Clash of Two Warriors

He fell silent briefly, trying to gather his strength to speak again while fighting the excruciating pain coursing through his body. Then he continued in a feeble tone:

"I don't care what you do to me. I will return to you again and haunt your dreams."

Sairi's patience was wearing thin. He had obtained nothing from this man, and it seemed he would never talk. He contemplated what to do with him, which method would be best to kill him. But before he could act, the masked man reached into his pocket, pulled out a pistol, and aimed it at his own head. He pulled the trigger, and the sound of the bullet piercing his skull echoed through the air as he collapsed, dead.

Sairi stood astonished, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Why did he kill himself? Was his mission more important than his life?

He felt a strange excitement from the incident and began considering his next move. He now had a corpse from which he'd gained no information except through espionage, and he needed to continue his journey without knowing where to go. Where could he escape from all this? As he pondered, his thoughts were interrupted by a beeping sound coming from the masked man's watch. He scanned the body with his eyes to locate the sound, tracing it to the watch, and heard a voice emerge:

"You seem busy now, so I'll leave you this recorded message. I'm currently monitoring the third sample. I'll send you the coordinates so you don't encounter him. Exercise caution."

The watch screen illuminated, projecting a three-dimensional map of the city with a point marking the location of the third sample, which fortunately wasn't far from him. Sairi now knew his destination. He removed the watch from the wrist of the lifeless body lying before him, covered in wounds, and also took the strange cloak, revealing the face clearly—a man in his thirties, bald, with European features.

Sairi donned the cloak to avoid recognition and prevent suspicion from other Enix members who might glimpse him. Examining the black robe, he noticed two red lines running vertically on the right and left sides. In the center of the chest was an embossed golden planet, and on the back were four more embossed planets he couldn't identify. He put on the robe without paying much attention to these strange emblems and pulled up the hood until his face was completely hidden. He pressed a button on the light sword's hilt, extinguishing the blade, then attached it to his waist. He took the corpse and hid it in one of the houses, then continued on his way, studying the three-dimensional map, particularly the moving point near him—the third sample. He found the city's name displayed above the map: New Atlantis!

Among the trees stood someone watching Sairi, someone who had witnessed everything without being detected.

***

After donning the official attire of this strange organization called the Enix, which he had claimed as spoils from its killed member, Sairi continued toward the point marked on the three-dimensional map, feeling he was now one step ahead of the Enix. His current plan was to reach the sample they had mentioned. He would ask him to join forces, explain what had happened, and together they would capture the Enix member watching him until they force him to reveal everything. Since this was the third sample, it meant there were more, and he decided he would try to find them too. With their help, everyone might understand what was happening here and find a way out of this predicament.

Sairi pulled up his hood until his face disappeared within it and set off toward his destination as the sun set on the horizon, casting its red rays upon the trees and grass, tinting them with a purple hue.

After a period of walking, Sairi began to run, examining the surroundings and trying to sense anyone in the area by feeling the energy of their bodies. He had deceived everyone by claiming his ability was moving objects with his mind, but his power was actually an immense energy flow emanating from his body that he could use for many things, such as telekinesis, sensing people around him, and numerous other functions.

After a long journey, Sairi approached his destination closely. Only a few meters remained, so he proceeded cautiously after leaving the main road and entering the city, penetrating deep within. He saw demolished buildings, ruins, and wreckage pervading the place, with smoke and scattered bones everywhere, and some buildings blackened by fires. Bewildered by what he was seeing, he wondered what had happened here? Did something dangerous cause everyone to flee? Perhaps his companions escaped to another location. He don't know, but he must complete his mission first."

After a few minutes, he finally sensed his target and looked at the map to find that he had come very close with little distance remaining between them. He turned right cautiously onto a side road and walked as the sun set and the moon took its place, announcing the arrival of night. Suddenly during his walk, he heard a loud explosion from somewhere distant, echoing throughout the city. He turned around and looked toward the source to find flames shooting upward followed by plumes of smoke. Sairi sensed another person in the vicinity and looked behind him again, feeling someone atop one of the leaning, damaged buildings. Sairi looked up in that direction and saw that the person was holding some weapon aimed at him, recognizing this from the glint of the weapon's scope lens amid the darkness when moonlight fell upon it. Suddenly the weapon disappeared and the person lowered his body, concealing his presence. Sairi realized it was one of the Enix watching him, so he took advantage of the opportunity to hide and ran quickly toward the building until he was against it, then circled around until he found a way up. He glimpsed the person who was watching him disappearing into the darkness at the top of the building.

Sairi felt his way forward, then ascended very slowly toward the observer to catch him by surprise. He climbed over the debris, crossing obstacles one after another, taking precautions with every step; one mistake would reveal his presence. He found a desk in his path with dense rubble of small stones on top. He stood on the desk slowly, trying not to disturb the rubble, when suddenly his foot slipped due to the dust, colliding with the small rocks, sending them to the ground and creating a loud commotion. The enemy located his position, and Sairi expected there was no escape now from direct confrontation.

He ran toward him and glimpsed the enemy aiming at him with a sniper rifle. Sairi raised his hand forward, gathered energy in his palm, and released it the moment he heard the shot fired, using a propulsive force against another propulsive force to change the direction of the first force, making it deflect or rebound using the law of elastic collision. For every action, there is a reaction. The shot veered off course, and Sairi continued his rush toward the enemy, gracefully overcoming obstacles, jumping over some debris, and crossing others with acrobatic movements.

Sairi saw the enemy aiming at him again but lacked sufficient time to repeat his previous maneuver. Relying on luck, he kept rushing forward, then swerved left, feeling it was the right moment to avoid the incoming shot. Indeed, just as he veered off course, he heard the shot echo through the area, but it passed beside him. Feeling reassured, he decided to hurry and catch the enemy before the next shot could finish him. He sprinted as fast as he could through the pitch darkness, barely seeing the figure before him, until he came very close to the enemy, who in turn drew a pistol and fired toward him nervously.

Sairi gathered energy in his palm again and pushed it forward in successive bursts to deflect the bullets one after another while maneuvering with agility, until he felt he might be hit. A thought flashed in his mind, and he pushed energy charges toward a medium-sized rock in front of him. The rock flew toward the enemy, knocking him to the ground. Sairi drew his light katana, then jumped at him to intimidate him into surrendering, but the enemy rolled to the right and quickly sprang to his feet, assuming a defensive stance. Sairi kept waving his sword, which slightly illuminated the dark place, revealing the face of the strange person standing before him. Sairi noticed he was bulky and broad-shouldered, resembling one of those muscular wrestlers. Sairi continued waving his sword relentlessly until something happened that he did not expect.