The man stopped just for a second but kept walking forward. “I’m impressed, Mr. R.”

“Please join me. Mr. Carlisle here did not seem to bring enough seats for you to sit.” Rory looked at the man across from him and ordered, “Get out.”

Carlisle glared and looked over at Morton who nodded. So he got up and Morton sat. Morton was in his fifties if Rory had to guess, with a full head of black hair, a neatly trimmed black beard, and a dark blue suit with matching gloves.

“You were on my list to introduce myself to, Mr. Morton,” Rory said. “Thank you for saving me the trouble.”

“I was about to say the same,” he said with a smile.

“Before we start, I assume surveillance has been disabled?” Rory asked, moving his hand once in a circular motion to indicate the entire room.

“Of course. We’re both professionals here.”

Rory nodded. “Thank you. Now, since you’re the one who really invited me here, go ahead and say what you wanted to.”

“Fair enough. I’ll just put it out there. At first, I thought your boss was a lunatic. Coming in and buying out a nothing shop and having some kid… you’re what twenty? Never mind, doesn’t matter. He was having some kid try to enforce on me and mine. You scared away my hired thugs. Fine. I could buy that. They aren’t paid to think. But then you set me up with the poison thing. I thought I’d just end her and take what I wanted. But you set the whole thing up and killed all my guys. Eight of my men. Sure, they weren’t exactly geniuses, but they were still some of my better ones and it was a simple job. Take the stuff, take the girl, burn the place. In and out. But no, instead you took them out. All of them. What’s more, there was no proof. No bodies, no blood, nothing. They just vanished.

“So I figured I’d underestimated your boss maybe. But what could a kid have to do with it, right? And then you waltzed right in here and threatened Carlisle over there to his face. He of course felt protected by me. But without anyone being able to prove it, you destroyed his business. Wham and a bloody snake appeared and destroyed tens of millions of pounds worth of equipment and merchandise. I know it was you that snuck it in here, but I still don’t know how. I even watched the vid recordings myself.”

Rory did not say a word but he crossed his arms and smiled at Morton.

“See?” Morton pointed at Rory and shook his head. “You’re far more than you appear, Mr. R. Originally, I wondered if your boss was McClintock from the southern district. He and I haven’t exactly seen eye-to-eye recently and he’s been known to push boundaries despite our agreements to stay out of each other’s turf. But my people in his organization tell me no. Since I know for a fact you aren’t from the north or east, that just leaves one answer. Your boss is a new player – and one that has been moving quietly until just recently.”

“I see no reason to hide it at this point,” Rory said, prepared for a discussion of his boss. “Yes, he’s a new player and yes, he’s been moving quietly until recently. He… stepped out of a jungle so to speak, and into the wider world.”

“Thank you for confirming that. Well, I admit, I was wrong, at least in part, about you and therefore about your boss too. You’ve both surprised, and I admit, impressed me.”

“And that,” Rory said as he leaned forward onto the table, “leaves only one more thing. What do we do about it now?”

“Exactly,” Morton agreed. “What do. We. Do?”

“Well, I think that depends, doesn’t it, Mr. Morton?”

“I’m pretty sure I know, but I’ll ask. On what?”

Rory leaned back in his seat again. “On two things, really. The first is how much you’re willing to compensate my boss for the annoyance your people have caused him. And second, how many men you have hidden around this warehouse.”

The man smiled. “You are good, Mr. R. Yes indeed, I agree. First, your boss gets nothing from me other than my concession to stay away from his businesses as long as he does the same. A turf war makes us both vulnerable. And the answer to the second is many.”

Rory had absolutely no problem with that in general. There was just one little change. “I think that’s acceptable, with one caveat,” Rory told him. Morton raised his eyebrows, clearly asking what it was. “Stop protecting Carlisle.” Rory pointed at the man in question. “He poisoned one of my boss’s people and he will be punished one way or another. I want him to watch as I tear down everything he has built right before his eyes.”

Morton’s face changed to one of surprise and then again to anger. “I can’t do that. If I acquiesce then I look weak. You know this.”

Rory actually didn’t. He hadn’t thought about that angle. He was doing his best, but he was no professional gangster. That said, he did want Carlisle to pay for poisoning Elphina and that was non-negotiable in his mind. “Then we have a problem, Mr. Morton. Because either way, he’s mine. It can be with or without your consent.”

Morton glared then. “You think some normal kid with a few tricks can dictate to me?” He waved his hand and shadows moved all around. A dozen or so men either appeared from the shadows or filed into the warehouse from various doors – and they were all bearing laze weapons. Then Morton took his gloves off and Rory saw the gray markings on his right hand.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Honestly, the inscription looked kind of boring to Rory. A few lines and a geometric shape or two. Snore.

“Oh!” Morton said with a victorious grin. “Comms are blocked in this building. No help from your boss is coming. And I don’t see a snake anywhere to save your ass.”

Appearing utterly unimpressed, Rory tapped the table with his hand. “You’re willing to risk losing everything for Carlisle? Is he really worth it?”

“It isn’t about him,” Morton said firmly. “It’s about appearing weak.”

Rory sighed and nodded. “I understand.” He focused elsewhere for a moment. He refocused on Morton and smiled. Then the only thing either of them saw was glistening brown scales and the crunch of the table between them as a massive snake suddenly appeared between them.

When Rory had added his last remaining SVs into Teanga bringing him up to level 11, he wasn’t sure what to expect. It turned out that Terra basilisks are really bloody huge. Upon reflection (and while it seems ridiculous to admit it) Lucifer might actually have been on the smaller side for a basilisk. But then, why would a death basilisk need to be gigantic – it bloody breathed death.

As soon as Rory summoned Teanga, he felt drained and dropped off his chair and onto the floor, grabbing for one of the special snacks and drink bottles from his vault. Apparently, level and/or size matters when it comes to his summons’ power requirements.

That said, it had been totally worth it in his mind. The room was filled with a hundred-something foot long snake that was half a yard thick. Rory had given Teanga the instructions, “kill them all as fast as possible except two,” whose faces he sent. He also told him not to worry about collateral damage to the structure. And finally, he ordered him to make sure to leave a little of himself surrounding Rory to protect him from incoming fire.

Oddly, it seemed that Morton’s laze rifle-toting normals didn’t appreciate Teanga the way Rory did.

He heard screams, hisses, blasts of guns, the clanging of objects against Teanga’s hard scales, then more screaming and hissing.

This must be why it takes Soul Warriors to fight myst beasts and Cursed.

Normals just couldn’t damage them in normal circumstances, nor survive blows from the stronger ones. Level 11 might not be high for normal beasts, but… well… basilisk.

Yes, normal humans could use special arms and armor and overwhelming numbers to slay the stronger myst beasts, but that was more on a military level. Gangsters generally did not have large-scale destructive ordinance.

In short, these poor sods simply didn’t stand a chance, as demonstrated by his snake friend rather easily killing a roomful or normal humans wielding pistols and rifles.

Despite that, Rory he still had two big problems. The first was those facts did not apply to a Soul Wielder, among which Mr. Morton counted. And second, the level 11 basilisk drained his Power at a rate that made its old level 2 form look like a dripping faucet.

Thus, by the end of the minute or so it took Teanga to be done with the normal humans, Rory was almost entirely out of energy. With those limited options, he looked through his snake’s eyes one final time and saw Morton run backward while techarmor seemed to grow around him to cover his entire body.

He also saw that Carlisle, the cowardly little git he was, used a dead body as cover and ran behind a partially melted machine, curled up in a ball and whined about dying.

Some gangster he is. What a baby.

Knowing he had gotten just about everything he could from Teanga, Rory asked only one more thing from him before his energy was completely gone while still looking through his eyes. Just as the Morton was turning around, a large double-bladed battleaxe materialized in his hands and Rory ordered Teanga to lunge forward spit the big glob of acid he’d had him build up.

The gangster obviously saw the attack just as he turned because he jerked and tried to leap backward. Rory saw that his retreat was fast enough to not receive a direct strike, but the splatter still landed on his armored chest and face and began hissing, smoking, and popping.

Upon seeing this, Rory immediately dismissed his snake and it vanished into particles of myst. He felt better in just seconds as the drain stopped and his power began very slowly refilling thank to the jerky and drink he had been stuffing in his face this whole time. Rory slowly got to his feet, wobbling slightly but still continuing to chew and swallow the power-refilling snack and drink the bright blue drink that was supposed to do the same.

I wish I was higher level. At least then I could use real infusions. This is so slow it’s barely useful.

Focusing on his reality rather than his wishes, Rory tried to steady himself by leaning against his chair, which had miraculously survived all the events to this point.

He looked around at the bitten, crushed, and melted normals all over the floor, as well as the building’s equally horrible condition. He nodded to himself in satisfaction.

Teanga is quite a force of destruction. But I really need to up my power pool if I’m going to use him.

Rory looked at Morton, finding the other man was currently trying to tear away parts of his melting techarmor, transferring the corrosive substance and ruining the armor on his hands in the process.

Taking a few deep breaths and straightening up, Rory walked a few wobbly steps forward while starting in on another stick of jerky. He moved across the warehouse, feeling quite a bit better by the time he stopped. He was about ten feet from Morton who was using a nearby wall to stand. His feet, arms, and legs were still covered with armor plates, but his hands, head, and torso were exposed, all of which were destroyed by the acid.

Looking closer, Rory realized something. “Wait,” he said, peering at the other man. “That’s not even Cosmica armor.” Then he looked in Morton’s face. “What are you, a cheapskate or something? Why buys a Cosmica knockoff?”

“So it was some sort of new device? You can fabricate beasts or something?” Morton asked, ignoring his snark.

Rory tilted his head. “Kind of? Not a device. It’s complicated. Can’t really talk about it” Then he sighed. “And unfortunately, this meeting went a bit sideways and we can’t be friends… well, friendly I suppose. We were never going to be friends. Instead we have to try to kill each other now.”

Morton gave Rory an obviously disdainful up-and-down scan. “You ever fought a wielder before, kid? You don’t know—”

Rory raised his hand, one finger up to tell him to stop. Oddly, Morton did. Rory raised his other hand then and used it to remove his glove. Then he removed the other and, showing off his dual inscriptions, Rory waved.

Seeing that he was a dual-wielder, Morton froze for a moment, his eyes wide. Then they narrowed and he glared at Rory. “You’re just a kid,” he spat to Rory as he resummoned his battle axe. “How good can you possibly be?” And he charged, his axe raised.

Rory raised his hands while lowering his center of gravity and spreading his legs apart slightly, like if he was fighting with his fists. His chakram materialized as always and he felt as ready as he could, but Rory knew he had a problem.

He still had absolutely no idea how to fight a human.