A Long Way to Fall

by Cinders of War

Chapter 46: I am the Bone of My Sword

Frigid stood dumbfounded, trying to wrap all the information around his head as Mirror disappeared through the front doors.

“Frigid!” The Assassin turned around, seeing something he never thought he could ever imagine.

It was Star Lance and the Mentor, though the lieutenant was being supported by their leader, an arm over her shoulders, slowly dragging one leg behind him.

“Did you just let her go?” the big man barked.

"What...?" Frigid tilted his head, his mind full of questions. "What happened?"

"She poisoned me," Star Lance grunted, trying to lift his other leg from under himself. “Some kind of drug in her mouth.”

Frigid recalled the day Mirror betrayed him. Just before tossing him into the sandy pit, he remembered something sharp pierce his neck before his whole body stopped functioning. He thought she had bit him, but that just sounded too out of the ordinary. Normal people couldn’t do that.

"I did what I could for him, but he's not ready for combat," the Mentor said for her friend. “We need to catch Mirror Match. She took a file from my office.”

“What? Which file?”

“I don’t know.” The Mentor was beside herself with distress. “My entire office has been ransacked, It’ll be days before I can get this in order!”

A novice Assassin arrived around the corner, covered in ash. “The fire in the medical clinic is out of control! We need to call the fire department!”

“No,” the Mentor snapped. “We cannot call them. Rally what Assassins are left and get Pierce to reactivate the sprinklers. I need you all to hold down the fort while we pursue Mirror Match.”

“Yes, Mentor!”

Frigid stepped aside to let the novice pass. The Mentor and Star Lance hurried past, the lieutenant almost able to stand now. On the way they passed the burning clinic, the odor of which made Frigid light-headed.

Trueshot rushed past them, carrying the front end of a hose. “Mentor!” he shouted. “It’s Mirror! She’s sabotaged all the vehicles! Tires have all been melted with some kind of acid! What should we do?”

"Contain the situation. And keep an eye on things while we're gone."

Frigid quickly followed them down the street, using his new eagle sense skill to follow Mirror's trail through the rain that had started to fall. She had betrayed him again, and he had gotten more Assassins killed by bringing her back with him. He shook the thoughts out of his head. Right now, catching up to her was what he needed to focus on.

After a while, Star Lance had recovered enough strength, able to run on his own without help. He’d refused to get medical assistance on his arm, although it was still bleeding rather profusely for such a small wound. Frigid could tell he was on reserve energy, but his strong willpower kept him going.

It unsettled Frigid to see Star Lance look so vulnerable. Even more, it struck a chord deep within him that he was, at least in some small way, responsible for it all.

The Assassins followed the glowing gold trail, turning from street to street as they moved. The sun had already set, casting long shadows across the wet and gloomy Trottingham streets. Fortunately for them, most people had already returned indoors due to the rain, allowing them to act more suspiciously while they attempted to catch up with Mirror.

Soon, they found her, a faint shape in the dark sprinting away from the bureau fast enough to break the speed limit in a school zone. Even with them running as fast as they could, Frigid knew they were falling behind.

The ex-Assassin made a sharp turn, her feet taking near the entrance of the nearby four floor hotel. Frigid, Star Lance, and the Mentor could only watch in amazement as Mirror bent her legs and jumped up the first floor balcony, hopping like a ninja from foothold to foothold as if gravity didn’t affect her, finally vanishing into one of the open windows.

Star Lance closed his mouth. “What the hay...” he hissed. He turned to Frigid and the Mentor, his eyes flashing furiously. “I impaled her with a spear. There’s no way she should even be walking, much less doing acrobatics like that. Frigid, I thought you knew what you were doing, knew her better than all of us! How did she get so good; is she even human?”

"She never did anything like this before..." Frigid continued to look at the opened window. "The Templars must've done something to her. If they hurt her..."

"You're letting your emotions cloud your judgment!" Star Lance waved a hand at the building. "You let her do all this, Frigid. You let her get away!"

"We'll discuss this later, Star Lance," the Mentor said, putting a hand on his arm. "First, let us find her. I have much to ask her."

The three Assassins took the main way into the hotel, walking through its round glass swivel doors. The foyer was a massive carpeted area, full of gold and red furniture, along with a few trolleys with bags, strewn across the space, unattended. Even the receptionists seemed to be missing from their stations.

"Where's everyone?" Frigid asked anxiously, sensing something was wrong.

"Probably a trap," Star Lance grunted as he rubbed an elbow, flexing it. “She knows we're on her tail."

"No," the Mentor shook her head and pulled her hood up. "Too big. The Templars must know we're here. Be ready."

The Assassins headed straight for the staircase to the next floor, but kept their eyes and ears on alert. Frigid didn’t like it, and he was having a bad feeling in his gut, but he knew they had to find Mirror Match. They had seen her escape to the first floor, so they stopped after one flight of steps, searching the corridors for a way to the outdoor area of the hotel.

“She can’t be much further,” the Mentor whispered as she rounded the next corner ahead of the other two, carefully taking slow quiet steps.

“She climbed to the next floor…” Star Lance said bluntly as he tried to keep up with her.

The three soon arrived outside in some sort of courtyard. Potted plants and benches took up some of the area, otherwise leaving a vast amount of space, probably used for events. Frigid looked around, but saw no sign of Mirror Match, though one man sat on one of the benches. When Frigid focused his eagle sense to find Mirror’s trail, he noticed the man was highlighted in red.

“Templar…” the Mentor breathed as the man rose up. He had brown hair over gold skin, making look relatively normal, except for the black combat attire and helmet he wore, and the gun at his side.

“Ah, Assassins,” he said as he got up and smiled at them. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Where’s Mirror Match.” Frigid stepped past the Mentor and Star Lance, extending both hidden blades, ready for a fight.

“Oh, you don’t need to do that,” he smirked. “The name’s Bullseye, and I’ll be the one you’re facing today. Don’t expect to leave alive, though. My orders are to kill you. All of you.”

“You’re going to take us down, all by yourself?” Star Lance pushed past Frigid and showed his teeth to the Templar.

“Of course not,” he laughed before releasing a shrill whistle. All of a sudden, a group of soldiers ran out from the surrounding doors, filing in with rifles in their gloved hands. A few other personnel, with white outfits joined them, each one holding either a SMG or sword in their hands. By the looks of it, they were Templar guards, while the black coated ones seemed to be the same military as before. Dragon Unit.

“This is what I plan to take you down with,” Bullseye smiled and locked his eyes on the Assassins.

It was a scene right out of Frigid Night’s worst nightmare.

The entire courtyard of the hotel was one massive kill zone, with more and more Templar troops and mercenaries spilling out of the empty rooms and taking up positions on the balconies. Frigid Night counted at least twenty guns and half as many blades in front of him alone. A swarm of laser sights played about on his chest and face. Bullseye smiled darkly as he himself unslung his submachine gun from his belt and took aim.

Star Lance and Frigid Night retreated instinctively, backing up against Steel Shine. The Assassin leader herself hadn’t moved. She stared daggers into Bullseye, even as the last of his men lined up beside him and aimed their rifles at her.

“You’ve been outmaneuvered, Assassins,” the man sneered as he flicked down the visor of his combat helmet. “My mercenaries would have been more than enough to take you down, but now that the Templars have so kindly lent me some of their men as well, you might as well surrender. Make it easier on yourself.”

When none of the Assassins made a move, Bullseye fired a burst of bullets into the ground next to their feet. Slivers of concrete flew up, pinging against Steel Shine’s armored legs, but still she did not flinch.

“Last chance,” Bullseye called, reloading. “Throw down your weapons, or I’ll fill you with more holes than Swiss cheese.”

“Mentor?” Frigid whispered, unable to keep a tremor out of his voice. “What do we do?”

Steel Shine’s face remained impassive, but she inclined her head in the tiniest of nods. “Do as he says,” she said softly.

Star Lance immediately unbuckled his sword belt and dropped it, shortly followed by his hidden spears and blade. “As you say, my Mentor.”

Frigid followed suit, placing his armaments on the ground in front of him. His arms felt too light without a pair of hidden blades on them.

“Very good!” Bullseye praised mockingly. He aimed his weapon at the Mentor. “Now it’s your turn. Drop the sword.”

Dutifully, Steel Shine unfastened her sword from her belt. From the corner of his eye, Frigid Night thought he saw a thin smile creep into his Mentor’s face. She held out the weapon, the sword that Frigid Night had never seen out of its sheath. Perhaps it didn’t matter, he thought bleakly. There was no way out of this, and without a Mentor the Assassins were finished.

Then the Mentor spoke again, not taking her eyes off Bullseye. “When I draw,” she instructed quietly. “Duck.”

The Assassin Mentor closed her eyes. Bullseye took aim, the order to fire halfway out of his mouth. There was a snick as the sword slid free from its scabbard, the blade glinting not silver, but gold.

“What?” Bullseye squinted as the Mentor stood there, sword drawn. She raised up her weapon as her eyes started to glow, prompting the lieutenant to take a step back. “Ah, shoot her, shoot her, shoot her!”

Then Steel Shine disappeared.

The breath was knocked out of Frigid Night as Star Lance threw them both to the floor, a hail of bullets whistling over their heads and barely missing them. There were shouts and yells from all around, but Frigid couldn’t see any of it. His hood had fallen over his face and he was being dragged roughly somewhere by his superior.

“What’s going on? Hey!” His hood refused to come off, as both his arms were pinned behind him.

“Mentor’s covering us,” he heard Star Lance grunt as he struggled to get Frigid and himself out of there. “We need to get out of the kill zone.”

“You mean she’s out there all by herself?!”

Star Lance seemed to chuckle. “Better her than us, kid.” The hand on Frigid’s collar let go, dropping him into a wooden floor.

Wasting no time in removing his hood, Frigid scrambled to his feet. “What gives? Where’s the Mentor?”

Star Lance’s rugged face was painted in a devilish smirk. He jutted a thumb at the window of the room he had dragged them into. “Out there.”

Author's Note:

Things are about to go down, eh? Stay tuned, y'all!

Comments

[Jaxxon Markus Citadel]

Oh, this is getting good now. The Templars are about to see just how dangerous one of the artifacts of Equestria is! The next chapter is going to be the Mentor kicking ass.

[Marcthelightspark2004]

The Plars don't stand a chance. You NEVER mess with the Mentor. Not unless you wanna live.

[MoonlightRift]

Those Templars don't stand a chance.