*It's been a while, folks! I apologise, I'll try to make up for my lack of chapters recently! Hope you all enjoy this one!*
...
Kane inhaled a huge breath of the industrial, but fresh morning air in the capital city, Zagreb. After exhaling a tiny amount of relief air that he had been storing since they set out on the journey, he turned towards the rest of the group and gripped his flat cap.
"Everyone old and new, welcome to Zagreb! The heart and soul of Croatia's industrial production as well as the most important city in keeping Croatia alive!"
"You're doing this epic ass speech just to entice Ashley's interest, aren't you?" Luka chuckled through his sarcastic sentence. "Yeah, Kane's 100% correct. Without Zagreb, the motherland would be doomed. At least that's what it would boil down to, most likely." Hugh and Ashley grinned and let out a few chuckles.
"We aren't here to sightsee, though, correct?" Ashley suddenly asked Kane.
"Well..." Hugh stepped forward and towered over the conversation. "...that's not our primary goal." He winked and playfully smiled towards Kane. Kane quickly smiled back and spun his head around a few times trying to find a clock.
"Usually there's a massive clock somewhere around here..."
"It's 9:37, Kane." Luka suddenly spoke up whilst gripping his pocket watch. He quickly closed it and dropped it into his jacket pocket.
"Right, it's still morning time. We gotta meet up with Ryo before lunchtime. We'll figure out our next steps once we group with him. Everyone ready to head out?"
"YEAH!" A massive shout filled the mostly empty train station.
"Good! Let's move through the city slowly. We don't wanna attract attention in a much bigger and more secure city, plus we got our luggage." Kane spoke up as he lifted his suitcase.
"Preferably, I'd like to keep my luggage in one piece, thank you very much." Luka gripped his massive backpack and his suitcase and followed Kane. Ashley and Hugh followed shortly after.
...
The group had to march through a busy marketplace.
"Sir! Sir! Please consider buying our products!"
"Buy one, get one free. Daily offers on the table!"
"Get yer valuables here, get 'em!"
Ashley had to push a few people away that got considerably close to her face trying to sell their products. "How do you deal with this shit in Osijek?!"
"We don't, that's the thing. If Osijek is a rocket, Zagreb is an entire battalion of alien spaceships." Luka scoffed as he got pushed by a few sellers. "Give me some fucking room here, people!" He yelled in Croatian.
Multiple sellers quickly backed off. "It's like trying to deal with paparazzi when I'm not even a celebrity."
"You're famous in my heart, lovely," Ashley spoke up wholesomely as the two shared a happy smile. "That reminds me, where are we going exactly?"
Hugh started speaking this time. "We're meeting up with Ryo in an apartment complex. He has rented out a few rooms for the next couple of weeks."
"Let's take a cab, I can't be bothered to walk all the way there." Kane started looking for a taxi they could take to the apartments. That wasn't a hard task to accomplish since they were near a train station. "Do me a favour, Luka." Kane suddenly turned towards Luka and pointed at the taxis.
"Hm? Oh, sure." Luka took the lead and began searching for a comfortable taxi to take. He engaged in conversation with several people about the prices and turned them all down. "Not getting any luck so far."
"If you don't find a nice offer, don't worry about it, just take the cheapest one." Hugh lifted his hand during the conversation as he reassured Luka.
The final few taxis all had similar offers, so Luka just picked one at random and they all got inside of it. Hugh towered in the middle of the backseat surrounded by Kane and Ashley on either side. Luka sat next to the driver and kicked up a casual conversation. A few minutes into the drive, the driver asked a question to continue the chat with Luka. "How're you finding the capital?"
"Same as it's always been, sir. Nothing much is different."
"Oh? You've been here before?" The driver curiously asked.
"I've been here lots of times, am from Osijek, though."
"Ah! A lovely city, to be sure."
"Depends. If you compare it to a shitstain it looks impressive."
The men shared a laugh. Their drive quickly ended as the driver made it to the apartment complex. "We're here."
Luka gave the driver his fee and quickly exited the car. He knocked on the back window to inform everyone to get out. Everyone grabbed their luggage and started moving away from the car.
"Thank you, sir. I loved the conversation." Luka tipped his hood.
"I appreciate you!" The driver tipped his trucker hat and got back into his car.
Luka joined the group that was standing in front of the apartment door. "Feels good to talk to a countryman." After a few moments of silence and standing around, he spoke a little bit louder this time. "What are we waiting for, Jesus' blessing?" Luka lightly smacked Kane's shoulder. Everyone snapped out of their daydreaming and Kane took out a note from his pocket. He rang a doorbell and waited patiently. The door suddenly opened with loud buzzing.
They made it up the stairs and stood in front of a seemingly large apartment.
"This is a nice ass place, ain't it?" Hugh spoke up as he looked around the fancy apartment.
"Ryo made sure we got decent living arrangements, at least." Kane knocked on the door a few times.
Ryo opened the door after a few moments. "Long time no see, lads!" He held up his palm next to his face.
"Definitely." Kane chuckled and punched his palm lightly. Hugh did the same with a salute.
Luka walked up, quickly hugged him and punched his palm quickly. "Hope you're okay, brother."
"I'm good, I'm good. Same to you." Luka winked at him as Ashley walked up and spread her arms slightly. Ryo gladly accepted the hug as they exchanged hellos.
"Make yourselves at home, the living room is large enough for all of us. Don't know about Hugh, though." The group laughed as Ryo sat down in a chair. "Quick announcement before I show you your apartments. Kingston requested a meeting with all of us today. It'll happen in this apartment right here, my apartment."
Everyone nodded firmly or agreed in some way.
"Do we have the time he'll call?" Kane crossed his arms and legs and asked curiously.
"Around 7 PM. I'll notify you all once it's time to meet up. For now, I can take you to your apartments, if you wanted to."
"Can we relax for a while? The travel has really tired me out." Hugh spoke up and Kane nodded, silently agreeing with him.
"That's alright, we can hang out until lunch. I'll take you guys out. Does anyone want a coffee?"
"Brew me one."
"Yup."
"Yessir."
"I could use one, as well."
Everyone replied almost simultaneously. Ryo quickly got up and walked into the kitchen.
...
After a cup of coffee, all five of our assassins were walking around the town square which was full of stores and restaurants. It was right around lunchtime, so Ryo was looking for a restaurant to treat the rest of the gang.
"Are we gonna find a goddamn place to eat or are you gonna keep leading us around in circles? I think we've seen enough fashion stores for a lifetime." Hugh irritatingly exhaled and yelled at Ryo.
"Easy, big fella, we just gotta get up these stairs and we're there." Ryo placed his hands on his hips as he looked up towards the top of the stairs. Three giraffes stacked on top of each other weren't enough to reach the top of the stairs from the bottom. Luka suddenly took a few small steps forward, slowly formed a fist and turned around towards his fellow assassins. They all firmly nodded and Luka punched Ryo in the back of the head.
"Ya fucking jackass."
They all made it up the stairs within a minute, although Hugh dragged himself as much as he possibly could.
"Hugh, please," Kane spoke up. "The sooner you get your fat ass up the stairs, the sooner we get to eat."
Hugh's eyes suddenly widened and exploded with colour. He rushed up the remaining stairs and cast a huge shadow over his brother. "Wanna say that again, little man?"
Kane patted him on the shoulder and started walking away. "Good job..."
...
...
...
"Fat ass."
"BASTARD!"
Luka managed to hold Hugh back. "We got lunch to eat, stop being children!"
...
They eventually found a lovely place to sit down in and patiently waited for their orders.
The conversation was relatively calm but also boring. A certain topic came up and sparked the chat faster than a lit firework. Ryo leaned back and lit a cigarette. He offered it to everyone else, but everyone other than Luka refused.
"I guess this is as good as time as any to get a serious conversation going. Ryo, how'd your interaction with Barton go?" Kane grasped his cup of water and took a small sip.
"It went well. I gave him the pieces and the letter and he travelled back to England on the same day. Haven't heard from him since then." Ryo dragged a puff and exhaled strongly.
"Alright. I guess that's that..." Kane directed his attention towards the juniors. "Kids, what do you know about master Kingston?"
Luka raised an eyebrow after drinking some of his beer. "Apart from the fact that he's English, he's a shit assassin and that he will never be a grandmaster?"
"Kingston is around our age, he turned 38 not too long ago. He's made it past the halfway point of his life." Hugh leaned back and laid his hand on the chair behind his brother's head. "You know the situation yourself, kids. There are so many better assassins compared to him. And as you know, we've been in the middle of a Templar revolution for years now. There probably isn't much time left before he gets replaced."
"Is he really going to be replaced so easily? Doesn't it seem a bit sudden?" Ashley asked as she leaned forward, engaged in the conversation.
"It's not too sudden. He has been the master since before the start of the revolution, so over a decade and a half at least. He hasn't done anything noteworthy to upgrade his position to grandmaster, pretty much ever." Kane scoffed and grinned slightly. "This Noah Roth contract will truly be one of the last contracts he commands someone to do, I reckon."
The conversation briefly stopped due to the heaviness of the sentence Kane just uttered.
Hugh backed up his little brother. "Kane's entirely right. Kingston already has a few strikes in terms of his leadership in the Creed. However, he's way too prestigious to be replaced, but the council's patience is running out. One more strike and he's out permanently."
"Who will be the new leader?" Luka raised a valid question.
"Depends on who the council votes on. There will be several assassins who've done great contracts in the Creed that the council would be able to vote on." Ryo joined the conversation and shared a bit of his knowledge.
"You could be one of them, Ryo." Hugh crossed his arms and smiled happily.
Ryo happily smiled and closed his eyes while Luka casually pointed his hand towards Ryo. "This guy? The new master of the guild? I'd rather keep Kingston than let this guy have authority over me." He joked with a bit of sarcasm.
"Don't worry, don't worry. I don't have a chance while Kane and Hugh are alive." Ryo laughed through the end of his sentence.
"You flatter me, junior. Yeah, we're great candidates, but we're certainly not the best." Kane lowered his gaze and crossed both his arms and legs.
"*Kane* isn't the best. I might be, though!" Hugh joked with a pure serious expression. Everyone shared a laugh including Hugh after a few moments.
The food arrived and everyone enjoyed a nice lunch together. The conversation quickly shifted into a more casual one, removing some of the unnecessary pressure the group was starting to feel about the weight of the revolution.
...
Ryo's apartment was very busy that night. The group was going to spend most of the evening in the meeting Kingston requested them to be in. Ryo prepared a hexagon-shaped object that glowed strongly once activated. A human-shaped hologram emitted from the object, revealing a realistic image of Kingston, who was standing in his office.
"Master." Luka and Ashley slightly bowed.
"Sir." Ryo nodded firmly with his eyes closed.
"Brian." Hugh raised his voice and Kane waved in a friendly manner.
"Good evening, everyone. I hope your stay is pleasant and you're all doing fine. I reckon you can guess why I've scheduled this meeting. We have a massive contract coming up and I've picked nobody else but you to handle it." He placed his hands behind his back and turned his back towards the group. "Galler. Run down the contract for us, would you?"
Ryo stepped forward and cleared his throat. "On it, sir. Alright, guys, we all know the basics, but here we'll discuss the specifics." Ryo pressed a button on a special remote that displayed a hologram of Noah Roth. "Noah Roth. The nephew of Hans Roth. Does anyone need a rundown of the three major templar families?"
"We could use one, Ryo." Luka crossed his arms and performed a hand gesture indicating that Ryo should continue.
"Sir, would you oblige?" Ryo politely turned towards Kingston.
"Of course. Three major templar families stand on top of it all. The Giovanni family, the Mikhailov family and the Roth family. The Roth family is responsible for most of the political activities and moves the Templar Order does, and Noah Roth, the nephew of the leader of the family, Hans Roth, will be in Zagreb for the presidential campaign Croatia hosts every 5 years." Kingston was now facing the group and speaking louder than before. "Galler can inform you on the specifics of the contract."
Ryo nodded and cleared his throat once more. "We're tasked with assassinating Noah Roth in any way, shape or form. It doesn't matter how much attention we draw to ourselves, but it would be preferable if we do this somewhat stealthily. He would have to pass through the great government palace if he wanted to make it to the speech area. That's a really nice opportunity for us to make our move." Ryo slammed his fist into his empty hand. "He'll be arriving early in the morning, somewhere around 8 AM. We have a few assassins stationed in the city right now, they're going to be tasked with eliminating some of Noah's bodyguards. We have intel that his bodyguards are currently roaming around the city, so they'll be taken care of over the following two weeks. Our way of infiltrating the palace will be to disguise ourselves as his bodyguards. We shall make our move when the time is right. Any objections or questions?"
"What happens if the situation goes wrong? Do we got a countermeasure or a plan b?" Luka curiously asked.
"Just the standard. If shit hits the fan, we get the fuck out of there." Ryo pointed his hand towards the direction of the exit. Luka nodded in agreement. Nobody else spoke up after a few moments.
"I must head off, but I'm counting on everyone here. Make me and the Creed proud!" Kingston placed a closed fist on his heart, as did everyone else.
"Yes, sir!" Everyone shouted in sync.
...
The following morning came quicker than expected. Although their environment was changed in a lot of ways, Luka still found time to wake up early and go for a run. He managed to quickly shut off his alarm clock so he wouldn't wake Ashley up. After quickly getting up, Luka grabbed a very dear possession of his. He titled it "The Morning Pack". It was a backpack with everything he needed for every morning run. He quickly snatched it, went to the bathroom and changed. He was out of the apartment within a few casual minutes.
The morning was sort of sluggish and slow, the ground on the rough streets was wet from a rainstorm that occurred the previous evening. These kinds of conditions never stopped Luka, however, so he wasn't bothered by it that much. Running down the street and passing a bunch of buildings, he noticed a boxing gym located on the same street as their apartment complex. That'd be a nice conversation to have with Ryo and Hugh, maybe they could stop by sometime.
...
Kane and Hugh woke up early shortly one after the other. Kane brewed a coffee pot and turned on the news channel. He wanted to keep up to date with all the news in the capital whilst they stayed in it.
"Morning, brother." Hugh stretched and walked into the large living room, fully clothed. He was prepared to start the day fresh.
"Mornin'. Give it a minute or two, the coffee will be ready." Kane quickly turned his head towards his big brother, but shortly after he returned his gaze towards the TV screen.
Hugh sat down on the massive couch. "What are we planning to do today? I can't sit still, I'm afraid."
"We have 2 weeks until the contract, right?" Kane quickly questioned.
"Yup."
"Then, let's keep doing what we've been doing in Osijek, at least for a few more days. We need to build up the core strengths of the juniors as much as possible." Kane grabbed two cups and started pouring the now finished coffee into them.
"Agreed." Hugh stood up and walked over to the dining table. "What if we change juniors after that, though?"
Kane paused for a moment before turning to face his brother. "Change juniors? You mean I train Luka and you train Ashley?"
"Precisely, brother." Hugh grasped the cup that Kane passed to him. "Thanks."
Kane nodded and waved his hand off, indicating a "no worries" gesture. "I say that idea's very good, but wouldn't that confuse them? They'd need some time to adapt to the different training methods."
"You would be correct if these were regular assassins." Hugh winked and grinned with enthusiasm. "I believe the juniors can do it. We just gotta get through this contract and we can start properly training them."
"Sure, I'm in. It would be nice seeing their growth." Kane finally sat down and sipped his coffee.
After a few minutes of silence or occasional chit-chat, Hugh got up and dropped his cup by the sink. He started heading towards the entrance. "I'm going for a run, Kane!"
"Have fun." Kane calmly finished his cup of coffee and lit a cigarette right after. He opened the window and leaned his upper body through it. Fresh air poured into the apartment. The apartment had a clear view of a nearby office building which was built around a lot of apartment complexes and houses. It was quite a populated area surrounded by a lot of people just calmly living their lives. Kane wondered if the office workers get lonely sometimes, having to work in an area completely isolated from other businesses. He quickly finished his cigarette after a large drag of smoke, but he kept the window open. Something about Zagreb's air was different, and not necessarily in a good way.
...
Most mornings the group went through were similar. After a day or two of adjusting with basic training, just like the training back in Osijek, Hugh gathered everyone to the nearby boxing gym. He managed to rent out the basement for the afternoon for training purposes.
"Alright, everyone, we're here to take a small break from training for a few hours. Well, three of us will be taking a break." Hugh was speaking from inside of a boxing ring. He seemed excited as he grasped his hands together. The rest of the group was curious as to what he meant.
He quickly looked over at Luka. "Luka!"
Then at Ryo. "Ryo! Get in the ring, lads, you're sparring for one round!"
Luka grinned happily and looked at Ryo. Ryo did the same as they put on their padding and gloves. They did not put on head guards, however. It seemed like they wanted to taste each other's true power.
Hugh acted as the referee as Ashley and Kane stood beside the ring. "This will be good, Ashley. Even if you don't know much about boxing, pay attention, you might catch a few important things." Kane encouraged Ashley as she firmly nodded.
"Let's see if Luka can win this one." Ashley thought.
The gong was sounded a few moments after Hugh was done explaining the rules to each fighter.
Luka lowered his body slightly and placed himself in the peek-a-boo stance.
Ryo assumed the Detroit style, offensive variation. The left side of his body was turned towards Luka as he began stepping in place to build his rhythm. The Detroit style consists of the user, usually, placing their left hand in the shape of the letter L around the middle of their body. The right hand is tightly gripped near the chest area. At first glance, it has many openings, but the Detroit style has two variations. The offensive variation, commonly known as just The Detroit Style, as well as the defensive variation, commonly known as The Philly Shell named after the place of origin of the style, Philadelphia. Many people believe the style originated in Philadelphia but became popular in Detroit on a world scale.
Luka began weaving his upper body and head from side to side. After a few moments of building momentum, Luka dashed in within a split second. Ryo kept a calm expression as he began firing his left rapidly. All the shots were dodged by weaving or blocked with the peek-a-boo stance. Luka managed to step inside of Ryo's range, but Ryo fired off a right straight out of nowhere and quickly stepped backwards. The punch did not connect, but it swiftly cut through the air near Luka's ear. A close call, for sure.
Ryo's punch was clean enough to send shivers down Ashley's spine. "What a blow."
"It won't stop Luka, he's fought him too many times to be intimidated after one punch." Luka quickly dashed in again as soon as Kane finished his sentence. Ryo threw out another right straight, but Luka ducked below it and stepped in even further. He quickly set up a counter and began throwing a massive uppercut right by Ryo's massive punch. Ryo couldn't withdraw his hand in time, so he bent his elbow and pushed Luka's punch just enough so that it wouldn't hit Ryo's face. It grazed him and left a frightening mark on his cheek, but this was Ryo's opportunity. He quickly tightened his left fist and threw it out, countering Luka's counter. Right before the moment of impact, Luka ducked his head even further below and barely managed to dodge the punch. Ryo immediately jumped backwards before Luka could follow up with a punch. Better safe than sorry. It was a breathtaking exchange in the middle of the ring. As persistently as he could, Luka charged in once more. This time, Ryo began throwing out flicker jabs from a bunch of different angles. Luka was able to dodge most of them, but he couldn't get past them all. They formed a tight wall that Luka couldn't penetrate. It was a very safe position for Ryo to be in. After about half a minute of repeating this, Luka knew there was only one thing he could do. He clamped up, put a very strong guard up and began stepping forward slowly. Little by little, he closed the distance between them. Ryo displayed great footwork as he began circling Luka towards his right. He ran laps around him whilst throwing out a ton of lefts. Luka made tiny movements with his feet, slowly shaving away at Ryo's textbook circling method.
This went on for a while until Ryo found himself near the ropes, and, eventually, in the corner! He was trapped with a strong infighter in front of him, blocking every path he could escape from. Luka calmly began throwing out lefts and rights, hooks, straights and uppercuts. Ryo dodged or deflected all of them within the tiny corner space. Eventually, Luka became more aggressive and started throwing tons of compact, but strong power shots. The power of Luka's swings alone could knock somebody over, let alone if you were hit by them. He slowly, but surely penetrated Ryo's guard until he blasted the guard away with a well-placed uppercut. Luka stomped his pivot foot forward and performed a beautiful hook aimed at Ryo's body. His entire body weight was behind the punch which made it slow down just enough so that the punch wouldn't land before the bell rang. Luka managed to redirect his blow just beside Ryo's body. Luckily, it hit nothing but thin air.
Luka stepped backwards and started breathing heavily. Ryo did the same as he offered a hand to his opponent.
"You got me." He started laughing, along with Luka.
"It was tough to catch you, you fast bastard."
Both men quickly stepped out of the ring. Hugh spoke up. "If this were an actual fight, Ryo would win. The score is 10-9 to him."
"Yeah, I didn't manage to land a single blow, at the end of the day. Fair play, Ryo." Luka respectfully nodded towards Ryo.
"That was the cleanest round you've ever fought, though. Don't let this get you down." Ryo patted his friend's shoulder.
Ashley's expression was full of admiration. "That fight was amazing, though! Such a high-level exchange! Really nice, you two!" Ashley flashed her iconic smile as she grazed both of their cheeks with her palm. Ryo closed his eyes and held up a thumbs up. Luka winked back at Ashley.
"Good stuff, guys, but I'm expecting you to work just as hard for the remaining training! Let's go!" Hugh shouted out as he pounded his chest.
"Yes, sir!" Ryo and Luka shouted in unison.
"We should get back to training, too, Ashley." Kane calmly stated at Ashley as he nodded and smiled happily.
...
Just like Hugh suggested, after a week of training, the juniors exchanged teachers.
Hugh began teaching Ashley the fundamentals of boxing and fighting in general, primarily focusing on stamina, power and speed increasing. This would also help Ashley's anxieties and fear of trading blows or taking big hits from someone. It was mental training just as much as it was physical.
Kane tested and trained Luka's gripping strength, overall agility and reflexes. He focused on teaching Luka to use his monstrous stamina and power on parkour, dodging and countering, rather than just throwing out punches and blocking.
Both of the juniors began learning the attributes each one of them lacked. It just so happened they were completely the opposite assassins.
...
Not long passed before it was the day before the contract. Everyone took the day off training and gathered in Ryo's apartment to relax for the afternoon.
"This is it, everyone. One of the most important contracts of each of our careers shall happen tomorrow! Do not slip up, remember your training and believe in yourselves! We shall conquer this contract, eliminate Noah Roth and make it back safely!" Hugh hyped the group up and raised his fist. The group did the same, but Kane ended up shouting some encouraging words, as well.
"Always remember where you come from and everyone that came before you! Nothing is real, everything is permitted! We work in the dark to serve the light!" Kane pounded his chest together with his big brother.
"RIGHT!" Everyone shouted back.
...
*End of Chapter 8. Once again, apologies for taking so long to post a new chapter. It has been hectic, to say the least. Hope everyone enjoyed and thank you for reading!*