While running after the two men, Nick tried to plan out his next actions, but he didn’t manage to think of anything yet when he arrived at the end of the alley. After carefully turning left, he heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the two deputy elders slowly making their way down the street hundred fifty, hundred seventy meters in front of him.

Nick’s heart was still beating fast. He didn’t feel anything from killing those five men. Similarly to the grand elder, they were his mother’s killers and mass murderers as well. The new project of the Holy Order seemed to be even scarier than any other Nick had heard of – they were trying to make weaker minded people addicts and kill them off all in one month by making the people kill themselves.

He couldn’t even imagine how sick in the head one had to be to make a plan like this, but he knew who those people were. Apparently after the grand elder’s death, some previously existing restrictions had come loose and Holy Order started attacking the rest of the world more freely.

While slowly following, Nick finally managed to calm down. It was still before midnight and he had time till noon when “Queen Elizabeth” would set sail towards the Eastern continent. There were only two options – the deputy elders will stay in some inn or leave the city immediately. He didn’t like the first option, but the second was even worse – Nick had no idea how to deal with two Qi masters in the open. On the other hand, he couldn’t just let them go – who knows how many people will die if these two were left alive.

With all these thoughts in mind, he noticed they arrived in suburbs. Ravi, similar to the other southern cities, in contrast to Aurora, had a city wall and, obviously, city gates. The city walls here were more symbolic as the height of four meters couldn't hold back a real invasion, but as a rule – the closer the city was to the Sand kingdom, the higher it’s walls became. Ravi was relatively safe and had a decent size army garrisoned nearby as well.

Both men in the red robes made a turn and it was evident they didn’t plan to leave the city through the gates. Nick sped up a little just to notice them both scaling the city wall in the speed of lightning and then jumping down on the other side.

Nick didn’t have other option as to follow their example. Although he didn’t use the same place, he crossed the wall twenty, thirty meters to the left, while the few sleepy guards on the wall didn’t notice anything.

When he landed on the other side, Nick saw two silhouettes few hundred meters further away disappearing into the night. The two deputies seemed to be in a hurry after leaving the city and have started running.

When it concerned running, Nick never lacked confidence. Despite those two being Qi masters, they still had to breathe heavier and make louder steps as well, therefore it was less likely for him to get spotted. The sky was clear and, even if it was not a full moon, it shined brightly over the city.

While running, Nick tried to figure out his situation, ‘If the moon is currently behind me, it should be easier for me to see them, but not for them to notice me, right? It was definitely so with the sun, but does it work at night this way as well? Or at night it is the other way around?’

Be as it may, they ran for three whole hours. With every minute Nick was getting more and more nervous, ‘Normally even Qi masters would like to have a rest after an hour of running. Why these two are still going? Are they really in such a rush? But they were walking in the city so leisurely. Did they spot me? Also, why aren’t they taking the road? What if there is a forest?’

There were too many questions and he couldn't answer any of them.

Only after another hour, the pair suddenly stopped. One of them turned back and loudly said, “Friend, you have been following us for so long! Why don’t you come up and chat?”

‘F*ck!’ The moment he saw two men stopping Nick dived to the side and stealthily tried to change his location.

When the deputy elder didn’t receive an answer he wasn’t discouraged, “Come on now, we already saw you jumping over the city wall. Why do you want to insist on hiding? You know, all of us are Qi masters here, why don’t we discuss things according to our status?”

‘Discuss my ass!’ Nick cursed while noticing that the opponent was still looking towards the spot he was previously at.

‘Is he pretending or the powder is still working? Anyway, I have to think of something!’

While Nick was wrecking his brains, the second deputy elder sat down and probably started to perform a Qi technique to replenish his strength.

‘Alright! There is a chance! As I thought the second one is from the alchemy division. If it’s one on one may be I can manage something. I’ll try out that move.’ Nick slowly approached the two silhouettes.

Back then when he asked master Marozzo guidance on his Wakizashi style, old man gave him an unexpected advice.

He said, “This is why I wanted you to practice sword – you are too honest! The dagger is cheap, vicious and devious weapon. Your style lacks exactly these properties the same way the old man’s from the Rollen family style lacked. In many ways you think like those silk-pants from aristocratic families – you want your moves to be effective, but beautiful and fair at the same time. But wielding a weapon is about killing and killing is always brutal and ugly, even if you kill a mass murderer or a rapist. Therefore you have to learn how to use the most brutal and vicious moves while still maintaining a clear and cunning mind. And when you make a move, it always has to be an attack to kill or at least permanently cripple. That is how you fight with a dagger. Not only you have to be fast, you have to aim for the spots no one expects, and you have to cut deep. Well, the last part is already set because of your peculiar weapon, but you understand what I mean.”

That lecture was a real eye opener for a pacifist like Nick. The old man was right, if he had to pull out a weapon, he did it to kill and the reasons and the process didn’t matter – only the result. Therefore, while watching palace guards spar on the training grounds, he tried to visualize how to kill or cripple them in one move most effectively. The first few times he tried this exercise it literally made him sick. But he managed to pull himself together with more practice.

And now was the first time he had to fight face to face for real and with two much stronger opponents at the same time. Nick fixed his cloak so his face couldn’t be seen clearly and took out an ornamented ceremonial sword he bought in a marketplace back in Aurora. He now looked like some aristocrat Qi sword master with a beautiful weapon, but tried to stay hidden for some reason. He took the sword in the left hand as if he was lefty, and readied his right to take out Wakizashi at any moment. Then stood up and walked towards the two deputy elders. Nick didn’t want to waste time and let them both recover Qi too much.

“Oh, I didn’t think we would be followed by a lady!” The Qi sword master loudly said. One could hear in his voice he was smiling.

Nick didn’t mind at all that the deputy elder took him for a woman. In fact, it might even turn out to be an advantage if the arrogant man underestimated him. Although it might look like he was focused on the Qi sword master, he kept the alchemy specialist in his eyes as well – the latter might be even more dangerous if left alive.

“What were you doing in Ravi city?” Nick decided to probe whether he was really found out only when he jumped over the city wall.

“Hahaha, what an ugly voice for a woman! Since you don’t know why we were there and I don’t like your voice, why don’t you just die?” The deputy elder laughed and unsheathed his sword as Nick came closer. The sudden change in attitude didn’t seem to bother him at all.

While covering the distance of these couple hundred meters, Nick tried to regulate his breathing as well as the Qi flow. He was sure the other side was doing the same.

Some years ago Zia quoted her mother saying, “Fights between experts are decided in an instant.” Nick very much agreed to it. Although he didn’t have any fighting experience, he realized that one sword slash could and should be deadly. And for an expert one sword slash was all they needed.

While nearing closer, Nick could see the faces of both deputy elders in the moonlight, but he didn’t try to recognize them or think of anything other than visualize the next move in his head.

When he was about three meters away from the Qi sword master, he stopped for a moment, and then they both moved at the same time.

Nick made a slash-like move from left to right with his left hand and at the end threw the ornamented sword into opponents face and, when the other party got surprised for a split second while parrying the loose sword, he already dived down, slashed below the swordsman's knee and made a roll to the side diagonally towards the deputy elder from alchemy department who was still sitting and recovering his Qi. The pupils of the deputy elder contracted when Nick got up from his roll on one knee and slashed horizontally again, but this time at the neck of the second elder.

It might seem like many actions were performed, but, in fact, Nick did all of this in one fluent move. And when the head of the alchemy Qi master left his shoulders and blood sprayed in Nick’s face, an agonizing wail resounded through the night plains.

The Qi sword master with a look of disbelief on his face tried to balance himself on his left leg as his right was neatly cut off below the knee and blood was gushing out like a waterfall. Despite the pain he tried to jump towards Nick and swung the sword at him, but the latter rolled away again with a smirk on his blood covered face.

After the roll Nick immediately stood up, took few quick steps back and replaced his dagger with a nice black bow from his wristband. While putting an arrow in it and pulling back the string, he asked, “How is the elder Sonor doing? Still blaming himself for elder Jan loosing his arm?”

“What? How?” The deputy elder even forgot his pain for a second when he herd that question, but this split second was what Nick was trying to get. He shot the arrow right through the Qi sword master’s left kneecap. Even though it was dark night, it was almost impossible for Nick to miss from such short distance.

The man fell down with another painful wail but Nick already pointed the next arrow at his sword arm. There was no reason to take any chances now when he had already won.

After he nailed the arm to the ground, Nick quickly jumped over and cut off the second deputy elder’s head as well. Then dropped down on his knees right next to the headless body and started to vomit. When there was nothing left in his stomach, Nick continued to spasm for almost ten minutes.

This time it was too much for him. The bodies he cut in halves in the warehouse and now cutting off the leg and then both heads was way too revolting and the scent from the foreign blood on his face made it even worse.

‘Why do people need to be like this? I hate it so much!’ Was the last thing he thought before passing out.