Sa:cryd ZERO

Chapter 5

Following normal events, Alice dropped Lexus at school then went off to her new job. After school, Lexus would leave with Vanessa to meet up with Ezekiel, who would take him through training and lessons on how to become a proper guardian. The class was now convinced that Vanessa and Lexus might be a thing as Linda wasn’t happy about whatever seemed to be going on. One day when Lexus came for training, Ezekiel had something interesting to share. “Congratulations Lexus, you’ve been cleared for duty, which hereby concludes your training. You were great, never even complained once”, Ezekiel said as he praised Lexus. “Well, Adierra’s training was harsher”, Lexus said with a laugh. “And so, your first assignment. Listen closely, you and your team are investigating the new tourist facility near the city lake that recently became very popular. It seems some people have gone missing as our intelligence division has confirmed it to be the work of a kanizor in hiding. You and your team are to investigate the matter and hunt down the kanizor if possible. That’s all. The others have already been briefed, so good luck”, Ezekiel said as he walked away. “I see my first mission. This should go well, right?”, Lexus thought as he headed towards a separate room where Shin and Venassa were waiting. “Took you long enough. We’ve all been told the details so I’ll get straight to the point. I’ll go investigate the facility and talk to the managers while you two check it out when its dark. Remember to lie low and not get caught. I’d hate to have to bail your asses just for not obeying simple instructions’, Shin spoke in a rude tone as he then proceeded to leave. “I’ll leave the preparations to you two, don’t mess up”, Shin said once more before leaving. “Son of a…anyways Lexus meet me at my place on this address tonight at 8pm, don’t be late”, Vanessa said as she handed over a sheet then left. Lexus looked at the sheet which contained the address. “Vanessa’s house…”, Lexus thought as he blushed a bit. “You have to focus! There’s an assignment pending completion”, Lexus got rid of any unnecessary thoughts as he made his way back home. After dinner, Lexus spoke to Alice. “Umm can I go out tonight? I promised my friends we’d all study together for a bit”, Lexus lied. “Really? That’s great. Of course, you can go but be home by 11pm, okay”, Alice granted him permission as she entered the kitchen with the dishes. “Phew, let’s go then”, Lexus took his stuff and left when it was almost 8pm and headed to Vanessa’s place by following the address.

Lexus arrived at Vanessa’s place a little bit after the appointed time. The location was a large 10-foot apartment building with a rather simple outlook. Vanessa was already waiting outside of the building as she saw Lexus approaching. “Now that you’re here, we can finally get a move on. Let’s go”. “Uh sure”, Lexus said as he followed Vanessa to the tourist facility. When they reached the place, Vanessa quietly made her way around the building and entered from the back as Lexus followed suit. Once inside, the two look for clues that might hint to the potential location of the kanizor. When they were investigating, Lexus heard some voices as he immediately prompted Vanessa. The two quickly hid as the voices grew closer. “Thanks a lot Mr. Mark for agreeing to give a private tour of the facility at that time. I’m sure me and my girlfriend will be able to have a wonderful time together. You know what I mean? Hahaha”, a man laughed with a cocky voice as the man thought to be Mr. Mark merely chuckled. “Oh, stop that, you’ve given the poor man weird ideas”, the hot lady walking beside the other man complained as she wrapped herself around him. “Hehe, not at all, ma’am. I’m just happy that I’ll be able to give you two the best time of your lives. As you well know, the lake in the evening really starts to shine as the starry night makes it almost sparkle even…however I don’t think you two will live to ever see it”, Mr. Mark said in a serious tone. “Haha surely you must be joking right”, the man tried to laugh off what Mr. Mark had just said but he stopped immediately when he replied, “Oh, but I’m dead serious. It’s quite a shame, but oh well, I hear the river Styx is even better than what we have here”, Mr. Mark chuckled once more. “The f**k you talking ab…”, the man didn’t get to finish his sentence as his head was sliced clean off by what looked like a blade of water. The woman screamed at the top of her lungs and sought to run away, but it would’ve been too late if Lexus hadn’t jumped in to save her from the blade of water. Vanessa came out and she told the woman to run away. Mr. Mark looked at the kids as he coldly said, “Hmm, this just won’t do. I was planning on saving the woman for tomorrow, but look at what you’ve done. You kids are just here for sightseeing or you have a b****y death wish?”. “So, you’re the kanizor responsible for all the missing tourists. Using such a devious trick”, Vanessa spoke in disgust. “I guess you’re not just kids after all. You must be guardians, right? I’m afraid you two will just have to go for dinner tomorrow even though I hate child meat, yuck”, Mr. Mark stuck out his tongue as he said. “Resisting is futile, in the name of the league of guardians you shall die. Let’s go Lexus”, Vanessa said as she drew out her Katana. “Right”, Lexus answered as he entered a fighting stance. Mr. Mark only let out a demonic grin as he transformed. A huge explosion was seen and when it died down, Mr. Mark now looked like a cross between a scorpion, a shark and squid as several water tentacles shot at Vanessa and Lexus. Lexus dodged and charged at the kanizor as Vanessa stood in her position and slashed off the water tentacles. The kanizor roared as it charged forward as it glided around with the water surrounding it. Before it could attack once more, Lexus appeared from his side and struck its head with a fierce punch which launched it into the wall. It quickly recovered and opened its shark-like mouth. Water bubbles quickly gathered around its tongue as it fired a beam of water which almost cut the building in half. Vanessa and Lexus both had to dodge, which sent them outside to the edge of the lake. The kanizor acted fast as it quickly glided towards Lexus and smacked him away. Vanessa entered a drawing stance. “Abyss cartridge. Lock in. Abyssal rend”, she quietly spoke those few words as she quickly inserted a cartridge near the hilt of the sword as it now glowed black with fierce energy. She immediately sliced at the kanizor in one swift motion as the slice claimed one of the arms of the kanizor. The severed arm kept spinning in the air until it fell down with a loud thud. “Hah, you think cutting off my arm will do anything? I’ll just regenerate!”, the kanizor shouted and attempted to regenerate, but nothing was happening. “The abyss cartridge devours the cells of kanizors and prevents any form of healing and regeneration”, Vanessa calmly spoke. “You should watch out though”. “What…?”, the Kanizor turned only to meet Lexus’ fist which sent it flying. Thanks to his intensive training with Ezekiel, his endurance and strength had improved a lot and he wouldn’t go down just yet. The continuous attacks continued until the fight was almost over. The cuts dealt by Vanessa’s black blade refused to regenerate as the kanizor was almost done for. The kanizor only chuckled once more as it prepared for another attack. This time it inhaled a lot of water from the river and shot it into the air. The water blast exploded in the sky as rain quickly followed, drenching the three. Soon after, Vanessa and Lexus start to feel extremely weak and drowsy. Lexus could fight it off a little but Vanessa was already on her knees soon after the rain. The kanizor laughed madly as he spoke. “Not so cocky now are ya? I’ll carefully take my time cutting the two of you into pieces and preserve you until I eat you up the next day, hahaha”. The kanizor slowly got up and approached Vanessa. When he was close enough to grab her, a gunshot which sounded more like a laser beam was heard as a hole opened up in the chest of the kanizor. “What the?! Who’s that…!”, before the Kanizor could tell what had happened, its whole body was riddled with bullet holes as it quickly disintegrated. The rain quickly stopped as Lexus’ strength finally returned. He turned to look in the direction where the shots came from as he saw Shin sheathing two guns and walking towards them with a sorry look on his face. “To be already on your knees after fighting such a weak kanizor. How low you have fallen”, Shin spoke to Vanessa. “f**k you”, Vanessa retorted as she quickly got up and picked up her sword and took out the cartridge. “I managed to solve the case while checking around in the afternoon. The kanizor was apparently giving illegal private tours to its victims under pretense of being a leading official of the touring agency. If I hadn’t arrived any sooner, you guys would’ve been dead. You should thank me”, Shin expressively said. “Uhh thanks”, Lexus actually thanked him as Vanessa turned to look at Lexus with a face as if to say, “seriously!?”.

“Now that the case has been solved you two can go back now as I’ll report back to headquarters”, Shin said as he took his leave. “Are you okay?”, Lexus asked Vanessa. “I’m fine. Now get the f**k out of my face”, Vanessa spoke harshly as she started to walk away. However, Lexus decided to walk her home just to be sure. “I said I’m fine, stop following me?”, Vanessa said in an annoying tone. Lexus ignored her and still followed her. “Hmph, do whatever you want then”. Vanessa managed to make it all the way back to her place as Lexus had to hold her a few times on the way as she was still feeling a bit weak. “See you tomorrow, Vanessa. Great work today”, Lexus said once they reached. “Uhh sure”, Vanessa answered but Lexus stopped her once more. “Umm I know that a lot has happened after the two of us met but I would just like to say that I’m very happy to have you as a teammate”, Lexus ended with a smile. “f**k off”, Vanessa said with a grossed-out face. “Yes ma’am”, Lexus took his leave as Vanessa entered the building, ending the series of events that night.