“Dear me. Looks like you’re in quite the bind. Should I send over your BFF? But who knows how long that will take… Well, I suppose I could lend you a helping hand if you so wish.” The sinister voice whispered as he giggled without restraint.
Nightingale was unaware who exactly was calling out to her but she believed it had something to do with the secret organisation that Meomi was part of. Feeling helpless, she did not hesitate a single moment to ask the sinister voice for help.
“Please, I don’t know who, but make that monster stop!” Nightingale shouted loudly not caring about offending Leopardo. However, because of her defiance, Leopardo was even tougher in his abuse. He utilised more strength in his kicks which sent Nightingale flying to the side of the wall.
The former maid spat out blood from the impact, feeling that something inside of her had snapped, most likely her ribs piercing into her lungs or her stomach rupturing from the strain. Her sight was getting hazy and she was barely at the edge of her consciousness.
“You dare to liken me to those traitorous beasts, who YOU brought to us?! Oh don’t worry, it will all stop in a moment!” Leopardo yelled as he walked even closer to her and raised his right arm which he had used something similar to a magic spell to create. A parting gift from Saberteeth when he told Leopardo to ‘take care’ of the capital and with his brand new temporary arm, he was about to smash her face in.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. I may be an advocate of true gender equality who has no qualms battling a girl in a fair fight, but this? Forcing her to endure your abuse, preventing her from defending or retaliating? How would you like to be in such a situation?” The sinister voice was echoing around the hideout. While Nightingale could only recognise it as the voice who had spoken to her just now, Leopardo was far more familiar with it.
He remembered that voice all too clear and to be honest, he had yet to overcome that trauma about his memories being ripped out forcibly. It was at that moment he suddenly heard a crack. In the next instant, he felt an excruciating pain in his arm, since it had been twisted to the point where an aspiring acrobat would feel jealous.
As if that was not enough he found his legs suddenly sinking down as he was being swallowed by the ground. Some magical quicksand was biting into his armoured boots and binding him.
“IMPOSSIBLE! How did you even find us? I should have sensed your presence! No matter how faint the magical aura was!” Leopardo asked as he tried to pull his dagger out with his remaining hand while tolerating his pain.
Alas, Kraft was not leaving him with the smallest speck of hope. A black fox appeared on the interim leader’s shoulder and a second later, his entire left arm disappeared. There was no pain until he saw the fox jump out and away from the dark magical quicksand with his entire arm in its mouth. Leopardo suddenly experienced a series of phantom pain pulsating through his nerves as the fox started biting on the left arm and munching it away as if it was an afternoon tea snack.
“Where should I begin to tell you about my awesomeness?” Kraft asked in an overly dramatic fashion as he came out of a portal, raising out his arms with confidence and style. “You see, you signed something quite important. A pact with me. Although the contents are vague, not to mention quite useless in this current situation because of your people’s wrongdoings, the important bit can be summed up as you basically signing over your life to me!”
He pulled out a piece of paper with a tinge of blood at the bottom right corner of the contract and came close enough to show it to Leopardo. The interim leader realised that was the blood that Kraft had forced out of his finger. He was about to curse his captor for forcing him into signing it, but the crafty fox already continued his grand spiel.
“But even without this fail safe, your little Southern Star Ninja could have easily led me to you. While she didn’t exactly sign a full claused contract, she is still considered a part time employee with all the benefits such a job entails. Most prominently getting rescued by a roguishly handsome fellow.” Kraft sauntered towards the injured Nightingale and tended to her wounds.
“A normal human without any magical power whatsoever and yet she was doing her best to ride the tide to survive. To die as a punching bag without any means of retaliating is worse than getting toyed with by a predator. At least prey gets a chance to bare their fangs out when cornered, no matter how blunt such an effort might be.” The crafty fox spoke as he placed his hand underneath Nightingale’s chin to have a closer look at her while pushing her hair behind her ears.
“But worry not. I, Great Protector Extraordinaire of all fair and good, shall save you from your imminent death.” He winked at Nightingale who was struggling to keep her breath steady and was unsure if all of this was real or she was hallucinating due to blood loss.
“Thankfully, you are not too stubborn for your own good. Jin should learn a little from you, though he is gradually changing to someone who understands that he cannot protect everyone and yet is selfless enough to protect people who matter.” He smiled once more before turning his head towards Leopardo.
“As for you,” Kraft carefully placed her head down, turning it towards the sinking Leopardo.
“O how enjoyable it is to see fools like you be. Unable to understand even the most basic things. Fine, as a parting gift I can answer your burning curiosity…”
Without any hands to even resist what the sly fox was about to do, Kraft walked on top of the quicksand without any trouble and put his hand through the chain mail and picked up Leopardo’s pendant. “This useless crap can only detect magic up to a certain calibre.” He then lowered his chi presence and suddenly the pendant started blinking and vibrating crazily.
“However, once I get an output higher than what it could detect.” The pendant started to vibrate so much that it stopped vibrating and darkness enveloped the entire crystal on the pendant. “It’s such a useless magical detector and the funny thing is I am not even using magic. Well, explaining the difference between magic is chi to you sounds too bothersome.” He threw the pendant into the quicksand and it melted.
“Instead, I shall show you a performance that you will never forget. Hmm, perhaps you will once you are dead.” Kraft chuckled but Leopardo had no idea what the man in the long coat was saying. Even resisting was futile when he had no arms and his legs were trapped, not to mention the series of pain was starting to emit through his legs as well.
“You see, I’m not much of a healer, so to save the little bird, I need some extra parts. In other words, I got to use you. And judging from the amount of battle experience your body went through, I would say you alone would suffice in saving her.” Kraft explained as he walked away from the quicksand to have a glance at the dying Nightingale.
“Though… she might probably be disgusted that I used your body so let’s keep a secret, shall we?” Kraft winked at him as he once again raised his hands up and dark chi began to flow out and surround the entire hideout.
“Good thing, dead men tell no tale… unless you are Derek that is. Hahaha!” He smiled as he tried to imitate the very same spell Derek used to siphon and drain energy from his opponents.
