Later that night, when everyone else had gone to sleep, Frigid Night quietly left his room, making sure to produce as little sound as possible as he opened and closed his door. He had put his coat back on and pulled his hood low over his head. He had also worn both of Dust Fencer's hidden blades, leaving his own in his room. Frigid focused his eagle vision and silently made his way downstairs to the armory.
Entering the armory, he immediately headed to the armor rack and grabbed himself a pair of shoulder guards and shin guards. Frigid didn't care whether the Templars knew if he were an Assassin or not; He was going to be prepared.
After prepping his armor, Frigid moved to the weapons rack, looking for anything that might upgrade his current arsenal. He dug through a pile of satchels and pulled out two slings of throwing knives. Each one could hold five knives, increasing his usual count from one to ten. Frigid also picked out a pair of boots with hidden blades in the soles, finding it might come in handy at some point.
“I’m not letting you get away with this, Mirror…” Frigid thought back to the time he had spent with Mirror Match. Since the day she joined the Brotherhood, Frigid had already fallen for her, doing what he could to get closer to her. Then there were the few years that they were together; Frigid remembered them well, like it was just yesterday. Then, she had betrayed them all, killing Dust Fencer before leaving to the Templars.
Frigid strapped the armor to his arms and legs, making sure to put on his new boots first. Tonight, he was going hunting, whether it was for information or for someone, it didn’t matter. He was going to find a way to Mirror. He had loved her so much, doing everything to keep her safe and to just be together, but now, she was out there, her location unknown. Frigid was going to find her, no matter what.
Pipeline clocked out of the Board’s building, his work today finally finished. Under the cover of a school teacher, he had to make sure to mark all the students’ homework, and today’s marking had been extremely long and tiresome. He looked at his watch, noting that it was already half past eleven, almost the next day already. Pipeline sighed and walked to his car, waiting to get home to a nice hot cup of coffee before heading to bed.
Long day…
Chairman Wood had also given them extra assignments, which Pipeline really didn’t want to do. During their free time, they were to gather as much information on the artifact and the Eye as they could. Making that dumb machine work was their only way to ensure Templar dominance in the world.
Pipeline knew it was important to do so, but he just had so much work to do.
“Tonight, I’m giving myself time off…” he said to himself as he unlocked his car doors.
No sooner had the Templar opened his car door did he hear a clinking sound on the ground, not too far from his feet. He turned his head and looked down, looking at a few silver discs on the sidewalk.
“Coins?” Pipeline bent down to pick one up. Before he could stand up, there was a split-second whistling sound before something heavy landed on his back, pushing him painfully down to the cement floor. “Ah! What…?”
He turned his head slightly and looked up into the dark, hooded face of an Assassin, crouching over him with one hand on his shoulder, and a knee in his back.
“Assassin!” Pipeline shouted, hoping someone on the streets would see him. Then he looked around and realized they were alone. There was no one else around besides him and his attacker. “W-what do you want?”
The Assassin spun him around, grabbed him by the shirt collar and pushed him up against the backdoor of the car. “I’m looking for someone, and you’re going to tell me where she is.”
“Alright, alright!” Pipeline raised his hands, shaking from the encounter. “Just don’t kill me!”
“Mirror Match,” the Assassin said with a gruff tone. “Where is she?”
Pipeline knew the name, but she was one of the most secretive Templars around. “I don’t know! She never tells anyone!”
“Where is she!” the Assassin barked, raising an arm and extending a hidden blade to the Templar’s face.
The Templar looked at the blade and couldn't help letting out a pathetic laugh. "You're going to kill me? How are you going to get any info out of me if you kill me?"
The Assassin tilted the corner of his mouth down and stuck the hidden blade in Pipeline's arm. The man screamed almost at his top volume if the Assassin hadn't clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Where. Is. She," the Assassin repeated again.
The pain was unbearable, forcing Pipeline's voice out of his mouth, even when he wasn't talking. "I don't know, I don't know! Please! I only know that she comes to the building for meetings! Other than that, she usually hangs around in some unknown place. That's all I know!"
The Assassin leaned back, deciding his next words. Pipeline could feel the sweat dripping down his forehead. He wasn't sure what was going to happen. All he wanted was to head home and relax. Before he knew what was happening, a sharper pain emerged from the arm that got stabbed.
"What are you-"
"You didn't give me enough information," the Assassin simply said. A section of Pipeline's skin tore off as the hidden blade seemed to extend into two more blades within his arm.
"Aaagh! I don't know anymore! I'm telling the truth!"
"I know," the Assassin answered before sticking a second hidden blade into the Templar's chest.
Frigid Night opened Pipeline's car door and dumped the body in the driver's seat, closing and locking the door before tossing the car keys down a nearby drain.
Frigid knew he wasn't supposed to kill Templars like this, but he didn't care at this point. The only thing in his mind was finding Mirror Match, and avenging his former teacher. The sadness had completely left him when he left the bureau. Now, only anger remained in him. Angry that he had been so careless to drop his guard around Mirror, angry that he couldn't save himself, allowing his master to die, angry that Mirror had done such a terrible thing, and angry that these Templars were not giving him enough information to find his girlfriend.
Frigid walked over to one of the building's walls and pounded a fist into it, ignoring the pain in his knuckles. He still didn't have enough information to go on. He turned his attention to the Board's building.
Would the Templars have what I need to find inside?
Frigid headed in, watching as two guards turned to him, raising their rifles to fire. The Assassin had swiftly pulled out two knives and chucked them at the guards, impaling both of them in the chest. They grabbed for the blades before falling to the ground, now lifeless.
Frigid retrieved his knives and moved on, following the signs to the ground floor's server room. Perhaps their computers would have some data on Mirror Match's location.
Three more guards turned the corner, each one holding a metal baton. The first one swiped his metallic stick down at Frigid, who sidestepped and kicked out with one leg, sending another guard down to the ground, while extending a shoe blade in his left boot and kicking out with it, stabbing the third guard in the abdomen before pulling it out from his side. He grabbed at the first guard's arm and pulled back, hearing the sound of snapping bone and the scream of the guard before stabbing him in the chest with a hidden blade.
The last guard swung his baton at Frigid's head, but the Assassin spun around the guard and grabbed ahold of his neck. With a quick turn, Frigid snapped the man's neck, letting the body fall to the floor with the other two guards.
No one, is stopping me.
Frigid arrived at the server room door and began picking its lock, successfully opening it under two minutes. Entering, he noticed a set of laptops in the front, along with three rows of servers in the back. He approached a laptop and flipped the screen open, booting up the machine with the push of a button. The accessed the computer’s home screen, searching through folders of data, looking for anything related to Mirror Match and the Templar machine. After three minutes of searching, he came no closer to finding out where Mirror was, but he did find some interesting data on the Templar machine and the artifacts.
Interesting…
The artifact the Templars had was apparently called the Apple, stolen from the Assassins centuries ago. Its mind-controlling powers were dangerous, but only those with a special wavelength could wield the artifacts efficiently, without tiring out or dying.
Footsteps outside drew Frigid’s attention to the door. He didn’t have much time before Templar reinforcements arrived. Even with all his new gear, Frigid couldn’t possibly take on an entire army. He pulled out a thumbdrive from his coat pocket and plugged it into the laptop, pulling as much information as he could into the little stick before taking it back and powering down the computer.
“Over here!” he heard someone call from outside. More guards probably found the bodies he had left outside.
Frigid was more or less done with the server room, so he slowly pushed the door open to peek outside. He focused his eagle vision to see a group of soldiers, each one wearing a black leather coat and a motorbike helmet. Dragon Unit. They belonged to Major Talon, one of the top Templars who used to be in the army until recent events.
Guess he took a bunch of soldiers with him.
Frigid could see the assault rifles in their hands. At far range, they could probably cut him down in less than a second, but they weren’t exactly far enough at the moment. Frigid smiled before swinging the door open at full force, knocking one of the soldiers down before spinning behind a second and swiping at the legs of a third with his shoe blade.
“Ah!” the soldier yelled as he fell down from the leg wound.
Frigid grabbed ahold of the second soldier and flung him over his back, smashing him against the third soldier before running for another one. He grabbed a soldier’s rifle and stabbed it at another soldier, making him bend over in pain, allowing Frigid to whip out his trident blades and stab both of them in the necks. Both soldiers grabbed for their wounds before falling.
“Call reinforcements!” a soldier in the back yelled.
Frigid Night pulled out a throwing knife and threw it at the soldier that was about to head out. The knife cracked through the glass of his helmet and impaled him in the face. The man’s body stood for a second before falling backwards to the floor.
“No time for games, Templars,” Frigid spoke before stabbing another soldier in the arm before yanking him around and punching a blade through his helmet.
The soldiers wore some kind of body armor under their leather coats, which were semi-impervious to his hidden blades, forcing the Assassin to aim for their protective glass or their necks, arms or legs. Another soldier tried to whip Frigid with his rifle, but the Assassin cut upwards with his hidden blade and swiped the rifle off the man as his sling broke. Frigid cut at his leg with a shoe blade before finishing off with a burst from the rifle. He fired the gun some more, killing three more men before he ran out of bullets. Frigid didn’t stop fighting until each soldier was dead at his feet. Tonight, the Templars had picked the wrong Assassin to challenge.
Once he made sure the coast was clear, he made his way out of the Board building and out into the dark streets. He didn’t find anything on Mirror, but at least he grabbed some data on the machine and artifact. Perhaps if he could find out where the machine was, then he would find Mirror. The machine, or the Eye, as the Templars called it, was their trump card. They would do anything they could to protect it. Frigid could be sure he’ll see Mirror if they found it.
I will find you, Mirror. You can’t hide from me.
He ran up and wall and started climbing, disappearing into the shadows. The night was far from over.