"I better go watch over those two before something too dangerous happens" Allen said as he disappeared in the forest.
We cut to Choi and Scrappy who had already found each other and were in the forest "being surrounded by trees of various sizes and types, oak, spruce, birch, palm and whatever you name. The ground of these woods was covered by soaked fallen leaves but strangely enough the air didn't seem humid nor were the trees wet, truly a peculiar environment.
"Damn we really wandered to the worst spawn, huh?" Choi voiced as he cracked his knuckles and looked at Scrappy
"It's not that bad" he said back to Choi "We're together, right?"
"Yeah I guess-" Choi was interrupted by some weird rustling noises coming from the bushes
"Prepare yourself" Scrappy warned his friend as he held his gun up
"Nah calm down it's probably just a rabbit trying to find some food" Choi tried to reassure Scrappy but in that moment a Black Marketer jumped out of the bushes with a gun of his own.
In that moment Scrappy reacted faster and shot a bullet that pierced his head
"Holy sh*t was that a real bullet!?" Choi said as he widened his eyes
"I don't know I thought these were paintball guns" Scrappy replied as he was visibly shaken
Then another rustling came from the other side but this time two female voices were heard
"Calm down it's just us" Valica said as she rose her hands in the air
"Yeah we just want to talk" Allie continued her sentence but then two more Black Market people came out of nowhere but this time Choi was ready
"Not this time" he said as he shot one of them in the head.The reaction of the other one was to throw his weapon at Choi but then he used his "Blessing of the Swap" to swap his places with the enemy who was hit by his own projectile.. The bounty hunter lunged at the tank but as he approached striking distance there was a pistol above him which was thrown by Choi. In the next second the black marketer was kicked in the head and knocked down to the ground by Choi who was above him in the air.
"Wow thanks for the save and did you shoot an actual bullet?" Allie was shocked
"Yeah for some reason our paintball guns are actual fire arms" Scrappy chimed in as he walked closer to them
"But we have a friend with red long hair who can fix it" Choi replied
"Yeah that's cool and all but there's a problem" Valica voiced her concern
"Like what exactly?" Scrappy asked with curiosity in his eyes
"Well we have a friend named Emily but we haven't found her yet" Allie muttered
"So if we can stick together until we find we'd be very grateful" Valica said
"Sure just follow us" Choi replied as the four started moving through the forest
We cut to Cinister who was "running through the woods in hopes of finding his lost teammates. While dodging giant roots, obstacles, he ran swiftly looking carefully for anyone either friend or foe. In the corner of his eye strands of pink hair alight, instantly turning around to get a better look.
"Alya is that you?" Cinister said as he jumped over a couple of stumps
"Yeah it is, how'd you find me?" she asked as she looked down at him
"Basically luck" he replied as he helped her get up "Why are you hiding?"
"Well I go way back with the Black Market" Alya said as she hid her face.
"Can you tell me about it?" Cinister asked as he tilted his head to the side
"It's not something I want to talk about it" Alya said as she looked down
"Okay let's just look for Ragna, how does that sound?" Cinister replied as they went deeper in the forest
We go to the pov of Lyod who was the 3rd teammate of the school friends and now he was stepping on the most moist leaves trying to provoke someone while making a very strange sound.
"You know making noise in a game like is a declaration of war, you know" a mysterious voice was heard somewhere up
Loyd quickly looks up to see Allen sitting in a tree with one of his legs dangling off a branch and the other one with the knee looking up.
"Allen Toutder, the Jack of all trades and the Master of all, the Red Emporier and finally The Almighty" Loyd gassed him up "The stories about you are known by everyone inside and outside of the tower. They are so mindblowing that some think that they aren't true but I would never do that to my beloved idol and hero. It's seriously an honor to see you in the flesh." he said while blushing like a highschool girl.
"However" he said while the smile on his face disappeared and was replaced by a serious expression "That's what I thought before I saw concrete proof that you're nothing but a fraud and a liar. You deserve nothing but death."
"Quite the bipolar person you are" Allen started by jumping of the tree onto some leaves "And of course I lie, it's in the human nature to tell misleading statements"
"Why would you need to lie? Heroes would never lie to the people they have to protect" Loyd asked him directly without breaking eye contact
"Painting someone to be a hero then being disappointed that is delusion" Allen replied "And regarding your question sometimes it's better to let a person hear what they want rather than the horrendous truth they would never accept" Allen said with a cold smirk on his prideful face
"Hm cocky as the rumours say" Loyd replied in a nonchalant tone
The dialogue was ceased by Loyd making the first move by lunging and preparing an obviously telegraphed overhand at Allen. Having a majorly larger pool of combat experience the red emperor dodged the strike and started setting up a counter attack but didn't realise he fell right into Loyd's trap, the overhand was meant to be telegraphed so it could cover up his lowkick which landed on Allen. The experience the legend had accumulated over time couldn't prepare him for this opponent.
"You've got some skills kid. I guess i can't just autopilot this fight" Allen said with a shocked expression