A little less than a week after his first encounter with them at the gate, Joshua had another run-in with the Combat Specialist youth. He was near the gate when there was a commotion a few buildings down, and what sounded like someone dropping a large cauldron. Joshua and his chift partner looked ahead at the gate, and the guards on duty waved them to take a look, so they hustled over to the site of the disturbance. As it was the end of the overnight shift, he could see why they would rather stay at the gate rather than go running after a disturbance; When he got there and thought about it later, he was actually glad that they did decide to stay.

It had not been a dropped cauldron. Rather, it was an utterly enormous sword held at the side of a relatively smaller figure, with broken cobbles all around them and heavily scored walls around them, not to mention the three dead bodies; although it almost looked like four at first glance, as one was cut entirely in half and had a good six feet of distance between said halves.

"Drop the weapon and lie down!" It was Joshua shouting, and honestly panicking a little with the three bodies, one of which was, again, **cut in bloody halves on the ground!!** He leveled his spear at the figure, as did his shift mate, and they advanced on them, although his attention was mostly tied to the three prone figures on the ground as he continued yelling at the upright one.

*-wait, the **upright one?** Why am I dismissing their identity entirely? In fact, what **is** thier- Joshua cut himself off immediately and cast a simple light orb, to get a better look at the scene-*figure! The figure! The scene is important, but the figure is why I'm lighting it up! Why am I not thinki- oh $#!+* as his light spell went off he made sure to focus on the apparent youth in the alley, who had an odd look on their face- the youth from before- the Combat Specialist! **This** was what the veteran had been talking about! and as he forcibly calmed himself down, and put a hand on his shift partner's shoulder, to do the same, he actually looked around the scene of the conflict; and a simple look was all it even took to understand exactly what had happened here, if not the reasons behind it.

The three dead bodies were very obviously armed, although why wouldn't they be armed, it is dangerous out there-*but they are **inside** the city gates, and not equipped to go foraging or gathering or hunting.* They were obviously armed, had no gear for going out of the city to use those weapons, and in fact had weapons that would do little against anything significant they could hunt! they had daggers and freaking clubs! Admittedly, those clubs looked to be surprisingly well made, so they couldn't have been shady-*except that the daggers they have are absolutely terrible quality, have no uniformity, and some look they are personalised to have- are those supposed to be serrations?? why would you cut into a functional dagger to add bloody serrations?*

They were, on reflection, (and self-reflection as well) very obviously thugs of some sort, and in fact, Joshua vaugely recognised one of them from a notice in the guard barracks a while ago. Something about him being wanted for something, and a small bounty-

And things clicked into place. It was a small section of the board that had bounty listings for criminals in the city. They were nothing huge, but the guards weren't everywhere, and so had posted these boards in plenty of places where those in need of coin or willing to do a good turn could see them. The Combat Specialist youth was a **bounty hunter!** In fact, if they were, they could have even registered with the guards as one, and should, in fact, have their face on the barracks bounty board as well!

Joshua turned to his shift mate, who, while admittedly no the older veteran, had still been there longer than Joshua had. "Do you recognise these bodies?" Joshua said, gesturing to the figures on the ground, specifically their faces, as he had noticed he had not looked at their faces at first, and thought it good to see if the other guard had as well.

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"Recognise them? Why on Tablah would I rec-" the other guard cut his unusually angry rant off, with a bit of guilt on his face, as he did indeed finally look at the faces of the bodies on the ground. "These two have bounties on their heads! This one for murder, and this one for assault and robbery! This second one is mainly smaller tiem, but-" the gurad looked up at the youth, angrily at first. "You should have just brought them in! No need to go around slaughter-"

Joshua cut him off quickly. "Do you recognise them from the bounty boards as well? specifically the registered bounty hunters? I am not as familiar with them as of yet."

"Why aren't you- right. They don't formally introduce you to the bounty for a while. Sorry." The other guard was mostly paying attention to Joshua now, so he gestured again to the Combat Specialist youth. "Right!" His shift mate said, and actually studied their face. "You're right!" he said, snapping his fingers, "They **are** a registered bounty hunter, only showed up a week ago!"

Joshua nodded. "I figured. Now lets-"

The other guard cut him off again. "But they still didn't have to go around killing them willy-nilly! They could have-"

"Killed him if he didn't protect himself?" Joshua asked. "Look. They have their weapons drawn. They have no sheaths for these weapons. If pay attention, they were surrounding him. We are just out of sight of the main thoroughfare, and there are hiding places ahead over there, where there are shallow doorways into the surrounding buildings." Hegestured around the, and then to the Combat Specialist. "They, on the other hand, have a spilled basket of fruit, Their entire pack, and, if you look at their weapon, **it is still partially in it's wrapping!** They had to use their weapon quickly, and if you look at how it was tied it was a peace bond knot," Joshua continued, and as he was looking at the weapon, looked further at the youth. "-in fact, it looks like they had to draw their blade in a hurry, as **their scabbard has been cut!"**

At this, the other guard spluttered a bit, and looked closer at the sheath on the youth's back, as did they. The Combat Specialist cursed. "Great. Now I have to get yet another one of these things. Stupid bloody thugs."

Having calmed the other guard down, Joshua had him stay with the bodies, while he went with the Combat Specialist to the barracks, to get someone higher up to deal with the bounties and the bodies. He witnessed for the thugs, (all three, in fact, had bounties) and helped dispose of the corpses. When he finally did get to his shift at the gate, half an hour later, the previous shift asked him questions about what happened, and thanked him for letting them take the simpler job after the night shift.

Joshua was glad as well-tired as they were, he wasn't sure if they could have remained calm and rational in that situation. now that he was away from the youth, he could see all sorts of problems with his reactions and thoughts in the situation. Yes, seeing someone cut in half is disturbing, but he had, in fact, seen worse in monster attacks, when civilians were caught or someone got careless. He had seen a few gloody alley-way murders before, and normally providing lighting in darker areas was a bloody basic instinct! He had acted... like he was drunk, or on something- almost exactly like the old veteran had said. His magic had been a little off, too, the light having been more red than normal. That... was very strange. Joshua resolved to ask his brother about this.

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There were a few more encouonters with the Combat Specialist, over the next couple weeks. he had been involved in a fire at the inn he was staying at, which turned out to be not his fault. Joshua heard the older veteran guard actually calmed down another situation with the youth, something that had to do with planted evidence and some thieves, and another one where the veteran made sure to keep a guard scribe from being abusive and stupid towards the Combat Specialist, after their stuff was burned in the fire and didn't look as well off. In fact, the old veteran actually became the official liason to the combat specialist, joining him to kill some bandits on the road, and helping him hunt some fiery bull hide for a new sheath. Almost like he was moe with the youth than the guard...

That was right before there was a surge of monster sightings, and the walls were swarmed with windborn, both lower-class beasts, and some mid-class ones; no one noticed the high-class beast until it was already at the walls, and killing men...