Chapter 11.1

Some time later, Jason and Melanie walked out of the haunted house together and the latter was smirking while the former ignored her with his impassive face. Inside the attraction, Melanie had used every frightening moment to stick to Jason while playfully screaming, drawing the two stalkers' attention. Melanie then easily dispatched them while sending flirtatious looks to Jason. She used her limber body to flexibly kill the two intruders in a manner that would embarrass even the best gymnast and contortionist.

Several times Jason ended up imagining how lithe her body was and he had to force himself to remain calm while Melanie exchanged a knowing look at him, knowing her efforts were paying off. Her holo-lenses were active and it caused her eyes to glow a bright hazel yellow, like a cat's eyes, enhancing her seductiveness to another level.

"So? How was it?" Melanie asked as she lightly stroked Jason's chest.

"Too flashy," he replied seriously. "There was no need to kill your enemies so ... artistically."

"It isn't only about killing," Melanie rolled her eyes. "Notice the second guy hesitated? It's because he was distracted by my ass."

More like he was wondering about your chest, Jason thought as he glanced at them. Melanie caught him and smiled while pushing them closer to him.

"Wanna peek?" she asked coquettishly.

"Actually, I've been wanting to ask … are those pads? Or implants?" Jason paused for a moment before finally asking. Her breasts were disproportionate to her figure and Jason assumed that it was because she was making her bust bigger artificially. Melanie was startled and she froze with a stunned jolt before trying to cover her shock.

"They're real," she insisted in a higher pitched voice. "Touch them if you don't believe me."

"No, it's ok. I'd be disappointed either way-" -cause I wouldn't be able to hold back, Jason finished in his mind, allowing Melanie to misunderstand.

"What do you mean?!" Melanie grabbed him by his jacket and started shaking him while speaking in a louder voice, catching the attention of nearby onlookers. "They're real, ok! They're not pads or fake, they're enhanced, that's all! They're real!"

Melanie's shouting caused a ripple amongst the crowd that overheard her. Girls shot Jason a dirty look, feeling as though he was slighting women based on their bodies while their boyfriends gave him a sympathetic look for even mentioning such a topic. Families ushered their children away while giving them both a reproachful stare. In response to these reactions, Jason turned his face away and pretended not to know Melanie, his approach angering her further.

Suddenly Jason narrowed his eyes as time around him slowed down, his perception and brain process working twice as fast as a normal human being. A shudder passed through his neck as the killing intent locked on him revealed itself as a man.

He was wearing a loose white outfit similar to those seen in the middle-east, with a brown leather vest that reached his knees and had a weathered hood that was drawn to cover his face. Over the vest was a baldric that crisscrossed around the right side of his chest and was further supported by a studded leather pauldron that protected his left shoulder. The leather bracers kept his loose sleeves from interfering with his hands, one of which held a curved Khanjar that was close to stabbing Melanie.

Jason pulled Melanie away and stepped forward, allowing the blade to stab into his left shoulder. He growled in pain and anger before grabbing the man's wrist, which was holding the dagger, and twisted it. A crack was heard as Jason dislocated the assailant's wrist. At the same time, Jason tugged the wrist backwards, forcing the assailant closer to him. Jason then proceeded to headbutt the assailant directly in the face, breaking the man's nose. Both of them used the force of the blow to retreat, giving themselves some distance as they focused on each other.

"You ok?" he asked Melanie who nodded as the crowd screamed and rushed to run away. The holo-lenses in Jason's eyes turned a brilliant bright blue color as the HUD activated and A.V.A began assisting him. While he called up his quantum powered lenses, Jason's eyes did not leave the assailant as he pulled the dagger out of his shoulder before he took his jacket off. Tossing the jacket aside, he pulled a pair of assault gloves from his back pockets and put them on. The gloves were reinforced with graphene fiber and were completely blade resistant, but Jason felt that this wasn't enough to handle the assassin in front of him.

"Asāsiyyūn?" Jason casually asked the opponent in Arabic after reading the info A.V.A sent him. He was attempting to buy time as he used his telekinesis to draw the sword that was hidden in the Baron towards him. "Gotta say, you don't quite live up to your reputation."

The Asāsiyyūn was an order of assassins that recently emerged near the end of WWIII. Fashioned after the famous order that fought both the Selijuqs and Crusaders during the middle ages, their leader who had claimed to be reviving the old order even named himself after the famous Grandmaster Hassan. However, unlike Morta Services, the Asāsiyyūn did not usually travel to complete assassinations and preferred to operate only in the middle-east which was in their jurisdiction so the appearance of this assassin baffled Jason.

"I mean you did well on getting close," Jason continued while walking back and forth and the assassin took this time to fix his dislocated wrist. "But you need to work on your killing intent, it was too obvious."

Regardless of what Jason said, their order's reputation was well-founded and he was impressed at the fact that he couldn't even sense the assassin until the latter had pulled his blade out. This kind of camouflage was incredible, considering that it even fooled Jason's superhuman senses.

"Well, it doesn't matter," Jason said as he lifted an arm. A black sword flew from the skies and into his outstretched hand. "Cause you won't be leaving here alive."

The sword Jason was welding was a modern black Tang sword with a straight single-edged blade that only had a string wrapped around it as a grip. Jason smiled ferally as he positioned himself into an unknown sword position. [1]

He faced his opponent sideways from his left side while placing his left foot forward and his right foot back. His leg stance allowed him to lunge forward or retreat backward effortlessly while also enabling him to sidestep in any direction he pleased. His sword was held by his right hand and was aimed at the assailant while resting on his left forearm. This way, he can easily slash in a forward stance with one hand or switch to a two-handed defensive stance, improving his parrying abilities.

The man unsheathed the scimitar that was strapped to his back and moved into a lower sword stance with one hand raised for balance. Jason and the man slowly approached themselves while circling each other, each looking for the other's weaknesses in their movements. Nearby, an explosion occurred and Jason narrowed his eyes as he realized that the explosion came from where the carousel was located, but he was forced to focus his attention on the opponent in front of him.

As soon as the two reached the edges of their Maai, they closed in at fast speed and began exchanging blows. Jason used quick single-handed techniques to attack and only changed to two-handed tactics when parrying the assailant's blows. The latter only used his right hand to slash while dodging Jason's attack by jumping or sidestepping away at the very last moment. [2]

Jason quickly slashed three times, each stronger than the last before he leapt into the air and flipped before delivering his third slash. The assassin parried the first blow, tilted his body as the second slash came, and jumped backwards when he saw Jason launching himself upwards, leaving the reach of Jason's blade. Almost immediately, the assassin jumped forward and stabbed towards Jason's eyes while the latter ducked and rolled to safety and the assassin pursued him without hesitation.

After blocking a few blows, Jason backhanded the assailant before moving sideways to avoid a jab while spinning once to generate more force. His spin allowed him to position himself at the assailant's seven o'clock and Jason slashed at the assailant's legs with a two-handed swing. The blade connected and Jason easily cut through the opponent's right knee, cutting the leg off completely in a clean and precise manner. The assailant fell face-first into the ground after losing balance and before he could cry out in pain, Jason side flipped and focused the gravity and weight of his fall into his arm while landing next to the assassin. He stabbed his sword through the assailant's left shoulder, pinning him to the ground.

"I'll deal with you later," Jason snarled with annoyance as he grabbed the man's head and slammed it into the ground, knocking the latter unconscious. Without taking his sword, Jason jumped onto the roof of the nearby attraction and began running towards the direction of the explosion, his heart in his mouth as he thought of Alina and Alice.