‎A sombre silence filled Damien's office.

‎The three men stared at themselves in silence.

‎After a long while, Damien spoke up.

‎" For now, I say we wait. It's better to lure the enemy into revealing all their cards before we reveal ours. "

‎The two men stared at him for a while, then nodded after a long silence.

‎" Very well then. We'll put that on hold for now."

‎Marco's eyes gleamed dangerously, the subtle threat in his eyes evident even through the projection.

‎"But of course, you must know the importance of getting results this time. If your men botch this up, the Council will appear weak, and that is something that doesn't bode well for any of us."

‎Damien nodded calmly.

‎" Rest assured, they will not fail. And if they do, I'll take full responsibility for the consequences."

‎Marco curtly nodded, then disappeared from the comlink.

‎Cedric disappeared shortly after.

‎Damien took in a deep breath, leaning back in his seat.

‎He closed his eyes in silent contemplation.

‎" Damn it, what's taking so long?"

‎****

‎Luke was having a rough time.

‎His bespoke suit was in tatters. The ridiculously expensive suit was torn and shredded due to the superhuman intensity of the battle.

‎It wasn't totally unexpected, but still, he didn't expect the gap between him and his opponent to be so... overwhelming.

‎So far, he hadn't been able to land any significant blow.

Despite that, the building's interior was devastated. Dust hung in the air, numerous webs of cracks ran throughout the walls and the remaining pillars holding up the building.

All in all, it was propbably goin to get a lot worse from here on out.‎

‎The masked man was like an elusive wraith, weaving almost effortlessly through all of Luke's attacks.

‎But Luke wasn't phased.

After all, ‎Luke Sanguine was one of the oldest maestros alive; that was a fact.

‎It wasn't simply because of sheer luck.

Luke was skilled and quite deadly in his own right, even when faced with overwhelmingly monstrous opponents. He'd fought in some of the deadliest battles, wars that scarred the planet, haunting even the dark reaches of history.

And that was why, despite the precarious situation he was in, Luke was eerily calm.

‎The masked figure abruptly stepped forward, his figure blurring through the space that had been between him and Luke.

‎In an instant, he closed the distance separating them.

‎Luke's eyes widened slightly.

He shifted his weight but the advancing figure slightly adjusted his body compensating for the miniscule change.

‎" Shit! There's no time to dodge."

‎Luke crossed his arms in front of his torso, shielding himself from the brunt of the blow.

‎His bones creaked, straining from the shock of the impact.

‎Before Luke could get his bearings, the man was upon him.

‎A split second later, a second fist flashed through the air

‎Luke gritted his teeth, biting back a groan.

‎He felt his arms grow numb from the second blow, his feet skidding back on the floor.

‎For the first time from the beginning of the fight, a weary expression appeared on his face.

‎" Ah, I'm screwed."

‎A large barrier appeared in front of him at the last second.

‎A slight grin appeared on Luke's face. The whole thing had been an act.

‎" Maybe not so much."

‎At some point, a pair of sleek, dark, lusterless blades had appeared in his hands.

‎The two blades emitted a dark force field that enveloped his entire body, riplling fluidly around him.

‎An explosion of light and sound rocked the building at the impact, sweeping through the titanic pillars that supported the building.

‎When the light dissipated, a web of cracks ran through the forcefield and was quickly repairing itself at aspeed visible to the naked eye. But in a battle between superhumans that may as well have been an eternity.

‎A slight frown appeared on Luke's face.

‎The potency of the umbralis he was able to wield and contain within himself was nothing to scoff at.

‎Therefore, the fact that his adversary was able to inflict that much damage with one strike was quite alarming in itself.

‎And that was also the reason why he decided to end the fight as swiftly as possible.

‎The longer the fight turned into a battle of attrition, the higher the chances of him ending up on the losing end.

‎And that certainly wouldn't bode well for him.

‎Fortunately he was a maestro.

‎And that meant he had vast reserves of umbralis at his disposal, which also meant he could maintain the handy forcefield a few more times at most before draining his reserves.

‎Luke threw a wary glance at the jagged cracks running through the building's pillars.

‎" Well, things went downhill fast."

‎The forcefield, of course fed on Luke's umbralis that he was continuosly channeling into the dark barrier around him.

‎Channeling umbralis directly from Tenebris in the middle of a fight was quite a precarious move.

‎Controlling the dark energy's flow in an intricate way without overwhelming the vessel put quite the strain on the body.

‎Such a decision could only end in one of two outcomes.

‎In the first scenario, he lost the fight, in which case, he would die.

‎Or in the second scenario, he'd succumb to the strain and turn into one of those filthy, loathsome beings, the Shadow wraiths.

‎No matter how you sliced it, the situation was quite dire.

‎Fortunately, he wasn't fighting alone in the perilous battle.

‎At least he believed he wasn't.

‎It wasn't exactly surprising since the Spectre wouldn't have garnered such a fiercesome reputation if he were easily detectable.

‎So Luke just had to hold out until his unseen ally made his entrance.

‎But Luke wasn't at the Spectre's mercy.

‎He hadn't been exactly idle during the fight.

‎The whole time, he quietly observed the mysterious figure's movements, trying to peer into the man's battle style, but so far, he hadn't been able to understand a few elusive elements.

‎" This guy, his battle style seems so familiar and yet..."

‎There was a subtle wrongness to his movements; it almost seemed like he wasn't a human being.

‎ Maestros stood near the pinnacle of assassins; they were superhuman even among superhumans.

‎But even with Luke's acute perception he wasn't able to completely follow the man's movements

‎Simply put, Luke felt suffocated; it was like he was slowly drowning in a mire, with every exchange of moves.

‎Somehow, despite Luke's keen intuition, the man's uncanny movements continued to slip through his defences from time to time.

‎It was happening less and less, but the fact that it was happening proved something

‎A possibility Luke wanted to deny but the evidence was clearly in front of him.

‎The man was faster than him, stronger than him, at least for now.

‎Which brought a very disturbing question to mind.

‎" What if all this time we thought we were fighting a maestro, but in actuality, he wasn't a maestro? What if he's something beyond a maestro?"

‎A being that had transcended the realm of maestros, novices, and apprentices.

‎There was only one horrifying conclusion Luke could come up with.

‎"This man could he be a Duke ...or worse still, a Lord?"

‎At that moment, the masked figure abruptly retreated, just barely leaning out of the way of an invisible attack.

‎A faint grin appeared on Luke's face, vanishing a moment later in the battle clear state of mind he was in.

‎" The Spectre finally decided to join us."

‎The masked figure tutted in irritation, his gaze shifting to his arm.

‎The dark fabric was stained with what was unmistakably blood.

‎"To think that you actually made me bleed," he muttered under his breath.

‎But to the maestros' keen senses, he may as well have been speaking loudly.

‎"That is quite the feat. I haven't bled in quite a long time. A very long time at that."

‎The man calmly walked forward, stopping a short distance away from Luke.

‎"And to show you my sincere gratitude for such a..delectable fight, I'll take you seriously. Both of you, actually."

‎A moment later, he disappeared from sight.

‎Luke's eyes frantically darted around the room in search of the elusive figure.

‎"Where the hell did he go?"

‎A moment later, the man reappeared in front of Luke, his fist cutting through the air with blistering force.

‎Luke quickly infused his weapons with a generous portion of umbralis, but then, in the next instant, his eyes widened in shock.

‎The flow of umbralis felt strained, almost like Luke was playing an insidious game of tug of war with the ethereal energy.

‎The dark barrier refused to manifest

‎Luke clenched his teeth, bracing himself for the inevitable blow.

‎A moment later, Luke felt like he'd slammed into a freight train.

‎A sharp snap rang out through the air. ‎He flew backwards, like a ragdoll, violently flung through the air by the deadly blow.

‎His body twisted in on itself, resembling a projectile catapulted by an inferno slingshot from the depths of hell.

‎Luke's body slammed through a few of the Black Ink HQ's upper floors before bursting through one of the concrete walls leading out to the street.

His body hit the ground with harrowing force, ripping through the debris and broken slabs of asphalt.

‎This time, he lay on the ground in silent contemplation before dazedly springing to his feet.

‎Blood streamed down his face. His right arm hung at his side at an awkward angle.

‎A faint smile appeared on his face.

‎"What a fine mess!"

‎His instincts screamed at him to move.

‎Luke desperately ducked, bolting away in a random direction.

‎A split second later, the masked man slammed into the ground where he'd been previously standing.

The man nonchalantly rose to his feet, cocking his head to the side.

‎"I grow tired of this...game. You want to play cat and mouse, then, I take it? Fine then. I'll play with you."

Luke grabbed the remaining blade he had in his uninjured arm, brandishing it in front of him with the same eerie calm.

He coolly glanced around the rugged landscape.

Frankly, he made for quite a sight.

The dark blazer was gone, lost in the heat of battle. His expensive tailor-made shirt and pants were ripped beyond recognition.

" Where the hell is Drake?!"

A moment later, Luke gasped, coughing out a mouthful of blood.

A look of shock flashed across his face, his eyes widening from the force of the blow.

Luke staggered for a bit before straightening up.

Glancing down, he grinned at the hand protruding from within his chest, clasped around his still beating heart.

" Would you look at that?"

He turned to the figure of the Spectre standing silently behind him.

" There you are!"

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