Part 2:

Bending down, I forcefully pull the headless V-Unit’s wrist to once again attract out its dorsal hand blade. With its wrist already being loose and fragile from one of the mystery man’s flurry slashes, I perform a slight tear and in result disembody its wrist from the rest of its arm. Now in my hand is a small, compact, sharp knife-like object. Sure, this knife-like object holds a very strange hilt of that being the clenched fist and the blade itself is a bit on the short end than others, but if it can cause at least a bit of damage then maybe it can help me get me out of unwanted confrontations. Yes! I think I can do this!

“Sorry buddy but I’m gonna need a hand from you, is that all right?”

I smugly look down at the cadaver of the headless V-Unit, smirking.

“Heh, my pleasure.”

With my defense mechanism stored in my back pocket, I run out of this dead-end alleyway and initiate my search for the troubled white-haired girl.

As I am running, I begin to wonder where Mr. Poetry went. For a guy who was visibly having trouble walking straight the first time I saw him, he sure is quick on his toes. He’s not even in the alleyway anymore, huh. Well, I guess if you’re working with three others then you’d have to keep up with them to make sure the plan and formation doesn’t fail. Teamwork… I’ve never been a fan. All those school projects where we had to work in pairs or a group of four infuriated me. I don’t know, maybe I’m just selfish and just keep to myself all the time. Though this situation is different. Grr… now’s not the time to reminisce and complain, Joseph! Gotta focus on the task at hand here!

Exiting out of the dead-end, I make a sharp left, the complete opposite direction from where I entered. 

Now, I’m back to the mazes. But what’s the next approach from here? I’m still running but I have no set direction in mind. Trying to memorise and write a map of the alleyway in my head is a no-go, I’ll only be here all night and well- my memory isn’t serving me justice right now. Not only that but I don’t really have a set destination either. Sure, if I manage to find a small girl with hair white as snow then I’m golden. But, I can’t guarantee that she’s staying in one place hiding or on the run. She might as well be running away from me, distancing us even further and thus making my favour harder to accomplish. God, I get myself into dumb, silly and risky predicaments sometimes but this- this is something else.

Coming upon an intersection splitting down to three different paths, I skid my shoes to a halt as I am left dumbfounded. Just as I feared, damnit! Out of pure spite and impatience, I impulsively start to move my feet again and head down the alley through the middle. Just like the last, the alleyway begins to darken as the walls begin to narrow in, and here I thought my eyes already got used to the darkness. I just hope this was the best option out of the three. Suddenly, a wave of doubt overshadows me. Was this really the best option? Oh for god’s sake! Why am I only thinking about this now!? Why am I always doing this to mys-

My inner thoughts are abruptly put aside as the familiar and unsightly gaze of two blood red bulbs somehow materialize in front of me.

“Shit-!”

I instinctively put up an x-shaped crossguard with my arms. The subtle V-Unit that I am now facing lashes out an attack, coming into contact with my forearms. The pain of the clash spread through the rest of my arms to my shoulders, what the hell was that force?! From the dull pain I’m feeling, I was hit with a blunt weapon. A staff? A pipe? Whatever it is, I’m glad it wasn’t a blade. I got lucky.

I push the weapon away with what little power I have left in my forearms. Damn, that impact really drained me. With the push, I distance myself and stand clear, trying to get a better sight of it. I can’t predict its movements without knowing its stature. Just as I think I’m ready for another swing, its eyes flicker off, concealing itself once more. It’s using the darkness to its advantage! These things are relentless! Now I have to take into account where it's going to attack too, goddamnit… 

Slowly, I reach out for the V-Unit dorsal blade I extracted earlier. My arms begin to give out and ache as I reach for my back pocket but by withstanding that pain, I manage to take grasp of the clenched fist and pull it out. Forcefully pushing it down, the blade reveals itself. As I am still adapting to my pain and surroundings, the V-Unit flashes its eyes again, indicating its next move. They appeared in front of me too, now’s a good time to put this to good use. Its eyes are bright enough to give me its form and stance. With that to go off, I should make this execution quick, my arms are killing me right now. The Unit encores another downward swing intending to knock me out. Foreseeing it, I swiftly sidestep away from the impact and with its back bent down from the swing, I advance in and stab the neck of the V-Unit. I follow up with another stab to its midsection, hoping I can cut off something major that will interfere with its systems. 

Its eyes begin to flicker. After another second, they begin to flicker faster. That’s not a good sign, crap! With the dorsal blade still jabbed into the body of the Unit, I kick it away and retract the blade to me. As the V-Unit falls backwards, its eye bulbs suddenly combust. Looks like I accidentally cut the wrong thing, the thing went haywire it seems. 

The Unit lies there, dead and static as a plank. Well whatever I did, it was a good move. 

Still, I can’t call it here just yet… I have to keep moving… Even if my arms are still killing me.