Bran massaged his posterior as the shaking carriage trundled down the dirt road. He cursed his boss for assigning him the deplorable task of checking up on a Night Warden's operations in a remote village. It was supposed to be his boss' responsibility to check on the Night Warden, but nobody liked being near the creepy warriors, so his boss had graciously given him a ‘special assignment’ and sent him on the task.
“Well, at least it goes with extra pay,” Bran murmured. It's not like he could refuse his boss. He aimed to climb the ranks while he was still in the prime of his youth, and refusing this assignment could greatly hurt his chances.
The carriage slowly stopped and a small window behind the driver's seat opened. “We're here, Mr. Inspector,” the driver said.
“Thank you very much,” Bran said as he gathered his rucksack and stepped down the carriage. Only to be greeted by rolling plains and fields of swaying grass in all directions. “Hold on, you were supposed to bring me to the village.”
“The village is just a short stroll down the road, Mr. Inspector,” the driver said as he began turning the carriage around.
Bran looked down the road and saw a small village in the distance. In the very far distance. “Are you kidding me? We're still at least half an hour away from the village!”
“Sorry bub. I'm not going anywhere near a Night Freak,” the driver said as he drove the carriage away, leaving Bran in the dust.
“Damn coward, can't even bring me near the entrance,” Bran grumbled as he started walking down the road.
Surprisingly, the walk wasn't that bad. The gentle sound of swaying grass and the soft caress of the afternoon breeze relaxed Bran and calmed his nerves. He had been a bit nervous about meeting a Night Warden, but after a few minutes of walking in this relaxing atmosphere, Bran forgot about his worries and cherished the experience.
By the time Bran arrived at the village entrance, he had a small smile on his face, although it waned when he realized there was nobody around. “Hello? Anybody there?”
When nobody answered his call, Bran entered the village and started knocking on doors. “Hello? I'm an inspector sent from Halros! I'm just here to check on things! I'm not here to collect taxes!”
Still nothing. Bran was sure people would start coming out when he made it clear he wasn't a tax collector, but there was no response.
Bran walked deeper into the village. The place had the same silence as the road earlier, but instead of bringing serenity, it brought… unease. A foreboding feeling.
“Hellooo?” Bran called out as he walked. Only silence met his calls, and he was starting to think the driver brought him to an abandoned village.
Bran heard a soft buzzing. The noise came from the center of the village, and when Bran followed the sound, he froze in horror.
In the village square where festivals and celebrations were usually held was a small hill that ran red with blood. Rivulets of the crimson liquid slowly dripped down its surface before seeping into the ground, the air filled with the buzzing of hundreds of flies.
The hill was made of corpses.
“Who are you?” a voice suddenly said behind Bran.
Bran yelped and turned around to see a man wearing a cloak as dark as the night. He was a nondescript middle-aged man with plain features and an ugly scar that ran down his right cheek, but his hard-set eyes which held a visceral hunger removed any notion that he was an ordinary man.
“I-I'm an inspector from Halros,” Bran croaked. “Who are you? Why have you killed all these people.”
“I'm Night Warden Kairon,” the man said. “As for what I'm doing, I'm doing my job.”
Bran looked at the hill of corpses with horrified eyes. “This… this is your job? Killing innocent people?”
“This village has been infiltrated by vampires. One adult and two juveniles. These bloodsuckers use mind control to turn people into their thralls and do their bidding. The villagers had been compromised,” Kairon said with cold eyes. “The village had to be cleansed.”
“Cleansed?! This is called a massacre, you monster!” Bran shouted as he ran his shaking hands through his hair. “The Governor won't abide by this.”
“That's not for you to decide,” Kairon said. “Now, are you here to do your job or not? Unless you want a hundred undead roaming around the plains, I suggest you do what you came here to do so I can start burning the bodies.”
Bran stared stupefied at the man. After a moment, he retrieved a clipboard and a charcoal pencil from his rucksack. He spoke with a trembling voice. “N-Night Warden Kairon, I am Inspector Brandon Dein from the Halros Guard House, Inspection and Audit Division. As this village is under the jurisdiction of Governor Gellius, any military operation conducted, whether by local or foreign authorities, must be accounted for and taken into record. Please give me a full report on your operation.”
“The Keepers of the Night have received an anonymous tip about the presence of a vampire in this location,” Kairon began. “I have been sent to investigate and upon arrival, I made a preliminary investigation and concluded that a vampire is indeed present. As per our organization's protocols, any settlement that has been infiltrated by a vampire is suitable for a full cleansing provided the population is less than one hundred. As this village has a population of ninety-six, I have deemed a full cleansing feasible for eliminating the vampire and whatever thralls it created. Fortunately, the cleansing had been extremely effective and resulted in resounding success. After the cleansing, one adult vampire, two juvenile vampires, and thirty-eight thralls had been successfully eliminated. The method of body disposal will be through immolation to avoid the creation of undead. End of report.”
Bran stood aghast as he stared at the Night Warden, his trembling hand hovering over his clipboard. The paper where Bran was supposed to write the summary of the report was clean.
Kairon frowned. “You sure you're not going to write it down? I'm not repeating myself.”
“I-I'll… I'll handle it,” Bran whispered as he slowly sat down on a nearby bench.
Kairon snorted as he proceeded to his work. Moments later, the hill of corpses was set alight into a blazing pyre. Kairon left immediately afterward, leaving Bran behind to stare at the burning pile of bodies.
Bran stared at the pyre unmoving for an hour before the fire finally died down. His face was blank.
A rustling from behind startled Bran, and as he turned around, he spotted a peeking head from the doorway of one of the houses. He approached the house until he was right in front of a young child. She was entirely covered with soil as if she'd been buried, and her tears left streaks of mud down her cheeks.
“A survivor…” Bran whispered. The Night Warden missed one.
Bran kneeled beside the little girl who was blankly staring at the pile of corpses. Bran pulled the child into a hug and kept her from seeing the bodies.
“Hey, hey, it's alright,” Bran whispered as he slowly swayed her side to side. “The monster is gone now. I won't let anything hurt you. What's your name?”
The child started trembling in his chest as she sobbed, her soft cries shattering Bran's heart. “B-Belka… mommy and daddy called me Belka…”
●●●
The world fell apart as Belka saw the scar that ran down the old man's right cheek. Her goals and responsibilities were forgotten as she threw herself against the Night Warden that took her childhood from her.
Her fist that was coated in fire made contact with Kairon's torso and the air exploded as it expanded from the sudden heat. The nearby tables and chairs flew away burning, and the embers from the attack lit the wooden floor of the inn on fire.
The fire from Belka's attack had burned away the cloak that covered Kairon's body, revealing the full plate armor he wore. The iron was not enough to resist Belka's attack and a hole was punched through, but her fist stopped dead at Kairon's skin. The Night Warden was immovable.
“This is the sloppiest assassination attempt I've ever witnessed,” Kairon scoffed as he moved his arm.
Before Belka could spit back a furious response, she suddenly found herself flying through the air and slamming into the wall on the opposite side of the room. She fell to the ground gasping as she clutched her abdomen. Internal bleeding and at least three broken ribs.
Belka grunted as she stood up, her eyes still blazing with fury, but she assessed the situation more thoroughly. Her rage threatened to consume her mind, but she knew she wouldn't be able to kill the old Night Warden if she went in like a rabid animal.
“Aunt Belka, what are you doing?!” Emily exclaimed as she watched with her mouth agape.
“Get back, Emily, it's dangerous,” Kazimir said as he pulled the young girl and handed her to Samantia's care. He shot Belka a furious look, but he did not attempt to stop the fight.
Belka felt her heart wrench at the disappointed look Emily was giving her. Belka was supposed to be a role model for the young girl. She was supposed to watch over her while they were in Halros, but instead of protecting her from danger, Belka brought her right in front of it.
I'm sorry, Emily. But I can't live myself if I leave this place knowing this man still draws breath, Belka thought as she readied herself to charge at Kairon again.
“Who are you?” Kairon asked as he slowly drew his blade from its scabbard. “You're too weak to be an assassin sent for me. No hitman has ever survived an encounter with me, but at least they were strong enough to put up a fight.”
“You took my family away from me, you bastard,” Belka growled, her fists clenched hard. “More than thirty years ago, you massacred an entire village because of a vampire. Too bad you missed me.”
“You were there?” Kazimir whispered with realization as he stared at the Head Hunter. He recalled Chief Bran's story a long time ago, but the old man didn't say anything about finding a young Belka there.
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Samantia had the same surprised expression as she looked at her captain. “Captain Kairon, is that true? Did you… massacre her entire village?”
Kairon shrugged. “I don't know if this bear of a woman is telling the truth. Out of all the villages I've cleansed throughout my travels, I never recalled ever letting a child escape. But since she said the incident was more than thirty years ago, with my youth and inexperience during that time, I indeed must have missed one. Rest assured, the subsequent villages I've cleansed from thereafter were cleansed fully.”
Samantia covered her mouth in shock as she took a step back.
“You fucking monster!” Belka screamed in fury as she charged at Kairon, her entire body clad in dancing flames. She knew she was outmatched. If she had broken through to the Third Level of Augmentation, she might have stood a chance, but she had been stuck at the peak of the Second Level for years now.
Kairon's counterattack on her earlier had inflicted so much damage despite her augmented body, proof of his overwhelming strength. It was almost a certainty that she would die if she continued the fight, but she didn't hesitate to attack.
Her parents never hesitated to throw themselves at Kairon to give her time to hide back then. Her parents were mere ordinary people with no special abilities fighting back against an augmenter with no hesitation.
Belka didn't hesitate either.
Kairon stood still as Belka neared, his scarred face staring at her with cold indifference. He looked unconcerned as he readied to receive Belka's attack.
Belka activated her old trusty martial skill that had seen her through the brutal gang wars of Halros, through the monster-infested Wild Woods, and today, through the man that killed her family.
With gritted teeth, Belka overloaded the martial skill with everything she had, hoping to finish the fight with one blow. Fiery veins appeared on Belka's right arm as pure fire flowed through her mana channels, and as she took the last step, she swung with all her might.
Hand Cannon
Kairon swung his sword at Belka's fist, aiming to slice off her hand. The moment Belka's fist collided with the sword, all the Fire mana accumulated in her arm gathered at the point of contact and triggered a massive explosion pointed towards Kairon. With almost all of Belka's mana pool going into the attack, the explosion was powerful enough to encompass the Night Warden's entire body and blow him away along with half of the entire inn.
Belka's ears rang as she swayed on her feet. Her vision was blurry and her body felt weak from the mana expenditure. Overloading her martial skill produced tremendous amounts of heat, causing the sweat on her body to boil on her skin, but thanks to her being a Fire-attuned augmenter, she could withstand the high temperatures.
She coughed from the thick smoke that permeated the area and looked around. She sighed in relief when she saw Emily was safe behind the barrier that Samantia had created.
Belka looked at her right arm and went silent. There was only a burnt stump where her right hand used to be. But if it meant killing the old bastard, then it was worth it. Nobody could have escaped that massive explosion at point-blank range.
Belka moved towards Emily and the Night Wardens. “Emily, are you alri—”
“Behind you!”
Belka didn't bother turning around and raised her right arm to deflect whatever attack was incoming. She immediately jumped to the side after she felt her right arm being cut off right at the shoulder.
Belka could hear Emily screaming her name in the background, but she didn't have time to reply before she had to dodge one swipe after another as Kairon grimly went on the offensive.
The old Night Warden looked worse for wear. What was left of his armor were just bits of scrap iron clinging to his body, and his skin was scorched black. He was a bit bloodied, but Kairon was mostly unharmed. The only reason Belka was still alive was that Kairon's sword was warped beyond repair, making it unwieldy and easier to dodge.
Belka and Kairon fought relentlessly, wrecking the entire inn that was now long since emptied. Despite being the weaker combatant, Belka stood her ground against Kairon longer than she thought. But she knew Kairon was just prolonging the inevitable. The old Night Warden had yet to use a martial skill in their entire fight, and the moment he did, Belka knew her death would become certain.
“I did not strike you as someone who played around with his victims,” Belka huffed as she exchanged blows with Kairon.
“I do not ‘play around,’” Kairon scoffed as he swung for Belka's other remaining arm, hoping to fully ‘disarm’ her. Belka dodged at the last second. “I could crush you easily if I go all out, but I have no intention of using up all my strength and leaving myself weakened for other enemies later. We both know you'll eventually tire far sooner than me. Why push and risk myself when you're already on the verge of collapse?”
Despite her exhaustion, a seed of hope blossomed in Belka's heart. It was true that she would eventually lose a fight of attrition, especially when her mana was almost gone, but prolonging the fight meant Mr. Marion had more time to come to her aid. Belka just had to hope that news of their fight spread quickly enough to reach her masked friend. Marion would whine and bitch about it, but he wouldn't hesitate to help, Belka thought.
The absent thoughts distracted Belka for the barest of moments, but it was enough for Kairon.
Belka moved to deflect Kairon's swing from her left, but it was a feint. Kairon let go of his useless sword and used his fists instead, taking advantage of Belka's missing right arm to attack her vulnerable side. Belka tried to dodge, but she was not fast enough. Kairon's punch broke all the ribs on the right side of her body and sent Belka flying.
Belka landed on the ground, coughing up blood. Kairon could have easily followed up immediately and ended her life once and for all, but he slowly walked up to her instead. They both knew she could no longer fight back. Moving her body even a single inch would cause the shards of bone inside her to puncture her organs.
“You are unusually strong for your level,” Kairon said as he stood over Belka's battered body. “You could have been a valuable member if you joined us.”
Belka tried to speak, but even the shallowest breath racked her body with excruciating pain. In the end, she settled for spitting at the old Night Warden's boot.
“Filthy savage,” Kairon muttered. He raised the foot that Belka spit on, intending to stomp on her head and crush it like a melon.
The thwip of a bow echoed out before an arrow flew for Kairon's face. The steel tip was mere millimeters from his face before he caught it with his hand.
No, Belka thought as she tilted her head. She saw Emily screaming her name by the ruined entrance of the inn as she was being restrained by Kazimir and Samantia, her bow clattering to the ground.
“W-We're sorry, Captain,” Kazimir said nervously. “We'll make sure she won't interfere again.”
Kairon narrowed his eyes. “Kill her.”
“W-Wha…” Kazimir asked with disbelief.
“Captain, please reconsider,” Samantia pleaded. “She's just, she's just a kid, Captain. She won't do it again.”
“I'll do it again and again until you take your ugly mug away from Aunt Belka!” Emily screamed as she fought against Kazimir and Samantia.
“Emily!” Samantia hissed. “W-We're sorry, Captain. We'll make sure she—”
“Kill. Her.” Kairon said with dark eyes. “That is an order.”
“But, but,” Kazimir sputtered, his eyes glancing at Belka.
Belka couldn't speak at the moment, but she pleaded at Kazimir with her eyes. Please protect Emily.
After a brief hesitation, Kazimir looked Kairon in the eye. “I'm sorry, Captain. But we can't follow that order.”
“Hmm.” Kairon snorted as he turned back to Belka's battered body. Just as everyone thought he was going to finish Belka, Kairon's hand that held the arrow blurred. A second later, the arrow was gone from his hand.
“A-Aunt Belka..?” Emily whispered. Her voice was soft, but everyone in the inn heard it. Belka looked in Emily's direction and her breath caught.
Tears silently dripped down Emily's cheek. An arrow was jutting out from her chest, right where her heart was. Kazimir and Samantia, who were holding her by her arms, slowly lowered her to the ground with stupefied faces.
Despite the pain, Belka shouted at the top of her lungs, her hatred and fury palpable. “KAAAIROOOOOON!”
Something broke inside Belka and power surged through her body. The pain that paralyzed her body was forgotten as she slowly forced herself up, her eyes brimming with tears and pure anger. “I'LL KILL YOU!”
Flames started gathering at the stump of Belka's shoulder, but instead of wild licks of fire, the conflagration slowly solidified into something that resembled an arm.
“A breakthrough in the middle of the fight, huh?” Kairon muttered. He was impressed. If a wild aura that surrounded the user's body was the hallmark of the Second Level of Augmentation, then solidifying it was the benchmark of the Third Level, although it required tremendous training before one was able to do it. That Belka was able to do it the moment she broke through to the Third Level was a blatant display of talent.
“Too bad you won't be alive long enough to achieve your potential,” Kairon said before he raised his foot to stomp on Belka's head.
Kairon suddenly felt an attack coming from his right. With the young huntress dead, he didn't expect an attack to come from that direction and was caught unaware, and with one foot raised, he couldn't dodge the attack lest he loses balance.
Kairon tried to block the sword coming for his neck with one arm, but the blade easily changed direction and stabbed into his gut before emerging out of his back.
Kairon gasped in shock as he glared at his attacker. “You..?!”
“I'm sorry, Captain,” Kazimir said with bubbling fury underneath his grim expression. “But I cannot let you kill more innocent people.”
“You brat!” Kairon spat. He gripped Kazimir's sword with one hand and took hold of the young Night Warden's throat with another. Kazimir clawed at the hand at his throat, but Kairon empowered his hand with his Earth mana and reinforced it, turning it into an impregnable and immovable vise that steadily tightened like a garrote. “You'll regret betraying me, boy! Samantia! Help me kill this traitor!”
Wind blades flew in their direction, but instead of going for Kazimir, they targeted Kairon. The old Night Warden cursed and let go of Kazimir, pulling the sword out of his gut and backing away in the process. The wind blades struck the wooden floor, sending a shower of chips and splinters everywhere.
“Are you both out of your damn minds?!” Kairon shouted furiously, his earlier calm demeanor gone. “Do you know what we do to traitors?! We burn them at the stake! Both of you, I'm going to give you only one chance. Drop your weapons now and surrender yourself peacefully so I could execute you with dignity, or resist and you will be burnt at the stake.”
“Sounds like a pretty easy choice,” Samantia said with a heated glare, but the quiver in her voice belied her nervousness at her decision to betray the Night Warden.
“You'll be the one that will burn at the stake, Captain,” Kazimir said as he covered his body with an aura of swirling wind. “Wait until the Night Keepers hear of everything you've done.”
Kairon laughed derisively. “The Night Keepers already know everything of what I've done, you naive fools, and they allow it. The Creatures of the Night must be eradicated at any cost, and if a few human lives are killed for the greater good, then it is a necessary sacrifice. You are too young to accept the harsh truth, Night Warden Kazimir, but mark my words. You'll come to accept it eventually when you witness what our true enemies are capable of.”
A look of utter shame and betrayal passed by Kazimir's face before settling with grim determination. “Don't call me a Night Warden anymore. I'm not staying in an organization that tolerates monsters like you.”
Before Kairon could reply, Kazimir shot forward faster than an arrow, his silver sword raised high and surrounded with swirling blades of wind. He reached Kairon in just a second and swung for the old Night Warden's neck.
It was pointless to compete with speed against an augmenter with Wind-affinity, so instead of dodging, Kairon reinforced his arm with Earth mana and raised it to protect his neck. It completely stopped Kazimir's sword with nary a scratch, but Kairon had no time to counterattack before a fireball hit him square in the chest.
“Aaargh! Damn you, witch!” Kairon cursed as he drew a hidden dagger and threw it at Samantia.
Samantia calmly activated a talisman and a blast of wind deflected the dagger. She immediately ripped another talisman and a fireball once again flew towards Kairon, hitting him right in the chest.
Any other person would have long been incinerated into ashes after getting directly hit by two fireballs in a row, but Kairon was a different matter. As an augmenter with Earth-affinity, his body was extremely durable, and it would take more than a few fireballs to take him down.
But that wasn't to say he was unharmed. The second fireball had completely incinerated the last remnants of his armor, leaving his torso bare. His chest was scorched black, and the deep wound on his abdomen that Kazimir made earlier was cauterized completely.
“I'm done holding back,” Kairon mumbled with furious eyes. “If the two of you think you have a chance of killing me, then—”
Kairon didn't get to finish as he felt a bone-chilling danger behind him. He turned and his eyes widened when he saw Belka's large form charging at him. When did she get there?! Kairon thought as panic started creeping inside him.
With the injuries he gave her, she shouldn't even be standing, but Belka didn't seem to notice her grievous wounds as she ran at Kairon, her missing arm now replaced with a new one made entirely of solid fire.
Kairon felt the accumulation of mana in Belka's fiery arm, and he cursed when he realized she was burning her own life force to fuel her martial skill. Belka was weaker than him, but even Kairon didn't think he'd escape unscathed if he ate a martial skill powered with life force head-on.
Without delay, Kairon activated his own martial skill.
Walking Fortress
Huge clumps of gray rock started emerging from Kairon's skin and slowly encased his body, leaving only his eyes exposed. His entire body radiated the aura of a mountain: impregnable and immovable.
Unfortunately for him, Kairon's martial skill didn't get to finish activating before Belka finally arrived, face set in pure rage. Her fiery arm drew back, and with a cry of rage and grief, she swung with all her might and activated her martial skill.
Hand Cannon
The very earth trembled as a massive explosion occurred with Kairon in the center. He screamed in defiance as he raised both of his arms to block most of the force, but with his martial skill incomplete, he felt the rocks encasing his body slowly shatter and melt.
“Damn you!” Kairon cried as his rock armor finally broke and he was swept away by the blast.
●●●
The people watched restlessly as the noises of battle continued inside the inn. Nobody knew why the fight started, but what they did know was that several augmenters and a mage were duking it out, so they kept their distance. Only a few daredevils were stupid enough to try and get a glimpse of the battle.
The noises grew louder, more people approached to get in on the action, and soon, gossip and rumors started spreading throughout the gathering crowd as the daredevils that watched the fight shared their own version of events.
Some said that an old man was being ganged up on because he was a pervert, some said he was a mass murderer that killed a child and her mother, while a few stated that a large woman was the instigator of the fight and the old man was just defending himself.
But most of the minor rumors were ignored when a new one started floating about: this was the signal they were waiting for and that the revolution had begun.
The curious nature of the crowd suddenly became wrought with anticipation. They eyed each other with understanding and camaraderie. None of them openly talked about the rebellion in case there was a guard disguised as a civilian. But the air was filled with excitement and everybody knew it was only a matter of time.
“What's goin' on here?!” a voice suddenly boomed behind the crowd.
The people parted as two thugs strutted with arrogant demeanors. They glared at the crowd as one of the pair, a heavily-tattooed man with a face only a mother could love, addressed the gathered people. “Well? I'm waitin' for an answer!”
When the crowd remained silent, the thug clicked his tongue and approached a woman nearby. She tried to move away, but the thug moved quickly and pulled her by the arm. The woman screamed, but she was silenced as the thug slapped her hard across the face.
“You better tell me what I want to know if you don't want me to sell you to the whorehouses,” the thug said.
“Uh, Rik?” his partner said nervously behind him. “I, uh, think we should go.”
“Shut it, Rodney. I'm busy,” Rik said as he glared at the terrified woman he was holding. “What are you waitin' for, bitch? Start talking!”
“Rik!” Rodney whispered frantically. “We have to go now.”
“If you want to go, then go, you fucking twit. But don't come running to me if Stinky Pete finds out you slacked on the job,” Rik spat as he turned back to the woman. “Now, start talking before…”
Rik paused as the woman's earlier fearful expression turned into a glare. Before Rik could slap the woman for her defiance, the woman spat at his face. “You bitch!”
Something hard hit the back of Rik's head. He spun around with murder in his eyes. He looked down and realized someone had just thrown a pebble at his head. “Who did that?! You better pray I don't find you or else you're mother is goin' to pay for it with her body!”
Another object hit Rik in the back of his head again which made his vision spin. Rik stumbled as he became disoriented, and he realized a moment later that someone threw a brick this time. Rik's face grew red with rage. “That's it! All of you will pay for this…”
Rik stopped. He was surrounded by the crowd, and everybody was glaring at him. His partner was nowhere to be found. “W-What are you all lookin' at, huh?! All of you, go back home! I'm feelin' merciful today!”
Rik heard a set of footsteps behind him. He turned around to see the woman he slapped earlier approaching, a glass bottle in her hand. Before he could react, the woman slammed the bottle on his head. The glass shattered and dozens of small shards embedded themselves into Rik's face.
“AAARRGH! YOU BITCH!” Rik screamed in outrage, but then he saw the crowd slowly closing in. All of them had makeshift weapons in their hands. Rik paled as he realized what they were going to do. “Wait! Wait! I'm sorry! I promise I'm not going to say this to Stinky Pete! I swear!”
The crowd parted and a bleeding Rodney was carried into the shrinking circle by a pair of burly men. His face was swollen and his hair was completely soaked with blood. The two men let go of Rodney and let him fall to the ground face first. He was not breathing.
Rik regretted not listening to Rodney earlier.
Before Rik could utter more of his pleas, the crowd—no, the mob— descended upon him. His flesh was sundered and his bones were shattered as the furious people of Halros beat him with no mercy. Rik screamed and begged, but none listened.
A deafening explosion erupted in the inn behind them, startling the mob. When the place was quiet once more, the mob realized that they weren't in any danger and continued beating Rik. A minute later, Rik finally ceased breathing, but the beating continued.
In a nearby three-story building, an urchin emerged from the roof. The high vantage point gave him a good view of the derelict outer city.
The urchin cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted with all the strength he could muster with the entire outer city as his audience. “THE REVOLUTION HAS BEGUN! DOWN WITH THE TYRANTS!”