The Night of Murder and Mayhem, as Ghost had christened it, had only just begun. He discovered this after co-fighting several assassins with Kanda and her summons, Ghost finding it increasingly hard to gauge whether the people they were slaughtering were assassins or Baronblades. Normally, the Baronblades had bejeweled masks, but they had apparently switched when the rumor did its damage.

There were trainees here as well, the to-be-Baronblades easier to point out in the way that they moved and the mistakes that they made.

Whoosh!

Fire filled the space as Kanda brought one of the trainees down through her flamekitsune, the woman’s body igniting and her arms flailing as the trainee threw herself through a window, where she landed in a courtyard and quickly gave up the fight.

“A brutal way to go,” Ghost said, as the woman’s body smoldered.

“I hate killing them,” said Kanda. “One might have been a future soldier in my army.”

“Your army?” Ghost asked as he remained crouched near the entrance to another hallway. Yet again, Alistair’s body was processing the shock of seeing a woman running around on fire; that, or the assassins that Lionel had dealt with earlier by stripping some of their flesh off their bodies using shadows.

“They will become that, yes,” she said with a dark determination in her voice. “I will, of course, weed out most of them through the dungeon core card. But the more that die here tonight, the less I have to weed out.”

“If they die here tonight, they don’t deserve to be Baronblades.”

“Really?” Kanda asked him. “We’re surprise attacking them with summons and they’re defending the mansion against some of the kingdom’s best assassins. I don’t think that’s fair.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“You’re agreeing with me?”

Squish! Ziggy said from Ghost’s shoulder.

“The slime is right. We can debate the merits of tonight’s slaughter at another time. We still haven’t found Renez yet.” Ghost looked toward the room ahead. It wasn’t quite a fatal funnel, but he didn’t like the prospects of moving forward. “Lionel. Check the next two rooms. If you see Noctarii, tell him to return to us.”

“Understood.” The shadows shifted as Lionel moved ahead. Ghost remained crouched until the summon returned.

“There is a man seated two rooms from here.”

“Seated?” Ghost asked Lionel.

“He is seated in meditation. There is mana protecting him.”

“What did he look like?”

“A large man with what looked like metal boots. He locked eyes with me even though I was hidden by the shadows.”

“That has to be Iron Foot,” Ghost said. “Shit.”

Kanda looked back to him. “Iron Foot? I’ve only heard my Uncle mention him once or twice.”

“He’s barely an Unknown Soul. Iron Foot is an assassin that is obsessed with a unique kind of meditation practiced in the mountains south of Ruminara. He wears boots made of iron originally as encumbrances, yet this particular sect of monks later learn to channel mana in ways that allow them to move around with the objects. I’ve seen iron fists too.”

“So he’s using mana to bolster his strength?” Kanda asked.

“More than that. He apparently has control over the mana in the room. I’m surprised Noctarii got past him.”

“Maybe Noctarii is stuck on the other side,” Lionel said. “I can head out the window here and check in that way.”

“Yes, do that. Meet with Noctarii and wait for us.”

“You think you can beat him?” Kanda asked Ghost.

Finally, a message from Alistair.

Alistair: Maybe we don’t go fight the guy with iron feet and we sneak around him with Lionel and Noctarii instead?

“No, we should get Iron Foot out of the way. Why? Because he deserves it. I never liked him. Not a good reason, really,” Ghost told Alistair, “But this is a murder party, and Iron Foot came to dance.”

Alistair: What!?

“Do you need your other sword?” Lionel asked Ghost.

“No. One should be fine. If you or Noctarii see a woman with two short swords, deal with her. Bring me evidence.”

“As you wish.” Lionel left in the same direction that the flaming woman had gone.

“To me,” Kanda told Fiera as she touched her chest. “And Ghost, I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Stay behind me,” was all the assassin said as he moved on.

He reached the room to find Iron Foot seated in meditation, the man without a mask, his long, stringy hair covering his face. At first, it seemed as if he wouldn’t register Ghost’s presence, but he finally looked up at what must have been a strange sight, two teenagers in masks, one wearing a dirty turquoise suit with a semi-translucent slime on his shoulder that had big black eyes.

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“You are Felix’s?” Iron Foot asked in a steady voice as he continued to observe them.

“No,” Ghost said.

“Then you are here for what reason?”

“To move past you.”

“To do that, you will need to move through me.”

“Even better.”

“You will not be able to use any trickery here,” Iron Foot said as he got to his feet.

“No trickery needed.” Ghost exploded forward. Iron Foot kicked at his sword, blocking the first attempt. Ghost tried again, only for his attack to be parried by a swift rainbow kick from the whip fast assassin.

Ghost dove to avoid another kick, the assassin yelling out as Kanda ran in with her sword drawn. “Kanda, no—!”

Klank!

Iron Foot kicked Kanda’s sword out of her hand and would have followed this up with a kick that could have crushed her organs had it not been for Ziggy, who bulleted through the air and absorbed most of Iron Foot’s strike.

The slime slapped into the wall and dropped to the ground. Squish…

Ghost moved back in, ducking under a kick, hopping back to avoid a jump kick, and stepped aside as Iron Foot tried again. Ghost sprang toward the assassin and thrust his sword into Iron Foot’s side. He twisted and pulled it out, a splash of blood accompanying the end of his blade as Iron Foot fell.

The mana filling the room instantly dissipated as Kanda moved in, the Skyward girl hacking into the assassin, screaming with anger as she hit him again and again. She finally stopped once it was clear Iron Foot was dead, Kanda breathing heavily now, a dark look on her face.

“There are easier ways to kill someone,” Ghost said.

“Shut the fuck up.”

“You expend energy when you hack away at your opponent like you’re test cutting. Stab, twist, and stab again.”

She turned back to Ghost, her eyes flaring with rage. “Is that what you did to Goran?”

“No, I cut his head off. Also an option if you have the strength to do so.”

“What-the-fuck-ever.” Kanda flicked blood off her blade.

Ghost didn’t say anything else to her as he checked in with Alistair.

Ghost: I’m starting to think Kanda is unstable.

Alistair: You’re just now noticing that?

Ghost: It was always there, but sometimes, that sort of crazy can be a weapon. I’m just wondering now when it will fully boil over, before the end of all this or after, once we are both in the clear. That will dictate how we use this weapon.

Alistair: You’re always trying to mastermind shit.

Ghost: Indeed. Let’s keep going.

“Ready?” Ghost asked Kanda.

“I guess.”

“Good.” He moved on, Ghost always hyper aware that Kanda stood directly behind him.

Ghost trusted her less by the moment, and he even flinched a few times when he felt that she was within striking range.

If Alistair suspected anything, he never voiced his concerns.

Ghost knew she would need to be dealt with soon, but he didn’t know what that would look like yet, especially now that he had other plans for Alistair once they reached the end of all this…

After another quick fight against a trainee, Ghost and Kanda came to the wetroom, one with access to a courtyard that had several moaning bodies lying around it. With the door open, Ghost could hear their laments, the familiar sound of the soon-to-be-vanquished. He thought about moving through the courtyard to deliver mercy kills, but decided against it.

“I could summon Kitty,” Kanda said as if she could interpret what he was thinking.

“Not needed. I’m surprised Noctarii isn’t here. It makes me think that Lionel and him—”

“Ghost!” Noctarii said as he burst into the space, shadows trailing off his form. “You made it.”

“We did.”

“And the weird fucker with iron feet?”

“Dead. Did you find Renez?”

“Yeah, Lionel is dealing with her now.”

“Is she alive or unalive?” Kanda asked.

“Unalive isn’t a word,” Ghost told her.

“Like I told you early, what-the-fuck-ever.”

“Ooo, you two are bitching at each other. Noctarii likes drama,” the fae said. “Actually, now that I say that, Nocatarii doesn’t like drama, and I shouldn’t refer to myself by my name unless I’m going to use my full title.”

Ziggy flared with annoyance. Squish! Squish! Squish!

“Don’t bark at me, slime,” Noctarii said, “unless you want an arrow in the ass.”

Ziggy lunged for Noctarii and Ghost caught the slime with his free hand. “None of that. You two will get along, and that’s the end of it. We’ll do the same,” he said, nodding toward Kanda.

Sqquuuuuuuuuuiiiiisssssssshhhhh…

“No whining,” Ghost told Ziggy as he placed the slime back on his shoulder. “Noctarii, take us to Lionel.”

“Right this way!” The fae buzzed ahead. “And eat fairy dust, Ziggy!”

Squish? Squish~!!

This time, Ghost let Kanda go ahead of him, which would allow him to keep an eye on her. They moved through another room, where Ghost defended against a sloppy surprise attack from one of the Baronblade trainees. He ran his sword to the man quickly, made sure he was dead, and moved on.

Following the fae, they finally reached a hallway filled with busts, many of which had been toppled, leaving debris scattered across the ground.

It was here that they found Renez the Twin Daggered lying in a crumpled heap, her legs splayed in an uncomfortable way. Lionel was hunched over her, one of his tentacle-like hands morphed into a large claw as he finished cutting off her right hand.

Lionel looked up at Ghost. “I have her hands and her swords.”

“Good. That’s proof enough. Keep them—”

Alistair forced control over his body. “We’re not keeping her hands.”

“Ignore him,” Ghost told Lionel. “They are Caidan’s problem and as long as they don’t smell.”

“They won’t,” Lionel assured him.

“Then it’s fine to store them for a week.”

Orange light from a fire outside flashed across the room.

“Fuck,” Kanda said under her breath, her hand on her chest. “It’s getting bad out there.”

“Summon your kitsune,” Ghost told her, “and we’ll be done with it. Burn the whole place down on our way out.”

She bit her lip at this suggestion.

“Trust me, Kanda, you’re not gonna want this place once you take over your uncle’s operation. It is marred with blood. Assassins won’t want to ever come here again anyway. It is best to return this cursed property to its natural state, ash. Let the forest take over from there.”

“Got it,” Kanda said as she touched her chest and produced Fiera. The kitsune sat near her, the tip of its tail igniting. “We’re burning the place down.”

“As you wish,” the kitsune told her.

“Can you lead us to the portal?” Ghost asked Kanda.

“I can.”

“Good. Then you’re in charge. Torch the place, and let’s get the fuck out of here.”