Ruthless stood in front of his Swordsman, looking him straight in the eyes. The Swordsman had just finished narrating everything that happened to him and now as always the boss was trying to ascertain the truthfulness through his eyes. Larry could not keep up his gaze for long. His head drooped and Ruthless smiled.
"It must have been tough on you." Ruthless said. "Go and rest. I want you at your best. We strike tonight."
The swordsman, Larry, nodded and quietly walked away. As soon as he left, Ruthless left the living room as well and walked into his bedroom. As he was about to touch his door, he paused. Something seemed to be out of place. What was it? He could not tell. He opened his door and went through his plan all over again in his head.
Was there someone he had missed out in his plan?
'That's not possible! Everyone is accounted for.' He thought to himself. 'Then, the issue must be from another issue entirely.'
He thought about all the people he had offended, had offended him, was hunting him and he was hunting.
He groaned as he marked all the names off his list. What was this feeling? He rubbed his head as a headache came to life, banging in his head like a hammer.
"Urgh! I will just have to be extra careful with the plan." He concluded and laid down to sleep. The elders die tonight and he wanted to be at his utmost best. He closed his eyes.
******************
"What?"
*clank*
Larry flew backwards and hit the door. Ruthless jumped off his bed and shook his head to clear the fog from his still lingering sleep.
He looked at Larry whose eyes were bloodshot, like he has been denied sleep for days.
His head ran through the details of the assassination all over again. What was Larry thinking? Larry would not dare to do this on his own. Was Larry still hiding certain details from him?
'If I had not been vigilant, this would have been my deathbed.' He frowned.
"Larry!" Ruthless yelled his name. "What is wrong with you? I have done everything for you. I gave you a life when no one else did. I took you out of the gutters and made you my right hand man and this is how you want to repay me? Killing me in my sleep like a coward?"
"Everything is fair in love and war. That's what you said." Larry rebutted calmly like nothing could go wrong. A talisman appeared in his hand. He pasted it against the closed door.
"What nonsense did that witch brainwash you with?"
"I have a son."
Ruthless was truly shocked, then he was perplexed, then he was amused. He chuckled.
"You do?"
"Wilson."
"Wilson?" Ruthless asked. It took him some time to remember who that was.
"Oh, that teenage boy that has somehow eluded us for so long."
"Yes."
Ruthless tilted his head as he looked at Larry all over again.
"Now that you say it. I can see some slight resemblance." He nodded in approval. "Not bad! You somehow put your seed inside her before your step-brother did. Crafty. I never once thought you had it in you."
"You know, while I laid down on my bed, I was thinking to myself. Why did I even become your lackey in the first place? How come the great swordsman, Larry, ended up this way, stuck as a subordinate to a local tyrant like you?"
"Local Tyrant?" Ruthless laughed. "You really think I am nothing but a local Tyrant? If I was a mere local tyrant, then why did you bow to me? You became my right hand man not because I trusted you, but because I have always been that little extra better than you.
"While I held all the loftiest ambitions, you were more than content to just mess around with that stupid girl while talking all about the ultimate dream. And what was that ultimate dream? To become the sword of the king. Not to be the king but mere lackey of the king.
"As for me, I would rather be a local tyrant who has control over a small group of people than to be a powerful man who has to obey orders from another man with insecurity issues.
"That is why you became my subordinate. You are too shortsighted to make a man out of your own self. That is why the stupid girl did the only smart thing in her life and married your demented step-brother instead. At least, that one dreamt and pursued his dream till the very end. You, on the other hand, can only see what's in front of you. You lack motivation and as soon as you lost that one chance to achieve your dream, you came to me. That is how you ended up my lackey. And now, because he met with that stupid bitch again, you suddenly regained your senses? Larry! You've never had any sense. I was the brain that kept you alive and happy. All you were to me was a reliable killing machine."
Larry scowled so much his face reddened to almost the same shade as his bloodshot eyes.
Ruthless did not mind the look. He continued.
"But even that, you could not keep doing. I doubt you are even capable of having a child."
"I'm going to kill you." Larry growled.
Ruthless shook his head and said, "You will try."
With a mighty roar, Larry brandished his sword and leapt at Ruthless.
Ruthless blocked the swung sword with his forearm.
*clank*
The sword vibrated from the impact but that did not stop Larry. He swung his sword again and again, to every part of Ruthless' body. He blatantly ignored the intense sword vibrations. Ruthless either blocked, or dodged the sword, watching Larry's face redden even more as he did so.
Ruthless smiled. As Larry swung the sword again, he swung his fist right at the blade.
*clank*
The impact threw the sword out of Larry's hand. Using his other hand, Ruthless grabbed Larry by the neck and lifted him up. He squeezed tight until Larry was rendered incapable of breathing. He looked at Larry and said,
"Did you really think you had a chance against me? You have never and will never reach my standard. You will always be beneath me. And today, you will die as my lackey because that is what everyone will remember you as. And then you will be forgotten after one year because you are irrelevant like you always were."
Larry clawed and scraped at Ruthless'hand as he spoke. He tried to pry off his fingers but could not. He could not breathe. He knew this was his end and tried to mutter a few words but no sound came out.
Ruthless noticed his lips moving and loosened his grip a little. Just enough to let him squeeze out a few sounds.
"You....are coming.....with me.... too!" Larry finally managed to say.
Ruthless smiled at him mockingly.
"And how do you intend to do that?" He asked.
Larry smirked.
"Wilson's mama is a witch."
Ruthless eyes widened. Quickly, he threw Larry away and began to look at his body all over. Looking for signs of any kind that might signify his doom.
Larry hit the door hard and dropped. He coughed and rasped and started laughing as he sat on the ground.
"It's too late. It's already been two hours. Your sleep and brutish way of fighting sped it up. It has definitely reached your heart by now."
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Ruthless yelled and spat out blood.
Larry looked excited and smiled like a little child watching his favorite show.
Black blood seeped out of every part of Ruthless' body but he did not hit the floor. Instead, he stood straight and looked at his sitting traitor with malice.
"You will come with me." He said, blood flowing out of his mouth with each word.
Larry quickly tried to stand up but couldn't. He looked down at his body. He was freezing over pretty quickly. The cold was already seeping into his body.
"When?" Larry asked, cold steam came out of his mouth as he spoke.
Ruthless smiled and looked Larry in the eyes.
"When you stared me in the eyes longer than twenty seconds. I just didn't think you would decide so quickly."
"Heh!" Larry chuckled, his heart cold and freezing over. He had already turned blue from the cold and he could barely breathe. He continued nonetheless.
"Now that we are both dying, I think my greatest regret is ever listening to you."
Ruthless sneered even as the black blood had already covered him.
"And I. I regret nothing. I am glad I used you to kill her."
"Heh!" Larry chuckled again. "That's what you think."
And with that said, Larry froze over completely. Two seconds later,
*BOOOOM*
Ruthless blew up, his innards, flesh and skin scattering all around.
Immediately, the talisman deactivated and the door was pushed open.
As it turned out, Larry was supposed to put the talisman outside the room so that those inside the room could hear what was going on outside and those outside would hear nothing. But he had mixed the instructions up and so, many of Ruthless' other men had heard everything going on and come to the door. They tried everything to open the door. They used explosives, abilities, talismans and had already called for their meditating magician colleague to come help.
This magician had a thing for solitude and so they could not reach him through his cellphone. Two of them quickly went in search of him. Unfortunately, too much had gone down before he could be found.
The men (and women) at the door entered aggressively and saw a frozen Larry by the door and pieces of black blooded flesh and intestines.
There was confusion on their faces. Why was the pieces of their boss black?
The magician arrived. He slowly walked to the front, talisman in one hand, a wand in another.
"The plague!"
*bam* The door closed on them.
And then, for the third time, the black blooded flesh seeped up, steam coming out of each little piece.
The magician ran to the door and began to conjure spell after spell, hitting the door, while the others yelled questions at him.
"What's going on?"
"What's the plague?"
"Answer us, goddamn it!"
"Why you hitting the door so hurriedly, boyo?"
The magician did not respond. He began to cry as he hit the door over and over again but realized it had not budged. He sat down beside Larry's frozen body and wailed, further putting his colleagues on edge.
"Well, a plague is not supposed to be anything good." One of the calmer ones finally said.
"If I remember correctly, plagues are usually related to forbidden magic. My uneducated guess is boss has been used as a biological weapon."
For some reason, this calmed most of the others down. They began to sit down on the floors, drawer, chairs and bed. Anywhere they felt like sitting, they sat and began to converse. Only a few remained standing, looking around at the others, confused, while a thin veil of black smoke had begun to cover the room.
"You think the other elders knew?"
"Definitely!"
"I knew there was no way to hide such movements from them. They are the elders."
A lady among them panicked even more. Perplexed at their calmness, she shrieked.
"Let's get out of here!"
"There's no way out for us."
"So we are going to die?" She asked.
"Every one of us."
One of the ladies looked at a little piece of flesh beside her and shook her head.
"In that case, I might as well just kill myself and make my death faster."
"Hey Magician dude. Create a massive exploding fireball to kill us all at once, yeah." Someone said. The others agreed as if it was the most normal thing to do.
Noticing that the magician did not move or even raise his head, the speaker went to take a look at him. He raised his head and saw that the wand had already stabbed through its owner's heart. The others saw it too.
"Shit!"
"Selfish bastard."
"Lucky him!"
"Fucking dickhead!"
"I'm out!"
One of them grabbed his dagger and stabbed his own chest. As he took his last breath, they started to kill one another or themselves.
Of course, not all of them had the heart to do so and for as few as did not, they were wailing and tearing at themselves with their own fingers minutes later, as black blood seeped out of their bodies.