Assassins and Thieves

Chapter 16

The clanking of the handcuffs echoed in the cylindrical staircase as the two players descend with slow steps. They didn't need to rush, but Chrome felt like Hisoka was trying to rush through this phase. Perhaps, she's thinking too much on this. It's only been an hour since the exam started and less than 30 minutes since they started their paths. They had ventured through two trials that should've taken at least a couple of hours.

As for the first one, it would probably have taken averagely about an hour or two. Those prisoners were probably instructed to cling onto the victims as much as possible. If the prisoners were coordinated enough, they could've dragged the applicants down to the beginning or just continuously held them in place. However, Hisoka's malicious aura scared them off. Only one foolish prisoner attempted to grab a hold of them. Still, Chrome can't help but wonder why he did that. The magician specifically instructed them not to touch her, not them, but her. Every time she asked, Hisoka avoided the question or simply ignored her.

As for the second room, Hisoka would have been glad to carry Chrome through it, literally. It would've been faster and more graceful, but she can't have people trying to pass the exam for her. Just like how Killua got that boar for her in the Second Phase, and now Hisoka is attempting to lift most of the weight here. This isn't how she wanted, and Hisoka didn't seem to care. Chrome had to be more forceful with her action to get her point through.

At the bottom of the spiral staircase, there was an exact same replica of the previous metal doors they have been encountering. It slid open as expected, and led them into a large room with no floor and platform centered in the room. Hisoka and Chrome stopped by the doorway, since they could not advance any further. Two shadowed figures also waited at the other side of the room. Perhaps, they'll finally be able to fight.

Lippo the intercom's static pierced through the silent air as he gave out further details about this arrangement. Those two figures were prisoners who are appointed as examiners. Chrome and Hisoka will be fighting against them on a two-on-two battle. However, the handcuffs must remain on for both teams. The win will be declared once the losing team has surrender. If Chrome and Hisoka lose, then they would have to wait 24 hours.

A pathway extended out from the floor and connected with the battleground.

"Let's not waste time, Chrome," Hioska took the first step onto the narrow path. Chains softly clanked against each other as the two teams approached the platform together. Chrome can't help but noticed Hisoka's tensed arms as he licked his lips in excitement. They're going to die before I can even try.

Once the two teams are in a good distance from each other, the two opponents uncloaked themselves simultaneously, revealing two twins handcuffed together. Two body builder twins. It's quite sickening how thick their muscles are. Probably thick in their head, too, Chrome smirked at the thought.

The twin on the right frowned, noticing her smirk. "Little girl, you know, I used to violate children like you before killing them."

"Pff," Chrome snuffed out a laugh, "are you so weak that you only kill harmless children?" Her eyes purposely glared a challenge into the violator's. Anger erupted out of him as he screamed, thrashing about. The other twin yanked on the connected handcuffs to calm him down.

"Now, we should decide how to approach this battle." The calmer twin proposed. "How about a death match? The team with the first partner to die loses. Is that fine?"

Chrome frowned at the thought of only one death, but nothing is stopping Hisoka or her from killing the both twins. Besides, if the first partner dies, then the corpse will be heavy weight. There's not fun in killing a still target. Though, Chrome liked the idea of the second twin being a target practice for her cards. She wasn't able to completely able to hone them. They're just not sharp enough to kill; slice, sure, but not kill.

"Now, shall we begin?" Hisoka smiled with a lick of his tongue.

The battle started with the child violator attempting to grab Chrome's neck, but she sidestepped into Hisoka's space and grabbed his extended arm. Her partner stepped a little bit to the left, giving Chrome room, but his arm moved along with hers. Minimum movement, Chrome reminded herself, not wanting to bother Hisoka. Pulling the larger man to her right, the girl had her foot out to trip him.

While the child violator was falling, Hisoka took this chance to grab the opponents' chain and yank it apart, separating them. Chrome's opponent was lying on the floor, separated from his twin and had the girl's boot on his neck. "Any last words?" Her mouth turned up into a nasty grin. Although she asked, her action didn't as her foot slam down, cracking the spine of the child molester.

"Clumsy and weak," Chrome insulted with a shrug as she turned towards the last twin. "Are you the same?"

"I-I surren—ACK!"

A card sliced through his throat before he could even admit defeat. There was no way Hisoka would allow no blood to be spilled on this battleground. Chrome looked at the two corpses at her feet and whispered in disappointment, "That was way too easy."

A pathway onto the right of the room started to extend out towards another metal door. Forgetting about the recent battle, Chrome tugged on the chain eagerly with a wide smile on her face, "Come on! Let's go!"

Time left 70:42:28.

Once again the handcuffed pair was led to spiral downwards in a dimly lit staircase, and once again, the metal door slid open once they arrived at the bottom of the stairwell. At least they were moving downwards, so progress is actually being made. Once they entered in the square room, the door behind them shut tightly, locking them inside. There was no other door present in the room, only a table with a small silver key on it.

Chrome looked at Hisoka, tilting her head as if she wanted to question their next move, but she kept quiet as they approached the table side by side. They stared at it, silently debating if they should pick it up and attempt to unlock their handcuffs. There's a high chance that this tiny key could do that. Why else would they have it lying here if not to tempt them? Lippo the Hunter examiner specifically instructed them not to unlock their handcuffs unless instructed, but right now, no one had ordered them to do so. If Chrome and Hisoka did take off their handcuffs, there might be some punishments waiting for them. They could not allow that to happen.

However, there's nothing else in the room. There's no way of advancing passed this room that Chrome could see, just this tiny key. Perhaps they can advance once the handcuffs became undone, but that may result in some repercussions. There's only one way to find out.

Chrome took the single key into her own hand and asked out loud to make sure the warden could hear her, "Does this key unlock the handcuffs?"

Silence.

Chrome frowned as she placed the key back down. What are we supposed to do? Chrome thought with a huff of frustration. They have no other option, but to unlock the handcuff. They could just wait here for instructions, but who knows how long that would take. She turned to her partner, "What do you think, Hisoka?"

The jester-like man smiled at her, "Perhaps you should look around a bit more," he hinted.

Chrome frowned at his response. Does he know something I don't? There's only a key and a table in this room, nothing else! What is she supposed to look for? Chrome picked up the silver key once more to examine it closely. There's absolutely nothing strange about it. There's no carving of any kind on it to hint what it supposed to unlock. Chrome was too scared to attempt to unlock the handcuff. All is left to examine is that nightstand table. Her hand ran across the wooden surface, but found nothing.

Chrome immediately frowned as she saw a handle to the side of the table. Sighing out of frustration, she pulled out the drawer. There's a piece of paper inside. Her free hand picked it up to read it out loud,

"Yes, you can unlock your handcuffs."

The note slipped out of her hand as her hand grew weak on how stupid this is. Aggravation built up inside her chest, but Chrome had no way of releasing it. Her hand tightened into a fist as Hisoka gently took the key from her cuffed hand to unlock the link between them. This. Damned. Tower! It mocked her. So badly, she wanted to flip the table. So badly, she wanted to punch the wall. So badly, she wanted to release her anger. However, she was taught to restrain her feelings. Not worth it. Not worth it. Not worth it. Chrome repeated in her mind in order to calm down. It's not worth my energy. There's no reason to get so worked up over this stupid paper.

70:31:32, her stopwatch informed her. An hour and 29 minutes had passed.

Once Hisoka unlocked the handcuff and placed it on the table with the miniature key, a door in disguise of a brick wall elevated upwards to present their new path. Chrome rubbed her newly freed wrist and stretched her arm to get use to the freedom she had two hours ago before walking through the doorway.

The next room had the same layout as the previous room with the fight between the two twins. However, instead of having only two figures on the other side of the room, there were countless of prisoners waiting in a line.

Once again, Lippo explained this task through the loudspeaker. In this trial Chrome and Hisoka must fight the hoard of prisoners within an hour any method possible. The amount of opponents remain is the amount of hours they'll have to wait. The examiner mentioned that there will be 72 opponents, so one per hour. Also, Chrome and Hisoka had to alternate the rounds; so one simply cannot just kill everyone by themself. Although, if either Hisoka or Chrome surrender, they will both have to wait 30 hours after this task is completed.

Simple enough; just kill everyone. No need for bland trickery. This isn't a good time for Chrome to practice her card trick, but she's eager to test it out. The partners in crime needed to defeat six challengers within five minutes in order to make it in time. Weakly thrown cards won't help them this time, but she would like to try at least once.

The pathway extended out so a member on both team can meet up at the battle platform in the middle. Hisoka eagerly took the first battle as he step forth onto the fighting ground. No doubt, this trial will be a one-side win. As for the other team, they chose a slim and shady opponent who revealed himself to be an arsonist with a 98-year sentence here. Time starts as stopwatch counter built into the wall said 59:57.

"Aww don't be scared!" the opponent taunted, "It's just a little fir—"

Immediately, a card flew into the arsonist's forehead. With strong force, the card had knocked his head backwards, making the criminal fall back dead. 59:41. Chrome could felt the disappointment emitting from her partner as the other team all gasped in horror. It was to be expected; after all, it's Hisoka against a stupid arsonist. None of these opponents can give him that thrill of a fight he wanted so bad. His tongue clicked in annoyance.

"My turn!" Chrome walked onto the platform eagerly as she took out her deck of cards from the book bag's side pocket. The dark hallway of the other team whispers and murmured with uncertainty as Hisoka returned back to his side of the room.

"She's just a little girl."

"But she has the same cards!"

"Maybe we should send him."

"She's just a little girl!"

Chrome's impatient is wearing thin. Time is ticking away and these people can't even decide who to send out. It didn't matter to the pair because they all will die within an hour anyways. Thankfully, the timer stopped after Hisoka's match ended at 59:42.

"Hurry up!" Chrome yelled impatiently at the other team, "You all are going to fight anyways!"

Immediately after, her opponent stepped forward. Of course, she always gets the body builders who think they're tough. Chrome rolled her eyes at his disgustingly large muscles. Once her opponent entered the ring, the timer continued.

Might as well try it, Chrome thought as she flung two cards at the thick neck. Her opponent didn't even attempt to stop them as the cards sliced his cheek. Chrome inhaled happily as she was at least able to cut flesh. Although, it didn't do too much damage, it was good enough for her.

"That didn't even hurt," he replied. "My turn!" He attempted to run towards her, but his body mass slowed him down considerably. Chrome's eyes squinted in pain on how painstakingly slow he was. As he attempted to grab the girl, she ducked from his wide grasp and landed an upper cut right underneath his chin. With the additional weights on her wrist, the force was tremendous as his head was severed from his neck.

Dead.

The head went flying off the platform and into the dark abyss of the floorless room. With a simple push, the headless body fell backward lifelessly. Timer stopped at 58:51. Two deaths in one minute and ten seconds with seventy more deaths to go.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading Chapter 16 of Assassins and Thieves! I know you all waited over a month for this chapter, and I feel terrible for making you wait! But, it is here! I still haven't abandoned the story. Although, I'm still planning on changing the title and summary sooner or later, once I figure out a decent title for it. Sooo...how did I do? Does Hisoka feel like a lifeless puppet who only nods and hums to himself? What about the fight scenes? Did everything play out in your mind smoothly? As always, you can answer these questions as a review. See you in Chapter 17!

P.S. Assassins and Thieves is over a year old! Wooo! I can't believe I stick with a project this long! Thank you everyone who review! You really helped me push myself to write over 15 chapters, and there is still more to come!