The intruder pressed the button, causing the glass panel to slide across. The second the gap was wide enough, they darted their hand in and rescinded it again, snaring the medallion in the interim. Within a second, they had cleared the room, the medallion placed in their pocket tightly and securely.
Their next checkpoint was the window at the end of the corridor – on the fourth floor of the house, with a stark drop outside. The journey was only down a few metres of corridor, but there were several ridges and cavities throughout, which the two guards were using for cover.
A fury of sparks and bangs went off as dozens of bullets were fired from the twin guns, pounding against the floor and wall furiously. However, the intruder leapt from his cover, dashed down the corridor and reached the glass window, passing the two guards just as their ammo ran dry, sparing him.
As the cartridges were slotted into the assault rifles, the intruder kept his pace, flying towards the window. He reached it and, without pausing for thought or worry, leapt forward, going crashing through the window. A cascade of glass shards flew everywhere, the poof of the pane shattering piercing the silence of the outside night.
"Get him!" one of the guards barked.
"He can't go far, he's probably broken his leg by now!" the other replied, running over to the window anyway.
Looking down, all they could see was the intruder's black gear, almost concealed by the night, running away across the terrace.
The guards outside, all ready to fight to the death to retrieve the Flame, stood next to the large pond that made up the front of the house. It was around 30 metres long, 15 wide and 6 foot deep, and filled to the surface with icy water.
The intruder approached the pond, ducking to just avoid a spray of gunfire from above. Quickly, he ran towards the pond, as he was surrounded on both sides.
"We've got him!" he could hear a guard yell triumphantly.
"He's got nowhere to run!"
Now completely surrounded, the intruder head towards the pond and, decided that swimming and probably drowning would be better than whatever the guards had planned, leapt into it, feet first. At this instant, he cursed himself for this, as it would just make it harder for him to swim away. However, instead of crashing into the water, his feet hit something solid. Peeking down, he realised that he was, in fact, standing in the water, the minuscule waves lapping around the soles of his boots. Time to make his move; he set off running again, across the water.
"After him!" a guard cried in horror, prompting his subordinate to obey – he ran at the water, mimicking the intruder. He hit the water in the exact same place as the intruder, but this time, he fell in feet first, causing a spray of water to fly up in the air.
Finally, the intruder reached the end of the pond, and leapt off of the water, landing back on the ground again – only to be met with a guard, standing a few feet away from him, and pointing a rifle at him.
"Right," the guard grunted "That's it!"
The rifle was raised, the sights were aligned and the trigger was pulled – but there was no bang. No shot, no bullet, nothing. As the guard clicked away furiously at the trigger, the intruder, suddenly inspired by the past few minutes, clicked his fingers – and the guard collapsed in a heap.
By this point, the rest of the battalion were all in a stupor, and could only watch as the intruder ran over to the 10 foot fence and leapt over it in a single bound. The Samurai's Flame was gon
