Alpha Squad - Vecto: Voyage

Part 8.6

(Previously: Shadow defeats Vecto, but Chais isn't backing down. He tells Shadow that he was going to follow Vecto to get the bounty on Morphaal but he now has a change of plans.)

Shadow was curious and listened.

"You said Vecto was higher on the hit-list than Morphaal," Chais continued. "Which means if I take you down and cash in on Vecto, then beat Morphaal, I'll be set for quite some time."

Shadow couldn't help but laugh. "You—you think you can beat Morphaal? And on top of that—me? You're delusional!"

"Without that surprise attack, you couldn't beat Vecto. You said it yourself," Chais said. He stuck the sword in the road and gripped the upside-down handle. "Well I've got some surprises of my own!"

Chais quickly dashed for Shadow, drug his blade in the concrete, and then slashed it upward. Shadow dodged the blade and wacked Chais in his wide-open side with his sheath.

But Chais switched the direction he held his sword and used the gravity to his advantage, coming down with the blade with both arms as if he was stabbing him with an oversized knife.

Shadow spun around to the back of Chais and jabbed the end of his sheath into him. Chais stumbled forward and ended up jabbing his sword into concrete.

"So you want to beat me so you can cash in on Vecto instead, huh?" Shadow remarked, hovering his hand around the handle of his katana. "Some friend!"

"You're one to talk!" Chais yelled back, coming at him.

"There's more to it than that," Shadow said, dodging Chais' random swings and kicking him in the chest.

Chais fumbled back a few feet. He needed his trench coat, but it was a few yards away. If only he could move the fight enough to reach it, he could make use of some of his gadgets.

Chais heard a swish and felt a gush of wind but didn't even see Shadow budge.

Shadow had his hand on the handle of his katana. He stood in front of Chais, watching as a diagonal slash mark appeared on a ruined building far behind Chais. He tilted his head to the side as the whole corner of the building slid off the rest of the building from the cut, crashing to the surface.

Chais looked back in enough time to witness the cut section explode into pieces. He could see strands of his hair twirling in the air away from him. That's when he realized that Shadow had slashed at him, missed him on purpose and sent energy from his blade into the building. It was a warning.

"Come on now-what are you starin' at? Leave already!" Shadow ordered.

Chais watched Vecto's orb lifelessly roll into some scrap metal. "You—you just took him out like nothin'!"

"Yeah, so—I know him—know him all too well," Shadow said, sliding his sword back in its sheath. "He's nothing without his shields. You've gotta strike first—when he's not expecting it. It's the only way you'll win against him."

(Will Chais give up or continue the fight? Find out more in the next installment of Vecto: Voyage!)