Vance felt a trickle of icy cold fear run down his spine. He didn't think he had anyone out for him. Sure, he might've ruffled a few feathers, but nothing serious.

Then again, he'd been attacked for seemingly no reason before. It was hardly out of the question for it to happen again.

Considering his proximity to the nook, he opted to make his way inside. At the very least, there'd be people in there to act as witnesses if something happened to him. He headed straight to the bar and took his usual seat.

His mana sense told him there was a woman on the other side of the bar.

"Penny?"

"Hey, Vance. Welcome back, what can I get you?"

"I think I'm being followed. Mind if I stay in here for a while?"

She could hear a little panic in his voice. She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Of course, hon. Your usual?"

"Yes, please. Thanks."

Vance kept his mana sense outstretched as far as he could. Through the wall, he could tell the man was still outside, waiting. He'd taken to waiting in the alleyway next to the building.

There was another handful of people in the room with him. A couple of them seemed to have noticed what he said and were keeping an eye on him. A few minutes later, a young man came through the door of the nook in a hurry.

Vance recognised his frequent visitor James McKinley as soon as he heard his voice.

"Vance!" He yelled, running over.

"James, what're you doing here?"

"You're in danger. I came to keep you safe."

"Yeah, someone is waiting for me outside. I think he's holding a knife but I don't sense any other weapons." Vance stopped in his tracks for a moment.

"Wait, how did you know I was in danger?"

"It seems that the Sellanion family has at least one good apple, Leslie tipped me off. She told me that her brother is out for your head at the behest of his father."

"What, really? Over something so minor? We barely even talked!"

"I wouldn't try and apply normal logic to these people, they're psychopaths. The only reason Kaine, Duncan's father, isn't locked away in some dungeon is because of how influential he is. I'd bet even the city guard could barely touch the man."

"Great. Got any good news?"

"Actually, yes. I don't think the man outside is here to kill you."

"What makes you say that?"

"From what Leslie said, his father was pretty clear about who he wanted chasing you down. This is probably just Duncan trying to set himself up for an advantage. I bet he gauged you when you probed each other and doesn't like his odds in a fair fight."

"Do you think they'll be Arcanists?" Vance gestured his head towards the door.

"I doubt it. Not for something like this. Chances are they're just cutthroats told to beat you down."

"Wonderful, what do we do? Call the guards?"

"Any guardsmen in here?" James turned around, speaking out loud to the room.

He was met with a distinct lack of eye contact and the shaking of heads. When James turned back around, he continued.

"I don't think we'll get the chance."

"So, what? Do we run? Do we fight them?"

"No offence, Vance, I don't think you're going to outrun them," James said with a hint of sympathy.

"Yeah, fair point." Vance sighed out. "I know how to use my fire mana offensively, but I have absolutely no idea how to actually fight."

"Fortunately for you, I do," James proudly announced. "Here's what I'm thinking. There's almost certainly more than one of them, any professional job will have at least one backup. If we go outside and we move quickly in the opposite direction to where the assailant we know of is waiting, they'll know we're onto them. Hopefully, that'll get them to call in their backup. Then, I'll start slinging spells. If they're smart, they'll run."

Vance was a little flabbergasted. "You actually want to fight them?"

"I don't see a much better option. I have a bad feeling about just running."

"I don't want you putting yourself in danger for me, James. Look, I'll just throw some fire at them, then-"

"No good. You said it yourself, you've got no idea how to fight, right? Do you know how to avoid killing someone with your magic? Whether or not they're cutthroats, if an Arcanist of your calibre is going around killing people in the streets with no backing, you'll be the one who gets in deep shit."

"...That seems really backwards."

"Welcome to the wonderful world of Vereecian nobility where everyone is simultaneously the assailant, the victim and the judge. The best part? Nobody cares what happens."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

James tapped the wooden bar for a second before talking again. "Also, I feel a little guilty. My guess? They're targeting you because you're friends with me. Like I said, our families don't get along."

Penny brought out Vance's order shortly thereafter. Vance introduced James and her and James opted out of any food of his own, he didn't like to fight on a full stomach. This sentiment caused Vance to stop eating halfway through his meal. Now that he thought about it, that was pretty obvious.

A Particularly well-toned man in loose hide clothing came up to the bar not long before the boys were planning to leave. Penny recognised the man as "Karl" and when he posted up next to James, he locked eyes with him.

"Hey, you're one of the McKinleys, right? I heard you talking, need backup? I heard your family pays well."

James looked at the man suspiciously. He was dressed like a pauper but had the body of a military man. He didn't seem to be carrying a weapon but he did have a large pile of belongings over at the table he'd come from.

"That's right, James McKinley. You are?"

"Karl Fielder. Consider me a mercenary for hire."

"Are you armed, Karl Fielder?"

"I can be."

Vance was listening intently, he heard nothing strange about the man's tone of voice, he was perfectly calm.

James turned to Vance and whispered, "what do you think?"

Vance leaned in close and replied, "He's calm. I think this sort of thing is strangely normal for him. I think he's legit."

James gently patted Vance on the back and turned back to Karl. As James turned, Penny caught his eye and gave him a wink.

"You have a deal, Karl. When my friend and I make our way out of here, I want you to keep the man in the alleyway outside occupied. He's likely armed with a knife, I don't want him dead. Do well and you'll be handsomely rewarded. Understood?"

"Done." Karl returned to his table, where he was halfway through a meal. He didn't touch his food from that point on. From underneath his pile of clothes, he produced a bag in which he kept a small arsenal. For this task, he selected a cudgel.

They let most of the day pass before James got things underway. He'd been waiting to see if perhaps they'd get lucky and either their pursuers left or some guards got involved. Neither occurred and it was starting to get late. If they left it much longer, it'd be too dark.

"Are you ready?" He asked Vance.

"Not really. But, I suppose."

"Alright, once we're away, I'll bring you to my family. You'll be safer there if they keep trying to target you."

They'd gone over the smaller details of their plan over the course of the hour. They stood, approached the door and were joined by Karl. Vance told him where the man he was concerned about was and Karl grunted in acknowledgement.

Vance held onto James' hand and had his mana sense focused below him. Vance had never liked running, especially on uneven ground.

James would handle the directions, Vance would focus on not tripping over. Quietly, James counted them down and they burst out of the door Into the dimming daylight.

Karl bolted left, the other two ran right.

Immediately, Vance picked up the sound of an incredibly high pitched whistle coming from the direction of his pursuer. Moments later, he heard the sounds of a fight breaking out in that same direction.

James led them around the other side of the nook and through the alleyway that ran parallel to it, they made it through without trouble, so James thought he was onto something. He led them across the next street, then into another small alleyway that he knew would save them time.

Unfortunately, that was a mistake.

Three-quarters of the way through the alley, he stopped in his tracks and gave Vance a tap as a signal.

Vance spread out his mana sense in all directions again and picked up the three figures. Two approaching from the north, one from the south.

"Three," Vance said.

By his estimations, one man and one woman in front, one man behind. He focused on them for a moment, then double-checked his surroundings, a moment too late. Another membrane came into his awareness.

"Shit, four! Above!"

Before either could react properly, another man came jumping off of a nearby rooftop. He landed well and by the time the duo was ready to react, he was right next to them.

James had figured there'd be a couple, maybe three. He hadn't anticipated five, including the man back at the nook. Something didn't add up to him, this many to track down a single kid?

Vance could hear footsteps approaching from the other directions. With a wave of his hand, he sent a wave of fire mana out behind him to dissuade the man approaching from behind. He heard that particular assailants footsteps stop in place to avoid the flames. Meanwhile, James had got into a physical fight with the man from the rooftop.

James was unable to overpower his assailant and was knocked to the ground as he was surprised. He took a little slice on the arm from his assailant's weapon, then pulled a large amount of water mana from his core, blasting it towards the man's chest.

His will manifested the mana into a stream of condensed, high-pressure water that pushed the man away from him, back into the alley wall. He hit the wooden wall with such force that he crashed through it. Vance could hear that man reeling from his injuries after he landed.

It was at this moment that James was suddenly faced with two more combatants. He conjured more water mana that he used to push them back. It wasn't particularly effective, they'd been ready for it this time.

Vance's attacker got close. Another blast of fire kept him at bay, causing him to retreat. Evidently, they were more scared of the flames than the water. Vance didn't want to kill anyone, but he didn't want James outnumbered. He pushed his mana sense outwards, figuring out exactly where they were, then tackled one of the incoming assailants to the ground, pulling them away from James just as they closed in on him.

Vance was flailing at his opponent. It became quickly apparent that he had no real-life combat experience. Sure, he'd heard a fight or two, thrown a sword at someone and roasted a few bandits, but he'd never actually had a real fight before.

Immediately, he felt a stinging pain in his right hand as his flesh met steel. He'd grabbed her knife by the blade. Not a smart move, but what was done was done. He grabbed at the wrist holding the knife with his left hand and pushed out a little fire mana. The woman he'd tackled shrieked as her wrist started to burn and her decision was made an instant later. Her remaining hand crashed into Vance's jaw, sending him onto his back. She promptly got up and ran away, clutching at her burned wrist.

James was clutched in close combat with the remaining assailant from the north. He'd managed to get himself into a full mount, but moments later the pinned man thrust a knife into James' left leg. It didn't get too deep thanks to his clothes throwing the strike off a little, but it was enough to cause him to lose momentum. He would've pulled away but the knife would tear through his leg.

To his surprise, his opponent pulled out his knife. Then, in the process of throwing James to the side, he tucked the blade into his side pouch. Then, his opponent started running.

As he did, he produced a whistle of some kind and blew into it. It rang out loud and high pitched. The single remaining assailant, who'd just started kicking Vance while he was down, turned tail and ran as well. Vance could hear the man briefly making his way into the nearby building to extract his injured colleague.

Vance, who had just been kicked in the gut, was surprisingly alright. He clasped his hands together to stop his palm from bleeding for a moment as the footsteps got more distant. Then, got up and made his way over to James, helping him to his feet. The wound in his leg was bleeding quite heavily.

James spoke first.

"Why did they run? They had us beat."

"Doesn't matter. Worry later. Come on, we've got to get you some help."

"We've got to get to my family, they might try again if we stay out here." Just as they exited the alleyway, Vance stopped to try and bind some cloth from his clothes around James' stab wound. Then, after he thought he'd done a reasonable job, he propped James up and they started walking.