"I hate this."

Taula cursed as the three girls ran down an alleyway that was dark.

Her boots slammed against the uneven cobblestones, splashing through shallow puddles of stagnant water and kicking up bits of loose gravel.

The damp, foul-smelling air of the narrow passage clung to her skin, carrying the stench of rotting garbage and wet stone.

She was quite annoyed.

Her brow furrowed deep beneath her mask with her hands clenching into tight fists as her arms pumped back and forth.

After all, why were people so dumb? Why did they feel the need to attack them while they were just trying to go home? 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

’All these people are dumb,’ Taula thought. ’Why can’t they be like Klaus?’

However, she flinched after thinking that.

Her boots scraped against the stone with her momentum faltering for a fraction of a second as the thought crossed her head.

A strange, heavy pressure pressed against her temples making the shadows of the alleyway warp and twist at the edges of her vision.

’If Klaus is everybody...’ Taula thought.

She turned her head to the right to look at Mirela, who was running right beside her with her dark cloak flapping in the wind.

But instead of the familiar cat mask, the space beneath the hood blurred.

Flesh bubbled and reshaped itself in an instant and Taula saw Klaus’s head there. His exact features with his exact stoic expression staring right back at her from Mirela’s shoulders.

Taula flinched with a cold sweat breaking out across her neck as the Klaus-head on Mirela’s body opened its mouth.

"No headpats," The head told her and panic gripped Taula’s chest.

She whipped her head away and turned to Serra, who was running on her right. Serra’s staff tapped rhythmically against the ground as her big breasts bounced heavily with every frantic step she took but the horror did not stop.

The space above Serra’s neck blurred into a fleshy smear, and then Klaus’s head formed atop her shoulders. The face turned to face Taula with a wide smile that stretched too far across his cheeks.

"No headpats ever again!" the second Klaus-head yelled.

Taula’s breath hitched and the air left her lungs in a sharp gasp.

She stopped running entirely as her boots skidded across the wet cobblestones with a harsh screech. Her hands flew up with her fingers digging into her own scalp.

The other two girls stopped their forward sprint. Their boots scraped against the stone as they pivoted, turning back to face her.

"What is wrong?" Serra asked though Taula still clutched her head.

Immediately, the sharp whistling shriek of an arrow zipped through the cold air. It descended from the darkness above tearing toward them while they were exposed in the alley.

Serra reacted with quick reflexes.

She stepped forward, driving the blunt end of her staff hard into the cobblestones and a ringing sound echoed off the brick walls as she tapped her staff on the ground, spreading a brilliant, blinding barrier of holiness around them.

The golden dome of energy flared into existence, illuminating the filthy alleyway in a harsh, bright light.

The arrow slammed into the curved surface of the golden dome and the holy magic sent the arrow spinning violently off its trajectory before the rune carved into its shaft activated.

It exploded as a massive concussive blast rattled the alley, puffing thick choking gray smoke everywhere and completely obscuring the brick walls.

When the thick smoke finally cleared, drifting away into the night sky, all three girls that were safely within the glowing barrier could see their attackers.

Two men were standing on a rooftop above with their silhouettes outlined by the moonlight smiling down at them with grins.

The men dropped down onto the ground in front of the barrier. Their boots hit the wet cobblestones with heavy wet thuds as their knees bent to absorb the impact.

The first one stood up to his full height.

He was a massive burly man with thick arms full of muscle and wrapped in leather armor. He cracked his knuckles.

"The three of you are really in for it now..." The burly man said with a nasty sneer curling his upper lip.

"What did you do to her?" Serra asked as her grip tightened on her staff.

The second man stepped forward. While the first one was a towering, buff guy, this one was lean and wearing a dark cloak.

"I am a Wizard apprentice," the cloaked man said, brushing a speck of dust from his sleeve. "I specialize in Illusions. I cast a spell on her that makes her see her worst fear."

He stepped closer to the golden barrier dragging a hand across his chin.

"If you want us to dispel the Illusions," The wizard continued. "you need to tell us where Heavenly Commoner is staying... Tell us where all of that wealth that he received from the Masked Man is."

The apprentice paused as his eyes dropping lower as he licked his lips with a sickening sheen of saliva catching the holy light of the barrier.

"Perhaps if you accompany us to bed, then I will spare your lives..." He said though behind his arrogant smirk, his mind was filled with bitter envy.

’Why the hell is that Commoner having a three course meal like this of beautiful women, even this one with big breasts?’ He thought with his eyes lingering on Serra’s figure. ’Both of us are commoners, so why are our lives different?’

Serra, on the other hand, sighed from behind her mask.

"You should fuck off," Serra said.

It was definitely not the proper words a Saintess Candidate should use, but did she care for it? Not at all and the Wizard apprentice sighed, lifting a hand and running it through his dark hair in mock disappointment.

"As you wish..." he said.

However, the very next instant, a concentrated, searing beam of golden light erupted from the tip of Serra’s staff. It shot forward, appearing directly in front of the wizard’s face like the heat of a burning star.

The burly man reacted entirely on instinct. He reached out, grabbing the wizard’s cloak with a massive fist, and threw him back violently.

"Get down!" the burly man shouted, throwing his companion backward toward the cobblestones.

The sudden movement saved the wizard’s life, but it placed the burly man directly in the path of the golden magic and the holy light hit the man right in the face.

The spell acted like a blowtorch against wet meat, burning straight through his right eye. The moisture of his eyeball boiled instantly, evaporating into a hiss of steam.

He grunted at first, his massive body staggering backward from the kinetic force of the beam then, a raw, guttural scream tore from his throat.

He lifted a massive, calloused hand to cover the ruined socket completely as the searing light stopped... Thick, boiling blood dripped between his fingers, sizzling as it hit the cold stone.

Serra let out a slow breath.

"I won’t miss the next time." She said without any pity and the burly man bared his teeth with his remaining eye bloodshot and wide with absolute rage.

"You fucking bitch," he roared, spitting a glob of blood onto the ground. "I’ll rip your head off!"

As Serra raised her staff higher from behind the safety of her magical barrier, a massive, concussive shockwave ripped through the alley.

The golden dome of her barrier suddenly shattered, breaking into countless shards of fading light that dissolved into the air.

The resulting backblast of wind made her blond hair whip violently in the wind.

She blinked, stumbling back half a step and beside her, Mirela did the same, raising one hand above her face to shield her eyes from the debris while using the other hand to firmly hold her mask in place, desperately trying to prevent her goat horns from coming out and exposing her identity.

The burly man blinked his one good eye, expecting to see the healer vulnerable. Instead, he only saw a blond-haired woman with crimson energy pouring out of her eyes, trailing through the air like bleeding smoke.

Taula moved with explosive speed, the cobblestones cracking beneath her boots as she closed the distance between her and him in a fraction of a second and the burly man panicked.

He raised his massive hand up defensively, trying to shield his face from the incoming assault; however, Taula bypassed his guard completely.

She lunged forward, extending her arm, and clapped her bare hand directly over his face. The impact sounded like a boulder dropping onto wet mud.

The force of her palm was cataclysmic. It felt like his face collapsed completely under the sheer physical pressure as bone gave way instantly, his jaw unhinged and snapped into a dozen fragments and his cheekbones splintered, driving jagged white shards of bone straight back into his brain pan.

Everything erupted.

Blood exploded outward in a massive radial spray, painting the brick walls and the wet alley floor in a thick coat of dark crimson.

His brain matter, chunks of gray tissue, and his remaining eyeball were pulverized. His skull was utterly destroyed, caving inward until the back of his head blew out from the sheer kinetic transfer.

The headless, ruined corpse stood frozen for a microscopic second before heavily collapsing to the cobblestones with a wet thud.

Taula landed on the ground, her boots splashing into the fresh puddle of gore.

The Wizard apprentice, still sprawled on the ground from being thrown, stared at the decapitated corpse of his partner.

Upon seeing this brutal carnage, his bladder released. He pissed himself as the warm orange liquid spreading all across the stone and mixing with the pooling blood.

Taula stood up straight as the crimson energy faded from her eyes. She raised both hands high into the air with her fingers completely coated in thick dripping gore.

"Yay!" Taula said cheerfully. "I can see again, and Klaus is no longer telling me no headpats!"

Serra sighed, lowering her staff as the immediate threat evaporated and Taula turned back to look at her companions, tilting her head to the side.

"Who did that to me?" she asked.

Serra silently raised her staff, using the glowing tip to point directly at the black-haired Wizard apprentice that was desperately trying to get on his feet.

Taula frowned as her cheerful demeanor dropped into a cold glare.

The man tried to turn around, scrambling his boots against the slippery stones, but he collapsed right back onto the ground.

When the burly man had thrown him to avoid getting hit by that golden beam of light, the impact had been severe.

As he hit the ground, his leg had twisted violently under his own weight and the bone was fractured with the joint swollen ensuring he could not stand.

He dragged himself backward on his elbows, then turned back at the girls with a pale face.

"Have mercy on me!" he begged them, his voice cracking into a high-pitched sob. "I’ll give you all of my money... everything I have... please don’t kill me!"

Taula walked over to him as her bloody boots left heavy red footprints on the stones. She stood over his pathetic form and looked down.

"Bring out everything that you have..." Taula told him flatly.

The man scrambled to obey, his shaking fingers reaching for his storage ring and a pulse of weak magic flared sending his worldly possessions spilling out onto the dirty stones. It was several heavy leather pouches of coins, clinking as they hit the ground.

"That is all I have," the man sobbed, pointing a trembling finger at the bags. "Those are my earnings for over the past four months that I have been savi—"

Immediately, Taula raised her leg. She brought down her heavy boot and stomped, crushing his face completely and brutally.

His nose flattened, his teeth shattered, and his skull cracked under the heavy tread. His body seized once, then went entirely limp.

Taula leaned down with her hands effortlessly scooping up the several pouches in her hands. She stood back up, ignoring the blood dripping from her soles, and smiled warmly at the other two girls.

"Let’s buy some stuff to cook with this!" Taula said with a wide smile as she ran over to rejoin them.

’I wonder if Klaus would be proud of the way I handled it,’ Taula thought cheerfully. ’I’ll tell him everything when he gets back!’

...

A small child walking down the quiet street with his mother stopped. He pulled his hand free from hers and looked up at the moonlit night.

He squinted against the darkness, only to see someone jumping high enough across the gap between two buildings to cast a massive shadow over his face.

It was a man in a cat mask, wearing a dark billowing black cloak.

The boy stared in awe, and for a brief second, he could swear that the man behind the mask was winking at him then, the cloaked figure descended, his boots hitting the clay tiles, and he landed on another building, vanishing from sight.

Klaus landed on the rooftop, the impact absorbed perfectly by his bent knees. He took a deep breath of the cold night air, letting it fill his lungs before pushing off the edge and taking off again, shooting through the air like a bullet fired from a gun.

’I wonder how the girls are doing?’ Klaus thought as the wind whipped past his ears.

Only two of the pursuers had broken off and gone after the girls. Given their combined strength, they should probably have killed them or something by now.

As for him, the remaining eight people that were chasing him were still hot on his tail.

He could hear the rapid thud of their boots on the rooftops behind him, the clinking of their weapons, and the harsh pants of their breath.

He hadn’t killed anyone yet... It wasn’t because he was feeling merciful; he was simply running a tactical route. He was actively trying to attract the city guards into the mix, planning to use the ensuing chaos to escape in the middle of all of it without leaving a trace.

As he soared over an alleyway, clearing a thirty-foot drop, one of the thugs behind him pushed his limits.

"Get over here, bitch!" the pursuer yelled out.

The man planted his feet on the edge of a chimney and threw a throwing knife directly at Klaus’s back and the blade was etched with an active glowing explosive rune.

Klaus didn’t even turn his head.

He felt the exact mass, velocity, and trajectory of the steel weapon screaming through the air toward his spine but his magnetic field was already active.

He gathered a concentrated pulse of repelling force and immediately reflected it back. The invisible wall of magnetism slammed into the flying blade, reversing its momentum entirely.

The knife shot backward at twice its original speed.

"Shit..." the guy said, his eyes widening in horror as the blade returned.

The knife impacted him right in the center of his forehead. The metal pierced bone, and a microsecond later, the rune detonated and he exploded.

A concussive boom rocked the rooftops, spraying thick chunks of meat, shattered bone, and a rain of blood everywhere across the shingles.

The grisly debris rained down into the streets below, hitting the pavement and making the civilians on the ground scream and run in absolute terror then, a sharp, piercing sound cut through the chaos of the night.

WOOO~

A heavy brass whistle sounded from the streets below.

Klaus smiled behind the cat mask with the corners of his mouth turning up as his boots touched down on the next roof.

"It’s finally time..." he said aloud.

He crouched low against the tiles and looked at some roofs in the distance. He could see armored figures rapidly closing the distance, people bouncing from roof to roof with heavy leaps that sent small shockwaves rippling across the shingles.

The Rivera City Guard was on the scene.