Unexpected Stranger

(3rd Person View)

Manti-Gore looked at Taejoon who readied a stance. Then, out of nowhere, his tail serpent shot at him with great speed.

The mercenary was looking to poison the hero. Taejoon then immediately sidestepped to avoid the serpent's bite. He then saw as Manti-Gore straightened himself up from the crouching position. His eyes then moved to the serpent that was somehow floating in mid-air where Taejoon had been. It hissed violently at the hero as Manti-Gore cracked his knuckles.

Without moving, Manti-Gore attacked Taejoon with one of his spider legs. It swung fiercely, sending a high pressured air attack. This surprised Taejoon who dodged the attack and saw how strong it was; it hit the wall in the far back which almost completely shattered.

"What in the hell?" Taejoon exclaimed

Then the serpent attacked again. This time, Taejoon deflected its bite with the handle of his sword and jumped away, trying to gain more distance from it. He was on guard because of it, unsure of how deadly its venom could be. Considering that Manti-Gore could reinforce any body part he likes, he could only assume the serpent's fangs are more than capable of piercing his skin no matter how hard he could harden it.

But something unsettled Taejoon; The serpent kept getting longer the further he got away from it. He deduced that this was because the serpent could be as long as the mercenary wanted it to be.

He saw as Manti-Gore took a step forward and one of his legs swung again, sending another air projectile.

This time, Taejoon drew his sword and deflected it with a swing. He then readied a stance and waited for the serpent to strike again.

As if it waited for the hero to stop moving, the serpent lunged at it again. Taejoon, however, wanted it to attack and quickly swung his blade at the open mouth of the animal.

Like a hot knife through butter, the sword cut through the serpent. The cut went through the mouth and curved upwards, leaving only the bottom half of the head. Then to make sure it would die, Taejoon slashed at its body, cutting it up into several sections with ease.

Manti-Gore roared at this, "YOU BASTARD!!!"

He then lunged at him with tremendous speed, so much that it took Taejoon by surprise who could only block Manti-Gore's fist with his sword. The force of the clash caused a shockwave that shook the floor, once again.

"You dare..." Manti-Gore growled, "Cut my serpent....."

He then swung his spider legs at him, looking to skewer him. Taejoon then immediately stepped back and in an instant, swung his sword. Manti-Gore waited for the tips of his legs to pierce Taejoon but to no avail.

He then saw that each of his spider legs was cut in half.

Surprised at this, He took a step back.

"You bastard!!!" Manti-Gore said as he pulled his fist back, "You think you're special?!?!

Before he could do anything, Taejoon swung his sword horizontally at his chest, cutting it up. Manti-Gore saw as blood spewed out the wound with a surprised look. He then scowled as steam came out of the wound almost immediately and it started to close up.

Taejoon calmly looked at this as he sheathed his blade.

"Tch...." He said, "His regeneration is a pain."

He then widened his eyes as he noticed something.

Manti-Gore's serpent and legs hadn't regenerated. This was surprising to the hero who assumed that the mercenary's regeneration accounted for everything he had. Maybe the limbs that he created took a bit more time to fully regenerate.

Manti-Gore then threw a flurry of punches at Taejoon.

The swordsman immediately drew his sword and struck each punch that was thrown at him. He then stepped back a bit as he swung his blade vertically, only for Manti-Gore to jump back.

"Bah!!" the beast bellowed as he saw his fists bloodied, "You are a handful to deal with."

Taejoon noticed as the cuts on Mant-Gore's fists started to close up. He narrowed his eyes as he sheathed his blade again. He was starting to get the hang of his regeneration.

Manti-Gore also narrowed his eyes and noticed something unusual about the swordsman. He noticed that Taejoon always sheathes his sword whenever he cans.

'Does he specialize in Iaijutsu?' the mercenary thought to himself, 'I can only assume he does. His blade is ridiculously fast and powerful when he draws it.'

Manti-Gore has fought many enemies. And among them were swordsmen. He was aware of many sword styles and techniques so he knew that Taejoon was using a style of Iaijutsu, the art of drawing the sword, attacking, and sheathing all in one sequence.

Manti-Gore then assumed a charging position.

Taejoon readied himself, not knowing what could come next.

Manti-Gore gave him a smirk, "You fool..."

The mercenary then disappeared, which surprised Taejoon, and suddenly appeared right in front of him.

"HEAVY..." Manti-Gore bellowed as he pulled his left arm back

Suddenly, with great speed and power, he swung it at Taejoon and caught him in the chest with the inside of his arm. Taejoon then felt something was off and noticed there was a massive bull's head trying to gore him.

"GORE LARIAAATTT!!!!!!!"

Manti-Gore sent the hero flying through the wall that was around 50 meters behind him, the shockwave almost causing the entirety of the wall to collapse but it managed to stay standing, surprisingly.

The mercenary straightened himself up with his left arm extended, the bull's head on his arm slowly shrinking back into it.

"I suppose that's enough to kill you, Ten Guardians Taejoon." The beast said as he smirked, "Nobody can stand after they were hit with that.

Then as if it was jinxed, Taejoon slowly crawled himself out of the hole.

"Ughhh...." He said as he stood up and patted the dust off his clothes, "My fucking coat, man...Godammit, you broke my shades."

He scowled as he took his shattered shades off and tossed them to the side.

Manti-Gore glared at him, "How in the hell did you survive that?!"

He saw that the hero didn't have any significant damage showing, which shocked him. His Heavy Gore Lariat was one of his most devastating attacks, much more powerful than those air projectiles he threw at him with his spider legs.

Taejoon shrugged as he looked at him, "I'm sturdier than I look, bud." He said as he drew his sword, "No disrespect, that attack was strong, but you ought to do better than that to defeat me."

Taejoon then swiped his hand over the side of his sword and Manti-Gore noticed something was off about what he just did.

Almost immediately after doing that, Taejoon swung his blade approximately six times. Then, Manti-Gore felt six cuts open up on his body. Blood spewing out, he clutched the cut on his left shoulder.

"What in the hell was that-" he stammered before noticing a shadow next to her

He turned only to get kicked hard in the face, being sent flying back and crashing against the floor.

Taejoon widened his eyes to see Amily standing where Manti-Gore was. She was clutching his left arm and panting heavily. She glared at the mercenary on the ground.

"Amily!" Taejoon exclaimed

He saw her clothes were tattered and filled with blood. He also noticed a bullet wound on her leg.

He then felt his phone vibrate so he pulled it out and answered the call.

"Yo, Taejoon!!" Engine's voice was heard, "This is bad, man. All of the sudden, some jokesters wearing different colored suits started attacking the cops and each other! I think it's Mujin and Paperbag's men!!"

Taejoon scowled, "What?!"

"Oh, and Amily ran inside! I would help but the cops require my assistance in evacuating and support! Some of them are hurt badly!" He said, "About Amily, I used one of Cyberknight's devices to remove the venom in her system but she still has a bullet wound and I am more than sure after getting that much venom removed, she has to be resting!! She's being reckless, man!!"

Taejoon looked at Amily, her face was paler than usual. She was trembling a bit as she struggled to stay standing.

"Roger that, Engine. I leave the outside to you." He said, "Deal with those thugs. I'll handle things here."

He hung up and walked toward Amily. As he did this, Manti-Gore started to get up, his blood-red eyes were surprised to see her standing there.

"Hey, you are in no condition to be here," Taejoon said, "Fall back."

Amily gave him a serious glare, "Shut it." She hissed

Then, Manti-Gore lunged at Amily with a punch.

The female hero then sidestepped and immediately blasted the mercenary with a nasty front kick that sent Manti-Gore reeling backward. She then followed up with a quick spinning back kick that hit him straight in the chest, sending him crashing against one of the concrete pillars.

Manti-Gore immediately got up and roared, swiping his claws against the ground and sending a massive shockwave.

"BEAST CLAW!!!!"

Around four massive projectiles were fired along the ground and hurled toward Amily. The Guardian immediately jumped over the projectiles and landed on the ground near the mercenary. Taejoon then saw as she readied a stance and a massive aura emitted from her.

"Oh shit." He said, "She's using one of her hidden arsenal's attacks"

Manti-Gore then readied his claws as he was about to lunge only to see Amily disappear.

"Not this again-" He started before Amily appeared in front of him

Suddenly, a massive shockwave erupted from his chest, similar to before when they fought, sending him reeling back a bit.

Amily glared at him,

"Demon's..."

Then, a second massive shockwave erupted from his head as it shot back violently.

"Wailing..."

Suddenly, four consecutive shockwaves erupted from all over his body, sending him flying back through a wall.

"Cannons!!!!"

The massive dust cloud surrounded the hole that was made in the wall, the entire wall was starting to crumble due to the force of the attack.

Amily then slouched as she clutched her bullet wound, panting heavily. Despite this, Amily was feeling the adrenaline that fueled her.

Taejoon narrowed his eyes at her, wondering if she was okay. She had just used her Demon's Wailing Cannons. A technique that used six very powerful invisible kicks. They were part of her hidden arsenal and territory she was not familiar with just yet.

He took a step towards her, "Seems you got him." He told her

Amily shook her head, "We must not let our guard down." She said before looking around, "Where is that fiend? Where is Paperbag?!"

Taejoon sighed, "Bastard got away." He said, "He has someone like that monster under his employ. That's how he was able to escape me. Anyways, you okay?"

Amily nodded as she panted, "I am fine." She said

"What's with your clothes?" Taejoon asked her

Amily scowled, "Those thugs outside fight very violently." She said, "I fought my way a dozen of them while I made my way here. My body was still shaking off the effects of the venom."

Then before they could continue, Manti-Gore shot out of the collapsing wall with a bellowing roar.

"I'LL KILL YOU, LITTLE GIRL!!!!" He shouted as he swung his claws at her

Both Amily and Taejoon jumped away for the mercenary to hit the ground and cause another shockwave.

As they landed, they saw Manti-Gore start to frantically swing his arms around, sending massive air pressure projectiles around that were starting to tear things up.

Taejoon readied a stance as he noticed Amily slouched a little.

"This fiend...." Amily said as she panted, "What destructive power! He did not use that against me!"

Taejoon scowled, "Trust me, this guy's a pain." He said, "They call him the Beast of Destruction. I am starting to see why."

"If he keeps this up, the mall will go down. " Amily said, "I wanted to try to keep collateral to a minimum."

Before Taejoon could respond to this, they felt a heavy aura behind them.

"Beast of Destruction, eh?" a voice said

They widened their eyes at this aura and slowly turned their heads to see a young man wearing a black trench coat walk between them and towards Manti-Gore.

Taejoon noticed he wore a white hand on his forehead that had Japanese characters on it. He noticed the man was also Japanese. He had black hair his eye was black. Yes, one. The one on his right. The other one was closed shut with a long scar over it.

He had his hands in the pockets of his coat as he stopped a couple of meters in front of him. Amily noticed the faint and gray Japanese characters that ran across the back of his coat. She recognized them saying "Slumbering Dragon".

The man was facing Manti-Gore who was still swinging his arms in a rage, not noticing the new arrival.

Taejoon looked at the stranger, "And you are?" He asked

"I am neither friend nor foe." He said, "Heroes of Purgatory, I am simply here to retrieve something on behalf of The Chief."

He then slightly turned towards them as he gave them a slight smile.

Taejoon then saw on the shoulder of his trench coat a crest. It was a silver shield with a sword through its middle with bat-like dragon wings on its back.

He widened his eyes in surprise, "You're..." He said,

"House Dreadfyre!"