2 - Death

Jaylin Murdock was the first to storm into the lab, followed closely by Clips and his team in a tight formation. Their fluent movement echoed of an elite division. All he could see was smoke and the falling debris from the exploded equipment. Soon enough he saw a shadow trying to climb back on their feet,

"Kirin!! Hehe, taste this u fuck"

He flipped his palm and a short black shotgun appeared in his hand, taking aim with deadly precision he pulled the trigger as fast as he could, BANG! BANG! 12 bullets cut across the air with a sonic boom. Their angles were blocking all of Kirin's escape routes.

His legs burst with such speed his body left behind a faint afterimage momentarily. Leaning forward strangely, he was keeping close right behind the rain of bullets. He raised his poisoned diamond blade waiting for the right timing to puncture Kirin's heart.

"OH Shit!"

Kirin's expression changed as he saw the shadow's face that was flying towards him

"IT'S HIM!"

This was the most powerful enemy he had encountered in his life. The shadow king's student and coupled with his conviction to never stop until he was dead, made Kirin lose many nights of sleep. The only reason he managed to injure him last time was because of Cyris's help, otherwise, he would have been dead long ago.

With no time to hesitate he fired off six shots from his desert eagle. Blocking 8 of the 12 bullets shot by Jaylin,

SWOOSH! DING DING

then he slashed out with his black titanium sword deflecting the remaining four bullets. His pupils constricted to the size of needle pins because the enemy's sword light was flashing towards him.

"TOO FAST! I can't block or dodge!"

His heightened perception slowed down everything around him, and his brain's computing ability was at its limit, Kirin turned his body slightly to the side so that the blade would avoid puncturing his heart.

"ARGHH!" the blade went through his chest like butter and came out the other end.

Cyris was thrown to the other side of the lab when the explosion hit and just recovered his bearings. He saw Jaylin, his nemesis rush with such ferocity towards his brother, meanwhile Kirin was still in half kneeling position. Cyris knew instantly from the pace that Kirin would not be able to ward of Jaylin's attack.

"KIRIN!"

His exoskeleton prototype boots released bursts of black smoke as his figure instantly vanished from where he stood. Two blood red, glowing daggers slashed towards Jaylin's throat and arm that held the sword that was still inside Kirin's chest.

CLINK! CLINK! Two distinct noises of metal colliding against metal sounded out.

"What's that?!!"

Cyris was shocked by the resistance met to his daggers, Jaylin's sword arm was a prosthetic which didn't surprise him since he was the one to cut it off in the first place. What did shock him was the dagger that should have cleanly sliced his throat open was blocked by a small weird metal that was changing shape and moving on its own? His expression turned ugly as he groaned

"Shit! The Ghost king's armament?!" with no time to think he grabbed Kirin and tried to jump back.

"HAHAHA, what's wrong Cyris? it looks like you have seen a ghost"

Jaylin's menacing laughter sounded out next to his ear. Turning his daggers around he blocked the incoming blade and used the force of the blow to retreat. His retreat made him land right in the middle of Clips and the others.

With a cold flash in his eyes, Cyris tapped lightly on the floor with his foot and disappeared, a moment later hails of bullets struck right where he stood. The concrete and metal floor exploding from his force, he reappeared in front of Clips. "DIE!" he sliced his throat with a clean flash. Blood spurting into the air, yet not a drop landed on him as he had already flashed away like a ghost to his next victim slashing out again. Within five seconds everyone in team one was dead.

Kirin still in his arms, Cyris rushed towards the members of team two that was now coming in through the entrance. He knew killing Jaylin was out of the question, now that he had such a protective measure as the ghost king's armament. His thoughts went to wasting the others and then hold Jaylin off to give argent and Kirin a chance to escape. Yet before he reached them, Jaylin came up from behind him firing off three rounds from his shotgun.

BANG! BANG BANG!

The rain of bullets rapidly closed in on Cyris's vitals from behind, if it landed, he would suffer fatal injuries. His figure disappeared with a puff of black smoke, looking like a phantom. He managed to dodge the bullets by a breath's hair. Not noticing the slight grin on Jaylin's face, as if the path he would jump to was already pre-made for him.

CLINK!

His right foot stepped on the ghost king's armament that laid on the floor, seven metallic shards controlled by liquid metal strings swiftly climbed up his leg, spinning around with lightning speed.

"Shit!"

Cyris reacted immediately and jumped away, yet it was too late. Everything below his right leg's thigh was shredded into mincemeat.

"ARRGHH!"

He screamed in agony; the pain was unbearable as blood flowed like a river. The sharp, burning sensation was all Cyris could focus on. Sweat pouring from his forehead, his hands were clammy and trembling and teeth gritting hard. For a second Cyris considered listening to his body which was telling him to stop, to just give up and drop to the floor.

"NO NO NO! CYRIS, CYRIS! AURA OVERRIDE THE FUCKING SYSTEM, OPEN THE DOOR NOW! NOW! HURRY"

Argent howled loudly to his A.I, his eyes bloodshot as tears were streaming down his face.

"Override denied" Replied Aura calmly with her mechanical voice.

"Master Cyris has initiated A-rank key encryption on the control panel, cracking it would take 89 hours and 22 minutes with my current Central processing unit".

Argent went completely insane, smashing the reinforced glass doors with his fists over and over. His knuckles turned bloody, and bones were jutting out from them. His brothers were going to die in front of him, while he stood in safety behind closed doors.

" WAIT! WAIT! TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT," he cried desperately

" IS IT THE FORMULA FOR THE SOLUTION?! OR THE ALGORITHM!? I WILL GIVE YOU EVERYTHING SO PLEASE STOP!!" His despairing howls could be heard from the whole building.

"HAHAHA, can you hear that Cyris?" Jaylin looked down at Cyris mockingly

"This is what happens when you overprotect a tiger, it turns into a frightened kitten... Your little brother is begging for your life, HEHE! how does that make you feel? The evil genius can't even die with his dignity. How shameful! Tsk" he clicked his tongue with disgust.

"Fuck you, talking about dignity in front of me?! What a joke, what dignity do you have left after running to you master begging him for help?! How else did you get the ghost king's armament...HAHA, you are truly pitiful it's kinda sad, you're just a worm looking up to a snake"

Cyris looked at Jaylin with hatred in his eyes. He knew he should have done everything in his power to end this bastard's life. After the previous attempt where he cut his arm off, he had chased him for 2 weeks yet failed in eliminating him. Now it seems it came back to bite him viciously in the ass.

"Hehe, That's quite funny actually... If I'm a worm, then..."

SWISH SWISH SWISH!

With three quick flashes of his sword, he cut off both off Cyris's arms and remaining leg.

"AAARGHHHH"

He looked down at Cyris wriggling in a pool of blood and said with a happy expression

"Then you're a maggot, that can be crushed beneath my feet! HAHAHA... DIE!"

With that he brought his right foot down viciously with a force that could crumble a stone, right on Cyris's chest breaking the ribs and pulverizing his heart in an instant.

Cyris's eyes slowly turned lifeless as his last breath seeped out of him. Kirin laid close by equally lifeless, his face a horrifying blend of blue and black, bleeding from his orifices. The poison on Jaylin's sword ended him almost immediately after he was stabbed in the chest.

How ironic, Jaylin thought silently with satisfaction as if he was suddenly enlightened...

"in life you shined liked the moon, yet your family name has destined you to fall"

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