The young gas mage strolled around Magnolia adorned in a pair of black slim fit trousers, folded about two inches from the bottom so that it hangs over his ankles. Paired with a classy royal blue turtleneck that complimented his rich black skin. His subtle classy look made him seem a couple years older than he truly was. However, his face still didn’t encourage familiarity. The two thickly carved eyebrows on his face gave an unwelcoming look to those strangers he might’ve run into, although he hid a big heart underneath it all, it was still pretty hard to uncover with his lack of talkativeness. The fourteen year old boy stood at three feet and eleven inches, just one inch shy from being four feet tall, and yet was still an entrusted member of the Rune Knights. Officially the youngest member to make it past being a page. This was apparent to most of those who crossed paths with the young mage as the Rune Knights’ logo was imprinted on his left ear lobe in a fresh azure blue, popping out in contrast with his smooth chocolatey skin. Obviously enough, the feature that stood out the most and caught strangers’ eyes was the huge afro that sat on his head. His naturally coarse thick curls intertwined with one another to form this huge ball of dark brown hair.

The frosty winter winds brushed past his warm skin as he weaved his way past the Magnolians, headed for the renowned magic shop. He’d heard from a rumor going on around the Rune Knights headquarters of this ‘Mana Vamp’. Rumor has it that he was indeed a vampire that lurked around the alleyways of the fairies town and used one of Khalash’s artifacts to fuel his scheme. Ace was acquainted with the old man Khalash. He’d done a couple quests for him back when he first joined the Rune Knights around two years ago. So, the afro haired mage decided to pay the old man a visit to make sure for himself what the true story was behind the people’s fabrications.

Ace Brookes turned to the street where the shop was located and seen the silhouette of what seems like a tall well-built female standing there relatively still. With both of his hands tucked neatly in his little pockets, the gas mage approached the shop only to stand around a meter from the girl. She was few shades lighter than his own complexion as well as tall, graceful and smooth.

“A shame isn’t it…”

He said quietly to the female as a small misty cloud lingered around his pale lips. Ace would’ve expected Khalash to be in shock after all those years of running his shop only for a heartless bastard to walk in and affect his whole source of income. The young apprentice had come to the shop for the full story and now seems to be even more lost than before. Could he find a lead just by staring in through the shop’s damaged glass front. As a Rune Knight, it was now part of his duty to investigate further.

"Ah! Be careful not to trip, love..." Tomoe murmured like a gentle breeze in the darkness that evening brought out.

Crouching behind the counter inside Khalash's shop was a couple that could not be made out visually without setting foot into the store itself or without the hearing of a wild animal. Underneath the shadows was Tomoe laying lowly next to a woman in waitress attire, caressing her arm gently as she stared at him in wonder.

"So you really are... a vampire...?", the woman whispered with her face inches from the rugged features of the brigand seducing her.

He gave a tilt of his head in acknowledgement and revealed the set of blade-like fangs within his maw. Yet his gesture as he drew towards her would not appear frightening to the woman, but rather alluring - hypnotizing, almost, yet still acting of her own free will.

"As I said, the initial entry might sting a little, but after that we'll both be feeling the high of our lives."

Vampires typically had this process perfected on instinct alone, but Tomoe was the kind that still somewhat rejected the idea of feeding altogether. Yet as it was his sole way of staying alive, the most he could do was reassure those sharing the moment with him that it would be ecstasy. Yet at the last second before he would be given his meal by piercing the veins of the woman's neck, he could decipher chatter just outside the shop. Pointless dialogue for all he cared, but the presence of people outside the shop was worrying in the first place.

Shit, what're people doing h-

As a knee-jerk reaction turning his head towards the door, Tomoe accidentally pierced the vein of the woman's neck. The sudden spark of it caused his feeding partner to scream out in a mixture of pleasure and pain - though in the dark of night and the fact that the shop should be unattended at the moment, it would likely sound more akin to a crime taking place in the shadows. Her shrill voice calling out in shock would be more than enough for anybody just outside the shop to hear clearly, and Tomoe had no guarantees that they would leave it be.

"Shit, shit, shit...", he muttered under his breath, trying to silence the woman to no avail.

Figuring it would be too late to stop now, the blood-hungry samurai would continue feeding until he'd taken enough to satisfy his own lust without harming the woman in the long term in any way, his eyes occasionally darting to the door to see if those outside would attempt to check on the scene inside.

The caramel skinned beauty that was now standing next to him seemed to acknowledge his presence. Her first impression of him was similar to that of many, thinking he was just a naïve kid, or so he thought. It has happened on several occasions and has gotten to the extent where it doesn’t annoy the kid anymore, nor does he feel the urge to prove himself to anyone.

He nodded his head in acknowledgement to her statement regarding his closing times. His counterpart now stood only a meter away to his left as he continued to glare at the details of the crime scene. He wasn’t one to saunter past the magic shop on a daily basis, however the caution tape that dragged over the wreckage gave fundamental grounds to the public’s speculation. Forensics wasn’t his field of specialization, yet the knowledgeable young mage was well aware of his fellow Rune Knights’ work.

“No clue… A valuable artifact has been looted, or so I heard. Rumor says it’s a vampire sucking out people’s magic.”

A loud ringing high pitched scream startled the young mage, causing him to dart his eyes from one corner to the other in confusion. There was no mistaking it… The noise was coming from inside Khalash’s shop. Just before he regained control of his merely chiseled body, the tanned beauty had already sprung into action calling out that someone was in trouble and knocking the rusty hinges off the door with one forceful blow. Ace rushed in right behind her in confusion not really aware of what to expect.

The closest streetlight did a very poor job of getting any light into the pitch black extremities of the shop. So intense that his hazel eyes could barely make out shelves and stands under the weak flickering streetlight that outlined their silhouette to whoever lurked inside. “Rune Knights here, show yourself!” exclaimed the young mage with confidence. His body turned to face the fine lady that seemed reluctant to hold back. He signaled her to examine the left side of the shop while he headed right. Setting his feet down firmly yet as quietly as he could to catch the intruder, occasionally stepping on the tiny shards of broken glass.

Tomoe's eyes felt as if they became tennis balls for a second, expanding in shock as he heard the door hit the ground. By that point, the shrouded vampire would be crouching among the nooks and crannies of the shadowed shop for the back door. Due to his vampiric nature, there would be no sound from the bloodied man's movements such that he could even sneak up on a rat without alerting it.

It was on the right side of the shop behind the counter that one would find the girl, bloodied and in shock but conscious and alive. To an eye that had spent longer than a second gauging her, they would even find that she was barely harmed - only a single bite mark on her neck and a small scratch from what seems to be a quick exit wound, and a smaller pool of blood on her torso that seems to have originated from another source.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Oh c'mon, this is bullshit! Who are these psychos?, Tomoe thought in a panic as he reached for the doorknob at the back of the shop to make a quick and silent exit.

Looking back one last time he saw the familiar and beautiful figure of Aisha searching the shop, alongside some other kid with an afro. Admiring the child's afro in a bid of mutual respect for messy, puffy hairstyles, he rated the style a solid 6/10 as he raised his palm for the doorknob. It was moments like these - moments of secrecy - that he was glad he could see as clear as day in all of this darkness. Even if the sparks of electricity dancing among the shadows spooked him somewhat.

Twisting the doorknob, he felt no budge.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me.", he muttered lowly in guttural frustration, and after taking another glance back and seeing the investigative duo searching further into the shop, decided on a risky course of action.

Using the supernatural strength brought on by food, Tomoe kicked at the doorknob a single time with force, knowing it would break the lock in a single hit. Unlike other noises, the auditory clue of the snapping of a lock and the visual cue of moonlight pouring into the back of the shop would give away his position in that moment. Tomoe knew this before he had decided to break the lock, and knew what he needed to do afterwards: run. Leaping into the back alley of the shop, he made a mad dash out into the night with all of the silence of his vampirism still aiding him. With any luck he would still get back to the guild in time for some more shit-talk with Vali and the boys. With a smirk, the escaping shadow laughed to himself in his head thinking of how nice this life of constant danger was.

The gas mage walked around the unlit shop with his arms out in front of him in case he crashes into something. His partner seemed to have already made progress by finding someone who was in need of her help, and there he was, bumping into everything around him. “Dammit…” he murmured under his breath as he seemed to feel every artifact that sat in Khalash’s shop.

Out of nowhere, there was a loud noise that came from the very back of the shop accompanied by what seemed to be the culprit’s heavy panting as he dashed out through the new exit. Thankfully there was a better source of lighting now guiding the young mage around the small stuffy shop. In an instant his raspy maturing voice spoke out “Hey! Stop!” as he started running after the man. He hastily tripped over a bucket that sat just about a half a meter from the exit and went crashing outside the shop. He looked up to see if he can still spot the man but he was already nowhere to be seen. His full hazel warm eyes glanced back at the girl. She had her hands full comforting the victim and so he knew he had to be the one to chase after the speedy runner. He pushed himself off the ground and dusted his clothes briefly before heading off to hunt the man down.

Unluckily, Ace roamed around the shop and its adjacent streets for a while to no avail. He stopped for a breather around one of the corners and spotted a couple droplets of blood stained on the ground. He quickly bent over to check how old they were. That looked like it was Ace’s first lead…

Tomoe smiled a devious and triumphant smile as he ran off into the night. He felt powerful for his success at his task, and laughed a bit to himself once he gained significant distance through the network of alleyways. In the maze-like structure that the alley was comprised of, the escaping rogue's smile faded once he realized he no longer knew where he was going even with perfect vision in the dark.

Eventually however, he heard the presence of others nearby. Before turning the corner, he hugged against the wall and listened in.

Some kind of fight? Or... , Tomoe would allow the one-sided conversation to play out, and inferred something was definitely wrong.

A demon? Or perhaps a dark guild had infiltrated Magnolia. Regardless, while Tomoe wasn't one to jump into danger like a proper hero without pay, it was on the way out. A few good smacks and it'd be over - especially if the man was as despicable as his voice and actions let in on.

The shadowed vampire would escape from behind his cover and sprint full force down the narrow alley of the man's voice. Thanking his ability to be perfectly quiet even at a sprint, he made no efforts to reveal himself as he charged the man who he could now clearly see was at least not of the demonic variety. Next to him was a woman, collapsed on the ground.

"Disgusting...", Tomoe would mutter to himself as he soundlessly unsheathed his katana and used the momentum of his sprint to ascend into the air and then drop upon the man with the blade of his sword aimed carefully to slash across the sicko's chest.

In the back of his mind, Tomoe was not the kind to help out random strangers. In this instance though, it was convenient. More than that though, the woman seemed drained. Could there be a relation to vampirism somehow in this man before him? If there was anything there, Tomoe would uncover it at a moment's notice from the man's unconscious body - or dead, if it came to that. The Joyan thug would not be aiming for a fatal attack, but if his target was weak enough to bleed out from it anyway, that wasn't any fault of Tomoe's actions. Thus that same mentality directed his hands firmly to attempt to slash across the man's midsection, empowered further that it wouldn't be too late for Tomoe's pursuers to catch up if this took longer than a minute or so.

The young gas mage was already lost in the maze-like alleyways of Magnolia. He was confused as to whether he should follow the lead or just head back to check up on the girl. How the hell was he even going to manage getting back to Khalash’s shop from here. All the time he’s ever spent in Magnolia has been due to orders from his superiors. Mainly doing smaller quests to maintain order throughout Fiore in general. As an apprentice, he did have some sort of essence of prestige to his rank, however he was still mostly spending his time doing the higher ranked Knights’ dirty work. This upcoming promotion meant a lot to the young mage. Essentially, he’d gain more respect right off the bat, which would eventually lead to his voice being heard louder. It all tied in neatly to his plan in correcting the flawed system. It’s funny to him how such a small action out of impulse might ripple and lead to him to his end goal.

Following the light trail of blood seemed like the more reasonable option to him. After all, the light skinned beauty was already looking after the victim. He stood up straight and focused his eyes on the scattered trail of blood, then started tracking the so called ‘Mana Vamp’ down. There was absolutely no time for the gas mage to waste. He knew that there was absolutely no way he could catch up to the culprit had he still been running. Ace’s much shorter and smaller physique would restrict him from catching up to his prey no matter how much effort he put in.

“Hmm?” Ace stood in his tracks as he heard a fight breaking out right off the corner. “Has another mage already caught up to him…” he thought to himself. The gas mage then turned the corner as fast as he could only to witness an atrocious demon-like creature reaching out in front of a brave soul who stood there with a katana clenched tight in his hands. They stood only but a few meters away from the young boy’s frightened eyes. A fragile and pale lady had fainted on the curb behind the assailant. Her skin looked unnaturally wrinkly and pale, leading the gas mage to the conclusion that her mana must’ve been drained. His eyes darted back at the evil spirit who’d already started making his move towards the swordsman and impulsively ran forth in attempt to aid the man.

“Look out!” he shouted at the top of his lungs as he dove towards the swordsman in attempt to shove him out of harm’s way. The gas mage would most likely manage to protect the man and take some of the damage himself. The razor sharp claws of this malicious creature would sink deep into the boy’s left arm, leaving a warm rich splatter of his blood on the plain canvas beneath him. This was basically setting the afro haired boy up for another menacing swing as he laid there with his right arm trembling, and clenched as tight as he could on his wound.

"What the fuck?"

Tomoe stood there, flabbergasted for a moment at the phantom gliding towards him. There was more to this man than some common street punk, and with all the visual processing in the world the lone samurai could not take it all in so fast. It almost appeared as if he was going to take a nasty hit, but was pushed away at the last moment. He went with the momentum of the shove to the right side, and saw a child no older than fifteen take the hit instead. Blood splattered, but Tomoe had his fill prior to the encounter so it didn't shake his resolve. Instead he would bring his katana down upon the creature while it was still upon the lad, using both of his hands to bring the full force of his strike to deliver a shaking blow to its head provided it was still focusing on the boy before it.

Afterwards, he would grab the boy and dash further back into the alleyway, gaining a distance of one meter from the creature before turning to fight it once again with his blade poised towards it the entire time. He took note of the boy's injury and thought it not quite ideal for a fight, but then raised a brow wondering why a kid would step in to fight in the first place. Didn't he have homework? School the next day? Kids these days were so irresponsible.

"You alright there, kiddo?", Tomoe finally spoke, breathing out his stress as he did so.

If he continued to run into problems like this nightly he was going to get grey hairs much sooner than most. But for now that didn't concern him. He released his grip on the boy and descended into a defensive stance pointing towards the ghostly creature. His eyes stared blades into the hideous being, ready for it to charge forth once more. Assuming it did so, Tomoe would counter with a quick block and follow-up slash in retort to it. Other than that, he was simply curious about what the boy would do next as well - would he run, or stay and fight somehow? It was all up to him in that moment.

In a flash the gas mage witnessed the man he’d just shoved now plunge his katana down with full force into the bellowing spirit. Carried over to the sidelines, the young mage was now dazed with thoughts that flooded his mind. “Argh…. How the hell am I supposed to fight like this…” He took another glimpse of his left arm and was reassured that he wasn’t able to use it for battle. He however needed to figure out a way to numb his pain immediately and hurl himself back into action. “Yeah I’m good” he groaned softly while avoiding eye contact with the samurai.

“Am I really going to be worthless in this fight? Am I even worthy of a promotion if I fail this easily? Am I even the warrior I claim to be if I succumb to the pain?”

A mix of furiousness and self-doubt clouded his face. It was in times like these that a warrior was pitted against his own doubts first, and only emerges victorious after defeating his own delirious thoughts.

His heavy breathing was occasionally coupled with a faint whimper. The dark skinned mage conjured highly euphoric gases throughout his body and directed them towards his wound in attempt to numb the pain. He grit his teeth as the pain peaked around his left arm, eventually numbing it completely. He opened his eyes softly to trickling cold tears streaming down his cheeks. His head was still pressed firmly against the pavement with dust clipped on to his coarse sponge-like hair.

“What in the world…” he muttered to himself. Where the hell did the demon disappear to? The young Rune Knight was able to lift his body up of the ground with his left arm dangling with streams of dried blood marked all around. He was now standing one meter behind the samurai, not knowing what was about to happen next.

Tomoe would shake off the taunts of the coward hiding behind his phantom. While the rogue loved some wordplay now and again, it served little purpose on the fields of combat. Once battle was initiated and was to the death, the samurai's gaze would turn more serious and less of the carefree demeanor he strode around his days with. He was locked in battle with a murderer, and treated the situation as such; even if the murderer was also a sniveling coward once the phantom was taken out of the equation. That just made it more important that Tomoe not die here, or else feel eternal shame in the afterlife to come. This was his first life or death battle since leaving Joya, and he wasn't about to let it end fatally for him. Not in this alley.

That was why when the phantom was healed and then disappeared, Tomoe being the former assassin that he was knew to expect a sneak attack. Sneak attacks were intended to kill on the first attempt, thus he would have his blade in a blocking stance at the ready for the first trail of anything to appear in his vision. In particular he was prioritizing the floor, noting that the phantom had sunk inside of it.

Moments later, Tomoe's first assumption was correct, seeing at the last moment a claw hurtling towards him. The surprising speed and strength with which it shot up from meant a less than graceful defense however, as while the strike was mostly blocked by the wary samurai's blade the end of the claw still nicked his cheek. He would attempt a fleeing counter-slash on the phantom while taking a hop backwards. Tomoe observed that his blade was heavily clawed at and chipped in multiple places. Being that it was a brittle and rusty sword to begin with, he noted that it would likely only take another such attack before the hunk of metal would become scrap once more.

"Cheap fuckin' replicas...", the perturbed warrior would mutter to himself closely enough to the child that he would likely hear.

Tomoe took note in that moment that if the cowardly mage would continue healing the phantom, fighting it was pointless. He gave no indication of this thought to the boy, whom Tomoe hoped would either pick up and follow his lead or retreat and mind his own business. The boy wasn't dead or even unconscious, so for a kid of his size to still be even thinking about standing his ground at this point was impressive to the Joyan warrior who had seen his fair share of rough days at the boy's age.

Seeing a potential opening with the idea that the manipulator of the phantom was likely not that tough, Tomoe took to using the alley wall to his right as leverage to jump, and then make a dashing Lunge parallel with the wall to clear past the phantom and attempt to deliver a quaking helm splitter to the coward's skull from above using his drop speed of 5 m/s.

---

Damage Taken: D
Katana Damage Taken: C
Lunge CD: 2 posts

Ace had managed to stand up and gather his strength once again, this time hoping to bring the raging spirit down with him. The euphoric fluid that had surged through his abused body had caused his eyes to dilate and boosted his confidence off the unnatural high that he’d been experiencing. It definitely wasn’t the best method to cope with the pain but it did the job for now. With the immense pain from his left arm suppressed, the gas mage’s blazing eyes were now fixed at the demon-like creature and his cowardly partner.

The samurai that stood before him was putting up a pretty good fight. However his sword resembled more of a rusty old pipe than a samurai’s katana. It seemed as if it was about to snap in half any moment now. The messy haired samurai had a somewhat elegant fighting style and somehow managed to wrap himself around the shoplifter for a sneak attack. It was smart, swift and powerful. Ace concluded that if he was to rush them, he’d be able to land a sly attack as well to disorient the beast even more.

With his vision still dazed by the overdose of euphoria, Ace lunged his body towards the beast that had now turned to face the samurai. A crimson red surge of blood shot up into the sky signaling Ace that it was his turn to mark the culprit’s body. His fist glowed in a yellowish green hue. The youngster had encased his fist in a condensed layer of corrosive chlorine gas ready to pay the man back with a painful scalding scar.

Ace hurled the punch towards the back of the coward’s neck but was uncertain of how accurate it would be given the current state of mind he was in.

It felt as if the young mage’s body would give out at any moment due to the overdose of toxins circulating through his system. Though it was his own magic running through his veins it still managed to take a heavy toll on the young man.

After either landing the punch or missing he’d take a quick step to the left, leaving himself around a meter away diagonally from the duo.

The coward was not subtle, that much was clear as the night that Tomoe saw freely. That swindler was so dumb as to reveal his exact motives and tactics openly, proclaiming to his demonic ally to strike at the samurai. Still recovering from his speedy rush however, Tomoe was currently not in a position to make any movements as fast as he had made on his attack towards the thief. Thus, the Joyan rogue would turn towards the phantom, seeing the child covering his flank as the boy rushed past to continue attacking the puppeteer, and blocked both attacks directed towards himself with the chipped blade. Unfortunately for Tomoe, this would prove to be all it would take to destroy the blade, crumbling it into scrap metal over the alley concrete.

In that moment Tomoe would counter the demon with a swift kick of supernaturally powerful strength almost equal to his blade towards the phantom's jaw, which would send it spiraling backwards upon hit. In that same motion while delivering the kick, Tomoe would use his right hand to retrieve a piece of the sword's metal shards and throw it like a dagger towards the coward's throat after the boy had finished his attack. After throwing the projectile, he would finally follow up by running towards the swindler and attempt to go for the simple pleasure of fist-to-skull contact on the sniveling little rat.

Ace’s fist managed to connect with the thief’s pale and frail body while Tomoe’s sword connected shortly after. Ace stood there swaying slowly from side to side as his eyes processed what had just happened to the man. He was only but mere inches away from Ace’s feet. The gas mage was in a steady state for now. He was adjusting to the euphoric high; or so he thought.

The crippled man squirmed in his place as he mumbled something that the young mage couldn’t make out. He calmly watched as the man’s hand ripped the relic off his neck. Ace wasn’t going to interfere knowing that the man wouln’t be able to do him any harm at this stage. He let him have his last couple of breaths peacefully to himself, even if he chose to squirm around with the relic gripped tight in the palm of his wriggly hands. Just like that, the man decided to destroy the artifact. Ace still looked down at the man in disgust as his soul left his scrawny body. “Time to clean up this me…” He started saying as he looked up at Tomoe. The youngster was interrupted by a loud thunderous roar coming from the demon that once served and protected the thief. “Oh shit!” Ace had completely forgot about the demon until now. His thinking urged him to assume that the beast would perish with the destruction of the artifact that summoned him. It seemed as if all the remaining mana was fed into the demon at once, giving it a similar loss of control that Ace had experienced with his own high.

His head tilted fully back for him to get a better look at the beast. The gas mage still swayed from side to side as he squinted his eyes. At this point he had no energy to think of a way to stop the demon. “You lead and I’ll go along with your plan…” Ace said to the sword-less samurai.

Upon the dying man's ramblings, Tomoe could be seen with half-moon eyes casually kicking him in the gut over and over to draw out grunts of pain from the bleeding coward. It was his way of relieving stress from a broken weapon and some body aches he'd be feeling in the morning.

"Well, you owe me this at least. It'll do something I guess.", Tomoe murmured, retrieving the sharpened dagger from the man's bloody corpse and scanning it over.

In the time after pilfering it though, Tomoe's stress relief session was interrupted when the swindler smashed the item he was waving around earlier. The resulting spell was powerful enough that pure magic was running rampant in the air, flowing past Tomoe and the kid and directly into the phantom from before. Tomoe's eyes sharpened and in that moment he knew the fight wasn't over yet. He would turn his gaze over to the boy for a moment and then further back into the alley that they were on the side of.

"Get the girl a bit further away, we're gonna need some fightin' room and I don't need a dead woman on my conscience while we do it. We're gonna retreat to a main street for some more breathin' room while leading it to focus on us.", Tomoe spoke concisely, realizing this was the time for maximum use of the environment and that a narrow corridor would be the worst place for them in such a fight.

The thought did cross his mind about other civilians, but drawing attention to the main streets would also prompt a guard response and perhaps other mages to join in so the samurai didn't think it was the worst tactical retreat that could've been ordered. He would stay behind for an additional moment, knife raised in a backwards grip position, observing the beast while dodging and falling back as a first line of protection towards a main street with more mobility for the both of them.

The dark skinned youngster heard the samurai’s direct orders and immediately sprinted off towards the girl that had still been laying on the cold pavement helplessly. Ace started by lifting her head slightly only to notice how light she was. Her skin was all wrinkly and coated her bones as if there was barely any muscle left in her body. He then fully lifted her up to his shoulder with an arm straddling her body securely and proceeded to stagger as far away from the demon as he could.

Every corner he turned his vision got fuzzier. His ears vaguely made out the pleasured roaring of the beast as the ringing noise intensified. The youngster eventually stopped with his head bobbing down every other second. He let the girl down as gently as he could and tottered in his spot. The intense ringing fully took over. The throbbing pain returning to spread through the nerve endings in his arm. His hazey red eyes darted down at his left, throwing his head down with a loss of balance. The youngster crashed down on the cold pavement next to the drained victim, feeling just as helpless as she was. His eyes lids felt heavy as ever as he dazed off.

Sadly, the gas mage’s physical and mental states had suffered too much damage for him to even stay on his own two feet. He definitely wasn’t going to be proud of this moment. The young man wasn’t one to give up easily. For him to face the fact that only one hit from the beast was all it took to take him down. How was he supposed to accept a promotion from his superiors after his own self doubt had shrouded his mind? How was he supposed to look straight in the samurai’s eyes after he’d proved to him that he was ‘just a kid’ after all? Was he truly worthy of being a Rune Knight; the people’s savior?

Tomoe had finally escaped to the main streets, turning on each side to see no civilians other than the girl from the alley. Looking even further, he realized the kid was nowhere to be found. It wasn't the best time to lose an ally, especially after the kid proved himself able to fight, but everybody had to look out for their own survival at the end of the day. Such a thing wouldn't bother Tomoe, as it would just mean he had to kick it up a notch.

"Oi, fuckhead! You gonna keep swinging or are you gonna hit me for once?", Tomoe shouted with a half smirk aligning his expression.

Realizing he didn't know the first thing about knife fighting, he would use his full arm strength to hurtle the dagger towards the demon's face. Hit or miss, that was only a ruse for Tomoe's follow-up attack - a stone-shattering shin kick to the demon's leg in an attempt to topple or stagger it and bring its ugly mug closer to punching range.

"You 'n me, let's have a good time of it! We've got all night here, bud, and I'm plenty confident that I can go the distance!"

The swordless samurai would await to see the results of his attack before deciding whether to withdraw or press his offense on a wounded enemy. If the enemy wasn't harmed enough to topple, Tomoe would go on the defensive and avoid the demon's swipes for another opening.