“I have no business with the Mangol,” I snarled, manoeuvring to the left, trying to edge myself closer to the pool of water.

“You do…The Mangol doesn’t take kindly to those who have trouble, following The Rules. No Guns.”

“No Guns? I never heard of such a rule before,” I lied.

The Reaver stopped twenty meters from me, held out her hand and a blue holographic light pulsed into existence, resonating from her hand. The light seemed like gas, wafting around, but when it finally stiffened, it showed a video. One I could barely see, so I zoomed in with my cybernetic eye.

Is that Underwent? I huffed, feeling frustrated. They have camouflaged drones? Why didn’t I know this? The fizzing blue light played like a video, showing me darting from rooftop to rooftop, skipping through stalls, trying my best to get away from Akatani’s asses.

Then the main show began; I brandished my Teleari-X firing shots at the window. Maybe I should’ve brought that with me.

“You were saying?” The Reaver mocked. I hated that voice. God, it sounded horrible, like a machine with a permanently bad cough.

I rolled my tinged white jacket off my shoulders, ripping it into two rags, dipped them into the pool of water and wrapped both of them around my hands as fast as I could.

I didn’t know if it would’ve been enough to handle the Reaver’s Katana, but it was my best option to increase the durability of my hands, as I had no weapon.

“Come on now, Reaver,” I growled. “... We can talk.”

“Indeed.”

The Reaver cut the difference between us within three seconds. Then, skid across the ground, sparks igniting from her arm, whilst she danced like a figure skater, weaving her blade through the stale air, with venomous ire.

I stepped back, anticipating the sword, and caught the sword with my cybernetic arm. I pulled the blade towards me, drawing the Reaver in. Then, swung my right arm, trying to clothesline her, but she ducked, jabbing a finger into my side, kneeling me in one go.

I spun away despite the pain, and ducked under a wild swipe she loosed at my head after I released her sword.

The momentum of our next exchange took me up a wall, running, dodging and skidding across the ground, barely able to either counterattack or gain some advantage over her. If there was one thing I’d have to say, she was good…really good.

“Nel Tav’AFA Spec-Ops Training,” The Reaver stated, voice roiling. I held my hands up, and kept my smile from the show, but motioned to the right, keeping my left open.

“You know your styles,” I countered.

“Maybe.”

The Reaver went left, whilst I skipped back, trying to protect my right. I could sense the faint, and dodged a slash from her sword. She tossed it in the air drawing my eyes toward it. Then, kicked me in the chest which sent me flying two meters.

I rolled back, using the momentum from the kick to keep the distance between, then looked up, watching her sail in the air towards me, blade in hand. Then kicked myself up, hearing the booming ding and crackle, as her sword cracked the ground, as she missed me.

I sidestepped a wild kick, then drilled my cybernetic arm into her side, watching her float about ten inches off the ground, but that didn’t stop her.

She spun in the air, drilling a knee into my face, but luckily that was my left side, where my cybernetics were, sending me back five steps.

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“Is that all you got?.” I howled, feeling fatigue flare up in my arm. The Barrage of punches I flung, increased with each snap of my shoulder, making her scamper back. I noticed she was too reliant on that sword, so I kept myself close, not giving her enough space to swing. I swept my foot down, leaving myself open to a thrust. She took the bait, so I spun away, barely missing the blade's tip and skidded across the roof, slapping the back of her head with a loud thud.

A vocoder groan echoed across the ELT.

“I guess you do have a brain in there,” I quipped. Not my best, but good enough. I danced to the right, skipping my feet back and forth, anticipating her blade’s trajectory and guessed correctly.

The anger in her technique was now evident, it was still refined, but not as precise, so I took advantage of that, by leaving my right side open, and dodging at the last second.

The frustrated groans and puffs she hissed, were like music to my ears. I hadn’t fought a Cyborg in a long while, but It was still good to see my technique was still as sharp as ever.

“What’s the deal with your voice?” I scoffed, dodging each slash attempt she made at my body. Her white teeth gleamed in the lowly lit ELT strip, and I wondered if she brushed them regularly. “Sounds like you swallowed a frog and he’s trying to crawl back up your throat,” I said, winking at her with a smile.

The Reaver screamed again and I increased the tempo of my punches as best as I could. Despite my right arm screaming for mercy. Not yet. Not yet.

I didn’t exercise for no reason, there was always an odd chance such as this. But, after spending a night battling scum, I was truly pissed about being tossed around like a rag doll, not to deal with the Mangol’s hit squad of Cyborg Assassins. Reavers. Bullshit.

In truth, though, Nova was assisting me quietly, gauging my opening through my Cybernetic, feeding me when to dodge, and where to move. If she wasn’t active, I would’ve been sliced long ago.

But that only mattered if my body could hold up to the pace at which she fought but from the looks of it. I couldn’t last much longer.

My right arm was burning from fatigue, but I kept them up, sliding out of the katana’s direction at the right moment. Each time she missed a swipe, I stepped in. But I heard her suit scraping against the gravel each time I did, and she obtained distance once more, not letting me slap her at the back of her again.

I remembered the dampeners woven through her magnetic suit. My best form of attack was to knock her out, but with each passing second, my speed slowed, whilst hers increased. I’m getting tired.

I skipped forward trying to bait her by leaving my right side open. She took the bait and I felt an ever-pulsing pain in my right shoulder.

DAMN IT!

Not wanting to lose this opportunity, I grabbed the katana watching its blade turn from silver to orange and set ablaze my now shredded jacket.

I felt the heat from the blade penetrate my jacket, and my right hand began to feel the blade’s heat. I winced in that one second and knew. It’s now or never. I stimulated my SMB, kicking my Cybernetic arm into overdrive.

The vents of my arm snapped open, like a walnut being smashed by a hammer.

The heated blade began to slice through my palm, making me wince, and as much as I wanted to release the blade, it was either hold on...or die.

I rocked my hand back, hearing the hiss of steam fluttering in my ear and loosed my into the Reaver’s blade, snapping it into two. Relief washed over me and I felt the weightlessness return to my right shoulder, I swept my right foot, relieving the Reaver of her balance.

The subtle gasp the Reaver made, was like a robot bird fluttering in the distance. Painfully pleasant, All at the same time.

I dropped the singed jacket from my right hand, sliding the broken blade into my hand, pain and all, twirling it within my fingertips and jamming the blade violently into the Reaver’s eye.

The Reaver wailed at the top of her lungs, making my eardrums rumble from the octave her voice elevated to. It was like hearing someone scream on the microphone whilst sitting right in front of the speakers. Painful.

I churned the blade in her eye socket and the harrowing glow that once exhumed from her eyes finally dissipated, and so did her scream.

The Reaver was dead.

I pushed myself up and eyed her corpse. The body lay mangled on the ground as if twisted rope. Her eyes were narrow as usual, but now devoid of life. She still held the broken sword in her hand, but lifelessly.

I eyed her for a full minute. It didn’t take long for the blow to the head I received to finally start throbbing. Adrenaline does that, pros and cons of battle.

I’d gone through the toughest training anyone could receive. But I couldn’t lie, I truly felt tattered, after such a short battle. A jolt of pain washed over my body starting from my back...like a wave of electricity shocking me fully. Am I truly this weak? I fell to one knee. The pain pulsed, then subtly disappeared.

My mind began to go blank as if I were too tired to think, then the pain in my back came alive again.

I hunted my entire back, trying to find this abnormal pain, and came across a small protrusion, in the form of a smooth bead. I pulled it out, feeling a sharp pain as I slowly did so.

It was a tranquiliser dart, and before I could utter a word I was knocked out cold.

Today isn’t my day.