“A Nightblade?” Abraham asked after Jack had called for him using the conducting substance and explained the situation. “This is getting problematic!”

“Why, it’s just another one from the Corvus?”

“Depends. We can’t rule out the fact that this Nightblade is under the wing of the other Divine powers.”

“What? The Lehner and Quintana have their own too?”

In his free time, Jack had been looking into the great powerhouses of the empire to have a further understanding of potential allies or enemies. Still, things of such nature could rarely be found in the pages.

“Let’s go,” Abraham said. “If things go downhill, we’ll run.”

Abraham’s words eased Jack as they went for Rat’s hiding spot.

With a wave of the hand, Abraham put his foot on the bridge, drawing the attention of both the guard and the shadow.

Abraham greeted the soldier.

“So? Anything to report?” He said.

“Nothing out of the ordinary, sir.”

From the aura of the opposite person, even though he couldn’t figure out who it was, the guard reckoned being respectful was the way.

“Is that so?” Abraham said, scratching the back of his neck.

The head of the Harper household glanced at Jack, who was sneaking his way to the river bank. As soon as the boy nodded, Abraham swung his hands from the back to the front. The shockwave created by the slap stunned the guard, knocking him to the ground unconscious.

Jack activated the conducting substance. Rat, feeling the signal, quickly moved his slim frame upward, strugglingly so, as his mana pool had been badly depleted.

Rat’s head was above the surface, gasping for his first lump of fresh air in hours. He couldn’t have been more relieved, for red smoke was rarely responded in the gang. Instead, what welcomed him was a Condensed Shot from Jack aimed straight at his throat. The bandit choked and was quickly dragged out of the water.

The Nightblade was fast. In a blink of an eye, his hands were right next to Jack and Rat. However, he was stopped short by a sonic punch from Abraham, pushing his body away from the two. Jack’s father jumped off the bridge to his son’s side. He grabbed Rat with one hand and put the other on Jack’s shoulder.

“Cover me!”

Jack nodded, and they quickly ran for Oxdale with Jack trailing behind. The long route made him wonder about the possibility of making it back without an engagement. Jack was glad he had had 500 years of collective fighting experience, so much so that being one-handed didn't cripple him as much. Still, he would have to exert double the usual effort to make every move now.

A shroud followed them closely. Jack spun, then cast Niemis’ Blessing and Condensed Shot toward his opponent. The Nightblade was startled for a second but quickly deflected the projectile with his cape, just as Jack had planned.

“Track the smoke, father,” Jack told Abraham.

The most dangerous aspect of fighting the Nightblade was their unpredictability, for one would never know when and where the strike would come. Using the small trace of conducting substance staining the clothes of the shadow, Abraham would be able to negate this advantage.

Even though Shadow Eyes had been activated, Jack still couldn’t catch up with the enemy’s movement. The difference in experience, demonstrated through the game of now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t by the more proficient Nightblade, instead of just staying out of sight as Jack did, confused the father and son.

Shadow Jump! Jack concluded. Shadow Dance couldn’t have pulled off such maneuvers.

The mysterious man now made his move. Having been focusing on his opponent, Jack failed to notice the surroundings and had to rely on Abraham to save the day. The father drew his fiery sword and swung it to block the dark needles coming from all directions, glimmering the night with fire sparkles. Jack reacted quickly, joining his father in deflecting the projectiles with his knife. He couldn’t help but notice how they were coming from the shadow of nearby bushes and trees.

After clearing the attack, Jack went for a counter. He drew the poison and launched two Condensed Shots at the Nightblade. Two needles appeared, piercing the shots as the shrouded man swiftly shifted his body to avoid the poison smoke that followed. Jack then shot another three of them, this time as covers for the bombs inside. However, the pursuer did not touch the projectiles this time but used Shadow Jump to avoid them.

The conducting smoke curved toward the tree line.

“Above!” Jack called out.

Abraham turned his body around, raised his sword, and blocked a descending flip kick. The shockwave from the contact pushed Jack away. Abraham also threw Rat toward Jack so he could free up his hands.

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The night was not Jack’s ally today. He could use it to empower himself, but the one facing Abraham could do it even better than him.

Abraham’s powerful sword was not putting any pressure on his enemy as his moves were not landing where he wanted them to. The head of the Harper household struggled to keep the Nightblade engaged. It seemed to him that his opponent was not taking things seriously enough. The whole thing felt more like him being toyed with.

Jack could see the odds his father was facing. He focused his mana, channeling Condensed Shot, then put Black Flame all over it. He had thought about this before, but this was the first time he actually used it. Though surrounding such a small projectile weakened the flame, Jack wasn’t expecting to do any real damage. He only hoped to cause some distraction.

The fiery ball dashed through the night, lightless and heatless.

“Black Flame?” the Nightblade exclaimed.

The needles were summoned from the shadow around them. They pierced through the projectile and, as Jack had predicted, scattered it into a hail of flame that fell on the two Crusaders. Abraham quickly grabbed his opponent's shoulder and locked them both in place, for he believed Jack could undo the spell he had used.

Still, the pursuer wasn’t fazed at all. He flipped the cloak behind his back, creating a veil of moonlight and smoke. It stopped the fiery bit, making them seem floating right before the contact points. He then threw a punch at Abraham, pushing each other away.

“Well, I’m sure nobody is around anymore. Let’s talk!” The Nightblade suddenly opened the conversation where Flamemond was no more than a spot of distant light. Only now did Jack and his father realize how calmly, deep, and mature the man’s voice was.

Abraham jumped back to Jack, expecting some sort of deceitful trick. He had been holding back some of his cards but would only use them to protect himself and his son. His opponent surely had something similar, so letting Rat slip from them for their own safety was not out of the question.

“You need him?” The man in the dark cloak asked Jack, paying no heed to Abraham.

“Yes,” Jack answered.

‘Then take him back.”

Jack frowned in disbelief.

“Why?” He asked.

“You must have a lot to ask, right kid?” The Crusader Nightblade spoke with a peculiarly cheerful attitude in his dark and mysterious appearance. “Why am I here? What am I doing? Why did I stop? Why am I fighting someone of my own family name?”

Jack nodded continuously.

The man walked forward but was still keeping his distance. Jack could feel the gaze full of interest and curiosity hiding behind the hood and the mask.

“Niemis’ Blessing and Black Flame?” His voice was full of excitement, so much so that it actually made Jack lower his guard. “You sure are the treasure of our house.”

“Are these two really that special?”

“On a Herald rank kid, yes. Those on Flavius’ side must be all hyped up with you.”

“Hyping on something they discarded?”

“Everyone made mistakes, am I right? Though, I’m not one to talk about the business of the old man’s branch behind his back. Whatever it is, make sure you keep those two skills from the eyes and ears around, okay?”

“Most definitely.”

Abraham cut the conversation.

“Who are you taking order from?”

The man from Jack’s household lifted his cloak aside, revealing a symbol of a roaring lion on his inner shirt.

“Lehner?”

“Not quite, though,” the Nightblade shrugged. “Everything is more complicated than you think. For more details, I reckon you and the little boy here have to prove your interrogating capability while getting them words out of that little slippery fish’s mouth over there.”

Abraham glanced at the bandit, who was trembling on his knee before the three mighty presences. Bewildered he was, for the unawakened forsaken child of the Corvus he had seen two days ago now of dual-faction. It was the boy’s Maester skills that had drawn him out from his hiding spot while waiting for reinforcement and stopped him from even controlling his body right now.

“Then why did you abandon your mission?” Jack asked. “You must have had the order to cut off those loose ends, right?”

“Nobody wants to be an obedient hound to those foreign bunch. We Nightblade have the same blood running in our veins. So, it is not in my interest to harm you at all, especially when I’m the senior. Failing this mission will also make this power struggle even messier.”

Jack wanted to ask the meaning of ‘we Nightblade have the same blood running in our veins’ but reckoned he had more pressing matters.

“The things happened to the Harper, are they happening everywhere too?”

“Indeed,” the senior’s voice seemed please, knowing Jack could see the bigger picture, “but not anyone is lucky enough to be a prodigy such as yourself to survive. I’m not sure what their intentions are, but every once in a while, we Nightblade are sent out to clean up the pawns.”

“They did wh….” Jack aggressively responded.

“Say no more,” the man stopped Jack’s word. “I reckon things are troubling enough inside the main household. Though, I can assure you that no one with the Corvus name had anything to do with it. We are only sent to do the trivial cleanups duty, and things have already been done by then. You got that, kid?” We’re also being threatened, and our hands are being forced right now.”

Even the higher-ups of the Corvus were being treated as tools, and that calmed Jack down a bit. If it were their own family member who had any saying during this whole Corvus offspring-purging, Jack wouldn’t hesitate to put “removing the Corvus” on his priority list.

“Alright, that’s enough for today. Now, toss me some Black Flame, would you?”

“Are you really content with that?” Jack still questioned the senior.

“Hell yeah, I am,” the man exclaimed. “Don’t worry, when it comes to dealing with Black Flame, we’re the most experienced. Have I told you yet? Black Flame doesn’t come from a Herald like you. Even I can’t make one the size of a fingertip.”

“And that will be your excuse. You have somehow run into some tough Nightblade opponent,” Jack continued the man’s words.

“Bingo,” the Crusader Nightblade delightedly clapped his hands.

Jack complied. The Black Flame caught the man’s hand, flickering in the pair of fascinated eyes of its victim.

“What’s your name?” Jack asked.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, kid. There are things you shouldn’t know for now. Keep in mind, though, that I’ll be watching. So long!”

The man quickly disappeared, as if he hadn’t even been here in the first place.

The father and son then turned toward Rat.

“Let’s go,” Abraham said. “We have a lot of unfinished business with him.”