Under The Veil of Night

"Sure."

The four of them scattered. Each of them brought a watch because they wouldn’t know how long time has passed without it. In the woods, it was hard for them to notice anyone else.

Kanae slipped into the woods very quickly. Her agile movement made her located pretty far from the others. She climbed a tree and used the leaves to cover her body. For the first two hours, she was going to try shooting the others.

Shiro had similar thoughts. He had to hide because he would lose if he got engaged in a physical fight. Among the four of them, he was obviously the weakest one.

Jason and Tommy headed in the same direction. The two of them stopped near a slightly open area.

"Are you ready to get beaten up?" Jason smirked.

Tommy readied his sword and smiled back. "Anytime you’re ready."

The two of them clashed their swords. With his big sword, Jason immediately attacked and used the weight of the sword to his advantage. The edges of the swords were blunt, but it still hurt very much if they got hit.

Clang! Clang!

Jason attacked from the front and Tommy parried it as he moved to the side, but Jason had already swung the sword and blocked Tommy’s counterattack. The two of them darted back and forth continuously.

In the end, Jason attacked Tommy’s hand, and the sword fell. Before Tommy got the chance to retrieve it, the large sword already rested on his neck.

"You lost," Jason smirked.

Tommy sighed. He stretched out his hand. "Give me the paper then."

Jason gave the paper to Tommy as he sheathed his sword. At this moment, he sensed danger and quickly moved backward, but felt that something hit his chest. He noticed the blue paint and sighed in defeat.

Turning his head, he noticed that Tommy also got hit straight in the head with the blue paint. On his back, there was also orange paint.

"Kanae!" Tommy bellowed angrily. He had just lost and now he got hit by Kanae.

"Shiro is not far from here too," Jason pointed to the orange paint that he managed to avoid. However, that was exactly the reason he got hit by Kanae’s shot.

Shiro clicked his tongue. He knew that Jason’s senses had heightened, so he waited until the two of them relaxed and put their guard down slightly. Who would have thought that Kanae also chose that time to shoot and hid her bullets behind his?

"But with this, I know your location," Shiro shifted his gun. He was about to shoot when he got hit right on the feet with blue paint. Following suit, green paint made its way near his arm.

Jason clicked his tongue because he noticed that he missed Shiro. He immediately moved his gun and with a smirk, he shot at Tommy, who wanted to shoot him.

"You don’t hide your intent that well."

With this, Tommy was splattered with paint all over his body. His face darkened and he started to shoot towards Jason rapidly while Jason immediately fled far away from that place. None of Tommy’s shots reached him.

In dejection, Tommy tried to flee and hide. His best option was encountering Shiro because he knew very well that he couldn’t beat Kanae.

Shiro jumped down from the tree and immediately got hit in the chest by Kanae’s shot. She was already waiting for him to climb down in front of her. Shiro aimed his gun, but she moved towards him rapidly and her other hand took out her blunt sword. She used it to hit Shiro’s hand and then pointed towards the man’s stomach.

"You got me," Shiro sighed.

Kanae gave him her paper then moved back a few steps. "I almost got hit too."

"But you didn’t," Shiro looked towards the orange paint not far from her dejectedly. This meant that Kanae could evade his shoot even at close range. Oh well, close range fight was never his specialty.

"You need to invent more fancy tricks for shooting," Kanae grinned.

"I’ll do that."

After that, the two of them moved backwards instantly, but Shiro noticed that his arm was splotched with green paint. He cursed internally. This was the reason he hated close range shooting. His reaction speed was not that fast.

"Hello, Brother Jason," Kanae smirked and then ran towards Jason rapidly. Her fast movement caused Jason to be stunned. This brat has reached an even faster speed.

He immediately readied his gun and shot towards Kanae while Shiro followed suit. However, facing two guns no longer fazed Kanae as she reached Jason in mere seconds.

Jason took out his sword and swung it hard towards Kanae, but the girl moved behind Jason, so Shiro’s shot reached Jason instead of her. He managed to block it with his sword, but then he felt Kanae’s sword on his back.

"You win," he sighed. "You should have used the weights when you came out. We can’t match you if you don’t."

Jason took Kanae’s paper while the girl looked towards Jason weirdly. "I’m still wearing them. Can’t you see?"

She waved her hand and it was clear that the weight was still there. It had limited her hand movement very much, but she still moved at a speed that Jason couldn’t hope to reach.

"The last one should be Tommy."

Kanae had given out two of her papers to them. On the side, Shiro cursed slightly. He had used up all of his paint bullets already.

"I can only run and hide for the rest of the time."

"Shall we have a match, Shiro?" Jason smirked while he readied his sword. His gun was also finished as he used too many bullets trying to hit Kanae and Shiro previously.

The two men moved towards each other while Kanae already ran into the woods again. She still needed to find Tommy, so she could not relax yet. Her nimble footwork brought her deeper into the woods as she scanned around cautiously.

"Let me go!"

Jason already defeated Shiro and gave the latter his paper when he heard Tommy’s scream. His face contorted instantly. If Tommy was only facing Kanae, his voice wouldn’t be this desperate. Without much thinking, he sprinted towards where the voice came from.

Shiro was also stunned. He quickly followed after Jason with his gun ready. This was a real weapon that he brought with him. Although they didn’t plan to use their real weapons against each other, they would not walk around without any protection.

"Hey, who are you?" Tommy struggled hard to release himself from the grab of a big man. He was almost twice the height of Tommy, which made him look scary in the boy’s eyes.

"I should be the one asking you that. This place is not the place for a kid to wander around," the man replied back.

"I’m not wandering around, I’m here with my friends," Tommy struggled.

On the side, Kanae already arrived, but she did not show herself. She had the feeling that she shouldn’t appear in front of that man. However, if Tommy were in danger, she would certainly step forward.