In a secluded cabin in the basement.
2 guys were unconscious, 2 girls watched 3 subjects with masks observing the panels that showed surveillance of the distance.
They used cameras that did not suffer from the impact nor from the blazing fire.
They observed through 2 more recently placed cameras in the place where Heiss had just been with Cloe before attacking the post.
In that moment the scene for the ritual was being prepared.
On the other hand, Rudolf was located near the center exit where Emily and Cloe had previously escaped with the guys.
"It would be better if you wake them up, we won't know how much time we'll have before we have to run"
One of the uniformed men looked at them while pointing to the unconscious guys.
The girls, although they nodded, did not take their eyes off him.
Upon seeing the caution of each one and remembering Heiss's words about his posture towards the new ones and his possible usefulness, he decided not to hide it anymore.
Putting his hand to his face, he removed the mask that hid his face.
Like Heiss, they all had Halloween masks, one was of a ghost, another of an ogre and the last was of a man with a burned and melted face, it was like a melted clay man.
Taking off the clay man mask, he looked at them.
"My name is Jesús, the boy with the ogre mask is Marcus and the one who dresses as a ghost is called Lucius"
A young man with brown hair, dark brown eyes and fair skin appeared before them.
'Young' was what both thought when they saw him.
About 16 years old approximately.
Both nodded, Cloe took the thread of the conversation and decided to find out about the situation.
"My name is Cloe, and my companion is Emily, the dark-skinned boy is Caleb and the one with black and red hair is Ethan"
Pointing behind them she introduced the guys.
"I see, they must have had a bad time, and for being so young and beautiful it must have... ¡aug!, Marcus what are you doing that hurts"
Without giving him time to finish, Marcus hits him on the head.
"Stop bothering them, focus on the mission, you don't want Heiss to get angry, right?"
Upon hearing those words, Jesús's face decomposed into a grimace and then recomposed itself with a very serious look.
Somewhat comical given the big change.
The girls on the other hand see them argue and feel that their weight drops a little before the calm atmosphere.
"In the back there are tanks with water, you can use it to wake up your friends, what Jesús said is true, according to Heiss everything will get worse quickly"
Without waiting for them to answer, he took off his mask, a man close to 23 or 25 years old was hidden behind that mask, reddish hair, green eyes and soft semi-pigmented features, which made him look handsome and mature.
"Can you tell me what Heiss plans, what is his escape plan?"
At that moment the three of them stood still and silent. The stillness of the environment became tense.
"First wake up your friends, they need to know what's coming"
Interrupting, Lucius spoke without taking his eyes off the monitor.
Following what the 3 of them said, Emily went out and took a bucket of water from one of the tanks.
Marcus and Jesús saw her with a frown, as if wondering what she was going to do.
With his hand forward to stop her he said "You're not thinking..."
But it was already too late, "¡Splash", throwing a bucket of cold water over his friends without a trace of caring.
"¡How long are you going to sleep, degenerates!"
At that moment the two of them stirred while hyperventilating, as if they were out of breath, the reaction of both was to put themselves on the defensive immediately.
"The water was to give them a little on the face, not to wash them", muttered Jesús while watching them as they were tense and nervous.
Upon seeing that they were more worked up than normal, Cloe approached and tried to calm them down.
"¡Calm down guys, it's me, Cloe!, we are safe so calm down"
The two looked at her and then around, then they looked at each other. Both were very nervous, in that tense gaze between them there was silence, then they slowly looked at the ground.
Finally they had calmed down, however, they seemed to be stoic, emotionless, empty.
"What happened Caleb, Ethan, we were very worried"
Their states changed, a slight sadness absorbed them, then frustration was reflected on their faces and their fists clenching on the concrete.
"We lost…."
That was the only thing that came out of Caleb's mouth.
"What?, speak clearly captain, we need to know what happened"
"¡HE SAID WE LOST!", Ethan answered to his words that had little patience.
His gaze had internal fury that couldn't vent itself only with words, and upon realizing his scream he simply let out a click with his tongue and lowered his gaze.
Cloe looked at him, and then at Caleb, "we also lost too", the words had a similar weight to the words spoken by them.
"Emily faced a girl, her name was Rhaelle, she was a skilled opponent who handled fragmented swords with blades that she used as a whip"
When she arrived, the battle was still in progress, she heard how her opponent called herself when she introduced herself to Emily, but she couldn't enter the fight because Heiss told her to wait, that if she didn't first analyze Rhaelle's fighting style she would end up losing.
Not to mention she didn't know how Rhaelle's guard that was waiting for her would react if she interfered.
"I had to analyze how she fought against Emily to be able to face her, if it hadn't been for Heiss we would probably be dead"
Taking Caleb out of his thoughts, he looked at her with disbelief.
"You met the target?"
"Yes, and she was strong. When I fought with Rhaelle I managed to make a breach and cut the part of her abdomen, but that's when someone else arrived"
Emily continued.
"It was a boy who was carrying the two of you passed out. He helped his companion recover and attacked Cloe sending her flying with a simple kick"
Caleb and Ethan looked at each other for a moment, then one spoke, "can you show me what he looked like".
"You can see it on the camera, it's apart from the place of the fight, the combat is going to start", Lucius spoke with serenity while looking at the monitor.
"Who is he?", with doubt and a frown asked Ethan pointing to the man.
Without letting the girls interrupt him, he spoke, "My name is Lucius", then he took off his mask, behind it was a man with long brown and black hair, beard and chiseled profile.
They observed the man who appeared to be in his 25s. Then they looked at where he pointed on the monitor.
At the same time they confirmed, "It's him".
"His name is Lykos, or well, that was the name that Heiss said when he subdued him before trying to stab me"
The two looked at him surprised.
"¡Did you say he subdued him?!"
They affirmed after seeing him with downturned faces, it was specifically a way of showing how helpless they felt at that moment.
"We lost miserably against him", Ethan answered while looking at the monitor where the ritual combat was about to begin,
"Ethan fought first with him, he tried to escape to go for you, but was intercepted by him. He was fast and strong, he only used a knife and a gun, but he was very skilled, especially in hand-to-hand combat"
"Likewise I faced two rank I, they gave me problems at first, but after some time I was able to adapt and beat them without having to enter the zone. Ethan on the other hand had to fight with everything from the beginning"
"We were partially matched, that is until his behavior changed, he started breathing more heavily, his emotions seemed overflowing, his muscles tensed much more and I saw how some of his veins started to become visible"
"It was something similar to what happened to me with the girl, I had to enter the zone and the girl perceived it, then she changed tactics and did the same thing the boy did, it was like an unleashed beast", Cloe added what she perceived when she fought with Rhaelle.
"But apparently you were able to handle her, by the time Caleb had finished with the 2 I had already taken a lot of damage"
"What I didn't have to do with those 2 types, I had to do with him, I forced myself into the zone, and even so I failed, I lost in a contest of pure strength, in the two fights he had, he didn't let his guard down for a single second"
"He used the strengths of the 2 and defeated us under the same conditions"
They were helpless before the idea of having lost in their best areas, they were not guys who bragged, but they did have some pride.
"What did they do?"
But before continuing Lucius interrupted them"
"It's called ecstasy state, a way in which the body releases adrenaline, causing greater fluidity in their actions, in addition to breathing that allowed them to reach a completely different state of strength. If I may exemplify it is like giving voltage to your own muscles, if adrenaline was already boosting them, breathing helped even more with oxygen distribution in the blood, it makes the heart's pumping greater and each muscle acquires more strength. That of course with a disadvantage…. the fight just started"
Everyone looked amazed at Lucius, then they looked at the screen where voices of starting could be heard.
"You mentioned a disadvantage, what is it?"
"The user becomes very exhausted after the battle, maybe even more than you who said you used the zone. That method is very aggressive, the muscles suffer from it, although one can recover with weeks of rest, it doesn't mean they are defenseless after fights like that"
"So is it likely that he immobilized it because he was already weak?", added Ethan as if receiving hope that a nobody could accomplish something he couldn't.
"The kick I received wasn't one that said I'm weak", added Cloe snuffing out the meager hopes he had.
"Heiss mentioned that we shouldn't get close to those who had a silver and black pauldron, the one on the screen is wearing a silver one"
"I heard him say they were from the Ferir squadron, so they must be from the same team", he remembered the words of Heiss when he subdued Lykos and then brought Varyn.
"Then the last one who arrived must be at the same level"
The room fell silent as everyone turned their attention to Heiss's actions
At that moment an intercom was heard.
"Guys, be aware of any physical changes, I have the subject loaded and ready for the substitution"
It was Rudolf communicating through the walkie-talkie, he seemed to be ready at the side of the central exit.
"Ready chief, everything is going as planned"
The fight continued, their faces were of amazement and bewilderment, the way Heiss and Valyn fought. Their way of moving was abnormal, the way they bent and ran to avoid bullets was superhuman.
When he attacked with the iron bar it was elegant, without errors and yet it was dodged. Then he propelled himself to attack his enemy.
The way of subjugation without any pause in his actions was very fluid, more than a dance it was pure technique.
The concern arrived when they saw him kneel down, he was winning, but it seemed like he was going to lose, 'is he going to lose?' was what they thought.
"They wondered what the plan was, well, the plan is that Heiss dies"
Everyone observed the imperturbable facet of Lucius, the face of Jesús and Marcus was of sadness and tension. The rest didn't understand what his words meant, were they really going to sell out Heiss to survive?
"According to Heiss this is the only way to survive, so if you want him to live, it's better that you remove those faces and say what you feel on your face", his words were directed towards his 2 companions and indirectly to the new group.
Although his face seemed neutral, a part showed a hint of anger, he didn't know if the words that had been spoken to him and Marcus had affected him so much to the point of worrying about another human being, but deep down he knew that if Heiss didn't do this no one would survive.
That's why he tacitly accepted this plan, because if it were up to him, he wouldn't let his pride falter by being saved by another person, his ass had been saved by a stranger, risking his own life in exchange for saving yes, his own life, but also that of the others. That's why this plan bothered him so much, that's why he was so tense.
The other 2 thought the same.
"How…?"
"Keep your words to yourself, there's no time left, the fight is in the final phase"
Everyone fell silent at his words and watched how the fight continued, from the masterful exchange of blows, which left no wait between each exchange to the launch of smoke bombs, they could see the lights of the stun bombs, the cameras were far enough away not to be affected.
Finally in the between shadows they could see the outcome.
Heiss was pierced in the chest by a bar, then he saw how his badly wounded opponent approached and took the knife from between his hands, to finally cut his neck.
Everyone was stunned by the scene.
Then they heard cheers of celebration through the camera's audio, it was the district celebrating Heiss's murder.
Jesús and Marcus turned their gaze away with their eyes a little reddened, Emily simply remained staring in stunned silence not knowing what to say, as did Caleb and Ethan.
Lucius had an empty gaze while tightly clenching his teeth.
And Cloe squeezed her hand tightly, remembering how she was helped against the traffickers, how he faced her when he threatened her in case she betrayed him, reminding her of the loyalty she had to the lady Kalika, even her gaze reminded her of her.
Protection was what she felt from him.
Later how she was saved, although she knew that he didn't do it out of pure good faith, a part of her recognized it, she knows how to recognize people, she can know them in seconds, much faster than they themselves, and that's why she remembered the gaze he gave when he looked at her before turning his face and facing Lykos.
His lips tightened and a soft word came from them. While watching the monitor where that person kneeled and throat-slashed was.
"Idiot"