Zane stared at me with a face of discomfort as he slowly slid off my blade and onto the floor. I didn’t have time to react as Vince swung his sword at me and cut across my chest I spun back in recoil and hit the hard cobble ground.

I didn’t know what happened, confusion struck me as I stared up at Vince. He didn’t wait a second to strike at me again, he swung down onto me. I quickly blocked with my dagger, but my arms fell weak as I just barely made it away from Vince’s sword.

I jumped back to my feet hyperventilating as I stared at Vince and clutched my dagger. I couldn’t think straight as I felt my whole body growing heavier and heavier.

The person I was trying to protect… I was the one who stabbed him. What’s wrong with me…

I stared at the ground deep in thought as Vince leapt forward and struck me again with his sword. I blocked it with my dagger however, my speed and power had dropped immensely compared to earlier, I had completely burned myself out by focusing all my magicka on boosting my bodies capabilities. It wasn’t that I didn’t have enough Magicka to keep up it was my stamina that was the issue. Not just physically but mentally the technique was draining.

These thoughts pondered through my head as Vince continued to strike me, I continued blocked however, I was being pushed back quite substantially as I heard Jace’s footsteps behind me. He pulled me back by my shoulder and stabbed his sword forward at Vince who just barely dodged.

Vince jumped all the way back to Zane who was lying unconscious on the ground bleeding out.

Damn, what was I thinking. Why did I stab Zane? I hated myself for doing it. As I continued to push myself down, Vince picked up Zane lifeless body and held him in front of himself as a shield, taking him as hostage.

Jace scoffed as we both watched Vince back away from us.

“D- Don’t Move!” He yelled as he slowly put distance between us.

“This is good.” Muttered Jace. “This means he feels cornered, that means he isn’t very strong. Okay Shay, stay here I’ll do everything I can to get Zane back.” I nodded as Zane took a step forward.

“I SAID DON’T MOVE!” Screeched Vince.

“I just want to talk.” Said Jace taking another small step forward.

Vince was breathing heavily, but his eyes hadn’t given up hope, I could see that clearly. He was determined for something.

“Listen, I know life must have been hard for you which is why you are in this business but trust me, we can get you help.” Said Jace taking another step forward. “Give this life up, we can give you a new one, in the city.”

“Oh yeah?” Replied Vince.

The two continued to talk between one another. As they did so I felt my mind become clearer and I started to think about what happened, I looked into his eyes, then I stabbed Zane. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that his ability is to control other people. But is it with touch, or just looking into his eyes?

That makes sense how he got all those bandits to just give up their lives trying to save him. But how come I was only controlled for a few seconds. So many questions still unanswered…

I turned my attention to the situation at hand, Jace was too far away from me to whisper my findings on his ability and if I shouted it out, he might feel distressed and just off Zane then make a run for it.

“Tell me all about it, what life can you provide for me!” Yelled Vince to Jace.

“We can give you a new name, home, origin, no one will even be able to tell you were once a thief.” Replied Jace.

“Where will I live? What will my name be?” Asked Vince. His questions were odd, normally a criminal in this situation would ask something along the lines of: ‘How do I know you aren’t lying?’ Or something like that. Then… It hit me.

“Jace!” I yelled without thinking.

“He is buying time for something, He’s stalling, He’s stalling!” I shrieked, as I did Jace ran forward towards Vince who dropped Zane to the ground and ran down the road. Jace ran after him as the two disappeared behind the street corner.

I felt my strength return to my body as I got to my feet, my wounds still stinging and pulsing in pain but neither the less I made my way over to Zane who was lying on the ground still unconscious.

Why’d he drop Zane and run like that, I wasn’t thinking straight just now. I was too proud of my discovery I just yelled it. Zane is lucky this guy was an idiot.

Just then I heard Jace yell from around the corner. Puzzled I made my way over to follow where he had ran prior. I peered around the corner to see Jace on his knees glancing around with a shocked expression on his face.

“Jace!” I yelled as I started to run over to him.

“No!” He turned and roared back, stopping me in my tracks. “Something isn’t right.” He added still sitting on the ground. Vince stood in front of him smiling and I knew, deep down I knew that If I went out there, I would die.

“He’s here! Just like I said he would be!” Laughed Vince.

Glancing around I didn’t see anyone, but how did they strike Jace if they weren’t here. Invisibility? No, surely Jace would have heard him, right? Or maybe he was too preoccupied with Vince that he didn’t notice?

I continued to ponder as Jace finally stood up, seemingly sharpening his senses, he must be thinking the same as me. Jace looked at the dusty cobblestone road below, watching out for whoever was invisible to move and kick the dust around on the floor.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Vince noticed and leapt forward at Jace who turned to face him, blocking his attacks easily. I watched as someone suddenly jumped out of an alleyway right next to where Jace was sitting before Vince attacked and made him step back.

The man wore a long, slim black jacket, unlike the other’s he didn’t wear a mask revealing short brown hair. The unknown man, sword in hand suddenly swung down into where Jace was previously standing. As he did, where he swung suddenly flashed green as I saw the outline of Jace sitting on the ground peering around the way he was merely 10 seconds ago. The man swung down through Jace’s outlines left shoulder, just as he did real Jace groaned as blood gashed out from his shoulder.

What just happened? I thought as I watched as the outline disappeared in a light flash.

Vince laughed cockily as Jace fell to the floor in pain, blood still pouring out from his wound.

“You made it in time, Ark.” Said Vince.

“I’ll be taking a larger cut for having to come out here myself.” He replied sternly.

“Of course.” Replied Vince laughing in a nervous tone.

“He’s controlling you!” I yelled out in a desperate attempt to bide time for Jace to get to his feet.

“Who?” Replied Ark, the man who just sliced Jace. “That’s not possible, this guy’s ability won’t work on people who have a lot of Magicka in their body.”

“That’s not true!” I replied. “He controlled me earlier!”

“You look beat up, so you’re probably out of stamina and low on Magicka too. Anyone like that will be under his control for 3 or 4 seconds, that’s probably what happened to you.”

“Anyone who hasn’t trained in Magicka can be put under his control completely for 3 hours. The second they lock eyes it’s over. A terrifying ability when used correctly.” Laughed Ark.

“Then, this means…” I muttered coming to an unsightly realisation that I hadn’t picked up on before.

“It seems you noticed.” Laughed Vince. “All those people you murdered earlier are simple, innocent townsfolk from this very village. And you and your buddy slaughtered all of them.” Vince laughed maniacally as my body filled with anger. I flew forward in a blind rage with my blade in hand as I swung uncontrollably at Vince, I managed to get in a slash at his stomach but he to stepped back in time to avoid a fatal blow. That didn’t matter. All I needed was to hit him a little bit for him to be distracted which allowed Jace to jump up from behind and cut all the way down his back.

Ark turned in shock as Jace spun around to swing at him as well, however, Jace was too injured to conjure up the speed to manage both. Vince screamed and writhed in pain on the ground as Jace stared Ark down viciously.

I took to Jace’s side and readied myself for Ark’s attack.

“You idiot.” Muttered Ark. “If you’re going to die then what’s the point, who is going to carry all the shit out of the village.”

“There’s no point to this, I’m done. You can die alone you worthless cretin.” As Ark finished talking, he swiftly threw a throwing knife from his side at Vince, our eyes followed the knife as it pierced straight into Vince’s neck. As we turned back to Ark he had vanished.

This was probably for the better, me and Jace were both hurt badly and wouldn’t last 5 minutes against him, especially with whatever that ability of his was.

“It looks like his aim was off.” Said Jace who had turned to tend to Vince. “He isn’t dead.”

I was shocked for a moment, weren’t these guys supposed to be trained assassins. Maybe this was a weakness for this Ark character.

My mood quickly dropped as I remembered what had taken place just moments ago.

“Uh Jace.” I murmured quietly as I leaned back on the wall staring straight down at the concrete below.

Jace turned his head up at me.

. . .

“We murdered the entire town…”

All fell silent for a moment as we contemplated what had taken place.

. . .

Suddenly we heard the roaring footsteps of a large group storming from a neighbouring street. We turned to see who it was and to our surprise and horror another group of bandits emerged from the thick fog and faced our direction. Dressed exactly the same as the one’s before.

“This can’t be…” Muttered Jace. “This guy’s ability continues until he dies, or he calls it off. It doesn’t matter if he is conscious or not. It’s a perfect protection ability that will continue to fight for him until he dies.”

“W- What do we do? What do we even do? What do we do?” I said turning to Jace to help assess the situation.

“Give me a minute to think, please.”

Jace stared back at me before mentioning our options. “Okay, I could easily kill him now, but we would be losing vital information on what we came here for. But not killing him means we have to fight another army of innocent bystanders. We could try knocking them out nonlethally however, we are vastly outnumbered. There are 20 of them and 2 of us. Not to mention we are both injured.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…” I muttered quietly to myself.

“The only other option I can think of.” Added Jace. “Is if we tried running away with him.”

I knew that was the only real way we were going to get away from here, but I wasn’t sure how long we would make it. The second we start running they’re bound to start running too.

This is hopeless, there is nothing we can do, we’re doomed, it’s over, hopeless, hopeless, hopeless.

Jace obviously knew that but there was no other way we could do anything; our only option was to run until he woke up or Diablo got here. Although, Diablo only left 30 minutes ago or so. This wasn’t looking good.

Before I could respond however, Jace picked up Vince and threw him over his shoulder.

“Here take his sword.” Said Jace as he threw me Vince’s sword, I almost dropped it as I struggled to catch it in my shaky hands.

“Now, hurry up, we don’t have any time to dawdle.” He said sternly as he peered back at the hoard before starting to jog away.

I turned and hobbled my way behind Jace, hardly keeping up as my muscles strained and tightened in the cold frosty midnight wind. The open wounds around my body stung as if tiny ants were biting them over and over. My breathing increased and my heart raced as we sprinted with all our remaining strength down the street.

I panted hard, then harder, then harder again, over and over as I couldn’t escape the menacing footsteps that had picked up in pace since before.

I felt my blood pulse through my veins as I heard the enraged stomping of footsteps behind me. It felt like someone was holding a spear to my back, I ran and ran as fast as I could, trying to keep up with Jace who was a good length ahead of me.

My vision began to blur as I felt myself growing weaker and slower. I really had pushed myself too far earlier with the magicka control technique. It left me mentally strained and physically strained.

I fucked up, I fucked up, oh I fucked up. I thought as I continued draining myself mentally and physically.

I panted as I the enraged voices behind me grew louder, I squinted my eyes as I stared at Jace’s back which grew ever so further and further away from me, slowly disappearing into the misty fog. I groaned as tears began welling up in my eyes before letting out an echoing scream of pain as I suddenly felt my legs give way again.

Just as I fell to the ground, I felt a blade sweep across the top of my head, slicing off some hair.

I’m lucky, I’m lucky, I’m lucky, I’m the luckiest person alive ever, I’m so luck, so lucky, so lucky!

Suddenly, I felt adrenaline pump through me. I spun around onto my back and kicked the combatant in the stomach, winding him as I used the rebound to hurl myself back over and onto my feet.

I watched as the man fell to the ground, making those behind him trip over and fall onto the floor in a heap.

I stepped back, dizzy, as the adrenaline ran off and my arms began to ache. I dropped Vince’s sword onto the cold, hard ground and my arms began to feel stiff and even lifting them a centimetre became a task.

My body felt cold and weak as I closed my eyes and faced my impending death with honour. I had given Jace time to run, that was all that mattered.

I awaited the excruciating pain of someone driving a sword into my stomach and the warm blood seeping out onto my cold, stiff body.

There was nothing more I could do. I just wasn’t like Diablo, if only I were stronger…

. . .