“Now that I’ve had a look at your situation, I have even less hope about this.” Rayyan spoke nonchalantly as she pulled out her dossier on Black Iman.
“Well, it was his idea.” Mark pointed at Horan, who stood next to him in silence.
“Honestly, based on how he’s acted before, I can believe that. Here’s the info you want.” Rayyan pointed to a sheet on the notebook.
“Iman is thought to be hiding out in a cave about a kilometer east of here. Right now, we don’t know what’s in the cave, but people who have checked the place out are pretty sure it’s his hideout. Iman appears to have supernatural abilities, because it looks like everyone has them these days.”
“Eh, from what I’ve seen, it’s not much help for them,” chimed in Mark.
“Nevertheless,” continued Rayyan, “You should stay on the lookout. Iman has used his spooky magic powers to cause trouble for Arraba for a while now. We think he can control the wind in some way. We’re also pretty sure he can turn invisible or turn into animals, since he knows plenty about the town even though he almost never visits. That’s basically all the info we have on him.”
“I can work with that,” determined Mark.
Horan turned to look at Mark, a bemused expression on his face. “Because you handled Thel so well.”
“I shot him and he went down. Win in my book.”
Rayyan waited for the two to finish. “Normally, the bounty would be fifty litres of water-“ She paused as a sharp intake of breath came from Mark. “…But you two are doing it free of charge, thanks to your friend there.”
Mark reached over and punched Horan in the arm.
“Ow!” exclaimed Horan.
Mark kept looking away from him. “You deserve that for making me miss out on the score of my life.”
“I agree, but ow!”
“Oh, suck it up, you little baby.”
Rayyan got up. “Alright, I’ll let you two fight it out. I’m getting a drink.”
Mark turned to follow her. “I’m tempted to come with you.”
“Please don’t.” Rayyan walked out the door.
Mark sighed. “Alright, let’s go get ourselves killed.”
“Can’t wait.” Horan led the way out the door.
-
After a few minutes of walking, the two found the cave in question. Tucked into a rocky hill, the wide opening extended into darkness. It didn’t look like any malevolent immortal creatures lived in there.
Horan rubbed his eye socket. “Ow, I really need an eyepatch. Sand keeps getting in my hole.”
Mark turned away from the cave and back to Horan. “Good idea. It’ll be nice to not have to look at your gross eye pit. Alright, it looks unguarded. Let’s sneak in and see if he’s home.” He unslung his rifle. “Honestly, this could be worse. You could’ve cuffed our dominant hands.”
Horan summoned a sword. “Heh, yeah. I absolutely made sure I cuffed the offhands...”
Mark sighed. “Honestly, I should have expected you to say something along those lines. Alright, let’s go.”
Weapons readied, the two crept towards the cave entrance. As they entered, it became no easier to see the interior. Mark groaned. “Should’ve brought a lantern.”
“Wait, hang on. I’m pretty sure I can…”
Horan scrunched up his face and closed his eye for a few seconds. When he reopened his eye, a beam of dark blue light emanated from it, neatly illuminating his full field of view.
Mark raised his eyebrows. “Cool, flashlight eye.”
Now that the interior of the cave was visible, the two got to take a proper look at it. The sandstone walls were rough and dry at the top, but smoother towards the bottom. A straw bed was put up in one corner, with a bucket and small bookshelf on either side of it. A wooden rack was set up on the far wall, containing a variety of swords from all over the world.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
However, it was the poster above the bed that made Mark’s blood freeze. He didn’t recognize the characters, and didn’t know what it said, but the colourful Japanese letters gave away exactly what the poster was for.
“Oh no…”
“What? What is it?” Horan took a step back.
“We need to go right now, this guy’s a-“
A sharp, nasally voice spoke. “A worthy opponent.”
The two turned back to the cave entrance. Silhouetted against the light from outside was a slender figure, wrapped in loose clothes. As Horan turned to look, it was shown that it was a grey-skinned being who had spoken. The person was covered in mismatched, ragged silk garments which covered their entire body save for their eyes.
The person spoke again. “You have trespassed in the home of Black Iman, scourge of the land. Now, you will pay the price.”
Horan spoke up. “Look buddy, we’re here to take you in. This doesn’t need to be a big- whoa!”
Horan was yanked to the side by Mark pulling on the handcuffs. A scimitar flew off the sword rack, through the air where Horan had been standing, and into Iman’s outstretched hand. Iman stumbled back a few steps before awkwardly righting himself and brandishing his sword.
“While you fools were trying to survive off the land, keeping yourselves alive with trivialities like food, I studied the blade.”
He flourished his sword in the air, accidentally slicing through one of his loose bandages.
“And look at you two humans, chained together. You’ll never defeat me. This cave will be your tomb!”
In a gust of wind, Iman dissipated into the air. An instant later, he reformed directly behind Mark in a crouched position.
“Nothing personal, k-“ He was interrupted by Mark kicking backwards, his foot connecting with Iman’s jaw. Iman stumbled backwards, still brandishing his sword.
“Excuse me, I was doing a thing!”
Mark turned, pointing his rifle at Iman’s chest. “Sorry, we were too busy staying alive to notice!”
Iman teleported again as Mark fired a short burst at where he had been. This time, he appeared directly above Horan, sword raised. Horan blocked the strike and Iman immediately teleported away again.
Horan growled. “Whoa, I wish I could do that!”
Mark huddled up against his back. “It would definitely be useful here. Can you at least try?”
Horan strained, leaning forward slightly. After a few seconds, he let out his breath. “No, no, I can’t. Wait, where’d the sword guy go?”
“I don’t know, I can’t see anything on my end.”
Mark felt a brief rush of wind in front of him and fired into the darkness. The brief illumination from the muzzle flash showed Iman diving out of the way of the fire. Mark swung around to bring Horan’s eye flashlight towards their opponent.
Iman staggered back and shielded his eyes from the sudden light, giving Horan the chance to strike. He lunged forward with his blade, which Iman barely managed to block. Iman shoved forward, pushing Horan’s blade into his face.
“Nice sword work. But you’re not dealing with the average immortal, and you can’t hit…”
Iman vanished from sight and the force disappeared from Horan’s sword.
“… What you can’t see.”
Horan wheeled around, sweeping the entire cave with his gaze, but Iman was nowhere to be seen. Mark, front to the exit, was the first to speak.
“So, did he leave?”
Suddenly, Iman’s silhouette appeared against the backdrop of the cave’s entrance. Reflexively, Mark fired at the new appearance. Iman raised his scimitar as if to block the gunfire, but the blade shattered with ease. Iman teleported away before the remaining gunfire could do anything more than graze him.
Iman’s nasally voice sounded out from somewhere else in the cave. “Guns. Pathetic. I should have expected this from you humans. Looks like I’ll have to use my ultimate weapon.”
A katana raised itself out of the small pile of spilled swords. Iman reappeared, clutching the blade in a pose that was clearly meant to be intimidating.
“This blade is the greatest in the world! Folded one million times, it is sharp enough to slice through any bullet.”
“Where’d you get it?” asked Horan.
“I dunno, some guy’s house. I’m going off of the label.”
Iman vanished again. Mark and Horan stood back-to-back, barely managing to fend off Iman’s onslaught of hit-and-run attacks. Eventually, Mark aimed at Iman, but all that came was a click. Mark blocked the strike with his rifle, but still began to inch towards the cave entrance.
“Horan, we need to go! I’m out!”
Horan deflected a strike. “Alright. Wait, I have an idea!”
“Don’t you dare!”
“C’mon, do you trust me?”
“Not at all!” Mark dodged under a horizontal slash. “That’s it, let’s go!”
Horan swiped at the ground, causing an explosion of sand to fill the cave. As Mark and Horan ran out of the cave, they heard Iman’s voice behind them.
“This isn’t the last you’ll see of me! One hour! One hour until I enslave your pathetic town and prove that I am the greatest warrior the world has ever seen!”