No one moved. Luke was slightly out of place, but Zhiang, Mira, and Petra knew what that meant.
The 10 seconds passed, but the silence remained, they expected something, a surprise attack, but nothing came.
The system activated.
[ Listen. ]
'Listen? What does that mean...?'
Luke didn't understand, but he noticed the other three standing still, trying to catch the smallest sound, even though the noise of the city drowned almost everything out.
They were already there, somewhere, everyone knew that.
A hand touched Luke's shoulder,
A man.
He appeared there without making any sound, like an owl flying low, he had bright silver hair, his eyes were both closed, and he wore clothes full of red ornaments, it indicated wealth.
"Luke... Varyn? I'm terrible with names."
His presence was so minimal that it took him speaking for everyone to notice him there. At that moment, Zhiang, Mira, and Petra surrounded him, the three of them with their blades, all pointed at his neck.
Petra moved her knife even closer to the man's neck.
"I don't know who you're talking about. I suggest you leave."
He opened one of his eyes.
"You are secondary targets, we can simply kill you, we have special orders to take this one alive."
A deafening silence followed that statement, everyone tried to think of something, but while they were thinking, Petra remembered, that was only one, there were three more.
"Let's split up! There are more of these bastards around!"
The silver-haired man looked at Petra with a dry expression, as if she had gone against his expectations.
Petra stayed with the man, Mira climbed a structure to gain vision and stay hidden, and Zhiang followed Luke into an empty alley to the side.
"Why are you coming with me?"
"You are the main target, I believe they will send two thugs after you one way or another, I'm just here to make sure, I owe Petra big..."
Zhiang had thought one step ahead, something Luke wouldn't think of in that critical moment.
At that moment, Mira felt a strong presence, a shot coming in her direction.
Mira, who was lying on her stomach, observing and studying a good position, rolled to the side.
She managed to notice where the shot came from, it was from a building in front of her, it was approximately the same height, the shot was an arrow, but she knew it wasn't a crossbow, like hers.
'A bow, but how is she able to shoot, I can't see her, she has to be lying down, or shooting from a very tight place.'—Mira searched for a way to find the exact position of the enemy shooter, because she already knew exactly where Mira was.
While Mira was in a stalemate, Petra and the man were exchanging words.
"Was it House Varyn that sent you?"
"Ask daddy."
"Hm, a grown man calling his father 'daddy'? Pathetic."
The man opened a small part of both of his eyes, and raised his face to look at Petra, with an empty and sadistic expression. "You don't know daddy to be talking... like that about him."—he whispered to himself.
One step.
The man was beside Petra, with a thin and long sword already drawn close to Petra's neck, without even thinking twice.
Petra managed to draw her knife in time, and block the attack, after the block she distanced herself, he was fast and Petra knew she needed time to react to his strikes.
Petra knew she could keep up, she just didn't know for how long.
While Petra and Mira were already facing their enemies, Luke and Zhiang were still waiting, standing in a space behind a structure, full of trash and dead animals.
Zhiang sighed.
"There really could have been a less disgusting place..."
"You chose it, didn't you."
"I know... it's just-"
Zhiang adjusted his posture immediately, and looked up.
"Come down here, you two."
At that moment, two things that looked like shadows fell from above, they were light and fast, they were two people, with long black cloaks.
"You're seeing this too, right, Jane?"
"I'm seeing it very clearly, Kane"
They were talking, but their voices were too similar to distinguish who was who, until both of them removed their cloaks, revealing a man and a woman.
The woman had long dark hair, and eyes of different colors, one green and the other dark like the night, the man shared exactly the same physical features as her, hair, eyes, even the clothes, the two were... identical?
They were androgynous, the only way to tell their sex apart was by the name, which was tattooed on their foreheads.
The two held hands, and bowed.
"Here we go..."—They paused, filling their lungs with air. "WE ARE THE TWINS JANE AND KANE, FROM THE GREAT HOUSE KALGAN, AND WE WERE SENT ON A MISSION, WOULD THIS HAPPEN TO BE THE GROUP OF LUKE VARYN AND FRIENDS???"
The two spoke in sync, with a presenter-like tone, as if they were about to perform a magic trick.
Zhiang whispered to Luke.
"I've heard a lot about them, they're completely insane... We should end this quickly."—Zhiang added, now out loud. "Yes, that's us, what do you intend?"
The two looked at each other, and opened a smile from ear to ear, and started doing small jumps together with little excited sounds.
"Oh my god! We hit the jackpot, Kane!"
"I know, Jane! They're going to be so jealous, right?"
"Yes! Let's show them!"
Luke looked at that with some confusion.
'Are they really adults?'
The childish behavior fooled Luke, who thought it would be a clumsy fight, but Zhiang was just showing even more fear in his expression, those were the most formidable opponents among the four there.
Luke whispered to Zhiang.
"Why don't we take advantage of this, they're right there, like distracted children."
"Luke... that would be the worst mistake of your life."
"How?"
"They-"
Zhiang cut himself off again, to focus on them, they stopped jumping, and started staring at the two with wide eyes.
"Jane, which one are we doing today?"
"Hmmm, I don't know, Kane."
The two spoke together.
"I know!"—And proceeded to play rock-paper-scissors. "Kane, if I win, it will be my favorite, and if you win, yours."
"Great idea, as always, Jane!"
"Rock, paper, scissors!"—They played.
"Oh no! You won, Jane, how unlucky for them..."
Luke didn't understand, and meanwhile, the concern on Zhiang's face kept growing more and more.
"Jane."
"Kane."
Both together—"The jester and the queen, act 1."
Luke raised his voice this time.
"Act 1?! What is that, let's move already-"
[ Imminent danger: required advantages
+Strength
+Speed
+Agility
+Motor control ]
[Good luck.]