Rook burst into the room, scanned the inside, and came back out a moment later.

“We got a hostage in here; it matches the description you're looking for,” Rook told Sky in his deep tone. His face then fell into a grimace. It's ugly, but he’ll live.” Turning to Norman, he continued, “So what now, chief?”

“Now we check that room for anything useful, either cash for us or evidence for our friends.”

“Understood,” Sam said as he strode forth and plucked his knife from the leg of the fallen man, who had stopped moving a while ago. Wiping it off and pocketing it, he and Duke began to move towards the back room.

Sky, however, beat them to it. He started moving the second he heard that Even might be in there. Entering the small room, he ignored the file cabinets against the wall. He even paid no mind to the pile of bills sitting on a desk near the front. In the room lit by a single gaslamp, his focus was drawn only to one thing: the figure hunched over in the corner.

Evan was a sorry sight, his hands tied up on the gas pipe and behind his back. His lip was split, his right eye swollen, and one of his legs seemed to be bent to an awkward angle. When he looked up at Sky and opened his mouth, it was clear he was missing a few teeth.

Going towards him, Sky pulled out the knife and quickly sliced at the ropes; the knife slid through like warm butter and made a hissing noise as the ropes blackened.

Helping his brother to his feet, Sky offered him an arm, saying,

“Come on, Ev, we’re here to get you out.”

With a weak growl, Evan complied, putting his weight on Sky's shoulder. Behind them, Sam, Duke, and Rook had begun clearing out the room, piling the money into a bag and going through the file cabinets for any essential documents.

They didn’t find any documents in the file cabinets; instead, something far more incriminating was that the cabinets. They had been hollowed out and became storage for authority, enhanced weapons, and ammunition. Like the bullets the vipers carried and Sky’s knife, these weapons were immensely powerful and thus heavily regulated by the military. Although the black market was allowed to sell small arms and cold steel weapons, enhanced weapons were suicide to sell.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Rook looked around and saw that Sky now had a gun. Knowing he would have taken it off one of the corpses, he reached into one of the fake cabinets and pulled out a box containing bullets for the revolver. Grabbing a few, he tossed them at Sky.

“Load up, kid,” he said. “We’re down a member, and he’s going to slow us down even more.” Rook motioned at Even. “So we need you to pull your weight this time.”

Sky nodded, sliding open the chamber on his revolver and placing four of the five bullets inside. He held the last one up to his eyes and looked at it. Unlike the brass-coloured bullets he had seen previously, these had a strange red shine to them. It almost seemed to glow and move along the surface of the bullet.

Slipping it into his pocket, he saw the others reloading as well. They then gathered the bag with the money and placed the weapons in the open. Sky was confused but didn’t ask any questions about why; after all, they had to have their reasons. And as long as Evan was safe, he didn’t care.

The six of them then began to move back out through the warehouse, but before they could reach the entrance, Talon and the two he had left with Rushed were inside. Behind them, the other three members of Team 2, followed by three members of Team 1.

One of the men was severely wounded, his abdomen charred and letting off a smell of burning flesh. The others quickly shut the oversized wooden door and retreated behind the barricade created earlier by the very group they were now under attack from.

Having learned from the previous defender's mistakes, they did not expose themselves to the door but crouched down low behind it, leaving no part exposed to the door. The wounded man and Even were brought to the backroom with Rook standing guard over them. They also split up, sending two men to the shelves on each side so they couldn't be pinned down in a single location.

“ what happened,” Norman asked, the urgency in his voice palpable.

“Enemy reinforcement showed up,” the leader of team three replied, still gasping for air. They took two of us out, so we retreated here.”

Looking around at the group, Sky could see morale was falling. At that moment, Norman glanced at Sky, seemed to think for a second, and then made a decision.

“Liston up.” He told the gathered men. “This place was second on the list for reinforcements from our friends. That means we just need to hold out for a little longer, and reinforcements will be here.”

Although Sky didn’t know what a few more men from another gang would do to change the tide of battle that much, morale rose, and the faces of the vipers around him relaxed. And they got into position, ready to hold the door with their lives.

Sky decided that if they trusted this unknown friend with their lives, they might just have to hold out until they arrived and solved the situation. Choing to join them in their optimism, Sky raised his revolver and took a position at the front of the barricade.

After that, a few moments passed in absolute silence. Sky could feel his heart beating in his chest, the sweat dripping down his brow, and the breathing of the men beside him. Thoughts raced through his head, many about trying to escape, and his eyes darted around. But there was only one door, and besides, Even was behind him. With this thought, he looked back towards the door as it smashed inwards, sending pieces flying across the ground.