The Face: Tournament of Death, Chapter Fifteen

The two of us started out of the temple, stealthily making our way around the building.

As we left the front door, we passed by the area in front of the large gate where the young apprentices had been training. We turned the corner and before us stood what looked to be a maze of bushes that waved about in various directions.

"Where, where, where to begin?" I whispered to her.

"Shutup for a second," she fervently demanded, soon crouching upon all four limbs, and lowering her head to the ground. After a few moments of scanning for vibrations, her head arose. "There are some guards up ahead, behind those bushes..." she whispered, pointing to a flock of bushes.

A rustle was heard as footsteps sounded, inching toward us. "Get down!" She cried, pushing my aching self down upon the ground with one hand while she watched the area before her. I fell to the floor with a slight thud. "Thank you for that unnecessary pain," I replied. She waved her hand backward. "You would've been too slow to get down, anyway." "Well, I would've been able to quietly!" I answered.

Just then we heard voices speak. "Hey, brother! Did you hear that?" one of them spoke. "Hear what?" The other wondered. "It came there, by those bushes!" He said, pointing to the bushes where we lay behind.

"Great, now they're on to us," I disparaged. The Hunteress retrieved a small tool from a furry pouch that she has resting from around her shoulder. She said nothing, and put the small circular object in her mouth, aimed and blew a dart out of the other side.

"Ach!" screamed one of the guards, as he grabbed his neck, which had been pierced by the pointy object. "Brother...he...help me!" He said, as he knelt upon the ground with arm high in the air. "Brother...NOOOO!" He cried, very well overdramatically. The second guard rushed over to his comrade and knelt behind the fallen. He shook the unconscious body, but it would not awaken. "No...no...NOOOO! Why?! Who did this!? I'll get you yet!" He cried, waving his fist at the black starry sky.

Natalie could not take anymore. "Relax!" she yelled, leaping upward from the bushes. "It's just a sedative, it's not going to kill him..."
The guard's eyes grew hot with anger. "You! You did this to my brother...he was my ONLY brother! You shall pay for his demise. I will avenge HIIIIIIM!" He cried, with deep emotion.

He then unsheathed his katana, and rushed straight toward the Hunteress, intent on murder. Natalie, caught off guard, stepped backward, and quickly tried to react. However, she need not to, for behind her came a ray of blue light that zapped the young fellow to the ground...with smoky results. The young guard convulsed in blue discolorations, and fizzled to the ground with smoke floating from his head.

She looked backward at the cell phone that I had used to subdue the raging guard. "I could've handled it myself," she said. "Ok," I agreed without question. Still, she gave a disgruntled scoff, and walked forward, with arms folded.

More guards patrolled the area, as we carefully crawled, and did our best to navigate through the maze of bushes. Slowly we trudged upon the slighly waving blades of grass, which danced to the beat of the winds.

As we crawled, I accidentally snapped a twig with my hand. Hunteress looked backward. "Ssshhh!" She sniped at me. A voice then spoke. "Hey, I heard something, guys!" It said. Both of us froze in our tracks, and put backs against the small row of bushes that concealed us.

The guards stared from afar from the spot where the sound was to have been percieved from. "Eh, it was nothing...just the wind, I bet," one dismissed, and they went back to patrol.

I sighed in relief, and wiped my brow, and followed Hunteress further down the row. But suddenly, I heard yet another sound...it was a high, slightly resonating sound, that had a bit of a beat to it. It almost sounded like ringing in my ears. I looked around, and whispered, "What's that ringing noise?" Hunteress waved her head back and forth to see where the sound came from. After some search, she spotted it and aggressively whispered, "It's your cell phone you idiot!" and slapped my forhead.

The ringing continued, and the heads of the guards swerved in perplexity. "What's that noise?" one asked, as I fumbled to retrieve the cause. Finally I thrust it out of my pocket and opened the flip-top lid. The caller responsible for the noise was my boss. "Shut it off!" she whispered. Instead of listening, I pressed the send button and put the phone to my ear. Hunteress groaned in disbelief. "You idiot!? What are you doing!?" She angrily asked, pushing my shoulder. I held up a finger, to indicate to have patience. "Wait, I need to take this call...it's my boss." She groaned once again, as the three guards were looking about, hearing voices which they did not see from whom they were coming from.

"Hey, how're things going their, my good executive?" the boss greeted me. "Eh, boss, it's twelve o' clock, why are you calling me at such a late hour!?" I wondered. Suddenly, the guard had found out where we were, and appeared right behind me. "Aha! You!" He cried, but the Hunteress quickly pounced him like an angry lion and beat him back.

"Eh? What's the problem? Eatin' lunch? Heck, I'm, eatin' lunch right now! Are you sayin' your job isn't as important as your lunch!?" Then I remembered. "Oh, shoot! Of course! Time difference! It's midnight here boss," I informed him, as yet another guard let out a war cry and threw his fists at Hunteress. She countered with a quick parry, and struck him backward, with her unbelievable tiger-like strength, leaving him helpless upon the grass.

"Look, now's not a good time..." I said to him. The boss was skeptical at what I had to say. "Then why are you still up? Important business?" he wondered. "I just wanna know how things are going!" he continued. "Wait a sec," you said. "What's going on over there?" He seemed to have heard voices in the background.

Hunteress struggled as one of the fallen guards had grabbed hold of her neck and was hanging wildly as she swung him around. But her strength proved too great, for she was able to thrust him over her back and onto the ground before her, and she struck him down in his place with her leg.

"Ah, I see. If you're really THAT busy, then I won't get in the way." He said. "No, but boss!" I said, but he wouldn't listen. Instead, he answered, "Alright, fine, I'll leave you alone, but I want a status report! What's a good time for you?" He wondered. "I'll just call you back!" I said, as I checked on Hunteress, who was still busilyy fighting off the third guard.

"No, no. I can't trust you to call back, you always forget," he persistently insisted. I, greatly annoyed, reached deep into my head for any ideas. "Ten!" I yelled. "Ten o'clock. For you it'll be PM. Ten o'clock at night, YOUR time," I replied. "Alright then, ten o'clock. You'd better be ready." With that, he hung up, and I did the same, then I sighed in relief as Hunteress delivered the last, crackling blow to her opponent who yelped in agony as he was thrown to the ground losing consciousness.

She leapt back to where I resided, and grabbed the collar to my fairly refurbished costume, and held her fist high. "I oughtta pummel you..." she threatened. But then, her eyes moved as if to reconsider, and she said, "Well, maybe you'll come in handy as a scapegoat...you're already pretty beat up now." She let me go and we continued through the maze.

After a while of searching, we hit a dead end. "Great," Hunteress sighed. She looked around. She then put her head to the ground and listened for vibrations once again. She looked to be disappointed. "What's wrong?" I wondered. She looked back to me. "We can't jump the bushes, there are at least two dozen guards spanning across the next area."

"I can take 'em!" I said triumphantly, with cane in hand, but soon fell to knees as pain gripped my legs. She shook her head in disgust and sat down. With head resting on her hands.

Beside us were a few large vases that contained some plant-like structures within. I hobbled over to one and decided to take a sit down, but as I passed over the tile that lay beneath one of the vases, my cane struck something; something that seemed...hollow.

Hunteress leapt to her feet at the sound of it. She rushed over to the tile and grabbed my rattan cane. "Give that to me!" She said, as I lost my footing and fell onto the hollow tile beneath.

She poked at the floor which made a dull, thud-like sound. From upon the ground I spoke, "You have your own spear, you know..." Hunteress looked to her back, where a long, thin spear was being held by a small pouch. "Oh yeah," she said, and threw the cane back atop me.

With ease she moved the heavy pot, and then proceeded to lift the tile beneath. She had hit the jackpot, for underneath was a small hole that led to the underground.

"Hmmm, this is interesting," she said to herself. She then jumped down the hole, leaving me on the grass.

I crawled to the dark hole that led to the unknown, and silently yelled. "Hey! What about me..."

Without warning, I heard a sort of 'thunk' sound, and before I knew it a small dart with a line attached to it had sprung up from the hole, narrowly missing my face, and it dug into the ground beside me.

"Did it hit you?" a feminine voice echoed from below, almost as if to indicate she was hoping for what she said. "Unfortunately for you, no,"
I replied hanging the cane upon my shoulder, and sliding down the rope.

The environment that surrounded me looked nothing like a cavern, instead it looked like a well-developed factory, with fluorescent lights that scattered upon the ceiling above, and pipes that flowed through and around. A peculiar smell also entered my noise, and patches of billowy smoke could be seen faintly some distance away from within a small doorway of a dark room.

"Hurry up! Let's go!" she said to me, motioning me to pick up the pace. She quickly went for the dark room, and entered it. Following her, I hobbled my way toward the room where she went. But interrupting my slow passage, was a loud shriek that came from where I feared it might be...the room where Hunteress had just entered. I frantically picked up the pace and entered the depths of the blackened room, to investigate the whereabout of the sudden scream...