All of the pieces were in place for the next round of the play. Adelbern had acquiesced to my suggestions and informed the Inquisitors about my ‘visiting’ of one of my rogue contacts. No such visit was on the cards, the contact didn’t exist and his house was conveniently located in a dense, urban area that would afford me the best chance of winning against John. A nearby alleyway would give me the opportunity to split him from the main group and incapacitate him.

But not everything could be perfect. I had silently hoped for a deluge of rain beforehand, but no such downpour was forthcoming. The ground was dry and firm. That meant John could fully utilise the speed that Raiju provided him. The plan was simple. Tahar, Cali, Ryan and Jonell were going to keep the officers busy. Tahar was on overwatch with her bow – it was her job to make sure that they couldn’t pull any tricks on us.

The rest of the preparations were about what I expected. Weapons, armour, medical supplies. I hand-drew a map of the area so that the others could comprehend the strategy I was trying to construct. It was easy to convince them that I had to handle John alone. It wouldn’t be the last time I’d lie to the only people I could realistically call allies.

And thus, we departed that chilly morning with a firm resolution. It was make or break time. Holding back against John was going to make the situation harder than it should have been. I agreed with Adelbern – John should have learnt his lesson the last time and got out of the city. Since he wasn’t going to do that, I needed to force him to.

Burgeon’s Avenue was a comparatively long and wide street that ran through one of the poorer districts in the city. Without formal planning, the surrounding constructions combined to entangle people in a fiendishly complicated web of dead ends and harsh corners. It was perfect for our purposes. There were few watchmen around to interfere with the fight, it was convincing enough for a layperson to believe that a rogue contact would be here (a more experienced investigator would tell you that they’re all in the bars and taverns,) and it provided a lot of ground for Tahar to cover without having to drop down.

She had complete free range to move where she pleased, leaping from roof to roof using her powerful legs and claws. Containing their movements was going to be essential to our success. I wanted John to be alone so I could conceal my real intent. The others would be in hiding until the Inquisitors sprung their trap, a trap which Adelbern had predicted with a frightening level of accuracy. Even if he hadn't told me the exact junction they had set themselves up on, I could have easily figured it out for myself. It was the most obvious location to conceal a small group of people.

For that matter, I could already see one of them peering around the damn corner as I approached.

On my back left there was another entryway. I could see someone lurking inside, because low-light areas were of little concern to me now that I had Stigma’s power. The moment I passed it by and prepared to face them head-on, they sprung their ‘trap.’ I stepped to the side and easily dodged the overhead swing that the person within had launched at me.

My arm shot out, grabbed them by the collar, and I flung them as hard as I could across the road. Their arms and legs flailed as they soared through the air like a chucked stone, finally rolling to a stop at John’s feet. John’s two bodyguards froze in place as they realised that their initiative stealing ambush had fallen flat. John was at the head of the pack, holding Ryan’s sword like his life depended on it.

“I thought we already scared you lot off? You’ve got a deathwish trying this again.”

“My dedication to what’s right is unceasing.”

I laughed; “Really? That’s why you robbed my acquaintance? I didn’t realise that stealing from the infirm was righteous, but I suppose I learn new things every day.”

That ruffled a few feathers. The dog called Joseph tugged at his master’s leash and started barking back, “For the sake of protecting the lives of others, we will do as needed! Besides, any associate of yours is surely bereft of merit!”

I reached back and drew Stigma, “Right. Unlike me, he’s a pretty nice guy. But you’re so blinded by your prejudices that you pretend to know everything about him. Makes the guilt go away easier, I guess.” I badly wanted to spike the ball and make them feel every bit the bundle of fools that they were, but blowing Adelbern’s cover wasn’t to my benefit.

Sensing that something violent was about to go down, the few residents in the way quickly made themselves sparse by diving into whatever open doorway they could find. One second I was facing down John with my fangs bared, the next there was nothing but a cloud of dust where he once stood. I put Stigma up just in time to block the stab from penetrating my chestplate. John had moved so fast that I didn’t even perceive it. Was this really the power of Raiju in action?

I kicked him away and snapped my fingers. Jonell, Tahar and Ryan leapt outwards from the junction behind the officers. Things rapidly devolved into an all-out brawl as the flat-footed Inquisitors were attacked out of the blue. I had to trust Tahar to keep them alive. The Inquisitors were not foes to be taken lightly, despite my frequent insults. John’s face was turning red as his blood pressure spiked.

“What? How did you…”

“I knew you were going to do something like this. So, I brought a few friends to make things fair.”

His face darkened, “Adelbern.”

That shocked me. John was more paranoid than I expected. He was right on the money, but I couldn’t let him keep thinking that. I put on my best acting chops and responded with a crack.

“Who the fuck is Adelbern? You’re fighting me. I’ll be taking that sword back now.”

“Over my dead body!”

“That can be arranged.”

John reset his footing and prepared to strike at me again. Raiju was even faster than I had anticipated from Ryan’s description of it, and to give that kind of edge to anyone with a basic level of sword training too! This was the full power of a legendary weapon, one with all of the history and awe to go with it. I could feel my hair standing on end as it drew close to me.

The sight of a fireball flying towards his allies was the cue he needed to try again. In a flash he was on top of me, swinging from the side to try and cut into my neck. I blocked that, but some tricky footwork and sleight of hand allowed him to come back with a follow up swing at my left arm. There was nothing I could do but take the hit. John was frustrated by the chainmail and scale that lay beneath the cotton overlayer, but it still drew blood.

I took the chance to grab him by the neck and pull him into the alleyway with me. I needed to constrain his movement as soon as possible, or I’d suffer from a flurry of blows that my high HP pool would wither in the face of. I had to trust that the rest of my crew could take on the rest of the Inquisitors without me. We tumbled through a stack of wooden crates and into a nearby courtyard. John kicked out at me with his legs, trying to separate us. I wasn’t going to let him get away so easily – I pummelled him in the stomach with the hilt of my sword and stole the wind from his lungs. I followed up by striking his ribs with a knee.

John finally earned purchase on the dusty ground beneath us and pushed away, using his superior speed to open a small gap between us. He knew that letting me hit him was a losing strategy. I could break his bones like toothpicks with very little effort, he didn’t know that I was holding back. That knee may have ended things then and there had I put more strength into it. Adelbern’s warning kept blaring in the back of my mind. Keep him alive.

“You’re a sour bastard!” I cried with gnashing teeth, “Trying to kill Cali is low.”

“She’s an accomplice!”

“You’re full of shit! All this crap about corruption – she hasn’t changed one bit since we met!”

Not negatively, anyway.

“And who are you to make that judgement?”

“Who are you to make that judgement? You don’t know a thing about her. You’re so hopped up on what the boss tells you that you never stop to consider how much of a cold-blooded killer you are. All that innocent blood is on your hands, you damned fool.”

“I won’t be lectured by a gutter drinking thief like you!”

I had foolishly believed that this would be simple, but in the heat of the moment I was starting to discover how hard it was to not kill someone in a swordfight. I couldn’t risk hitting him once with the sharp end. I needed to let him escape while getting Raiju back. My first two hits had landed solidly, and John was already starting to sense that things weren’t going to go his way. Not unless he did something stupid.

We were in a standoff. I stood back and waited for John to make the next move, but he didn’t want to. He was apprehensive about getting too close to me. An old warrior like him had too much experience to make a basic mistake like that after being punished for it once already. He needed to use Raiju’s speed to his advantage, but the courtyard we were in didn’t give him the same runup and the main avenue.

It turned out that ‘something stupid’ was exactly what he planned to do.

John pressed into the ground with his back foot and lunged at me with the full power of Raiju’s enhancement ability. He disappeared from sight and materialised in front of me, swiping upwards using one arm to try and catch me off-guard. I barely had time to react. A glint of steel clipped my brow and left a long, shallow cut. The only reason I didn’t get slashed fully was because I was already moving before he started his attack. It was only a moment later when I heard a loud crack that I understood what he had done.

He cried out in pain and almost dropped it to the floor, but his other unused arm swept across and took it in a backwards grip. His other arm dangled loosely from its socket, having been dislocated from the force of the motion. I was struck so speechless by his attempt that I didn’t even have the wherewithal to counterattack. John danced back and tried to bear the pain.

“You’re crazy. You’re going to kill yourself fighting like that!” Him being the author of his own demise was the one thing I had not predicted when we started this plan.

John grimaced, “What does it matter to you? For the sake of all the young lives you’ve stolen – I’ll put my own on the line to finally put an end to this!”

“You’ve already wasted one of your shots, you cock!”

“Then the next one shall land true.”

There was no more hesitation. I wasn’t ready for it. Right as the last words left his mouth, I felt something slide clean through the middle-left of my chestplate, before coming out of the other side. I yelped in pain as it caught onto something sensitive. John staggered back without the sword in his hands – as he no longer had a functioning arm to hold it. How the hell did he do that? I looked down to see the hilt jutting outwards from my stomach.

“Fuck… you…” I fell back onto the dirt as the strength left my legs. If I wasn’t benefitting from the health boost of Stigma, the attack would have surely killed me in one blow. John was as shocked as I was to see it land so cleanly. His head snapped back to the open escape route, his mouth opening and wheezing out a cry for help.

“Joseph! Joseph!”

He couldn’t finish me off, both of his arms had been broken.

My heart sunk even deeper as I saw a figure emerge from around the corner. Joseph had somehow escaped from the main fight and gotten here. What the hell was going on over there? I tried to push myself away and to safety, but I simply couldn’t propel my body without my lower limbs. My fingers sunk into the mud as I heaved myself further back and closer to the wall.

“Sir, what happened?”

“Finish him off Joseph, he’s injured!”

Joseph’s mind scrambled for purchase. His gaze fell upon me in a mad panic. He didn’t have time to worry about the consequences of his Master’s sacrifice. He needed to kill me there and then, before I had a chance to pull any more tricks. He drew a dagger from his belt and charged towards me, intending to plunge it into my skull. There was going to be no coming back from that. Could Stigma save me? Could she drive a dark spike into him in time? She wasn’t there. I couldn’t reach her.

There was only one thing I could think of. I roared with everything I had left, “Tahar!”

Thwap.

Everything slowed to a crawl. From the left edge of my vision I saw a great bolt emerge from the darkness. An arrow bound with red feathers and topped with a sharpened stone head. It pirouetted through the air with a dangerous wobble, vibrating rapidly as the powerful air pulled on it from above and below.

Joseph never saw it coming. With the accuracy and speed of a bullet it struck him in the arm, releasing a bloom red flower and sending him spiralling off balance, into the nearest solid surface with a heavy thud. His body fell to the ground as he cradled the new injury with a groan of pain. It had broken clean through his limb and stabbed him in the ribcage.

Tahar had shot him.