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Chapter 40: Bodyguard (Part 2)

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Robin woke up to the alarm clock. He sat up to see there was breakfast placed on the desk. Robin quickly ate and changed clothes. After verifying all of his weapons was in order, he walked out of the room. Posted on the door, was a note.

After you have finished getting ready, come to the lounge.

Robin walked around a bit. Since he was still unfamiliar with the mansion, he got himself a bit lost. After being directed by a maid, he eventually found the lounge. It was rather extravagant; the room was filled with paintings and leather couches. Robin sat in one of them and found his body sink into the seat.

“Enjoying yourself?”

Walking in was Thomas and his two bodyguards. They all wore the exact same attire as before except for Thomas. He wore a gray suit this time. Thomas reached for a rack and chose a fedora. After placing it on his head, he indicated for Robin to follow him.

“First, we'll be traveling out to another just like before. Do the same as you always have.” he said.

“After that, I need to travel to downtown Vale. I have an appointment with a couple of colleagues today. A lot of criminals are active down there, so I want you to protect us from any attackers. Think you can do that?”

Robin nodded. Thomas stepped out the door and towards his car outside. Along the way, Thomas whispered to a man who transported the truck yesterday. Robin's keen ears barely picked up the words.

“Move the goods to the agreed location. Make sure not to mess anything up. The better the quality, the better the pay our buyer gives us.”

The man nodded and walked away. Robin and the others got into the car. The mine they went to this time was in the east. However, the mine was located just to the north of Mountain Glenn. Mountain Glenn was infested with Grimm. Luckily, they weren't heading all the way there, but since the location was a bit closer to the forests that formed the border of Mountain Glenn, Grimm attacks were more frequent. Currently, Robin was engaged in an intense battle.

Skull Deathstalker (Lvl 55)HP:749/1100Appearance is similar to that of a scorpion. It's legs are brittle and cannot move quickly. However, in return it makes up for it with its strong pincers and poisonous stinger. Beware of its poison. When stung, the poison will paralyze you and slowly sap away your health.

Robin jumped to the left to avoid the stinger that pierced the spot he was at a moment ago. This Deathstalker stood about as tall as Robin and was longer than 3 cars lined up in a row. On it's face and back was completely covered in bone armor. It snapped its pincers at Robin. Robin ducked and found that the tree behind him had its trunk crushed under the pressure.

= How powerful. This must be an older Skull Grimm. Judging from the amount of armor it has, it's probably very close to becoming an Armored Deathstalker. I need to end this quickly, but first... =

Robin threw a Boom Trap at the Deathstalker's face. It moved its pincers back to protect it from the explosion. Robin grabbed a red dagger from his belt and threw it with all his strength. Because the pincers covered its eyes, it didn't notice the blade aimed at its eyes when it withdrew the pincers. The dagger stabbed its eyes threw the gaps in the face armor. The Deathstalker screeched in pain as the dagger burst into flames, causing even more damage.

-94

In anger, the Deathstalker stared at Robin with its other 3 eyes and stabbed its tail at Robin. Robin leaned to the side, barely dodging the stinger.

Aura Limbs

Helmsplitter

Two silver arms grabbed the pincer and stopped its retreat. A spot on the tail glowed to indicate a weak point. Although the main body was covered in armor, its tail was not. Pumping aura into his arms and sword, Robin striked the spot and separated the stinger from the tail in one stroke.

-198

“Kraaaaaaaaah!”

Robin dashed forward, dodging the pincers and landed on the Deathstalker's head. It's limbs were not that flexible, and could not reach that far. After realizing it couldn't reach Robin, it started to skitter around to make Robin lose his balance.

“As if!” Robin yelled.

Robin transformed Pantomath into its dual axe form and began striking the armor on its head. He used his legs and extra two limbs to grab onto the body to prevent him from falling off. After a couple of strikes, cracks could be seen to form in the armor.

Helmsplitter

As Robin returned Pantomath to its original form as a great-sword, glowing spots appeared in the armor.

Aura Sword

Using both Aura Sword and Aura Limbs while hanging on to the monster required a lot of focus. As Pantomath began to shine silver, Robin stabbed it into the Deathstalker with full force. The blade cut straight into the armor.

-287

“Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The Deathstalker starting to wave its pincer frantically, hoping to luckily smash Robin to death, but he didn't give it the time of day. Robin activated the Red Dust in the cartridge. Clad in flames, Pantomath sunk deeper into the skull and boiled the insides to a crisp. The monster twitched and gave a final cry before dropping onto the ground, finally dead.

+256 Exp.

“Ha..Ha..Ha..”

Taking a moment to breathe, Robin took out an elixir. The scratches on his body began to heal and he was revitalized. He snapped Pantomath back on his holster and returned to the vehicle. As they were driving, Thomas spoke with Robin.

“Are you sure you don't want to work for me?” he asked.

“I'll double the current pay. Tips not included. I'm sure you realize this isn't something just anyone is offered.”

“As much as I would love to, Mr. Walker, I have a goal I want to achieve, and I'm afraid I can't accomplish it as a mere bodyguard.” Robin replied.

= Well, technically, fighting powerful Grimm like this is what I want, but I don't want to have to do this every day. I want to enjoy life, not work every god damn day. Plus.. something doesn't feel right about this guy. =

“That's such a shame.” Thomas shook his head and faced forward. In a whisper, he muttered to himself.

“It would make things much simpler if it was voluntary.”

Robin did not mishear him.

“Sir? Did you say something?”

“No, I didn't.” Thomas replied.

The drive to the meeting was done in peace. Robin rested his body in the meantime. Just because elixirs healed wounds and gave him a bit of energy back, it didn't mean he wasn't tired. Just like before, he was left to guard and then they left to go back to the kingdom with trucks and cars following them. Instead of going Thomas's home, they went downtown for his appointment. They parked inside of a building and Thomas signaled for Robin to follow him. They walked along a path. On the left were windows while on the right were rooms.

“While I'm in the meeting, I want you to stand outside and guard. Don't let anyone in. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. It should only be about an hour before we're done.”

With that, he entered the room. Robin stood guard outside the doorway. The other bodyguards had entered the room with Thomas. There was nobody in the hallway except for him and the other men who were moving the crates from the truck. The room behind him was soundproof, so he couldn't hear anything they were talking about.

Identify

%[email protected]& (Lvl 25)HP:450/450Aura:420/420

#8%43&*@ (Lvl 20)HP:420/420Aura:400/400

#@3&84%*@$^[email protected] (Lvl 19)HP:405/405Aura:480/480

Robin creased his eyebrows.

= Not only these guys, everyone in this building that I ran into had their names hidden. Up till now, I haven't met one person that hid their names. Why is it suddenly everyone does? Furthermore, the mission was surprisingly more difficult than expected. A C-ranked mission wouldn't have so many Grimm that was on the verge of becoming Armored. … I have a bad feeling about this...Hm? =

Robin looked out the window. Robin stared at the rooftop of the building across from them.

= That's weird.. I thought I saw someone looking at me. =

Bloodlust

The world changed into two different visions. One vision he saw everything just like before. In the other vision, the silhouettes of everyone with their hearts beating steadily. Robin found that there was really nobody there.

= Huh. I guess I must be seeing things..What the..? =

The men were done loading the crates from the truck. They were currently sitting outside in the parking garage smoking. That much Robin could tell with his vision. What surprised him were the heartbeats he saw inside the crates.

= What is this?... =

Robin walked up to the room they loaded the crates in. The door had both an electric lock and a mechanical one, but they held no resistance to Robin. Robin checked to make sure nobody was approaching. In the meantime, he took out of his inventory a set of lock-picking tools from his inventory. Robin deactivated his Bloodlust and activated his two other skills.

Lockpick

Hack

Sending his aura into the electronic lock, a map of circuitry appeared in his mind. After forcing some paths together with his aura, he unlocked it. For the mechanical one, he sent his aura in to map out the pins inside the knob. Without hesitating in the act of breaking in, Robin turned the doorknob with a click before stepping inside the storage room.

Upon closer inspection, the crates had small holes on the top. When he listened, he could hear breathing coming from the inside. Robin fiddled with a lock on the crate and snapped it open. When he saw what was inside, he gasped.

Two young girls were trapped inside. One of them was a faunus at a very young age of maybe ten years old or so. The other girl was about Robin's age. They had metal cuffs on their legs and arms, and they were gagged. Upon seeing Robin, they eyes were filled with fear.

= Why are there kids here?.. !! It couldn't be! =

*Click*

“How did you get in here?”

Robin turned around. The person who was at the door was one of the bodyguards that followed Thomas inside. He was pointing his gun at Robin.

= How did this guy approach without me hearing him? =

Robin was about to reach for Pantomath when a voice spoke up.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you.”

Stepping into the room was Thomas and more men in black suits. They had various guns loaded and aimed at Robin who was trapped inside.

“What's the meaning of this?” Robin asked.

“Oh don't ask the obvious.” Thomas replied. “These girls are slaves I received in the truck. I know you're not stupid Robin, so you must already get that I'm no ordinary man. I was planning on abducting you after you finished your job, but since you've discovered this room, I have no choice.”

Thomas shrugged indifferently.

= I see. That's why there was such a good pay. Once he captures me, he'll just take it back out of the inventory chip. The high pay rate was for getting suckers like me. This is bad. =

“Drop your weapon.” One of the bodyguards said.

Robin hesitated but eventually did so. Robin wasn't exactly keen on finding out how many bullets his weaken body could take. He desperately began thinking. One of the men approached Robin and started to remove all the weapons he placed on his body.

“Put him in cuffs and make sure he's properly chained.” Thomas said. “We'll send him with the bunch later.”

“Um sir.” another man whispered. Robin's ears picked it up. “Without your bodyguard, what will we do about her?”

“I'm not scared of no Grimm Reaper.” Thomas retorted.

“Besides, even after traveling these past two days outside the kingdom, nothing happened. I doubt she even knows where we are.”

Thomas and some of the other men walked away. At this point, there were two men in the room. One was attaching chain cuffs on Robin while the other stood behind him. With already one set of chains on his wrists, Robin couldn't feel his aura.

= If I remember correctly, these two men are level 20..Without Enhance, my body is about 1/2 of its normal strength. That should be enough to take them down, but what worries me is that gun. If I take even a single bullet, I'm screwed. =

The man finished chaining Robin's arms and they walked him towards a wall. On the wall were four places which Robin assumed was where his limbs were to be restrained. Just as he was about to be put away, an explosion occurred outside. The building shook and the fire alarm sounded.

“What was that?” the man with the gun shouted.

In his moment of carelessness, he turned his head towards the door. Robin took his hands and grabbed the man in front of him. He used one hand to cover the man's mouth while using the other to crush his windpipe. He then jabbed his fingers into the pressure points on the man's shoulders. Even without the skill, he still remembered where they were.

-54

-20

-17

Robin kicked the man to the side and dashed forward. With the alarm sounding, the other man had not noticed the change that occurred. By the time he turned, Robin had approached and grabbed the pistol. Robin twisted the man's arm and kicked his knee, forcing him to drop to the floor. Tearing the gun from his captive's grasp, Robin swung and knocked the man out with the butt of the gun.

-74

Robin pointed the gun at the other man kneeling on the floor with his arms hanging limply on the side. His face showed the pain he felt when trying to breathe, but he held his breathe when Robin pointed the gun at his face.

“You make a single wimp, and you die. Got it?”

The man nodded furiously. Robin approached from behind and strangled him. After a few seconds, the man lost consciousness. Robin grabbed the keys and unlocked his cuffs. He grabbed his weapons and activated his semblance.

Bloodlust

Enhance

As he stood next to the door, he waited as some silhouettes raced by. When the last one was about to pass, he grabbed the man by the collar and dragged him in. Before the man could retaliate, Robin jabbed his pressure points and knocked him out. Although he had threatened to kill the man, Robin was still hesitant on taking lives.

Upon leaving the room, he noticed something very peculiar. Many of the people that were inside the building could not be felt by Robin's Bloodlust. Instead, the only silhouettes he could see were in the room next-door. He approached cautiously and realized that the survivors were fighting one person.

= What in the world is happening? =

Robin drew Pantomath and peeked inside. In there, he found a surprise that would change his life...twice now.

Yeah, this week I'm going to be busy. Next update will probably be Thursday or Friday. Rate, comment, enjoy! Thanks for reading!