"How did you find out?" asked Vanessa as she backed up. Ev now, she maintained her disguise. It was not just her hair that was differt, her skin was lighter, her height was taller, her eyes were brighter.
Nero smirked as he looked at her. He had not se through her disguise, though he was very curious to learn how exactly she managed to fool the army. The number of checks they had before letting anyone into Lumina were not few. He didn't believe that she could fool them at her level.
"Would you care to vture a guess?" Nero asked, amused by her irritation.
Vessa dropped her shield and pulled out another black dagger and tried attacking Nero once more. Technically speaking, daggers were a bad match up against a spear because he could easily use the lgth of the spear to keep her at a distance, unable to strike him.
Conversely, if she could break in and come closer, th for him to block her two daggers would be difficult.
But of that mattered wh the simple fact was that Nero was much quicker than her. He toyed with her by letting her get close, yet every time she tried to strike, he would grab her hand and move it aside, making it look like they were dancing.
"How did you ev get into the city?" he finally asked, after teasing her a bit. It would have be a lot more fun if she wer't in a disguise.
"You're an arrogant prick, you know that?" she asked, getting frustrated. The problem was she was guinely trying to strike him, but he evaded so easily. In this low-visibility setting, she was supposed to have the advantage. She ev managed to hide from the berserkers, which is how she survived, but not only did Nero see through her disguise, he blocked her surprise attack as well.
The problem was… she couldn't just let him go now that he knew her idtity. She knew that he was very patriotic, so there was no way he would ignore a foreign spy. Would he?
"You're hurting my feelings," said Nero as he feigned a sad expression.
But looking at him like that infuriated Vanessa ev more. She almost felt the urge to throw her daggers down at the floor and just leave. But instead, she calmed herself down, and studied Nero.
He had not done anything threating… yet. There may be a chance that this could be solved amicably. She didn't want to resort to more drastic measures yet.
"How did you discover me?" she asked once more, this time calmly and without attacking him.
"Tch, boring," Nero said, seeing as how she stopped attacking. "I'll tell you if you tell me how you managed to get into the city undetected."
"Deal."
"There were a few hints," Nero admitted. "I wasn't exactly sure it was you, but the chances were high. First of all, although your disguise is good, there was one major flaw in it. Everyone in Kolar starts combat training at a very early age, in middle school. Long before we're able to pick out what weapons suit us, we go through basic training for a few differt weapons.
"In short, no matter what weapon anyone uses, I can recognise their stance if they've undergone Kolari training. Your disguise was good, but for your height and weight, the way you stood with your sword and shield, the way you moved them, the way you held them, all of it was just… off. I don't know how else to describe it.
Most people would not pay too much atttion to it, but it just inhertly gives off the feeling that it doesn't belong."
"That's it? How do you know that I just didn't undergo a differt kind of training? That's not ough to determine that there's something wrong."
"It really is. You're underestimating how significant that tiny flaw is. But anyway, that was just one of many things. Another thing is the way you walk. It's very silt. Ev though this time a your footsteps could be heard, considering the weight of your weapons, armour, gear and body, your footsteps were still too light.
Th there are the daggers.
"In ordinary clothes, it might be fine if you hide daggers under them, but how are you going to access your daggers underneath your armour? Not to mtion, considering how tight your armour is supposed to be, you shouldn't be able to fit daggers underneath. They'd cut your skin. But you did it anyway, which is what made me think that maybe your ability has something to do with daggers."
Vanessa pursed her lips, as if taking a mtal note of everything Nero said, ev if she didn't think that it was anything significant.
"Is that everything?"
Nero smirked.
"You also got visibly nervous wh you saw up on level 3," he said. "Your muscles tighted and your jaw clched. Considering that we were supposed to have never se each other before, the fact that seeing me made you nervous was odd."
Vanessa clched her fists. She couldn't dy that she was not exactly pleased wh she had se him. What were the chances that they would d up on the same mission in this vast city? Considering Nero's uncanny observation skills, she had gott nervous thinking that he might recognise her.
She evtually convinced herself that there was no way he could see through her perfect disguise. Technically, she was right. It wasn't the disguise itself that had be the issue, it was other things.
"That's all of it. Now it's your turn. How'd you get past all the security checks without getting detected."
Vanessa had a reluctant look on her face, but she told him anyway.
"I didn't get past the security checks undetected. I was very much detected. My presce here is a part of some… cooperative efforts betwe both our countries that are best kept quiet for the momt."
"Are you here for the artefacts?" Nero asked, getting to what he really cared about. It made much more sse that she was purposefully allowed here by the army, though he wouldn't be surprised if that was done by a specific faction of the army, keeping it a secret from the others.
Now what he needed to know was that if she was competing with him, not that it mattered. He would not give up the artefacts, ev for her. But it would be best if she had a differt objective.
"No, but I can't tell you what I'm here for, so don't bother asking."
Was she lying? Nero didn't think so, but there was the possibility of it. A part of him was just disappointed that she came to her sses quickly. For reasons he couldn't understand, Nero was really joying teasing her.
Either way, now that he had his answer, he could return to focusing on his mission. Yet he remained standing there, looking at her.
"What is it?" she finally asked, unable to guess what he was thinking.
Nero turned a, and looked at the glass box. The panther-like creature was still looking at them, observing them.
"Do you know what that is? It's be looking at us for a while."
"I can't say," she responded succinctly.
After a momt, considering there was nothing left to say, Nero turned back.
"Be careful from now on. If someone else discovers you, I doubt you'll get away scot-free."
Vanessa oped her mouth to respond, but didn't know what to say.
"That know-it-all attitude of yours is really annoying," she murmured.
"Ev if you don't know the answer to something, you can't let others find out," Nero responded with a chuckle.
Vanessa's presce here was very interesting. There were a number of things going on beath the surface in Lumina, and that didn't refer to the basemts where all the Neophytes were fighting.
Nero still had two more missions to do after this, of which he only knew the details of one. The level of secrecy was absurd, but th again, considering what was at stake, it made sse.
Nero pushed away all other random thoughts as he returned to the fight. He spotted Leonard and Harold, having an intse fight. Harold's ability was especially pott against those who liked to use shields, so they were a bad match for each other.
Nero sprang forward, and instead of attacking Leonard, he used the butt of his spear to slide his leg forward, causing Leonard to trip.
The sudd change completely took Leonard by surprise, and the oping it revealed was all the opportunity Harold needed. He finally broke through his defce and landed a good hit on Leonards jaw, knocking him out.
Harold and Nero made eye contact, and with tacit understanding, moved forward to eliminate the other soldiers, one by one. Harold had known Nero for a long time, ev longer than Gabriel, so their teamwork was impeccable, much to the regret of their foes.