Step by step the masked man steadily made his way towards the oblivious youth sleeping soundly. The candle light glimmered and danced across the surface of his mask.
Divided into two sections and separated by a painted albeit poorly straight line were the colours silver and black. The masked man reached inside his pocket, he withdrew a small frayed bundle of rope. Suddenly a loud bang rattled the room.
Christi jumped startled by the loud commotion, likewise the masked assailant jumped too.
His eyes met Christi’s, he was stranded in no man’s land. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The man panicked, he brandished a dagger. Christi sprang from the bed to her feet and ignited her affinity. Her arm sputtered to life, a few seconds later flames surrounded her arm further illuminating the dark room.
Who is this guy? What does he want? Doesn’t matter, I need to deal with him. Her vision began to narrow, the fog of unbridled rage had descended.
Without hesitation or thought she charged at the stranger. A wild and clumsy swing provided her opponent ample time to duck and evade.
He retreated ten steps back and patiently awaited her next attack. She loudly exhaled a frustrated huff, once again she stepped forward to attack. However, before she knew it she felt something loosely hugging her right foot.
Looking down she found she had stepped into an open knot of rope the intruder had so cleverly placed upon his retreat. He yanked the rope upwards and pulled it hard.
Christi tumbled to the floor hard. Startled by the sudden and drastic shift in momentum of the fight she lost her focus and the flames engulfing her arm extinguished in an instant.
An obnoxious muffled laugh rang out from behind the mask.
“Stupid girl, charging around like that ain’t gon win ya no fights!”.
The intruder took a couple of steps forward.
Wham! The two turned. Standing in the doorway was Piotr, before either could react a metal claw vaulted Piotr and pinned the stranger to the wall. Christi was dragged back a couple of feet by the rope still attached to her foot.
Couldn’t be a bit more gentle could ya?
The man struggled but he wasn’t breaking free anytime soon. Piotr exited and stepped into the hallway. No time to dawdle, I need to help Piotr. Christi wriggled free from the rope, scrambled to her feet and sprinted after him.
In the hallway a few metres away was Ratchet, his fist was raised. His breath was ragged and fierce, sweat drenched his forehead.
Clearly it hadn’t been an easy fight for the old timer. He was straddled above another masked man who was clearly unconscious.
“Christi, Piotr, are you two alright?”
Ratchet exclaimed as he turned to the pair, Piotr briskly brushed past him.
“We’re fine, more importantly let’s check on Sam.”
With a strong thrust kick the door to Sam’s room flung open. Inside was Sam fiercely grappling with another intruder. The intruder swivelled in their direction.
“Wha-?”
Sam seized the opportunity and placed the man in a rear chokehold, the man’s hands flailed about desperately reaching back, but soon he ceased his writhing and went limp in Sam’s arms.
Sam stood up, dusted himself down. “What an unpleasant ordeal, could someone please explain what’s happening?”
Piotr spoke briefly,
“Seems to me like a coordinated attack, for the moment I’m not entirely sure on the specifics but I’m sure the poor fellow who attacked Christi will enlighten me.”
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“You managed to capture one of them?!” Ratchet hollered. “I’m impressed, they weren’t exactly the type to just keel over."
Piotr fixed him with a glance.
"As I mentioned earlier my affinity grants me the ability to perform a great deal of things, disposing of a man wielding naught but a knife and bundle of rope isn’t a difficult task.”
Ratchet wiped the sweat from his forehead, he grunted.
“Whatever ya say boss.”
Outside they heard footsteps rapidly approaching. A lanky middle aged man holding a candle in one hand and a wooden stick at the ready in the other rushed in.
A sour stench permeated the man’s clothes, his face was puffy and bloated. Crowned atop his head was a muddle of greasy hair.
Clearly someone’s been drinking, Ratchet thought to himself.
“What’s with all the racket?”
“Somebody reeks of a good time” Ratchet scoffed, he smirked at the innkeeper.
The innkeeper’s face flushed red with anger, his brow furrowed, nostrils flared wildly.
Piotr interrupted promptly,
“I beg your pardon, good sir please ignore my very rude colleague. I apologise for the commotion. Unfortunately we encountered some rather cunning men attempting to intrude with dastardly schemes in mind.”
The innkeeper lowered his makeshift weapon, his anger began to subside, he shot a mean grimace at Ratchet before addressing the rest of the group.
“Are you folks alright?”
Piotr placed his hands on his hips.
“As well as one can be after such an experience.”
“Well then if that’s all said and done I’m off to inform the guards about this disturbance right away.”
Piotr latched onto his wrist.
“I beseech you not to Sir, after all I am familiar with matters such as this, you are aware of who I am after all? If you would be so generous to allow me twenty minutes to discover why these men attempted such a daring feat then I shall be ever so grateful. Such a kind gesture won’t go uncompensated I assure you.”
Piotr placed a small pouch of money in the innkeeper’s palm.
A Cheshire cat's smile stretched across the innkeeper’s slender face.
“Of course I trust your good judgement, are you folks certain you’re ok? Can I get you anything?”
“We certainly are my good man, now if you would be so kind as to allow us some privacy it would be ever so appreciated.”
“Then I better crack on, I’ll do my best to delay any who come to investigate for the time being.”
The man left the group to their own practices. Piotr ushered the group outside.
“We’ll ask our friend in Christi’s room a few questions.”
He strode with purpose into Christi’s room and confronted the caged animal. The man stopped wriggling, he shouted obscenities at Piotr and the rest.
“Let me go you fucking-”
He was cut short as his breath tightened and released sharply. The metal covering his chest clamped harder, he gasped for air.
Piotr wrenched the mask from his face, he looked like any ordinary joe soap off the street from Barakat. Shaggy brown hair and small green beady eyes that expressed his desperation and fear.
“Talk, why did you so stupidly decide to attack us in the middle of the night?”
Relinquishing the metal, the man was allowed a moment to catch his breath.
“*Cough* *Cough* I… I was hired *cough* by a hooded man with a black bushy beard, he was small but well built. He said we were to bring you to him. That’s all I know, I swear.”
Piotr stood face to face with him
“Just him, no one else comes to mind?”
The man’s head rapidly jerked up and down.
“I didn’t see no one else with him, can you let me go now?”
Piotr produced the mask, held it aloft.
“And the mask? Anything noteworthy you want to share with me about it?”
“Belongs to a local underground group, we’re called ‘The Finders.’ We wear 'em on jobs all the time, that’s everything I know, now please just let me go!”
The claw tightened.
“And that’s the whole unequivocal truth?”
“IT IS IT IS”
The claw disassembled and plopped to the ground.
The man dropped to his knees on the ground and clutched at his chest breathing rapidly. As he motioned to get up a metal fist connected with his jaw, knocking him unconscious.
“He had it coming,” Christi said solemnly.
After they had concluded their chat with the guards and each shared their accounts the group converged in a private room the innkeeper offered while the masked men were apprehended.
“What now?” Ratchet asked.
“The man he spoke of was the same man who I spotted in the inn when I came to see how Christi was, it appears that gentleman has it out for us, Sam can confirm he spotted him too.”
Sam nodded in agreement.
“Just as Christi left the inn, yes. He entered, sat alone and drank. I thought nothing of it at the time but it’s clear this mystery man purposely visited the inn.”
Piotr paced back and forth the length of the room.
“Why be so blatant about it? He must’ve known that there was a possibility we’d be at the very least able to put two and two together should his hired men fail. He wasn't exactly very discreet with his visit here. There’s also the fact that our man was awfully quick to divulge the information which means his employer clearly took no measures to prevent them from doing so.”
“Why go to the trouble at all then?” Ratchet asked.
Sam and Piotr stopped.
“I believe he’s goading us on,” Sam said.
“He wants us to find him.” Piotr followed.
“Then let’s find him,” Christi piped up.
“It could be a trap,” Sam responded.
“Regardless we can’t tackle the issue of the bull with our mystery man on our backs, Christi’s right we best rout out this individual so we may focus on the bull again. Let’s start by first investigating the group that those men belonged to, we’ll ask the locals if they can point us in the direction of ‘The Finders’. Hopefully we’ll learn something useful.”
Sitting atop a rooftop overseeing the inn now bustling with guards the bearded man drew back his hood. Braided murky green hair, baby blue eyes and a dark face revealed themselves under the moonlight. Kydin smiled to himself
“Come find me” he said quietly under his breath.