunged forward, aiming at the back of his shoulder with the side of her right tonfa. The wood connected, making Hudson bump forward. His grip loosened enough for Quang to squirm his way free. He fell to the ground knees first. Quang pressed his hands against his chest as he hyperventilated.

"Get up Quang!" Selene said as she stared down the Union leader. Hudson reached down and picked up his hammer again. With his free hand he rubbed the part of his face that had turned a bright shade of red.

"T-thanks Selene," Quang said as he got to his feet. He fumbled his hand across the ground and picked up his nunchucks. "I owe you for that."

"You owe me a lot already. I’ll just add it to the tab," she replied. "But what's the plan?"

"Looks like it's to keep fighting," Quang said as he stood at Selene's side.