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Mike Chen: Demonhunter
Library Run - 2

Library Run - 2

About ten minutes earlier.

Tremolo stands atop a high-rise building, next to the cloaked figure he met a couple of days ago.

"And you're sure the half-human is in there?" He asks, staring at them skeptically.

"Yes. My prize is also there as well." The figure replies.

Tremolo sighs. "I don't know what you've got against the guy, but sure. Run wild, make sure you get the job done." He says, turning and walking away.

He stops at the door leading to the roof ladder. "Try not to die, or get my people killed." He says as he shuts the door behind him, walking away.

Present day.

The cloaked figure throws her victim's head on the floor. Mikael's eyes narrow as he turns his focus to her. Chica is still staring down the assassins, waiting for them to retreat instead of trying to eliminate them. The remaining assassins, unwilling to fight Mikael but afraid of getting killed by this mystery person, put them in a corner. A bunch of them turn tail and run, even out of the veil surrounding the building.

The cloaked figure sighs. "I hate cowards like those. But at least I don't have to hold back now..."

They take off the cloak to reveal a young lady wearing street clothes, a choker, and black nail paint. She has spiky black hair and bright amber eyes, similar to Mikael's right eye. The girl has deep tanned skin and a mean-looking mug.

"I've been wanting to kill you for a long time, Mikael Chen." She says.

"I'm sorry, do I know you from somewhere?" Mikael asks, his eyes still trained on her and keeping watch for her weapon.

"Mikey, something is off." Chica says, drawing him back from his confrontational stance.

"Leave him alone!" The woman yells, before blowing a whistle very loudly.

The Librarian at this time is already on the ground floor, rifle drawn and at the ready.

Mikael notices something coming. Suddenly, dozens of Shadows burst in through the library's windows and front door, forcing Mikael, Chica, and the Librarian to all jump further backward. The woman immediately jumps at Mikael and lifts him through the first floor, destroying the patch of ceiling beneath them, before throwing him down on a bookshelf.

Mikael takes a second to recollect himself, only to react just in time to prevent his head from being lopped off by a scythe blade from the girl, which he catches, with his bare hands. His hands are quickly dripping blood and he asks her "What exactly did I do to you? Who are you?"

Meanwhile, Chica and the Librarian are fending off the shadows.

"Chica..." The Librarian says. "Aren't you going to open your Kill Radius?"

"Will you cover me once it goes down?" She replies, still taking down the shadows coming at her.

"I don't have a choice."

"Great," Chica says, making a hand sign and a large circle appears beneath her and dilates at a rapid pace, covering a large portion of the ravaged ground floor. The Librarian is providing cover for her, blasting away at the shadows coming her way, as she has to remain perfectly still.

A large vortex of water encircles Chica and the Librarian and turns into a large circular water blade that blows through the Shadows within the range of Chica's Kill Radius.

The circle shrinks until it vanishes entirely, and Chica is left gasping. The Librarian laughs and takes Chica by the arm, walking through the wall at the back of the north end, retreating into the hold.

Mikael and the girl are still dueling. She cuts through a couple of shelves as Mikael dodges. The blood dripping down his arms is making his aura fluctuate, as he tries to draw out his soul tool.

"Kurogumi." Mikael says, focusing the aura. A black dagger manifests but disappears before Mikael can grab hold of it.

"Shouldn't have caught that blade." She says. "You won't be able to draw out your power in the meantime."

"And this is supposed to be a fair fight?" Mikael jokes as she takes another heavy swing at him, which he nimbly leaps out of the way. Mid-air, he focuses the fluctuating aura in his index finger, and a black beam appears, which he fires at her. Quickly reacting to it, she blocks the beam with her weapon, but it sends her back a bit. Before she can make her next attack, Mikael throws a punch at her, which she is forced to block with the scythe blade again, but the punch sends her through the wall and to the outside of the library.

Walking to the broken wall, Mikael looks down at her, taunting her by showing her his palms, rapidly healing from the cuts she inflicted.

"Kurogumi," Mikael says again, and the black dagger manifests again, this time completely, as Mikael takes it in his hand and waves it around. "That's more like it."

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She gets up and realizes she is very close to the border of the Veil. She picks up her weapon and jumps back up to Mikael, waving a powerful gust of wind in his face, to which Mikael blocks, but is surprised at the sheer weight behind the attack.

Leaping back into the building, she swings her blade at him, which he artfully evades, leading her to lodge her blade within the Library's second floor. He attempts a counterattack, but notices a circular pattern rapidly extending from where the lady's blade is, and leaps back to evade the onslaught, but is slightly too late. Balls of flame are automatically aimed at Mikael, and he deflects them with his blade, to which the lady, leaving her blade to anchor the Kill Radius, launches a barrage of hand-to-hand attacks at him.

Mikael, simultaneously trying to avoid her automatic attacks, risks the body blows, to gain separation from the lady. His gamble pays off, and she lands a hit enough to send him a few meters, but he is still within the Radius. He quickly evades the next few attacks and activates his own Kill Radius, and a swarm of darkness appears around the two of them, before both Radiuses vanish entirely.

"Touché." The lady says. "You're quite the strategist, I'll give you that."

"Thanks, you aren't too slow on your feet either." Mikael replies, smiling. His black dagger vanishes as he takes out his ring and puts it on.

"Come on out, Crow." He says, and manifests his katana, Masamune. He looks at her "It's been nice, but this is taking too long, and I have other things to actually focus on."

"What makes you think I'm not worth that?" She asks, picking up her weapon. "You're a *Soulpact*, just like me."

She prepares a beam of fire at the tip of her blade. "I might be a better Soulpact than you..."

He points his sword at her, readying a lightning blast at the edge of his sword. "Test that theory."

Suddenly, Mikael's illness starts acting up again, the blood-red spines protruding out from his body, putting him in immense pain. The lady drops her guard and looks surprised. Mikael's two arms are quickly transforming and he is starting to lose blood and exude tremendous amounts of body heat.

"Care...to reschedule?" Mikael jokingly asks as he grunts in pain afterward, falling to his knees.

"You're infected too..." She says.

"Too? You know someone?" Mikael asks, a glimmer of hope appearing in his eyes.

Before she can talk, she has to make an instinctive block with her blade from an unseen attacker. The strike is so strong it knocks her to the ground, several meters away from Mikael, even while she blocks it. She opens her eyes to see an old man, with a long Katana pointed at her neck.

"Old man." Mikael says.

"At least you saved me one big fish, Mikael." The man says, throwing Mikael's medicine at him, before turning to face the lady.

"Young lady," He starts "My name is Igor Tomas Danke, former head of the Bayside branch of the Society of Winnowers, and current head of the armory. May I know yours, before I cross blades with you?"

"No. No you may not." She says, wiping the sweat off her forehead and picking up her sword. "2 in one day. I'm pretty lucky."

"I couldn't disagree more..." a familiar voice goes from behind her. She turns to see Gabriel levitating outside the hole in the wall. The Veil is still standing, but he is inside, looking at her from inside his mask.

Mikael, having already started his recovery process, thinks about the consequences of the current situation. It doesn't seem like Gabriel will leave her alive, but the old man has put down his sword and sheathed it. "Wait, Gabriel, don't-"

Not willing to listen to him, Gabriel points a beam of light and fires it at her. She only manages to block, seeing as she is just a few meters away, by transforming her arm, and her sword, into a black, spiked crystal-like substance, successfully mitigating the damage, but it still sends her reeling a bit. Gabriel floats into the building and calmly approaches her. Out of fear, she activates her kill radius there, but before a single attack can be made, Gabriel cancels it out with his. He walks up to her and points the beam at her.

"How lucky are you again?" He asks, sarcastically.

Mikael holds back the hand pointing the beam at her. "No eviscerating other people. I thought we all knew that."

Gabriel hits him with enough force to send Mikael back to the ground.

He turns back to see the lady isn't where she was a second ago. Quickly pinpointing her location, he spots her on the window sill, as she transforms into a bird and flies away.

Angry, Gabriel turns to Mikael.

"You prick! Why'd you stop me?!"

"Prick? Is that projection I hear?" Mikael argues. "Why were you trying to off someone with possible information on the Enclave?"

"Who's to say she was with the Enclave to begin with?" Gabriel defends.

"She came here with a bunch of Fallen, and Enclave men." The old man speaks up.

Gabriel keeps quiet for a minute.

Mikael smiles. "That's what I thought." He says and walks down the stairs.

The old man follows and the three enter into the Hold together.