Task Force

Creak~ The elevator slowly re-shut its door as three mismatching men stood silently in the hallway. An elderly man in a robe stroked his white beard as he examined his surroundings while nodding his head from time to time. Besides him, a young man only glanced around a bit before returning to examining his gun as if it was his lover.

Behind them, a buff man in a priest robe that could frighten anyone with his size finally broke the silence with a squeaky voice, "So ... why the f*ck are we here again?"

The young man in front of him couldn't help but twitch his eyebrow because he still can't used to the contrast between a buff man and a squeaky voice. There is also the fact that he was a priest, but his language was not gentle at all.

On the other hand, the elderly man continued to stroke his beard as he smiled, as if he has seen enough of the world to not be bothered by such trifling thing. The old man replied in a hoarse voice, "Hulk, we are here to find the reason behind your compatriot Lancelot's disappearance. I believe we went over this many times on the way here ..."

"Ohhh yea! Brother LaLa is gone, so we came to tie him back!" Hulk replied as he innocently nodded his head with a grim face while giggling to himself from time to time.

Hearing Hulk, the young man in the group couldn't help but lean towards the elderly man as he whispered in his ear, "Old man Joe, why did we bring this dud with a screw loose in his head? Won't he just drag us down?"

Joe continued to stroke his white beard calmly as he replied, "Kane, don't just look on the surface. Of course he has his uses. After all, we are both back line mystics, we do need a mystic to help us be bai- ahem- our front liner."

Kane frowned as he whispered back, "But, we simply hire another meat shield eassily can't we? Why must we take this one?"

Joe looked up towards the ceiling as if he was filled with wisdom. Stroking his heard, Joe confidently replied, "Well, one reason is that this request was from Hulk's church. The second reason is that ... Hulk is free to hire as he was the provided support by the church."

Rolling his eyes, Kane stepped away as he muttered, "Stingy like always."

Kane then turned back to playing with his gun as he ignored his surroundings once more. Although it may be dangerous to do this, Kane trusted that the old man will be able to detect danger in time. After all, Joe is an Acolyte!

After a moment of silence, Joe turned towards the door of apartment 441 as he slowly raised his staff. Seeing this, Kane stopped playing with his guns and got into ready mode as he asked, "Found something?"

"I sensed a lingering spirit in this room. There is also two baleful spirits detected down the hallway, and possibly another lingering spirit a bit further down. I'll have to get closer to confirm. Well, let's take care of this one first and see if we can find any clues here," Joe replied as he waved his staff, "Open sesame."

Click! The door unlocked itself and creaked opened. With a glance, the duo was able to a security uniform floating in the air. Without much hesitation, Kane aimed one of his pistols at the spirit and fired.

Bang!

A bullet with a golden glow accurately pierced a hole in the uniform. As if being injected by its kryptonite, a scorch mark rapidly spread out from the hole and it didn't take long before the entire uniform turned to ashes.

Giving the tip of his pistol a blow to act cool, Kane cheekily stated, "Easy as pie, to make em die."

"It's just a lingering spirit. You still need to be cautious in the face of baleful spirits," Joe reminded as cleared the ashes with a wave of his staff.

With light steps, Joe then strolled into apartment 441 and began to investigate it. Kane followed with a bit of curiosity, but soon went back to admiring his pistols. Meanwhile, Hulk was still dumbly standing in the hallway with his grim face. If he didn't giggle once in a while, he would easily pass as a mature and strong bodyguard that had a fetish for priest robes.

It didn't take long for Joe to search through the rooms. Seeing that there was no results, he was about to leave, but he then sensed that there was a lingering spirit entering his range of sense while the baleful spirits actually left it!

Feeling that something was weird, Joe signaled towards Kane as he whispered, "Stay alert. The spirits are on the move. We may engage more enemies soon."

Hearing this, Kane face returned to his serious, grim face as he readied both of his pistols. He nodded towards Joe as he stated, "I'll cover you."

Then, Kane vigilantly strolled out of the apartment room, preparing to be attacked at any moment. Seeing Hulk dumbly standing outside, Kane couldn't help but inwardly curse this pig-like teammate, but also breathed a sigh of relief as there doesn't seem to be danger yet.

However, just when Kane stepped out of the room, he heard a door down the hallway creak open. Swiftly focusing his attention over, he saw a humanoid figure, made from what seemed to be toilet paper, floating out of a room. Kane was about to instinctively raise his gun to fire, but his eyes narrowed when he saw the toilet paper on the spirit's hand unwrap to reveal a handgun!

"What the-" with not much time for thought, Kane made the best decision for when encountering an enemy with a gun.

"Bullet time!"

Fwoom! In Kane's perception, the world seemed to have went silent as he felt his body stiffen due to the heavy resistance of the air, as if he was deep under water. However, his thought processes were still running fine and he was able to easily observe his enemy.

Time seemed to have slowed down and Kane slowly raised both of his guns upwards as his sharp eyes clearly watched the mummy figure pull the trigger of the gun. A muffled, distorted bang echoed in the hallway as Kane saw a bullet burst out of the enemy's gun and fly towards him at walking pace.

Kane's eye seemed to glisten as he smartly adjusted the angle of his handguns by tilting them a bit. Then, he pulled the trigger and watched his bullet follow his predetermined trajectory towards empty air. Meanwhile, his other handgun fired a shot towards the evil spirit's body.

After confirming his shots, Kane deactivated bullet time and felt the tension of his body relax. Then, Kane smirked as he watched his bullets hit their marks.

One bullet struck the evil spirit as expected, more precisely, the gun in its hand. This bullet knocked the gun out of the spirit's hand and also continued along its path to strike the evil spirit's body! As for the other bullet, it actually collided with the bullet that was fired by the evil spirit!

This caused the other bullet to deviate from its original trajectory and strike the wall of the hallway instead. Watching the evil spirit disappearing into thin air while dropping its gun, Kane smiled as he twirled his handgun with a feeling of accomplishment, "Threat defused. Playing guns with a Sheriff? You're just seeking death."

Strolling out from the apartment 441, Joe reported to Kane, "Kane, another lingering spirit just entered my range of senses again. It's coming out from the same door in 3, 2 ..."

Hearing this, Kane raised one of his guns. He then did a twirl in place with his body as he swung his hand forward while firing his gun.

Bang!

A glowing bullet shot out of the gun and it drew a curve through the air before it accurately entered the opened apartment door as if the shot was fired directly at the door. The toilet paper spirit who was just recovered didn't even have the chance to step out of the apartment room before he was shot to death once more.

"Done, any more?" Kane cheekily asked as he blew the tip of his gun in style.

Joe didn't sense any more spirits in his spiritual sense range, so he replied, "Not for now, but there should have been two baleful spirits. Perhaps they moved down to another room in the hallway."

After a moment of silent thought, Joe then commanded, "Let's hunt them down. They might have clues or be related to Lancelot's disappearance."

"Huh? Just two baleful spirits?" Kane couldn't help but mutter in disbelief.

"I trust my instincts. Just the fact that the evil spirit know how to use guns don't sit right with me, but I feel that something else is wrong," Joe replied, but he didn't expound on his speculations.

Turning towards Hulk, Joe then commanded, "Hulk, walk forward. See if there is any danger."

Hearing the command, Hulk tilted his head a bit in confusion before he nodded and walked forward as he muttered to himself while giggling, "Bless bless strength, bless hulk defense~"

Watching Hulk obediently bumble forward, Kane breathed a sigh of relief due to the fact that Hulk can at least understand and follow instructions, "I don't know how that church does it, but to train a tool man like this, I wonder how much effort it takes."

"Hush, different organizations have their own ways of doing things, and that's something we shouldn't be prying into. Just know that even if the guy looks dull, he is reliable in critical moments, just like a well-oiled machine," Joe explained with a warning tone.

Kane nodded as he slowly strolled forward to follow Hulk. Joe walked beside him as he continued his attempt to find the two baleful spirits. As the trio approached the open apartment door that was labeled with 441, a grim-faced Hulk suddenly paused in front of the door as he stared at the doorway while tilting his head in confusion.

Seeing this, the duo behind him also stopped in place as they stared at the other side of the doorway. Seeing the room devoid of life, Joe then also confirmed the same with his spiritual sense. Sensing nothing wrong, Joe then asked Hulk, "Hulk, what's wrong?"

Hulk gripped his hammer as he replied in a confused voice, "Hulk sensed danger."

Joe frowned in confusion as he sensed nothing. Strolling a bit closer to the apartment doorway, Kane swept the apartment room from outside with his sharp eyes and noticed nothing out of place. He turned towards Joe and shook his head.

Joe then confirmed with Hulk, "Hulk, are you sure there is danger? How did you sense it? How strong is it?"

Hulk tilted his head as he replied, "Hulk instinct says there is danger, but Hulk doesn't know how strong it is."

Kane raised his eyebrow in dissatisfaction as he heard his. He glanced a Joe as he muttered, "Can we trust his instincts?"

Joe frowned a bit in contemplation as he stroked his beard. It didn't take long before he replied, "It's better to than not. Let's steer clear of this apartment room for now. Hulk, set up a Holy Shield on it."

With a giggle, Hulk nodded as he raised his palm and placed it near the doorway, "Holy Shield."

A glowing barrier materialized and block the doorway. Although humans can walk through it with no problem, an evil spirit will be restricted by it unless it is strong enough to break through it.

Nodding his head in satisfaction, Joe then commanded, "Let's keep moving down the hallway. Stay alert, we may be ambushed from the rooms in front."

Kane chuckled as he confidently said, "Well, as long as they use guns and can't use bullet time, they will amount to nothing against me. I can handle it even if the enemy fires multiple shots from one pistol."

Joe frowned a bit over Kane's overconfidence, but what he said was true. As long as there isn't too many bullets attacking them, Kane should be able to handle it.

The trio then walked forward while Hulk occasionally glanced back towards apartment 441 with a frown. He could feel great danger from there and was a bit scared, so he couldn't resist giggling a couple of times to reduce his own tension.

Passing by apartment 446, Joe then suddenly alerted the team, "I sense the two baleful spirits! They should be hiding in the next apartment room down the hallway. There is also four lingering spirits."

Kane glanced down the hallway with his sharp eyes as he clearly saw the number plate on the apartment door, "Apartment 448 is it?"

Prepping his gun, Kane grinned in excitement, "It'll be a good harvest won't it."

Joe then warned the other two, "Prepare to fight, but make sure to keep the fight within this area. According to the collected intelligence, the stairway should house a dangerous blood spirit. A group of mystics and mystic apprentices barely escaped from it with casualties."

"Heh, even if it's a blood spirit, since mystic apprentices could escape from it, then it shouldn't be too strong. There's three level two mystics here, what should we worry about?" Kane confidently stated as if he was raising a death flag.

Joe nodded in agreement but still reminded, "It's still best not to provoke it. I heard it has spatial abilities."

"Eh? Then how did those newbie mystics escape from it?" Kane asked in shock.

"According to their report, a powerful mystic saved them," Joe replied as he stroked his beard, "From my experience, based on the description of the yin claws and physical strength of this mystic, he should be-"

Suddenly, the creaking sound of an opening door echoed in the hallway as apartment 448's door opened. Joe's wrinkled face scrunched up a bit as he announced, "Lingering spirit incoming."

The giggling Hulk suddenly grinned as he began to bumble forward with heavy footsteps while waving his giant hammer in excitement, "Hulk ready to smash!"

Kane rolled his eyes as he prepared to fire his gun. He focused his attention at the doorway and watched a familiar mummy spirit float out of it with a gun.

"Huh? It's not dead?!" Kane exclaimed in shock while raising his gun to fire while activating bullet time.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

An exchange of gunfire ensued as the toilet paper spirit was shot to death once more. Hulk paused in place with a sad frown as he realized his target was gone. Kane arrogantly twirled his gun as he calmly stated, "With that skill and you still dare to come back?"

Glancing over at old man Joe, Kane then noticed that Joe had a pale face. Kane couldn't help but ask, "Huh? Old man Joe, what's wrong?"

A cold sweat rolled down Joe's face as his senses discovered an enormous source of yin power right behind them! Joe didn't understand how he managed to miss it!

"I-Impossible ... Can it hide itself from my spiritual senses? Baleful spirits can't do that ..." Joe stuttered as he slowly turned around to look back.

At the doorway of apartment 441, Joe saw a man embraced by black mist. The glowing shield barrier on the wall didn't seem to have much effect on him as he had already stepped through it, and Joe didn't notice any clear injury on him.

The creepy grin on the man's face gave Joe the chills, but what truly freaked Joe out was the assault rifle that the evil spirit aimed at them!

"Surprise ... motherf*ckers!"