Chapter 16- The Explosive Exit

Mantis wheezed as he clambered over the wall.

"Ay caramba, Mantis. How are you this out of shape?" Gemini asked him, holding out a hand for the detective to grab onto.

"You're the one who snores like a goddamn pig when you sleep! Get your sinuses cleared out, dickhead." Mantis said.

"Ooh, who are we whaling on now? Is it Gemini? Let me at him, I can do it, boss." Merc said, ready to pounce upon the opportunity.

"Focus." Ball reminded them.

"Yeah, shut up, you two. If I don't get back in one piece, Miss Hudson's going to find me, find a way to resurrect me and then kill me again." Mantis said, climbing down the wall.

Ball smiled. "It's really nice that she cares about you."

Mantis scoffed. "No, she's going to kill me because I didn't pay her salary this month. That old hag would leave me out to die the moment she got the chance."

Ball shrugged. "Whichever way you roll, I guess."

The four covered their heads with the hood from the Assassin's robe and walked towards the tower. They kept their gear hidden near the wall before scouting the area around the tower.

A few guards were posted nearby, so Ball simply explained to them that Dairokkan had ordered for more guards around the town entrance.

The guards left immediately, not willing to find out what happened when they disobeyed an order from Dairokkan himself.

Now that their entrance was clear, they returned to the wall to gather their gear before entering the tower, except the giant item Merc had brought along, which was placed underneath a shrub of bushes near the entrance.

Off the bat, a few guards were surrounding the first floor. Mantis grinned.

Time to see if I'm still good at this as I once was.

Signalling with his hand, the detective instructed Merc and Ball to head towards the room that had the switch for the archive room. Mantis and Gemini stood next to the guards.

"Gum?" Mantis asked the guard next to him.

The Assassin looked at Mantis for a while, then accepted it with a grunt. Chewing on the gum, the Assassin slowly felt his legs give way as he crumpled to the floor.

The Assassin next to Gemini was instantly alerted before Gemini placed a hand on his shoulder. "Woah, there. Everything's alright, no need to be so jumpy."

"Who…are…y…"

The Assassin fell into Gemini's arms, unconscious. Gemini scoffed. At least the arsonist hadn't failed them when it came to their new contraptions.

"Alright, Merc. Show us what you got." Mantis said

"Since we aren't allowed to go in guns blazing, we'll need a way to keep the Assassins off our tail until we're done. This is something I've cooked up using our supply of anesthetic chemicals and paralysis potions that our wonderful Gemini was able to secure." Merc said.

"Yes, I banged a cougar. It's not the first time it's happened. And believe it or not, she's not the oldest I've bagged either." Gemini grinned.

"I'm not so sure you should say that so proudly," Mantis said.

"I know. But it's still an achievement, right?"

The rest of the group shook their heads in disagreement collectively.

"Anyway, these are some under-the-radar items that we can use to take care of any in our way," Merc said, showing the items to his allies.

Mantis stuck the packet of chewing gum laced with the paralysis potion back into his pocket. The Assassins would feel like they had a hangover, but they'd still be alive enough to pay Mantis for all the trouble.

Gemini turned the ring around his finger clockwise, hiding the needle that was dipped in the paralysis potion before rushing towards Ball and Merc.

"There's a ventilation system that runs throughout the tower. This should help us disperse the knockout gas so we can move through the second floor with no problems since it's heavily guarded." Ball pointed out.

Ball entered the room, gulping as he saw the intimidating defences in the room. The switch was right on the other side. All that stood before him were spikes, poison and flames.

"Hey, at least there's no flaming shadow beasts here," Merc said.

Ball chuckled. "Since when did you become the positive one?"

"I'm not positive. I'm crazy." Merc scoffed.

"You're positively crazy."

"I'm not the one about to ballerina dance across this death pit."

Ball nodded with a resigned smile on his face. Once Gemini had given the signal, the Greaseman aimed carefully before firing his modified grappling hook.

It latched onto the middle of the ceiling, exactly where he would have the most maneuverability. Pressing the trigger, he slowly swung himself to hang upside down, like a bat. Using the mini blowtorch Merc had made, he carefully cut certain areas of the mesh of Quagmire silk.

If Ball cut too many of the silk wires, they would trigger the flamethrowers on the corners of the walls. Cutting the centre wires was the best option, as they were the furthest away from the corners of the walls and the least sensitive to any changes.

Though it was a maze to navigate which ones were the corner wires, Ball managed to make a decent-sized hole before long.

Meanwhile, Mantis had located the security room. It was locked. After a few attempts, the detective successfully picked the lock. This was all relatively simple. Everything was going off without a hitch.

Mantis opened the door and found an Assassin waiting for him on the other side.

"Uhh, hi. I guess this isn't the bathroom?" Mantis asked.

The Assassin didn't reply.

Mantis knew the jig was up once the Assassin's hand reached for his knife. Charging the Assassin, he knocked him onto the counter, about to use the paralysis ring to knock him out.

The Assassin kicked Mantis off with a grunt and sliced at Mantis, who neatly dodged the attack before the knife could connect with his stomach.

Mantis grabbed a totem and slammed it against the Assassin's head, making the man spit blood out. The Assassin slowly looked at Mantis and swapped the knife into his other hand, holding it backwards.

The detective panted as the man raised his hand to attack.

"Hold it! Wait!"

The Assassin paused briefly.

"Huh, that actually worked," Mantis muttered.

Throwing a totem at the knife, Mantis quickly jumped onto the table where the totems were. The Assassin grabbed the knife again and began to slash at the detective's feet.

Mantis kept jumping frantically to avoid the knife.

Just like hopscotch. Just like hopscotch.

Spinning around, Mantis kicked the man in the face and punched him hard as he jumped down.

The Assassin was knocked out, but Mantis used his ring on him for good measure.

Wiping the blood from his hands, the detective was slightly grateful for those street fights he had with the Mafia all those years ago.

Mantis noticed that the totems were glowing when they came into contact with the red blood scrawled across the room. Lighting a cigarette, he used some of the ash to ruin the pattern on the walls and floors.

Their security system was now disabled, as far as he could tell.

Ball hadn't accounted for this.

He had planned every contingency with Mantis, down to the smallest details that could go wrong.

What he didn't expect, however, was that disabling the totems triggered a failsafe that made the spike pit slowly rise to the ceiling.

Even worse so, Ball could feel heat beginning to emit off the side of the walls as the tiles slowly slid away to reveal a multitude of small holes across them.

A small flame flickered at the end of the holes.

"BALL! YOU'RE NOT ON THE LIST TO GET BURNED TODAY! GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE, NOW!" Merc yelled.

Panicking, Ball dropped his blowtorch into the rising spike pit.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Ball looked at the hole in the middle of the mesh. He thought could fit his body through it, but there was no way his hands weren't going to be cut from the silk if he swung through the hole. Ball detached from the rope he was on and held onto it with his hands.

"BALL!"

Gritting his teeth, Ball swung himself back, taking a deep breath. It was now or never; the spike pit was getting closer to his legs.

Ball swung himself through the hole and felt his left arm get cut.

He twisted around in the air and fired another grappling hook with his right arm, but his arm was too weak to aim at the ceiling and he fell into the spike pit as the flames erupted from both walls, forcing Merc to look away from the fiery clouds.

"NO!"

The room echoed with Merc's anguished wail for a few seconds as the flamethrowers turned off. Merc punched the wall in anger and screamed.

The spike pit slowly descended back to its original position.

"If you're done admiring the flames, could you give me a hand?"

Merc looked on the other side, where Ball was hanging onto the grapple he had fired, now attached to the flipped switch. The Greaseman had a lopsided grin, most likely because half of his body was being affected by the paralysis poison.

A small bridge descended from the ceiling, breaking away the remaining Quagmire silk and settled itself above the spike pit, connecting the platform that Ball was on and the platform Merc was on.

The arsonist rushed to help Ball up, grabbing the rope from the switch and pulling him up. Merc quickly rushed to find the antidote in his pocket that they had worked on to subdue the effects of the paralysis.

"Wait, so what happens if I touch this?" Gemini asked.

Merc was about to answer, but then shrugged. "Beats me, Ball came up with it."

Gemini touched the needle on the ring. In an instant, he felt his fingers tingle before they were completely numb.

"Yew bhieakch…" Gemini mumbled, before crumpling to the floor.

Ball punched Merc as he laughed at the paralysed conman.

"Ah, come on, he should have seen that coming. Plus, this is a good chance to check out that antidote formula you've been concocting." Merc grinned.

Ball shook his head and injected Gemini with a blue liquid.

Mantis came into the office with a pack of cigarettes. "What happened to him?"

Merc pointed at Ball immediately. "I didn't do anything, it was him."

Merc dragged Ball to the entrance of the room. The antidote would eventually cure the paralysis, but it would take a few hours. He was about to open the door when he heard Gemini speaking on the other side.

"Oh yeah, it's been a huge kerfuffle. They've been testing out new security features in there for a while." Gemini said to the Assassin.

"Really? I saw no reports or instructions for any added features." The Assassin asked suspiciously.

"Well, they're new. Just got them from the chief, wanted to double up security around this area." Gemini said.

"Chief Dairokkan?" She asked Gemini.

Gemini nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure you understand. Can't let you in, a bunch of flaming hazards in there and I don't want a pretty lady like you getting an unwanted tan these days."

The Assassin wasn't buying it. "Uh-huh. I wore sunscreen today, so move aside. I need to check the room."

"No, no! Wait!" Gemini protested.

The Assassin briefly touched the doorknob before she pulled her hand away, hissing. She saw flames flickering through the crack of the door below her.

She glared at Gemini.

"Hey, I did warn you. Ongoing construction for the new security. Flames and shit, hoo-hah." Gemini shrugged.

Merc let out a sigh of relief and slowly turned off his flamethrower.

The Assassin still wasn't convinced. "I'm going to check with the security coordinator."

Gemini followed her. "That's fine with me. I'm just saying, orders are orders. I just follow them."

I have to time this right. Mantis needs more time to find out where the vent entrance is.

Gemini twisted his ring, about to touch the Assassin on the shoulder.

"Keep your hands off me, I'm not looking for a fight. I'm already married."

What the fuck does marriage have to do with fighting?!

Gemini shook his head clear and focused on getting her away from the security room. "Look, if this is about me not letting you into the room, it wasn't personal."

The Assassin opened the door to the security room and turned around to speak with Gemini. "You men are all the same. So insecure and fussy."

Gemini let out a yell in shock, but not at what the Assassin said.

Behind her, Mantis was having trouble hiding the body of the Assassin he had knocked out. He was slumped onto the detective, who was awkwardly holding the Assassin in his arms as Gemini looked at him.

Mantis widened his eyes in alarm, motioning for Gemini to get rid of the Assassin. Thankfully, her back was turned to Mantis as he scrambled to stuff the knocked-out man into a locker.

"All of you do the same thing. You act all high and mighty, then complain about not having your way. It's the same song and dance all the time." The Assassin sneered at Gemini with her arms folded.

Gemini tried not to look at Mantis, who was now kicking the man into the locker. "Yeah, yeah. You're right. It's all our fault. It happens when you have a...penis. The power just goes to your head."

The Assassin seemed slightly surprised that Gemini agreed with her and then nodded. "Exactly. Umm…sure."

A loud clang made the Assassin spin around. Mantis was leaning against the locker, trying to strike a casual pose as he spoke. "Hey there. You need something here, lady?"

The Assassin looked at Mantis. "You're not the usual guard who was posted here. Where is he?"

Gemini slid his finger across his throat, indicating for Mantis to knock her out.

"Oh, he told me he had to take a bathroom break. He said he'll be back in a few hours since he had to grab a bite to eat as well." Mantis said, clearly struggling to keep the locker shut.

"Well, nothing to see here. I guess you should go about your usual routine now, off you go." Gemini said, trying not to sound eager.

"Wait a minute. Why are the blood totems disabled?"

Oh, balls.

She turned to look at Gemini. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing at all. As I said, we had to disable the security measures that were active so we could work on them. I don't like repeating myself, you know." Gemini said, with a serious scowl on his face.

"I need to speak with the chief about this. His new orders seem to have caused some major disarray amongst our positions." The Assassin said.

"Hold on, before you go, there's something I need to show you."

Mantis slammed his open palms against her ears, discombobulating the Assassin briefly. He grabbed a chair and slammed it against her side, causing her to fall to the floor.

"Dude! I told you to knock her out!" Gemini seethed.

Mantis was about to slam the chair onto her head before he paused. "I thought that was what I was doing."

"With your ring, you numpty," Gemini said, pricking her with his ring.

"Oh, right. Forgot we had those for a second."

Mantis and Gemini got the location of the entrance for the vent systems from the schematic in the security room. They rushed to check on Merc and Ball.

Ball was slouched against Merc, who carried him with Ball's arm slung across his shoulder. Merc felt a small tinge of relief as he saw Mantis and Gemini.

"What happened?" Gemini asked.

"Paralysed. Plan didn't work out as well as we had hoped." Merc grunted.

"Well, what about the switch?" Mantis asked.

"We got that. But Ball's out of commission. Maybe we should get him out of here before we do anything else." Merc said.

Ball made a strained groan in disagreement.

"It's his choice. Ball, groan once if you want to leave and twice if you want to stay." Gemini said.

Ball let out two garbled groans.

Gemini grinned. "You must sound terrible in bed, Greaseman."

Mantis and Gemini walked up to the second floor, strapping on their gas masks. Gemini supported Ball as they walked and hooked up Ball's mask onto his face as they waited for the signal from Merc.

The arsonist was outside the tower walls, scaling it with his grappling hook until he found the vent entrance on the exterior walls of the second floor. Pulling the pins, Merc tossed a handful of smoke canisters into the vents.

Mantis and Gemini opened the doors, greeted by an entire swarm of Assassins.

The Assassins looked at the masked men in surprise, before they all drew their weapons, ready to attack. At the end of this hallway laid the archive room, which was now opened.

Merc climbed back in through the window next to his friends, fixing on his gas mask.

The arsonist held up three fingers, slowly counting down.

Three.

Yellow-colored smoke began to pour in from the right side of the hallway vents.

Two.

Cyan smoke began to seep in from the left hallway vents.

One.

The smoke swirled and collided, forming a purple cloud that surrounded the Assassins, confusing them further as they yelled to their comrades.

As the group slowly walked closer, dragging Ball with them, the Assassins around them began to faint from the knockout gas entering their lungs. The four figures moved through the purple smoke with nothing in their way.

An Assassin crawled to them and attempted to assault Mantis.

The detective simply pushed him away with a finger. The Assassin was knocked unconscious from the gas and fell to the floor. Mantis smiled.

Smoking's not good for your health, but it does wonders for mine.

Mantis held the door ajar, waiting for the others to enter the archives.

Once they had entered, Merc stayed near the door to be on the lookout if any other Assassins decided to show up. The gas would knock them out, but the group decided to play things safe.

Gemini didn't wait for a second longer. He carefully replicated every single scroll, book and artifact he could find in the room and replaced them. Piling the century's worth of records that the Assassins had compiled into a sack they had carried, the conman smiled as he knew that the tough part of the plan was done.

Mantis looked around, searching for anything that could give him an idea of who had killed Sagi. Perhaps some scroll or record would hold the answers that he sought. That was the whole reason that he decided to plot the heist, after all.

Curiosity's a fickle mistress, but she's a fine one if you can satiate her.

And the detective's curiosity was far from satiated.

"Man, the Assassins really need to organize this stuff a lot better," Gemini mumbled.

"I have to agree with you. There's a nude calendar in the section with the list of their clan base locations." Mantis said, pulling out a scratched and old desk calendar with a picture of an elf and a human in very thin layers of clothing rubbing against each other.

"Don't think we need to replicate that. Just a hunch." Gemini said, throwing the old cardboard calendar into a bin nearby, wiping his hands in disgust.

Mantis opened up a scroll, filled with details of the Assassins' most wanted contract list. These were all enemies of the Assassins, their priority targets and most valuable contracts.

Scouring through the list, he saw a few names pop up, but nothing stuck out to him at first.

Don Jovi, Vonti Sakai, Helen the Fifth…nothing here.

That is until he read the name at the top.

Keith Alysides.

The name stuck out to Mantis at first. Why would the Assassins be hunting one of their own?

His curiosity piqued, the detective began to search through their records for details on Keith Alysides. It had been recently updated. Long black hair that was dyed white with a black jacket. A few old records were strewn around the room, such as the formation of the council and the previous council head, who was killed by Keith.

Curious. Interesting. Intriguing.

Delving into the newer records about the Assassins' most wanted target, Mantis pulled out a relatively new record that was filed under a few days ago. It had the report for the attack on Spiti next to it.

"The traitor was spotted in the town of Spiti, aiding the residents alongside another traitor amongst our ranks, Yokubo Susanoo. The two fought off our forces, alongside the target, Enteico Mamorou. The sword could not be retrieved during the fight, due to the unexpected resistance put up by the targets."

Mantis read the report, the world around him becoming nothing more than a dull hum in the back of his head.

"As such, our reports lead us to believe that the traitor was connected with the recent disappearance of another operative, Sagi. It is a high possibility that Sagi was K.I.A, with the recent investigations of a hired P.I; we were able to determine that the traitor was in contact with the champion of this year's Monarch Tournament. Chief Dairokkan has advised the retaliation protocol in subsection B. End of report."

The detective's mouth twitched. So, they had already come to a conclusion on Sagi's disappearance.

Fuckers still owe me my goddamn money.

Mantis was supposed to deliver his report on the investigation near a camp of Assassins around the vicinity of the forests of Spiti. It was pretty obvious that Keith was the one who had murdered Sagi.

Mantis lifted his arm, toppling the contents of the shelf above him.

The name of the operation caught his eye.

Operation: Spirit Purge.

As he read the report, he slowly began to see that there was a sinister motive behind the Assassins' plans. Something bigger than he could've ever imagined.

He noticed a crest depicting a serpent coiled around a sword was at the end of the report and on the seal.

"MANTIS!"

Merc came rushing through the room, his hands soaked in blood.

"What happened?! You know we're not supposed to kill them!" Gemini yelled.

"It wasn't me! Someone took out all the Assassins on the first floor!"

Mantis looked briefly at Ball, who slightly twitched.

"It's the Mafia."

The group looked at the detective, except for Ball.

"How do you know it's them? And more importantly, how did they find us here?"

Mantis looked at Ball, who was extremely quiet.

"Ball led them here. He was working for them."

Merc and Gemini turned to the Greaseman, flashing glares of anger and betrayal. Mantis stopped Merc before he could do anything rash.

"Get out of my way, Mantis," Merc growled.

"Stick to the plan. Ball's one of us."

"YOU JUST SAID HE'S WORKING FOR THEM! THE PLAN…"

"The plan is still valid. We planned for every contingency, including if the Mafia decided to play hooky with us at the last second. Plus, I'm the one who told him to contact the Mafia when I found out he was working for them." Mantis said.

"Why would you do that? Doesn't this make things harder?" Gemini asked.

"For them? Yes. For us? It's all part of the plan."

Mantis nodded to Merc, who nodded back, ready to carry out their escape plan.

"Ball, you owe me a fucking pretzel after this," Gemini grunted, carrying Ball.

Ball groaned, making Gemini smile.

"Shouldn't we be careful around him?" Merc asked Mantis as they ran towards the stairway to the second floor.

"No, as I said, he's still with us. Ball owes debts to the Mafia; he's hired by them to break out their members from prison. Truth is, he can't wait to get them out of his hair as soon as possible." Mantis explained.

"And why did you decide to hide this from us?" Gemini asked.

"Would it have changed anything?"

Gemini and Merc looked at each other in silence. They would still need Ball's help either way and knowing that Ball once worked for the enemy would only compromise the heist with everyone being suspicious of him.

"Fair enough," Merc grunted before Mantis put a finger to his lips.

A couple of men were outside below the staircase, checking the dead Assassins on the first floor. The Mafia members looked carefully around the corners to see if any Assassins were left.

"Ok boys! We got all the freaks here. Let's pay our heist team a little surprise visit and get the shit the boss wanted." A Mafia member grunted.

"Let's take them out," Merc whispered.

Mantis shook his head and pointed towards the roof above the men.

A dozen shadows swirled on the ceiling, hiding in silence.

"With the Mafia members, the Assassins are distracted. With the Assassins, the Mafia's distracted. Perfect getaway scenario." Mantis said.

"NO! NO! PLE…AHHH!"

The Mafia members watched in horror as a giant three-headed hound, surrounded by a cloud of shadows emerged from the darkness and tore through a Mafia grunt's torso, spilling his intestines onto the floor.

The Assassins jumped from the ceiling, attacking the Mafia.

"I think we might need to make a few adjustments to the plan." Mantis sighed.

"A giant shadow hound wasn't part of the fucking plan, Mantis! Where the hell did the Assassins even keep the damn thing?!" Gemini winced as another Mafia grunt was decapitated and then swallowed whole by the 30-foot monster.

The large hound gnashed its teeth together, grinding the unfortunate man into a fine red paste with chunks of flesh. Its claws tore through the forces of the Mafia, whose weapons were ineffective against the gigantic beast.

"Merc, you'll need to use our backup," Mantis said.

Merc grinned. "That backup? About damn time."

"Remember, stick to the plan."

Mantis nodded, before sprinting around the battlefield, clutching his robe tightly around him.

"What are you doing?!" Gemini yelled.

Mantis ran outside the tower, rushing outside before more Assassins showed up to deal with the Mafia, who were fighting an uphill battle.

"Come on, we need to move," Merc said, helping Gemini tug Ball off the ground.

"WE NEED TO TAKE OUT THAT THING!" One of the Mafia members yelled.

"GET CLEAR!"

A giant explosive went off, killing most of the Assassins who were fighting. The others were either stunned or knocked off their feet from the blast.

Smoke began to fill the room as the Mafia members triumphed in their victory. Their last resort had worked out, taking out the Assassins and the…

A loud growl from within the smoke cloud silenced the Mafia immediately.

The smoke twisted and moved around the giant hound that slowly emerged from the grey smoke, shaking the ground with each step that it took.

All three heads turned towards the Mafia members, the three sets of nightmarish red eyes staring into their souls.

The Mafia members screamed as the hound dug its claws into their bodies, ripping off each of their limbs with terrifying speed and ferocity.

"Hide behind that pillar. Make sure it doesn't see you." Merc said, about to run towards the entrance.

"Oh no no no. You are not bailing out on me too." Gemini said, grabbing his arm.

"Gemini. Trust me."

Gemini looked at the arsonist briefly, hooking his arm around Ball's shoulder.

"Trust you?! No way in hell…"

The hound's ears twitched and the beast turned around to face the trio, snarling with a deathly glare. Its teeth glinted briefly, now stained by a dull shade of red.

The beast pounced upon them, tearing through the ceiling and smashing the floor below. The three managed to evade the assault, hiding behind all the rubble.

"But, I do prefer burning to a crisp than being dog food for a mangy mutt." Gemini sighed.

Merc nodded and left Gemini, running past the hound towards the exit. A head turned towards the fleeing arsonist, ready to attack him.

A knife thumped against the hound's jaw, bouncing off its thick fur coat.

All three heads turned simultaneously towards Gemini. The conman chuckled awkwardly.

The hound thundered through the rubble, about to rip Gemini apart before he dodged out of the way. Just before he could escape safely, a tail whipped out and stuck Gemini with a crack, sending him crashing into a bookshelf.

Ball was behind a pillar that was a safe distance away from any danger. Gemini knew that any plan from this point on was suicide if he was going to get ball out as well. Not being able to move, the Greaseman would only be a hindrance in their escape.

His last hope was to distract the three-headed hound until Merc would show up.

If Merc was going to show up, that was.

Holding his breath as the hound stomped closer to the pillar, Gemini hid behind a large pillar that was still intact.

Gemini heard one of the heads growl and sniff as it inched closer to his hiding spot. He could feel the beast breathing around him, as two heads leaned in from either side of the pillar.

They sniffed and growled, before they slowly walked away, hunting for any intruders in the tower.

Gemini slowly snuck past the hound, grabbing Ball by the chest and looking into his eyes.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to kiss you, just blink or make some movement."

Ball stuck out his tongue.

Well, that's one way to do it.

"Stick it out once if you want to run for it."

Ball didn't stick out his tongue.

"Too bad. We're booking it now."

Ball shook his head in protest, his mouth unhinged and dripping saliva all over Gemini's shoulder. The conman ran towards the exit with Ball, nearly at the end of this terrible plan.

Until the ground shook, making the two lose their balance and fall to the ground. The hound stood behind them, murderous intent evident in all three sets of eyes as they turned red.

The doors behind Gemini burst open.

Merc stood in the middle of the doorway, holding something big covered underneath a white sheet of cloth.

"Move your ass or burn conman!"

Gemini dragged Ball out of the way. Merc looked at the hound, who was growling angrily at the three intruders.

Merc took off the cloth and yelled as he pulled the trigger. Eight lit dynamite sticks shot through the air, exploding in a gigantic burst in front of the hound's faces. A belt was linked into his fanny pack, providing endless ammunition.

The beast slowly lumbered weakly over Merc. All three heads were now missing large chunks of flesh. The hound's teeth and gums were burned and scorched from the explosion. The shadows around it started to dissipate.

The hound roared in fury as spit and blood sprayed throughout the air. Merc prepared to fire the gigantic 8-barrelled gun, as each barrel was loaded with a stick of dynamite rapidly through the belt mechanism connected into his fanny pack.

The shadows around the hound's face vanished and all that was left was a hideous monster, snarling angrily at the arsonist.

Merc stared into the hound's bloodthirsty eyes. He was no longer the prey. He was the predator.

"You are one ugly motherfucker."

The hound roared in fury and it charged towards Merc.

Five consecutive dynamite sticks went off directly on the hound, followed quickly by another rapid combo of explosions that resembled a firework show. Chunks of flesh blew away with each explosion, severely damaging the monster.

"Merc, we need to move! There are more Assassins on the way!"

Merc growled and threw the minigun onto the ground since it was too heavy to lug around as he ran away. He grabbed a few large chunks of flesh from the hound. They rushed past the Assassins, using the last of the gas and Merc's dynamite to escape.

Merc remembered the detective's plan. There would be a carriage waiting for them a safe distance outside the town for them to escape. Merc spotted the carriage along with Gemini and Ball, who were jumping into the getaway vehicle.

Merc clambered into the carriage with the Assassins hot on his heels. The arsonist looked around to check if Gemini and Ball were alright. They also had the bag full of information replicated from the archives.

Merc also noticed there was no driver in the carriage.

As the Assassins finally managed to pick up the chase and reach the carriage, it exploded in a cloud of smoke and fire, burning as it flew violently across the air.

The force of the blast had left the carriage into a crumpled, burning mess. There were no remains of the bodies left intact; only the stench of scorched flesh was prevalent as the Assassins inspected the carriage briefly. The horses from the carriage were injured from the explosion but remained relatively unscathed.

The Assassins checked the tower and assessed what was stolen. Surprisingly, although the archives were opened, it appeared the thieves were unable to take anything from it in time as all the records were still present in their rightful place.

The archive room was not compromised. Apart from the losses sustained in fighting the Mafia, the Assassins had remained victorious. Their impenetrable defences had stood against another attack and the town cheered in triumph.

Chief Dairokkan decided that the Mafia would be their priority target after proceeding with their operation to kill the traitor and be rid of the Alysides bloodline once and for all. A sinister grin formed on his face.

The Chief was clearly pleased with how things were going his way recently. He popped open a bottle of wine and looked forward to torturing some of the Mafia members they had captured.

After a few rounds of burning their tongues with burning hot pokers, cutting them several times before bathing them in salt and alcohol and peeling away each section of their fingers and toes methodically, the members begged for the torture to end, telling the Assassins all that they wanted to know.

Chief Dairokkan asked for someone to write the information and store it in the records, before assigning him to escalate the security around the archives.

The Assassin next to him bowed. "Is there anything else, Chief?"

"No, that will be all. My piano skills have been somewhat lacking with all this drivel that I have to take care of." Dairokkan said.

As Dairokkan entered the dungeons below where they held their prisoners and targets for their contracts they had accepted, the members began to ponder upon their fate.

"Alright, boys! Time to draw straws!"

Dairokkan appeared with three straws in his hand, asking the members to choose one. The bottoms of the straws were hidden by his hand. The Mafia members desperately wanted the day to be over.

"Whichever one of you gets the longest will get to go home scot-free. You have my word." Dairokkan said, crossing his heart.

One of the members desperately tried to break free and run, only to be stopped by a handful of guards. The Chief Assassin clicked his tongue.

"Now, now. I'd advise that you play fair. You don't want me to pick for you, do you?" Dairokkan said, grabbing him forcefully.

All three drew their straws with their hearts in their throats, beating rapidly.

The first one drew a very small straw, drawing a sigh of relief from the other two.

The man clutched his bald head and kneeled on the ground, begging the Chief Assassin for mercy. Dairokkan responded by kicking his face repeatedly.

"Get off my robe! I just had this washed! Ugh!"

The man sobbed in despair, clutching his knees to his head. An Assassin walked near him and placed a hand on his shoulder, making him jump in fear.

"Shh, it's ok. I'm not going to hurt you." The Assassin soothed.

"BULLSHIT, YOU AREN'T! GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU FREAK!" The man screeched in fear. The Assassin withdrew her hand, before trying to calm the man down.

I'm not like them.

"Tiana, stop fondling the dead man. Watch the exit, like you were told to."

Tiana walked back to her post, watching the crying man with worry in her eyes.

The other two members slowly drew their straws.

Their hands quivered as their straws were barely longer than a hair.

The Chief Assassin smiled at the man who was crying. "Congratulations! You're not so dead after all! Seems your friends are not quite as lucky as you are!"

The other two men struggled in vain as they were locked in a small room.

It was barely big enough for the both of them. Their bare chests rubbed against each other uncomfortably. It was very uncomfortable and there were large piles of coal and wood below their feet. The room stretched into a narrow tube system that went all the way to the highest floor of the tower.

"Alright! Come on, gather round! This is the best part." Dairokkan said, forcing Tiana and the other Assassins to gather near the room with the two members.

Dairokkan pulled a huge lever. Shortly afterwards, a small sparking noise was heard.

The men trapped inside the room were sweating profusely. The ground below them started to heat up. The coal and wood became too hot to stand on, so they started fidgeting and tried to get some space to breathe.

The ground below them started to burn, slowly at first, before it crackled steadily, roasting the screaming men.

The metal around them burned their skin. The ground below them burned their flesh. The smoke from the ground choked them, suffocating them mercilessly. They began gasping for air like fish, writhing and twisting their raw and scorched arms and legs.

The smoke mercifully knocked them unconscious as the fire burned their bodies, much to the delight of most of the Assassins.

"I need a shower after trodding in all this filth. Get this shit cleaned up, newbies. Make sure you can handle things here, or else you'll be next due to your incompetence." Dairokkan said gravely.

Tiana felt a chill run through her spine.

"Heheh. It's a joke. It's apparently supposed to increase morale in the workplace. I trust that your morale for doing your jobs has been increased?" The Chief asked, tilting his head.

All the Assassins nodded vigorously.

"Good. Come on then, men. Chop chop. Get to your stations, the show's over."

Dairokkan and most of the Assassins turned to leave the stone-walled dungeons.

Tiana waited for the sound of the entrance to the dungeon to close, before rushing towards the room where the men were burning.

"Tiana! Wait, they're…"

Tiana opened the door, letting out a stench of burned skin and bones, making her gag. The other Assassins around her closed the door, trying to avoid looking at the horrible sight of the burned men in front of them.

"I'm sorry. I'm so…"

Tiana's voice was nothing more than a dull whimper. Every day she wished that things would change.

And every day, she would find out that nothing did.

The rest of the Assassins let the Mafia member leave. He darted towards the forest, not bothering to wait for a second longer. The member would tell the Mafia of his horrifying experience at the Assassin's dungeon, making fewer members willing to participate in any attacks on their headquarters.

All part of Chief Dairokkan's plan.

The Chief stepped out of his shower, wrapping a towel around his waist and wiping his head. He then stepped into a bathrobe, pouring another glass of wine as he sat near the organ.

Dairokkan began to play a solemn sounding tune, with the air from the organ vibrating the giant pipes. He had learned to appreciate music from a young age. It was the only thing he remembered from his childhood.

His wife loved to play music on a little flute. Dairokkan never understood how she played a simple stick with holes in it and produced such a graceful and elegant sound.

Playing the organ, he couldn't see anything that he was touching. But he continued playing at a steady pace and rhythm, repeating the same piece as he took in his other senses.

He could feel the keys beneath his fingers, gently vibrating with the organ.

He could taste the notes of sweetness from the wine, with a slight touch of sourness dancing on the middle of his tongue.

He could feel the warm air from the vibrating pipes of the organ.

He could smell the burning flesh that came with the air from the pipes.

The piece of music took a dramatic shift in pitch, from a sombre piece of music into a sinister rhythm as Dairokkan increased the pace at which he played the music.

As he played the last note, he walked over to the chess set on the table nearby.

Soon, he would be rid of the only thing standing in his way.

Dairokkan cleared the chessboard of the pawns with his hand, knocking the queen onto the floor. The other pieces were also discarded.

Dairokkan held the king piece in his hands, rotating it in his hands.

As the echoes of the last notes of his song died away in the room, Dairokkan left the king as the only piece on the black and white chessboard.