"Dusk, rip them apart!" Lorelei's words came not a second after I spoke mine.
The pitch-black wolf didn't waste time either, dropping Eternity quickly before lunging at the two new individuals.
The two masked individuals changed positions, and the large man shot out his four hands to grab Dusk's open jaws.
Dusk roared, a thundering sonic boom that shook the air all around us. The giant man smiled, revealing his shark teeth. "Yes, now this is a beast! Blair, this is my hunt!"
The giant man's voice, while not nearly as loud as Dusk, made up for it in his bloodlusted glee. He licked his lips as he stared inside the cavernous maw of the giant wolf clawing at him.
The smaller masked woman--Blair, the man called her--barely flinched despite standing a few feet away from the clash between giants.
She turned her head slowly, looking at Ford, me, Lorelei and Eternity who was sprawled out on the floor after being dropped by Dusk. Well, I couldn't tell what she was even looking at because of those eerie dark pits in her mask.
Lorelei dashed past me and assumed a position with her silver sword raised in front of her. She waved a hand at me and Eternity, "Retreat to a safe distance away where Eternity can see us, now!"
I didn't process what Lorelei said, but my body was already moving to help Eternity up and get away from Lorelei.
I didn't look back, not to distract myself from my current pace and my hand wrapped around Eternity's, but I could hear the clash of steel.
It took all I had not to look back, but at the last moment, I found myself a good enough distance away. Me and Eternity spun in place and took to one knee, our hands still together. Eternity's eyes were wide, looking at the battle in front of us.
For the first time in the past few months I've known her, only at this moment did I ever witness Lorelie being on the complete defensive. Her opponent moved swiftly around like a wasp, a thin black sword in one hand stabbing at the black-haired girl near its end.
Every single time, Lorelei could parry the stabs and slashes made by the masked girl--but it was the only thing she could do. Lorelei had amazing sword technique, no doubt about it and it was the only thing keeping her alive. However, to force her into a defensive position, the opponent's sword technique was even more ghastly.
Yet, all I could decipher from the masked woman's sword movements were complete nonsense. Slash, stab, parry, cross, swing, even switching the sword hand. There was no logic to her movements but to attack as quickly as possible, ignoring any standard of form or structure.
But perhaps that was the key.
The formlessness, the no sense of foundation, every movement seemingly decided by instinct and not muscle memory. At some point, I stopped seeing the swordsman, instead I only saw the sword. The woman had become its shadow, bending and twisting herself to fit the sword's intent at any given moment.
It was unique and unheard of for a swordsman following a sword's will rather than the sword following their will, however this masked woman was doing it.
I knew she was doing it because it was the exact same way Mongrel moved.
Mongrel…Mongrel…Mongrel! Why were they wearing Mongrel's mask!
It wasn't just one mask but two!
How did they get something like that? I was sure that Mongrel's mask was a memory, and different people getting the same memory did exist but it made no sense that not one but two individuals had it.
Speaking of them, who were these two? One was a large man who was fighting both a colossal-sized wolf and Ford, the other was a woman who was pushing back Lorelei with relatively little effort.
Were they rogue awakened who preyed on sleepers? Such people did exist, but they were few and chances of such awakened fighting us of all people was smaller than a grain of sand.
"Hahahahaha!" Booming laughter echoed from the other sides of the chains, prompting me to look over at the large, four-armed man. He had two arms on one side pushing against the claws of Dusk, while the other two each held Ford's shoulder and the [Jumping Harpoon] which was plunged into the large man's side.
"Ah, for a sleeper to pierce through my skin with such a simple memory, you have magnificent physical potential. I will hunt you as well, boy!"
I've already spoken enough of Ford's tall stature, but next to the four-armed man, he was like a child.
The man's arm which held onto [Lunging Harpoon] released its grip, before forming a fist and smashing straight into Ford's core.
Ford went into the air, and in the moment he was flying--the large man's four arms grabbed Dusk's neck.
The man spun on one foot and swung down, throwing the gargantuan wolf over his body.
Dusk's skull smashed onto the chain's surface, spiderwebs cracks forming in the metal. He then promptly rolled and fell into the abyss, a mass of flopping muscle.
"DUSK!" Lorelei called out, but her one second of distraction cost part of her face. The masked woman's sword cut through one cheek of Lorelei's face, the masked woman flicked her wrist and the flesh covering one side of her mouth was gone.
Lorelei screamed with no sound, her bloodied teeth wide apart as blood spilled down her chin and neck.
The masked woman looked at Lorelei grimacing in pain, she flicked her sword and the blood on its tip splattered on to the chain's surface.
Back to Ford, the four-armed man grabbed his neck and threw him a few meters away. Ford, spinning in the air, skidded to a stop on his side. Blood marked the chain's surface where he fell.
The masked man and woman cocked their heads to one side, the former with a dark, crooked smile and the other with complete apathy.
Lorelei and Ford, shaking with pure fury, said one thing in response to their opponents taunts.
"Die."