An interesting encounter

So, Algeria and I were wandering around a bit, and we came across this dude.

Oh, right, this is Terrence by the way. Although that was probably obvious by the fact I mentioned Algeria was with me...

It was just outside this bishop shaped building. There were a bunch of scorched gouges in the ground and side of the building. There was still smoke coming from them.

And he was just standing there, examining them and taking notes on a notepad.

He had short, curly brown hair, wore a pair of glasses, and has a little goatee. There was a wooden samurai sword across his back, and a satchel was siting at his side.

He noticed us out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh, hey," he said. "IF you wanna fight, could you give me a minute? I'm in the middle of something."

I just gave him a weird look and let him go about his note taking.

"What are you doing, exactly?" I asked after a little bit.

"Trying to piece together what went down here," he replied.

"A fight, obviously," I said.

"Well, yes," he said. "But between who?"

I looked at the gouges.

"I dunno," I said.

"Well, if you look closely, the gouges seem to be caused by a sword," he said. "A big one, at that."

"Normal swords don't burn the environment," Algeria pointed out.

"That's 'cause it wasn't a normal sword," he replied. "The fire and smoke could mean a lot of things, but I feel the most likely reason would be the Brute's involvement."

My eyes widened a little at that.

"That, plus the evidence of a sword being used, would indicate that the damage was caused by a Crimson Knight," he went on.

I suppose I should explain. The Brute is a Fear that takes a lot of different forms and tends to have strong connections to fire and smoke, as well as warfare and anger. And its servants, the Crimson Knights, are basically berserkers who have a bit of its power.

"How can you be sure the Brute was involved here?" Algeria asked.

"Well, mostly it's just intuition," he said. "Whoever caused this much terrain damage must have been pretty strong. As was whoever it was fighting."

"What?" I asked.

"Look closer," he said. "The Crimson Knight isn't the only one who caused Terrain damage."

I hadn't noticed until then, but there was a bit of ground that had been smashed instead of gouged with a fiery sword.

"What caused all that?" I asked.

"Looks like a sledgehammer," the man said.

I practically froze solid hearing that.

"Clearly wielding by someone with above human strength," he continued.

"Like an Enhanced?" I asked.

"One of many possibilities," he said, smiling a bit. "But yes, that seems likely."

Henry. It had to be. But, if the multi-hammer wielding Enhanced took on a Crimson Knight, then there was still a pretty big question that needed answering.

"Who won?" I though aloud.

"Hard to say," the man said. "Neither of them seems to have left a body behind. And while the Knight could have immolated the Enhanced, there still would have been something left behind. Blood or ash or something."

"What if they both made it out unharmed?" Algeria asked.

"That would be possible," the man said.

"That would be trouble," I said. "Both a Crimson Knight and an Enhanced being out there. Probably still nearby."

"Are you done yet?"

The new voice startled me and Algeria, but the other guy wasn't surprised at all. We all turned to see a young girl standing there. She had blue hair, and wore a mask that had a red diamond and the number 9 on it.

"Sorry," the guy said. "I think I've got everything I need. You can go ahead do your thing."

"Finally," he girl said.

She lifted a hand, and one by one, the cracks and gouges closed up, returning the terrain to its proper state.

"Whoa," I said, watching her work. "That's interesting."

"You know what's really interesting?" the guy asked. "The fact that I've been talking about about the Brute and Crimson Knights this whole time, and haven't had to explain what either of them are. In fact, you contributed to the conversation by bringing up Enhanced. So you two must already be familiar with Fears and their servants."

"Whatever," I sighed. "What of it?"

"I just find it interesting," he said. "So, we fighting or not?"

"Honestly, I don't really care right now," I said.

"So, can I just go then?" he asked.

"I don't have a problem with it," Algeria said.

"Sure, go ahead," I said.

"Thank you," he said, picking up his satchel. "I look forward to next time."

He began walking away.

"What a weird guy," I said.

"You know we could have taken that guy, right?" Algeria asked.

The other girl chuckled.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"The fact that he's won more fights than both of you combined," the girl said. "All without taking a single life."

Wow. Tha'ts... pretty impressive.

"I have a gun, and he knows how to handle Molotov cocktails," Algeria pointed out.

"He has intelligence, deduction, and adaptability," she said. "You shouldn't underestimate him so easily."

She finished up her work and vanished.

So yeah, we now know of three new potential threats in this tournament.

We have a Crimson Knight, who is definitely not something to take lightly.

Then we have Henry. Probably Henry, anyway. All clues point to him. And after the damage I caused to him, he is NOT going to show me mercy if we cross paths.

And then there's that dude with the wooden sword and the notepad who's kicked more ass than I have so far. He could also be a problem.

And, they're all most likely still nearby. We'll need to be extra careful.