The Man in Black

The man in black's eye turned from green to blue. Inside this blue glow, a whir of ongoing consecutive computations occurred. Just a hair away, Zika's dagger edged his face. The technique to avoid this was quickly calculated.

Swoosh!

The man flexed his neck right under, at an angle specific to avoiding its edge. Zika's Queen Cobra swished forwards, slicing only through the air.

"Ah—?" She was bouldered in the stomach by the man's broad shoulder. Immense strength sent Zika flying backwards directly into a wall that covered the roof's south edge. Her impact formed a crater in the wall.

"How…?" Zika could only ponder over how the man managed to dodge such an inevitable strike. Through the smoke that broke from her smash, she could make out a figure that approached her in the distance. She looked around in search of her Queen Cobra.

"W-Where?" She frantically scurried. Searching her holster, and searching the debris, her dagger was nowhere to be found. Her instinct rang one last time as something was thrown towards her.

"Huh—?"

Shank!

Zika looked down. Stabbed right into her heart, the Queen Cobra stood erect.

"Hugh—! Hurgh…" She slumped back down against the wall. Her heart was pierced with a numbing pain—a venom that was injected into her heart, and that was now being pumped throughout her body. As her limbs slowly paralyzed, and she lost the ability to show sensation, she watched as the man in black slowly approached her within the smog they'd created.

The way he walked stood out to Zika. It came to her attention that his tendencies were nothing but familiar. She'd been too distracted by the recent death of Suto and Jarrett, and too zoned into the art of her combat, that she failed to notice the giant mystery that stood before her. The dual-wield style that he used, the speed that he moved, and the quick responsive reflexes that he bore, made Zika come to only one conclusion.

Finally, the man stood before her paralyzing body. The blue glow from his double-edged swords had dimmed out by now. He raised his blades, ready to slash his target in an X-formation. But his attack was delayed by a soft spoken voice that croaked.

"Jas…?"

Zika's mouth froze. One final exhale left her mouth, and her eyes stared forwards lifelessly.

"..."

The man put his swords down. He placed them back together into its original form as a beam. Giving one last look at the girl he killed, he swung the beam over his shoulder into its holster on his back.

The man in black disappeared into the ruins of South City, leaving his mystery behind with the kin he killed.