"Okay, that's enough."

Stopping her underlings from beating the s.h.i.+t out of the counterfeiter caught spreading fake currency in her territory, the boss stepped forward as her one arm started heating up.

"You're quite funny a one."

"Yeah, my daughter thinks so as well. Although when I tell too many jokes it tends to end exactly like this… My name is Dax, nice to meet you miss Sami, leader of the only syndicate in the As'li lands together with your brother Mirza, how is business?"

"... Kill him."

The ident.i.ty of Sami was supposed to be a tightly kept secret that only the top of the organization was privy to, the very fact that some outsider knew about that was enough to warrant his death, moreover, Sami felt that there was something off about him. As they heard her order, the faces of her subordinates turned serious as they drew their weapons and closed in on the handcuffed moron.

"Are you sure this is what you want to do miss Sami?"

Standing up on his feet the counterfeiter started emitting bloodl.u.s.t so dense that it made Sami's subordinates freeze in fear before he continued talking.

"Take a good look around you, do you really think I would just let myself be captured like this without some sort of backup plan?"

Sami felt like she was being tested by something she didn't fully understand, there was something about Dax's smile and complete confidence which told her extensive experience which had kept her alive for so long.

"Who are you really?"

"You're finally asking the right question~ Now who I am is complicated, but what I am is quite simple."

Snapping his handcuffs with no visible amount of effort Dax peeled the metal cuffs off his hands and compacted them into small lumps like they were made of soft clay.

"I am either of two things to you miss Sami, a threat or a long term business partner that will make you and your organization rich."

"..."

Stopping herself from saying what she was about to say in response, Sami made her arms heat up with such intensity that it left singes on her white s.h.i.+rt as her jacket fell to the ground.

"Are you sure about this?"

"I don't know if you've heard outsider, but this is the lands of As'li. This is how we solve things around here."

"Well, that works out perfectly for me."

Putting up his fists in a high guard with a smile on his face, Dax started inching closer to Sami as her subordinates backed off while observing the fight that was about to start.

(No gaps at all… This guy is good.)

Judging her opponent, Sami immediately realized the calibre of opponent she was up against and acted accordingly.

"Wow, those hands are hot~ How are you not hurting yourself with those?"

Apparently still with some leeway to talk, Dax still had a smile on his face as he stopped moving closer to Sami and let her come to him. Breathing in sharply Sami closed into strike range as she sidestepped a punch from Dax before hooking with her right, aiming to destroy his defences in one strike. Right before her punch landed, Sami broke open her closed fist and instead chose to let her claws do work for her as they dug into Dax's arm while the smell of burned flesh spread throughout the closed office.

"Nice technique, too bad about the speed."

With lighting fast movements Dax used his damaged hand to grip onto Sami's still extended one, dragging her in as he moved his still guarding right arm in position and struck her jaw with his elbow while moving past her.

"Gha!"

Falling to the floor Sami felt faint as her ears rung with the impact of Dax's strike, but that didn't stop her as she rushed to her feet once more, although still a bit unstable.

"Well, would you look at that. I held back to make sure I didn't smash your skull open but it seems you're tougher than you look miss Sami."

Falling for the provocation Sami rushed forward with her claws extended, now that she knew her opponent wasn't bothered by pain or the bloodloss her strike must have inflicted she needed to aim for a fatal blow.

"Boss!"

Hearing a familiar voice off to the side, Sami immediately switched her target as she slit under Dax punch and carved out a part of Dax's side with her claws. That attack left her dangerously open to a counter attack, but she didn't care about that as she had backup. With Dax distracted, Mirza made his entrance as he tackled Dax and sent him flying into a nearby bookshelf.

"... An As'i? Nice to meet you, Mirza, I thought you two were supposed to be siblings?"

Digging himself out of the bookshelf and knocking some of the dust off his t s.h.i.+rt, Dax inspected his new opponent as he tried to make conversation. Mirza had an extremely solid frame and his height almost reached Dax if one didn't account for the large dark brown and chipped ears which sat atop his short hair of the same colour. For some reason Mirza only wore a pair of shorts, allowing Dax to count numerous scars and tattoos visible on his bare and muscular upper body.

"Who the h.e.l.l is this?"

Asking his sister while he still kept his eyes on Dax and he cracked his knuckles and neck, it was clear to all parties how p.i.s.sed off Mirza currently was.

"I have no idea, he says his name is Dax."

"What the h.e.l.l does he want?"

"Our organization."

"Oh really? Let's skin him alive and hang him where people can see."

"I was thinking the same thing."

"Wait, you're going to skin me alive? Do you have any idea how hard that is, to skin an actual person that is"

Interrupting the two siblings talk, Dax still had a bright smile on his face.

"Let's kill this clown."

"Agreed."

With the two siblings taking stances, Dax's a.s.sessment of them only kept on increasing.

(They're perfect.)

(Really? They seem like small time criminals to me.)

(That's because you haven't done as much of this kind of work Lux.)

(Yeah sure, that's only because you keep me from doing it. Focus on your fight now, I'll be there in a bit with the other samples.)

With Lux disconnecting the line Dax sighed inwardly as he had looked forward to testing out the two siblings for a while longer.

(I guess it's about that time... Time to take this seriously.)

In an instant Dax's aura completely changed as his wounds started healing at a rapid speed.

"Evaluation over, fight with nothing held back or I might kill you two~"

Switching from a high guard to a low one as he started mixing in some qiton martial art footwork, Dax allowed the siblings a brief moment to adjust to the new pressure he was outputting before striking.

(Fast!)

With almost no time to respond, Sami put up her guard as she met Dax head on.

In retrospect, that was a mistake.

"Khu!-"

Sidestepping Sami's guard, Dax bent his knees slightly as he delivered a hook to her side which made her forcefully expel the air in her lungs as she tasted the familiar taste of fresh blood in her mouth. Stumbling backwards Sami discovered she couldn't breathe as Dax had collapsed one of her lungs and stumbled to her knee as she took short and extremely sharp breaths through the pain.

"That's one~"

Having incapacitated the sister, Dax turned to the brother and immediately ducked under a punch that would have taken his head clean off if it hit. Continuing to retreat, Dax parried a kick from the enraged Mirza before slipping into his range and struck at a gap in his ribs, striking through his chest and destroying Mirza's heart in a single fluid and extremely well practiced move. Not understanding what had happened at first, Mirza continued to try and strike Dax as he retreated, only to fall over as the power left his body along with his blood.

"And that's two~ That means I own this organization now, right?"

"O-of course boss!"

Turning to one of the siblings former subordinates with a warm smile on his face while his hand was still dripping with blood, Dax almost succeeded in scaring the literal s.h.i.+t out of him.

"That's perfect then, go make sure everyone is gathered here tonight as I have some news to share. Oh, and there's a group of outsiders on their way here now, guide them here, please."

Emitting bloodl.u.s.t as a hint that they should leave him, Dax watched the goons scramble off with a smile on his face before he took out a few vials of blackmatter and injected one into the next of the dying Mirza.

"W-what is-"

"Don't speak now, your lung is collapsed."

Walking slowly over to Sami who struggled to breathe let alone speak as she tried to crawl away from him, Dax still had a thin smile on his face.

"This is medicine, stay still."

Brus.h.i.+ng Sami's hand aside which was trying to reach him, Dax sat down next to her as he started inspecting his handiwork to find the best place to administer the blackmatter.

"W-why?"

"Because I simply can't allow such skilled subordinates to just die off. Welcome to the 125th."

-

"Wow, was all that really necessary?"

Having been guided by an extremely nervous goon, Lux arrived together with Terra and Mare to find a smashed up office.

"Hey, I'm not responsible for that one."

"Sure you're not. Let's get on with it, Mare you treat Sami as she has the least severe trauma."

"Mmm, got it."

Putting down their backpack's Mare and Lux took out small bioprinters before starting to heal up Sami and Mirza while Terra kept the area secure.

"Wait, why are you also here Mare? I believe this was supposed to be a 3 person operation?"

"Because it seemed interesting."

"Ah, okay then."

Surprisingly Dax outright accepted Mare's reason as he walked over to check how she was doing before couching down next to the young beastkin.

"You're doing great, good job."

"Mmm"

Over the past year and a half, Mare had started changing. Instead of doing whatever Lux told her to and following her around at every opportunity, Mare had started showing interest in the world around her. Finding that to be a good thing, both Dax and Lux had started encouraging her to do what she wanted to do in the hopes that the former child gladiator and slave might one day come to live a more normal life. That method seemed to work great as Mare started finding other stuff than weapons interesting and lately she had started studying medicine anatomy.

(Even if she did absolutely insist on coming with us I'll not allow her to fight, best case scenario would be if she just saw this operation as a vacation where she got to experience a new culture.)

"Done."

"Mmm, me too."

"Okay then, wake them up. Time for some introductions."