The training hall smelled like iron and old wood.
Like water, Epicurus's spear multiplied, thrusting so quickly the afterimages looked real. Solid. Countable. Each strike arrived from a different angle before the last one had finished existing. Two drew his curved blade and blocked the first three, the fourth scraped his guard, and the fifth pushed his heel back.
Darkened stood half a step behind, watching, waiting. Following. The lanky man held an eerily thin blade.
Two switched weapons. Curved blade gone, short hooked axe in one hand, straight sword in the other. The rhythm changed, but Epicurus didn't care.
"TOSS!"
Epicurus yelled, launching his spear.
Two's eyes followed it for exactly one instant, and that instant was a lie.
The spear hadn't left his hand. The motion had. The intention had. Everything except the spear.
"Iai."
Darkened didn't shout it. He whispered it, almost to himself. And with the shadows, he was gone, ten meters dissolved in the time it takes to blink, blade already completing its arc by the time Two's eyes snapped back.
The slash connected with the axe.
The axe cracked.
A hairline split running clean through the head of it. Two looked at it. Then he looked at Darkened, Two then swung his chain from the other side of his hand, it wrapped around Darkened's neck. He went to tug, but Epicurus quickly broke the chain with his weapon as Darkened jumped back.
Two yawned.
"For your IAI", "Your first five meters," he said pleasantly, "are still far faster than your last five."
Then he moved.
Five weapons cycling in a sequence, each one coming from a different direction, a different height, a different logic entirely. Darkened was being swallowed by it, parrying one and eating the angle of the next, his footing crumbling beneath the pressure. He was going to be defeated with ease.
Epicurus intervened, blocking the attack confidently, stating, "Go all out, Darkened."
York sat upstairs watching, wiggling her toes, her arm in a sling, her eye patch covering the eye she had lost a few days prior. 'Darkened has low Life Force. I wonder if he attached a Core Node to his organ yet,' she thought to herself.
Epicurus's lance moved quickly. Two dodged and equipped a third weapon. The chain wrapped around his fist, weighted end orbiting.
"TOSS!" Epicurus yelled again. He released the weapon, and it hung suspended in the air, but it didn't move. The spear stood in the air 1 meter above his hand. Two braced. But the spear didn't move. Then Epicurus grabbed it and threw it with almost no movement in a split second. Caught off guard, Two panic-blocked as the throw shattered his weapon completely.
He looked left, sensing a Life Force in the shadows. "Iai!"
Darkened materialized behind him. Blade drawn mid-dash, the Iai already completing itself, the slash crossing Two's side in one clean, silent line.
Two turned into it.
Not fast enough to avoid it. Fast enough to make it shallow. A red line. Sore tomorrow, forgotten next week.
The three of them went still.
Two touched his side with two fingers. Then, he looked at Darkened with something akin to surprise.
"Your Core Node is unique." I'm assuming it's Tier A, linked to the primary visual cortex, perhaps?"It threw me off."
"It's not an anomaly, sadly, but it is linked to the primary visual cortex. V1, V2, and V3. The parts of the brain responsible for processing shape, movement, depth, and contrast."
Two disappointed mumbled, "So whatever your future complication will be, it will be tied to how you perceive and interpret what you see."
He turned to Epicurus. Said nothing. Just looked at him with the quiet, specific attention of someone taking accurate measurements.
"Why are you holding back so much? Aren't we in practice?" Two mumbled his eyes.
Well, I have to match Darkened, and if I go all out, I'm going to have to kill you." Epicurus avoided eye contact, prideful.
"I guess... I'd just let you kill me." Two's face was visibly annoyed, twitching. He tossed Epicurus back his crown.
When did he? He took it off my head while reacting to Darkened's slash?
Darkened quickly put his face mask back on. "How do we compare to that human weapon you fought, Two?"
"Don't ask dumb questions, Dark. Your swordsmanship isn't terrible, but you need to stop wasting your time. Study Biomechanics. Fully understand the steps needed to become superhuman and stop cutting corners with your devil worship."
"IRONIC??" Darkened thought to himself.
Darkened whispered, "It's always Life Force, then Core Node, then Complication. I already know that. But the difference between a Core Node and a Complication is like catching a fish and catching a whale."
Epicurus asked, "For real, though, Blades. I was thinking I could take the matchup against Liam in the Presidency battle. He flexed his life force, how do I stack up?"
Two clapped back quickly. "If you fought him the way you're fighting right now, you'd—"
RING RING RING.
The notification actually went through? Must be the President, big sis, or... Anastasia?
Two answered. "Mush mush..." he trolled.
"I'm leaking the evidence on Solomon and Mr. N that I received," Anastasia said. "The Dark Triad is also going underground to meet with Gonen. We have to make sure they are not trying to obtain our contingency being "G", retrieve that contingency, and execute Operation Red.
Two smiled like a beast finding its next prey. His long red hair covered his face, but he was smiling widely. Dreyfus the Impaler, huh?
Anastasia continued. "Take my lieutenant, Dots, and carry Rufus with you."
"I'm going to the White House."