Dodging an incoming strike from one of Quiver's hands, The Hangman let out a light chuckle as he turned his head over at Corsair's direction.
"Why? Is this some kind of trick for you to get him first by distracting me with such a request?" The man in bandages wrapped around his head asked in a joyful manner before turning around and rushing at the legacy clan member.
Instinctively, two of Quiver's hands flew out of the abyss, intended to crush the man in bandages' head with both of his palms. However, just as the hands reached 2 inches closer to their target, his foot faded into the wooden floor of the motel.
CLAP!–
Quiver's hands had missed their target; it was as if the Hangman had disappeared from the room entirely!
At that moment, a hand phased out from the floor underneath Quiver's foot, grabbing the Pandavar member from the ankle before slamming him into the ground, leaving a large crack. A second later, the Hangman rose up from the ground itself.
'An aspect that allowed a person to seemingly phase through physical objects? How terrifying…' June thought about the application of such abilities for a second before turning his attention back to the ongoing battle at hand. It didn't take long before the blonde man got back on his two feet. Eyes now filled with a sense of fury and agency, he summoned a ring-type memory onto his right index finger.
June didn't try to rush into an offensive attack, hoping to see the Hangman in action a few times while trying to figure out what the abilities of the ring were before taking any action.
Without wasting a second thought, the Hangman once again dived into the wooden tiles supporting the battlefield between the three awakened once again.
'Legacy clan memories are always unique and troublesome.' He thought to himself, remembering the hair growth memory that Blake used to make his hair longer during his encounter with the House of Night member at the awakened hospital a few days back.
Letting out a quiet sigh, June took a defensive stance as he gripped the twin dagger memories in his hands and subtly took a backseat in the three way battle while dodging the occasional attacks that came his way.
A few seconds later, the Hangman once again emerged from the walls behind Quiver; however, it seemed that the blonde awakened had correctly predicted where the black market executive would come from.
Just as the knife arm plunged its way into him, the man wrapped in bandages quickly took a deep breath and dived down into the broken floor, disappearing from the other two's line of sight.
'Quiver's aspect abilities, although simple, is truly a difficult one to counter for someone like Hangman who prefers to attack using the element of surprise.' June thought to himself before throwing one of his daggers towards Quiver's arm, temporarily stabbing the wrist and pinning it to the wall of the room.
Quiver soon turned his gaze onto the Corsair, as one of his free arms threw itself towards June's direction in a chopping manner. However, due to the blue-eyed assassin's dormant ability which allowed him to see the mechanical movement of Quiver's arm beforehand, he swiftly weaved out of the way.
BOOM–
The hand chopped straight down onto the bed that was behind him, creating a whirlwind of dust that blew across the room.
Out of nowhere, a hand once again appeared from the edge of existence and non-existence, stabbing one of Quiver's calves before disappearing. A moment later, the Hangman finally emerged from the wall behind the Pandavar, quickly walking towards Quiver, with a blade attached to his gloves.
Just then, two arms suddenly appeared from the bandaged man's sides at an impossible speed, attempting to crush his head!
Without looking at the impending doom at his side, the Hangman let out a sigh and dropped into the floor once more.
'How odd… Although I assume it was just simple dodging and weaving from before, it seemed that the Hangman knew when the attacks were coming beforehand. Is this what that ring memory does? Precognition? There is a limit to it though; he can only see the attack seconds before it hits him.' June quickly analysed the sequence of attack he just saw before his eyes as the left dagger returned to him, freeing the pinned arm of Quiver.
'5 seconds have passed…' June shook his head and let out a sigh. Quiver was undoubtedly stronger than he thought. The way he fights perfectly counters Hangman, due to his long and short-range abilities, allowing him to keep distance from the two elite black market enforcers. It is also through this style of fighting that allows him to see how his opponent fights, making it easier to figure out their patterns and rhythm.
'From the look of it, he figured out Hangman a few seconds ago.' If June were not participating in this fight, then he would have facepalmed at that moment.
A small curve gradually grew on the side of his lips as he clutched his dagger once more and threw another blade towards the blonde awakened.
The blade once again pinned another one of Quiver's arms!
Due to the gashes on his calves that Hangman caused a few seconds ago, Quiver was still disoriented due to the pain!
In an instant, June plunged his way towards the Pandavar side like a wraith that seemingly appeared from the abyss. His grip tightened as he swung his handle towards the Pandavar's temple, completely knocking him out cold.
Suddenly, June saw a shiny silver object appearing in the corner of his eye, coming towards the unconscious Awakened. Without wasting a second thought, the Corsair retracted the dagger that was stuck in the wall back, parrying Hangman's gloved blade in the process.
The man wrapped in bandages jumped onto his feet, eyes glaring in the direction of the demon-masked man.
"Corsair, what is the meaning of this?" Hangman let out a light chuckle as he questioned June in a joking manner.
'What an odd guy; he's still joking like it's nothing in this type of situation?' June lampooned.
"I told you already. I need him alive for some interrogation." He scoffed, replying to the other executive who was slowly approaching his side. It seems that they have long since reached an agreement not to attack each other. This is because the two of them have long been considered veterans when it comes to being executives; a kind of mutual respect had formed between the two. Another reason is that infighting only brings more trouble than the other.
Hangman took a second before replying in a sarcastic tone:
"Well then, tell me what you're going to ask this low-ranking, medium-ranking member of the Pandavars. I honestly doubt that he knows much about anything."
Letting out a sigh, June turned his head towards the man in bandages who was now leaning on the door.
"Why should I tell you?"
"I mean, stemming from your attitude and how you treated the battle so far, it's kind of obvious that you managed to figure something out about the Pandavar clan did you not? Besides, all this talk about 'Not killing' or 'Interrogation first' got me quite intrigued." Hangman laughed as he said, with a grin on his face.
June stared at the man as there was a silent moment between the two before Hangman added on, "What I'm trying to get at is that we could team up, you know?"
June continued to look at him, now with a baffled expression, "Team up? Why? That's pretty much unheard of in our profession. Much less than in a high-paying contracted mission like this one."
"It's because we need to kill one or two masters for this mission to be over. I'm sure you heard about that Corsair. It would make our lives much easier if we ganged up on them and then split the money instead of having the cash split among the other executives." Hangman chuckled as he observed June, who was shoving Quiver's unconscious body into a human-sized sack before opening his mouth to add on another fact:
"Oh, by the way, the guards are coming in a minute or two, so you should really hurry up."