Iranueel stared for a moment at the place where Arya stood and disappeared before he turned with shrug of his shoulders and followed the path to leave the park. It was getting darker with every minute.

The park was surrounded by small old buildings that got gradually larger the farther away from the small green oasis. All of them had seen better days and gave a dark and hard feeling.

Standing at the entrance to the park Iranueel saw a narrow street left and right and a dirty alley right before him. The smell was not so strong to get disturbing so he chose the follow the alley deeper into the shadows. Perhaps there were other opportunities to earn some fast levels.

When he was some 80 meters into the path he smelled some blood in the air. Getting extra careful he checked the proximity with his spirit sense but now that he was in the buildings there was too much interference to determine clear dangers.

Guarded he sneaked closer to the smell that seemed to come from behind a big and empty waste container. He drew his knife and prepared an earth spell in his left hand in the form of a small metallic spike levitating above his hand.

Iranueel took a quick glance around the corner and saw a man with multiple bleeding holes in the chest. They seemed to be caused by a knife. After detecting no imminent danger from the unmoving man Iranueel got closer to examine him.

The blood had stopped to flow and the chest of the man didn’t show any movement and after checking the pulse at the fallens throat Iranueel was sure that he was dead.

Shortly thinking he began to search the dead for his belongings. Iranueel needed desperately money and perhaps a better weapon. By feeling for any of these he sensed that the jacket seemd kind of armoured. Iranueel took it of and checked for the size.

Whoever killed the man had opened the jacket to get to the unarmoured chest. Not that Iranueel wanted to complain about it. It was a near perfect match for him. A little bit tight at the shoulders but better than being unprotected.

He could now see holster right under the dead mans left shoulder but unfortunately it was empty. The mugger had apparently taken the weapon for himself.

Iranueel looked for clues on the ground to determine the size of the attacker. But the missing light in the alley made the search not very productive.

Looking back to the now plundered man Iranueel decided to destroy any clues about his own appearance. He walked back and used his flamethrower spell to burn the man to ashes.

He didn’t expect the disgusting smell of burning human flesh but endured it to the end.

After that he waited a bit for his mana to fill up, all the while watching the alley for any activity.

Iranueel looked for the soul fragment of the man and after a few seconds he could see a ever weaker becoming blue sphere that disappeared just seconds after he discovered it. Not that he was interested in absorbing it. He was eager to rise his level but he wasn’t stupid.

He stood silent in the alley when he suddenly hear fast steps running in his direction. Sneaking behind the waste container Iranueel waited for what ever was coming his way.

It didn’t take long for the person to run around the corner into the alley.

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The person came from the other end of the street, deeper into the city. Whoever it was, did not make a lot of noise and seemed to had a light build.

The light in the street was weak and it was hard to see anything other than a big shadow at the opposite wall. Impossible to say if the person was male or female. He could now hear hard breathing.

Iranueel got ready to fight on a moments notice if necessary. Just as the person was to pass his hiding place, he could hear somebody shout from the end of the alley in Chinese.

“Stop! I ….  shoot if you don’t surrender!”

Iranueel got the gist of what was said. The fleeing person jumped now right to his place and was quite surprised to see somebody already there.

He saw a young asian woman with a scared look in the eyes and a bloody knife in her left hand. She didn’t wait long after taking a look at his new jacket and tried to gut him where he kneeled. A bullet hit the waste container where she had been a moment before.

Iranueel noticed only the weak noice of a silencer when the weapon fired, but he now had another urgent problem right before him. The woman striked with fast and obviously experienced movements and he had real problems to deflect the approaching knife to his right side.

“Idiot! I’m not your enemy!” Iranueel pressed between his teeth while trying to get out of the way of the attacker. Now more bullets hit the container trying to lay a kind of suppressing fire.

The woman seemed to reconsider her actions for a moment.

“Why do you have this jacket?” she hissed at him.

“I found a guy with it and thought, it would be a nice addition to my wardrobe. By the way, he had some holes in his chest!”

And with that he took a obvious look to her threatening knife. She got the gist of it.

“The guy tried to kill me! The same as the one peppering us now. I can offer you a good reward for helping me. And by the way, if you don’t, he will try to kill you anyway!”

Iranueel made a face at the thought of not having any choice. His look got to a wound on her shoulder that just closed right before his eyes. She seemed to be more than the eye could see.

Making a decision he concentrated lightning in his hands, getting a surprised look from the young woman. Then he rolled fast out of his hiding place and took aim at his new and irritated enemy.

The man saw the jacket and hesitated just a moment to long when Iranueel let loose hell on him. A lightning arc hit him straight to the chest and made him spasm. He lost his weapon as his body couldn’t control its motions anymore because Iranueel continued his attack in the best Star Wars style.

The woman wasn’t hesitating either. She ran to the man and in the moment Iranueel stopped his electrical massacre he moved her knife around the throat oh her enemy. Blood erupted the same moment but with a fast movement she got out of the way.

Then turning her back to the dying man she stared at Iranueel.

“Let’s talk! Seems to me, we have a story to tell!”