Aurelius' head snapped back as his enhanced hearing picked up on the foreign chatter. He let go of the boy's shoulder as he stood up and began making his way to the room with the round table.

"Was that Balgair just now?" Cade asked.

She seemingly hadn't kept her senses enhanced and couldn't tell.

Aurelius looked back with shaded eyes and gave a slight shake of his head. Cade looked back at the kids and touched both of their heads. "You two stay here. We'll come get you, but don't go anywhere before that. Alright?"

The kids nodded profusely.

Cade then turned, and they hurried towards the room with the round table.

They both quickly skidded to a stop, however, as they saw Balgair running towards them.

"Is it the gang? Are they back?" Aurelius asked, his voice hissing through his teeth.

Balgair pursed his lips and nodded with his gaze low.

"Shi— dammit!" Aurelius hissed, squeezing his fists. Their plan was ruined. "Is there another exit in this place? If we can just grab the kids and the unconscious—"

"There's only one way out, and by now, the gang is already in the main room where the unconscious members are. There's no escape."

Cade glared at Balgair with narrow eyes. "You said they wouldn't come back."

Balgair's face twisted as he threw his hands forward, and yelled as quietly as possible, "I thought they wouldn't. I swear."

"Stop it," Aurelius said with a sigh. "We don't have time for this. If there's really no escape, we have to make do with what we got. The bounty on me isn't the priority anymore. There are kids down there. They're the main focus now."

"So what do we do?" Balgair asked, visible concern in his eyes.

"There is only one thing to do," Aurelius said as his eyes narrowed, all the light reflected off of their deep blue disappearing as they grew and throwing them into darkness. "We're going to kill every single member of this gang. That's the least we can do with the amount of preparation that has gone into this."

Cade clenched her jaw and looked at both Balgair and Aurelius. Aurelius wondered what she saw. But he didn't have time to linger on it, as she nodded. "Aurelius is right. It's the only thing to do now. We will end this now and look for options after it's done."

All agreed, and they turned to make their way to the room with the round table. This time the triangle formation was different, with Aurelius and Cade in the front and Balgair in the back. When they arrived, the echoes of their footsteps faded as a group of a dozen men came into view.

They stood on the other side of the large table and wore the same blank clothes with barely any folds in them. These were practical people, it seemed. Most of them were cleanly shaved and wore various kinds of tight hats, some of which seemed to be able to be pulled down to hide the face.

"Oh, what do we have here?" the man in front of all the others spoke with an amused voice. He had a slender build and a sharp jawline, accompanied by blonde hair that was parted at the middle, with the hair curving strictly to both sides. The faint light from the oil lamps showed the man's sickening expression clearly.

'How is he so calm?' Aurelius thought. 'Surely, he didn't expect us. He's just arrogant because they outnumber us.'

The man kept quiet for a while. Aurelius doubted that he was expecting an introduction, though. After a while, the man continued speaking. "You're the brat wanted by Numen. Thought you'd be older, but I don't mind. Easier killing for me." He then pointed at Cade. "But who are you? I like your look. Sharp. I might just keep you after I deal with your boyfriend," he said with a smile, prompting the ones behind him to chortle.

Aurelius leaned back and whispered to Balgair, "Is he the strongest?"

Balgair nodded quietly. Aurelius looked back at the man at the head of the gang and inhaled before upping his essence supplies.

The blonde leaned forward after noticing something. "Wait, you have a third member?" He squinted before leaning back with a laugh. "Is that Fox I see?"

In a blink, Aurelius had launched and cleared the round table before aiming his fist at the blonde's head. Even against someone with strong reinforcement, that one hit would be enough to kill.

His target's eyes flew open as he materialized a shield motionlessly at the last second, while the others surrounding them tried to attack in time to save their leader. They couldn't match Aurelius' speed with their reaction times, and the blonde was left to fend for himself.

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Aurelius let out a grunt as his force met the shield. The materialization shattered at a touch, but Aurelius couldn't make contact with the blonde, as he was blown back just enough by the impact on the shield for the hit to only graze him.

Their leader managed to catch himself barely, and after shakily recovering his balance and gulping while blood dripped from his nose and his eyes welled up, he looked at his underlings with his teeth clenched together, and his nose crumpled up. "Kill them all!"

Aurelius managed to recover his balance from having thrown his body forward with the punch right before chaos broke loose.

Every single one of the gang members got to setting up blade materialization of all kinds and rushed at Aurelius. Then Cade rushed into the mob on the right, and three died in an instant.

Aurelius grabbed the first attacker from the left and pulled him forward before kicking him in the chest and launching him into a few men behind him.

'I can't let their leader escape!' Aurelius thought and turned back.

"Balgair, take care of—" he said as he pointed to the men on the left, but Balgair just rushed toward the leader.

There was bloodlust in his eyes.

Aurelius couldn't think any more, as the one's on his left came rushing at him.

'Hopefully, Balgair could handle the blonde,' he thought as he lowered his essence supplies and turned.

A blade came flying at Aurelius' head in a diagonal line. In the next moment, he had shifted out of the way. He let the man lead through with the slash before taking the back of his head and throwing it into the ground. He had to deal with things quickly. There were still five seemingly well-trained gang members coming at him.

He proceeded to dodge the next two slashes, shifting to opposite sides before push kicking one back and grabbing the other before delivering an elbow to his face.

The men seemed a little drunk, but they fought well nonetheless.

Next, an oil lamp hanging from the roof came flying at his head. Aurelius ducked in a hurry, but then the oil lamp just crashed into the roof above him, and shattered glass came raining down as the area grew darker. Some shards slipped into the space between his neck and undershirt. Fortunately, his tight vest kept any shards from going lower than his neck, and the shards couldn't puncture his skin.

Still, Aurelius cursed the low roof before receiving a kick directed towards his face with his forearms.

He sprung up to his feet right after and found a spike coming at his head from the left while a punch came from his right.

He leaned toward the one throwing the punch and mimicked the move he had seen the commanding guard of the Boerlow mansion do, pushing the other while kicking the other. Both men curved at the impact before they flew into the rough stone walls of the room. He forgot that he wasn't fighting a two against one, though, and came to regret such a position as a blade was about to cut his torso.

Then a vacuum sound came, and the man with the blade was blown in half, his legs staying where they were, but his upper body being hurled through the air before landing with a dull impact.

Aurelius tensed as he regained his footing and stopped the last of the assailants by grabbing his hand that was holding a blade. It was an unnatural way to materialize. Not as an extension, but as a completely separate object. Aurelius didn't wonder the purpose or skill behind the action, however, as he put his fist against the man's chin in a fairly gentle manner.

The man turned limp and fell.

Aurelius looked around at the splattered remains and broken people around. Then he remembered the leader.

"Balgair, you..." He looked around, as did Cade, but he was no longer there. He grimaced as he looked at each of the bodies around, looking for a sign of him. But he simply wasn't there.

Both he and the blonde were gone.

Aurelius looked at Cade, who was evidently just as shocked. Maybe even more.

"I saw him win. The leader was knocked out right after the battle started," Cade said, and Aurelius' felt his heart squeeze.

His confusion transformed into hatred as he remembered the bloodlust and all the weird events that led up to this gory scene. "Did Balgair just... use us?"