"Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and speak with him as freely as with yourself."
— Seneca
"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
— Albert Camus
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Gesturing his fingers for a hand sign all the bullets in his body slowly got pulled out and his injuries healed,
"Damned bandits"Ruke scoffed turning the other way and running not towards amila but for the tavern, something was wrong, and he knew it.
(MINUTES EARLIER)
"Let's see how you make your way it of this ey??"fancho laughed stareing ruke in the eye but he instantly regretted it, rukes gaze vicious and bloodthirsty pierced through fancho like a crystal dagger and sent chills down his spine, Ruke was ready to drop fancho dead but he felt it, the talisman he had left with uda without her knowledge was emitting some weak aura, uda was in trouble and Ruke couldn't just start rushing towards the tavern with there guys here, he needed to act fast. While he stood thinking it hit him, he had had the opportunity to learn a regeneration technique from his time with the grandmasters and he planned on using that to his advantage.
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"Just hold on a little longer uda"Ruke thought racing for the tavern faster than he had ever ran before.
"We would've avoided this..., but had to be all stubborn didn't ya?..., not like I didn't want this but you know, following my brother's orders and all"lang smiled his grip tight on uda's hair while she bled out almost unconscious, she had been used to destroy most of the taverns barrels and tables and had a visible broken arm.
"Just tell us what we need and we'll be on our way"ling said he stood some few meters away from lang and uda and had watched his brother rough handle uda
"We don't have to take this torture anymore further than we have right?" He continued
"You....you won't get away...u..untouched after this"uda managed to say before getting her face slammed by lang on the floor hard enough to kill her but by some miracle she wasn't dead
"Not so rough lang...we still need her alive, at last for the meantime"lang smiled impatiently, they needed answers and soon, they wanted info on the fighter earlier who singled handedly fought off their bosses thugs with no effort at all as they reported
"Is he really that strong?"lang thought his gaze diverting to uda who still remained conscious after getting beaten up so bad,
"We've waited enough brother..., kill and and dispose off her same place you dumped her sons body, too bad I had to reunite with him as a corpse as well"lang ordered already standing to leave
"Dispose huh?"a voice asked from behind, lang hadn't senced anyone walk in so who the hell was behind him, he tried turning around but couldn't in time before being kicked towards the other side of the tavern sending him slamming hard against the counter leading to the backroom.
"Brother!!.., you're gonna die..., you really are gonna die"ling yelled rushing towards ruke but was too slow as Ruke was already standing behind him.
"Too slow"Ruke huffed grabbing ling by the throat at forcing him into the taverns wooden floor making sure that much wasn't enough to kill him, he then walked towards uda who was still consious but finding it difficult to breath
"Sorry for taking too long uda....sorry"Ruke apologized making a hand sign and placing his palm on uda's chest. In no time most of her fatal injuries were healed
"That's the best I can do for someone else....., hold on.....hlps on the way"Ruke said getting up and walking towards lang who had already gotten up from the counter area and was now making his way towards ruke
"You get a cheap shot now you think you're a bigshot huh?"lang asked stoping right in front of Ruke stareing into his eyes
"Did you do it?...."Ruke asked, he was really pissed and was trying his best not to kill lang where he stood
"Do what??"lang asked a smile on his face
"Who injured her?....who was it?"Ruke asked his fist tightly clenched against each other
"And what if it was me....what if I did....."lang said but wasn't able to complete his sentence when he got bashed on face by Ruke so hard he fell down with a broken nose. Yelling in agony Ruke grabbed his collar pulling him back up
"Who sent you?..."Ruke asked throwing him towards the wall with enough force to make him cough out some amount of blood from his mouth then Ruke approached him, his eyes and whole demeanor bloodthirsty
"What??...."lang asked, he had his nose wrapped by his palms and hadn't hard the question but Ruke wasn't there to play and had no interest in playing good cop or bad cop with him, pulling out a dagger Ruke sliced langs right thumb off
"I hate repeating myself, I need. Answers and fast, waste anymore of my time and watch your fingers row one after the other until you're left with none"Ruke threatened wiping off the blood on his dagger on langs suit. A while past and Ruke was able to get his answer walking out of the tavern he headed for the hill north of azula, they had a hideout there, a villa lang had confessed even revealing his bosses name to Ruke. Help had arrived and uda had already been taken to a hospital, while the two who had attacked uda had already been taken care of.
"Tell me don't you just like it here?....., I mean it's just too freaking amazing ain't it?"fancho asked forcing some sa'ke down amilas throat
"Don't worry..., I'll make you feel so special tonight after our engagement party I mean" he continued taking a huge gulp of sa'ke from the bottle in front of him
"I'd rather die than get married to a maniac like you....let me go!!"amila yelled struggling to get free but couldn't. She had been tied tightly against the bed upstairs.
"Then I'll make sure to fulfill that wish of yours"fancho replied raising the glass on his arm high "to out marriage"he toasted taking another sip from the glass when suddenly he heard some commotion downstairs which he immediately stood to go check out.
"What's all these commotion about!!?"fancho asked angrily but was taken back wen he saw a severed arm on the floor with no one bleeding from the inside and the window broken there was no doubt in his mind that the arm had come from outside
"What the hell?"he yelled taking a closer look at the arm and instantly noticing it belonged to one of them "that's...that's ...that's langs arm,"fancho asked surprised, he knew the arm belonged to lang as his wristwatched was still there, feeling nauseous and having the sudden urge to puke fancho pulled himself together walking towards the front door and forcing it open when he found Ruke standing outside a rope on his arm and langs corpse attached to it.
"How on hells name are you still alive....., I ..I saw you die!!"fancho yelled angrily not being able to compose himself any longer,as lang had been his best friend since they were kids.
"Sorry I think I failed to introduce myself earlier"Ruke said letting go off the rope and slowly approaching fancho who by instinct started staggering back making sure he kept some meters between he and the man in front of him.
"I'm Ruke..., what's your name?"Ruke introduced rushing in for the kill but was obstructed by one of fanchos thug who had tried slashing through Ruke but failed as Ruke had seen it coming and had evaded before time
"If you really crave death..., then I'll give it to you!!"Ruke yelled decapitating the man in front of him. Terrified fancho ran back into the villa leaving his thugs with just one order "kill him....kill him.... somebody just kill him!!!"he yelled.
"What's going on?"amila asked confused watching fancho run back upstairs, his smile had disappeared, his demeanor was no more and he had blood all over his face
"Why ain't he dead?, why didn't he die?.....how is he still alive"he questioned himself walking to the corner of the room and grabbing a gun from underneath his bed "what's going on?"amila asked her heart racing like never before,"what's the commotion downstairs about?..., whys fancho panicking?..., has Ruke come to save me.....?...no but I saw him get shut, no one could survive that?....."her mind raced alongside her heart, as much as she wanted to believe he was still alive, she couldn't get the picture of him being brutally shot multiple times out of her mind "am I to blame for his death?"she thought some droplets of tears rolling down her chin when the door to the room upstairs got kicked open and a bloodlusted,blood covered angry Ruke walked in.
"Don't come any closer!!"fancho yelled, he had already held amila hostage pointing the gun at her threatening to shot if ruke moved
"After all I've done...you think doing that can keep you safe from me?"Ruke asked letting out a cocky and wicked smirk before suddenly appearing behind fancho.
"I'm quite disappointed" he whispered slicing fanchos head off with his katana. With that done Ruke proceeded to freeing amila when she hugged him tightly.
"I thought you died....., I saw you get shot...how the hell are you still alive?"amila asked an endless stream of tears pouring down her eyes while Ruke could only stand still stareing at her.
The day went by fast after this event, the gunshots heard from the villa had invited unwanted attention and the whole mountain was filled with agents. Ruke had also told amila about uda being attacked and had taken her to the hospital to see er mom who laid unconscious on the bed.
"She'll be ok right?....I've already lost a brother..., I don't wanna have to lose a mother"she asked sitting beside uda but Ruke remained silent and hadn't moved from the spot he was since they arrived
"I'll go get some soda, yu want one?"amila asked standing and approaching the door
"None, thanks"Ruke replied
"You gotta have something, c'mon it's my treat"amila persuaded
"So what should I get you?"amila asked again assured Ruke would give her an answers this time
"Anything will do"Ruke replied
"Ok then....I'll be back in a sec"amila responded almost instantly before walking out. As soon as she did uda opened her eyes, this was no surprise to Ruke as he had known for a while now that uda was conscious but pretended to be unconscious waiting for a perfect time to have a word with him.
"What is your name?"uda asked her voice as low as a whisper as she had yet any strength the yell
"Ruke"Ruke replied but uda quickly said he lied and asked for his real name
"What's your name....., don't act like yu don't know what I'm talking about, I know you're a drax, an assasin....., I just wanna know your name"uda said awaiting a response from Ruke.