All his life, Kenji had been kicked in the face by people who stood up when he fell down. It started with his father, who abandoned their family when he was just ten years old. Then, it shifted to his mother, and while she never went out of her way to hurt him, her lifestyle and neglect as a parent inadvertently shaped him into a person who never came out of his own shell. The bullies at school couldn’t stand people like him, and he contended with them for ages, until finally, after so much time—he had enough. He snapped. He stood on his own two feet, swallowed his fear, and kicked them down instead. But now, he was in the same position as before, and the bullies were stronger, the stakes were higher, and there was little he could do to stand against them.
The rest of his guild was captured in the mines, many wounded in the process. And while most were taken to the dungeons, Desmond and his party, along with several other prominent figures in the guild, were brought to the same chamber as Kenji, where they were chained and kicked to their knees. All his friends—including Sinopa and Sapphire—were now captives to a group of power-obsessed bastards masquerading as an Adventurer’s guild, and he met their eyes as they looked on, stunned to see him there and Linette’s predicament over the pit. Darkfire, however, was having a good time.
He approached the new captives and taunted them, laughing at how foolish they were for trying to use the mines. He paced back and forth with his arms crossed. In the interim, the wolves prowled below Linette and Vincent, leaping only occasionally, for they knew their food was out of reach.
“Your guild won’t get away with this,” Desmond asserted with the sting of a wasp. “Karma catches up with everyone eventually.”
Darkfire shook his head. “Karma? You believe in that? This world is full of winners and losers, and nobody wins without a few cut corners and black eyes here and there.”
“That’s not how it works.”
“But it is,” answered Darkfire. “See our guild? We’re the largest and most powerful in Duncaster, yet here you are, telling me that our methods aren’t sufficient. We always get what we want, and that’s not changing.”
“We’ll just have to see about that.”
The chat spilled into why Septic Eel burned down the bakery, why they kidnapped Linette and her father, and of course, their demand for Rat’s Ass to disband as a guild and leave the city. Naturally, Desmond objected, but Darkfire played dirty, and he threatened the lives of not only the innocent bakers dangling above hungry wolves, but the two young ladies knocking on death’s door below ground. Cleo and Misumi wouldn’t survive much longer.
“Ya can’t just go harmin’ members of another guild!” Sinopa shouted. She was especially squirmy inside the chains, causing them to rattle constantly. “It’s assault!”
Darkfire smiled and glanced back to Kenji. “But we didn’t harm them. They were attacked by goblins. And that little brat over there took down a whole tribe by himself.”
They cast their eyes upon Kenji.
“Yes, it was he who led their party into the Rupture. He who assaulted a member of our guild. And he who robbed us of a debt the baker’s family owed. And guess what? He’s a member of Rat’s Ass, which makes you just as responsible for his actions.” At long last, Darkfire sighed and peeled off his dark hood, revealing a shaved head below a neck covered in tattoos that probably adorned his whole body. “Now—we aren’t demanding money. We aren’t demanding ransom. Disband your guild, and everyone walks out of here unscathed—well, mostly. We won’t hurt anybody, but the wounds already inflicted are yours to deal with.” He looked straight at Desmond. “You are co-master of the guild, correct?”
“No. And Flanigan’s not either. We’re both acting Guild Masters since Baron vanished three years ago. He handles the talking, I handle the fighting.”
“Right. So what you’re saying is that you possess enough authority to make the decision?”
“No.” Desmond trailed Darkfire with a bitter gaze as the villain paced back and forth slowly before his captives. “I’m saying our master is in the wind right now. Only he can decide whether or not Rat’s Ass will disband.”
“I see.”
The firepots in the chamber we almost completely burned out at that point, and the shadows were growing thicker. However, other members of Septic Eel were gathered around the chamber, and they began lighting torches, spreading a ghastly light throughout the room like that of a cult assembly.
“Very well,” Darkfire continued. He signaled a nearby guild member. “Drop the girl. Let them watch as wolves tear her apart.”
“No, wait!” Kenji yelled at the top of his panicked lungs, making a break for the lever which kept Linette in safety. But he was restrained by two other Adventurers and thrown to the floor, his face pressed against the stone by strong arms. “Let her go!” he rasped. “I’ll kill you, I swear I will!”
And in the seconds that followed, Linette’s screams grew louder, filled with unabashed terror that swelled as the moments passed by, eventually breaking like a dam. She didn’t want to die. Nobody would. But like a skydiver falling without a parachute, a lifeline was out of her hands, leaving her to the ever-changing whims of fate. Nobody could save her, and despite Desmond’s pleas, Darkfire refused to show mercy.
But then an ear-splitting howl erupted from outside the keep, one that shook every person inside as they heard more screams follow, like a massacre was happening beyond the walls. There was noise like intense rainfall. Loud booms and dispersed crashes. Something—or someone—was attacking the fortress.
“You two,” Darkfire stated to a pair of nearby Adventurers. “Go check it out and report back here.”
The young man and woman were hesitant, but they swallowed their fear and went to find out what was happening as cries of pain and loud clatters persisted. The keep had many layers, many chambers, and before they could exit the one containing the pit, a group of Adventurers burst through the large doors—five in all. They were terrified, ghostly pale and drenched in blood, and the chaos was even louder now that the doors were open.
“He’s coming!” one shouted, stumbling to the ground like a puppet with broken strings.
Another cried, “He’ll kill us all!”
Yet with their shrieks Darkfire was unamused. “Who is out there?” he questioned with ire. “Who are you running from?”
“A demon!” one of them yelled, climbing to his feet. “Blood…he made it pour from the sky and he slings it like a whip…he’s got power we’ve never seen…”
Everyone was petrified, and eventually the havoc extended into the keep’s main chamber, where metal clashed, yelps of pain echoed, and strong splashes like ocean waves resonated through every nook and cranny of the fortress like a sporadically ringing bell. Amidst the disorder, and since he was unchained, Kenji scrambled toward the man in control of the mechanism which held Linette and Vincent’s lives in the balance, and before Darkfire even noticed, he tackled the man down, stole his sword, and stabbed the man’s foot so he could no longer walk or stand up. Then, Kenji went straight for Darkfire—who had turned around just fast enough to parry his attack with a dagger of his own.
“The tiger comes out of the kitten,” Darkfire commented as he kicked Kenji behind the knee, forcing him to collapse. “Finally. No more shouting matches—just talking fists. I’m impressed by your gall, kid.”
Kenji bore his fangs back at the man and staggered to his feet, guarding himself with the sword. “Enough is enough. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but Crow’s Watch is under attack. You can’t afford to deal with us right now.”
“Says who? I’m willing to bet you don’t know who’s attacking the fortress either, so your life is in just as much danger as mine. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Out of the blue, an explosion of burgundy liquid streamed in through the chamber doors, casting half-a-dozen people into the air as it crashed into them, painting their body’s red and spattering onto the walls, the floor, the pit. It even reached Kenji.
“Wait…” he said, seeing the new stains on his clothes and tasting iron in his mouth. “…blood? But how? Where did it come from?”
As he, Darkfire, and everyone present was flabbergasted by the sight of hundreds of liters of blood poured out over the floor and walls, while also streaming through the air in pursuit of every screaming voice, their eyes fell to the doorway, where an apocalyptic figure walked in. His clothing was soaked through, and with a callous flick of his hand, the whipping river of blood splattered to the floor, much of it seeping into the pit with the wolves, but also falling onto every person around. Not a whisper or breath followed the silence thereafter.
That is, until a second person rushed in through the doorway.
In disbelief, Kenji laid eyes upon Amelia as she ran toward him, scared and confused, but happy he was still alive. She ran up and hugged him, going on about how she and the others were freed, and that members of their guild were there as well, some of which were treating Cleo and Misumi that very moment. Then, she noticed Desmond, Cleo, and Sinopa, only to see Darkfire last and take a more defensive stance. It wasn’t until she caught sight of Linette and Vincent, dangling for rusty chains like holiday ornaments strung up for show, that her vocalizations turned from relief and into frail sputterings of shock.
“W-Who did this?” she muttered. “Kenji, we must free her!”
The outrageousness of the situation had yet to wear off, and Kenji just lingered, speechless for an awkward amount of time. But as their unlikely savior strolled deeper into the room, his thoughts were broken by Darkfire’s voice.
“I know you,” the man said, directing his speech toward the blood-wielding stranger. “You’re with Red River. Unknown—that’s your name. How does an Assassin end up with power like this? Who are you really?”
Kenji recognized him from the two occasions they had met, and indeed, it was the same person.
“I’m nobody.” Unknown answered. From underneath his hood, he eyed Linette, who wriggled in the chains, shaking and bewildered. “But I’m guessing you’re the asshole that arranged all this?”
“Not quite. It was a concerted effort,” chuckled Darkfire. “Impressed, are we?”
Unknown’s stance did not change, nor did his demeanor or tone of voice. However, his next words were clearly spoken out of rage. “Not in the slightest…”
As he clenched a fist, a pool of gathered blood on the floor started to bubble up, then rise into the air and condense until forming a tight stream that resembled long, extensive rope. Next, like a pouncing viper, it zipped through the air at unavoidable speeds, traveling straight through Darkfire’s chest like a spear. It was a wound no one could survive. However, in an unexpected turn of events, Darkfire put on a smug grin like the cunning fox he was, and his body faded into a black mist. Doppelganger—a skill used by Illusionists. Most often used in tandem with the Hide skill, which provided brief invisibility, it was a frustrating means of fooling an opponent right before their very eyes. Chances were, Darkfire had already escaped the fortress.
But in his wake was another bout of pure silence, and every eye and ear in the room focused on Unknown, on his unbelievable power. Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been natural. No Sorcerer in the world had the ability to manipulate and create blood—at least none that Kenji knew about.
“I’ll catch up to him later,” he muttered.
With a sigh, Unknown turned around and left them to clean everything up, only to stop when Kenji shouted out to him, asking how he gained such powerful magic—if it was even magic to begin with. There was nothing out there to compare it to.
Halting in his tracks, Unknown glanced over his own shoulder and gave an ambiguous answer: “That’s for me to know, and you to forget about. Now please, stop getting Amelia into trouble. I won’t always be able to bail her out when push comes to shove—that burden falls on you. You are her friend, aren’t you?”
“Y-Yes, of course.”
“Then act like it. Quit diving headlong into the fire without enough water to keep your friends from getting burned. That should be obvious, but then again…I guess you’ve got a lot left to learn. If you ever want to reach the tenth floor, you have to be more careful.”
Unknown lackadaisically raised a hand as he proceeded out of the room, a silent goodbye. And behind him, everyone was in disbelief. What had they just witnessed? Why did he care so much about protecting Amelia, who he seemingly didn’t know? And how did he gain the power to manipulate blood? As he left the chamber behind, those questions lingered in Kenji’s head, and he knew that last comment was right; in the future, he had to be more cautious with guilds like Septic Eel, for they just might be audacious enough to kidnap, torture, and kill the people he held most dear.
