As thirty men and women charged toward his shop, led by a pair of helmetless knights in iron armor and a very eye-catching one wearing golden jousting equipment while a couple of mages stood in the back ready to fire spells to help the horde, a single thought went James' head.

I can't believe I think we can win.

Who would have known that after being killed by a single assailant with a simple knife, James would find himself looking upon a charging horde of people wielding magical weapons without panicking? A good share of it was probably from his new body's equivalent to adrenaline, that was undeniable, and he would most likely need a few hours of cuddling with the ratlings when this was all over, but he was still certain they could deal with Pierce Evil's attack. They had already taken care of three out of five runic mages, which in his opinion were the greatest threat aside from Pierce Evil himself, and the two regular knights had lost their helmets, which meant they wouldn't be as confident when it came to attacking since blocking any attack exposed them to receive another one on their heads. He had to give credit to Barry and Larry, for people who hadn't used a gun - at least not regularly - before meeting me, they were scarily effective with their electrorifles. They definitely earned a bonus when this was all over.

But James couldn't afford to relax now, not with the small army of thugs running at them and especially so with Pierce Evil himself joining the fray. He didn't know much about the golden knight, aside from the fact he was what Guy had called a Runarian Knight when he had first interrogated the man after recruiting him. Apparently, they were an elite force of knights with better runic enchantments on their equipment than anyone else working for Runar could ever dream to have. Supposedly Pierce Evil was a fighter who specialized in duels, taking on powerful opponents one on one. Guy couldn't tell much more, he may have been an information seller valued by everyone but at the end of the day he was still a small fry, he valued his protégés too much to risk sending them to spy on big fights or large operations.

James gave the signal for Barry and Larry to fire, the duo nodding as they took care to aim through the wall of darkness James had erected, looking through the pitch-black thanks to their pairs of infused glasses. Following many complaints by his human employees, James had tried his best to find a way to let them see in the dark without using light or everlanterns which could give away their position, or commissioning expansive night vision equipment from Sa- Techlord. Infusing a pair of glasses they had found abandoned in the Sunken City was the first try, and somehow it worked. Although the black glass was very similar to the one that covered windows, it had the added effect of letting its wearer see perfectly fine in dark environments, without removing their regular day vision too. Techlord had been very happy at that development and had quickly asked for multiple infused lenses, probably for his new suit.

Larry and Barry aimed and fired two new bolts of dark energies on the charging horde, this time not at the mages or knights but instead the regular fighters that made the brunt of the attacking force. Just like after their initial salvo, once the black electricity was done with its intended victim, it spread by forming dark arcs that assaulted any that stood nearby, quickly spreading through the ranks of the thugs with a rise of screams that grew more and more numerous and more and more pained. Many among the hired muscles and goons of Runar looked upon their fellow men and women and found themselves realizing that they, the mundane, could never hope to do anything against a powerful Cored foe, no matter how shiny the runic weapons they had been given were.

As the black energy faded away after taking down a third of the thirty, ten more of them chose to stand back, and, though they weren't outright fleeing since that would attract the unwanted attention of their leaders, they still did their best to slowly distance themselves from the group and possibly mingle with the surrounding crowd of scared slums dwellers. Scared as the locals were, witnessing a fight of this magnitude was also fascinating, and they had trouble looking away. Among them, floating from another of the buildings that surrounded the market and formed the border of the Black Block, was a small wrinkly crystalline psychic alien squid that looked upon the scene, worried for the strange young man she had come to know, for she was certain she could recognize his mind somewhere in Silhouette's shop.

Of course, at the dynamic duo of Barry and Larry fired at their assailants, James wasn't idle - far from it. Tentacles rose from the pavements - or more accurately, the shadows that had been expanding from the shop to the rest of the area - and struck at the attackers, grasping thugs, dragging them to the ground, bashing on the protective bubbles of the mages as they madly wrote in their grimoires to create better shields before the ones inscribed in the runes of their robes broke, whipping the knights as they tried to approach and forcing them to back away step after step as they did all they could to negate the force impacting their shields, and finally slashing and stabbing Pierce Evil, or at least doing their best.

As the golden knight advanced rapidly - closer to a power walk than a jog or a run, and yet just as fast as the regular thugs - each tentacle that grew too close to his shining figure soon found itself destroyed, not by some aura or wide spell, but purely by technical prowess. Every time a tentacle adorned with a blade or spike approached him, Pierce Evil blocked the solid part with his strange dagger, trapping what he could in the teeth-like pattern on its one edge and then with a flick of the wrist throwing the squirming black appendage to the side in a perfect posture to stab it with his rapier without leaving it the chance to defend itself, and whenever James tried sending in multiple tentacles at the same time Pierce Evil did an incredible feat of footwork, dancing between the black appendages and stabbing them as he walked whenever he could while redirecting the stabbing ones with his dagger once more.

If James' tentacles had been made of regular flesh, had he been some sort of giant land octopus or small continental Kraken, then maybe this strategy wouldn't have been as effective - what could stab wounds made with a thin weapon do to something that had no bone or organ, after all, besides draw some blood? But the reality of things was that James' body was weird and, as far as he knew, somehow made of living darkness, and whatever enchantments the golden knight had on his equally shiny rapier they were wreaking havoc on his shadowy flesh in quite the painful manner, though it seemed his experience with the demon Sydakors improved James' pain tolerance, good to know.

If tentacles don't work, I have something that will!

As more tentacles kept on rising from the shadows on the ground to try and hold back Pierce Evil, some other things began to emerge from the ambient darkness - black orbs, throbbing as though alive, in truth constantly growing and getting condensed by James' will. He had trained after his encounter with Sydakors to find a better way to bring out the final attack that he had chucked at the demon's exposed and vulnerable soul, and although the process was as streamlined as he was doing it on multiple orbs at the same time he didn't have to keep physical contact to do it anymore.

Beneath his helm, the golden knight narrowed his eyes as he noticed the orbs forming in the corner of his vision, suspiciously hidden by tentacles that kept on attacking him despite their obvious ineffectiveness. Out of precaution, he chose to thrust at one of them from a few meters away, runes lighting up on his rapier and forming a spike of magenta energy that flew through the air to impact the ball of darkness, causing it to explode in some strange spherical hurricane of power and shadows, winds forming as it turned and tried to inhale anything in the vicinity. Pierce Evil scoffed before stepping to the side, continuing his path to the gaping maw of darkness that stood behind the shop's door, getting dangerously close to the building as he yelled at his troops.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Beware the black orbs! They contain a destructive and corruptive power that will most certainly tear you apart! Mages! Get rid of them!"

The two figures in brown hooded robes barely reacted to his call, too focused on casting shield after shield to keep the tentacles attacking them at bay.

"MAGES! I GAVE YOU AN ORDER!"

For the first time since they had appeared, one of the two magic practitioners spoke up.

"We're busy keeping ourselves alive, you can destroy them yourself!"

For the first time since the beginning of his charge, Pierce Evil stopped - relatively, since he constantly kept on stepping to the side and twirling and whatever else his strange footwork required him to do to handle the constant onslaught of dark tentacles, but at least he stopped moving toward the shop - and slowly turned around to stare at the one that had dared speak up through the magic shield covered in aggressive black appendages.

"Was that insubordination, mage?"

"YES! You're an idiot! We're mages, we're supposed to be in the back, protected by elite warriors, like, say, the knight you tasked on rushing at the enemy! The very same knights who currently are stuck where they began because they have no support to help them deal with whatever the hell we were sent here to fight! Support WE could provide if we weren't getting piled on by more tentacles than there ever was on a fish market! If you're so confident you can deal with everything on your own, great! Just do it instead of sending us into the grinder! And look at the guys you brought for the job! A third is dead, another trying to get away, and what's left is on the way to join either of the first two! You're an incompetent leader!"

Pierce Evil looked at the dissenter for a few long and silent seconds before pointing the tip of his rapier at the mage.

"Are you certain you can make such a claim and live?"

"Kill me all you want, either way, Runar will be mad at you. What will he say when one of his knights wasted tons of minions and a group of mages, as well as a couple of knights?"

One by one, runes lit up on Pierce Evil's rapier.

"He won't care if I complete our mission, which should be your objective. Now, will you do as I ask and help me capture this vile creature for our leader as you were ordered, even if it might mean your demise, or will you die a coward's death as a worthless rebel?"

The mage spat on the ground before lowering the hood of the brown robe, revealing the face of a young woman with pale skin, green eyes, and long black hair.

"I would die for Runar, but I ain't dying for a shiny idiot like you."

"So be it, rebel scum."

As magenta light began to form at the very tip of the golden rapier, the various black orbs James had been readying all congregated onto Pierce Evil, shadowy trails forming behind the dark projectile as they all converged into a single point in the center of the knight's torso.

Or they would have, had Pierce Evil not gone above and beyond all of James' expectations.

The magenta light at the rip of the rapier faded away as the knight resumed his impressive footwork to avoid the incoming attacks, but this time something different happened.

Magenta light appeared once more, but not on his golden rapier. No, this time, it came from his entire armor, especially the runes on his legs and boots.

And suddenly, every thought James had about the man being dastardly quick despite his heavy armor was ridiculed.

The man's shiny form turned into a blur as he passed between the orbs and, much to James' growing horror, ran faster than any man should ever be able to straight at the shop, ignoring the screams of the mages, of the knights, and the thugs, as they all bared witness to the massive explosion of darkness that occurred right where the Runarian knight had stood, a huge spinning dome of mad shadows that grew taller than the shop itself was as light detritus were inhaled by the black winds.

Pierce Evil didn't care as he put his foot inside the shop and barely blocked with both his arms the massive mass of darkness that struck him, a desperate thing that James barely put together more out of reflex than anything else, the force of it pushing the knight back out as James boosted it with all of his available mass, retracting the shadows on the ground as he grabbed onto Pierce Evil's armor with all he had, disregarding the burning brought by the protective runes engraved in the golden metal.

"So you finally show yourself, Silhouette."

James ignored him as he pressed on, his body not taking any particular form as trying to be anything but a wriggling mass of shadows consumed too much mental energy, all of which was currently focused on strengthening his will to keep his hold on Pierce Evil and continue to push him back, slowly going closer and closer to the awe-struck helmetless knights and the mages who couldn't keep their jaws closed, and to ensure he couldn't move his weapons.

"I must say, behind all the deceit and trickery, you prove yourself to be a valuable foe. Once lord Runar is done training you, some light sparring might prove beneficial."

For all his words Pierce Evil still struggled to move his arms in more than light shaking, unable to bring his weapons down on James' flesh, while the reincarnee couldn't do much more than keeping his opponent at bay. A perfect stalemate, or perhaps a battle of attrition. That is, if they were alone.

"All of you, knock some sense into this creature. Don't kill him, lord Runar wants him alive."

The mages looked at each other but before they had the time to speak the two knights stepped forward, swords and shields in hands, and they got ready to bash the black mass with the flat of their blades before a pair of black electricity bolts struck them, launching the weapons away as the two returned to a defensive posture with their shields at the ready.

Without the fog of darkness inside, all could clearly see the short lanky man and the small broad one in black and white, each holding a strange long black weapon that looked like a strange hunting rifle that ended in a dark crystal instead of a muzzle.

"Don't forget us."

"Barry, you know we're unforgettable."

"That we are Larry, that we are."

Pierce Evil grumbled as his squires stood there, doing nothing.

"Come on you two, do your job. Get some of the men back there to give you a hand if you need to. Get rid of Silhouette's employees if you need to, we don't need them."

As a pair of thugs heard the call and ran toward the shop, two more bolts appeared and were promptly blocked by the knights' shields, but just as the thugs were ready to step in two pairs of black daggers emerged from the sides of the door, cutting the invaders' throats as a lizardman and a ratkin revealed themselves to stand next to the other two employees.

"Mark, Jeffrey, good to see you decided to stay rather than flee or defect."

"Thisss is the bessst job we had in years, I ain't giving it up."

"Isn't it poetic? Two formerly rival bands, standing together for their last stand in a bittersweet ending?"

"Shut up."

"Sorry."

Once more Pierce Evil yelled at his men.

"Men! There are only four of them still able to fight, are you sorry lot unable to handle that? Come on now and help me put an end to this!"

"I do believe it is time for this nonsense to end, yes."

All involved in the fighting turned around at that new voice to stare at its origin, only to discover the crowd of locals had parted to let a single man through, a simple human with black hair and oddly perfectly black eyes, wearing a black three-piece suit with a black tie and a white shirt, a symbol sewn in white thread on his jacket placed over his heart, a pair of cursive capital "B"s interlaced.

James may have been too busy holding back Pierce Evil to let his head work properly and notice the weirdly pristine man in the slums, but even then he wasn't familiar enough with the area to understand what it meant. Everyone else, however, did.

The manager of the local branch of the Black Bank was here.