The two of them went out of the gambling house and did what they were most proficient in doing, that is, sneak through alleyways. The streets were packed with beastmen that were grumbling and slowly making their way closer to Moonhall casino, discussing why the governor would make a public appearance. Multiple guards were knocking at homes and yelling something at the door. Those that opened their doors were suggested to get outside, with subtle threats mixed in between the suggestions. Although there were no beastman that openly attacked the guards, many of them glared, keeping a wide distance away from them.

As it turned out, they were not the only people using the alleyways. Many beastmen were simply trying to escape the traffic and many more wanted to stay in the shadows and observe what was going on. Grizz would mix in perfectly with these unsavory folk, if not for a huge snake following him from behind. Still, not many beastman paid attention to them as something much bigger was happening. They arrived next to the Moonhall casino without any incident until they saw the governor herself standing on some sort of elevation, looking at the beastmen before her with a confident gaze.

As Orou was still distracted by the governor, Grizz pointed out several people, dressed similarly to the rest of the crowd but with much, much bigger weapons by their sides. They were seemingly encircling the entire crowd, staying at the edge of it and biding their time. Grizz’s finger snapped to a few figures dressed in dark clothes, making their way through the crowd without any problems whatsoever. A few of the figures that were hiding in the shadows also noticed this, but even the alleyways were entirely covered as several eyes and something glinting stopped anyone from retreating backwards. Once more, Grizz pointed to a roof and Orou saw several men hopping from roof to roof, somehow managing to stay out of sight of the entire crowd.

Grizz’s connections and plans were much deeper than what they seemed on the surface. As they were passing through another alleyway, someone knocked a few times on his shoulder, to which Grizz responded with a grunt of approval. Following that, they entered an abandoned building and Grizz lifted up a trapdoor before promptly jumping down. Orou’s head reached the ground with his tail still being next to the trapdoor and he started following Grizz through a narrow stone passageway. It went on for several hundred meters before another trapdoor greeted Orou. Climbing up, Orou saw a completely dark room with several shelves and chests in it.

Grizz fumbled around his pockets for a few seconds before pulling out a key and unlocking the door that was blocking their way. They passed through a lavishly decorated room, full of pink satin and the like before opening another door. The Moonhall casino in all of its glory greeted them, though this time it was nowhere near as active. Not a single person could be seen drinking or playing cards, the entire place was evacuated, though Orou could still hear some faint noises coming from upstairs.

Grizz slowed down his pace upon hearing something from the 2nd floor. Orou practically couldn’t hear Grizz’s footsteps as he started walking up the stairs, a dart with the viscous substance coating it in his hands. Grizz’s steps came to a halt as he intently listened for the voices, Orou joining him in the process.

“Cut to the chase and stop chit-chatting. Why did you call me out here?” Orou could make out a faint, monotone and emotionless voice asking a question and the sound of shuffling feet along with a faint scream. A trembling voice that Orou recognised as the long-necked beastmen replied: “There are a few important matters I needed to discuss with you.”

“Spit it out,” the same emotionless voice replied and Orou heard the drawing of a blade. Apparently, Grizz had enough of listening as he climbed the last few steps of stairs and stared right ahead of him, aiming to throw the dart at someone. A second later Orou saw what they were dealing with. An ape with light brown fur, slightly lighter than Grizz’s fur, was standing next to the long-necked beastman, a shortsword held up to his neck. Next to him were two beastmen, one resembling a fox and the other resembling a wolf.

Grizz made no sound as he wound up his arm and tossed the dart with all of his strength. It rapidly soared through the air, aiming to hit Nim’s neck if nothing was done about it. No one noticed the silent flying dart, except for the fox beastman by Nim’s side. The fox beastman’s ears slightly flapped and his fur stood up. Moving with unnatural speed, he stepped in front of Nim just as the dart was about to hit him. While it didn’t hit Nim, it still penetrated the fox’s neck.

“It’s an ambush!” The fox beastman yelled out as he pulled out the dart out of his neck. He pulled some sort of vial from his pocket and gulped down the liquid within it, pulling out the two shortswords by his side and standing in front of Nim. The wolf beastman did the same, unsheathing the massive two-handed sword he had on his back and looking at the assailants.

Seeing that his ambush had failed, Grizz spared no time to introduce himself and started sprinting forwards, his steel dagger hidden from sight. Seeing that Grizz was already going, Orou spared no time hesitating and practically threw his body forwards, allowing the waves inside of him to do the rest of the work. Although Grizz had started sprinting first, Orou reached the two of them way before Grizz did. Nim had already retreated to the wall of the second floor before shouting out: “I should have known that you were behind all of this and that you wouldn’t simply lie down and not get involved.”

Grizz didn’t respond to his words, silently passing by the two of Nim’s bodyguards and heading straight towards Nim. The wolf beastman tried his best to intercept him, but Orou’s tail was heading straight towards him and he had no time to stop Grizz. The fox beastman narrowly dodged his tail by ducking, but the wolf beastman didn’t have the same luck. He was expecting to block the attack with his sword, but instead, both he and his sword were slammed into the nearby wall. The wall was just fine, most likely magically enhanced by the spirits Orou had seen surrounding the casino, but that likely just added to the wolf beastman’s pain.

While the wolf beastman recovered from the heavy blow, Orou was following up his attack on the fox beastman, lunging forwards to bite at him. The fox’s fighting style was very similar to Grizz’s as he tried to sidestep the strike and use his shortswords to cut as his underside, but Orou had suffered enough from Grizz’s wooden daggers to fall for that mistake again. His fangs successfully connected with the fox beastman’s arm, his fangs going all the way into the fox beastman’s arm. He slashed at Orou with the one remaining free arm he had and heavily struck at Orou’s scales, slashing into Orou’s flesh.

Orou was happy to trade blow for blow any time of the day, so he simply kept injecting the venom into the beastman, hoping to deal with him before the other one could regain his bearings. Unfortunately, he had underestimated how heavy his blow was as the beastman swung his greatsword down at him. At the same time, the fox beastman’s shortsword was going to the right of his head which would be not hit him if he stood still, but he was forced to evade in that direction. Avoiding the greatsword which heavily thudded onto the ground, the shortsword hit its mark and pierced through, leaving behind a nasty wound.

Orou retreated backwards in order to not get flanked, but the two of them were clearly very experienced in working with each other. Another swing downwards from the wolf beastman and a swing upwards from the fox beastman aimed to catch him and give him a few more wounds, if not for the slight delay the fox beastman had. Orou saw his arm slightly tremble and his momentum falter and he used that chance to rush directly towards the wolf beastman, pushing the fox backwards with his tail, not enough to injure him.

The wolf beastman took another slash, but he was too slow to do anything against Orou as he entangled his legs and started to wrap around him, constricting him. The wolf beastman flailed with immense strength, at least twice that of Grizz’s, but it only worsened his situation. The fox beastman rushed forwards, but he was still a few seconds off from getting close enough to strike at Orou. Orou’s two fangs struck at the wolf beastman’s neck as his eyes looked at Grizz, only to find him injured and bleeding, struggling to keep up with Nim. Nim’s strike pushed Grizz off balance as he fell backwards and Nim’s sword went down, aiming at Grizz’s heart.