Escape Artist (1)

"You bastard!" The man growled in rage before charging at Zaen, but Zaen just stood there smiling.

He closely looked at the man. He had a powerful aura of authority around him. Also, he looked... different from the rest of his squad. In a way, he looked like a leader, most probably because of his ambience. His straight knee-length brown hair had a tinge of neon green at the ends. Also, there were metallic chains attached to the hairs like extensions but they were moving in weird patterns as if they had a mind of their own. Call it intuition, but something was telling Zaen to keep away from those chains.

'Why are you getting all angry about it? My knife just slipped out of my hand.' Zaen wanted to taunt the rhinoceros even more but decided against it.

He wanted to keep his identity a secret. Revealing his voice to them won't do him any good. Especially since both Marcus and Miranda were there and they both more or less knew his voice.

Rather than using the chains, the man raised his fist to punch Zaen. There wasn't much space in the alleyway for Zaen to dodge the incoming attack. So he improvised. Before the man's fist could reach him, Zaen rushed towards the man, slipped past him and kicked him in the head.

The man couldn't control his momentum and slammed right on the wall, leaving a large dent on it. He ended up getting injured, but the man was even more stubborn than Zaen. He got up and charged at him again, but this time the chains linked with his hair attacked Zaen like whips.

'Why the fck isn't my mask working?' Zaen thought while narrowly dodging the continuous barrage of chain-like whips.

Zaen didn't have the opportunity to think about it before, but wasn't the mask of secrecy supposed to conceal his presence from everyone except elite and boss monsters? The ghoul could've been an elite monster, but how could these humans see him as well? It had been working fine till now and all of a sudden, it wasn't?

He was suddenly reminded of the thing called item durability. And sure enough, when he checked the mask had already lost all of its durability. Until he repaired it, it was just an ordinary masquerade mask, nothing more.

'A little reminder would've been appreciated, you know.' Zaen was annoyed at the artifact for not notifying him about the durability loss.

The rest of the squad didn't sit idly either. Two of them covered Zaen's only path of escape, while the third person secured the dead ghoul and left the alleyway along with the corpse. Marcus and Miranda tried to join the fight but were stopped by the guys dressed in white.

"You've done your job. Now let us, Impounders, handle this imbecile." The man with chains instructed the officers to stand down, "And you! I told you that creature was our property and yet you decided to ignore the warning and do as you pleased? This is your last chance. Do you have anything to say in your defence?"

Zaen wasn't going to say anything. Still, he knew exactly how to convey his feelings. So, like the gentleman he was, he flipped his middle finger at the officers.

"You... fine by me. I've been itching to rough someone up. Guess it's going to be you." The man said while cracking his knuckles, "However, as a special officer, it is my duty to inform you that you are now a wanted man. If you come with us willingly for interrogation, you won't be harmed. But even if you decline, you'll still be coming with us, but with broken bones. The choice is yours to make."

Just like before, Zaen flipped him off once again before putting his newest ability to test. The Shadow Step!

One moment he was standing in front of them and the next second, he was behind them. The guy with the chain might've been able to protect himself from Zaen's sneak attack, but the remaining two of them were defenceless. With a single punch, Zaen took out one of the special officers while kicking the one next to him.

Both of the soldiers went flying in opposite directions before slamming against the walls. Marcus couldn't believe his eyes. He was a frequent visitor of MMA clubs but even he had never seen anyone pull a move like that before. Miranda's reaction was pretty much the same.

"Should... should we call for backup?" Miranda asked Marcus. Both of their eyes fixed on the man in the black mask.

"Back up? These officers are the Impounders! The best of the best. They are the backup." Marcus shrieked. He didn't know who the man behind the mask was but he knew if anyone could take him down, it would be Chris, the leader of the Impounders.

Seeing his men being treated like flies, filled Chris with anger. He was planning to bring the masked man along with him and make him a part of his elite force as he had quite a few skills. But now he had changed his mind. He was going to break each and every bone inside the masked man's body. He'll make him beg for forgiveness, then break him more!

Chris grabbed a handful of his hairs and began swinging them like a kusari-fundo¹. Zaen was dodging his attacks but with each swing, the chain-whip got closer and closer to him. He was in a bad position. The alley gave him next to nothing in terms of space to outmanoeuvre the Goliath in front of him.

'Gotta think of something and fast before it's too late.'

Seeing no other way around, Zaen took out his dagger from the inventory. He could no longer worry about harming a special officer when his own life was on the line.

***

1. Author's Note: Kusari-Fundo is a handheld weapon used in feudal Japan, consisting of a length of chain with a weight attached to each end of the chain. Where 'Kusari' means chain and 'Fundo' means weight. Other popular names are manrikigusari or just manriki. It is famously seen in animes like Naruto, Inuyasha, Soul Eater and Hunter X Hunter.