Until the Bitter End

Jacki, Daren and Aayla silently moved through the remains of the honey-combed buildings. All of the remaining hiding places had flaws that were too large to ignore. With all of the True Order agents swarming the place, the team had to constantly keep moving.

The official search line kept moving farther and farther away from them. However, several members still patrolled the other areas just in case. Marc was extremely thorough with his planning as always. He would go to any lengths to secure Daren.

As another hiding spot began to crumbled into pieces, the team was forced to move again. Their footsteps screamed volumes as the only noise in the alleyway. Jacki quickly pulled the team down a different alleyway. They hid behind a ruined wall as Jacki held her finger up to her lips.

Loud voices suddenly grew extremely close along with the tapping of shoes on cobblestone.

"Are you sure that your spell picked up something down this alleyway?"

"I'm sure! There were some weird vibrations through the ground. It was like a small group was walking yet when I checked the origin point there was nothing! No mana signature, no breathing or talking. Nothing."

"Wait, if there's nothing then why bother checking it out?"

"Because there's nothing! There should be something, like maybe some rats or wild dogs or some animals that we missed when creating the barrier. But I couldn't find anything. That means someone could be using stealth type magic."

"Or your spell messed up."

"IT DID NOT! Just get the flare ready. I'm telling you; we could be onto something."

The patrol moved steadily closer to where Aayla, Daren and Jacki where hiding. Aayla frowned. Judging by those voices' conversation, one of them picked up on the vibrations from their footsteps. How could this have happened?

Then Aayla realized that she only thought of extending the bracelet's range above ground. Naturally that meant that everything below ground was missed. This could become an extremely bad mistake.

Jacki frowned as she plotted how to take out the patrol quickly. They would have to run as soon as the agents were dead to get a head start on their pursuers who were almost guaranteed to discover their current location.

The team tensed as the footsteps got closer. Aayla looked down and noticed some rocks by Daren's feet. She hastily gestured to Daren to grab them for her. Though confused, he handed them to Aayla. She cautiously peaked around the corner. Hopefully this would work like in the movies.

When the patrol turned their heads to look away, Aayla threw the rock into the ruins of another crumbling building.

"What was that?"

"I felt it! It came from that direction!"

As the agents started to run towards the noise, Aayla through two more pebbles. They fell to the ground with a cracking noise. The agents became convinced that they found someone and rushed to the scene. Only disappointment greeted them.

The crumbling ruins were completely lifeless. However, the agents refused to give up. Something must have caused those noises. They searched for half an hour before the skeptical one became frustrated after discovering rocks on the ground where his partner said the source of the noise came from.

"Look what I found. Rocks. They must have fallen from some part of this crumbling building. You put us over half an hour behind on our patrol for a bunch of rocks!"

The optimistic agent sheepishly looked over the rocks before his eyes lit up.

"Those rocks can't have come from this building! They're the wrong type. There are a couple of buildings that do have this type of stone though. Let's go check them out! Someone must have thrown them to distract us!"

"Again with the wishful thinking! There's nothing here. Let's get back onto our patrol route. If we screw this up that perfectionist, high strung advisor will have our heads!"

"Oh, come on! Just fifteen, no ten more minutes! I haven't felt any movements like before. Whoever was here before must still be nearby! We could totally catch them."

"Forget about it! We have more important things to do than search for people who may not exist!"

The agents began to squabble again, but stayed away from their hiding place. Aayla inwardly cheered for the skeptical agent to win the argument as quickly as possible. The team needed to keep moving.

A bright red flare broke up the squabble. Everyone below watched as another and another lit up the sky. Jacki, Daren and Aayla looked at each other. They had no idea what those flares meant. Hopefully, nothing bad happened to Chris.

"A red flare?! Isn't that the emergency summons?!"

"Our targets must have been found. See, I told you that no one was around here. Let's go!"

The footsteps hurried away into the distance. Vibrations rattled the ground as the occasional explosion punctuated the silence. Eventually, the shouts got further and further away. The team stayed put in the ruins for several minutes before continuing on.

*********

Chris stabbed another agent before ducking to avoid another spell. Agents dragged a heavily wounded Lysander Foryl away from the fight as others continued the attack. He panted as he constantly dodged and weaved through the attacks.

Without his magic, Chris was at a serious disadvantage. Still, these cowardly rats refused to face him directly after he slaughtered their comrades in the beginning. They simply stood around when he was fighting Lysander earlier.

A cloaked figure emerged from the crowd and began to cast a spell on Lysander. The young man groaned as a faint aura covered him. Blood slowly stopped flowing from his wounds. Chris gritted his teeth. They had a healer. If Lysander recovered, then Chris definitely wouldn't stand a chance.

That scheming viper had run off in search of Daren. Chris had to stop that vicious jerk. There was no choice now but to take a risk. He might be able to activate his mana since the barrier was cracked. The mana in his body slowly began to move as Chris forced his body to continue the fight.

Chris avoided the next attacks and grabbed one of the attackers. His hostage was thrown at the other attackers like a human shuriken. Momentarily thrown into confusion, the attackers lifted enough pressure off of Chris for him to retaliate.

Without a second thought, Chris immediately dashed towards the healer and Lysander. Mana faintly covered his legs as he accelerated forward. Striking a gap between the attackers, Chris pushed through to their back line.

A sharp scream erupted from the healer's mouth as she noticed Chris's presence far to late. She hastily cut off her healing magic to defend herself. Chris was even faster. He slashed through Lysander's throat in an instant.

As a strange gurgling noise emerged from Lyse's throat, the dagger embedded itself into the healer's heart. She collapsed as Chris dashed madly down the alley. Finally free from the encirclement, Chris had a chance to hide and recover his strength.

Panicking, an agent set off a red flare. As it fell from the sky, others lit their flares as they watched Chris escape. The faster ones followed right on his heals. Furious about their colleagues' deaths, they swore to kill him at all costs.

Chris finally put some distance between him and his pursuers after their fury wore off and their cowardly natures resurfaced. He hid in one of the few buildings that was still standing. Panting and trembling from exhaustion, Chris tore his ragged clothes to make temporary bandages to treat his wounds.

He had a strong feeling that Marc would show his face soon. Lysander's death would infuriate that weasel. Chris smiled cynically. One way or another, either Marc or Chris would die today. Perhaps both would. No matter what Chris decided to make sure that Marc Lupton wouldn't live to see another sunrise.

After treating the worst of his wounds, Chris peaks out of his hiding place. Agents had begun to sweep the surrounding buildings. That weasel Marc had finally appeared again. His rage made Chris giggle for a second. Making that viper angry was extremely fun to do.

The cold grip of the combat knife in his hands calmed Chris down again. Reality began to sink in. There were too many agents for Chris to win against. The places to hide were dwindling. How long had he been trapped in here? He had been fighting for at least half an hour yet the barrier hadn't been broken.

Hopefully the military, police or someone had noticed. Otherwise, even if he killed Marc his young master would most likely still be captured. Chris sucked in a breath of cold air and began to plot his next moves. He would only have one chance to assassinate Marc.

As the enemy narrowed in on his location, Chris patiently waited in the shadows. He knew Marc very well. That son of a viper and a weasel would definitely try to finish him off personally. Until then, Chris would fight until the bitter end and take as many enemy agents down with him as possible.