Second Betrayal

Noah's body shivered with excitement as he moved with mind-blowing speed, maneuvering smoothly around the walls of his personal training room. He had never felt this fast yet powerful at the same time. The Berserk Tiger Art had only been a defense and attack hybrid type Martial art.

The Azure Dragon Art he had managed to luckily acquire during his team's last raid was a long lost ancient grade Martial with four aspects; Attack, Speed, Recovery and Defense. This was the type of Martial arts that even top level Martial artists would kill for.

But his training was cut short as he heard a ping from his smart watch, causing him to stop and grab his towel to wipe the sweat off his face. He then tapped onto the device, allowing it to display a holographic message that revealed an invitation to a party held by his teammates to celebrate their last victorious mission.

The dark haired man sighed, silently contemplating if he should accept the invitation and head over there. But before he could fully think about the decision, a message popped above the invitation and made his lips slightly curl up. In the end, he walked out of the training room and headed for the shower.

20 minutes later, he walked out his house and got atop his parked motorcycle. He, like most in the special unit lived in a mansion on the far end of a city, alone and far from society. Because of that he would have to ride a fairly far distance to reach his destination.

Still he couldn't say he didn't enjoy that. Riding his bike was one of his few moments of respite so he cherished it.

As predicted, it took a long while to reach the invitation address, the place being a large bar with loud booming music reverberating from within. Noah chuckled and got off his bike, showing his invitation card before being allowed in.

The bar was not completely packed. Noah could tell that the people that filled this place were members of the military who were either on their breaks or hadn't been called to duty yet. The dark haired man easily located his friends and he easily maneuvered among the crowd to get to them.

Tyler stood up, laughing before standing up to give his teammate a tight hug. "Noah, been a while dude. I'm genuinely surprised you could even make it."

The receiver of the hug squirmed a bit, easily wrestling himself out of the hug before laughing and massaging his shoulders. "Do you wish to break my body?"

"He's right Tyler, do you know how big you've gotten?" Isabelle appeared and smacked the dark skinned man's toned abs. She still seemed to be wearing her masks, yet, for some reason, the group looked at her in a way that suggested that they could really see her face.

She moved forward, slipping her fingers into Noah's, then staring into his eyes for a few seconds with an expression of infatuation. "How are you doing?"

He squeezed her hand and smiled. "I'm fine of course, the last injury is basically gone."

"Get a room!" Ian's voice rang out, his jeering tone causing a vein to appear on Noah's forehead.

He glanced at his best friend, noticing that the idiot's hand shamelessly roamed Chloe's body, and scoffed. "As if you're any better."

"It's called thick skin." The blond haired man smiled, his words causing the group to laugh. "Enough of that, have some shots with us. Come on, don't be shy."

Noah grunted, but still chose to sit down and pour himself a drink. "I swear, I'm this close to cutting off your head. One of these days…"

Ian didn't reply, merely having his right hand leave Chloe's clothes chest and flip his middle finger at his best friend's annoyed attitude.

Brian laughed and rose his cup. "Don't focus on that arrogant bastard. A cheer, everyone, to a successful mission."

"Cheers!" The rest rose their cups as well, before downing the contents and releasing satisfied sighs at the quality of the beer.

The party kept on for a long while, with the group talking about many topics both personal and work related.

"So Noah." Brian swirled the drink in his hand while a red hue coated his cheeks, a clear indication of his drunken state. "I saw you guys head into that mountain before you got injured. How strong was that bastard you were fighting to have held off the three of you and still be able to injure you?"

Noah currently found himself resting on Isabelle's laps while she played with his head, slightly drunk of course. "He was a Rank 8 Martial artist. We were lucky to be able to drive him away."

"Goddamn! Rank 8?! You guys, two Rank 6s and a Rank 5, were able to repel a Rank 8 Martial artist?! That's frigging awesome."

Noah scoffed. "It really isn't. The guy was already tired from an earlier fight a few weeks back, so he said. We managed to catch him while he was still healing, that's all."

Brian gulped his beer. "Still awesome bro. Anyways did you find any goods down there?"

Noah chuckled, opening his mouth before his eyes suddenly narrowed. There was an unspoken rule among cadets while still in the training camp, one that all knew about no matter how secluded or antisocial you were. 'Don't ask what your teammate obtained on a raid'.

Finders, keepers. It was a rule that even the higher-ups dared not disagree with since they knew that there would be tension among their soldiers, if they did so.

Noah had indeed found something down there in the mountains after the fight with the powerful leader of the Terrorist leader, three items that he had shared with Ian and Isabelle. The Azure Dragon Art was one of them, and by the unspoken rule, these items were he and his friends' properties now.

Yet, listening to Brian's question caused a dangerous emotion to well up within him. In truth, he had always questioned why he and his team, members of the Special unit, had been sent to raid their base. A simple bombing couldn't have been the cause of this. Politicians were very useless, there were just figure heads for the true powers in control of a country.

What if he and his team had instead been sent to retrieve the three Four Aspects Martial arts known for their rarity on Earth?

"You guys…" Noah sat up, his clenched fists resting on his knees as he practically growled his words out. "… You actually…"

Ian had, at this point, moved to his friend's back while glancing at the silent crowd that stared at them with unconcealed killing intent. The three had been tricked.

The government had ordered the death of Noah, Ian and Isabelle and the retrieval of the three Four Aspects Martial Arts on them.

With multiple resources and gifts laid on the table as bribe, the entire Unit wasted no time selling out their members and setting a devious trap for them.

And Noah experienced his second heart-wrenching betrayal by the comrades he had been fighting alongside with for so many years.