*Slam!
"...Is that the last of them?"
Ester's breaths came out harsh and short as he desperately consumed what little oxygen was left in the tank before he was forced to subsist on the planet's toxic gases.
As for why he wasn't being constantly supplied with the clean stale air that was a whole lot safer than the planets, it would be because of those big beefy green slugnuts.
Having flanked them with their familiarity with the underground as its violent locals, Ester was forced to participate in close combat while Eva continued to pick off any greenie's trying to join the brawl from the chasm.
Clearly speaking, those greenie's weren't exactly the best of fighters.
But what they lacked in skill, they all but made up for it brawn.
The Respirator on the verge of malfunctioning and purple bruises on his chest where a fist had landed earlier was all the proof that he needed to avoid the fists like a plague.
Thankfully, their size made it hard to hit him without hitting each other, a fact that he abused quite often when slipping in and out of their grasp.
It did make landing the killing blow difficult when he needed to cut through lots of flesh, but their skin wasn't so thick that he couldn't penetrate it.
That aside though, with his chest piece broken apart to the point that exposed the inner workings and interlocked gears, soon enough he would be breathing in this planet's unfiltered air once his Oxygen tank ran out.
'And speak of the devil.'
Feeling his next breath instantly assault his nerves with the sensation of pain, the heavily contaminated air began to scrape at every cell in his body with every next breath he took.
It was fucking irritating.
Distractedly running his hands over his grey hair as he looked for a functioning Respirator or at least an intact air tank, Ester realized that he shouldn't be able to run his fingers through his hair if the hood was still up.
The hood wasn't up.
Hurriedly pulling up his hood that must've been blown off by the wind generated from the Tork Gangster's punching at the air, Ester looked around, wondering if anyone had seen his grey hair.
Realizing that most if not all of the people that might've seen it had already disappeared from the underground market, Ester breathed out a sigh of relief and instantly regretted it.
'Ouch.'
Remembering once again that his Respirator was broken, Ester turned around when he felt something tap his shoulder.
Coming face to face with the hole of a crossbow, Ester felt his heart drop down to his stomach before he noticed the face of the woman holding it. [Did I scare you?]
Wanting to speak but realizing that his throat hurt even more if he tried to, he settled for nodding his head.
[Why aren't you speaking?] Eva lowered her crossbow, eyes landing onto the respirator exposing a set of broken pumps and locked gears. [Ah.]
Holstering her crossbow into the large overcoat she wore on her shoulders, she dislodged the spare oxygen tank from her chest and handed it to him.
Taking it while disconnecting his old one, when he reconnected the oxygen lines to his mask, Ester took in a deep breath filled with relief as almost instantly, the effects of clean breathable air made itself known.
"Hahhh."
Loosening his posture, Eva poked him on the shoulder.
[Are you okay idiot?]
"Fuck no." Ester answered Eva with a groan, his limbs heavy with tiredness as he looked for some painkillers.
[Then maybe don't pick fights with gangs controlling the entire town next time?] Eva sarcastically said before she handed him a bottle of drugs. [Painkillers, Coagulant, Blood Maker and Immunity boosters.]
"In hindsight it was stupid of me to not bribe the enforcer to look the other way."
[Hindsight would've said that you should've taken the big guy into some dark corner to merc his ass, but that's just my take on it.]
"...In my defense, the only source of intelligent interaction I've had for over three years is you."
[Thank you for calling me intelligent, I knew that took a lot of effort.]
"Not when the bar is so low on this planet its not."
Eva stared at Ester [...]
Ester stared at Eva "..."
[So mister genius, what's the plan now that you've just made us enemies with this Tork Family?] Eva changed the subject, kicking the headless corpse already bearing signs of Air poisoning for emphasis.
"First off, I don't suppose you have any new clothes? Pretty sure that everyone and their mother should know that we killed enforcers of the Tork Family if we go wandering around in blood soaked clothes"
Pointing at his coat in emphasis, Eva shook her head.
[No? You came out the Driller with me, if I had any spares, you would've known already.]
"Fair." Ester picked at the bloody coat stickily clinging to his skin, all of it not his own thankfully, the blood reacting violently to the chemicals heavily laden in the air.
When he said that the air wanted to kill people just for the sin of being alive, it wasn't an exaggeration in the slightest.
[That isn't to say that I don't know where to find some, so why don't you go take off your clothes in some corner while I go get some.]
Nodding his head, Ester moved to one of the more inconspicuous corners of the underground market hidden from plain sight.
Gingerly taking off all the clothes soaked in blood all the while the blood sizzled with waves of cold and heat, he dumped the bloodied onto the ground as Eva returned with a brand new set of clothes in her hands.
Spotting his nearly naked form, Eva's eyes waggled appreciatively at him as she handed the pile of clothes at him.
[If you walked out naked in the middle of Ash town, I can bet my new legs that everyone's going to be to busy staring at that ass of yours to pay attention to your grey hair.]
"Hardy har har Eva, don't talk as if you don't have grey hair yourself."
Rolling his eyes, Ester took the new bunch of clothes from Eva, its form bearing dust particularly on its behind.
Dusting it off slightly as he began to put it on, Ester changed the subject.
"Where'd you get these?"
[From that guy who was paid a fist for his knife.]
"That makes sense."
Donning the final piece of clothing and adjusting the hood so that it fully covered his grey hair, Ester began to use his discarded clothes as a cloth for the bloodsoaked blade.
"So onto the second order of business, want to join me on an impromptu looting spree?" He looked around at the underground market destroyed thanks to the violent actions of the Tork family.
Violent actions prompted by their killing of an enforcer but those were useless details.
"I don't think anyone's going to be using their things anytime soon." Ester said.
[...] Eva stared silently at Ester without answering.
"...Hey, are you okay?" Ester lightly poked her stomach. "You didn't get more brain damage than you already have did you?"
[No brain damage, it's just that we seem to be missing something very important.]
"And that would be...?"
[Our cart.]
Ester blinked before hurriedly casting his gaze at the corner where a deactivated hover coat should've been carrying all of their goods.
It was gone, the only proof of its existence being the distinct scratch marks on the ground from someone trying to drag it away before noticing the hover function.
"...Do you remember what that old man taught us?"
[Yeah, I can tell the exact thing that you're talking about.]
"Do you remember what that old man taught us about tracking?"
[How to make sure whoever takes your stuff regrets it? Yep.]
"Well what are we waiting for? The end of the world?"
[We can wait for the end of the world if you want.]
"You know what I'm talking about you bitch." Ester laughed playfully as he tossed his even more bloodied shirt away, the blade in his arm retracting silently as he rolled his wrist.
[No I don't you bastard.] Eva's eyes turned into crescents as she playfully tapped his raised arm with the back of her wrist, her steps bringing her closer to the corner where the hover cart was.
The keyword here being was.
"Do you want to do the honors or shall I?"
[It's best to experience new things in moderation.]
"Fancy way of saying you want to try." Ester laughed.
[You know me so well.] Shrugging her shoulders, Eva kneeled onto the ground and pressed at her lower leg panels, exposing a small tracker that she pulled out.
Fixing its two antennae and letting it catch the ambient aether signatures in the air, Eva fixed it to the most recently recognized Aether input and clicked confirm, the screen forming a spinning arrow that soon pointed to the side.
[Gotcha.]
"So where to your highness?"
[Right this way my Knight.]
Gesturing towards an alleyway, Eva led them along a set of winding paths that led them deeper and deeper into the underground.
On the surface, Ash town seemed like a small place, but that was just the surface.
Like many of the other cities and towns that existed on this planet, Ash town also built downwards to escape the harsh weather conditions inhabiting the Trash Planet's atmosphere.
The recent firing of Project Void Buffer's rockets might have formed deep chasms and rifts in the midst of Ash Town's underground world, but the underground world still existed.
And it was in this underground world that Ester and Eva continued to walk in.
Following the arrow on the trackers screen, they went up stairs, down stairs, across pathways, over newly formed bridges, over old bridges and even through a building that seemed to be a drug addicts den.
The Drug addicts weren't so high on drugs as to not recognize a sword arm when they saw it though.
Still following the tracker whilst ignoring that brief event of scared druggies, the two of them eventually found themselves at the bottom of a set of stairs heading upwards.
But instead of taking the path up like the tracker suggested, they stopped at the base of the steps thanks to a man who blocked their way.
A man who had their trolley hovering right besides him.
A man who looked all to familiar.
Eva subtly tapped at his back, confirming his suspicions.
'It's that Sticky fingers that tried to steal Eva's air canister.'
It seemed that he wasn't satisfied with just pickpocketing if he was currently in possession of their things.
Staring at the Pickpocket who stared back, Ester moved to take a step forwards and froze.
Feeling a tingle on the back of his neck, when he looked around, Ester was able to spot several eyes peering at him from within the shadows, the subtle glint of blades briefly reflecting the light.
'Never thought I would be fighting again so soon.'
Stepping back in unison with Eva to a point where they had more cover, the Pickie raised his hands in surrender, his voice placating.
"Before you prepare to fight us, how about you listen to what I have to say first? You can choose if you want to try and kill everyone here later. Keyword on the word, try."
Pausing in his motions, Ester glanced back at Eva who froze similarly, her hands already revealing a crossbow loaded with metal pellets and their final third of the way filled air Canister.
Communicating with their eyes, the exchange was simple but it could be roughly summarized like this.
'Should we?'
'Maybe.'
'Is the stuff in there important?'
'Not really.'
'Should we listen?'
'What's the harm?'
Of course they hadn't learned telepathy, that was the domain of two high level Channelers, but they knew each other well enough to understand what the other was thinking.
Reaching their final conclusion, Ester pulled back his visibly extended blade, Eva still keeping a hidden grasp on her crossbow.
"What is it that you want to say!" Ester shouted at the man a rough stone throws away.
Lowering his hands as he noticed that they were at least willing to hear him out, he half bowed towards them.
"First off, as the leader of Handsy weed, I have to thank you for killing the enforcers sent by the Tork family."
---
3 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER WAS EXECUTED
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Tree that got good results in the IELTS test
7.5 believe or not
[Rewrite]