The needle moved as fast as lightning, before the man could make any sound, it struck him right in the forehead, freezing him mid-movement. Mrs Sam didn't even give him another glance, after throwing her needle at him she lunged forward to the man who was still trying to get up, the other needle still in her left hand. 

When the man who was sitting down saw that, he threw himself to the right, trying to keep himself out of the reach of the hand she was holding the needle with. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to work for him, he was still in the reach of her right hand. She flickered it and another needle appeared on it, which she threw at him too, hitting him right in the shoulder. Seeing him stagger to his side, I felt a weight being lifted off my shoulders as I relaxed a bit, but that didn't last for long.

"Deal with the other one!" Mrs Sam commanded quietly as she continued going towards the second man.

Moving my eyes away from Mrs Sam, I noticed that the man with the needle on his forehead was starting to move. His hand moved slowly as if he was in slow-mo, with his veins bulging and his face red, clearly straining himself greatly so he could move, aiming to remove the needle on his forehead. I was also able to see that the more time passed, the faster his hand seemed to be, it wouldn't be long before it would reach his forehead and he would be able to grab the needle.

I wanted to lunge at him, but it was as if I was frozen, only watching what was happening in front of me. On one side the first man was doing his best to get rid of the needle, while on the other, Mrs Sam was still in a tussle with the second man, who unlike what I thought at first, wasn't actually frozen but instead only had his left shoulder numbed. He was still trying to avoid her attack and deflecting the needles she was throwing from time to time with a small knife that appeared in his hand at some point.

Just as my mind was drawing a blank from seeing this mess and I felt as if I was getting overwhelmed, I closed my eyes on Denethor's side and took deep breaths, working hard on bringing my emotions under control and focusing on what I had to do. The intrusion of Denethor's calm and collected thoughts steered me and I soon found myself charging toward the slow-mo man without even registering it.

"Denethor, what's wrong?" 'My' dad, Chief Mirodar, asked me when he saw me stopping and closing my eyes on our way to his office.

"It's nothing," I smiled gently as I opened my eyes and took in the calming scenery in front of me, the cool and refreshing forest air feeling my lungs, "I'm just enjoying the weather."

Bang!

I slammed into the man's waist with my shoulder as I dove down and brought him with me to the ground, once both of us were there, I went behind him and used my feet to hold his slow-moving arms and stopped him from struggling, then I twisted my arm around his neck and used all my weight to pull on his throat.

I don't know for how long I stayed like that, but soon enough, I stopped feeling any movement or struggle from the man I was choking. When that idea really registered in my mind, I released him hurriedly and pushed him away from me as I crawled on all fours, trying to get as far away from him as I could. 

Finally away, I looked at the unmoving body that was just lying there and I could feel my whole body start to shake, the first and only idea in my mind was that I had killed him, that I had taken a life and I had-

My train of thoughts suddenly stopped and I entered a weird and unusual state as my breathing started going down on its own and my heartbeats slowed down too. It was as if something foreign was affecting and guiding my body. I unconsciously knew that I would be able to fight against that weird guiding force and take control back over my body, but I didn't want to, it felt much easier to just let it calm me down and take away the panic attack that was just steps away. Besides, on Denethor's side, I had an idea bout what was happening and who was behind it.

"That's it, just calm down, take deep breaths and relax," as if on cue, Mrs Sam's voice sounded from next to my ear along with the feel of her hand on my forehead.

"Huh," she said once I calmed down and she removed her hand from y forehead, releasing me from that weird state I was just in, "that wasn't too bad, was it?"

I didn't reply, I felt drained and just laid there unmoved, trying not to think about the body that was just a few steps away from me.

"Don't worry," as if reading my mind, Mrs Sam sounded again, "he's not dead, just unconscious, thanks God for that, we don't want anyone dying on us."

I let out a relieved breath and felt my body relax for real this time, as if some invisible knot was finally untied. The idea that I hadn't killed someone wasn't reliving just because it meant that I wasn't a murderer... Yet, but also because before separating, we decided to try and not kill anyone if we could, we were still guards and going around killing people willy-nilly wasn't possible nor acceptable.

"Well, hurry and get up," I felt a gentle kick on my right foot, "you aren't going to let a lady do all the hard work, are you?"

With a groan, I pushed myself to a sitting position and looked around me at the aftermath of what could be considered my first real fight in this world. The room was a mess with the sofa flipped up and the signs of struggle everywhere you looked, and of course, two unconscious men lying on the floor.

My eyes then fell on Mrs Sam who was looking at me with a slight smile on her face, she seemed as playful and gentle as she always did, with no trace of the woman who charged at two men without batting an eye. I almost couldn't believe my memory, thinking that I remembered wrong, but I knew that I didn't, she was probably someone as deadly as she was playful.

"Stop staring and come here already," she said.

I then stood up and started helping Mrs Sam in tying the two men, and then I watched as she pulled two handcuffs and put them on them, realizing what those were straight away. They were handcuffs made of Ancestral Ore, the ore used to make Inheritances, and the only thing capable of stopping them from manifesting, an Inheritor won't be able to manifest their Inheritance if they have those handcuffs on.

After going through the room and finding nothing of interest, we closed the door behind us and made our way down before heading to the small alleyway where we were before, to wait for captain Dunn and Lambert; or so I thought, when we got there, we found the two of them already there, seeming as if they were waiting for quite a while.

"How did it go?" Asked Captain Dunn, "any complications?"

"No need to worry darling, everything went well, there were two men in the room, both Inheritors, but we managed to deal with them easily, didn't we Dorian?" Answered Mrs Sam as she smiled playfully, again it hit me how different she was from her previous self when she lunged without hesitation at the two men, "what about you? How did it go?"

"No problem, there were two men there too,  but they were dealt with," said captain Dunn.

"So this is it?" Asked Mrs Sam as she tilted her head to the side, "we are finally heading in?"

"Yeah, are you ready?" Replied captain Dunn, his eyes falling on me when he asked his question for some reason.

I took a deep breath and prepared myself then nodded resolutely. Captain Dunn looked at me deeply before he too nodded then turned to Lambert:

"Okay Lambert, lead the way."