- Do you have the strength to support your words? 

Hearing that, the criminal V launched himself towards Travis who was waiting for him.

*CLANK*

A loud metallic sound resonated through the street, echoing softly till completely gone, replaced by the chirp of both V’s and Travis’ sword pushing against each other.

- That’s the best you can do? - Travis said with a confident smile on his face, looking V straight in the eyes.

His bosses had warned him that this specific agent shouldn’t be taken lightly, but V thought they were overestimating his opponent, or worse, underestimating V. He hated that. He hated the fact that they always gave him the “easier” jobs because of his impulsiveness and unconcern. But tonight was his chance to prove them wrong, because tonight, he had come prepared.

Changing his expression from a frown to a subtle smile, V strengthened his grip, draw his face closer to his wrist and said almost letting out a laugh

- Now

At that moment, Travis knew he was in danger. He instantly pushed V with all his strength, using the inertia to bounce himself back and took a look around.

- Shit - he grumbled.

They were fighting at a crossroads so there were four buildings directly around them, and from each one of them, two figures came out directly towards Travis.

This fake agent called V wasn’t alone, he had people waiting for the right moment to ambush him. And it had worked perfectly.

From one moment to another, he went from a one on one which he was confident he could win, to a one on nine where he was surrounded by fully armed criminals, some with big double handed swords, some with one handed swords and one with what seemed to be a pair of daggers one on each hand, and couldn’t escape.

Travis used all his brainpower to find a solution, but couldn’t find any. So, he did the only thing that seemed possible, which was the craziest and riskier, but he was confident on his skills to pull it off.

V was confused. He knew Travis wouldn’t freak out just by some number disadvantage, but he never expected him to just stand there, sword down, like accepting his fate. But he wasn’t going to complain, in the end, the faster and easier he completed the mission, the more chances he would have of gaining the respect he thought he deserved from his comrades and superiors.

He lowered his sword and with a snap of his fingers the eight other guys started closing up on Travis. One step, two steps, five… But the agent didn’t move an inch. V didn’t know why, but he got pretty annoyed by Travis’ attitude so, losing the little patience that characterized him, he shouted to his allies:

- Hurry up and get him you monkeys

At this command, the eight guys jumped all at once to finish the job.

This was it. The moment he’d been waiting for.

Before anyone could react, Travis flexed his knees and with every inch of strength he had, jumped right towards V, who had a confused and terrified look on his face. He tried ordering his allies to defend him, but no one could do anything about it because all of them were focused on the offensive, just like V had ordered.

Travis’ plan was simple: wait for them to get close, rush to V, tackle him and escape through that opening. The thing is that, he couldn’t be sure if they were going to get closer, or attack him, or if they would even move since they didn’t need to, but he had a hunch that V would be too impatient and would act without thinking, so he trusted his gut and let it flow.

Surprised by the agent’s sudden attack, V did the only thing he could think of and tried to stop him with a cut of his sword. He lifted it up above his right shoulder with both his hands and bounced it back as fast as he could, but with no time to get ready, the blow was easily evaded by a swift movement from Travis and in the span of a second, a shoulder hit V directly on both his arms (that were holding his sword in front of his body) and knocked him into the ground.

Taking this opportunity, Travis got back on his feet as fast as he could, and started running the opposite way of his house. This wasn’t a coincidence, he chose that direction mainly for two reasons. Number one, he didn’t want to lure them into his own home for obvious reasons, and number two, he wanted to take advantage of the fact that this was his neighborhood, he knew this place like the palm of his hand.

From the distance, he could hear V’s screams and taking a peek backwards saw him standing up while the other eight guys were starting to chase after him.

Turning left and right, he started to navigate the streets and alleys, taking shortcuts and avoiding the main streets because he didn’t want to accidentally run into people and put them at risk.

A couple of minutes passed by and Travis started to notice something. Instead of losing them, it seemed that this guys were getting closer and closer. Not only that, sometimes one or two disappeared and a minute later appeared right where Travis was going, as if they knew where the shortcuts were and what was the agent doing.

Getting more and more frustrated and annoyed, Travis started making mistakes, tripping from time to time and slowing down like he didn’t know where else to go. Noticing this, V and his guys started catching up even more and, being the asshole he was, the leader of the criminals couldn’t hold any longer and shouted:

- What’s the deal Mr. Agent? Getting tired already? You should give yourself up and make this easier for all of us

Grunting and running, all that Travis did was lift his right hand with only his middle finger up.

That was more than enough for V’s ego to shatter and as angry as he could get, he took something out of his left pocket and threw it at Travis, hitting him in the left side of his lower back.

As soon as he took the thing out, pain started irradiating from the wound that the little knife V had thrown him just a second ago. The injury itself wasn’t that bad, but Travis knew that he wouldn’t be able to run much more before starting to really struggle. So, even against his will, he had to use his last resource plan.

So, after a couple more turns, Travis and his pursuers were back at the main street where they first ambushed him. They ran for another five or 10 minutes when Travis heard one of the guys shout to his companions:

- Boss! I think he’s leading us to his house, he must be up to something!

- It doesn’t matter, we are nine against one, and he can’t defeat us all!

The first thig that drew Travis’ attention was that they knew where he lived. This wasn’t normal since not that many people knew, which meant that this guys had been interested in him for a while and have been following his steps very closely. Travis though about this and felt very disappointed on himself for not noticing earlier.

On the other hand, the second thing was a good one. The guy said that he was ‘luring them to his house’ and that ‘it could be a trap’. The thing is that, only one of those was true. He was leading them into a trap, yes, but not on his house.

His last resource was not on his house, but beside it.

It was a big old building that had been abandoned for years. Travis had heard that it was an office building that got caught on fire in an accident that severely damaged the structure and foundations so it wasn’t safe anymore and on top of that the owner couldn’t afford the repairs.

There was a yellow tape, like the one police used for crime scenes and such, surrounding the entire building so no one would enter by mistake because it could collapse at any minute. Of course, Travis’ house was at a safe distance so it wouldn’t get caught in the mess so it was safe for him living there.

He went straight into the building, breaking the tape with no effort before disappearing inside, with V and his subordinates following closely.

There were obviously no lights inside and as it was around 5 a.m. there wasn’t sunlight coming through the windows either so everyone would have to slow down if they didn’t want to trip over some of the debris or the remaining of desks and office supplies.

Agent Travis didn’t waste this opportunity. He had come inside the building once or twice just to take a look out of curiosity so he knew his way around the first two or three floors.

He went right to the stairs and stopped at the third floor. Shouts could be heard in the distance confirming that they had followed him inside and, based on the volume of the voices, they were just entering the building.

Travis went to a corner behind a desk, or what was left of it, and sat on the floor with both legs extended. The first thing he did was to breath in and out a couple of times to calm down. Then, he checked his wound. It had stopped bleeding because it wasn’t very deep and the pain was manageable. Lastly, he started to think about his options. He could just wait and hide or try to escape, but rapidly discarded the idea since there were nine people looking for him and the place wasn’t big enough for them not see him at some point. Fighting them wasn’t an option either. Even if he could manage to isolate them and fight them one on one, he’ll get worn off at some point.

While thinking about what to do, Travis heard V’s voice coming from what he assumed was the second floor.

- We don’t have much time left so we are splitting. Each of you pick a floor and start searching. I’ll wait on the first floor in case he tries to escape. If anyone finds him don’t try to fight, just warn the rest of us and we’ll come to you. Understood?

- Yes sir! - all of them responded at once so it could be clearly heard from Travis’ hideout.

- Excellent. Now, go!

V’s order was followed by the loud sound of steps climbing up the stairs. They passed the agent’s floor and kept going until he couldn’t hear them anymore.

A couple of seconds later, one pair of steps was remaining on the third floor. The person started to carefully search for the agent, probably looking behind everything he found.

If he could get rid of this guy, then he could try and escape to the exit on the first floor without having to fight anyone in the way, and lastly use all of his remaining strength to fight V and hopefully defeat him fast enough so the rest couldn’t get there in time.

So, he waited. He waited until the steps were close enough, then held his breath and waited a bit longer. Just when the person was right beside him, Travis knelt on one knee and using all his body weight tackled the guy to the floor.

As quickly as he could, he sat right on the poor man’s chest, both knees pinning his arms to the floor. With one hand on the guy’s mouth so he couldn’t scream to alert the others, Travis took a knife out of a pocket inside his robe and slipped it across the guy’s neck.

With a sharp sound produced by metal cutting flesh in one quick stroke, blood started flowing from the wound and a couple of seconds later, the man stopped fighting back as his conscious faded away with his lasts breaths.

Pulling away his hand, Travis knew he had to move fast. He hid the body behind the desk he had use to hide himself a minute ago, and, before going towards the stair, took a last peek at the person he had just killed.

The face was that of a young man probably on his 20s. He was really skinny which added to the shock before getting killed made his big eyes look even bigger. Wet trails ran down his face from the tears he had cried before dying. Travis didn’t like to kill, you can even say that he hated it, but it was part of the job and couldn’t be helped. He said a silent prayer and continued with his plan.

The agent walked down the stairs as quietly as he could, which took him longer that he’d wanted, but it was better to take his time than getting caught and have to fight eight people while wounded.

When he reached the first floor, he peeked over the side of the stairs just to find V’s figure standing right between him and the exit. Hiding again on the stairs, Travis analyzed his possibilities, but the only thing that seemed possible was to fight V and hope to win fast enough for no one to notice and escape.

While thinking, Travis saw something in the floor that gave him a great idea that might get him out of this situation: a pebble. He picked it up, took another quick look at V, prayed that his plan would work and with a quick movement of his wrist threw the little rock at the farthest wall.

The tiny piece of the building flew across the room and hit the wall with a loud sound, enhanced by the lack of furniture and stuff in the building, which made V instantly turn to the source of the sound.

Without missing his opportunity, Travis launched himself sword up ready to strike towards V,  who turned again when he heard the steps approaching. With a face of surprise, he lifted his sword on his right hand to intercept the agent’s attack while bringing his left wrist to his mouth. He wanted to contact his subordinates with a little bracelet-like device like he had done in the street, but Travis already knew what he would do and was ready for it. The attack was actually a faint. When only five meters separated both him and V, Travis took the bloody knife out of his pocket and threw it with his left hand, aiming for V’s face.

With barely any time to react, V moved his head to the right, leaving his entire left side open for an attack. Taking advantage of the opening, Travis swung his sword directly into V’s left arm. The latest tried moving it but he wasn’t fast enough, and the only thing he accomplished was to absorb the impact with the bracelet which broke almost instantly. But the sword didn’t stop there. It cut through V’s wrist with almost no resistance, stopping only when hitting the bone.

With a scream that resembled a ghostly screech, V withdrew himself with a jump back, dropping his sword and reaching his wrist with his hand to stop the bleeding.

Travis lost balance when his sword got released from V’s arm, but recomposed fairly quick and taking again a battle stance. Looked at V before saying:

- It’s over, you can’t fight and no one is coming to help you

- Shut up! I can still beat you and prove everyone that didn’t trust me what I’m capable of!

Letting out a big sight, Travis started walking towards V while speaking calmly 

- You should turn yourself in and make this easier for all of us

V’s expression was a mix of pain, hatred and anger. He was looking at his wounded arm while desperately thinking of a solution that could get him out of this alive. He was running out of time, but when he raised his eyes, his lips curved into a grin before starting laughing and saying in a soft but chilly voice:

- No, Mr. Agent, you are the one who has lost

A second later, a familiar sound came from Travis’ back, and he knew he had fucked up really big.