Chapter 46

Bertrand and I quickly make our way towards the back of the compound. Angelene’s already there, keeping an eye on the compound’s rear for any stragglers or flankers. When she asks Bertrand what we’re doing there, Bertrand explains his plan to the both of us. Oh no, this is the man I’m trusting with my life. His whole plan, if you could even call it that, is to flank the bandits outside the walls while they’re distracted, killing whoever we can, and if they chase us, we run away, leading them away from the compound and into alleyways where we can subdue their number advantage with the narrow alleys. This is as reckless as it gets but we don’t have a better option right now. Angelene salutes us as we leave as if we’re soldiers marching to our deaths. Doesn’t really help us but I guess I appreciate her thoughts.

Bertrand uses the same route we used last night when we were bringing Jerome back and now that we’re passing through during the day, I’m able to fully appreciate just how absolutely insane this shortcut is. We start by entering one of the rear buildings on the eastmost side and head to the second floor. This building’s second floor looks like it was blasted open by one of the mining charges we used back in the mine to open up new tunnels and the damage was never fixed considering an entire corner of the second floor is gone. Once we’re there, we cross a wooden plank to reach an adjacent building and head down the stairs. In the corner of the first floor of this building, there’s a bookcase that can be pushed to the side revealing a secret passage that leads to the basement. Bertrand slides open his brightstone in a box for light and when we go down to the basement, we reach a nexus of sorts after walking for a little bit. There’s dozens of underground tunnel openings that branch off into all sorts of different directions. Bertrand tells me that most of the tunnels are dead ends and they’re meant to confuse anyone who’s not a part of Candle and taught how to navigate these tunnels. We enter one of these tunnels, though I’m not sure how Bertrand chose this one, and walk through it for about a minute or so before we come across a locked iron door. Bertrand pulls out a ring of keys from his pack and unlocks it before locking it again when we’re past it. There’s a wooden ladder a few steps away which we climb up and we find ourselves on the first floor of another house. Bertrand shuts the wooden hatch behind us and covers it back up with a red rug. Walking over to a window and slightly pulling away the curtain to get a look outside, I realize I’m looking at the backs of several Midriver’s Finest grunts as they’re hacking away at the wooden walls of the compound while they’re getting pelted every now and again with arrows from high above. What the fuck is Candle in the Dark and how the fuck do they have an entire intricate underground tunnel system under their stronghold? Bertrand doesn’t give me a chance to voice my astonishment when he drags me to the back door and into a back alley. It’s time to put all that training I’ve done this past month to use.

Bertrand reminds me one final time to keep my strikes short and lethal. Don’t overcommit, don’t tunnelvision, and don’t stop moving. As we’re walking out of the back alley and walking up behind the bandits, I can feel my heartbeat quicken and there’s a plethora of emotions I’m going through right now. I’m nervous and my sweaty palms aren’t helping it. I’m scared and the trembling in my knees isn't helping me. But I’m also excited and I can’t stop the smile that’s growing on my lips. I’ve always known there was something wrong with me because even as a kid in Abermock, I’d smile without knowing it at the most inappropriate times and sometimes I couldn’t stop smiling even if I was getting my ass beaten. However, I don’t need to stop myself this time and this time, I’m going to be the one doing the beating.

It looks like Midriver’s Finest are wholly distracted by the stronghold in front of them because the ones at the back of the group didn’t even realize Bertrand and I walked all the way until we were right behind them. On Bertrand’s signal, we both grab the person in front of us by their hair and yank their heads back before slitting their throats with our swords. Alright, I can see why Bertrand and Quinn made me pay 45 silver for this sword. It’s actually incredible how sharp this blade is. It honestly felt like I didn’t even do anything because I didn’t really feel any resistance. Compared to two nights ago when I slit the throat of the young guard who was strangling Wraine, it’s like night and day how different the feeling is. Slitting throats with my old sword felt like cutting up livestock parts with a dull knife while this barely felt like anything at all. These two weren’t able to make a sound before they had their throats slit but when we let their bodies drop to the ground, the thuds drew attention and the other people in front of us started to turn around. They didn’t make it all the way around before dying. I stabbed the guy in front of me through the throat again since it worked so well the first time while Bertrand displayed his full power and chopped his guy’s head off with a huge swing of his sword. Unfortunately, my target didn’t die immediately and fell backwards, knocking into the people behind him before finally losing his strength and crumpling to the ground.

One of the people he fell back against is enraged and turns back while yelling, “What the fuck are you doing!? Why I oughta- What the fuck!? Behind us! Enem-!” He’s not able to finish his warning before his head goes flying too but he didn’t need to as shouts start to emanate from the huge crowd of people in front of us. We need to take advantage of our surprise attack as much as possible before they can get a hold of themselves. The people in front of me have turned around and they’re facing me now but all of them look terrified and no one wants to volunteer themselves to take care of me. If there’s no volunteers then don’t mind me choosing the one I want. I specifically aim for the smallest and weakest looking one in the crowd, a young lad with short brown hair and dash toward him, his eyes going wide in panic. Sorry, nothing against you, you just looked like the easiest one to kill. He tries to slash at me horizontally when I run at him but he shut his eyes before swinging his sword and didn’t realize I stopped myself outside of his range. His swing goes wide and actually cuts the person next to him. Before he can open his eyes and realize he hurt his friend, I plunge my sword through his chest, aiming for his heart. His eyes pop open and there’s a horrible look of pain on his face as he tries to pull my sword out of his chest. I yank the blade out before he gets the chance and he falls forward, landing on his face and breathing his last breath. His death terrifies the people around him and instead of charging at me and surrounding me with their numbers, they back up instead and bump into the people behind them, eliciting curses from the people further back. Hmm, this seems familiar for some reason. Ahh, I see. I remember seeing this before. But it wasn’t bandits warring against each other. No, it was Ribierian soldiers tearing through farmers who were pretending to be soldiers themselves as they cowered in fear. But this time I’m a bandit tearing through civilians pretending to be bandits as they cower in fear. How ironic. Maybe this is destiny since I didn’t want to be on the wrong end of the sword ever again.

Bertrand and I have free reign on these bandits since none of them try to create a united front and we take full advantage of that. We tear through dozens of them and there’s still no response from whoever’s in charge here. Step forward with a stab, be careful not to get cut by the ones around my target, and then pull back once you've made contact. It doesn't get much easier than this when no one’s willing to come forward to fight me and they’re content with sacrificing whoever I target next. As long as it’s not them, right? I guess all of them are goons or grunts since not one of them is willing to step up and lead the counterattack. I’m even starting to think we’ll win this whole fucking war right here when I hear someone thunderously bellowing from the back, “What the fuck are you useless simpletons doing!? It’s two people! One of them’s a fucking child! Where the fuck have all your balls gone!? Surround them! Surround them and slowly kill them with a hundred fucking cuts if all of you are too fucking afraid of fighting them!”

There’s a change in the atmosphere. The looks on these guys’ faces have instantaneously morphed from fear and panic to hatred and loathing towards the two of us. Holy shit what a dramatic change. I guess that’s what having a leader means. A person whose sole purpose in a fight is to get the whole group back to their normal selves and focuses all of them on one single purpose: our deaths. The group in front of us, who truly do look like Midriver’s Finest at this moment, start spreading themselves out on our left and right and slowly creep towards Bertrand and me. It’s like they’re casting a fishing net and we’re the fish. If they surround us though, that’ll be the end of us. Bertrand knows this and nudges me on the shoulder before turning around and running. I’m right behind him as we make our way back to the alleyway we came out from. “Don’t fucking let them get away! I want their fucking heads in my hands! 1 gold coin for the boy’s head and 10 gold coins for Bertrand’s! Get ‘em boys!” Reed shouts after us and I can hear booming cheers from behind us. Oh fuck.

If they were slow before when they were trying to encircle us, they’re fucking fast as all hells now as they’re chasing after us without any regard for their own lives. You fucking greedy assholes. I get it though. 10 gold coins is a crazy amount of money. Hells, if this were any other situation, I’d fucking think about it too. When we got into the alleyway, Bertrand spun himself around with me doing the same right beside him. “This is gonna be a long fucking day Isaac. Your endurance and stamina will be put to the test. Any last words you want to tell me if you don’t make it out of this?”

I can tell by the grin on his face he’s messing with me. I smile back at him and chuckle, “No I’m good. Just tell me where you keep your coins and I’ll spend them in your memory when I get out of this.” The both of us share a laugh as we wait for the first of Reed’s men to reach our alley. When they get there, we throw ourselves at them before the rest of them can catch up and drop them to the ground, bleeding out, before spinning ourselves around and running off.

It really is a test of my endurance like Bertrand said. For hours we run throughout the entertainment district, darting in and out of alleys as we try our fucking best to buy as much time as we can. We might be able to lose our pursuers if that was what we wanted to do but if we do that, they’ll just head back to the compound and keep trying to break through its gate and walls. No, this is the second part of Bertrand’s plan and also the part I found the dumbest. After we ambush Reed’s men from behind, we’ll lead them on a huge chase through the city and keep most of his men occupied to stall as long as possible for Derriv and his men to get back. The streets and roads ahead of us are empty as the ordinary citizens seem to understand there’s a gang war happening in the city. Perhaps they saw Reed’s men marching to our compound this morning and decided to stay indoors today. At least it makes what we need to do easier.

I have a newfound respect for Reed and his men. Even after nightfall, they’re still relentlessly and tirelessly chasing us down while I’m starting to wear out. Right now we’re running through the slums which is already difficult during the day with how the streets and buildings are erratically placed but it’s nearly impossible to navigate at night without Bertrand guiding me from the front. Turning to look over my shoulder, I can see Reed’s men shining their brightstones on our backs as they run after us. This is not good. Even if we killed quite a number of them as they chased us, their numbers don’t look like they’ve dwindled at all. In fact, it looks like there’s more of them chasing us now than before. How!?