The man frowned, then nodded and turned towards the door. "Don't try anything funny. Augustine–"
"Yeah, they'll kill us. We got the message, and like he said, we're not idiots," Karia sighed, getting a little tired of all this 'being cautious' stuff. He understood it, but it was still annoying. The guard opened the door and pushed it open for them.
"You've got some visitors, Augustine." He called into the room before waving for them to enter. Karia gave him a nod and walked into the room.
Sam put his hands back in his pockets, holding back a smirk. This would be much more fun than what the guard could ever think. Sam followed Karia into the room, staying by his side and looking at who he assumed to be Augustine.
Karia glanced back slightly when the door shut behind him, then turned towards Augustine. They were sitting behind a very neat desk, glaring at both of them. Or that might have just been their neutral face. Karia couldn't tell. They had long, dark blue hair pulled back in a braid and a very fancy-looking suit, making them look a bit like a really mad businessperson.
"What do you want?" Augustine asked, glare deepening as they looked from Sam to Karia.
"We've come to join you," Sam said, speaking up. He'd wait a bit longer, just the shortest bit before he struck. He'd keep Augustine's attention on him, then the moment they shifted to Karia he'd make his move.
"You've come to help me?" Augustine raised one eyebrow, looking very skeptical. "Why?"
"Well, because you're the best one out of all of them." Karia shrugged as Augustine turned towards him. "Everyone else is over-the-top or really crazy. You're neither of those." He gave Augustine a bright smile.
"Plus, why the hell not. Seems like fun." Sam didn't wait for Augustine to have the opportunity to look back to him as he said this, lunging forward with his blade. He was grinning like a mad man, going for Augustine's face. If the person didn't teleport away, or just dodged, it would be game over.
Karia watched in delight as Sam shot forward. Augustine's brown eyes widened slightly and they disappeared, reappearing a couple of feet to the left.
"Assassins," They growled, a knife seeming to simply appear in their hand. Karia moved towards the door, ready to either intercept them if they tried to escape or stop the guard man from coming in to help. This way, Sam could just focus on Augustine and nothing else.
Sam laughed some.
"That implies that this is going to kill you," the man said, moving to slash at the person again.
"But all I want to is add to my collection!" Sam seemed to be talking himself a bit more seriously now, just a bit more than with Harina.
"You're what?" Augustine jumped out of the way, seeming a little too confused to fight back just yet. Karia snickered, moving to lean against the door. A second later, the doorknob began to turn– the guard had probably heard something suspicious. Karia quickly stopped it from turning any more and locked the door before the man could do anything.
Sam grinned, laughing some.
"My collection! I've already got Harina, but my next target was too shy to come out, so it's your turn~! You're lucky you're cute." Sam took advantage of Augustine's confusion, coming at him with a flurry of attacks in quick succession.
"Hey, make sure that guard doesn't get any reinforcements, we can't have any witnesses knowing what I look like~"
"Harina?" Augustine's eyebrows drew together a second before Sam attacked. They quickly teleported out of danger, appearing closer to the door and Karia.
"Don't worry, I will," Kaira sang, leaning against the door and kicking at Augustine so they would stay near Sam. They glared at him, but turned their attention back towards Sam. After all, he was the one with the knife.
"Mhm~! She's on the bed, gagged and bound right now~" Sam knew exactly how that would come across, and he found it hilarious that Augustine would never expect just what was going to happen when they were cut.
"Thank you!" Sam sang back, laughing again. "Now, en-garde! Enough with the dodging, and let's fight!" Sam pressed forward, laughing with a hard gleam in his eyes as he attacked again, keeping his attacks tight and well-controlled.
"What." Augustine sighed, seeming to have given up on understanding what Sam was saying. It was quite funny.
"Yeah, fight him!" Kaira yelled, clapping his hands a few times. "This teleporting thing is boring. I came to watch a show! Now, show us why you rose to power. Come on!" Augustine shot him a very angry look, then leveled the knife at Sam.
"Very well. Once I'm done with your friend, don't think I'll let you live." The words were directed at Karia, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Sure, sure." Karia rolled his eyes, watching with interest as Sam attacked Augustine again. This time, they didn't teleport out of the way. Instead, they attacked back.
"Perfect!" Sam cackled as Augustine attacked in turn, moving from the arch of the blade with ease. "I want to see what you can do before we finish this~!" Sam was perfectly fine putting on a show for Karia with this, grinning some. Now, he planned on getting out of this without a scratch, but that didn't mean he wouldn't have any fun with Augustine before they finished. Sam managed to cut the fabric of Augustine's sleeve, not cutting deep enough to get to their skin though.
Augustine seemed to be seething by now. They attacked again, probably really wanting to kill Sam. Kaira thought that was a funny thing: killing Sam. It probably could be done– after all, death came for everyone eventually– but not by Augustine. The door behind Karia rattled, reminding him that people were still trying to get in. Luckily, Augustine seemed to like sturdy doors, so they wouldn't be getting in until Augustine was gone. Karia watched as Sam landed a hit on Augustine, though it looked like it was just on their clothes and hadn't broken skin. That was fine. He could wait.
Sam couldn't help but laugh again when he saw how furious Augustine was, deep and cold and murderous. He had no concern about dying, especially not by Augustine's hand.
"Come on, come on, put some back into it!" Sam laughed more, growing bored. If this was all Augustine could do, Sam wasn't going to be interested in them for much longer. He pulled back, then lunged, going to slice Augustine's cheek.
Karia watched the two, feeling slightly let down. You would think that someone like Augustine would be just a bit better at fighting, but apparently not. They must have gotten power thanks to loyal people and just avoiding all fighting. Boring. He watched with interest as Sam jumped forward, aiming at Augustine's face. They moved out of the way, but not fast enough. A thin red line appeared on their face and Augustine huffed in annoyance, probably mad they'd been hit.
Sam laughed, pulling well away now, taking out a cloth to clean his knife off.
"I win~!" He purred. The man moved to sit on Augustine's desk, legs crossed. "Though, I must admit, it was quite boring. Hopefully someone will eventually put up a proper fight, yeah?" Sam looked over at Karia, humming some. He didn't even bother looking at Augustine as they steadily began to grow smaller and harder, taking on that classic porcelain sheen.
"You win?" Augustine frowned, probably trying to figure out how one small cut added up to them losing the fight. "What– what?" Their eyes grew large with panic as they started to change. Karia laughed loudly, slapping his hand against the door behind him.
"Sam's right, you know, it was pretty boring. Don't worry," he added, turning to Sam, "I'm sure we can find you someone interesting eventually." Karia smiled, then started forward a bit as the door jumped in its frame. He'd temporarily forgotten about the people on the other side of it. "Oh, Sam, I'm going to get the guy who brought us in. He saw you. I'll be right back." Karia turned towards the door and teleported through it.
Sam smirked at Augustine as he saw the panic rising in them, pushing off the desk to walk over and pick the rapidly shrinking person up.
"Alright, then," Sam said, looking over at Karia with his hand holding Augustine's torso. "Thank you~" Augustine in hand, Sam moved back to the desk, beginning to look the new doll over much like how he had with Harina.
"Damn, you really are lucky you're this cute," he mumbled, tilting Augustine's head up to face him to see if they had anything to say.
Karia appeared a little way down the hall from the door. Hammering at the door was the guard that let Sam and him in and two more people. This would be a sword job, which he didn't have. Karia quickly teleported to the apartment, grabbed a sword, and reappeared in Augustine's base. It was cheating, but it wasn't like anyone would be judging him. Thus, they also wouldn't be judging him for launching a sneak attack on the guards. Karia managed to kill two guards and get a pretty good hit on the main guy as well before anyone was ready to attack him.
"What– assassins." The man narrowed his eyes at him. Karia rolled his eyes and got into a ready position. The man charged at him, pulling two long knives out. Karia waited for a few seconds, then disappeared and reappeared behind the man. He didn't even get to turn around before Karia had plunged his sword into his heart.
Meanwhile, Augustine was fuming so much it was a miracle they didn't burst into flames. "You dare!" They exclaimed. Karia reappeared in the room and grinned at Sam.
"How are they doing?"
Sam couldn't help but chuckle as Karia really with the people outside the door, turning Augustine around in his hands. This time, there was nothing to stop the doll from completely shrinking, bringing them to about six inches instead of two feet like Harina. As the process was finishing, Sam used his thumb to keep Augustine's mouth open so they'd still need able to talk. Sam had a feeling he'd be doing that with everyone that would be part of this collection.
"Madder that Harina, actually. It's quite adorable." Sam laughed again, pushing off the desk while holding Augustine at his side. He moved to undo the doll's suit jacket, then to unbutton their shirt without actually taking anything off.
"Should we clean up the bodies, or just leave?"
"Oh, that really is adorable," Karia said, coming up next to Sam and peering at Augustine. The person was apparently so mad they coudln't even speak, instead making a series of spluttering noises. Finally, they seemed to calm down enough to say something.
"Rhees!" Augustine shouted. "Rhees!" Karia frowned in confusion at the doll, then looked over at Sam.
"Nah. It's too much work." He wrinkled his nose. "What or who is Rhees?"
"My second-in-command! Where is he?" Karia assumed that they meant the man who'd taken them in.
"Him? Oh, he's dead." He shrugged and held a hand out to Sam. "Ready to go?"
Sam snorted just a bit. Really, that was quite funny to him.
"Yes, quite ready. Damn, if I'd known he was second in command I might've tried to have some fun with him." Sam took Karia's hand, shoving Augustine unceremoniously into his pocket.
"And, I must say, it's quite fun seeing how furious these people get when they're defeated so easily."
"Oh, yeah. Don't worry, though, he wasn't even that good. Then again, I did cheat a bit. But still." Karia shrugged and teleported them back to the apartment the moment Sam took his hand. "You are right there. They think they're so great. It's wonderful to see them get kicked off their self-made pedestal." He laughed.
.jpg)
