There was nothing more annoying to Jonathan than waiting in uncertainty. He should be at home right now, sitting in his warm chair with his wife instead freezing his ass in a shady alley waiting for the courier who was supposed to meet him an hour ago, did the asshole didn't know who he is? How dare he make him wait like this, standing in the dirty place like some common thug waiting for his next meal.

In business like this, one need to have integrity to his word least no one would want to have business with them because there was no legal thing at all about slaving a girls to the highest bidder so what they have was just their word and other people word that they can be trusted not to screwed them.

And this was one thing that made a merchant hard to be trusted anymore. He was willing to come here because he promised him an exotic merchandise but it looks like just another unfulfilled promise that he used to get when he started this, weird if he considered that the man he was dealing with right now was his senior in this business, not some amateur from a backward village. So his courier should be here an hour ago.

He didn't have a habit of mixing himself with amateur people, because they are exhausted and mostly can't keep their promises so he wondered what made his partner courier take so long to meet him. The courier didn't even have to bring the goods here, he just needed to give him a letter of confirmation from the hidden tavern about their goods and he would be right away to his house in the helios.

A man appeared from the corner or the road, his head was shaved clean and his clothes was a black robe that covered his whole body except his head. The man looked nervous, his eyes darted right and left like he expected someone or something hidden in the shadow and ready to pounce on him if he dropped his guard.

"Here I am almost certain that you have forgotten about me." Jonathan said to the man

"Sorry..."

"Yeah..sure..'sorry'..do you know how long I have been waiting for your courier?"

"Yeah..about that." The man said, looking at his back nervously.

"What! What the hell..did someone follow you." Jonathan walks closer and grabs the man's robe. "I'll kill you if they see my face....and what are you doing coming here by yourself anyway?"

"Someone took out my courier." The man said, his breath shuddered.

"Which one?"

"The special one."

"The one that has a mark on him?"

"Yes..yes that one." The man nodded then sighed. He cursed the cultist in his heart for it because they always brag that their product was invincible yet he only used them twice and they were done.

"Isn't he from the cult, I thought they were kind of super strong right?"

".....yeah, they said he was invincible, I would ask to return when I meet them." The man shook his head then massaged his own neck with his right hand.

"What happened?"

"They were dead."

"I can know that just from your expression but what is actually happening? And what do you mean 'they'? Did you buy more than one? Have you lost your mind?"

"They were good, you know, remember when we took one of the acolytes from Torun temple? They butchered the so-called holy man like they were just bumbling children, they were expensive but I thought I would get my money back after several deals like that."

Jonathan looked straight at the man's eyes then nodded. "Yeah..I remember that one, it was a shame that a beautiful girl like that has to become an ingredient."

"Yes..yes..I agree with you but still we make a small fortune from that deal."

The man rubbed his hands together and pulled out a piece of paper from under his robes. He looked doubtful for a moment then handed the piece of paper to Jonathan.

"What is this?"

The man sighed and shook his head. "I need to borrow money from you, that is the detail what I needed it for."

Jonathan glared at the man while squeezing the piece of paper in his hand. "Have you lost your mind? I am here to get our deal, not giving you money."

"Come on Jon, I promised I will pay you soon..please."

Jonathan snorted and sneered at the man. "Do you remember what you said to me the first time we met?"

The man looked at Jonathan with a desperate look which made Jonathan chuckle. "You look so pathetic man, look at you, begging for money from me...hahahahaha..what a day."

"Please Jon, I will pay you as fast as possible...I just need some cash to do....something."

"I am sure you do." Jonathan said with sarcasm.

"Double....I will pay you double if you are willing to lend me money."

Jonathan looked thoughtful for a while then smiled at the man. "Sure...a double return for my investment looks like a good investment for me."

"Good..good." The man said, frowning.

"So..tell me what happened to your precious courier?" Jonathan said cheerfully, it seems the deal with the man somehow made him happy or maybe he had some nefarious plan for the man which made him happy.

"They had found the target and it's just a matter of extraction which should be easy with the target being a peasant and without any family member."

"And?"

"They failed, someone was waiting there, someone strong enough that can turn my men to pieces fast enough that the people around there didn't see who was doing it, they just said that there was a huge wind and hurricane."

"Hurricane, in the middle of the city? And the girl?"

"She is gone."

"Gone? what do you mean gone."

"Yes..gone, I tried to track her but got nothing."

They went quiet after that.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"You need to find another, soon." Jonathan said.

"It isn't easy to find a gifted one who hasn't ties at all, I will need several weeks to prepare and even I couldn't promise you anything."

"You need to find another, soon...do I make myself clear?" Jonathan said with a serious tone. "Do I need to remind you who we are dealing with? and the only reason we take this deal is because you are very certain you can give them what they want...so stop making excuses and DO YOUR PART!"

The man looked angry after being yelled by Jonathan, he gritted his teeth and clenched his hand.

"I may look pathetic right now Jon, but remember who I am before you looked down on me so much."

"Of course I do, but I am sure you remembered what you said when we first met that a man who can't keep his deal is worse than an ugly slave, better to just lop his head and be done with him than let ourselves suffer his incompetency." Jonathan said to the man who looked more nervous than before.

"Okay...I get it, so...when I can get the money?"

"Three days"

the man silent for a while, he looked thoughtful

"Three days is fine." the man finally said.

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

Two men were sitting at the corner of a common tavern, it was midnight so it was almost empty except for the two men and another patron who looked too drunk to sit on their stool. The barkeeper was cleaning his mug and occasionally throw a glance toward the two men on the corner, he wondered who the two of them were. At these hours mostly their patrons were either too drunk to go home or had been going home already, it was an unusual sight for the barkeeper to see someone still sober at this hour.

A hand grabbed the barkeeper's shoulder and he looked back to see his uncle shook his head which made him frowned.

"Don't dip your toe where it does not belong Tom."

The young man was about to open his mouth to reply but his uncle cut him.

"I can see that you keep glancing at them." His uncle said while pointing at the two men in the corner with his eyes.

"They are dangerous people and if I can see you glancing at them even when I was behind you then they could too, so stop what you're doing or do the washing work for you."

Tom face paled when his uncle mention a washing work because it was the worst job he ever doing in his entire life where he has to clean all the plate and mug then cleaning the kitchen then mop the floor then wash the desk and what made it more terrible was that there were always vomit everywhere, disgusting vomit and sometimes piss.

"No.... uncle..I'm just curious..that is."

"Sure Tom.."

His uncle retreated back to his chair leaving him breathless, just a glance and he almost went back to his old horrible job. He actually didn't enjoy his time working here, his smile and dedication was just a rush so his uncle won't kick him out. What he really wanted was to become an adventurer, to slay a monster and got respected alas he was already seventeen and barely got out of this tavern. There were always chores to do, so instead of going out there to do what he wanted to do he was wasting his time doing chores.

"Stop your daydreaming Tom."

His uncle voice jolted Tom and the mug which he was cleaning was fall to the floor, its pieces goes everywhere, he freeze in his place then looking back at his uncle who only sighed without saying anything to him.

"Damn it." Tom cursed then he goes to the back of the tavern to grab a broom. The cleaning duty was supposed to goes to Eli but his uncle would glare at him to no end if he let other clean it when he was the one who break it. once again he lament his fate, never mind swinging a sword he can't even clean his mug properly, if he became an adventure he would just died in his first mission. Maybe work in this tavern was his best bet in life.

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

Gordon was sitting on the branch of a tree when suddenly he heard a sound of something coming fast at him. He made a wall of wind to deflect it and it falling to the ground after bouncing of his wall of wind. He looked at it and realize that apparently someone has attack him just after he sitting on the branch. it made him a little bit pissed off because he had thought that his method was pretty good which included flying then landing at the tree as fast as possible so whoever people that attack him must be good and keep sitting here would Made him a Wood practice for the enemy so he flying back to the sky to think another way to kill this bastard.

Gordon used to think that Border of the city was something that guarded very tightly, a lot of soldier or Hunter or crazy people That they called adventure standing still with nice weapon in their hand but this Border was empty like a graveyard, there was no one here except the trees and the guy who shoot him and he doesn't even know where that guy was, maybe he hide behind some big tree though he hadn't seen any big tree around here, or he has some camouflage spell which would fuck up Gordon day because he didn't know how to break a spell, and he doesn't want to be ungrateful that this guy wasn't attack him with big bad spell like Tal did but he kind of hoped that this guy would piss off then attack him with big bad spell like Tal did because it would be easier for Gordon to deal with him, an epic showdown just like before. Instead he just hovering there while doing stupid pose and yelling at the trees below him hoping that his enemy would eat the bait and show themselves. He got tired after yelling for several minutes and decided that his method was ineffective.

So he closed his eyes and spread his awareness to the wind around him, slow and steady he spread the wind below him to cover the area of the trees that he suspected the attacker hide, he could see it all in his mind eye, the leaf and all its structure and all others which quickly overwhelm his mind and force him to pull back his mind.

Shit.

Gordon felt something move fast from behind his back and quickly formed a wall of the wind to deflect it, then his hand move fast to grab the object to confirm that it was indeed another arrow which he was sure that it come from his attacker, same person as before. He gritted his teeth then tried hard to thought an idea how to find this guy. He couldn't see the archer from up here but he also afraid to come closer because he was sure that this archer was a good one based on how fast the archer noticed his presence and how the archer move so fast from his attack position that Gordon can't see anything even if he tried to pin point the archer's position from the arrow.

After several minutes tried to think some strategy of how to find the archer Gordon decided to do it the simplest way, brute force. He gather the wind around him and spinning it, slowly added the wind and spinning it faster and faster. If you looked from below him, you would see a giant wheel of the wind spinning around him, spinning fast and looked terrible. Debris and small branch flying to the giant wheel and got shredded or join it, when it became big enough and the pressure start to made his ears hurt Gordon push the wheel to the ground then expand it, destroying trees and everything around it. He has hoped that his wide attack would hurt the archer or at least flush him to from his hidden place but before Gordon has a chance to inspect the result of his attack a man suddenly appear in front of him which currently hovering in the sky high enough that it was impossible for this guy to just jump from the ground except if he could flying like Gordon which so fuck up because he has a knife and looked pissed.

Gordon punch the man with a wind punch straight at his chest to push him back so he would has some space to maneuver which the man responses by slashing at the wind that made it disperse and lost its momentum. Not given up Gordon use the wind to push himself back and gathering ball of the wind in front of him, let this guy disperse this motherfucker attack. He push his power to the ball and compress it until the wind so dense it look like a real ball hovering in front of his palms and release it.

The ball of the wind which Gordon named the dead ball, flying straight at the man so fast that Gordon doesn't has chance to see the guy's expression that he was sure was full of fear and hit him, resulted in ring of the wind spread out from the point of impact that sounded like something that very heavy fall to the ground from a very high place which should be turn this asshole to piece of meat yet the guy was still standing there, panting. His condition was no worse than Gordon himself except for his left hand that holding a knife which bleeding and got it clothes torn off.

"Fuck." Gordon cursed as he glared at the man, disbelieve that this guy was looked fine after those dead ball attack and felt ridiculous that the man looked more like standing on the invisible land than flying like him.

"Who the fuck are you?"

The man just grinned maniacally instead of answering Gordon.

"Ohhh...it's been a long time." the man talking to himself.

"Hey asshole, I am talking to you..."

The man looked straight at Gordon's eyes that made his whole body shivering, and his instinct screaming at him to flee at fast as possible but something inside his heart stirred, a pride and anger which filling his body and chase away the screaming behind his mind. Gordon griped hard both his hands and keep looking at the man's eyes, after all he was a Baron of the Howling Dust, he would become dust before surrender to this asshole.

"You are so dead...boy" the man said and move to attack.

Gordon flying back far enough to prepare his next attack, if this guy still standing after the dead ball, he would give him the dead ball version two which should be able to send this guy to the afterlife and if not, well he could always ran away because no matter how strong this guy was, he was sure that he could flying faster than him.