Chapter 265: The Thinning
The streets of Ironhold were empty.
The four of them walked in a loose group through the sleeping city, their footsteps echoing softly off the stone buildings on either side.
The lantern light from the McCoy estate had long since faded behind them.
Alex walked slightly ahead, his hands in his pockets, his head tilted back to look at the stars. He hadn’t said much since they left. The quiet suited him.
Behind him, Lucy and Nathan walked side by side, their conversation drifting in quiet fragments through the still air.
".....the market district has changed so much since you left, Sister. You would barely recognize the eastern quarter."
"Really? What happened to the old tea house near the fountain?"
"Burned down three weeks ago. Some drunk knocked over a lantern. They’re rebuilding it, but the owner decided to make it twice as large this time. He says if the gods wanted to burn his shop, they must have wanted him to build a bigger one."
Lucy laughed softly. "That sounds exactly like Old Man Wen."
"He hasn’t changed one bit," Nathan said, grinning. "Still argues with every customer who doesn’t tip."
Riya walked quietly beside Alex, half-listening to the conversation behind her.
None of them noticed the shadows moving along the rooftops.
They turned into a narrow lane that cut between two rows of tall, dark buildings. It was a shortcut toward the Hartwell estate. The kind of lane that would have felt claustrophobic during the day and felt worse at night.
Suddenly, Alex stopped walking.
Riya nearly bumped into him. "What....."
"Quiet."
His voice was low and flat. The casual tone from moments ago was completely gone.
Nathan and Lucy stopped behind them. The laughter died instantly. Nathan’s hand moved on instinct to the short blade he kept at his belt.
Alex’s eyes swept the rooftops on both sides.
"Come out."
The silence lasted three seconds.
Nathan felt Alex was making a fuss over nothing. He was about to say something.....and then his expression changed too....because he saw the shadows dropped.
Four figures in dark robes landed from the walls on either side of the lane, two in front and two behind, cutting off both exits.
They moved at once, after being exposed they have no hesitation, no warning. Short curved blades appeared in their hands, the metal catching the faint moonlight.
Clearly they were Professional killers.... Not any street thugs.
Assassins.
The one closest to Alex lunged immediately.
Alex’s reflexes weren’t those of a trained fighter but he has some martial arts practice by now.
He threw himself sideways, shoving Riya behind him.
"Stay down!" he shouted.
Behind them, the two assassins at the rear closed in on Nathan and Lucy.
Nathan moved first.
By now while he wasn’t a skilled warrior, he is good enough to handle one for now.
He drew his short blade and met the first attacker head-on, catching the curved sword against his own steel with a ringing clash that echoed through the narrow lane.
The second rear attacker lunged towards Lucy, clearly expecting the small, delicate-looking girl to scream or freeze.
He was wrong.
Lucy sidestepped the blade with a speed that surprised even Nathan, grabbed the assassin’s extended wrist with both hands, and used his own momentum to slam him face-first into the stone wall.
The man crumpled, dazed but not unconscious. He scrambled to get back up, blood running from a gash on his forehead.
At the front of the lane, the two lead assassins were pressing toward Alex and Riya. The first had recovered from his missed lunge and was circling to the left. The second was moving to flank from the right.
Alex’s suddenly found his hand heavy, from a pistol which he took out from his system’s space, he raised it to point at them...The assassin didn’t recognize the object in his hand. He glanced at it for half a second, dismissed it as some kind of blunt tool, and kept advancing.
Alex aimed at the man’s chest and pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The sound split the silence of the lane like a crack of thunder.
The assassin jerked backward, hit the ground, and didn’t get up again.
The second assassin froze.
His eyes went wide from the sound, turn to look at the thing in his hand, before he can make sense of what is that thing.
The impossibly loud, sharp, alien sound that he had no frame of reference for came again
Alex fired again.
The second man dropped.
Behind him, Nathan had managed to grapple his opponent against the wall, pinning the man’s sword arm with his knee while hammering his elbow into the assassin’s jaw.
The man went limp.
Lucy’s attacker had regained his footing and charged at her again, snarling. This time, Lucy didn’t try to redirect him. She ducked under his swing, drove her shoulder hard into his midsection, and sent him stumbling backward.....directly into Alex’s line of sight.
Alex fired a third time.
The man collapsed mid-stride, crashing to the cobblestones and sliding to a stop at Lucy’s feet.
The lane went quiet.
The fourth assassin.....the one Nathan had pinned.....was still conscious, groaning against the cobblestones. Nathan pressed his blade against the man’s throat.
"Wait.."
"Don’t kill him yet," Alex said sharply.
Nathan glanced up, breathing hard, but didn’t ask why.
Alex walked over and crouched beside the pinned assassin. The man’s hood had fallen back, revealing a scarred face and panicked eyes that kept darting between Alex and the weapon in his hand.
"Who sent you?" Alex asked.
The man’s jaw tightened. He said nothing.
Alex pressed the barrel of the pistol against the man’s forehead.
"I won’t ask again."
The assassin’s eyes darted to the two bodies sprawled in the lane, then back to the weapon he couldn’t understand.....the cold metal ring pressing into his skin.
Something shifted in the man’s expression.
It wasn’t fear. It was decision.
"Long.....live.....the.....," the man began.
Then he bit down.
Hard.
His body convulsed once. Foam and dark liquid seeped from the corners of his mouth. A poison capsule.....hidden in a hollowed-out tooth.
The kind of preparation that spoke of training, loyalty, and the absolute certainty that whatever waited on the other side of death was preferable to talking.
His eyes glazed over within seconds.
Alex watched the light leave them.
But, just to be sure, he pressed the barrel against the man’s temple and pulled the trigger one last time.
BANG!