章 10: ch.10
It was a dark stormy night-okay, well it was night and it just started raining as my feet led me through the back alleys of Macau and away from the alley containing the half dead and paralyzed bodies of Satchi and Quan.
An almost invisible shimmer in my peripheral vision lets me know that the skintight shield that I had conjured to keep the rain out was doing its work.
A waste of soul-energy, you say?
-Perhaps- but it kept me from getting wet and sick, especially considering that I didn't have a jacket and was wearing clothes meant for the summer heat. Not that it cost me all that much soul-energy to keep the shield up, however in exchange for its low expenditure the shield was all but useless in keeping out anything more than the rain.
"Get them!"
I had just finished patting myself on the back for a job well done when I heard the ruckus coming from an alleyway I was passing by. Glancing inside I blink as 2 for lack of a better word goons walk up to 3 teenagers, 2 boys and a girl.
The goons were of chinese descent looked to be in their mid-twenties, and had cheap black suits on. They were both so unassuming that the only way to tell them apart was by their hairstyles as in one had a ponytail and the other was completely bald.
Behind them the head goon(I'm guessing) was leaning back against the alley wall, smoking a cigarette. He was older than the other two, mid 30s to early 40s, unlike the other two his suit was more to the expensive end of the scale. He was also at the moment giving a cliche villain speech.
"-me and my boys are done with you two we will give that little lady something to scream about, maybe then that boss of yours will finally learn her place."
"Not even in your dreams, you ugly bastard!" The girl sneered angrily from behind the boys, looking nauseated at the very thought.
The teens on the other hand couldn't look more different from their adversaries, they were again for lack of a better word hoodlums. The boys were both lanky, scruffy and clearly was holding a wooden baseball bat and the other was empty handed, they were in their mid and late-teens respectively.
The girl was as scruffy and tough looking as the boys with smudged cheeks and all, she had short blonde hair and was about the same age as the younger boy.
From what I could make out of the head goon's monologue when I was actually paying attention, the teens were part of a small time gang that was having a dispute with a bigger and more powerful gang, going by the clothes that the goons were wearing. No small gang is going to have goons wearing suits.
Taking hold of his groin the bald goon smiles at the girl, showing off his missing front teeth,"I'm sure you sucked enough of these in your time as a street rat," he said vulgarly, making the other two laugh.
"Don't you talk about Mili like that you fucker," the younger boy screams before rushing the bald goon with his baseball bat held high. The older boy follows suit rushing the other goon before they can gang up on the younger boy and overwhelm him.
I shake my head if this was a novel and every one of those teens were a main character I still wouldn't put any money on them. The goons were twice their sizes and unlike the teens they looked to be trained in martial arts.
If you combine that with how unconcerned the head goon appeared to be. There was really only one conclusion you could arrive at, those teens were about to get their asses kicked.
Mili as the girl's name turned out to be, rolls her eyes but smiles anyway at the younger boy defending her honor. Taking a closer look I saw the worry that she was trying to hide shine through, she didn't believe that this would end well for them.
'I can make use this'
I was just wondering how to further spread my influence and get both more souls and money now that I was done fulfilling my revenge. The money that I stole from that rich douchebag wasn't going to last much longer with how I was spending it. I needed a stable way of making money and I knew just the method to do so but for it to work I needed some help.
Asking Fang and his group for help this time wouldn't work, they just don't have the connections required to do what I'm planning and this gang clearly has, if a bigger more powerful gang is trying to take them out.
It didn't take long for my prediction to come true, while the older boy was holding his own against his opponent, the younger boy was clearly struggling against his own.
A left jab to the face dazes the kid long enough to let the bald goon get his hands on the baseball bat, it's all downhill from there.
Without the baseball bat the kid's chances went from winning with a lucky hit to absolute nill. Now would have been a good time to step in if I was a hero that wanted to save them for selfless reasons - which I obviously wasn't - so I watched on as the kid got his ass kicked.
What people don't want to acknowledge is that most of the time humans are puppets controlled by their emotions. If I were to save them now without them being in desperate straits, their pride wouldn't allow them to admit it. They would make up excuses like they had it under control or how they could have handled it themselves.
I wasn't about to let my 'hard' work go to waste, by saving them too early.
"Kai!" Mili screams after seeing the younger boy go down from a baseball bat to the head.
'Ouch that had to hurt, yep he is bleeding'
The older boy gets distracted by Mili's scream and gets a kick to the stomach in response before he can retreat.
The bald goon ignores the bleeding body of his unconscious opponent and goes to help his partner with the older boy, who had finally successfully retreated to Mili's side and was watching the body of Kai with rage in his eyes.
"Mili get Kai," he said, his voice an angry calm, "try to stop the bleeding!"
As Mili begins running to Kai, the bald goon goes to intercept her before the head goon stops him,"Leave her, take care of the other bastard first."
I know what you're thinking, the rage of seeing his relative maybe even brother laying there with a small pool of blood surrounding his head will give the older boy the willpower and strength required to defeat his opponents.
Unfortunately for him, this wasn't that kind of story.
While it was impressive that he held his ground for so long against someone both older and better trained than himself, fighting two people on the same level as yourself wasn't as simple as 1+1, it was a multiplier.
He stood no chance.
There were just too many attacks coming from two different sides to dodge or defend against everything, he just didn't have enough hands and feet. It also didn't help that the teamwork of the goons was impeccable, they had obviously fought together before.
A hard kick to the stomach leaves him on his knees retching - and that is my cue -. I wanted him conscious to see everything and be grateful for saving their asses, furthermore someone had to carry Kai after this was all done and it sure as hell wasn't going to be me.
"Useless fucking street rats," the ponytailed goon utters while stepping on the face of the older boy, "This is where you belong under our feet!"
I consider putting on an illusion but in the end decide against it, if this plan of mine is going to work I need to be myself, that is if I don't want to live under an illusion 24/7. The street cred I'm about to receive also won't hurt.
Walking into the alley I whistle, making everyone pause and look at me in surprise.
"Go away kid, this is none of your business," the head goon says shooing me away with his hands like I'm a stray cat.
Because of my clothes and how clean I was, he probably thought that I was just a kid wandering around at night instead of another street rat that belonged under their feet like the other goon had so nicely put it.
"I was just walking down the street when I heard your comment about street rats and felt the need to correct you."
"And what is that?" The ponytailed goon asks mockingly.
"Well to start with we aren't all useless," the magic arrow I had been preparing since leaving my hiding place blinked in existence in front of me and shot in the direction of the ponytailed goon before anyone could react.
The red arrow made-up entirely out of magic hits, or rather goes right through the goons chest and blasts a piece out of the alley wall behind him, right next to where the head goon was leaning, before disappearing.
Wow that is a lot more powerful than I was expecting. I just wanted to copy the protagonist of The Gamer, didn't he need to make the spinning magic arrow because the normal one was too weak?!
Everyone in the alley(at least those conscious) stare in shock as a hole the size of an adult's fist takes shape in the chest of the goon. Not that I could fault them, even I didn't expect it to be so powerful or so fast for that matter. If I had blinked I would have missed it entirely.
"*Drip* *Cough* *Splatter*"
For a few seconds no one said anything as blood and gore continued to leak from the hole in the goon's chest and unto the alley floor.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, the goon lets out one last painfilled whimper while looking down at the hole in his chest before dropping down dead, as people tend to be when missing a good chunk of their internal organs.
Mili lets out a little shriek before clapping her hands over her mouth, she looks away from the corpse of the goon and to me, fearing that I was about to kill her too for her little outburst. I roll my eyes at her in response.
"He is a super!" The bald goon shouted, stating the obvious for everyone to hear. His voice and eyes were both full of terror.
I don't blame him, 'supers' as people have started calling those with powers, are either Villains or mercenaries(killers for hire) around here. The few Heroes that already existed this early were all mostly under the Chinese government's control.
"I can see that dumbass," the head goon who's cigarette had fallen out his mouth in shock, gritted out,"kill him before he uses another of those things!"
The goon hesitates - a smart decision - after seeing me blow a hole in his partner's chest, but not seeing me ready another magic arrow he comes to the faulty conclusion that I can't, at least not yet, and charges me hoping to kill me before I kill him.
I, of course could just conjure more magic arrows, however I already had super strength and tough skin might as well get some use out of them besides torture. It will also help with my street cred, those kids are going to tell their boss everything that they see here today therefore it's better that I show their boss how hopeless fighting me is before the thought even enters her mind.
I don't actually know how to fight outside of throwing some basic punches, having never trained in any martial arts but if I was betting I would still put my money on the kid with super strength and tough skin.
It takes the goon less than 5 seconds to close the distance between us, he had even grabbed the baseball on his way from where it was laying. His arm muscles bulge from under his suit jacket as he strains himself and swings right at my head with all his strength.
Instead of ducking or sidestepping which I'm too slow for - note to self: get superspeed - I just stand there and let him hit me.
"*BANG!*" "*SNAP!*"
The moment the baseball bat comes in contact with my face it explodes in a thousand little pieces from the force behind it.
Looking in the goon's dazed eyes I touch my left cheek,"...ouch."
Grabbing hold of his right arm that was still holding the grip of the baseball bat, I squeeze until I hear it snap like dry wood. Dread and horror fills the goon as he flails against me trying everything in his power to get away, unfortunately for him I'm almost a hundred times stronger than him.
Winding my right arm back, I punch him in the side right in the liver. I feel his bones break and organs explode around my fist - must have used a little too much strength there - retrieving my hand from the indent in his body, I shake it off in disgust.
'Eeew!'
The goon starts bleeding out all his orifices and his blank eyes look up at nothing. The shock of the blow had killed him instantly, my grip on his broken arm was the only thing keeping him on his feet.
"*BANG!*"
Feeling something impact the body of the goon, I almost drop it from the unexpected force. Looking around the body I see that while I was distracted with the bald goon that the head goon had retrieved a gun from somewhere.
Keeping the corpse upright using my strength, I huddle behind it. I'm 90% sure that I'm bulletproof to low calibers handguns - Another bullet hits the corpse - but I'm not about to test that right now.
Putting a mana shield around myself, I tie it to a soul before letting the body of the goon fall. Seeing this the head goon takes his chance and shoots me two more times, center mass, both bullets bounce off my shield. The shield won't break until all the soul-energy from the soul I tied it to gets depleted, which won't happen anytime soon.
Those two bullets took such a miniscule amount of soul-energy that I could stand here and let him shoot me all day and he still wouldn't break the barrier before the soul regenerated its soul-energy.
Taking my time, I swagger slowly up to him. This is mostly for the benefit of the teens that are still watching from the side. If there is one thing I learned from watching movies, it is to always start a negotiation in a position of power and nothing says power like walking up to a man shooting at you with no care in the world.
Before I reach him, he runs out of bullets and fumbles in his pockets for a new clip. I honestly don't know what he is hoping to accomplish with this new clip that his old one couldn't.
He must have had the same thought because after a moment he stops fumbling and starts threatening me. Not the smartest thing to do to someone that just killed two of your men but no one accused disposable muscle of being bright.
"Do you know who I work for,"
"Nope," I pop the p to show him how interested I was in his threats, bad guys always start naming their backers at times like these. I wonder - do they all take some sort of cliché lines of hired thugs 101 seminar or does it just come naturally to them?
"My boss Faizul, is a powerful man," he continues while backing away from me, ignoring my counsel on how much I care, "if you kill me he won't let you go."
I pause, that is going to be a problem. I don't want to spend my days fighting thugs of a mob boss.
"I see you heard of him," he smiles nastily, misinterpreting my pause of contemplation for fear, "It isn't too late, you're powerful if you come work for me all is forgiven."
"Hmm, what about the men that I killed?" I ask him, not that I was considering working for him but you can learn a lot about someone from what sort of underlings they have.
"They are trash, they don't matter."
"Trash," I parrot still walking up to him, "working for someone that calls his dead men trash doesn't seem like a good sane decision, I pass."
"You pass?" he asks incredulously, he is in so much disbelief that he doesn't even react when I finally reach him.
"Yep, I pass," I repeat before kicking his leg, making it snap the wrong way. I hate being short, it makes everything so much more difficult. The head goon screams and falls down in front of me, at last coming out of his trance.
"Why are you doing this," he asks sobbing from the pain as I reach for his neck.
"No reason really, you just had bad luck."
"You monst-"
"*SNAP!*"
Looking at the three corpses lying around the alley I wait for something...anything. I should be feeling something, disgust at myself for killing another human being or at the very least feel bad about it but in reality I feel nothing. They were bad people that had done bad things and would have continued doing bad things, good riddance.
I shrug and put it out of my mind, as long as I don't go around killing innocent people for fun I really don't care all that much.
Glancing at the teens. I frown as they flinch away from my gaze. Mili was sitting with the head of Kai in her lap, trying to put pressure on the wound on the side of his head. It didn't seem to be helping all that much, with it still bleeding profusely.
'I probably should do something about that before he dies'
As I take a step in their direction to heal him, the older boy goes to stand in front of the two. A split second of concentration and a look freezes him in his tracks, unable to move. Passing the paralyzed body of the older boy, I touch Kai's head under the distrustful yet fearful eyes of Mili.
I could have healed him from a distance but I wanted there to be no doubt that I was the one saving their friend.
It takes less than a second for the wound on the side of his head to clot and disappear entirely, not even leaving a scar to show that there ever was a gruesome wound there.
"Now how about you guys take me your boss before the cops get here," I tell them after releasing my spell on the older boy. I could already hear the sirens in the distance slowly making their way here.
'What a shitty response time, this city really is fucked up'
"What about Kai, can you wake him up?" Mili asks, concerned because while his wound was gone Kai hadn't woken up.
I reach out as if I'm about to touch him again, and slap him in the face instead - hard. I wasn't about to waste soul-energy to wake him up.
Jumping upright Kai looks around groggily and confused, "Wha-"
"No time, we will explain on the way, let's go," the older boy interrupts him, taking charge of the situation. The sirens were getting louder and that meant closer. They couldn't get caught with three of Faizul dead men around them, he would use his connections to have them killed before they even saw the inside of a jail cell.
"One last thing before we go," Mili states before running from corpse to corpse, squeamishly going through their pockets. A closer look showed that she was looting the corpses of all their valuables, wallets, watches, and even the gun and suit jacket of the head goon.
Noticing everyone watching her, she shrugs, "It's Armani."
A girl after my own heart.
(Faizul)
In the penthouse at the top of the Red Dragon Casino and Hotel, behind a big ebony desk sits a large bald man wearing a tailored white and pink suit.
His name is Faizul the leader of the Six Dragon Gang, one of the four big gangs that rule over most of Macau. Slowly he pulls his cigar out of his mouth and exhales a big puff of smoke.
Flames of anger could be seen simmering in his eyes as he reads through the report on his desk, a glass of scotch sitting forgotten next to it.
Faizul dark eyes left his desk and shot across it, to where the man that was both his secretary and second in command stood straight without a smidge of fear.
Huang Yingzhe was a lanky man standing just a bit over 6 feet tall, half his face was covered by black rimmed glasses and his short black hair was immaculate combed. Unlike his boss's more colorful suit, the one he was wearing was totally black.
All in all he was someone that wouldn't have looked out of place running a big business or working for the government, which made it all the more eerie that he was the second in command for one of Macau's most dangerous gangs.
"We lost another 2 bussinesses," Faizul said in a strangely calm voice. The anger that was so obvious simmering in his eyes was nowhere to found when he spoke and that more than anything was the moment people needed to start fearing for their lives
"I told you not to attack the Black Tigers. It wasn't worth it," Huang Yingzhe placed the report he had finished reading on Faizul's desk. Faizul glared at him and grunted in irritation, if anyone other than Yingzhe had talked to him like that he would have already killed them and their whole families.
But Yingzhe was different, the two of them grew up and started the Six Dragons together. Faizul took care of all the gang dealings in the darkness and Yingzhe was the face of all their legal businesses in the light, like the Casino and Hotel.
"That bastard Bai Hu has gone too far!"
Bai Hu, like Faizul, was the leader of one of the top four gangs, in this case the White Tiger Gang. It was an open secret that his son had founded the Black Tigers, and although the two gangs weren't associated with each other, everyone kept their distance in fear of Bai Hu retaliation.
Everyone except for Faizul, that is. He wasn't about to let another gang grow and posper in his own fucking backyard. It would be too late for regrets if he let the Black Tigers grow until they could challenge his rule of the area.
"What did you expect, you destroyed his son's gang."
"I expected him to give me some fucking face, like I gave him when I left that little piece of shit of a son of his alive!" Faizul screamed, the glass full of scotch flew through the air before shattering against the far wall next to the door.
The room was silent for a while before Faizul broke it.
"It had to be done," Faizul continued having regained his calm, "I couldn't leave them to pincer us from both sides."
"I'm not saying that you shouldn't have done it," Yingzhe said, "you should have used or blamed another gang, Bai Hu would still have suspected you but he wouldn't dare be this bold without any proof."
Before they can carry on with their conversation, there is a knock at the door. One of the two guards standing outside opens the door a sliver, just enough to stick his head in.
"Detective Qin is here to see you, sir."
Qin was one of the many police officers on his payroll, who he called when he needed something kept quiet or a witness killed. The problem was he didn't remember calling or having an appointment with him today, and that meant bad news.
Yingzhe shakes his head when he looks at him, indicating that he also didn't know what this was about.
"Let him in."
A second later, the door gets opened wide to let an overweight, balding man inside. Walking in Qin notices the stain on the wall and the broken glass pieces from where Faizul had thrown his scotch.
"Having a bad day?"
"Just get on with it," Faizul scowls, his already bad mood getting worse, "why are you here?!"
Seeing Faizul scowl, Qin immediately got serious. He wasn't stupid he knew that Faizul had more officers other than him on his payroll, which meant he was replaceable and being replaced meant bad things for his longevity.
"We found three of your men in an alleyway an hour ago, dead."
Faizul leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, this day could not get any worse,
"All their wallets were stolen, so we couldn't ID two of them," Qin paused and prepared himself for what he was about to say and how Faizul would react, "the one we could, is old Wei."
"What happened?" Faizul gritted out.
"We got calls of gunshots in the area, with it coming from your turf I delayed the response team as much as I could. When we arrived all we found were your men."
Getting no reaction he continued, "we are thinking it was the work of a Super, one of the men had a hole blasted right through him. The wound was too smooth and with no residue to be from any weapon we know of."
Finishing his report, Qin stood waiting for a reply - getting none - he looked at Yingzhe for further instructions. Yingzhe sighed and sent him away.
Yingzhe waited till the detective was gone and the door was securely closed before talking, "Old Wei is the one you sent after the Hellions gang, right?"
Still leaning back with his eyes closed Faizul just nodded.
When he opened his eyes next, they weren't simmering with anger, they were aflame with full blown flames of rage.
"It seems like my Six Dragons gang has become a goddamn joke, even insignificant little ants like the Hellions think that they can kill my men without repercussion!"
Standing up Faizul started walking to the door, "When I'm done with that bitch Nina and her little gang of rats, she is going to be begging to die!"
"Wait!"
"What!" Faizul raged, turning to Yingzhe.
"You heard Qi, the Hellions have a Super, we don't even know which kind of Super he is," Yingzhe said levelheaded, "We have to think about this before we lose more men!"
"There is an auction next week, we already planned on buying a Super then, this only gives us more reason to do so," he continued after noticing Faizul starting to calm down from his rage.
"We can't wait a fucking week, we will be the laughingstock of every gang. Our reputation will be gone and even more gangs will get the balls to attack us!" Faizul said now fully calm again, "but your right going at it without any thought will only lose us more men."
Seeing that Faizul wasn't being unreasonable anymore Yingzhe let out a sigh of relief, "Going from Qin's description of the wound, the Super most likely has some sort of projectile power, those kinds of Supers are usually not bulletproof."
"Good, in that case assemble a heavy armored team with automatic weapons and send them to raid that bitches's base tomorrow night. Additionally, put a few snipers on nearby buildings, I want everyone even remotely connected to them dead!" Faizul sneered hateful.
"Also find out who those other two men with old Wei were and have someone sent all their families the usual amount and my condolences."
Yingzhe nodded and left to do just that.
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