My eyes snap open and quickly dart to the sound. A bright light shines blinds me for a second. My eyes slowly adjust to the light and I make out the form of blurred shapes standing twenty feet down the alley. There are three of them and they come into focus. They wear brown rags and carry daggers in their hands.
“What the HELL was that whistle for? You just needed to hand what you got over! Why did you have to make this so hard on yourself old man?!”
The leader of the group holds Bernardo by the hair and pulls him closer. He is kneeling over and has a swollen eye already. The man brings back his dagger and quickly thrusts it forward into Bernardo’s gut. He quickly falls over screaming and the three men drop their guard and start to take what little he had so they could escape. I take this chance. Even though they are close to me, the light of their lantern doesn’t burn bright enough to illuminate anything more than a few feet of the alley around them.
As quietly as I can I spring into a crouched position and start to make my way forward. I make it ten feet away before I make my move. My hands flit across the ground and I soon find what I have been looking for. I glance at the surroundings one last time before I throw the rock in my hand at the lantern.
It’s not a hit. It clacks on the stone loud and clear as day as the muggers freeze. One more rock is already in my hands and I bring my arm down and release it. It connects with the glass and sends it flying with a shattering cacophony. With that, the light immediately goes out.
I could hear the muggers scramble to draw their dagger and face whatever was coming at them. I take this chance and break into a sprint. Nearly tripping several times on random debris in the pitch black, I make my way past the group and several feet beyond where I play my next card.
“Group summon skeleton.”
My whisper manages to reach the ears of one of the men and I can hear him spin towards me, dragging his feet on the stone to make sure his footing is secure.
Smart of him. But soon a small cracking and shifting sound comes from below and I hear his movements stop as he intently listens to the darkness of the alley. A small matter of seconds later the sounds stop and I know they’re in place. The muggers have also gotten themselves together in this time. I could hear them pulling together into a group, backs near a wall as they undoubtedly waited for whatever threat that awaited them.
Who am I to make them wait any longer?
“Kill everyone who is armed at this moment.”
My skeletons don’t respond to my words but instead walk forward.
The enemy hears them and shouts challenges. But they don’t stop. The skeletons, I am happy to learn, can fight perfectly fine in darkness. Just as well as they could during the day.
The same can not be said for the unfortunate trio, who outnumbered four to one, and with no visibility, were soon expunged.
My first order is for the skeletons to drag the bodies to the end of the alley. Then I move on to the next job.
I feel my way to the place I can picture the group first being. Guided by the groans of the wounded man I soon had him in my arms and dragged him into the streets and over to one of the lanterns.
I lay eyes on the wound. A bloody stab wound is now visible through the man’s clothes. A shudder runs through me. I have killed in this world now. Sure it was to defend people both times it happened but that doesn’t change the fact. This new world is kill or be killed. Honestly, I don’t like it, but I have to say that when me or my benefactors’ lives are on the line, It makes it almost too easy. Speaking of whom.
I once again reached down and tore a piece of fabric from the bottom of my robe and held it over the bleeding area before tying it there. I keep my hands pressed down even as the blood starts to soak through.
For hours I stay there in the dim light of the lamp as I hold it down. Almost falling on top of my patient as I fade in and out of sleep due to exhaustion. I must have only gotten an hour or so of sleep. So much for that good as any place to rest huh. I chuckle to myself as the sky starts to dye pink.
As soon as I see this, I quickly drag the still breathing but unconscious man into the alley and to the very back of it with the bodies of the muggers. I get onto the street and it already has a steady trickle of vendors setting up stands for the day and chores being done. All of them were oblivious to the battle that had occurred just some hours earlier. I run to the gate and thankfully see Vanessa already waiting there. She sees me and shock comes over her face for a second.
“What happened to you?”
If I didn’t have the sense to know it would most likely be fatal, I think I would have jumped at her after that line.
