Chapter 87:Final attack.
Chapter 87: 87:Final attack.
The assassin’s eyes narrowed. His shoulder bled from Silver’s earlier bullets and his thigh dragged slightly every time he shifted his weight. Despite this, his movements were still frighteningly fast, but no longer perfect.
Silver instantly noticed.
’He’s favoring his left leg.’
It was a tiny mistake but still enough for Silver.
"Ravenna."
She didn’t take her eyes off the giant.
"What?"
"I want you keep the busy as far away from him as possible. Make sure he’s too busy to look at our direction. Can you do that?."
She frowned.
"... Will you be okay?"
"I hope so, this might be our last chance... I’ll take the assassin. You just keep the big one busy as I’ve instructed."
She briefly hesitated.
"Are you really sure?"
"No." He chuckled. "But he’s bleeding and I don’t like leaving wounded enemies behind me."
Despite everything, she actually smiled.
"...Fine."
The strength contractor lunged again, his blade carving a trench through the earth. Ravenna slid aside, heat erupting around her sword.
The Fire Wolf’s power responded to her emotions far more naturally now after a few fights. The flames no longer burst out wildly, they wrapped around her blade like living serpents.
Every movement left burning arcs in the air. She had no formal technique, yet, but she had experience of fighting beasts larger than herself with nothing except timing and courage.
The giant swung horizontally, she ducked beneath it. The enormous blade passed just above her white hair.
She answered with a slash across his ribs.
SHHHK!
The flames bit intoo his armor, enough to leave a smoking black mark.
The giant growled. "...Elemental brat."
’Go’
Silver moved.
[Phantom Draw Lv3]
His pistol appeared in his hand almost instantly. The assassin instinctively reacted but he was still to slow.
BANG!
The first bullet forced him sideways.
BANG!
And the second grazed his arm. The assassin accelerated despite his already injured leg, his body blurring between broken pillars.
Silver didn’t chase him, instead he took a deep breathed. His military instructor echoed in his mind.
’Fast targets don’t outrun bullets; they outrun panic.’
He slowed his breathing, trackingthe assassin’s rhythm instead of his body. He couldn’t use his space abilities too much when he was near, to loosing conscious.
That would be his last resort if push came to shove.
He carefully assessed, waiting for that perfect moment; A pause, every speed user had one. It was the moment they planted a foot before changing direction.
Silver patiently waited.
The assassin smugly smiled.
’He can’t keep up.’
One more step, there... Silver fired.
BANG!
The bullet crossed the battlefield. The assassin changed direction, exactly as Silver expected. Instead of dodging, he ran straight into the round.
The reinforced bullet tore through his already wounded thigh, more blood sprayed everywhere.
The assassin screamed. His leg folded beneath him. The moment caused him to crash shoulder-first into a collapsed concrete pillar.
"...AAAGH!"
Silver didn’t hesitate, he drew his combat knife and closed the remaining distance. The assassin desperately reached for another blade.
Silver kicked it away and the piece of metal clattered across the ground.
The assassin looked up, for the first time, there was fear in his shaking eyes.
"You..." Silver said quietly, "You should’ve have done what a speedster does best, run."
The assassin laughed bitterly.
"...Professionals... don’t run."
"Oh, i know. It was merely a figure of speech. Last words and all."
Silver drove the knife downward without as much as a flinch. It pierced cleanly between the assassin’s ribs, straight into his heart.
The man’s eyes widened. His mouth opened as though he wanted to speak but no words came, only blood.
A few seconds later... the body went still.
The battlefield fell silent, Silver slowly pulled the knife free. He closed the dead man’s eyes almost absentmindedly.
"...Rest."
He wasn’t hin onoring the assassin. He was honoring someone who had accepted death the moment he accepted the contract.
Then, a roar unlike anything before shook the riverbed. The strength contractor had seen everything and the realization fully sank that his partner was dead.
They had been patners for years, since they joined the assassins Conven.
His face twisted.
"...NO!"
Pure beast energy erupted around him far greater than bef ore causing the ground to crack beneath his feet.
He abandoned every trace of discipline and his sword became a whirlwind of raw power. Ravenna barely managed to block the first strike.
BOOM!
She was thrown backward nearly ten meters.The second strike split an abandoned truck in half. The third shattered another bridge support. Huge chunks of concrete crashed down around them.
Silver reached Ravenna.
"You doing okay?"
She nodded while catching her breath.
"...He’s pissed."
"No."
Silver watched the giant tear apart the battlefield.
"...He’s grieving."
There was a difference, anger made people dangerous while grief made them reckless.
Silver smiled.
"Thats what we needed from either of them, if one dies, we will win now. The power to think rationally is basically almost gone."
Ravenna immediately understood.
"Because he’s thinking emotionally."
Silver nodded.
"Exactly."
The strength contractor charged at both of them. His swings had lost precision. Each attack was stronger but sloppier than the last.
Silver fired twice at the concrete pillar beside him rather than the man himself.
BANG!
BANG!
Cracks spread instantly with each reinforced bullet. The giant contractor ignored them, another mistake on his part.
Ravenna darted forward, she deliberately met his blade. Fire exploded around the impact and the giant instinctively pushed harder exactly as she wanted.
The weakened pillar finally collapsed after a few more bullets. Several tons of reinforced concrete crashed directly onto the contractor.
He looked up, and his pupils constricted but it was too late.
CRAAAAASH!
Dust swallowed the battlefield as the remains piled up on top of each other, the ground trembling violently through out.
Afterwards, suffocating silence followed. Silver didn’t move, he kept his pistol raised.
"...Don’t assume."
Ravenna nodded. The dust slowly settled, a massive slab had crushed the contractor from the waist down. His sword lay several meters away.
He was barely alive. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He looked at Silver the moment he got closer, then at the body of his partner.
A sad smile crossed his face.
"...Guess... we failed."
Silver approached carefully. The contractor laughed weakly.
"Don’t bother asking... ack!...who hired us."
"I wasn’t going to." Silver answered honestly."You wouldn’t tell me anyway."
The giant chuckled.
"...Good...Means...you’re smarter than most."
His breathing became shallower. Silver quietly picked up the fallen sword.
"...Any last words?"
The giant looked toward the morning sky.
"...Should’ve... ...retired, yesterday."
Silver nodded once ,then, with a single clean swing... it was over. Silver lightly rubbed the shoulder he had been stabbed, gauging how deep the knife had gone, while looking down at the rolling head and the blood soaking into the ground.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes, only the wind moved through the ruined riverbed. Finally, Ravenna broke the silence.
"...Let’s leave."
Silver agreed. First, however, he searched both bodies. As expected they were professionals; no family emblems, contractor badges or identification.
Even their communication modules had been chemically burned from the inside.
They moved their search to their car and found no form of identification. Only practical supplies remained; ammunition, healing injections, several high-grade monster cores and enough fuel to refill their vehicle.
Silver packed everything into storage cases inside their car which had somehow survived the fight due to being deep in the grass and thickets.
"Nothing here either."
Ravenna sighed. "They planned to disappear after killing us."
"They already had." Silver glanced once more at the bodies. "Someone spent a fortune making sure they couldn’t be traced."
Before he could enter the vehicle, Ravenna tapped him on his injured shoulder. It was too light to hurt.
"The knife Silver, it will dig deeper the more you move."
Silver turned to her and ran his hand through his hair, forgetting he had blood on it.
"There is nothing I can do about it at the moment."
"I know," she said," but it looks..."
"Actually, it’s not that deep," he quietly reassured her," I’ll clean it up fast, just get in the car. The knife was a small pocket knife so it’s only in the muscle."
"I’ll drive..."
"No, I’ll do it," she hesitated when he said that, Silver sighed," Just trust me, I won’t hurt myself."
Ravenna glanced at his reassuring smiled then hesitantly nodded.
Silver nodded and waited for her to go to her seat. He walked to the boot of the car and opened it.
He took out the first aid box and poured disinfectant on the knife wound before lightly wrapping some bandages around the wound.
He was in a hurry, before Ravenna suddenly decided, her adrenaline had done its work and came back to her senses.
He locked the boot and walked to the driver’s, Ravenna was standing on her side.
Silver nodded.
They climbed back into their vehicle and the engine coughed once then started. Silver drove away without looking back.
Neither of them noticed, far above the shattered bridge... Hidden among the broken remains of an old observation tower, a lone figure slowly lowered a pair of military binoculars.
He hadn’t fired or intervened, he had simply watched the entire battle from beginning to end.
As Silver’s vehicle disappeared down the highway, the observer touched the communicator in his ear.
"...Target survived."
A long silence answered him, then a calm voice spoke from the other end.
"So...the reports were true." The observer frowned. "They weren’t ordinary rookies."
"I know." The voice remained unnervingly composed. "Continue following them. But this time... don’t engage."
The transmission ended. The observer looked once more toward the road where Silver and Ravenna had vanished.