"I told you walking in front was dangerous." Henry smiled wearily as he leaned against the door frame. He spoke as if he found what had just happened to be amusing. However, Damon was in no mood for exchanging quips.
'I thought I was done for.'
'What even was that thing! That's no Revolver!''
As Damon hit the polished floor, the mixed scent of sulfurous gunpowder and smoky wood filled his nostrils. With his shaky palms pressed against the hardwood, he looked at Henry and exhaled heartily.
Henry rested a hand on the edges of the shattered door before pressing his lips together with a pensive look. As usual, Damon had no idea what was going on inside his brother's head. Though he could sense Henry's focus occasionally shifting to his katana, he did not quite understand why.
However, he did not have to wait long to find out
Click! Click! Click! The mechanical sound of a trigger being pulled repeatedly on an empty chamber soon echoed into their ears, and Henry's head snapped toward Damon.
"Damon, do you trust me?" He asked, his tone weirdly calm.
"Huh!? " Damon exclaimed with furrowed brows, "I don't know what you have in mind, but we should stick to the plan. I'll ru—''
"I need you to put away your weapon and follow my lead."
Before Damon could respond, Henry placed his palm flat against his chest. A surge of Spiritual energy shot forth immediately after, quickly spreading through Damon's limbs.
He felt Henry was intentionally avoiding his core to prevent resonance and hastily contracted his muscles as the energy settled inside.
"Ugh... I feel like I'm going to throw up."
"You could have just said thank you." Henry's expression soured.
He pulled his hand back, the flow of energy cutting off as his eyes flashed a mix of annoyance and concern. "That's four percent. It should help. But that's all you're getting."
Damon straightened, rolling his shoulder. The nausea was already fading, replaced by a soothing warmth. He could work with this.
"I'll lead," Henry repeated. Without another word, he then surged out of the room first, as Damon followed from behind, quickly storing his blade.
When the man saw them coming, he raised his pistol once more, relentlessly crushing the trigger before suddenly tossing it aside.
As they saw this, Damon and Henry wondered if he was about to surrender. However, they were quickly proven wrong when the curly-haired man made his next move.
Clatter!
Just as the weapon hit the ground, the man reached into the space beside him, and another weapon began to emerge.
Its main body was thirty-eight inches and vaguely resembled a flat wooden paddle. However, it seemed to be made from a beast's spine, ground into a rectangular shape. On the chalky surface, several scarlet runes and a face were intricately carved, depicting an unknown entity mired in sorrow.
But the most eye-catching of all was the thick jagged blades set within carved grooves along both sides of the alabaster frame. Damon counted eight in total, each one carrying a dark blue hue like the essence of midnight.
It was a sword like none he had ever seen, yet Henry, who ran ahead of him, felt differently.
'A Macahuitl!?'
As this dawned on him, the duo saw the man pull his arm back. Suddenly, the joints on the paddle expelled a wisp of smoke and extended with shocking speed as he swung forward.
Henry instinctively swerved to avoid the jagged obsidian blades; however, his eyes widened as the weapon's trajectory curved like a serpent in the same breath.
'Shit!'
'You dolt, that's a whip sword,' Damon chided inwardly.
Anticipating his brother's shoulder would be ripped apart, he acted swiftly and grabbed one of Liz's daggers from his inventory, throwing it towards the incoming blades. Despite tossing out the blade, he was not entirely sure what the result would be, but the edges of his mouth soon curled slightly.
Clink! Clang!
As both reinforced weapons collided, the Stanger of the two was repelled back like a centipede blown off course, and a single crack appeared on the second row of blades.
In his frenzied state, the man seemed to ignore this completely, whipping his hand forth once more in another attack.
Instinct took over Henry again as he caught the dagger that fell back towards them, continuing his advance. In a brief moment, Damon could sense his grievances towards not receiving the weapon earlier, to which he only rolled his eyes.
'I earned these blades, there's no way I'd gift them away, they should break instead.'
["Oh? I did not think your time with the duplicates of Liz and Gerald meant that much to you, Boya. You were prepared to sacrifice one to protect him, why not gift them?"]
'That was different!'
As Damon responded, he ducked beneath a horizontal slash that tore through the redwood paneling across from him.
The man had suddenly increased speed as if he was engine warming up.
However, neither brother slowed for even more than two seconds. They moved with fluidity of trained acrobats, executing a flurry of sidesteps, spins, and flips in a deadly dance through a web of obsidian blades that whistled through the air.
["Careful, Damon,"] Tomoe whispered, her tone losing its playfulness. ["That isn't a mere Arcane tool like the ones those Churches hoard. That is an Artifact forged from the remnants and Will of a deceased Specter. If it cuts you even once, the 'Will' inside it might start eroding yours."]
'We didn't plan on getting slashed either way!' Damon remarked. While the weapon was dangerous, He was more concerned about the limits of the man standing before them.
"We can't let him use any of his abilities!"
"I know," Henry snapped back. Taking a deep breath, he activated his technique. 'I might have struggled against a mutated nightmare like Cecil, but a human Grade III? I can take him.
As he focused his mind and increased his output, he shrank the distance with a leap and twisted his body mid-air. With the sharp dagger in hand, he swung to his right and knocked the man's weapon off course once more.
Clank! Clink!
Without a moment's hesitation, Henry then extended his leg for a spinning heel kick aimed squarely at the man's temple. But the man reacted with a brutal open-palm strike, meeting the force of the kick.
Woosh!
Henry adjusted mid-flight, seeing this through his enhanced perception. He pushed his weight upwards using the man's outstretched arm as a springboard before he could retract it. In an instant, his leg snapped out again, this time catching the man's right shoulder as the chain blade lashed toward him.
Crack!
At that moment, Damon heard a bone within the man's arm.
Yet the Desterian wasn't finished!
As his right arm relaxed, his left hand suddenly shot up with fingers perfectly straight. Henry intercepted with his other leg and delivered a second kick.
The force caused the man's knees to almost buckle as sweat broke out on his temple. But he quickly stabilized himself and pushed the nimble young boy off
Just then, Damon seized his moment to strike. As Henry landed crouched, he flipped over his back and charged towards the now unarmed specter. His leg connected with the man's chest in a brutal kick that shook his ribs and sent him staggering back.
A trace crimson flowed from the man's mouth as his pupil shook with a hint of coherence. Stabilizing his footing, he took a Wing Chun stance and countered, striking with his palms again and again.
'How is this guy still fighting with his hands like that!'
Damon managed to evade each attack by a hair's breadth. But he could not help but praise the formidability of his brother's technique and the man's martial arts skills after a single blow came close to striking his face.
He was being forced into defense with every passing second!
Luckily, Henry rushed up from behind to turn the tide. He pivoted his off the wall and delivered his heel into the side of the man's temple.
Bang!
Feeling his brain make contact with the side of his skull, the man could not resist. Though he was stronger than the average human, a blow that sent reverberations through his core was something he had no answer for.
Shortly after his knees buckled, the man fell to the floor unconscious with vacant eyes and blood and drool leaking from his mouth.
Damon watched cautiously, observing for any sudden movements. He was at a loss, considering he had been prepared to deliver a couple more blows before the man went down.
"Thinks he's dead?" Henry scrunched his face slightly and asked, having retrieved the man's fallen weapons. He had not killed anyone before, but he knew that it would not be difficult if the right blow was delivered to a vital point.
"He's not going to die from that," Damon said, shaking his head. He wiped the sweat away, taking a deep breath, then added, "He won't be out for long either. We need to restrain him."
"We didn't bring rope. What do we do?"
Instead of responding immediately, Damon took the paddle-shaped Artifact from Henry's hand, brandishing it over the defenseless specter. "We just need to remove his means of escape."
Henry's eyes widened as he came to understand the subtle implications in his brother's word, "No! Were not doing that. This man might be innocent." His chest heaved as he spoke, not willing to budge an inch.
"Innocent?" Damon let out a short laugh and raised a brow. "The guy who just tried to put three reinforced rounds through my heart is 'innocent'? Henry, use your head. Cecil said the Franz family might be knee-deep in criminal acts."
"She heard rumors!" Henry retorted, "She was a vengeful spirit. You think the dead cannot lie?"
Damon went silent, his blue eyes narrowing.
"They can be vengeful, Damon. Why wouldn't they lie to get what they want? This entire case started because of resentment and deception," Henry said firmly.