The Mages - Chapter 6

First encounter

Outside of the mansion is quiet with the sounds of the night, but the music inside the party can be slightly heard by the few guards patrolling around the building and the large back garden. Anthros, humans and hybrids are alone or in pairs standing or walking around the whole premise; in dark suits, but armed with handguns and communication transceivers. Many of the garden's space is covered in different sized hedgerows, the large hedges create a rectangular square to present the shape of the garden, while the small ones are placed inside the box close to groups of flowering plants, sculptures and the paths to walk on. The paths are filled with lots of tiny limestone rocks, some lead to walking in different directions inside the garden or heading to the big fountain pouring out with water. Four small light towers illuminate the area on the four edges of the rectangle, while the six statues standing on pillars surround the fountain.

From afar, the ground has inclined and the place is thick with pine trees and some rocks in parts of the woods. It is a good place for hiding because of its pure darkness, which is needed for the two furian anthros. Faiz the light beige wolf is lying down on his stomach holding his SGM 027 AVLR dual-mode rifle, the barrel is rested on an old fallen tree trunk and he is watching the building with his scope. He is wearing his tight heavy battle/training suit, the shirt is black and the pants are black and grey. He is partnered with the young teen tiger Mikuru who is also watching the mansion with her binoculars, her SGM 093 XT Semi-automatic dual mode rifle is on her back supported by its strap. They were using night-vision in their equipment. She is wearing normal clothing, black tight shorts and a light purple shirt.

A couple of meters close to the flat grass, a wolf-dragon hybrid kneeling on the shadows of the trees; Minami is also partnered with the green winged dragon Mizuki who was sitting on the ground. Minami is armed with her handmade dual 8 inch daggers and Mizuki with her custom-made thick heavy long sword.  Both are acting as look outs on the movements made from the guards and take any action if something happens in the mission. They are wearing black one-piece heavy body suits.

As Faiz watches the target in his scope, seeing that Osamu Gensai was still standing still and talking to the male harpy eagle for while was the perfect and possibly last opportunity to get him. He contacts Mitsuki in the building telepathically,

("Mitsuki, how's it going in there?")

She responds telepathically as well,

("Everything's going smoothly, nobody is suspecting me, and his guards are looking away from him. Better hurry, the jazz band has just started their outro.")

Mitsuki and Faiz are having special wireless one ear headsets that can also capture the noises around them; Mitsuki is only one using this application, so that means Faiz can hear the sounds coming from her location, which is how he is able to hear the music from the band. Making sure he has the man locked on, he was ready to shot. During the middle of their outro, he does the telepathic contact on another person in the team.

("Ok Ryan, get ready for your move.")

("No prob, buddy") says the wingless dragon.

Waiting for a few more seconds during the outro of the music, Faiz hears the sound of a drum fill with no music from the other instruments. Right when the drummer played his last note, he immediately calls to Ryan.

("Now!")

One of the statues in the garden suddenly falls away from its pillar; it instantly drops down to the ground, its location is the closest to the entrance of the garden and the mansion. The band starts another outro and it was much louder. Instantly the statue breaks in a few big pieces, the noise is heard from all guards close by, which immediately brought their attention. At the same time, Faiz pulls the rifle's trigger firing the bullet to the large window to Osamu. Believing he would hit the canine without a few people noticing due to the sound of the music. But Faiz would never expect the series of events that will unfold right this moment.

Osamu suddenly moves away from the centre of his telescopic sight, making the bullet simply pierce through the window and bounced off the floor. Faiz couldn't believe what just happened and didn't know how. Mikuru who has been watching the window as well, instantly understood why Faiz missed his target. Apparently Osamu moved to see a young male Iberian lynx similar age to the boys in the Mage Brigade team; he was talking seriously to the harpy eagle which Osamu was talking to. His bodyguards failed to stop him but were keeping a close eye on the lynx.

("It looks like he was distracted by the immediate conversation between those two next to him.") she whispered,

Faiz responded telepathically again,
("Yeah, I saw that as well")

He then switched to contacting Mitsuki,
("Mitsuki, we have to go to plan B.")

("I'm on it")

Mitsuki left her table walking a few steps to their target Osamu; this back up plan is much risky. She slowly opens her purse, reaching the handgun inside, it had a silencer to decrease the loud noise of a firing bullet; Mitsuki places the barrel of her handgun right between the open zips of the purse aiming to Osamu. When having the man targeted to her pistol, she instantly pulled trigger.

"Oh no you don't!" shouts the voice of a young woman, which Mitsuki hears.

Then her purse gets kicked seeing it was by the feline and for what she's wearing this is someone who's Jiangshanese; but at the same time her gun still shots due to the fact she already pressed its trigger. Then the jazz band makes their last loud note to finish their song. At the same time the bullet flies to a nearby huge chandelier, the cable supporting it breaks making the lights to switch off and the decorated crystal structure fell down to the floor. Crashing down hard to the floor, parts of the metal are twisted and several transparent pieces become shattered, its loud breaking noise is heard by everyone.

Originally the audience was going to clap and a few to cheer to the jazz band, but it was changed by everyone seeing what has made that sound, many surrounded the area to see the scene. Everyone began murmuring on how could have suddenly break a part to the ground. The guards in the hall quickly reacted to the incident making everyone to move away and telling everyone to ignore and continue with the party, making space so that the broken chandelier will be cleaned up. While others were worried because some heard a different noise that came before the chandelier dropped.

Mitsuki immediately began to slowly walk away from the party guests to leave the mansion, but Yun who stopped her wasn't going to let her get away with it.

"Hey, come back here!"

Yun runs to stop the purple wolf, trying to catch up with getting past all the people in the hall.

Osamu were seeing the incident with Carten, then his male tiger bodyguard who finished a call from his phone goes to Osamu to speak to him; the tiger speaks quietly without anyone possibly eavesdropping. Osamu understood that there was some important business he needed to attend to which was not happening in this party, he spoke to Carten before leaving.

"I would have been staying here for a little longer, but it looks like I got much necessary work to do right now, so I have to leave."

"I understand, may you also have a good night" says Carten.

"Thank you, goodbye Mr. Roberts Harrison"

"Bye Mr. Gensai"

At this moment, Osamu goes past the crowd of party guests, and with his two bodyguards they get a move out to the exit and leaves from Carten's sight. Carten stares at the direction Osamu went; even though he wasn't looking at him, Carten had the look of enmity to this man from the beginning he learned more about him.

He then turns to talk to Enrique.
"Ok what is it? What's wrong?"

Enrique calmed down a bit since he was rushing to find Carten and warn him on what he heard.
"Carten, I just listened to a conversation where they said they're going to assassinate a man in this party."

Carten's eyes were wide open hearing what Enrique has just said, it was clear he was telling the truth. Most of what Enrique's hears and says to the group were always true and was a useful "advantage" for them in specific situations and preventing something bad to happen.

"Are you sure Enrique?" he said seriously.

"I'm totally certain of it, in fact now I can't hear those speeches anymore, it all stopped right after the end of the song from the band and the chandelier dropping."

While Carten was listening to Enrique, he looks back at the window wondering who could the hundreds of guests in the party would be a target for the assassin or assassinators. One of many possible targets could be some famous celebrities or important people in business, like Sir Nicholas Charles himself. But it was clear when looking at the window, he knew exactly the person that was supposed to be assassinated.

"I think I know who the target was Enrique…" he said calmly.

Enrique looked up to where Carten is facing at the window; he saw in shock that part of the glass left a perfect small hole aiming right to his forehead, cracks appeared around the circle.

"Look over there." Carten pointed to the floor where they both saw a break in it, appearing long in length and short in height. Looking like something small but fast had bounced off the floor, fast enough to actually make a mark. He inspected both marks made in the scene, assuming it is theoretical that these two were much related.

"I believe there has already been an attempt to kill someone, and he was right next to me…" Carten then turns to see the fallen chandelier,

"…and what made the chandelier fall down was maybe a bullet."

Before Enrique could respond, Carten sprang into action.
"Listen Enrique, I need you to help me find them or who tried to kill Osamu, where's Yun and Zanial?"

"I saw them running to a different hallway that was closed doors but opened by the guards, after the chandelier crashed down."

His mentioning of Zanial, sparked a memory of someone Carten forgot all about,
"Zanial? Wait, what about Emma?"

He knew Zanial was with Emma keeping her company and possibly telling the truth about them to her.

"Oh don't worry about her, I told Emma to stay in the table right over-"

Enrique was pointing to the round table which supposed to be Emma there, but they only see it used by a dragon couple and a used plate with bits of food still on it, a knife, fork and cup was all left behind.

He looked in disbelief, "What the hell, where did she go?!"

Carten sighed profoundly; this has happened in occasion or is typical of the human girl.

"Great, what is she up to now…" said in his mind, he placed his free hand on his face.

***

Running in the hallway with the lights dimmed but enough to illuminate the path, Mitsuki has been moving non-stop and has been looking behind several times making sure no one is following her, she saw trying to process everything that has just happened to them. First their target Osamu merely escapes being shot because he reacted to a male lynx talking to his friend at the window. Then when she had to take action by taking the kill, a feline woman of Jiangshan comes and stops her gun firing the man. Something like this to completely fail is beyond her belief, now Mitsuki had no choice but to find the others and find a way to solve this problem. She turns to her right to see a set of stairs that leads to the upper floors; she climbs them and keeps walking up the stairs until she reached to the highest floor of the mansion.

Going to the door that was in front of her, she grasps the knob, seeing it was locked, this needed to be forced open. Mitsuki took one step back, instant making a swift kick to do the door, it didn't budge, but she was just getting started. She kicked the door again as much as possible, although the door was still in tacked Mitsuki heard the sound of wood cracking near the slab. This time she took more steps back, a few meters away. With a quick sprint, she jumped and with her leg sprang out she hit the door at full force, finally it was forced open, and the lock was still out but had broken out of its hole.

Now a wooden ladder is seen, she climbed it to see behind her the dark attic but was illuminated thanks to the windows placed on the inclination part of the ceiling showing the clear dark sky. Various objects like furniture, art paintings, statues, porcelains and mirrors were kept here, many were antique and due to the fact they haven't been used for a long time, they are all covered in dust and old spider webs.  Mitsuki gets a chair ignoring the dust, walks to the closest window; she places the chair to stand on it while opening the window. When opened, she climbs out and stands on the flat part of the roof; looking around to find someone,

"Where are they?" she says in her mind,

Right at this moment, a sound is heard with the adding of a flash of light which still be seen where Mitsuki was standing. She looks behind to see from far that Mikuru used her Leap magic to teleport her to the roof, also seeing Ryan right next to her, he is wearing his short black body-hugging battle suit. Mitsuki was glad to see two of her comrades around here; she walks to them, noticing they are both preoccupied of the situation that's in hand.

("Mum, what just happened to you in there? We first see someone stopping you and firing to that chandelier and now that Osamu Gensai has left all this has…") Mikuru was cut when Ryan interfered.

("Woah… woah hey there, can you tell me exactly what happened, I was standing in this roof for a quite a while you know.")

Both Mitsuki and Mikuru eventually told Ryan everything that happened in their perspective from the sniper fail to the breaking of the chandelier. He wasn't very amused too see all two of their plans have somehow failed, this has never happened to them and their target also has left the building, which was even worse for them.

("Well this sure has been completely flipped out…") he said in disbelief

("…so who exactly was that women who kicked you Mitsuki?")

("Well she…) she instantly stopped, when hearing the shout of a young man close to them,

"HEY YOU, STOP RIGHT THERE!"

"YOU REALLY THINK YOU COULD GET AWAY WOLFY!" said a female voice

All three looked to the other end of the roof to see two anthros running fast coming closer to them; one was a tall male Alsatian wearing a black suit with a duke blue necktie and strait black hair, it was him who said the shout. Right in front of him was a brown with black striped and white fur female feline with digitigraded feet; she was wearing a red Jiangshanese formal dress and her hair tied by a small bun with a hair stick on it. When looking carefully, it was to Mitsuki's surprise that the feline was the same women who she saw leaving the restroom and who made Mitsuki fire her gun to the chandelier.

("That… it's her right there it was that women!") The two looked to where she was pointing and saw the female feline coming even closer with the Alsatian.

"Hey Zanial, now she's companied with those two!" shouted Yun,

"Yeah I know, but how the hell did they get here!?" Zanial didn't see this coming, had no clue on how the dark wingless dragon and the young tiger was able to be on the roof as well.

"What? Who the heck are those guys?!" said Ryan

Mitsuki had to react; she can't let them get near to them, needed to stop them and get her, Mikuru and Ryan out of here. Even if Mitsuki had no clue to who they are and who they work for, it was clear those two were looking hostile. Quickly searching her purse, she got out the handgun, she moved the slide to make sure the bullets were ready to fire just in case and aimed it to the runners.

"STAY BACK, BOTH OF YOU!" Mitsuki shouted,

Both Yun and Zanial immediately stopped suddenly seeing the women armed, Yun watched in frustration, now this situation has gotten problematic, couldn't think of a way to get away or stop her using the gun. Zanial was behind her, seeing the problem as well, he looked to his right to see he was right next to one of the eight chimneys of the large roof.

("Quick Mikuru, get us out of here!") Said Ryan,

("You serious? I can't use my power right in front of them!") She of course mentioning to the two strangers.

("Well I'm not sure if I can use my invisibility right in front of them too…") since they didn't know who they were, he wasn't sure what they would do if those two saw their powers.

("I understand that but we don't have a choice do we?") Said Mitsuki,

("But… but…") Mikuru was out of words, she wasn't sure on taking this serious risk,

("From the plans becoming completely bust, and now this, just how did it all turn out into a disaster?") Ryan exclaimed,

Seeing they had a hard chance to escape from here, Mitsuki decided to ask for help from far. She called to anyone for help, she communicated telepathically.

("Hey everyone, we need a little help here…")

During their conversations, Zanial was slowing taking drastic action, he whispered to Yun making he can't be heard from those three.

"Act normal Yun, I'm going to make my move."

Able to hear him even from the whispers, she knew what to do, and still looked at what's in front. He moved much closer to the chimney making very small steps, with his arm very close to the brick structure, it was now or never.

"I got this far now, I can't stop nor miss this chance."

Looking to them like Yun is doing, he secretly curled his hand into a fist and began to stiffen his whole arm, making small shakes it then looked like the arm was ready to make a punch. Feeling so hard and strong on his whole arm he was ready to take action. Zanial slowly moved his hand to top of the chimney; he reached to the lines of the structure and grabbed part of it. Moving his left foot further away from his right, being ready to start a sprint; making sure he was holding tightly to parts of the tile walls of the chimney. He was taking a close eye on the wolf's gun, getting ready to attack. The tight holding of the chimney's tiles started to make tiny cracks, a small fragment of the tiles dropped down. In a quick instant, he initiated his sprint, at the same time parts of the tiles from the chimney broke out from the tremendous strength from Zanial. Grabbing firmly to the broken piece, he moved to the left, he stopped and with all his strength he throws the piece. It moved great speed and with the size of the piece plus its weight, it created a lot of force like a small mimic to the strength of a meteorite.

Mitsuki, Ryan and Mikuru hears the sound of breaking, looking to the location of that noise, they see the Alsatian throwing a big piece from a chimney. But with no time to react, the piece moves very fast. Heading to Mitsuki, the object hits very hard to her hand holding the pistol, the strength of the impact was so fast it completely stunned her hand. With the feeling of great pain, she helplessly let go of her gun, then making a short cry of pain. Using her other hand to hold the injured one, the expression of the ordeal is seen on her face.

Both Mikuru and Ryan see in disbelief that the throw of the piece of chimney was able to hit Mitsuki from far and even making her drop her gun. That throw was not something normal, it so fast and strong, this was really unusual.

("Just what the heck was that?!") Says Ryan,

"Now Yun, go!" shouts Zanial,

"Right on!"

Yun sprinted forward to attack the female wolf while she was completely opened. Mitsuki hears some running foot steps to see the feline running straight for her, without time to react, Yun leaps up to the air and does a two foot kick on Mitsuki's chest. With a fighting shout, Yun makes contact and pushes Mitsuki with rapid force kicking her into the air, then stumbles down with her back first on the roof stopping right between Ryan and Mikuru.

("She knows kung fu?!") Says the stunned Mikuru,

Ryan didn't say anything as he sees the women lands with her feet and has already positioned herself a stance to Mitsuki, Ryan reacts quickly and charges at Yun. She instantly finds the grey dragon coming for her; so moves position to confront him. Ryan starts with two punches but is blocked with Yun pushing them away with her two upper arms, and then Ryan does a quick left foot kick to her stomach. She is able to block it by using her upper arms again by having them vertically touching together, but the powerful blow forced Yun to move back. Ryan continues his assault on Yun, while Mitsuki gets up and heads for the gun, Zanial breaks out another piece from the chimney and throws it at her again. Hearing the sound of breaking, she looks to the man and successfully catches the thrown object with her hand and throws it back at him. Zanial barely evades it by moving to the right, but then he's confronted with the women moving fast deciding to attack him first; Mitsuki starts with a sideways kick to his head, he dodges it. He begins to go to on a series of more evasions from her while also moving backwards trying to not get hit. She tries to touch him with her legs, hands, elbows or using small jumps but keeps on missing him.

Ryan and Yun were battling on with every move they know, attacking with agility, and finding the weak points they can take advantage of. He recently did a side kick then a three sixty degree turn to get more force for his heel kick. Yun got hit to her chest but was able to escape the heel by ducking down, she then tried to use the bottom part of her palm to hit his chin, Ryan was able stop it by grabbing the arm. He pulls her for a punch, although she stops with her hand.

In the other confrontation, Mitsuki decides to take a different move this time, she lunges forward reaching much closer to him, who Zanial was not prepared for, and does a fist punch in full force right for his head. He is able to move his head away, but this made his body lean back and had to concentrate on standing straight. Taking this opportunity, Mitsuki makes another punch this one to the forehead and knows this is going to get him. Completely defenseless, he reluctantly closes his eyes very firmly waiting for the impact. Mitsuki's fist manages to hit him; she was expecting to have the man suffer the blow of the punch or even making him to fall to the ground. But what she received was something Mitsuki never expected, her fist was still touching him and is still standing, he didn't even budge from the attack. What horrified her most was that the feeling Mitsuki felt on his forehead was like she just punched a thick cement wall, this eventually resulted a great amount of pain surging around hand. She shouts in pain and moves away from him, holding her upper arm with the other hand, Mitsuki's hand is deep red on the outer parts, trying to hold on to that ordeal.

Zanial opens his eyes; he shows a sigh of relief while massaging his forehead,

"Whew… that was a close one…"

Mitsuki on the other hand, learns in shock to what she has just experienced, completely clueless on what just happened, didn't know how he able to stop her attack.

"What on Chiku was that?! How could he block me by just standing there and… and what was that hard "thing" I just felt on his forehead?! I never touched a head this hard in my life! Just what IS he and HOW did he do it?!"

She stares at him firmly; this person is definitely not normal at all.

Away from the fighting, Mikuru is helplessly looking while hiding behind a chimney, if only she brought her sniper to the roof she could have helped them, she then reacts on receiving a telepathic call from Faiz.

"Hey Mikuru, I can see Mitsuki and Ryan fighting up there, what's happening?"

She also responds with telepathy,
"I don't know, this male canine and a female feline suddenly appeared to us from here, now those two who somehow know how to fight are taking on Mum and Ryan, we need help Dad!"

He could use his sniper rifle to stop them, but it was still possible to find Genzai outside the mansion, he can't let the target go away.

"Mikuru, teleport yourself to find help, the others are down there who are available."

"I can't, not right in front of them."  

"Your hiding on a chimney, they won't find out."

Mikuru looks back at the battle scene, soon finding Mitsuki's handgun lying on the floor, she believes there was a way to assist them in some way.

"Hold on, I got an idea."

"Wait, what are you doing?" asks Faiz

Coming out from behind the chimney, she reaches the gun and looks at Mitsuki to continue fighting with the canine. At that point she still wasn't sure on what to do; she couldn't aim him because she could accidentally hit her mother or the fact that if she throws it to her, the male could take the opportunity to attack Mitsuki when she's not looking. Mikuru stops thinking when she hears Ryan shouting to her.

"Mikuru watch out!"

She turns to see the feline was falling straight at her, with no time to react, Yun collides on her. While falling to the ground, she accidentally made Mikuru lose balance making her go backwards. To the point where she reached the end of the roof, and her foot lands on the gutter making her trip. Ryan was too far away to reach her, and Mitsuki was still in the middle of fighting her opponent. Thinking she was going to fall down from high up, right at that point a hand reaches her lower arm. Mikuru's fall was stopped while she got hold of the person's arm as well, and now is looking down at the ground from above; it is a freaky sight to see when you're not standing. Looking back up to see who her savior was, it wasn't anyone in the team; apparently it is a human girl. Has short strait black hair going all the way to the bottom of her neck and with blond highlights on the bottom strands of the hair; has brown eyes and with white skin.

Emma did her best to hold tightly on the tiger girl and grabbing her best to the gutter, but was slowly breaking apart due to the weight of the two girls. Mikuru didn't believe her eyes; she didn't see this human anywhere on the roof just until now. The gutter will not be able to hold on much longer, which Emma knew clearly.

"Listen, we don't even know each other, but we need to get out of this. Use what you did before, with that bright light thing."

Mikuru had no idea how she found out about her power, but this can not be found out, she had to lie. Since the human girl was speaking Anglish, she responded in her language as well.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Emma was relieved to see she can speak her language, this made it much easier.

"Look I know you don't want to tell me, but I actually saw the roof and see you suddenly appears out of the blue. Not to mention talking to your friends."

Seeing Emma holding on to the gutter, Zanial pushes away Mitsuki who was also watching Mikuru about to fall.

"Emma, hold on, I'm coming for ya!"

Mikuru couldn't trust her at all; she can't reveal herself to the public.

"I'm sorry I think…"

Her speech was cut short, hearing part of the gutter about to break up. Emma continues to beg her.

"Look, we don't have time to argue, we're going to fall eventually, you gotta use your special ability…"

Finally the gutter gives way, making them fall down; Emma continues her speech but louder this time.

"…RIGHT NOW, HURRY!"

It was clear Mikuru had no choice she needed to teleport her and the human to safety, but was scared to show her to the others because she didn't want the girl to see who they are.

"I don't… don't know where to go!"

Emma thinks quickly thinking of the safest place she can know immediately.

"Have you seen the beaches here?"

"Yes" says Mikuru,

"Then quick, take us there, NOW!"

Getting ready to use her teleportation, Mikuru holds the human's arm with both her hands; they were now half way down to the ground.

"Get ready, brace yourself!"

With a deep breath, she calls out:

"Teleport!"

A huge glow of light covers the two girls, making them close their eyes from the brightness, and in an instant a small flash comes out and the two disappear out of sight.