A Special Message: This is the last time I will write up a note for the chapters I will definitely post on the day of Monty's death, but it is not for lack of things to say. It's because I (and possibly some people reading this) need to let go of Monty.

For a long time, back in 2014, all I could do was hope that someday; Monty would give me the chance to let him read some of my stories – what he inspired me to do. Well, first I would hope that he didn't take any offense by it, and then I would hope that he would at least give me more than 3 sentences worth of criticism. But now? Now it can never happen, because he's gone.

He's gone and there's no way for me to know whether this amazing guy will ever know me as more than a number figure in the view count. Sometimes, when I still think about it, it makes me feel…sad, but it's slowly turning more and more into happy memories whenever I think about him nowadays, which is a good thing.

Now, after three years of knowing him, in honour of Monty, I think it's time for me to move forward – past his death – and stop thinking of his death as a tragedy. And maybe, letting go is what he wants. Maybe by letting go, we can finally give him peace.

It's time to move on with my own story. Goodbye, Monty. I'll see you when I see you.

Men Who Fight

Same time…

With a gentle tug on the steering system of the Bullhead, T brought his airship around for the second time as he waited patiently for the smoke of the burning barn to settle. The missile had met its mark in a matter of seconds, obliterating the small barn and only leaving a burning husk of its former, former glory.

However, T had long suspected that it would take a lot more than a single missile to finish off Cinder – let alone Cinder and her companions.

Taking a quick peek into the passenger compartment of the airship, he found that the rest of his team was leaning out of the open hatch of the ship, craning their necks to get a better look of the spectacle.

"Well," Tanner had to yell to be heard over the sound of the airship's engines. "That was a lot less exciting that I thought this was going to go."

"It's not over just yet." T spoke into the communicator in his ear so that he didn't have to yell.

"Hey, T!" Mason shouted from his position, leaning his whole body out of the airship with only one arm to hold him and prevent the berserker from falling out of the Bullhead. "When can I get my hands on one of those missiles you're packing?"

The hacker didn't bother to dignify the question with a response as he was about to perform another circle around the target zone when he spotted something in the middle of the wreckage.

"Holy hell." Tanner muttered to himself as he took in what he saw. In what he considered to be the centre of the now non-existent barn was a dome-shaped field made of a swirling mixture of shadow energy and some form of marigold-coloured Aura.

Within the dome, the brunette saw that Cinder, Raiden and a few other people that he couldn't see clearly through the shield were completely unharmed by the missile.

"Looks like they're doing just fine." SK stated with a snort.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Tanner said sarcastically over the roar of the engines before turning his attention back to T. "You guys were right about Cinder bringing backup." the swordsman was quite surprised to find that the hacker was no longer in the cockpit, but was now standing a few steps away from them, checking over his sidearm. "So what's the plan?"

"When we get close enough to the ground, jump." He said while cocking his pistol, ignoring the brunette's question. "Overwatch will send the ship back around for us if we need to escape."

"No need." SK shouted over the engines as the Bullhead suddenly dipped down. "I'm finishing this today." With that, the rogue disappeared before anyone else could say anything.

"Hey!" Tanner shouted as he began reaching around for the black-haired teen, but stopped when T grabbed his hand.

"Let him go." The hacker said calmly as he bent his knees, getting ready to jump off the airship. "At least this way Cinder won't be expecting him."

The swordsman let out a huff of air as he got ready to jump off the Bullhead, now levelling out with the ground. "Mars, you with us?" he asked the berserker at his side.

The burly man drew forth his weapons as a wide, evil grin spread across his face. "Oh, yeah. Time to cut down some haters."

With that said, T suddenly pat Tanner on the back, giving him the signal to disembark the airship. As he leapt, he found that T was right by his side as Mason brought up the rear. Landing with a soft thud on the grass, he quickly got into a defensive position as he watched the smouldering barn.

They were roughly ten metres away from it, and stood on even ground with the ruined building. As he drew his sabre and pistol in either hand, Tanner looked up briefly to see the airship soar across the sky and into the horizon, far from the fight.

Looking to his left and right, the other members of his team also had their weapons drawn, and were now staring into the destroyed barn, waiting with heightened anxiety for someone to step out of it.

Cinder was the first to emerge from the rubble as a flash of black and red, lifting her legs high over the broken pieces of rubble as to not get her dress caught in it. Though this had been the first time he had actually seen her in nearly a month, Tanner still felt a sense of dread when she glared at him from such a distance. The same dread he had felt when he had tried to strike up a conversation with her, which resulted in a threat on his life from the ash-haired woman.

Next to emerge at her side was the man he had recently come to know as Raiden Alexander, brushing pieces of rubble off his coat as he went with a long-sword in his hand. Behind him was a familiar face that surprised Tanner, as when they made eye-contact, they both momentarily froze with the realization that they were on opposite sides for once. After their brief moment of eye-contact, Tanner tried to focus on anything other than the mint-haired girl. The opportunity came when a petite girl with pink and brown hair stepped out alongside a boy with grey hair. There was something oddly familiar about the both of them, though the brunette couldn't quite figure out what it was. From what SK had told him earlier, he at least knew their names were Neo and Mercury, respectively.

They all stopped about eight metres away from them as Cinder began flexing her fingers while her glare gradually turned into a confident smirk. "Well, isn't this a surprise." She said in her venomously slick voice. "Three dead men, all gathered for one last time before I put them in their graves."

The light of the high-hanging sun reflected off the blade of Beofield and into Tanner's eye for a moment before he turned the blade so it no longer irritated him. "I can assure you I'm far from dead." Tanner spoke first, earning a glare from T as he had given him specific instructions not to speak until T spoke first.

Sorry, couldn't help myself. The swordsman thought as Cinder gave him the tilt of a head.

"Oh, but you are dead, Tanner Vermillion. You died weeks ago in a White Fang encampment – I'm just here to put you in your grave." Her voice was laced with the promise of carrying out those words as Tanner unconsciously took a step backwards. He immediately sighed as he realised his mistake; showing Cinder that she was getting to him.

"How about you come here and do it then?" T spoke up, challenging Cinder as he spread his arms apart.

A sudden groan drew everyone's attention to the redheaded berserker as he groaned loudly and tilted his head to the sky. "Are we seriously going to spend like ten minutes threatening each other, or are we actually going to fight?"

"Couldn't have said it any better." Raiden commented from across the field, lowering himself as if he were going to spring forward at any moment.

Without warning, Mason suddenly charged forward with his weapons raised and uttering loud, annoying war-cry as he dashed straight towards Cinder.

"Crap." Tanner heard T mutter as he reluctantly followed Mason into the fray, unwilling to let the berserker face the threat alone.

On the other side of the conflict, Cinder gave a brief nod of the head to signal for Raiden and Mercury to charge forward to intercept the two.

With his axe and sword raised over his head, the berserker clashed weapons with the shadowcaster, who trailed darkness in the wake of his sprint forward. At the same time, Tanner went in for a horizontal slash at the boy, only for the blade of his sword to be intercepted by Mercury's boot. Flashing a brief smirk, the boy suddenly pivoted off the foot he had against his sword to deliver a kick to his face, sending him stumbling back a few steps.

Once he recovered, he had to immediately block a series of strikes directed to his chest and legs from Mercury with his sword, trying to get a shot at him with Crossed Star every now and then, though the gun was always batted out of the way by a swing-kick.

Next to him, the redhead wasn't fairing any better as Raiden fought defensively, blocking every strike the berserker sent his way even though the hits were gradually getting harder. Mason then tried to switch up his fighting style by attacking from both sides at once, sweeping his arms in front of him. In response, the shadowcaster held his long-sword in his right hand while the other glowed black as he reached down to his feet to pull a short-sword out of his shadow. With it in his off-hand, he used it to parry a strike from Bas from his left. With another smirk to add to Mason's irritation, the amber-eyed teen pushed off the berserker's weapons to deliver a slash across the redhead's leather armour, barely grazing it and taking only a small sliver of his Aura with it.

As he was pushed back, Mason quickly transformed his weapons into their gun modes and began peppering Raiden with fire, which he responded to by deflecting almost every shot with his blades.

"Don't I know you from somewhere?" Tanner asked through gritted teeth as he ducked under a swing from the boy in front of him before using the momentum to slide under the opening between his legs and trip him with a sweep kick. The grey-haired boy quickly recovered though, flowing with the momentum of the fall to do a backflip and land on both feet.

"What? Don't I look familiar?" he asked casually before an enraged expression took over Mercury's face as he launched a salvo of concussive rounds from his…boots?

Yeah, his boots.

At first, the brunette was managing just fine at blocking each shot by twirling Beofield in front of him while spinning on the spot to intercept each one, but it left him vulnerable to the boy when he suddenly launched forward for a high kick.

Twisting his whole body, the swordsman just barely dodged out of the way of the kick aimed at his chest. Even though he dodged it, Tanner was still knocked back when a projectile hit him in the back while he wasn't looking. The brunette hit the ground hard, landing on his back and a few centimetres from the glass arrow that had hit him.

It only took a second for Tanner to realise where the arrow had come from before he turned his head to Cinder, who was notching another arrow in between her bow-blades. A sudden shout of exertion brought Tanner back to the fight at hand, as he narrowly rolled out of the way of a curb-stop from the grey-haired boy. He had to keep rolling so as to not lose momentum while the speedster continuously tried to drive the heel of his boot into the brunette.

Eventually, he had to stop when he caught a glimpse of Cinder preparing to fire at him. While his Aura had protected him from the first shot, Tanner had a gut feeling that the other one would break through.

Instead, he improvised, grabbing a hold of his triple-barrelled pistol and firing at the ground under him as he rolled onto his stomach. The succeeding blast allowed him to lift his body out of the way of the grey-haired boy's downward strike while dodging the arrow that Cinder sent his way. With his momentum, Tanner took advantage of his position and bashed Mercury across the face with the pommel of his sabre as he twisted in the air to land on his feet, sending the boy back by a couple of metres.

"Not bad." He muttered as he rubbed the spot on his face that Tanner had struck. "My dad taught you well."

A wave of confusion suddenly overcame the brunette as he let his guard down in order to consider what the boy had just said. The figurative gears in his brain began turning as Tanner tried to make the connection. How does he know me? His dad…his dad…trained me?

He was brought out of his confusion when he heard a distinct cry that could have only come from the red berserker. Turning around, he saw Mason running his way as he twisted his body around every few steps to deflect the shower of shotgun pellets that Raiden fired at him.

"Tanner, switch with me, bro!" Mason shouted as he turned to slam his back into the swordsman. Using their joined momentum, Tanner pivoted around the berserker while the redhead did the same. In a half-second, he was suddenly facing the shadowcaster instead while Mason charged at the speedster.

Cocking his shotgun, Raiden released the last shell he had in his gun's chamber before sliding the weapon onto his back. "I don't think we've met before." He said with a confident smirk as he reached into his shadow and drew out two curved daggers. "I'm Raiden."

"Hi, Raiden." Tanner said as he fired a shot from his pistol to intercept another arrow that Cinder fired his way, causing a large cloud of smoke to form from the explosion it created. "I'm your worst nightmare." He taunted before holding Beofield in front of him as Raiden dashed forward.

An idea came to Tanner at the last second and he quickly twisted the sword in his grasp so that the blade of the weapon reflected the sunlight right into Raiden's face, causing the shadowcaster to stagger and raise a hand to shield his eyes.

Tanner smirked as he went in for a low slash at the teen's chest, but he recovered quickly enough to raise a dagger to intercept the strike. It soon became a game of trying to stab the opponent before they got the chance. When Tanner swung too high, Raiden would duck under the slash and try to get him in the chest, which he would block with his pistol. When he swung too low, the black-haired teen would leap over the strike and throw a couple small daggers from under the shadow he created. The first time he did that, the attack caught Tanner off-guard and hit him, but the subsequent two times he did it, the swordsman was able to intercept them.

As they fought, Tanner was slowly channelling his Semblance into the last few shots he had in his pistol, getting ready for the right opportunity to use them. The opportunity presented itself when Raiden went in for a stab at his chest with both daggers, throwing his weight at Tanner. Side-stepping out of the way with lightning-fast reflexes, the brunette aimed the first shot at the shadowcaster's feet, which created a large patch of ice that held Raiden in place.

The next two shots he fired off blasted the black-haired teen backwards, sending him sprawling across the ground in a succession of explosions. Tanner's smug expression that followed his victory didn't last as a sharp pain in his right arm caused him to cry out. Looking down rage filled his vision as he saw the head of one of Cinder's glass arrows sticking out of him.

Glaring at the woman who would only smile at him, he broke the head of the arrow off with the pommel of his sword before firing at her with his pistol, which clicked dry twice. "Dammit!" he cursed just as a black knife landed next to his feet, before evaporating into a black wisp.

Turning around, he saw Raiden as he unsheathed his sword as begin reloading it with shotgun shells. "Don't forget about me just yet." He said twirling the blade as he finished reloading. The shadowcaster begun with a sprint, but was tripped up by T, who had grabbed him by his sword arm just as he tried to take off. The cyborg finished the job by slamming down on the shadowcaster's stomach with his left fist, driving him into the ground.

"Go, I've got this!" T shouted at Tanner as he blocked a jab from Raiden's longsword with his bionic arm. Tanner needed no further prompting and turned to break an arrow that Cinder fired his way with his sabre while the wound in his arm cried out in pain.

Bringing his sword back around, the brunette lowered his whole body for a moment before taking off for the three women that stood in front of him, pulling the trigger on Beofield as he went to cause the blade to ignite in a blaze of fire.

He brought the flaming blade around, creating a large horizontal arc of fire that surged outwards, causing all the opponents in front of him to double back out of the way. Tanner then followed through with his swing, aiming at Cinder, and brought his sabre around and over his head to send a vertical wave of fire at the woman.

The ash-haired woman made no move to dodge the oncoming attack, and Tanner saw why. Jumping in front of the woman, the petite girl with mismatch-coloured hair used her open parasol to act as a breaker against the wave of fire.

Once the flames dissipated, she swung the parasol over her shoulder and beckoned the swordsman forward with a smirk and a dainty outstretched hand. Gritting his teeth together, Tanner accepted the challenge and charged forward.

Despite knowing that going around the whole barn wasn't the fastest way to end this, SK wasn't taking any chances. Looking at his odds, he would have to go up against four different opponents at once even if he was able to kill Cinder in a single strike; therefore, it made the most sense to go around the group so that he had the advantage of staying out of their immediate line of sight.

The battle had already begun by the time SK was halfway across the battlefield. As he went, he weighed up the odds of getting out of this alive against the strengths of his opponents. From having sparred briefly with just about all of them at some point – excluding Raiden, he knew that they were all more than capable of going toe-to-toe with him. All that remained was a question of how long the rogue could hold off against that. Multiply that by four, and the odds weren't looking good.

The only positive thing that made his task easier was that Cinder was standing still, firing arrows at the others as he went.

By the time Tanner began clashing with Neo, SK was right behind Cinder and Emerald. With his Scorched Divide already drawn, he focussed carefully on where he would decapitate the woman. He would have honestly preferred to give the ash-haired woman who left him for dead a stab through the heart, just to prove it was there, but he didn't want to leave anything to chance.

Go for the head, son. You couldn't possibly hit the heart on your first try – so don't bother. His father's words echoed in his head; once a painful slap to his ego and now a different kind of painful lesson.

Drawing his falchion back, he prepared to end this battle in one fell swoop. Swinging his blade as hard as he could, a look of confusion overtook SK's concentration as the sword was blocked by two six-barrelled guns.

He followed the hands that held them to stare at their owner, Emerald, who now stared right back at him now that his Semblance had dropped.

His moment of annoyance was broken when a quick kick from a glass heel sent him backwards, stumbling until he righted himself by digging his fingers into the ground.

As SK took a moment to catch his breath, he looked up to see that he had inadvertently drawn the attention of both women.

Crap.

What was supposed to have been a quick assassination attempt suddenly became fifty times harder.

Crap crap crap!

Flicking his blade out to his side, the rogue quickly focussed on vanishing from sight one more time before sprinting forward, having to make several sharp turns as he went to dodge bullets from Emerald and shards of glass that Cinder threw his way.

By the time he was in range, he was at Cinder's right and jumped at the opportunity, leaping as he prepared another horizontal slash while he deactivated his Semblance in order to focus his Aura on protecting his body.

Cinder intercepted the attack before it could even get close, blocking it with her bow-blades before swinging out with either side of her weapon in an attempt to slash at him. SK blocked or stepped out of the way of every strike, trying to get a few jabs of his own in. After the fourth swing, the ash-haired woman suddenly detached the ends of her bow-blade and began swiping at the rogue with both weapons in tandem.

"You. Left. Me. For. Dead!" SK hissed through gritted teeth every time he parried or intercepted a strike with his falchion.

"Perhaps I forgot to mention that term in the deal." Cinder said as she doubled back. "You were always expendable muscle!" as she shouted the last words, the ash-haired woman reached for a vial on her hip and threw its contents in front of her. In a matter of seconds, the powder substance in the vial condensed into several shards of glass that Cinder shot towards the rogue with the speed of a bullet.

Swinging his sword in front of him, SK was able to deflect all but one of the shards, which flew straight at his face. Raising his left hand unconsciously, he didn't even have time to think as the bracer caused the shard of glass to shatter, absorbing all the force of the impact.

Holding Scorched Divide in a relaxed position, the rogue took several deep breaths as he focussed his attention on Cinder, who had taken up a similar stance. "Is that all you got? Cause I can kee-" SK stopped himself as he heard the sound of a gunshot from behind him, lowering into a crouch as he activated his Semblance to vanish from sight just as the bullet passed over him and zipped past Cinder.

With his back facing the ash-haired woman, he realised that Cinder had only meant to distract him while Emerald got into a position behind him and shot him in the back. The mint-haired girl was now in a defensive stance about five metres behind him, careful eyes trained on any sudden movements that the rogue might make.

"Do you know where he is?" she shouted to Cinder. Turning around slowly as to not cause too much of a disturbance in his state of camouflage, SK's eyes widened as the ash-haired woman readied another arrow to fire directly at him.

"Let's find out." She said with a smirk as she let loose the arrow she had strung up. Stepping out of the way, the black-haired teen easily dodged out of the way of the shot, which dropped faster than he had anticipated so that it hit the ground where he stood.

SK was so sure that Cinder had missed the shot, he didn't even think to look at the arrow until it began making a banshee-like wail. His head turned to the spot the arrow had struck with breakneck speed as he saw the ground light up with an orange glow. The rogue's eyes widened as he realised that the arrow was building power, and quickly dived out of the way as an explosion sent dirt and bits of grass all over the place.

When he landed on his feet, SK dropped his Semblance involuntarily and had to quickly run out of the way when Emerald opened up on him with her rifle-weapons.

Making a wide arc around Emerald, the onyx-haired teen quickly closed the distance with a short dash towards the mint-haired girl as she ran out of shots. To him, she looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, frozen in place. But when he slashed his falchion across her chest, Emerald's form disappeared into thin air.

Dammit. SK cursed himself as he pivoted on his heel to intercept the salvo of shots Emerald sent his way, trusting his feelings this time as they told him where the girl was. I fell for it!

Sure that this was the real Emerald, he moved on the offensive, forcing her to block with her weapons as SK tried to get in a hit.

"Did you know?" he hissed at her as their weapons locked with one another. "Did you know that she was going to leave me to die?"

"Wasn't my call to make." Emerald said as she pushed the rogue backwards with a shove. "And it doesn't make up for your betrayal. Cinder, now!" she shouted as the black-haired teen barely turned around in time to block a stab that the ash-haired woman tried to deal to his chest.

A tingling sensation along the back of his neck compelled SK to pivot on his foot and raise his left arm to block a strike that Emerald tried to deal to him.

"That's helpful." He muttered to himself as he alternated between blocking Emerald and Cinder, feeling his concentration slowly slip the more he fought. Eventually, the rogue made a slip up and left an opening for Cinder to exploit, kicking out with her heel as she sent SK straight into Emerald, who bashed him across the torso several times with her long-pistols before brought her bow-blades around to hold the rogue in a choke.

"Nowhere left to run, SK." She whispered into his ear as she began squeezing the air out of him. "Nowhere for you to hide."

"You're right." The onyx-haired teen choked out eventually while quickly flicking his wrist to prime the micro-missile launchers in his gauntlet. "Not for me – and not for you."

With a single clench of the fist and a quick flick of the wrist, SK activated the manual firing sequence that he read about in the systems "motion-activated controls", firing all four missiles directly at the ground beneath Cinder's feet.

The woman holding him heard the muffled sounds of the miniature projectiles being fired and hitting the ground, causing her to look down at the miniature explosives before throwing SK forward so that she could backflip out of the way of the explosion that followed.

Looking to Emerald, he tilted his head to the side with a neutral expression. "I've got a couple new tricks up my sleeve." He jeered before swinging his falchion in a wide arc towards the girl.

Cinder was quick to recover from her minor stumble at the surprising attack from the rogue. Standing up in her firing stance, the ash-haired woman readied her bow again. As she notched another arrow into the groove of the weapon, she began scanning the battlefield around her, different fights going on across the open field they were in.

She took a moment to take into account the whereabouts of every member of the team that opposed her. Everyone was accounted for; Mason was occupied fighting Mercury, Tanner was handling himself against Neo and Raiden, SK was taking on Emerald.

There was just one person missing.

Feeling a change in the draft of wind that passed by her ear and rustled her short hair, the woman spun around and fired her arrow the second she caught sight of the cyborg – the traitor, T.

The arrow soared at five metres a second, and quickly covered the six metre distance that T stood from her. However, as the arrow was halfway between them, the cyborg took aim with the pistol in his left hand and fired four successive shots at the arrow, shattering it in sequence with every shot.

T fired another five of the remaining shots in his clip at Cinder, which were quickly deflected by her bow-blades. It didn't take long to realise that he wasn't going to go anywhere with that tactic, but then again, he was just testing the waters.

He lowered his gun to his side, and Cinder did the same with her bow-blades. A few seconds passed between them in silence, though the longer they held eye-contact, the more the seconds began to stretch on for minutes, and then hours as each tried to predict what the other was going to do next.

Eventually, after a total of eight seconds had passed by, T finally spoke up. "This is the way you wanted it, isn't it?" he asked, giving in to her analytical glare. This was what their short staring contest was about – to see who would lose their nerve first and resort to violence to settle this, once and for all. At least, that was what T hoped. "To kill me yourself?"

For the briefest of moments, Cinder's expression flickered to surprise before settling on a toxic smirk. "How else would I have it? I gave you this power, and now I must take it back, since you have decided to use it against me." Her voice was practically dripping with confidence.

"You gave me this power?" T challenged, taking a single step forward. "You didn't give me this." He hissed as he held up his right arm, completely exposed after he cut off that one side of the sleeve. "Or this." This time, he held up his pistol in his left hand. "I took both for myself."

"Then come." The ash-haired woman let the tips of her weapons touch the ground as she held both blades at her sides. "Come and take your victory."

Folding his fingers into a fist, T commanded the many plates that made up his right arm to fold together in order to become more dense with his mind before rushing forward in a burst of speed. The hacker had his fist drawn back as he neared the woman. She still looked to have her guard down as T approached, but had her blades in front of her in a flash as the hacker went in for a punch.

When metal met metal, sparks flew as both fighters were pushed backwards. T recovered quickly, but Cinder was more than ready as he went in for the next few series of jabs and point-blank shots from his pistol, either dodging or blocking each attack with lightning-fast reflexes.

The fight dragged on with both opponents having great difficulty at striking a direct blow on one another, though the fight began to tip in T's favour the longer it dragged on. His cybernetic eye recorded the ash-haired woman's fighting style while the implants in his mind helped him to find a way to counteract each attack.

However, the tide of battle suddenly shifted when a warning signal created by the implants in his mind warned him that he had just fired the last shot in his pistol. T immediately doubled back at the next opportunity to swap clips. The hacker wasn't the only one to capitalise on the opportunity though, as Cinder suddenly shot a burst of fire from her hand at T, forcing him to roll to the side.

The magazine clipped into place as he rose to his feet and fired several shots back at the woman. This time, the bullets turned to ash before they could even touch Cinder as she held her hand in front of each projectile, holding both blades in one hand.

With her guard up and her weapons lowered, T quickly slipped the pistol on his belt and reached behind him into the pouch at his back, drawing forth a retracted harpoon that quickly expanded to full length. Reversing his grip in it, T held it like a spear as he ran towards Cinder and tried to impale her on its barbed head.

Stepping to the side, the ash-haired woman easily dodged the attack and batted the harpoon away with her blades. The diversion worked, giving T the opportunity he needed to land a solid punch to Cinder's exposed shoulder.

As she staggered from the force of the punch, the hacker quickly stabbed the harpoon in his left hand into the ground so that he had both hands free when he delivered a round of punches to Cinder, who took too long to recover from each blow.

With Cinder amply disoriented from the flurry of attacks, T quickly took the opportunity to sweep her feet aside with a kick. After that, he just waited the second it took for the woman to fall to the ground, doing nothing to stop her short descent.

However, what he had not been planning for was for Cinder to suddenly break her fall with a roll and throw several daggers of glass at him as she recovered. T was only able to block two of the three daggers that came his way with her right arm, missing the last one as it stabbed into his shin.

His Aura flared, absorbing most of the damage as the dagger shattered into a shower of glass. Staggering slightly, T mentally kicked himself half a second later for leaving an opening for Cinder to exploit – which she did by sprinting towards him and raising both her swords to deal a double-diagonal slash.

T fought against the pain in order to raise his right arm in front of his face as he turned his head away reflexively when the two clashed.

"You surprise me." Cinder said as she pushed her advantage. "You've somehow gotten better over the past month."

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Fall." T spoke through gritted teeth as he twisted his grip on his harpoon so that he could jab it into Cinder's side. Cinder responded by changing her fighting stance, backpedalling by a single step as she used one sword to deflect the harpoon while she used one to maintain the back-and-forth lock it had with T's arm for a split-second so that she could twist on the foot behind her and swing backwards.

The hacker continued to press the offensive by loading the harpoon into his arm, which transformed into its harpoon-gun mode as he drew his pistol, using the head of the harpoon that stuck from his arm to try and jab Cinder. Every time the ash-haired woman tried to dodge out of the way of the attack or deflect his strike, T would compensate his offensive by extending or retracting the harpoon in his arm.

Sliding away from the fight for a moment, Cinder quickly joined both her bow-blades together while simultaneously creating a whip made of energy in her free hand.

The half-Maiden quickly swung the whip around to strike T across the chest, causing him to stagger to one knee while firing two shots at her. Cinder wasn't prepared for the oncoming two projectiles, and frantically swung the whip in front of her to reduce the bullets to ash.

This gave the hacker the opening he needed to fire the harpoon at her, which moved at the speed of a bullet with the size and momentum that would be carried by one of her arrows. Needless to say, a harpoon was a lot harder to stop than a bullet.

Instead, Cinder attempted to dodge out of the way of the projectile, only to be suddenly thrown to the side when T twisted his arm slightly, activating the payload in the harpoon's head and causing it to explode in a shower of ice shards.

Sprawling on the ground, Cinder struggled to recover as T loaded another harpoon in his arm. Not taking any chances, the hacker quickly lined up his next shot and fired as soon as he was ready. The harpoon flew halfway across the distance between them when suddenly a flash of pink, white and brown was in his way to bat the harpoon to the side.

The cyborg's eyes never left the girl who glared back at him while her parasol opened up and his right arm lowered. As she blinked at him, her eyes swapped colours every two blinks. T responded to the action by blinking in return, his own eyes swapping colour every two blinks just like her – changing between brown and bright-blue. This little exchange spoke in greater volumes than actual words could, as it conveyed something much more between the two.

His throat suddenly felt very dry when he tried to speak, but he couldn't delay much further. We don't have time. They'll be here any minute now. The only way we're both getting out of here is if I get to her. Now.

And all at once, as their stances changed to a more casual standoff, T spoke, more for himself than either of them. "Hi, Neo."