James looked at the spot where a second ago stood a group of knights and grumbled as he retracted all the shadows he had spread. He could feel the only people left were those that had been surveying him for days and his workers, and although he was ready to fight off any opportunist that might try their hand now it seemed highly unlikely for anyone to try anything now that he was here.

James began to return to the warehouse, but on the way, he stopped by the unmoving black body lying on the ground. Through his connection with his infused, he knew that this one still lived, but it was far too hurt and weakened to move. He formed a bed of tentacles to grab the limp body from the floor gently and brought it along with him as he joined his two commanders standing outside the warehouse, the goblin shaman and the wolfman standing still, the small one no longer on the shoulders of the larger and furrier one.

"Fluorine, Loedican. Report, now."

"During their lunch break, one of our workers smelled a bomb just as Loedican did. They came to warn us, which allowed us to throw them back for safety while we went to investigate. Some of ours still wait inside, protecting them and the workshop."

"The bomb didn't destroy the entrance, but repairs are still needed. One of ours checked the situation while we readied ourselves for a raid, but the enemy simply waited outside, roughly at the spot where you trapped them yourself, master."

"We went to confront them. Only the white knight fought, but he was strong enough to put us on the back foot. If the fight continued for much longer we might have needed to rely on our secret weapons."

"The knight called himself Speareau and claimed to work for Runar. His use of runes matches. He wields a spear that he also uses to cast water magic. I believe he was slightly stronger than us in both might and magic but had there been another one of us with abilities beyond our standard fighter we might have been able to fend him on our own."

James hummed as he pondered the situation. As they were infused the duo of warehouse leaders could share things in something best described as telepathy, just like when James had directed Solvent in his meeting with his neighbors in the Sunken City while James himself was on the surface. The method required a lot of concentration from him, but luckily listening to a purposefully vague and possibly incomplete report was the perfect excuse for that. The duo's impressions and feelings on what had happened - as much as their stunted selves could actually "feel" - mostly matched what they said out loud, but were much more detailed.

Loedican was convinced that had he had some armor and weaponry of his own, he would have outperformed Runar's lackey with ease. Similarly, Fluorine assured him that with some good catalysts infused with his shadowy energy, his shamanic spells might have proved more effective against the white knight's conjured water. Apparently, the goblin's Burning Water specialty was a form of acid magic derived from poison magic, which itself was perfect to corrupt water magic, especially with the boost that his infusion had provided. James' rough knowledge of chemistry tempted him to disagree and say that water on the contrary made acid less effective, but he wasn't an expert and even then they were talking about magical shenanigans, so who was he to contradict someone who spent their life studying the stuff.

In any case, it was clear this Speareau was acting differently than Pierce Evil. He didn't risk his subordinates' lives and instead handled everything himself, and even from what little James had managed to learn as he fought against him it was clear they also differed in fighting styles. Pierce Evil was a speedster whose specialty was to deal incredibly damaging blows while avoiding or deflecting his opponent's attacks, meanwhile, Speareau seemed to rely more on magical tricks that covered wide areas while using his martial prowess to keep enemies away. James felt like he would have an easier time against the spear-wielder, his magic had shown it could corrupt the white knight's own, and even though he wielded a runic weapon capable of harming him James was convinced he could avoid it. The fact the knight immediately retreated as soon as he showed up comforted him in that train of thought, though he knew better than to grow arrogant.

For all I know, he might have dozens more runes specifically tailored against me he didn't use because he preferred to leave.

That was the other thing troubling James. Runar had learned from his last attempt, this time there was no mob of thugs he could easily dispatch or even infuse into helping him, only knights. Still, the fact no runic mage showed up was concerning. With proper strategies planned the knights could have easily protected them, especially with such a powerful leader. The fact there was none, however, indicated that either Runar had run out of them or grown too paranoid to use them against James, or...

This wasn't meant to be a full-blown attack, otherwise, there would have been a bunch of wizards launching spells to blow up the warehouse. This was a test of our defenses.

"Master, what is your command?"

"Return inside and resume your activities, but stay on your guard. I will stay with you until the end of the day. Tomorrow we'll look into upgrading security."

What had been left unsaid was that James would fix the damages, discreetly of course. As for the upgrade to security, well, he had some infused he could station here, including one or two runic mages of his own. Sadly their spells were too advanced for him to use, as powerful as his magic was James was still a beginner, he learned incredibly fast but he still needed to learn, and with all of the runic gizmos Runar's men had he doubted better magic would be enough for him to defeat the rune expert's merry band, no, it was a far better use of his time to prepare his troops and improve his fighting technique itself. Luckily, he didn't need to know how to cast those spells, much like Fluorine the goblin shaman, the mages had kept their knowledge and experience and were just as effective as they were before, if not even more so.

In any case, James had now met two out of the supposedly five Runarian knights, Pierce Evil and Speareau. He knew for a fact there was also Karadok, who was from what he gathered Runar's right-hand man, but that still left two unknowns. Even his infused didn't know much about them. Only one of his new mages had anything of value to say about them, that one of the two was called Medraw, and that both were discreet for a reason. If he wanted to make a show of things, Runar sent Pierce Evil or Speareau. If he wanted something to be taken care of more subtly? That was the other two's job.

In fact, the way everything had happened, the bomb, the sudden appearance of a knight with flashy powers who retreated as fast as possible... It was certain this whole thing was a way for Runar to test their defenses, but could James be certain that Speareau had been the only high-profile individual here today?

James followed silently after Fluorine and Loedican as they returned inside, but mentally he warned the two of the possibility of another attack or assassination, or sabotage attempt. The front of the warehouse was covered in cracks, and through his connection with the infused materials James could tell a second explosion would have taken down the wall. The white knight's torrential charge that he blocked when he just arrived would have probably done the job, and that didn't seem like a coincidence.

The inside of the building seemed unaffected by the events of the day, bar maybe lighter items having slightly shifted in position following the vibrations of the explosion. However, James had already seen that when he first came here through the secret tunnel he had dug himself, even though he had made sure to stick to his pure shadow form to make it harder for any onlookers to notice he had come from inside the warehouse.

An infused waited in front of the fake workshop's door, and as soon as the entrance's door closed behind James a few heads popped around the corner of the central room and from behind a few crates, trying to see who had just entered while doing their best to stay hidden. Some might have seen the gesture as cowardly, but James didn't hire these workers as fighters.

"At ease. I hope none of you were injured?"

Recognizing their employer's voice, the merry band of misfits left their hiding places to stand in line in front of him, generally looking nervous yet relieved. Elen Gurt appeared particularly stressed by the situation, which was perfectly understandable considering the fact she was a perfectly normal baseline human, perhaps even weaker than average. Bob the frog and Ellie didn't seem particularly bothered by the situation, and the one-handed woman even had a small smile on her lips, the beginning of a smirk.

James idly noted how Snowflake checked on his coworkers before addressing him.

"No sir, no injury to report here!"

"Good, good. From what I've been told you noticed the bomb early on, correct? Good job warning your coworkers and trying to join your superiors."

The small white creature beamed with joy at his praise, and for a brief moment, James considered checking whether his employee had some sort of canine ancestry. Claude Puma interrupted that train of thought, however.

"So, boss, what happened out there?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"As your colleague warned you, a bomb was used on our front door. Some of Runar's men waited outside, and your managers held them back until my arrival, at which point they fled. You may now resume your work."

Mop Skybreaker didn't look as enthusiastic as usual and quickly voiced his concern.

"Uh, are you sure, boss? What if more come?"

"I am already aware of the possibility, which is why I will stay here for the remainder of the day."

Elen let out a sigh of relief, just as Ellie's smirk turned into a slight grimace.

"Is there something bothering you, Ms. Bell?"

The woman tried her best to avoid his gaze as she scratched the back of her head with her hand.

"Ehhh... No offense, boss, but... Having the big man in the same room as you while you work isn't the best sensation in the world, ya know?"

James chuckled, and apparently, none of his workers expected the sound judging by their widened eyes.

"Worry not. I will be in the workshop, along with your manager, to look into ways to make sure a similar situation doesn't happen again in the future. You and your colleagues will be free to work as usual."

Ellie seemed ready to respond but ultimately chose to stay silent. If James had to guess, he would say she wasn't convinced by his argument but didn't want to risk annoying him. To her credit, the fake workshop was designed so that sound didn't go out but easily came in so that anyone inside could keep an ear out for anything suspicious, but the workers weren't supposed to know that.

"With that taken care of, I now leave you to your work. Fluorine, Loedican."

The goblin and the shaman nodded and followed James to the central room of the warehouse, the workers none the wiser to the thin tendril of shadows escaping from James and slithering to the cracked entrance wall, worming its way over the damage.

As he began to repair the entrance by transmitting stored infused materials from the fake workshop, James also kept an eye on his workers. In any other situation, he would have given a day off, but since he was looking out for spies, keeping them here to check their reactions and movements was much more beneficial than that small bit of loyalty and thankfulness he could earn. For all he knew, one of his workers might very well turn out to be one of those two mysterious knights.

But we can't stay on the defensive forever. It's clear Runar isn't giving up, and I don't want to spend my life preparing for one of his guys to show up at the door.

Then, a stray thought passed through his mind. A silly thought, really, but in the worst-case scenario, in the privacy of this room, the only people who would see him possibly ridicule himself would be his infused, and it's not like they cared.

"I know you're here. Tell Runar if he gives up now, I'll ignore our past grievances. If he doesn't? He won't have enough knights to shield him from me."

Loedican, Fluorine, and the injured infused James was still carrying didn't say a thing, and James didn't hear a single movement.

Bah, it doesn't matter. Still, I think I'm going to wait a bit before calling Techlord. Just in case.

----------------------------------------

Somewhere else in the slums, on top of a relatively good-looking building, Runar was listening to Speareau's report via his crystal ball. The tall elvish man in his pristine yellow three-piece suit paid close attention to his white knight's words.

"-and that is when another individual, they too with dark grey or pale black skin, dropped from a nearby roof. One of theirs, I assume, since they looked quite similar to the one that left the warehouse soon after the bomb detonated."

"Are you sure they weren't the same?"

"Certain, milord. They posed no threat and I easily dispatched them, though the other two took advantage of the distraction to retreat. I pursued with a torrential charge since I was afraid they might be fetching some kind of secret weapon, and I was certain the aftereffects of the attack would be more than enough to finish breaking down the front of the building. It's at this point that he appeared."

Runar easily guessed who had stopped his knight.

"Silhouette."

On the other side of the crystal ball, in the secret location Runar had fine-tuned that incredibly expensive spatial crystal to teleport its user to, Speareau did his best to nod despite the bulky nature of his frog-mouth helm, and in truth, most of the movement went straight to the red feather on top of his head.

"Exactly, sire. He created countless tentacles to block the magical water itself while also trying to impale me with their sharpened tips. Following your orders and suggestions, I decided the risk was too great to keep the fight going and chose to retreat. I distracted all present by taking advantage of an earlier spell that was still going, rejoined with my men, formed a shield to protect us all, and used the crystal you trusted me with to teleport us all to safety before Silhouette was done corrupting my shield."

Runar raised one of his bushy grey eyebrows at that last part.

"I've heard similar things from reports of Pierce Evil's encounter with the man, but with your expertise, I want you to be clear with me: are you certain the term 'corrupt' is most fitting here?"

"Yes, milord. The way his energy slipped inside the shield, and slowly turned it into this inky dark thing... I believe corruption is the best term to define his powers."

This... This was very important.

"Anything else to say?"

"Although I have only taken down one of his, I am proud to say we suffered no casualty or even injury in this operation."

"Excellent work. You and your team may have time off the rest of the day and tomorrow. After that, report to my office at dawn."

"Yes, milord. Thank you for this generous gift."

The knight vanished from the crystal ball, but the magical item didn't lose its glow. Once more Runar was rather surprised to see a report so soon. The rune expert tapped the orb and another helmet appeared inside, incredibly different from Speareau's. The green piece of metal looked like a domino mask strapped onto a bowl from which chainmail dangled, the metal plate covering where would be a nose and the rest of the upper half of the face as well as the top of the head above the ears. The shaping of the plate gave it an almost avian air, the point covering the nose resembling a beak, but what made the mask particularly peculiar were its eyes. Rather than a pair of openings, they were instead a trio of almond-shaped red marbles or pearls, with a pair placed exactly where a human's eyes would be while the third one was in the middle of the forehead, angled vertically rather than horizontally.

As always with Runar's elite servants, this one's equipment too was covered in runes, the countless sigils were not only inscribed on the helmet itself - similar to what could be called a Gjermundbu helm - but also its aventail, each metal hoop bearing a few lines. In truth the runes on this part of the chainmail weren't anything particularly impressive, there were mostly meant to reinforce the armor and remove the mail's weakness to piercing damage as well as to make what lied behind it harder to distinguish, but that didn't remove anything from the hard work and expertise that went into making them.

"Tristare, I didn't expect to hear from you so soon. Is there an emergency?"

The green knight slightly moved his head, and eerily, despite the movement, his mail didn't make a sound.

"Silhouette claimed to perceive me. I didn't want to risk checking his claim without additional backup and equipment."

Runar narrowed his eyes.

"Are you certain he noticed you?"

"No. But would you have preferred for me to stay and risk being corrupted? Risk letting him learn all that I know?"

For a second, the runemaster stopped breathing.

"No. Do you believe-"

"The primal goblin shaman Speareau encountered fit the description of some minor drug dealer from the Sunken City that disappeared some time ago according to Medraw's contacts. Those two managers and every other similar-looking individual - who just so happen to wear similar attire to what our average thug dresses like - share a very similar energetic signature to Silhouette's own, to the point focus is needed to notice the difference. Yes, I believe we are dealing with someone with the Transformation Aspect."

This... This was very bad.

"Tell me everything. Now."

"Has Speareau reported yet?"

"Yes."

"Then there is no need for me to go over that, aside to mention that I couldn't determine from whence Silhouette came. His energy manifested from the warehouse, and since the entire place is saturated by one incredibly similar, it was like he came out of nowhere. I am unsure if he teleported or was simply hidden inside beforehand."

"That's another problem to deal with."

"Indeed. The other workers inside don't share this energy signature, by the way. I observed as Silhouette addressed his men, and I noticed his voice is artificially made."

"How so?"

"There are no vocal cords, in fact, he has no biology to speak of. He speaks by emitting vibrations and imbuing them with his energy passively. After discussing with his managers he reassured his workers and went to an isolated room in the center of the warehouse. With all the magic around I had trouble seeing what was happening inside, and that is when he addressed me."

"What did he say?"

"That he knew I was here, and that if you gave up now he would forgive us."

"What else?"

"That if you continued on the path of war, he would come after you."

"Anything else?"

"Nothing urgent I can't simply write down for you to review later. Ah, no, there is one thing."

"What?"

"You asked me to keep an eye out for demonic energies. I can confirm there are some in everything related to Silhouette, including himself. Nothing strong enough to indicate he is a demon himself, but more than enough to say something odd is happening."

"Good work. I expect your full report on my desk tomorrow morning at the latest."

"As you order."

This time as the helmet vanished from the crystal ball the magical light it emitted disappeared too, and without any of his minions to see him, Runar finally allowed his face to pale a little. He hadn't expected much from the creature when he had first sent one of his men to investigate, and now here he was, with one of his top elements having antagonized the Black Bank while on the verge of a gang war with something with the Transformation Aspect. His worry was legitimate, considering the situation, and a lesser man would panic, perhaps give in to the threat, but Runar was an Arthen, and an Arthen didn't bow down so easily.

Yes, the latest revelation was a setback, and he now realized he had gravely underestimated the threat Silhouette posed, but he was Runar Arthen, runemaster extraordinaire, a genius in the magical field, and he wouldn't go down like a miserable thug in these dirty streets full of despair.

Calling his friends in various groups to bring up the threat of Transformation crossed his mind, but not only did that risk alerting bigger and more powerful powers that might capture the creature and worsen the situation, but that would also mean losing the element of surprise if he ever sent his newest weapon after them. For now, he knew undoubtedly that he needed to have Silhouette at his command. Such a powerful tool couldn't be allowed to rot in these desolate slums. No, with something like that at his beck and call, Runar could do so much...

The runemaster decided to hurry up finishing the repairs and upgrades to Pierce Evil's armor. He would need all five of his knights to be ready for his next scheme to succeed, and additional firepower like the monster Karadok had requested from the Patcher was more than welcome. Now that he thought about it, there was an expert in demons he knew he could convince to help, with the right pieces of information.

A Duskenfer was always a good thing to have on your side.