Rowan and Lily deftly made their way to the side door as Rowan motioned for Lily to get behind him. He placed his hand on the door and gave it a light tug as it opened. Rowan peeked his head in and checked the nearby surroundings. Seeing no immediate danger, he stepped in followed by Lily. The two entered as spotted a ladder leading to a second floor catwalk. He pointed to the ladder as Lily nodded. The two ascended the ladder and began walking across the catwalk seeing the mountains of goods in boxes waiting to be sent to the store back in the city. Rowan then noticed a group of guys sitting near a hallway with doors. Rowan nudged Lily and pointed towards the guards.
"Let's check over there." Rowan whispered.
Lily nodded as the two descended the catwalk. As they made their way to the guards, Rowan split off from Lily as reappeared on the flank from the guards. Lily threw a rock near her position as the three guards stopped talking and all looked towards the direction of the noise. The first guard grabbed his sword and made his way to the noise. Once the guard turned the corner he found a dagger on the floor. As he bent down to grab it. his neck was being constricted by a wire that Lily had firmly wrapped around her hands. The other two guards heard the odd noise and both grabbed their weapons. As Rowan approached one of the guards and wrapped him in a headlock. The guard immediately dropped his sword on instinct alerting the third guard. The third guard quickly turned around seeing his comrade being choked out. Rowan quickly pulled his pistol and fired hitting the guard's arm. The guard yelled in pain dropping his axe as blood began to flow down his arm. Rowan whack the temple of the guard he was holding and knocked him out. The orc guard grabbed Rowan and threw him into a stack of goods. Soon after, the orc felt two blades enter midsection. The orc yelled in pain as the blades were swiftly removed and slashed his legs out. The Orc fell to his knees and felt his neck being constricted by the wire from Lily. The orc grabbed the wire and pulled Lily over him slamming her into the floor before the orc could recover, a heavy punch across the face surprised him. But he had no time to act as Rowan began throwing an endless barrage of open-hand strikes causing blood and spit to fly everywhere. With one final palm strike to the nose, the orc fell to the ground. Rowan looked over to Lily who was recovering from the slam. He approached her and helped her up. Rowan found his gun on the floor and raised it in his arms. The two entered the long hallway and began checking the doors one-by-one. After clearing the rooms they met back in the hallway.
"Let's check for any intel in the rooms." Rowan said.
Lily and Rowan split up searching the rooms for any kind of intel but nothing came up.
"Find anything?" Lily asked.
"Nothing. Just shipping manifestos and usual warehouse documents. Perhaps we went on an empty lead."
"Maybe but I can't shake the feeling we're missing something here."
Rowan leaned against the wall at the end of the hallway deep in thought. It was then he felt something odd pressing against him. He leaned off the wall and looked behind him seeing nothing but the brick wall. He ran his hand along where he was leaning and felt something that wasn't there.
"Lily, is illusionary spells a thing?"
"Of course they are. Is there one on the wall?"
"Possibly, you have anything to dispel it?"
"I do. Let me see."
Lily stepped forward and pulled a small vial out of her bag and dripped it against the wall. The two watched as part of the brick wall crumbled and there lied a door with a magic rune on the lock.
"Magic rune on the lock. Good thing I pulled out all the stops for this." Lily said pulling out another vial as she poured it on the rune. Rowan watched as the rune slowly began to crack until it shattered completely leaving the door locked.
"Stand back."
Rowan stepped forward and fired his gun at the lock breaking it as Rowan opened the door and was met with a dark room with a chair in the middle. Sitting on the chair was a person who was chained by the feet and arms what was once a clean dress now torn and soiled. Dried blood dripping from minor cut wounds. Rowan lifted the girl's head seeing her eyes closed.
"Goddess. It's Young Master's sister!"
"Hey, come on! Wake up! Lily, try to wake her up."
"Why's that?"
"It'll be better if she sees someone she recognizes. I'll keep watch. I checked her pulse and she's still alive."
Lily nodded and knelt down in front of Lily shaking her and calling her name.
"Annalise! Annalise! C'mon wake up please!"
Suddenly sounds from Annalise could be heard as her eyes slowly opened. Her blurred vision slowly coming into focus on Lily.
"Lily?" She weakly stuttered.
"That's right it's me! C'mon we gotta get you out of here." Lily said quickly slicing Annalise's bindings off. "Can you walk?"
"I think I can." Annalise mumbled.
"Lily support her, I'll take lead. Let's jet." Rowan said peaking out of the doorframe. It was then he saw a group of guards standing at the other side of the hallway.
"Get out here now! I saw you!" A familiar voice shouted. Rowan immediately recognized it as Randall. Rowan turned to the two girls and check his spare mags. Only two with one in the gun already. Rowan sighed twisting his can off the muzzle of his gun and placed his hand on Lily's shoulder.
"What do we do?" Lily asked.
"I go out there. You stay in here and be prepared. If I fall, you're the last line of defense."
"Are you stupid? You can't take them all!"
"This isn't up for debate. I always see my jobs to the end. And I need to make sure this girl gets back to her brother with his maid in tow."
Lily quietly stared at Rowan's resolute face and sighed.
"Fuck! Fine, go then. Don't die."
"No promises." Rowan lightly chuckled.
Rowan opened the door and walked out of the hallway meeting the large group of guards with Randall in the middle.
"So, who're you supposed to be?" Randall asked.
"Does it matter?" Rowan deflected.
"It does. You don't look like one of my many rival noble business guards. So I can only assume you're a merc. And with the recent invasion of my home last night. I should suspect that you're the same person.
"You're house was invaded? Damn, seems like you can't catch a break."
"Oh but I did. Now I have you. So, tell me, who hired you? I'm fairly certain it was Adrian wasn't it?"
"You're a smart guy, you put the pieces together. As much as I would love to play twenty questions, I'm gonna need to you get your boys away from me or someone's gonna get hurt."
"Are you threatening me, merc?!"
"Randall, I don't make threats, I make guarantees. So don't test my patience."
"Very well, kill him."
*BANG*BANG*BANG*
Loud gunshots reverb and echoed in the warehouse as guards fell one by one as the last two guards got close to grab Rowan as Rowan grabbed his knife and holster upped. The first guard threw a large overhead as Rowan dodged to the side thrust his blade into the guard's chest multiple times until the guard dropped to the floor dead. Rowan immediately ducked dodging the axe coming for his head as Rowan walked back into the corridor leaving the guard at an disadvantage having to use the tip of the axe. Rowan smirked as he began running backwards pulling his gun back out and firing his last round into the guard killing him the gun's slide locking back. As soon as the guard fell Rowan felt two projectiles pierce his chest as he fell to the ground. Rowan looked to see two small crystals protruding from his chest as blood began to flow out. Randall approached Rowan holding a strange gun.
"I won't let some random merc ruin my business!"
Randall's shot missed when he was startled by the a door suddenly being kicked open Lily burst out throwing one of her daggers at Randall. With the blade not being made for throwing, the handle struck Randall's face stunning him for a short second barely grabbing the wrist of Lily who was about to stab him as he fired point blank into Lily's stomach as she fell to the ground. Randall turned back but was met with a gunshot to the shoulder dropping his gun as Rowan fired again hitting Randall's leg dropping him to one knee as Rowan jumped on Randall throwing multiple punches to his face as Randall was dazed from being shot. Rowan threw punch after punch until Randall was unconscious.
There was a long silence with only the pained breaths of Rowan and Lily as Lily drunk a healing potion slowly closing her wounds as she handed one to Rowan who did the same. The two slowly got up with Rowan grabbing his gun and Randall's.
"Why didn' you kill him?" Lily asked.
"Him being dead can lead to a harder case compared to if he's alive. Come on, let's get Annalise and get out of here."
The two went back into the room and grabbed Annalise and began their way out of the warehouse.