Chapter 5: Chapter 4 – Running Rats

Everyone of us has been through this type of situation. Sometimes your brain will try to give you a small signal that something bad will happen. But no matter how you look around, everything looks normal. The probability looks low, it might happen but what are the chances to happen right now of all times, right? That's what you tell yourself, when you're a bit tense and try to assure your own self that everything will be allright. That's what the barman and Jackal did. Or maybe Jacob was that good of an actor, to make even them drop their guard down. Who knows...

"How's that possible!? He was dead, I've checked him myself. I swear he was dead, Mister Jackal!" says the guy, fearful Jackal is gonna blame him for this whole situation.

"I trusted your judgement, 'cause you're a 6th Rank Warlock. Not many people can fool your senses, only a master level individual can control his lifeforce and mana to such a degree. I did not expect to be discovered so soon. I underestimated him!" responds Jackal, in a bitter lower voice.

"Who are you?" asks the previous 6th Rank.

"Why don't you ask this Jackal guy? He said he underestimated me. He knows he fell straight into the wolf's mouth and yet he's so darring. Unfortunetly for you guys, I do bite!" says the drunk, as his body starts changing shape.

A high grade transformation artifact was at play. His face changed, from a freckle spotted oval face, to a well defined jaw and an aquiline nose. The dirty blond hair turned into a greyish mix, more white than black. The short and young drunk became a tall and lean middle age man, under the baffled eyes of the kidnappers.

Only Jackal was not surprised. He knew the only one who could get past him and his men twice, the second time even while carrying and protecting a hostage, could only be this man. Acting butler of the Rosevind Family and former right hand man of the Rosevind's Lord, Jacob.

"Dammit!" says the barman, scared shitless, as he too has heard about the Rosevind's butler.

Noticing that, his underlings tense up.

"W-what now boss?"

"Run!" shouts the barmam as he starts dashing in a random direction.

But, surprisingly, the faster one to bail out is Jackal himself. All he needed was a distraction. In the exact moment the barman shouted he already disappeared, so fast that it almost looked like he was teleporting himself into another spot.

"Tsk!" grunts Jacob, as he runs after Jackal.

They both fade out into distance.

"Rosevind retainers, don't let a single rat escape!" thunders an enraged Stones, as a giant battle axe appears into his hands.

"That damn Jackal!" shouts Jackal's 6th Rank associate, as he spits a purple flame, killing four Rosevind men in one go.

Except him all the others were Jackal's scapagoats, just like the ones from the bar. The encirclement tightens around the nine Jackal's men, as they try to fight their way out.

Just as the barman barely escaped the encirclement, losing two of his men, he felt a sharp feeling on the back of his head.

"Careful!" he shouts.

But it's too late, another one of his goons bites the dust cleaved by the giant axe.

"I'll rip you apart!" rages Sones, as he steps on the head of his slain opponent, crushing it into a pulp.

He throws himself at the barman, while the later recieves his axe with his materialised weapon. The giant axe collides with a size shorter mace, as sparks fly out. Heavy blows are exchanged, and it's clear that Stones has the advantage.

"Circle him, morons! At least bother him enough so I can put up a fight against him! We can deal with him, if we coordinate!" says the barman to his men, as he's struggling to fend off the attacks.

But to no avail, the remaining three of his men use this oportunity to escape as the barman takes the full blunt of Stone's crazy frenzy. Were there to stay and fight maybe they could have put a decent fight, but they're not exactly the most honor bound people around. In their line of work it's everyone for themselfs, expecially when it's a question of life and death.

"You vermin!" shouts the barman as he faced betrayal.

"Hehe, scum will be scum, what do you expect? Dont worry, I will personally track them down once I deal with you!" puffs Stones as his attacks get even more fierce.

"Dammit! I shouldn't have played along with that Jackal guy's plan. I got too greedy. I will be lucky if I can escape now. And even if I can escape, they'll hunt me like a dog. I will most likely have to go into hiding until things will calm down, in the best case scenario. That's it, I'm out of here!" says the barman to himself, as he uses the recoil of one of Stones' blow to run away.

"You wish!" shouts Stones, chasing after him.

***

"Get them, don't let them escape!" shouts one of the Rosevind men, as he charges at Jackal's goons.

The fighting is fierce on this side too. Most of the Roseving troops are 4th Ranks, with just a few 5th Ranks here and there. The enemy is clearly vastly outnumbered, but all of them are of the 5th Rank and the Rank 6 Warlock among them proves to be a good help. Nevertheless, at this point even he is more focused on dodging and finding an oportunity to escape, just like his boss did a while ago.

First thing that went wrong was Jacob himself leading the ambush. It made Jackal run away with his tail between his legs and left them to deal with the aftermath. Not killing or at least incapacitating Stones was another mess up. But the most annoying thing for the enemy, was the grey haired butler being too cautious and calling for more men for the rescue operation. Unbeknown to most, all this heavy Rosevind preparation was the merit of Karl, Stone's right hand man, succesfully delivering the intel to Jacob.

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"We failed in the end. I told him we should have at least taken care of Stones, but he did not listen. It would have weaken them greatly if they lost one of their Governers. Why did he had to push it so much into turning him? Jackal got too damn greedy! Sometimes the best solution is the most simple one." reflects the Rank 6 Warlock, as he kills 3 more Roseving men with a purple flame whip, while cursing at Jackal in his own mind.

"What do we do now, Mr Jamal?" says one of the intruders, as he kills one Rosevind soldier.

"Isn't it obvious, we have to escape. I have a plan, but you guys have to hold it and keep them busy for a few seconds until I prepare." speaks Jamal, the Rank 6 Warlock, as a round silver metal ball full of shiny patterns appears in his hand.

"Like hell you will! You're not going anywhere!" shouts a nearby Rosevind soldier that heard them talking.

"Don't take too much time, boss man, we can't keep them off for too long!" adds another intruders as he hacks at the previous Rosevind soldier, killing him.

"Just thirty seconds and we can all leave this place!" says Jamal, as the artifact in his hands becomes more and more flashy.

As they finally saw a bit of hope the intruders are fighting even more fiercily, despite the fact that they lost 2 people and are now down to 7 men. Rosevind men are falling like flies, but the enemy is left with serious injuries in their attempt to buy more time for Jamal to charge his arctifact.

"How much longer, Jamal?" asks a heavy injured intruder.

"Done!"shouts Jamal, as he throws the now shining read ball into the air.

"Careful, that's a high rank engaved artifact!" one 5th Rank Rosevind man crys out.

But it's too late. The metallic objects flashes and unleashes a downpour of red lightning all over the place, hitting both enemies and allies at the same time, catching most of them by surprise. A big flash, followed by a thundering noise, covers the battleground.

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Boom!*

The lighting bolts spreads all over only to finaly entangle eachother into a huge web and detonate. A defening silance reigns in the aftermath of that big boom. The surroundings are in a mess. The Bar is reduced to charred ruins. Most of the people around are if not dead, at least severely injured.

"Curse... you... Jamal... " mumbles one of the intruders, as he lays on the ground, drawing his last breath.

"F*cking animal... huff... He tricked us!" adds another intruder, who's in a better shape than the other but has lost his arms.

This heavily injured man is the only enemy left alive. Most of Jamal's men took the blunt of the sudden explosion, as they were the closer to it. Only two of them survived the attack and one of them died soon after. But the Rosevind men didnt fare any better. Out of the fifty-six soldiers that cornered the enemy, only the four Rank 5 men are still alive. Two of them have lethal injury, while the other two are in better shape but still greatly injured.

"Filthy bastards!" bellows one of the two Rosevind men who can still walk around.

Enraged over the death of his comrads, he hacks at the only surviving enemy. Full of venom, he uses his sword to deliver multiple fast slashes, much to add insult to injury. The enemy falls apart in several large chuncks of blood.

"It's over. But it cost us too much..." muffles the Rosevind soldier, as he turns to look at his charred comrades with a mourning face.

All the burt bodies around look like the tragedy of a natural disaster.

***

Farther away from where the battle took place, a suviving Jamal is running away at a high speed, sliding in mid air on purple flames. He managed to survive unscathed from that explosion of lightning, as he dashed out almost as soon as everyone was blinded by the huge flash. He can count himself lucky the barman drew Stones' attention, otherwise who knows if he could get away with just a few injuries like he did now.

"It's all that fools fault. If only Jackal did not get too greedy..."

*Spit!*

He spits on the ground as he clenches his teeth in anger, over the failed plan.

*Bam!* *Bang!*

"Huh? What's going on? Did they found my tracks so soon?" Jamal's heart skips a beat.

Without knowing, Jamal ran in the same direction the barman and his men did. In a strange twist of fate, he also caught out to Stones chasing after the running barman.

"That damn Stones! We should have killed him when we got the chance!" says the 6 Rank Warlock, as he hatefuly gazes ahead at the two men locked into a cat and mouse chase.

He hates Jackal for not listening to him, he hates Jacob for playing dead so well, but most of all he hates this stocky man for just existing. If it weren't for him, he and the barman could have teamed up and easily taken care of the Rosevind men. They could have regrouped and, who knows, maybe their plan could have still been accomplished.

"I can't go back with nothing. If I bring in Stones' head, all my problems would be solved. If I team up with that man, we have a good chance to succeed. Under the right conditions that is..." mumbles Jamal, as he heads towards the two men, ready to deliver a surprise attack.