Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

          A couple of hours ago.

        Wrik pulled the sword back and gave Anton space to make his move. Anton ran his blade right at the knees of the chaser, but the man blocked it with the lightning charging gauntlet sword. Taking advantage of the situation, Wrik threw a slash of light at the man.

        The man blocked with the other sword, but the light ray broke and charged into his body. The other person frowned. Nothing happened, it was merely an illusion.

        Wrik crooked his lips in a smile and saw Anton dealing a long slash, rushing the sword from below to upwards. In the return, he made another slash as well, before backing out.

        The armour of the man was wearing was of good quality, but Anton did quite the amount of damage even though he was not using the Shadow ability at the moment. Though using now would give him an edge here, it would still take away the opportunity they were looking for.

        Wrik and Anton moved towards their opponent again, in good sync. This was the first time Wrik was using the light attribute after the full awakening, yet he could control it far better than he would have imagined. It was not like his second nature, but it was not far away from it. He seemed to have more affinity towards the illusion element than the attack, though.

        The man had narrowed eyes, as most of his focus was on the person with the light attribute. He could not tell apart from illusions about the original attack, making him waste his stamina and mana. Moreover, the other person may not have an edge with the element, he was damn agile with his manoeuvre, dealing in sneak attacks here and there. His armour might break again if this went on.

        On top of that, he needed to finish them as quickly as possible, before the men from his employer came or the others of the tower. If that happened, then all the effort he pulled on this gig would be useless. He would only get a tiny portion of the pie than what he was promised for the success of the job. But considering he had failed, anyone would be thrilled to get their hands on something.

        Unfortunately, he was not anyone. He had wasted so many hearts on this place in the hope of the door, but when all the path to that place was closing off for him. He would not mind betraying a noble lord, to gain something that even people of high origin want to get their hands on.

        His eyes drifted towards the two in white and black armour. He could guess their armour was better than his, but with the two swords he had, he would be enough. All that matters was how quickly he could finish them. His eyes looked at his two opponents, trying to find their weakness.

        The one with the light element only made a diversion for the other person to deal a blow though he came once or twice with a few slashes. He recalled the swift speed he showed before and could not help but get confused, saying he's only doing the groundwork and making way for the other person. But he could not be careless. Who knew what this guy was capable of, he was on the brink of death twice on his hand. And if it was any other person, they would very much die then. So there was no chance for him to be careless.

        The other person had swift speed and a more agile body. He seemed to have practised a lot with the light holder as his syncracy was top level. His weakness was that his attack did not deal more damage, and there was the urgency to make a move. He was not like the other person, who pondered over every move and waited for an opportunity.

        There was not much wrong with their techniques, but they do not appear master of it as well. Releasing a long breath, the broad man quickened his pace and went for Wrik with the two blades in arcs. He chased after the light holder, ignoring the other person as he had been the nuisance from the beginning.

        But how could Anton let him leave? He chased the broad man as well, and it turned into something like the broad man was after Wrik while Anton was after the man. Moreover, it was not just the broad man who was ignoring Anton; he was testing something. Trying to see how much his two targets care for each other.

        With a couple of brief battles, he had with this duo, he could tell both of them were skilful, but young as well. And young people always have one big weakness and that is emotion. They let their emotion best of them in crisis and do stupid things. All he had to do was put them in a similar situation.

        In his chase, the broad man took a turn instantly that none of the two imagined and made a torrent of slash at Anton. He showered Anton with slashes all over the place. He was so fast that even Anton, who was more agile between the two, had problems keeping up with it.

        In between, the broad man gave a sweep of legs on the ground to make Anton jump. And before Anton could come down, a sword with blue sword pulled towards his waist, discharging a loud cry of the lightning. While on the other hand, the other sword pierced his thigh and even reached the bones.

        Anton cursed in pain and felt an elbow on his chest, pushing him downwards. He saw a torrent of light was coming from the direction of Wrik who was rushing to help, but before he could come Anton was down on the cold ground with one sword pierced on his thigh and the other that burned his waist in good proportion was aiming for his heart. With a surge of swirling pain and fear, Anton stopped it with his bare palm. It pierced it easily, and he cursed again.

        "Make a move, and your partner is history," the man snarled at Wrik.

        Wrik stopped instantly, showing his arm up.

        "Drop your weapon and show your face," the broad man said again.

        Wrik dropped the sword a few metres away and looked at Anon with the terrible state. He could not help but feel a tinge of pain. If only he did not give Anton the handcuff to not use his shadow element to look for an opportunity, then he might have been better. He could not help but curse at himself.

        "Did you not hear it?" the broad man snarled again, threatening Anton. "Show your face."

        Wrik nodded and put one of his palms on the back of his head. He pushed a little harder there, and the helmet opened, revealing a not so handsome man with blonde hair and white eyes. He had used the illumination ability of the light attribute to make his face look like a different person, though he could not see what he looked like. But this is not enough, even an idiot could figure it out after failing in many dummy attacks he made with the illusion.

        "I have what you need," Wrik said, showing a terribly pitiful face. "Just let go of my brother and it's yours."

        "Kid, if you are trying to play me like the other time, then you are dead," he said and looked at the sword that was piercing Anton's palm. "If I see even little suspicious things, then your brother is dead."

        "I know," Wrik said, gritting his teeth. He pulled out the pouch and dropped everything out of it. In the middle was the orb, though it barely looked like a normal cube—not the omega cube, but one with six colours, that puzzle cube kids like to play with. In a couple of hours, he was only capable of that, and besides, he thought there was no need for the patch to be perfect as the item could be useful in some areas.

        "Where's the item?"

        "It's here," Wrik said, pointing at the item on the ground. "I have patched to look like a normal item. do you want me to see the original thing?"

        Seeing no declination from the man, Wrik crouched slowly and brought the item in his arm. He twisted and turned the item cube a few times and then a golden light appeared from the cube, though not as vibrant as the first time.

        "Are you satisfied?" Wrik asked, and seeing the man silent, he continued. "Just let go of my brother and this item will be yours. I already left the tracker lord Rudyard put in, so you don't have to worry about him."

        The man frowned inside the mask. He knew nothing about the tracker, though he had some suspicions. "Throw me the item, and I'll leave your brother," he said.

"How will I believe that?"