Rank II

Flame ran wild. Burning down house and road. Going as far as even involving passerby and resident. Cry of fear and help resounded around of him, but he didn't care. He just took pleasure in looking at his beloved fire running amok.

In the midst of that, Lia was having difficulties keeping up with him. Taking attention to minimize the damage on the surrounding, shouting to the passerby to evacuate the area, all the while taking and dodging the man's attack. The battle was only beginning and she was already showing sign of exhaustion.

'This guy is nuts!' She thought, irritatingly.

Fortunately for her, the people in the vicinity were quick on their feet and managed to evacuate with little help from her. Making sure that there wasn't any possible collateral damage anymore, Lia finally decided to take the offensive.

Taking her stance, she clenched her fist tightly, abnormally attiring the air around it. Sensing the danger, Flame took a step back and created a shield of flame to protect himself. However, it amounted to nothing against the girl's incoming attack.

"Begone!" She shouted, throwing her punch forward.

A gigantic amount of shockwave then appeared, blowing away not only the fire but also Flame himself. He was sent rolling on the ground for a good dozens of meters, recovering his balance only a few seconds later. Despite that, he looked at the girl with yet another sadistic smile.

"You're good." He said, encasing his whole body in flame. "It makes me excited!"

Hearing that, Lia frowned. By no means was her previous attack weak. In fact, it was even one of her strongest move.

'And yet he's still unscratched!' The girl couldn't help herself from wondering. '...This might spell trouble.'

Lia prepared to fight, increasing her cautiousness. The man in front of her was strong. She could feel it.

"I'm eager to see how much heat you can take before melting down." Flame expressed joyfully.

At that moment, however another powerful presence appeared.

◇

Ark HQ, second underground level.

Aiden and Stone were slowly advancing through a corridor. Have gotten rid of all the stray Elite that came to stop them, it wouldn't be long before they reached their destination. All throughout, however there was an eerie silence between the two of them.

"Come on, big guy!" Aiden said complainingly, finally breaking the ice. "Don't tell me you're still angry because I took that girl!"

"...I never ever agreed to that." Stone responded flatly.

Aiden stopped on his track and caressed the back of his head. "You saw how she fight, right?" He asked rhetorically. "She can handle herself."

"How many time should I repeat it to you, Bailey," Aiden grumbled, his tone increasing. "It's not about her strength!"

"Then what!? Is it because of your soft spot for kids?!" Aiden continued, fed up. "Do you really think you still have the right to be like that?!! We're criminal, Stone! We must do what it takes to survive!"

Hearing that, Stone turned around menacingly, his entire being leaking killing intent.

"Wanna duck it out?" Aiden asked, not phased in the slightest.

The two of them glared at each other. The pressure around them augmented, as sign of fight breaking out at any moment appeared. Stone and Aiden clenched their fist, ready to show their fang.

Until Stone breathed a sigh and retracted himself. His leader's words bothered him, yet, he couldn't refute them. Aiden was right after all. He who has chosen the despicable life of an underworld criminal, didn't have the right to worry about others.

"Tell me honestly, Bailey." Stone talked, regaining his calm. "Why did you choose her?"

Seeing that his teammate didn't have killing intent anymore, Aiden also returned to normal.

"...Her name is Rin Kagane. First daughter of the Kagane family, and also," Aiden began explaining after trailing off a little. "their very first scandal. It is an ironic story you know? She was treated as abnormal exactly because she was normal." The man chuckled a little before continuing.

"There are many number of reason why I choose to recruit her. But, if you ask me about the main one, then I would say," Aiden faced forward and resumed advancing. "Because I felt it was right."

Stone didn't say anything in response, and decided to continue their original mission.

Not long after, they reached the staircase leading to the third underground level. The two of them didn't say anything anymore, which formed an eerie silence yet again.

This time, however, what broke it wasn't one of them, it was a man that appeared out of nowhere.

"You guys sure choose a troublesome moment to commit your felony." The unknown man said with an unwilling expression.

His name was Alex Plate. Aging around his twenties, the man had a normal black hair, a normal brown eyes, a normal outfit and a normal feature. In short, the man was the embodiment of normalcy.

"What is this?" Aiden questioned. "Another small fry?"

Alex twitched a little from the comment, feeling hurt.

"Y-you guys should learn more tact!" He said, trying to be menacing. "Anyway, this is as far as you go."

Aiden turned to face the man with a yawn. "You go on ahead, I'll take care of this." He said to Stone.

Nodding along, the massive man descended the stairs.

◇

Ark HQ, second surface level.

"—Agh!" Dave finally stumbled down, losing consciousness.

Rin finally breathed a big sigh, showing her tiredness. After much effort, she had finally managed to win. Deciding to take a little rest, she took a seat against a nearby wall. Her abdomen was still bleeding from the earlier sword attack so she needed to bandage it. Ripping her own clothes, she enrolled it around herself to at least lower the blood loss.

Now that she had taken care of her enemy, her mission should be considered done. What was left to do was to wait for Aiden to launch the signal to retreat. As a side note, Rin actually had no idea what the signal actually was. All they would say to her was that when the time comes, they would 'tell' her. Which did nothing apart from confusing her even more.

She wasn't given any communication device, so she was really wondering how they would 'convey' to her the retreat time. As a matter of fact, she didn't bring her phone. However, even if she did, using it as a relay for criminal messaging would be a really, really bad move. Fortunately for her, they didn't know her number.

Rin grew skeptical for a moment, thinking that maybe 'unchained' planned to abandon her here from the very beginning. She dismissed that idea immediately, though. Aiden wouldn't have gone out of his way to recruit her just to throw her away instantly. That would be stupid. Plus, Aiden didn't seem to be lying to her.

In the end, she didn't have any other choice than to wait and see. One little correction should be noted, nevertheless. Technically speaking her role wasn't over. Rin was tasked to take care of any enemy that came across her. Which meant that if another Elite appeared she would need to fight him/her.

However, Rin didn't think that would happen. Edward Warray has gone off and escalated to the third stage. From her mock battle against him, she could tell that the man was strong. At the very least, he should be able to win against those in the upper floor if they were all around rank III.

Furthermore, Stone, Aiden and Ursa has gone to the underground floor, so no one should be coming out of there. In addition to that, Flame Turner was guarding the outside. Which leaves the first and second floor only. No one noteworthy was present on the first, and the second didn't have any other people except for the group of four earlier.

Normally, no one should be coming to her anymore. At the exception that one of them got taken down, things should go smoothly. That's what Rin thought, and that's also exactly why she was so surprised when she sensed someone approaching.

Without any warning and without any hesitation, a girl suddenly appeared and punched Rin directly on the face, blowing her away.

"It seems you beat down my comrade pretty badly." The girl said, looking toward the unconscious people. "It's time for me to pay you back for what you did!"

A chunk of Rin's faceless mask was ripped off as she tried to regain her balance. Fortunately, her face was still hidden, but the voice changer was now obsolete. From here on, she needed to stay quiet imperatively. However, when she saw the face of her attacker, she couldn't contain her voice.

"...Lia...Holder..." Rin spoke, her eyes widening.

◇

Outside of Ark's HQ.

The sight of Flame's angry face could be seen.

"You!" He shouted, fire bursting from his whole body. "Do you think you can beat me alone!?"

Currently the man was furious. He was irritated at the fact that he had failed his mission. Lia Holder has passed him and had entered Ark's HQ. Something that he shouldn't have allowed. Something that he could have prevented, if not for the person in front of him.

A girl. She didn't seem more than fourteen years old and had black raven short hair. Her lifeless eyes were purple and her attire, from head to toe, were only composed of darkened color. Furthermore, for some odd reason, the area around here were somehow filled with shades of black. It was as if light itself was running away from her.

Flame didn't know her. All he knew was that the girl appeared out of nowhere and restrained his movement, allowing Lia to successfully advance past him. That is why he needed to eliminate the girl. After all, the red haired man doesn't like it when things don't go his way.

"I'm going to kill you!!!" Flame shouted yet again, this time propelling himself toward the black haired person.

All throughout, though, the girl didn't seem one bit threatened by the man. She just kept quiet, observing the situation calmly—Or so it may have seemed.

"...Annoying." The girl said with a frown.

In reality, she was just sleepy. She didn't feel like talking because it was tiresome. Her lifeless eyes were in fact due to exhaustion from her many, many sleepless nights. That's why, right now, her mental state was a bit unstable. All she wanted to do was sleep.

With just a flick of her index finger, a black giant tentacle appeared out of nowhere and swung at Flame's blinde spot. Without the man even knowing it, he was blown away to a nearby building.

Turning at it, the girl lightly yawned. Her shadow swayed a little as four giant tendrils formed from it.

Shaping her hand like a gun, she pointed it at the man. "...Bang!" She said softly, making all of her black lance to launch.

It was at this moment that the situation finally dawned on Flame.

'This might be bad.' He thought, struggling to dodge the attack.