Soldier of Time

XXXVIII: A Common Enemy. For Now (2)

The Deer, resisting the pain as long as he could, hugged his leg. But a hard blow to the back of the neck from Troy made him drop.

After that, the man disappeared. So many movements had released the tail of the Deer’s hair, and his hair now covered his face as he was kneeling on the ground. He was watching a lonely bird that was staring at him.

Troy, who also had long hair arranged in braids that jumped in all directions with his movement, smiled and said, “You say you want to stop what is coming, but it is your stupid mercenary games that cause this, for you are as guilty as that trash Hanibal.”

The Deer tried to speak one more time, but Troy was not in front of him. The young man stopped time and looked into his spectrum of vision, and he saw Troy’s body contorting in the air to deliver another kick impossible for a normal human to give.

The Deer thought for a second and, staring at Troy, saw how his eyes were fixed on him without losing sight of him for a second. That revealed why he couldn’t evade that guy’s attacks.

The Deer released the time, and turning once more on his back, and moved away from the place where the kick would impact.

When the Deer landed from his movement, he turned and protected his face with his hands without wasting time. He received the kick directly from Troy.

“I got you!”

Whispered the Deer, Troy disappeared once more, this time to attack his opponent’s back with an ax kick, he did not move an inch, and when the kick was about to impact, the Deer turned on his heels away from him and giving himself a kick to the stomach of his opponent.

Troy fell to the ground once again. He looked at the Deer with a smile.

His breathing was agitated and spitting blood, the mercenary said, “You are right, I do not have clean hands, and my activities contribute to violence, but since you lived the war, I lost many people in that place, I even lost myself, but now there are things that I do not want to lose, and like you, I can’t protect them alone, Hanibal, he just wants chaos, you see what he did in this place, he will do this all over the country if we let him.”

Troy got up, looked in all directions, and heard sirens approaching in the distance, the Deer’s breath was agitated by all the damage he had received, but his spirit was intact.

In fact, his eyes showed the intention to fight back. However, the former soldier knew the young man was right.

He brushed his hair away from his face, looked at the Deer, and said, “I know what war is, and I know it must be stopped. I also know that you cannot be neutral if you want to protect something. But I will not join your fight. My fight is mine, and if, for now, it is the same as yours, then fine. But remember that a common enemy is common only until it disappears.”

The Deer nodded and then said, “Hanibal falls, and you and I finish this. Seem fair to you?”

Troy grinned at his really muscular body showing a confident face when he said, “You may not like that. How this will end, I mean.”

“Maybe I will….” Slevin said with a smile while thinking thoughtfully.

At that moment, a man putting on a shirt appeared walking. It was Johan who looked at Troy and the Deer and said, “Who won? I couldn’t see the end.”

Troy and the Deer stared at each other for a second, and then the Deer said, “Johan, shut your mouth. Where is Simon?”

“He’s coming this way. It seems that the army and the police are coming too. Should we be here when they arrive?”

“Yes, no problem, they will help us. We have to find Karen.”

“He already did. He managed to talk to her on the phone. He knows where she is.”

“Excellent,” the Deer said without taking his eyes off Troy, and he felt that if he took his eyes off him, the man would crush him. “We must go there...”

“You must,” Troy replied while looking at him firmly. He then added, “I have one of these garbage in my house. I will ask him what he knows about our common enemy. When you finish, go. We’ll finish talking there.”

“Is that what we were doing?” Slevin asked as he wiped the blood from his face. He then continued, “Well, I’ll see you there...”

Troy started to retreat when he suddenly stopped and said, “Deer. They all matter. All…”

And after that, he left. Johan approached the Deer who was sitting on the ground and told him.

“He gave you a beating, didn’t he?”

The Deer smiled and said, “I had it under control. You were right not to intervene.”

“I was going to do it. I thought he would kill you,” Johan said with a deep frown. He was not really that worried about the person in front of him. After all, The Deer has a famous reputation.

Slevin shrugged his shoulders before he replied, “Yes, but it was a good idea to fly off to your clothes.”

“If I had... wait, you saw me,” Jonah said, eyes wide in surprise.

Slevin smirked. He then replied, “Yes. All the other birds flew by the commotion, and you were the only one who stayed to watch.”

Johan got up and looked at the Deer curiously. At that moment, Simon was approaching them, and Johan said in a whisper.

“You are a strange person, Deer...”

When Simon arrived, the whole situation was explained to him. The smiling young man put his hand on the shoulder of the Deer and said, “I thought you didn’t lose fights...”

But the Deer looking at Billy’s bloodied body, said without raising his face, “We are losing this one.”

Simon patted his back, and, stretching out his hand, and he handed him Amber’s drawing.

The Deer took it and listened as Simon asked with concern, “Is she ok?”

The Deer nodded, looking at the drawing when the soldiers arrived. Simon spoke with them, showing the identification that Karen had authorized them. They facilitated his transport to the place where Karen was. The National Security building.

The mercenaries got out of the vehicle. The building was in the middle of the city and was 52 stories high.

The Deer saw it and felt a strong discomfort entering in it, perhaps because, in the past, one of his missions had been to blow up that place in pieces

Upon entering, Karen was waiting for them at the reception, she had bandages in several places, and her body seemed highly injured.

When she saw them, the girl made a great effort to get up, her legs trembled, and her face was deformed by the pain that any movement generated. The girl held her abdomen and walked to meet them.

The Deer came forward and held the soldier from her arms while Simon said with a smile, “You should be in bed, Karen...”

The girl looked at him and smiled, steadying herself with the help of the Deer, then she said, “No time for that. That wretch destroyed my platoon.”

“I know, we saw it,” Slevin responded with a complicated expression.

His voice showed the sadness that this man gave them while he looked at Karen, then he said honestly. “I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

“I was…” The girl said, taking a deep breath, her gaze transported to the battle for a fraction of a second, but she resisted the image. Then she looked at Johan and said, “You saved your girlfriend, right? Now find me that bastard.”

The Deer took Karen by her shoulders gently and trying to comfort her, and he said, “We will do it. But we must organize ourselves, and you must rest.”

The girl lowered her head, making a great effort to contain her emotions, and she said almost in a whisper that the Deer could hear.

“Will you catch him?”

The Deer gently took her chin and raised her face to look into her eyes. Her eyes filled with contained tears met the firm and sure look of the Deer, a feeling of passivity invaded the lieutenant who left more and more the weight of his body in the hands of that man.

“We will catch him...”

The girl couldn’t take it anymore, and she placed her forehead on the Deer chest and started crying.

The Deer covered her with his arms making her feel safe, the sounds of that battle that she had disappeared in that instant, and the Deer looking at Simon, said, “We’ll go get him. We’ll meet Troy first, see what information he has, and then we’ll go get him. Johan, you find him, and we eliminate him.”

“No!” Johan said, staring at the Deer. “I’m going with you. Now, this is personal.”

The Deer ran his hand through Karen’s hair as if comforting her in a friendly manner. Slevin felt like having a little sister in the form of Karen.

“Amber?” Karen suddenly asked.

“She’s safe. I made sure of that,” Slevin replied. Keeping Amber safe was always his main priority.

“Good.”

And with those words, the young woman relaxed a little in the mercenary’s arms.

The Deer thought how much harm Hanibal could do in a single day and thought it was time to take the fight to him.

It was time for retribution.