When the Tork family appeared, like the hunter that had just disappeared into one of the Underground Markets many little paths, several stall keepers began packing up their things while heading to some place the two newcomers didn't know.
And it didn't take much to understand why.
Watching the big green Splicer as an example, the Tork Family were relying on their big beefy similarly green bodies to do whatever the Void they wanted.
Steal Stuff? Break Things? Hurt People? The Tork Family did it all.
And it wasn't as if people didn't instinctively try to retaliate, but the moment that they did, they received a fist to the head and considering the unnatural size of the gangsters, it usually meant lots of broken teeth.
And death.
Death usually occurred when a head had an unprepared meeting with rock after being sent to the ground after being punched in the face.
So it stood to reason why the atmosphere was the way it was now.
Joining the slowly but surely escaping crowd in their escape from the Tork Family, Ester frowned when he sensed a gaze on the back of his head which he confirmed to still belong to the Big green with a bared chest.
It seemed that even if they escaped from the Big Greens sight, he would still try to find them.
And considering that they were unfamiliar with this place, Ester and Eva might find themselves at a dead end if they tried to escape through the side paths, a road that would inevitably lead them to be trapped.
Glancing at each other before stopping in place, Ester tested the launching mechanisms in his arm as Eva fiddled with a folding crossbow.
In the chance that the Big green chose to pick a fight with them, it did well to be prepared.
And speaking of preparation, Ester scanned every single facet of the Big Green man shoving his way past the swiftly emptying stalls.
Seeing how effortlessly Big Green was shoving his way past the emptied stalls, Ester thought about how all those muscles weren't all for show.
And by the looks of their bared chest, either the Big green was confident in their durable body or they were an idiot, Ester was currently leaning towards the first option further supported by the complete lack of respirator attached to their frame.
Because why Splice lungs able to function properly in this toxic environment if you won't graft skin able to protect said lungs from the similarly toxic rain?
Staring at the big green skinned Splicer picking at their large yellow tusk with a large knife he stole from a shopkeeper who received a fist to the skull as payment, eventually Big Green neared them.
Giving a wide grin as he stopped his feet right next to them, Ester was made aware of his large frame that towered over them while also taking up two thirds of the corridor able to fit three adult men side by side.
Grinning widely, the green Tork Gangster made a show of all their teeth as he began chewing on the blade, visibly indenting it as he leaned on the wall blocking the path forwards.
"Hey there cutie."
[Would you go away if I said I'm not interested?]
Turning their orange gaze towards Eva, it instantly filled with disgust as he looked her up and down.
"Suits me, I'm not interested in women."
Freezing in place as her brain buffered from the statement, Ester gained a strange look underneath his Respirator mask as he stared at the big muscled figure.
"Could- Could you repeat that?"
"Do you want to be boy toy cutie?" The Big Green took a big bite off of the knife, making a show of eating it to its base components before swallowing. "You might want to think about your answer Cutie."
'Nope, I'm not hallucinating.' Hearing Big green repeat his words in a gravely voice, Ester confirmed that he wasn't hallucinating as the Big Green indeed wanted him for reasons beyond his imagination.
But focusing on the fact of the matter, it seemed that he was being asked to become a boy toy for this Tork gangster.
'And if we just go back in time a few moments ago to when Big Green nearly just punched that shopkeeper in the skull for no reason, it stands to reason that Big Green isn't asking nicely.'
He glanced to Eva's side and noticed that she had moved the Hover Trolley to the side where it wouldn't be touched by what he would do.
Letting out a small sigh that was masked by the sound of the Respirator pumping air into his lungs, Ester looked up at the Big green looking down at him with lustful orange eyes.
"What's going to happen if I say no?"
Big Green's orange eyes dimmed slightly as if not expecting that.
Frowning as he spat the ball of steel that was once the well made dagger, the Tork Gangster picked at his ears as he loomed menacingly over his form.
Now Ester was short, a fact that he had come to terms with due to a distinct lack of actual nutrition on this trash planet, but Big Green over here exemplified that short feeling as he craned his neck up at the big man.
Letting a breath of hot air blast out of his nose, Big Green glared down at him.
"You're lucky you have a cute face and butt but I will still mess you the fuck up."
"How can you mess me up when you don't have a head?"
Big Green's eyes widened in surprise. "Are you threatening me?"
"Maybe, maybe not. What's it to you?"
Big Green laughed loudly, attracting the attention of several of the Tork Family members shuffling their way through the market before he bared his two large tusks. "If you don't want to ruin your relationship with the Tork Family, I recommend not threatening one of its enforcers."
Ester's eyes turned placid. "Well good thing I already fucked up my relationship with the Tork Family."
"Huh?" Tilting his head to the side in confusion, Big Green wondered why his vision was tilting this much before his eyes began to look up at the Grey Haired boy and a large green body without a head.
'Wait grey hair...?' Thinking that as his last thought, several dozens of eyes locked onto him with silent disbelief.
---
The moment that Ester acted, his surroundings which were filled with the crude murmurs and curses at the Tork family accompanied by the usual cry of pain instantly fell silent.
Staring in disbelief at the fact one of the Tork Family's enforcers was decapitated, it was only when the green giants body fell and collapsed onto the ground that they finally realized several somethings.
One of the Enforcers of the Tork Family had just been decapitated.
The killer was a hooded man with an arm made of metal.
They had to exact revenge on the man who had just killed one of their enforcers.
Chaos instantly bloomed as the body collapsed onto the ground, the intent to kill him radiating intensely from all of their green bodies as they abandoned their entertainment and began to shove their way to the him currently located on floor -3.
If it meant killing someone in their way, they were more than glad to use their body as a weapon.
And as the receiver of all this killing intent, Ester felt no regret in his heart as he pulled out his sling.
"I get first dibs on the girl!" A loud voice shouted as the multitude of eyes landed onto the woman currently loading bolts into her crossbow.
'No regret but maybe a little anger.' Ester thought as crushed a clump of the concrete ground into a small ball using his right hand.
Loading the rock into the sling, he raised his left hand over his head as he begun to spin the sling, the whistle of wind splitting apart in the slings path entering his ears as he aimed it at the nearest Tork Gangster.
'Architects bless me like you did David when he fought Goliath.'
The rock flew.
---
Eva watched with quiet anticipation as the rock struck through the air, instantly colliding against the skull of the Tork gangster clambering up the large chasm opening up the underground marketplace.
Her anticipations were duly met as the Tork Gangster froze in place when the rock smashed a hole into their skull.
Letting out a dumb sound of confusion as they tried to feel their head, Eva watched as the Tork Gangster's eyes rolled up into his skull as they let go of the ground, falling backwards into the chasm.
Wanting to smile at the sight but being unable to thanks to her lack of mouth, Eva wanted to frown but was again, unable to thanks to her lack of mouth.
Feeling irritation well up in her throat as she suppressed the urge to scratch her throat where Ester could see, she instead opted to take in the eye candy that was Ester.
Watching him loose rock after rock at the Green skinned Gangsters trying but failing to make headway into the hall that Ester and Eva stood, it seemed that even those seemingly muscles for brains gangster realized that things weren't working.
So they opted for using ranged weapons of their own.
*BANG!
Eva hurriedly dodged.
Large Metal spears whistled through the air as it sunk into the walls as easily as a knife would with an unspliced body.
Feeling a drop of cold sweat roll down her forehead as she watched the metal bolts tear through her previous position, Eva took stock of what ammo she had on hand.
Consisting of twenty one metal crossbow bolts, several metal beads and three canister of heavily pressurized air, it seemed two dozen of the metal beads would be going unused since a single air canister would only be able to fire three dozen beads.
A pity that the recent flipping of the driller had punctured holes into seals of the rest of their Air canisters otherwise she would be lacking beads to fire instead of air canisters
But it wasn't like they could use plasma cells or gunpowder either.
With how violently they react, Eva wasn't willing to risk her hand for higher penetrating power.
Something that one of those Tork Family members were willing to do apparently if the explosion that occurred behind her could be used as evidence.
Or was that just something that Ester did?
Glancing at Ester who was loading something into the empty sling in his left hand, he met her gaze and opened his right hand, revealing a lightbulb taped together with a small battery powering it.
Wanting to laugh at the proud look on his face, Eva paused when she realized again that this ArchitectDamnedSpeaker lodged into her throat where her voice box would be stopped her.
Suppressing the urge to scratch madly at the metal apparatus like so many times before, she instead let a hiss of air escape her throat
Eva knew that these hisses of air that she was so found of doing were the usual culprits for breaking her speaker, but she couldn't remove the irritation otherwise.
She glared at the Tork Gangsters firing at her eye candy.
'But I might just find a new way to get rid of this fucking irritation I feel.'
Loading an arrow into the crossbow alongside several metal beads and a singular air canister, she fired onto the Tork family Gangsters throwing everything they could get their hands on in hopes of incapacitating one of them.
Funny enough, all those muscles that the gangsters wasn't enough to compensate for the shit aim they had.
Feeling a bit of her irritation slip away as she fired the metal beads into the eyes of the Gangsters that weren't as durable as their skins were, Eva hissed quietly.
---
3 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER WAS EXECUTED
+++
Post IELTS part 2
Tree
[Rewrite]