Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 268: Sinking Ship

With the first target completely stripped, they moved on to the next one. They already had the place loosely surrounded, pulling the same trick as before to try and reduce the chances of anyone noticing what they were up to. Sage brought King and Black Saber to quickly take out the guards. Their actions were quite flawless in the beginning, but somehow the very last guard they went after acted with impressive speed and smashed a jade talisman before he was knocked unconscious.

None of them recognized the talisman, but Sage immediately kicked the remains of the talisman away. He had no idea if it was a weapon or communication device. He could only assume they were no longer unnoticed and their options were to attack or flee immediately. Since theyd already removed all the local headquarters guards, the chances of the City Guards being alerted were small. With that in mind, they chose to push the attack. Sage, King, and Black Saber rushed towards the main building at high speed and they each chose a different point of entry. Sage leapt into a side window, Black Saber sliced his large saber through the front door, and King hopped onto the roof, running across the tiles.

Black Saber burst inside and saw a half dozen guards rushing towards him. Sage on the other hand entered an empty room and quickly made his way to the hallway. Peeking out, he saw Black Saber locked in combat with the guards. Two of them were already down, and Black Saber was making quick work of the rest. The opponents realized they were outclassed and also saw that Black Saber hadnt killed the first two guards. Three of the four immediately nodded to each other and changed their formation, fighting defensively to buy time. The fourth took off running, letting his friends cover his retreat.

The fourth man didnt make it far before he stumbled and fell to the floor. The Twin Soul currently inside his body, ruining his concentration and forcing him into an internal battle. Sage ran over and quickly trussed the man up with wires. They werent sure how evil these common guards were, so they were doing their best to keep from killing. The higher ups of the Yi Yang Group were surely committing atrocities, but these people might have no idea what was going on. Sage sent the Twin Soul to help Black Saber once the runner had been tied up and knocked unconscious. If Black Saber wanted to kill, he could have taken out the whole group of guards with just a few cuts, but Sage made him hold back so he may as well help.

Sage checked each room they passed while Black Saber kept on guard. They didnt find much of value along the way, but the little bits they did, Sage threw into the Universe Ring. Eventually they reached the huge doors to the innermost chamber of the local headquarters. Sage hid himself from view and Black Saber slashed the doors open with a single sudden vertical cut. A blade of energy passed into the gap between the double doors and sliced clean through the bolts, locks, and bars. He kicked the doors open and walked in aggressively. Within the hall there were three men. One middle aged man at the head of a table, and two old men standing at his shoulders.

Interesting. Its only been a few hours, yet youre here already. That means you must have some relation to those responsible. Perfect. I was looking for a way to vent my anger.

The middle aged man spoke calmly, not seeming intimidated by Black Sabers power or presence. The man summoned forth his aura, and it was like a heavy blanket of shadow fell upon them. Sage and Black Saber felt their knees quiver from the heavy presence, and both immediately knew that this man was much stronger than Black Saber. They were both in the fifth rank, but Black Saber was only in the third stage.

A level 56? This isnt going to go well.

Just then, there was a noise that came from outside and Sage sent his Twin Soul to check. King had noticed a large group leaving a nearby building just outside the property of the Yi Yang Group. The size of the group and their actions pushing through the Hoplite in the crowd caught his attention. King abandoned the rooftop and rushed to intercept the large group trying to escape.

Sage agreed that they were likely secretly escaping with the Yi Yang Groups resources. On the other hand, King was their strongest fighter. King was only one stage lower than this enemy, instead of three stages like Black Saber. Kings beast body and strange powers increased his strength even more, and Sage was sure he could fight this man to a standstill. Unfortunately, it was too late. The Twin Soul had no way to communicate outside of pantomiming and King was already rushing into action. The Twin Soul couldnt keep up. They also couldnt use any overt signalling or theyd alert the City Guards.

Black Saber wasnt intimidated by the greater strength of the man in front of him and held up his large black bladed saber. Pointed the tip of the curved blade at the man and smiling, Itll take more than that to scare me!

Sage noticed the two old men standing there motionlessly. They were just too still and calm. He also didnt feel any sort of aura or presence from them. Since they were just trying to intimidate Black Saber, why wouldnt the two men help out?

Retreat! Sage called out to Black Saber.

His instincts were telling him to run, but it was a moment too late. The room Black Saber was standing in suddenly dissolved into soft pink clouds. The table, chairs, artwork on the walls, and even the three men inside were all gone. Even whether or not theyd even been there in the first place was a mystery. Sage took a dozen quick backward leaping steps to escape from the pink cloud rolling out into the hallway. Black Saber on the other hand, slowly lowered his saber. His eyes started to glaze over, losing focus. The pink clouds swirled and a helmet appeared on Black Sabers head. The man always chose not to wear the helmet along with his armor, claiming it covered up his handsome features and restricted his vision.

The helmet he had on now was the same one theyd seen on all the guards outside. It looked similar to a wide brimmed hat, except created out of some sort of metal, and the top smoothly tapered to a point where a spike was mounted. Then, the wide circular brim suddenly lit up. Circles, shapes, and a multitude of array symbols started to glow. There was an array formation built into the brim of the hat, the center of said array being Black Sabers head. The pink clouds continued to seep into the hallway, and Sage continued to retreat from them.

At that moment Black Saber turned around to face Sage. His face was calm and placid, yet he raised his saber and pointed it towards his comrade. Black Saber took off at a run, his legs seeming to slice through the air, cutting through all resistance to close the gap between the two of them. He swept his saber forward, and Sage got to see the strength of Black Sabers attacks by being on their receiving end. From the sides or behind, Black Sabers cuts created a black wave of energy. Yet, from the front, Sage saw nothing. If hed never seen Black Saber fight before then he would have had no idea that the cutting waves Black Saber created didnt match up perfectly with his saber motion. Even if he were to sense the energy emanating from the saber cuts, he would probably try to dodge the motion of the saber.

Instead, Sage had seen many times before that Black Sabers cuts would arc and curve, avoiding those who tried to block his saber and twisting around to sever their extremities invisibly. Thankfully, Sage had seen these moves before. Most would only dodge just enough to avoid an attack, conserving their energy and providing the most minimal disruption to ready a counterattack. Sage did nothing of the sort, diving to the ground in the most wasteful manner, then rolling away and running at his top speed. Hed already abandoned all thoughts of taking the place down and ran rapidly outside. Exiting the building with another roll, the window frame behind him shattered into a dozen pieces. He let out a quick series of loud whistles, signaling the Hoplites.

Everybody run!