Encounter

"Never took you for a baby snatcher," Jacob said as he got a closer look at Frenda's ears.

"I'm your brother," I cried out. "Have I ever done anything like this before?"

"No, not even sure why you would do something like this."

"Well, I think she's pretty cute in that dress," mentioned Ophelia as she joined Jacob.

"Are you going to be her guardian," he asked, turning to me.

I looked down at my feet as I sat on the other bed.

"Yes." I sounded uncertain.

"Congratulations, old man," Stella teasing said as she put her arm over my shoulder. "Can you remind me why you even did it?"

"No," I turned to her. "I already told you."

After our conversation, we shared what we learned with the other groups and devised a plan to see if we could find the killer tonight.

Since the slums were boarded off by the barrier and the wealthier district had greater security, it only left one place to check out.

"Are you sure they are going to show up by this crowded place," I asked.

"Yeah, if it is a killer, they would want to find a target before anything else," Jacob replied as he peeked out of the alleyway we hid in.

"So then we wait till sundown?"

"Yes, then we'll follow any suspicious people."

Once the sky began to show a tinted pink, the separate groups waited for anything.

Stella's eyes widened when she saw the fruit lady packing up and noticed the same man he'd met earlier lurking nearby chewing on something.

"I have to be overthinking," she mumbled to herself. "There's no way I was right with him."

"Stella," Ophelia spoke up. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah. Just a little shook."

As the lady finished and walked away from her stand, the man began to follow.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"What? what happened."

"Go tell Jacob and Max I've found someone. I'll tail them for now."

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"AUUGG," Tiresias groaned as he held his head in his hands.

"What's up," Joseph said, kneeling next to him.

"There's more than one," he barely managed to get out.

Tiresias saw a woman tailing the same man Stella saw, with two others with him as they overlooked something on the floor.

"And some- someone's tailing them."

"Alright," Joseph said, helping him get up. "Let's go tell the others."

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A couple hours before.

"So do you want to take the kill, or should I do it," the Purple-haired man said.

"Why do you offer that?"

"What?"

"You offer to take the kill. Do you enjoy killing?"

The man with purple hair laughed. "What, you think I'm some sort of psychopath? I only ask because I know you didn't ask to be in this, and I know how much you hate killing innocent people."

"Have they done the same thing to you?" The redhead asked.

"No, I joined so that my younger brother could receive better medical treatment by having family in the military rather than conventional hospitals. So I got my own reasons for being here, but I know those bastards back at HQ can pull some dirty stuff to get people fighting for them."

"Yeah," The patterned man said as he pulled out a picture of his daughter and wife, who was an elf and he who was a human. "When I refused to go at first, they threatened to imprison my family,"

"What about you, red?"

"The church I'm a part of was visited by one of those, god, I don't even want to call it human."

He froze, thinking about the red eyes it had, seeming to pierce through the soul of anyone.

"The red eyes, that's what they like to call them back in my village," he continued.

"Those things creep me out too," replied the checkered man.

"Yeah, she picked me out right away. There was no way I could say no. Just with her words, she scared the crap out of all of us."

"That's a war for you," the Purple-haired man added, "and it explains how young you look with no facial hair. Let's go prepare."

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After Ophelia found us still waiting to find anything, she told us what had happened. We rushed over, making sure to keep to the alleyways and not the main streets, hoping to not be spotted by the person as we approached.

We approached Stella from behind, seeing her look past the tall boxes she was hiding behind.

"Hey, Stella-" I went to say but noticed that she seemed to be trembling. "Hey, what's wrong?" I whispered, grabbing her shoulders and turned her to me.

"I think we're in over our heads here," she explained, looking back at what she was before. "It happened in an instant, and she fell to the ground."

I looked over. Three men stood over something lying on the floor.

'Looks like they already got one,' Rose spoke out of nowhere.

'And where have you been.'

'What do you mean? Didn't it talk to you too?'

'I don't know what you're talking about, but that's not important. What do you think I should do?'

"Let's get closer," Jacob whispered, pointing to a wall we could hide behind. "I want to hear what they're saying."

'I agree.'

"Alright, but how do we alert the others," I replied, still keeping my eyes on them.

Jacob thought for a second, then turned to Stella.

"If we ever charge them, I want to shoot a light beam up into the air."

"Yeah, I got it."

——————————————————————

Joseph's group now all together ran over to see if it was Athena's group that had been tailing the figures. After confirming that nothing was out of the ordinary with them, they told them what Tiresias has seen.

Both groups went in separate directions towards the area Jacob's group was monitoring.

——————————————————————

"Are they praying?" I turned to Jacob, dumbfounded as I whispered that.

"Came to a shock to me too."

"Yeah, and it seems the redhead is leading it. The 2 others are just silent."

We waited for a short moment before the prayer stopped, and when it did, the purple-haired man said, "Let's get out of here before anyone sees us."

"Let's go now," Jacob said, giving Stella a thumbs up.

We both charged them silently, only for them to turn around at the bright light in the night sky.

Jacob knocked out the redhead with a single surprise punch to the jaw, and I charged the Purple-haired guy, tackling him down, taking out my dagger, and aimed for his neck.

He swatted my arm away with ease and "Pow," kicked me back with his leg sending me rolling back.

When I looked back up, there he was, less than a foot away, ready to strike.

'Rose, freeze time.'

——————————————————————

When both teams saw the light in the sky, they sped up to meet there.

——————————————————————

He was about to hit me right before time stopped, and I noticed that he had somehow equipped a pair of brass knuckles in the short time I rolled back as a bit of light from the lanterns reflected off of his knuckles.

I turned to see that Jacob was in a sword fight with the other man who was using the sword from the unconscious redhead on the floor.

I ran over to team up with him for a sec then I saw that Stella was also on her way to assist.

"Rose," I said as I approached them, readying an open palm, "unfreeze time right before I hit. 6 seconds.

I hit up towards his jaw, causing him to lose his balance.

Then right after, Stella yelled, "DAZE." Followed by Jacob knocking the sword out of his hands and swinging back down, slicing right through his shirt and down his chest.

After he was left on the floor to bleed, "Boom," we heard the sound of a small explosion come from behind us, leaving a feeling of being stabbed multiple times on our backs.

Without giving me a moment to react, the purple-haired man kicked me into the nearest brick wall.

From my comfortable seat on the wall, I could see what had caused the stabbing on our back. The redhead that Jacob knocked out was now up, slumped over, and seemed to use air magic in place of his displaced sword.

I got up, seeing Jacob trying to fend off the purple head with his injured body. I turned to the redhead feeling my bones ache and back still sting.

I painfully ran towards him, diverging his attention from Jacob.

He held his necklace in one hand and extended his hand out towards me, yelling out, "FIRE," followed by the same "Boom."

"UGGAAA," I groaned. This time the sting came from the front of the chest, stopping me in my tracks as I held my chest.

When I looked down, I saw holes that littered up and down my chest. Almost as if I was shot by a gun.

He laughed, but I could tell he was still shaky from the punch Jacob gave him.

"Good, they're separated," said a female voice as she pointed her bow to the redhead. "This should be no problem."

He was getting ready to fire another wave while my body was hurting to move when 3 arrows simultaneously hit his left leg, causing him to let go of his necklace and frantically pull out the arrows.

Finally, they're here, I thought, seeing Raquel ready another trio of arrows.