Royal Order Armory

Taejoon's POV

"I am amazed at your stealth abilities, Taejoon." Cyberknight said as I quietly darted about on the ship, "Here I thought you would confront that fiend, Tatsuya."

I shrugged as I stayed crouched atop of a container, "Whatever they discussed, its about the cargo Paperbag is expecting." I told him, "Speaking of which, he was nowhere to be found. I expect Tatsuya to be displeased about that."

I was aboard the ship which was surprisingly empty. Something was off about this, the majority of the threats were off the ship and where the meeting between Paperbag's men and the yakuza. One thing is for sure, whatever Paperbag was expecting, it was important enough for one of the sons of Yamato Family to personally come and deliver.

I scanned the other containers, "I have to be quick and find out what the cargo is." I muttered, "Cyberknight, what do you have for me?"

"Took me a bit to hack into the ship's outdated computers, but I managed to get something." He said, "We're looking for a red container with the numbers 4376 written on it. I was sure they had a picture of the cargo somewhere in their files."

I looked around and conveniently, there was the container in front of me.

"Huh, how about that...." I said walking towards it, "That was easy..."

"Too easy.." Cyberknight stated through the earpiece, "Be wary."

I reached the container and noticed it did not have a lock on it. Yea, he was right. This seemed a bit too easy. There was no way this "precious" cargo would be unguarded. I smelled a trap.

I opened the cargo and walked inside. It was dark, as expected. I felt around the wall, expecting to find some sort of switch to turn the light on. I don't know why a storage container aboard a cargo ship would have electricity.

I then felt a switch along the wall, purely coincidental. I then flicked it and was taken aback at how quickly and bright the light shone inside.

I squinted my eyes, "Damn." I said as I tried to adjust my eyes

As they focused, Cyberknight spoke up.

"Taejoon.." he said, "This is not good."

I then saw what he meant. I saw nothing but massive chests stacked atop of each other and lined up against the two walls of the container. These weren't ordinary chests though, these were metal chests that were black and had a very peculiar crest on them.

It was a silver shield with a sword going through the middle and what looked like bat-like dragon wings sprouting from behind.

"Oh shit." I said recognizing the symbol, "That's....."

"The symbol of House Dreadfyre.." Cyberknight said, "This is bad....what are chests belonging to one of the noble western houses doing here?"

Before I could respond to the question, I felt a presence from deeper within the container. I narrowed my eyes and wondered where it could come from since the lights inside shone upon the whole thing.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone laying down atop one of the chests. I then slowly made my way towards them as I placed my hand on my sword. As I got closer, I made out the figure of a woman atop the chest that was waking up from what I assume was a nap.

"hmm..." she groaned as she sat up and groggily looked at me, "Who the hell turned the lights on?"

I merely stared at her, getting nothing but an easy feeling from this woman. As I looked closer, she was wearing some casual clothes, a tanktop and some pants. She didn't look japanese, her hair was cut short in a bob and she had a red streak marked on across her left eye vertically.

She then rubbed her eyes and turned toward me, "Who the hell are you?" She asked as she straightened up, "Wait....you're the hero, Taejoon??"

"Taejoon, this bad!" Cyberknight exclaimed, "That woman is-"

Before he could finish, the woman instantly lunged at me and kicked me in the chest.

I managed to block the attack with my arms but the force sent me reeling back and against the stack of chests behind me. Feeling the chests dent with my body, I let out a slight grunt.

"Damn.." I said, "She's strong."

I saw as the woman landed on the floor in front of me and gave a vicious smirk as she readied a fighting stance. She was ready to go.

"Oho?" She sneered as she let out an insane amount of bloodlust, "That was impressive, God Sword. To think that you would block one of my kicks. I'm surprised you saw through my invisible attack...not everyone is capable of that. I must commend you."

I raised an eyebrow, "Oh, you're impressed by me?" I said, "Those are my words, lady. Who are you?"

Cyberknight spoke up through the earpiece, "Taejoon, I recognize that woman." He said, "That is Xiao Mei from the Cruel Dragon Sect! She's an extremely powerful martial artist, thread lightly."

Xiao Mei chuckled, "Who I am is none of your concern, hero." She said, "But you are interfering with business, so I suppose I have to eliminate you. Such a shame though, South Korea just lost a couple of heroes, now they're going to have to deal with the fact one of their Guardians died."

Cruel Dragon Sect, eh? What the hell is a Chinese underworld group doing business with the yakuza and a no-name like Paperbag?

I patted down my clothes and shrugged, "Honestly..." I said as I walked to my right, "I am not interested in fighting as of this moment. I am curious, though, to what these chests are doing here. I mean, these belong to House Dreadfyre, no? Do you really think they will keep quietly about this?"

She smirked even more, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt telling you.." She said, "These are weapons from their armory. Or to be exact, their Royal Order Armory. A piece of the Head's personal collection."

I widened my eyes, "What the hell are you lot doing with that?" I asked

She lunged at me again, this time she went behind me and went for a low kick to my legs. I managed to jump over the kick and lung myself out of the way.

Landing a couple of feet away from her, I unsheathed my sword and pointed at her.

"Okay, lady." I said, "I am going to warn you just once. Come quietly and you won't get hurt."

Xiao Mei cackled as she straightened up, "Ha!" she said, "What an arrogant fool you are, Taejoon!! Do you have any idea who I am?! Whose daughter I am!"

I shrugged, "I don't really know and frankly, I don't care." I said, "But I am serious, stand down. I only want to know what a piece of the Dreadfyre's Royal Order Armory is doing here and what Paperbag is planning to do with it."

She then started to crack her knuckles, "What do you think, idiot?" she said, "War."

"What?" I said

"War, you fool." She said as she began to stretch her legs, "This paperbag fellow is going to war. I have no idea where he got the money to buy this much of the Royal Order Armory and to directly deal with the Yamato Family. Not just that, he managed to persuade my father into considering an alliance with us. I was sent here to guard the weapons and to kill any trespassers."

In an instant, I lunged past her and made my way outside. It was surprisingly easy to blitz her. So much so that she stayed frozen for a second as if she was shocked about it.

As I went outside, I immediately jumped on top of the containers and ran towards the edge of the boat and towards the docks.

"Running?" Cyberknight asked, "Did not expect this."

I scoffed, "Are you serious?" I said as I ran across the top of the containers, "This is a recon mission, Cyberknight! I got the information we needed and have no reason to stay here and fight! Besides, I couldn't fight at my fullest inside there, who knows what kind of hazardous stuff The Dreafyres keep in those chests...."

As I ran, I spotted something out in my peripheral. I glanced to my left and saw Xiao Mei hurling herself towards me at rapid speeds.

"Wha-!" I exclaimed as I blocked her ridiculously fast and strong punch

It had enough force to keep me in place and dent the top the container. I then pushed her off me before she followed the punch up with another attack. She flipped backwards in midair and landed several feet in front of me.

"What power!" I exclaimed, "So she's Dragonblood?"

She gave me the same vicious smirk as before as she licked her fist with her tongue. Her brown eyes bloodshot, she oozed some serious bloodlust. This is very inconvenient for me at this moment.

"Taejoon, The God Sword..." She said ominously, "You will do, you will do...I will rip you to shreds and offer your heart as a gift to Father....and Tatsuya can have the rest of you...."

She started to emit a very powerful aura.

"That's a bit gross, licking your fist like that..." I muttered

"Taejoon, what's the word?" Cyberknight asked, "I can call for backup. The situation has changed. The Cruel Dragon Sect sent one of their warriors and Yamato Tatsuya is here himself. I do not doubt your strength but this is not something you can come out unscathed. These guys are no pushovers."

This was not a good situation I am in. This was only supposed to be a mission of me gathering information, not a skirmish against the Cruel Dragon Sect.

I then closed my eyes and sighed, "Oh Cyberknight..." I said, "You really do doubt my strength if you think this little girl is a threat to me."

I then unsheathed my sword once again and pointed at her, letting out my own aura. Xiao Mei looked a bit taken aback for a second then managed to instantly compose herself and smirked again.

I gave her a slight smirk of my own,

"Bring it, Xiao Mei."