The sound of the voice had a playful alluring sound to it. Like a bored woman who found an amusing toy she wanted to play with. While to some, it would be enticing, to Liam it was like a warning. He could feel his hair standing underneath his cloak. He didn’t need his Danger Sense to say anything. The voice alone told him he needed to be on guard and not underestimate the owner.

  Her voice matched the playful and curious deep purple eyes she had that also matched the cascading deep purple braided hair that ran down her back. She wore black leather thigh high boots, leather short shorts, a tight black shirt with thin bones running up both sides of her ribs and cupping her modest chest area. Behind her a bone like tail swished back and forth. She wore fingerless gloves that ran up to her elbows. Bones decorated her gloves as well. A bone jaw mask covered her mouth and nose, however, the mask moved along with her own mouth. Two meat hook like weapons rested by her hips.

  “You have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to new magic you’ve never eaten before you gluttonous wench,” the second person close to her sneered. Unlike the playful type of tone the female had, this man had more of a bored type of tone. Like he was forced to do something when really he wanted to not do anything at all.

  While the girl looked to stand up to Liam’s chin, the man was taller. Liam couldn’t tell how tall he was since he hunched forward, allowing his arms to dangle freely. From what Liam was able to tell this man was thin and lanky. He wore loose pants, a white sleeveless shirt under an open fuchsia and emerald, green sleeveless hooded cloak. The hood over his head hid majority of the man’s face, except for the mouth and chin portion which was covered but some kind of mask Liam wasn’t able to get a good look at. Liam did notice a strange object coiled up next to the man’s right side. It looked like thorny vines with a couple of flower buds attached to a handle of sorts.

  “Excuse you?!” the woman shouted. “How dare you call me a wench you lazy son of a bitch. It’s not my fault you were forced to take this request as my partner.”

  The man lazily turned to look at the woman. “If you weren’t prone to easily getting distracted just so you can fill your gut, like you are now then I wouldn’t have to be here as your damn babysitter.”

  “Hey!” the woman snapped back as she placed both hands on her hips.

  Liam watched the two arguing for a bit. He wasn’t sure if they were trying to get him to lower his guard so they could sneak attack him or if they truly didn’t get along; however, he knew he couldn’t let his eyes wander off of them.

  He wasn’t sure how or why, but he instinctually knew they were strong. Stronger than him. How much stronger he wasn’t sure. His gut and body just screamed that all of his attention needed to be focused on these two if he wanted to live.

  “You know what, this is all a hassle,” the man suddenly stated as his right hand reached for the strange object coiled up on his side. After he pulled it away from his hip, the curled up thorny vine unfurled and dropped. However, instead of one vine extending to the ground, three vines freely dropped. At the ends of each thorned vine was a bluish flower bud.

  Liam’s Danger Sense suddenly lit up, not as bad as he thought it would, which confused him. That one moment of confusion caused enough hesitation for him to miss the man start to move his arm back. However, the sudden movement was enough for Liam to jump back right as the man skillfully cracked the weapon towards Liam.

  Liam had moved back enough to dodge the strange weapon from colliding into him. Liam still heard the loud crack as the vines extended out. What Liam didn’t expect though was right as the ends of the vines cracked like a whip, the bud suddenly opened up and released a puff of bluish purple pollen right in his face.

  Liam waved the pollen away to clear the air so he could see the two dangerous people, but as he did so he felt a wave of drowsiness suddenly washed over him. He felt his legs buckle as he dropped to his knees. Confusion filled his mind as he felt his eyelids start to grow heavy. His arms fell to his side as his head grew heavy. He tried to fight back against the sudden drowsiness, but he felt like the more he fought against it the harder the effects tried to tighten its hold on him.

  “Seriously?” Liam heard the woman complain. “Are you that much in a hurry?”

  “We need to hurry up and get to the target before they meet up with that troublesome person we were warned about,” the man slowly, but carefully explained.

  “You saying we need to hurry is rather weird since it’s against everything you do,” the woman started to say. Her tone though was considerate as she added, “However, you are right. That man is a rather potential risk to our success. Especially since he is way stronger than us. Alright fine. Let’s head out then.”

  Panic started to fill Liam’s mind as he tried to think about what he could do. His chaotic mind mixed with the drowsiness that was trying to claim him was making things hard for him to concentrate. He didn’t know what had happened. He wasn’t sure how he was affected by this Debuff called Drowsy that had suddenly appeared after the pollen had blasted across his face. However, he knew he needed to do something to get rid of it. If he didn’t then these two would go after Omira and his friends and that was something he didn’t want to have happen.

  An idea popped in his mind as he wracked it on what he could do. He wasn’t sure if what he thought would work since he never came across an issue like this before. He was only going off of what he had read in stories and mangas, but he had no other ideas. He also knew this was going to be his only chance to do something as his sight started to grow blurry by the second. He concentrated all he could in his right arm. At first it didn’t move, however, after screaming loudly in his mind as he put his all into his will, he was finally able to move it enough to reach for the closest throwing dagger he could grab.

  He was able to place his hand on it but as he tried to grip it he found his hold was weak. He wasn’t able to grab it like he was hoping to. That didn’t stop him for inching the weapon out slowly. However, he came across his next issue. The more he pulled the weapon out the more his sight was darkening. He was getting sleepier and sleepier by the second. He could feel his chest sway back and forth as he continued to fight as hard as he could. He was starting to see it was a losing battle as he felt his body start to fall forward as his vision finally started to fully succumb to the drowsy Debuff.

  Liam suddenly screamed out loud in pain as his vision fully came back two seconds after a stabbing pain pierced the side of his leg. Both the man and woman swiftly turned back to see Liam on his knees, one hand on the ground holding himself up, and the other pulling a small dagger away from his leg. The woman looked both amazed and excited at this while the man’s body language looked annoyed and cautious.

  As Liam pushed himself back up onto his feet, glaring at the two, the woman said in an excitable tone, “Yay! This looks like it’s going to be fun.”

  “No,” the man stated with a cold tone. “This looks like this is going to be trouble.”

  “Why do you think that?” the woman asked as she looked at her partner.

  “Anyone willing to stab themselves to get out of a drowsy Debuff clearly is a handful to deal with,” the man stated as he turned his body to fully face Liam. Before the woman could ask why he continued, “He doesn’t seem strong, but it’s not those who seem strong who are trouble. I am willing to bet he can adapt and be resourceful. Be careful.”

  “Oh please he looks like he struggling just to…,” the woman started, but stopped as she leaned back enough to dodge a dagger that sailed right past her face. The man barely moved, but the amount was enough to dodge one as well.

  In response the woman slowly looked at Liam. A wicked grin slowly grew as she said, “Okay…let’s see how adaptable and resourceful this little kitty can be then.” She then exploded forward. She suddenly appeared right in front of Liam with a right punch extended for his head.

  Liam quickly activated Shadow Step inches before the punch connected with his face. The woman was surprised as her fist punched through a small body shaped cloud of black smoke. She turned around to see Liam reappearing behind her partner with both of his daggers moving in to stab him in the back. However, the man’s body easily reacted by spinning around with a leg ready to hit Liam on the side.

  Liam barely dodged the attack in time as his body ducked under the leg. However, as he ducked he saw the fist coming right for his face. Once more Liam used Shadow Step to get away from the attack. Liam reappeared daggers already extended for the woman’s side. The woman pulled one of her meat cleavers, the flat side of the blade big enough to stop both daggers from puncturing her side.

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  “That’s not nice Little Kitty. You should never attack a woman’s stomach. No matter what side. A woman’s stomach is one of her selling points in her charm,” the woman chided in a teasing way.

  Liam clicked his tongue as he went to kick the woman’s ankles to throw her off balance, however as he went to move, his Danger Sense flared up behind him causing him to duck down as low as he could as he spun, dodging a sudden spear strike from the man. Liam the pushed off his feet into the air as he luckily dodged a sweeping slash from the woman.

  As Liam jumped into the air, he quickly changed from his usual daggers to his throwing daggers and tried to rain down as many as he could upon them. While the woman easily dodged the projectile weapons with graceful movements, Liam was shocked to see the lanky hunched over man move swiftly away from the rain and got within range to send a thrust of his spear right for Liam.

  Liam summoned two of his Shadow Hands back and swiftly gave them daggers before sending them as fast as he could to not deflect the income strike but rather divert its angel away from him. He wasn’t as fast as he wanted to be, but it was enough for the spearhead to graze his right side.

  As Liam landed on the ground after taking that graze, he felt his body become heavy once more as the Drowsy Debuff appeared again. Liam cursed as he had his Shadow Hand run the blade of the dagger enough across the top of his left shoulder to send the Debuff away.

  He was happy to learn he could get rid of the pesky debuff this way since he didn’t have any other way to counter it. However, he knew he couldn’t keep doing this. While taking some damage this way was enough to keep him awake, it was still doing damage to his health pool. He couldn’t keep taking damage just to get rid of a debuff or else he would end up killing himself. He needed to figure out another way to fend off that annoying ability.

  However, Liam didn’t have enough time to think as he focused all his attention on both of his attackers. Liam could feel his senses running on overtime as he heightened his sight on any type of body movements to tell where the next attacks would come, his hearing in case he wasn’t able to keep up with his sight, touch in case he could feel any shift in the air space around him, and smell in case they used any odors or aromas to hinder any of his other senses.

  He ducked, dodged, rolled, Shadow Stepped, stabbed, thrust, parried with his Shadow Hands, everything he could. His breathing started to grow ragged and heavy the more time went as he moved. He was pushing his body as hard as he could only because if he let up at any point then there was a high chance he would fall. Whether he fell and was just taken out of the fight or died would matter on how the attackers felt. However, he felt they wouldn’t leave him alive even though he wasn’t their target. He held them up enough that he understood he was a problem to them.

  At least that’s the feeling he got from the man in the way he attacked. As for the woman, he felt like she was just toying with him. Like she was waiting for him to do something to satisfy her. He wasn’t sure what her deal was, but nonetheless she was still an issue he didn’t want to leave his fate in.

  A sharp pain grew in his side as he activated Shadow Step to appear behind the woman and jumped away to dodge a strike from her. Liam winced as he tried to breath. It took him a moment to understand what was going on. He was running low on stamina. This problem was going to be detrimental if not addressed soon. His mind scrambled to figure out what he could do so he could catch his breath and replenish his stamina. However, that one moment he took to think that proved to be fatal.

  He ducked and rolled his upper body under a slashing strike from the woman, but as he came back up to attack her, the man suddenly appeared beside his partner with a leg up and already reaching out to strike him directly into his side. He wasn’t able to dodge or parry the strike due to his focus shifting to his mind. The strength of the strike sent him flying and rolling across the ground.

  He finally came to a stop as he crashed into the side of a building. He let out a painful gasp right before he started coughing. He tried to take in air, but each breath he took in was too painful. The beating of his heart thumped hard against his chest as he tried to control his breathing. However, no matter how hard he tried to regain his breathing and slow down his beating heart, his frantic mind was rapidly filled with warnings that he needed to hurry up and move before it was too late.

  His mind was growing more and more frantic as he saw the two people slowly making their way towards him. The hunched over man with his face still covered by the mask and hood was unreadable, but the woman who looked excited earlier was now wearing a disappointed look on her face.

  “Many this is a letdown,” the woman suddenly said as she turned her gaze on her partner. “You said he would be trouble and would be able to adapt and be resourceful. While I admit he was able to keep up for a while there, that was nowhere near what you promised.”

  The man made an irritated sigh as he stopped and said, “I never made such a promise. That was your own delusions making things up again.”

  “Are you sure about that? I’m fairly sure you promised he would be,” the woman commented with a brow raised.

  As the two started bickering again, Liam tried to focus on regaining a calm state. His chest rapidly moved up and down as he took in harsh painful gulps of air. His mind reeled as he tried to think about what to do. He was at a loss on what he could do. The hope of him coming out of this alive was quickly slipping away in his mind.

  Right as he was about to resign himself that he wasn’t going to get away from this alive, a single defiant scream suddenly vibrated within him. The sound came from somewhere within him, shocking him. He wasn’t sure what it was or where it came from, but the sorry excuse he called his mindset shattered. He wasn’t ready to die. Not here, not now. He also wasn’t ready to fail or give up.

  It didn’t matter if he was whole outmatched. This wasn’t the first time he was in a situation like this. he didn’t give up back then so why was he giving up right now? Like the two were saying he was adaptive and resourceful. He just needed to figure out his next move.

  As if answering his answering his silent call, Liam heard a few chimes echo throughout his mind. Adding to the chimes were a couple of notifications. As he stared at them he was stunned. While what he was staring at wasn’t the full answer of what he needed, it was something he could use and by adding it to the gift Ariyana had left him, he could see a glimpse of a small chance of survival.

  Liam started laughing as he slowly pushed himself up to his feet. His laughter caused the two in front of him to stop bickering and look over at him. Liam was a mess. He had one hand on his side where the sharp pain was each time he took in a breath and the other on the wall. He used Shadow Manipulation to gather a blob of shadows to his hand on his side. Due to his cloak being a similar color as the blob, the two weren’t able to see the shadows gathering.

  “What’s so funny?” the woman asked, slight curiosity on her face as she stared at him.

  “Nothing. At least nothing you would find funny,” Liam started as he winced from the slight pain. The woman raised a brow as she waited for Liam to continue. “I just find it funny that you speak of adaptiveness and resourcefulness and then I suddenly get something that I’ve been trying to get for a while that I didn’t know if I would get at all.”

  The woman stared at Liam. Her raised brow dropped as she let out a sigh. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but whatever you just got that makes you think will help you…it’s too late. I was hoping you would be more fun and give me something delicious to eat, but now I am just bored and hungry. I’m sorry, but this is the end for you.”

  Liam flicked his hand that had collected the blob of shadows to the side. The shadowy object didn’t seem to catch their eyes as the quick movement was made to look like he was going to protest. “Oh, I’m sorry that you find this boring, but I promise you that this was only the beginning.”

  The woman waved a hand in the air in a dismissive gesture as she said, “Whatever. Just put him out of his sorry state already Languid Peril. We need to hurry.”

  “Oh, now you want to focus on the mission Mystic Gorger?” Languid Peril sneered. He then shook his head as he looked back at Liam. He then switched his spear for that vine whip before whipping it in his direction.

  However, right before the pollen exploded over Liam’s face, his entire body puffed out into black smoke. This left both the man and woman surprised. They weren’t expecting him to suddenly disappear. They scanned the area to see if they could find him.

  The man looked annoyed as the woman let out a disappoint sigh. She then called out in a sing song voice, “Come out, come out little kitty. We know you’re still around. You won’t be able to stay hidden forever. Just accept that you’re over your head here and just die with some dignity.”

  In response to her words the sound of a couple of vials dropping to the ground and shattering filled the air. The two turned in the direction only to see a puff of black smoke disappearing and broken glass pieces sprawled across the ground.

  They looked around once more to see if they could find where he went. After a few seconds of looking and not finding anything they finally heard whispers dancing in the air. From the sound of it, it sounded like chanting.

  To their surprise shadowy-like tendril suddenly shot up and wrapped themselves around their bodies. They looked at the tendrils and then at each other. Before either could say a word they saw Liam materialize not too far away from them.

  “Now I know those won’t hold you for long, but since I was able to recover some of my stamina back I think I should take this and then ready myself for the next round,” Liam stated as he pulled out a vial full of pills. As he stared at them he stated, “Now I have never actually taken one of these before, so this is going to be a new experience for me.”

  Languid Peril and Mystic Gorger stared at the pills Liam had in the vial. They weren’t sure what they were or what he was going on about, but they did agree with his assessment of this spell not being able to hold them for long. They felt like they could break free at any moment, but instead they waited.”

  Languid Peril, for all his efforts to hurry this along so he could kill the target was actually curious about what Liam was saying. He didn’t know where the confidence came from, but it did pique his interest to see what he would do now since he was quite sure that no matter what this guy pulled out he would still be able to kill him no problem.

  After Liam popped a pill into his mouth he chomped down on it and swallowed. A cooling wave washed over his entire body and swam through his veins. The cooling wave soothing his entire body down to the core. Shortly after that the cooling sensation warmed up. It didn’t get too hot, but it was enough to loosen his muscles and give him more flexibility to the tightly wound up muscles. He could feel his stamina replenishing at a much quicker rate than normal.

  After the effect fully took over he looked the two in the eyes and whispered, “Bestial Takeover.”

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