106

Standing unmoving before Jin, loitered Officer Alexandro—the Italian officer with an unfathomable teleportation ability. Of such he wished be unrivaled, and ... this was certainly clear upon acknowledging his search for people with abilities akin to his.

Jin stood in tattered clothes, panting with his dagger in hand. His face was swollen and swathed in blood. The agony he felt was alluding, such that it was perceivable to his foes. This choice to take on more than thirty officers, it was more so a folly than an act of thought, indeed.

Joan was astounded. She walked forward, and shortly halted to get better visual of the man standing before them. She gasped. So it was him after all. S-rank officer, Alexandro—second only to a measly few in New York. He stood, arrogantly, wearing a smirk on his visage as if it were a mask. Joan knotted her brows ...

What was he doing here? And more importantly, why was he defending the masked murderer? Unfortunately, these were questions to which Joan had not any answers. She had finally decided to speak. "Officer Alexandro? Just what brings you here this fine day?"

"Ah, Joan," Alexandro bowed, "my humble greetings. It is a fine day in truth, isn't it?"

Joan faintly furrowed her brows again. "Yes, it's the perfect day to take down people who get in my way," she folded her arms, "why are you here? Dispatch reported that only a few B Ranks and two S ranks would suffice. In fact, the person in the chair even said that such numbers would be more than enough.

"I'm sure you're supposed to be busy this time around. Your type is always. You should be called a SS rank instead; given that you're always busy. I repeat, you're always busy. And so, that begs the question ... why are you here, officer?"

"I am here to make sure that," he glared, "No one else but me gets to kill my rival. As you would have guessed, officers, this young man is this very rival of mine. And from now on ... I'm killings those who lay as much as a finger upon him."

"Bullshit," blurted Wyatt, "You'll get fired. Killing other officers? That's a fucking crime, god damnit." Wyatt had furrowed his brows. He had been awfully quiet until now. He seemed like he didn't want the masked murderer dead ... at least, of course, on Joan's part.

Alexandro placed a hand in his pocket, and pulled out a pair of white gloves. "Unlike you, I have no interest in money," he placed his right hand in one of the gloves, "nor do I have interest in getting extra points for turning criminals in," he placed his left hand in the other glove, " I'm doing it all," he licked his lips as his eyes rolled up in his head, "for pride, power, privilege and pleasure—the four P's that make me a monster!"

Alacrity.

"Well," said Joan, slowly drawing her blade from her scabbard. The blade gleamed, and shrieked like a feral beast as metal, vibrating, ran against metal—almost coherent in the act. The shrieking of a drawing blade. The singing. A subtly pleasurable sound that brimmed Joan with profound ecstasy. "It looks like I'm killing an S-rank cop today." She quickly whipped out her blade, and glared ferociously at Alexandro.

Alacrity.

Wyatt walked sideward, such that he was a significant distance away from both Joan and Alexandro. Then he had stopped. "I'm sorry, guys, but," he ripped his shirt off as his body began to bulk. His pecks, arms, shoulder, legs, and abdominal muscles had reached thrice its initial size, and up to ten times harder. "I'm not siding with any murderer today. One took my wife's life. For we, cops, it's not lawful of us to kill criminals, much less each other! It's fucking BS! So unfortunately anyone who tries to murder anyone else especially that kid, will face my," his eyes darkened, "wrath!"

Alacrity.

Jasper clenched his teeth. He had been sneaking away from the battle all along. But suddenly he halted. He stood, clenching his fists tightly. Wyatt was the only one who hadn't ridiculed him for his weakness. Wyatt was the only one who had stopped others from picking on him as the 'new guy'. He wanted to help fight for once instead of running away and losing his job..

He swallowed his fear. He could not let Wyatt die. He turned around, and started walking toward the crowd of officers. He had to face his fears at some point, right? That point ... the time was now. He stopped, bent over, and salvaged the badge he had only dropped a minute ago. He peered down at the badge. His eyes met his reflection in the glossy chrome material. Right them, he could have seen himself cry tears of fear and glory. He put back on the badge, and started toward the crowd, trotting as chills ran up his spine. He rubbed his eyes to hold back another round of tears. "I'm coming, guys! I'm coming to face my fears!"

Alacrity

Jin remained standing, battered. He was unable to open his left eye. And his beauty was almost radically shrouded by his wounds. Still, he got in a battle stance, and quickly flickered his dagger in his hand. "I'm not going to have you fools take me down. I refuse to die by the hands of insignificant mortals!"

[Congratulations, you have completed the Challenge!]

[+10 EXP, + Fully Replenished HP]

[Exp: 11 / 70 | Level 9]

[HP: 9 / 47] 

[HP: 16 / 47]

[HP: 23 / 47]

[HP: 31 / 47]

Suddenly, Jin's wounds began to close. He smirked as his mask magically reappeared on his newly replenished face. He quickly whipped out his dagger as he summoned Benji to the battlefield. "Come on, Benji," Benji manifested out of void shadows, "WE must fight. Fight to become Gods instead of insignificant mortals ourselves. Let's go, Benji! Just you and I. We have foes to eviscerate!!!"

Alacrity.

An inevitable fight to death would be unearthed. Only one will emerge victorious. And on the horizon, was an ill-fated conspiracy that would spell the return of the world's magic which was once supressed.

The onset of an age of war!