Ren and Kai walked through the hallway toward the backstage area—the staff area, to be more specific. Their objective was clear: take down the manager and seal off the exits so no one could escape. On their way to the staff area, they moved quietly, sneaking around. They even passed by a couple of gang members who didn't notice them. Thankfully, there weren't many people they had to sneak past.
Eventually, they reached what they assumed was the manager's office. It was the only room with visible security. There was a door at the front of it, and in front of that door was a table with several people sitting around it, who they assumed were bodyguards.
Ren and Kai stayed behind the door, watching them. Then they made eye contact, knowing exactly what needed to be done.
There were five people.
Ren stepped out from behind the door and pointed his hands toward two of them. Shades came out from his sleeves, grabbing two bodyguards from the back of their necks. He pulled hard, slamming them down headfirst—not hard enough to cause serious injury, but enough to knock them out. They dropped to the ground, unconscious.
The three left were stunned in shock.
Kai rushed toward one of them and delivered a flying kick straight into his stomach, hitting him hard enough to knock him down, leaving two left.
Naturally, the two of them each took one opponent.
Ren's opponent charged at him, but Ren stayed calm and whipped him—smack. The guy he rolled on the ground in pain RHHH. Ren whipped him a couple more times. He had picked up the whipping technique surprisingly easily. He hadn't put much thought into it, but this was clearly going to be his main way of fighting inside the nightclub.
Ren and Kai had already agreed before coming here that keeping their identities secret was a priority no matter what. So if they had to use their powers, they needed to stay disguised as well. Because of that, Ren decided to use his shadow shades ability as a whip, avoiding using shades from walls and only using the ones from his sleeves.
Eventually, his opponent passed out from the pain.
When Ren looked over at Kai, he was finishing things up as well. With one final punch, his opponent was knocked out.
"Well," Ren said quietly, "I guess now we have to take down the manager."
"Wait," Kai said from the side.
He walked toward the wall and grabbed something.
It was a mop.
Kai broke the mop part off, leaving only the handle. he couldn't use his ability because he couldn't disguise it properly right now, so he wasn't going to use it. This wooden staff would be enough for now.
Ren, seeing this from the side, asked, "What the hell are you doing? A stick as a sword? Look, I know you studied swordsmanship but you also studied martial arts it's way more than your one week of swordsmanship. Wouldn't it be better if you just relied on your fists?"
Kai just smiled. "Yeah, I know. But what's more important than training is actual experience. Using a sword—or at least a fake one—will help me in the long run."
Ren just shrugged, and the two of them moved toward the door.
It led into a small hallway. They walked forward for about four feet before turning and reaching another door. They looked through it and saw the manager talking with two of his employees.
"So are we sure everything is okay?" the manager asked.
"Yes, sir," one of them replied.
"Good. I don't want anything to go wrong on the day the vice leader visit the nightclub. I swear to God, if I get taken down from my position, I'll take you two down with me."
"Speaking of the vice leader," one worker said, "where is Vice leader now?"
"went to dance, sir."
Ren and Kai made eye contact.
The vice leader is here.
That could be a problem—but for now, it shouldn't be one if they could take these three down as quickly as possible and leave.
They moved immediately.
When the manager and the two employees saw them, they froze in shock. But the two men with them moved—it seemed they were bodyguards as well.
The manager tried to pull out his phone to call for help.
Smack.
Ren whipped his hand, knocking the phone out of his grip. It flew through the air and crashed onto the floor, shattering.
"RHHH!" the manager screamed.
Ren immediately turned his attention back to his opponent.
At the same time, Kai engaged his. Kai went for an overhead strike. His opponent tried to block it—but that was a feint. It left his ribs exposed. Kai quickly repositioned and thrust the staff into his ribs.
"GEEHG!"
The man doubled over, clutching his side.
Kai followed up by striking him in the face, knocking him down.
Ren finished his fight at the same time.
After they took down their opponents, they looked at the manager, who was absolutely terrified.
He tried to run, but Ren used his shade to grab his leg. The manager tripped and fell to the floor. They grabbed him so he couldn't escape anymore.
"Tell me," Ren said calmly, wrapping his shade around the manager's neck—not applying pressure, just enough to make the threat clear. "Is there any secret exit in this nightclub?"
The manager squealed. "The wall—the wall in this room. It's fake," he said, pointing to one of the walls.
"Kai, can you check it?" Ren asked.
Kai did as told. After a few seconds, he noticed something strange. There were cracks in a specific part of the wall. After messing around with that area, he lifted part of it up, revealing an elevator door with a button.
"That elevator takes you down to the alleyway behind the building," the manager said quickly. "Nobody knows about this exit except me."
"Well, that's perfect."
Ren grabbed the manager by the head and slammed it into the floor, knocking him out.
"Well, I guess now all we need to do is cover the elevator again and then we can leave—"
Click.
Both of them froze and looked toward the sound.
It came from the door on the opposite side of the room—the one they didn't enter from. The door opened, and a man stepped inside.
It was a blonde college student with a torn-up shirt and is Russian.
It was Mark.
Ren's heart dropped for a second.
This is a problem.
"Well, maybe not really," Ren spoke quickly. "You shouldn't worry. We took down the manager, and we already called the cops. You won't be forced to fight any longer."
Mark didn't respond.
He just took a step forward—then suddenly dashed toward Ren and threw a punch.
Ren barely managed to block it.
Well, fuck He isn't being forced.
Mark threw several more punches. Ren barely managed to block and dodge them. Mark was incredibly strong and fast, to the point where Ren's hands started to hurt badly from blocking.
It would have been much worse if Kai hadn't stepped in.
Kai struck Mark across the back with the wooden staff, making him grunt. But Mark immediately shoved Ren away and kicked Kai back, sending him flying.
Mark swiftly created distance between himself and the two of them.
"Shit," Ren muttered. "This is a bigger problem than we thought."
They were now facing the man who had taken down multiple superpowered individuals by himself.
(I'm sorry there's a lot of grammar mistakes in this chapter)