"It's 2:54, you're here early." when Detective Kuhn, Thomas and Caroline came back into the bar after carefully investigating the surrounding environment to make sure no one was there to ambush them when they did come in, the bartender greeted them with a teasing and flirty smile: "Guess you'll have to wait, like I told you, you'll get what you're here for at 3."
"But why not a few minutes earlier?" Detective Kuhn sat down at the second furthest seat from the bartender and asked with caution and a little too much vigilance: "What's the harm in giving it to us now?"
"Because timing is everything." the bartender leaned towards Detective Kuhn and said: "Just like asking a girl out, or opening a door for a lady."
Just this moment, three men came out from behind her, one started looking for drinks from the bar, one stood on the side and stared at the detective and the two other individuals with him, and the final one was standing beside the bartender, brandishing a gun on his belt.
"What is this?" Caroline narrowed her eyes while still playing around the translucent orange and red crystal ball with her fingers, and was ready to conjure her weapon and fight should the three men or the bartender dare do anything suspicious: "You wanna try for a round 2?"
"No. Of course not." the bartender snickered: "These men are here for my protection alright, but not from you. But from the men who are about to come."
"Men who are about to come? Who are they?" Thomas immediately looked around.
The bar was entirely empty, the two cleaning staff earlier were gone, and from their own investigation, there were no one suspicious waiting around. But this would not prevent someone from just coming to the bar from some distance away. Before the bartender and the three men could answer Thomas' question, a group of five men busted into the bar by forcefully kicking the door open.
A foul, sweaty and primal beastly smell gushed into the bar even before the five men came in. None of the three that came in for the bartender had ever encountered this kind of smell from men before. But Caroline was still able to recognize what the three men were based on what she learned from Josephine Wong, and thus immediately used a simple sound propagation spell to alert Detective Kuhn and Thomas: "Lycans! Be careful!"
"Melinda, you lying half blood whore!" the leader of the five that came in, a bald and bearded brute of a man with a scarred face cursed at the bartender with spit flying off from his mouth, and he directly kicked a chair into splinters as he approached the bar: "Who do you think you are, huh? How dare you threaten me!"
"It's not me that threatened you." the bartender said and pointed at Caroline and Thomas: "It's them."
"Fuck." Caroline sighed, all of them were quite suspicious of this bartender's offer, but time was of the essence, so they decided to come back to the bar for now after calling back to the inn, leaving a message. But the situation proved that they were wrong.
"Who the fuck are you?" the leader of the five men turned to the three sitting at the bar and said: "YOU threatened me? A couple of puny humans, what gave you this ridiculous courage?"
"We didn't." Thomas looked the man in the eyes, with his magical power ready: "We don't know why this Melinda told you, but we didn't do it."
"So, you weren't the ones that demanded to see the ledger? " Melinda chuckled from behind the bar: "Too bad, I forgot to tell you that it is my Boss, the powerful lycan pack leader Zachary, who has the ledger with him at all times."
"And why do you want this ledger from me?" the leader of the five men surrounded the three at the bar, all of whom started shapeshifting, with their faces being gradually covered with long hair, their shoulders and arms becoming thicker and more muscular, their bodies growing taller, their mouth and nose becoming longer with sharp teeth exposed by the edge of their mouths. The leader of the five men had changed the most, even the scar on his face had grown bigger and fiercer looking.
"Now, now." one of the two lycans on the left, who had a strip of blue hair on his shoulder said with a hoarse voice and his tongue licking his teeth and lips: "It's been a while since we've had humans coming in here with no idea whatsoever, shall we open up the pantries?"
"You're not scared, young girl." the lycan facing Caroline blew a foul breath onto her face.
Caroline sighed, then took a look at Thomas and Detective Kuhn: "We want this ledger, because we would like to know about what the deal with the 'special products' is. If you could enlighten us about it, that would be great, and we would have no use for your ledger."
"Ha!" the scarred face leader scoffed with his wolf face and mouth: "I'm afraid you are in no place to bargain, little girl!"
"Guess I'll have to make my place then." Caroline sighed again.
Before any of the lycans could react or prepare, Caroline's flaming palm had already landed on the pack leader's chest. This leader's chest caved in with his hair and skin charred like he was hit by a giant flaming sledge hammer. After a loud bang, he was sent into the air, and the shockwave from the palm strike even pushed the two lycans on his sides away.
Thomas also acted at a fast speed. He pushed his hands forward and a flame shot from his palms like that from a short range flamethrower, which pushed the last lycan facing him and Detective Kuhn away.
The lycan on the leftmost side facing Caroline lunged at Caroline and tried to get at her with a vicious claw attack aiming at her neck, but a translucent shield appeared on her left hand, and this lycan's fingernails instantly broke when they touched the smooth surface of the shield.
"Bitch!" "Die!" the two lycans who were standing beside their leader lunged at Caroline again, and this time they did not utilize any physical attack, but roared at the same time and unleashed a powerful blood red shockwave.
Caroline raised her orange and red axe in a guarding position in front of her, the shockwave was diffused, but she was also pushed back and forced her back against the bar.