Our silent victory was short-lived. We had the data, but they had our scent. The very next day, a small team of Phantoms found our safe house. They didn't even knock. They just came through the door, silent and deadly. There were three of them, and they were the fastest I had ever seen. The leader, the man I had fought before, was with them. His eyes were cold, and his face was a mask of perfect, inhuman rage.
The fight was a blur of steel and bodies. They were silent, their moves a perfect dance of death. I moved with them, a dance of my own. I was faster than them. My Aura system gave me every move, every counter, every opening. I was the wild one. They were the machines.
I fought with a fury I had never felt before. I was not just fighting for my life. I was fighting for Elena's life. I was fighting for Elen's memory. I was fighting to finish a war that my parents had started. I threw a chair at one of them, a wild move that made him stumble. I used the opening to kick him in the leg, a brutal, bone-breaking hit. I was not playing a game. This was my world.
The leader came at me, his eyes full of hate. He was too fast. He was too strong. His movements were perfect. He was a perfect weapon. Aura screamed in my head. "Warning, User Balen. His movement pattern is non-standard. He is not a Phantom. He is a prototype."
I didn't care. I moved to meet him. Our fight was a hurricane of punches and kicks. He was using a perfect style. I was using my own, wild and unpredictable. I was a human. He was a machine. I dodged a punch and went for his body, a kick to his ribs. He didn't even flinch. He just hit me back, a brutal punch to my face that made my vision swim. I was bleeding. I was hurt. But I was not broken.
He lunged at me, his eyes cold. As he got closer, I saw his face. His eyes were not just cold. They were empty. Like a machine. But for a split second, I saw something else. A flicker. A flash of a face I had seen before. It was a face from a photo on my parents' desk, a man I had known as a child. A man I had trusted. My mind froze for a second. The man who was going to hurt me was the man I had once thought of as family.
He took my moment of weakness and used it. He punched me hard in the stomach, and my world went black. I fell to the ground, my body screaming.