Chapter 6: The Vanguard

  Midnight at the Flux HQ parking lot was a graveyard of cold concrete and fluorescent hums. Seonho walked toward a silhouette leaning against a sleek, matte-black motorcycle.

  "Hey Rin. How have you been?" Seonho asked, his voice soft against the stillness.

  Rin pushed off the bike, adjusting her leather gloves. "Fine. What—did you miss me?" she teased, though her usual spark was a bit dimmer after her encounter with Gaeul.

  "No lie. Yeah," Seonho said seriously. "Actually, I was worried about you."

  Rin groaned, rolling her eyes toward the dark sky. "You're being too sappy. This is cringe. What, you want me to cry? Huhu, Seonho-ya cares about me!"

  "You're still my partner!" Seonho yelled, his frustration finally bubbling over. "We already lost two people from the Ven War. Our team still isn't back to four heads because recruitment is slim lately. You’re all I’ve got—so please, no more crashing out like you did in the training room!"

  "God, you’re so annoying," Rin muttered, though she didn't look away. She kicked a tarp aside, unveiling two heavy-duty tactical motorcycles. "Just get a ride. We might actually get a third member if we can get Leeseo’s head on straight again."

  "Leeseo doesn’t like fighting right now," Seonho said, his tone softening as he thought of her eating cake. "She doesn't like hurting people."

  "Yeah, right," Rin snorted, climbing onto her bike. "After throwing us half a room away? She's a natural."

  Seonho walked up to her and suddenly reached out, giving her a sharp slap on the shoulder.

  "Ow—hey!" Rin barked, clutching her arm. "What was that for?"

  Seonho chuckled, already mounting his own bike. "That’s for putting me inside an Aion Prison Cube. We’re even."

  Rin shook her head, a small, genuine smirk tugging at her lips. "Fair enough. Let's move."

  ***

  They reached the designated area—a desolate loading dock behind a crumbling, abandoned mall. The smell of damp trash and rust hung heavy.

  Waiting for them were six figures. Four ANTI soldiers stood in the center, their swords glowing with a jagged, artificial energy. Behind them, two massive pilotable Mechas—bipedal tanks with gatling arms—whirred to life.

  "Four on the floor, two in the tin cans," Rin said, spinning her bo-staff. "I'll take the left, you take the right?"

  "Works for me."

  The four swordsmen lunged. Rin’s eyes flickered blue—her Precognition kicked in. She saw the lead swordsman’s downward strike before he even lifted his arm. She slid under the blade, her staff connecting with his throat with a sickening crack.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Seonho didn't even run. Zip. He materialized above a swordsman, driving his knee into the man’s helmet. Zip. He was behind another, his twin daggers parrying a blade before he delivered a spinning kick that sent the soldier flying into a stack of pallets.

  Rin was a blur of efficiency. She saw a weakness in the third swordsman’s stance—a gap in his armor at the hip. She pivoted, her staff striking the point with pinpoint accuracy, then used the momentum to vault over him, kicking the final swordsman squarely in the chest.

  While Rin and Seonho were busy dismantling the rank-and-file soldiers, a shadow moved within the deeper darkness of the loading dock.

  The ANTI squad leader, a man clad in reinforced plating with a jagged energy-greatsword, stood back to coordinate the Mecha fire. He never saw the figure step out from behind a concrete pillar.

  San didn't draw the obsidian claymore strapped to his back. He didn't even activate his Aion signature. He simply walked up to the leader, his movements silent and heavy.

  "Who—?!" the leader gasped, spinning around. He swung his energy blade in a panicked horizontal arc.

  San didn't flinch. He leaned back just enough for the glowing edge to hiss past his throat, the face singeing the air. Before the soldier could recover, San stepped into his guard.

  THUD.

  A straight left hook buried itself into the leader’s reinforced chest plate, the metal groaning and denting inward. The leader wheezed, his lungs collapsing under the sheer physical pressure. San followed up with a brutal, lightning-fast grab to the man’s throat, hoisting him off the ground with one hand.

  The leader thrashed, clawing at San’s obsidian-armored arm, but it was like clawing at a mountain. With a bored expression, San delivered a final, short-range punch directly into the center of the man's helmet. The visor shattered, and the leader went limp instantly.

  San tossed the body aside like a piece of discarded scrap metal. He glanced toward the Mechas, his eyes remaining a neutral, dark brown—no blue light, no effort.

  The Mechas opened fire. Bullets chewed up the concrete. Seonho disappeared in a flash of blue. He materialized on the shoulder of the left Mecha. The pilot tried to shake him off, but Seonho jammed a dagger into the neck joint, steering the massive machine like a wild bull.

  Rin leaped, using her staff to vault onto the right Mecha's cockpit. She slammed her staff into the glass, cracking it, then leaned over the sensors. "Hey, dummy! Over here!"

  Both Mechas pivoted toward each other, their automated targeting systems locking onto the "threats" perched on their heads.

  "Now!" Seonho yelled.

  The Mechas fired simultaneously. Seonho teleported a split second before the shells hit. Rin performed a backflip into the abyss. The two machines blasted each other's torsos into scrap metal.

  BOOM.

  The twin explosions of the Mechas lit up the desolate mall like a dying sun. As the fire roared and the metal groaned, Seonho and Rin landed side-by-side on the scorched pavement, catching their breath.

  The sound of slow, rhythmic clapping emerged from the shadows of the loading dock.

  "That took a while," a deep, velvet voice echoed, "but it was pretty good."

  San stepped into the flickering light of the fires. His obsidian armor caught the orange glow, and his long claymore remained undisturbed on his back. He looked as though he had been watching a movie rather than a life-or-death battle.

  "San!" Seonho’s face lit up instantly. "My man!"

  He jogged over, the tension from the fight vanishing as he grabbed San’s hand, pulling him into a brief, one-armed brotherly hug. San didn't hug back, but he offered a small, knowing smirk at Seonho’s enthusiasm.

  Rin, on the other hand, propped her bo-staff against her shoulder and let out a long, theatrical sigh. She looked at the wreckage, then back at San’s pristine armor.

  "You were here the whole time and didn't help?" she asked, her voice dripping with mock annoyance. "We’re out here doing the heavy lifting, and you’re just... what? Scoring us from the sidelines?"

  San glanced over his shoulder toward the dark corner where the ANTI leader lay crumpled in a heap of broken metal. "I handled the trash," he said simply. "Besides, you two need the practice. If I do everything, you’ll stay soft."

  "Soft? I just took down a tank!" Rin barked, though the corners of her mouth twitched. She couldn't stay truly mad—San’s presence meant the mission was officially a success.

  ***

  While the fires died down at the mall, Leeseo sat in the silence of her room at Flux HQ. She was staring at the pink bracelet, her mind drifting. Suddenly, her vision blurred. The white walls of her room dissolved into a swirling mist of crimson. Her eyes turned a hollow, glowing blue.

  Standing in the center of the mist was the woman in the gold mask.

  "What? What are you doing here?" Leeseo whispered, her voice trembling. This wasn't a dream—it was a Perception Link.

  "Leeseo... do you remember me?" the woman’s voice echoed, cold and distorted.

  Leeseo began to cry, the memories of the lab flashing back. "You—you hurt us... you let them change us..."

  "You cannot let them know about the Scarlet Energy," the woman commanded, her golden mask shimmering. "Do you understand? If you tell Flux what we really did to your soul..."

  Leeseo nodded frantically. "I won't! Just leave me alone!"

  "Make sure you don't," the masked woman whispered. She waved a hand, and an illusionary Seonho appeared in the mist. He looked at Leeseo, smiling that goofy smile she loved. Then, with a sickening snap, the illusion’s neck was twisted. The image of Seonho fell limp.

  "NOOOO!" Leeseo screamed, falling to her knees.

  The mist vanished. Leeseo was back in her room, gasping for air, her heart hammering against her ribs.

  Inside a darkened, ancient temple far from civilization, the girl in the gold mask sat on a stone throne. Her eyes glowed bright blue behind the eye slits of her mask—the sign of her Mind Bridging power.

  She exhaled, the link severing. She looked at her hands, which were stained with a faint, flickering red aura.

  "I need to prepare," she whispered to the empty, cold hall. "Yaejin is coming... and she won't be as easy to scare as the trainee."

  Illusion.