Damien and Elena moved cautiously through the south block. And Elena's voice came out quiet.
"You think your old man will be fine?"
Damien didn't look back.
"He'll be fine." he said simply. His hand rested on the hilt of his katana.
Elena nodded faintly, her gaze lingering on the smoke curling from a distant.
Then she froze.
"Damien…"
Her eyes locked onto a figure stumbling down the sidewalk. It was Ravyn. He was barely upright, leaning heavily on wall and his movements agonizingly slow. He was covered in dried blood and his body was visibly shaking.
Damien smirked. "Well, would you look at that? We didn't even have to look for the anomaly after all."
Ravyn looked up slowly, and saw Damien and Elena, the pain in his eyes was instantly replaced by survival instinct. He he clenched his fist and the wall he was leaning on cracked violently. He shot the debris at the two Candidates.
Elena dove aside, flipping mid-air as debris whistled past her. Damien flash-stepped forward in a blur of motion, his katana flashing as he sliced through the flying rubble with blinding speed. Closed the distance to Ravyn in a blur, raising the katana for a killing blow.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Gunshot tore from the rooftop above. Damien was forced to block the impact of the heavy rounds with the flat of his katana, the force of the shots slamming into his forearm and forcing him to retreat several paces. He spun around, furious and looking for the shooter.
A figure launched himself off the roof in a reckless leap, landing lightly between the two warring parties. His white hair gleaming under the pale moonlight. Twin rifles hung lazily in his hands.
"Going after a guy who's half-dead?" the white-haired man said. "That ain't a fair fight." Then his eyes landed on Elena and his grin widened. "But... then again. If all the targets looked like that, I might excuse some lapses in judgment."
Elena's eyes narrowed and she lunged, two black shadow blades generating from her palms and slashing at the newcomer's neck.
The man didn't flinch. In an instant, the riffles twisted and reformed into two silver blades. He twisted smoothly, catching her strike and using her momentum to off-balance her. With almost theatrical grace, he released one blade, caught her by the waist, and steadied her as she nearly fell.
"Can't let a beauty like you fall, now can I?" he said with a wink.
Damien roared, lunging forward with a furious slice. The white-haired man jumped with Elena still in his hands. She pushed him hard. And he used the rebound from the push to launch himself backward, kicking off the wall and delivering a stunning heel-kick directly at Damien's chest.
Damien crossed the non-sharp side of his katana defensively. The kick hit, sending him tumbling back several feet.
The white-haired man executed a graceful backflip, landing lightly on the pavement. He instantly snapped his attention back to his weapons. He caught the two silver blades, fusing them into a single, high-powered machine gun.
"Let's do this!" he shouted, opening fire.
Damien scrambled, forced to sprint and jump behind a derelict car for cover. The machine gun rounds tore through the car body, striking Damien three times in the torso. He staggered, injured but furious.
Elena used the distraction to strike. She reappeared from the shadows and delivered a vicious kick to the side of the man's head. The man ducked, caught himself on one hand and used the other to grab her ankle mid-motion.
With a grin, he twisted lightly enough to make her lose balance, then tossed her backward with almost teasing precision.
Damien stood up, behind the car. And channeled a huge amount of mana into his arm. He threw the sword with overwhelming force directly at the white-haired man.
At the same instant, Ravyn grabbed the nearest heavy object, a wrecked car and hurled it at the scene.
The hurled katana struck the car mid-flight, igniting a brief explosion of sparks and debris as both slammed into their target.
The man went flying backward, landing hard beside the cracked curb. He groaned, rolling onto his back. "The hell was that!?"
Ravyn managed a weak smile. "You're welcome." he whispered, before finally collapsing into unconsciousness.
The man looked at him, then at the other two approaching. He sighed, shaking his head. "Guess I just signed up for babysitting duty." he whispered.
He grabbed a piece of the broken car's rusty fender he found on the ground and it twisted and compressed the metal into a dense smoke bomb.
He threw it.
It burst into a thick cloud of smoke, swallowing the entire street.
And when the haze cleared, both Ravyn and the white-haired man were gone.
Ravyn stirred awake sometime later. His vision was blurry and his body heavy. He was lying on a small cot in a dimly lit workshop, fragments of weapons scattered everywhere.
He woke with a jolt, his unconsciousness snapping quietly.
The white-haired man was nearby, calmly cleaning and patching the deep gash on Ravyn's shoulder. "Hey, slow down." the man said, not looking up. "I didn't heal your wounds."
Ravyn stared at him, the memory of the fight flooding back. "You saved me? Thank you."
The man looked up. "Yeah. Don't mention it." He leaned back in his chair, stretching.
Ravyn managed a faint smirk. "I'm Ravyn, by the way."
The man raised a brow, clearly amused. "That's a woman's name, kid."
"Hey!" Ravyn protested, weak but instantly defensive and annoyed at the familiar tease.
The man laughed. "I'm Kyrren."
"Guess I owe you one, Kyrren." Ravyn said.
Kyrren smirked. "Oh, you'll pay me back, kid. Just not with money."