A man in a black leather coat stood in the doorway. At first, his expression was of surprise; his door had just opened without him needing to turn his key. His expression enlargened, particularly at the mouth, at the sight of the incredibly tall man, Jiggan, and his accomplices who were robbing his house.
He reached for his pistol, drew it, and aimed. However, magnitudes faster than him was Aywa, whose pistols used stronger magic to enhance the bullet's power. He shot twice, aiming at the man's pistol. The first shot violently pushed metal and wood toward the man's hand, and the second shot shattered it, grazing the man's cheek and drawing a little bit of blood.
Jiggan stepped forward and grabbed the man, pulling him into the house, and closed the door.
"Aywa. The whole area probably heard that." Aleed scolded.
"Gunshots are a common thing. Even in these areas." Aywa said, coolly blowing the smoke from his pistols' muzzles.
"So, what do we do with him?" Jiggan asked. He sealed the man's mouth shut with his large hands.
"He's seen our faces. What else can we do but kill him?" Baluchta asked.
"You're gonna kill him?" Teerom looked at them with innocent worry for the man.
"Yeah," Jiggan replied, sighing.
"But he didn't do anything wrong. We're the ones who broke into his house. I'm the one who wanted the TV!" Teerom argued. The man looked up at Jiggan and nodded in agreement, but he was ignored.
"This area's Liffad territory. They specialize in human trafficking, selling people from Rukae that don't meet deadlines off as slaves to work on the plantation island. This guy's definitely done his fair share of it." Jiggan realized his explanation wasn't getting through to Teerom, "You won't see it or hear it. Okay, buddy?"
Teerom nodded guiltily and watched them drag the flailing man away to the back of the house.
"Sorry, Teerom. We can't afford to be found out. Here. Let me cover your ears." Aleed acted affectionately and protected Teerom's innocence.
"I humbly apologize," Aywa began, holding his pistol to the side of the man's head, "but I don't fuck around when it comes to people like you. Selling people as if they're product. It pains me that I have to make this quick." He sneered.
"Hurry up, Aywa." Jiggan ordered and Aywa pulled the trigger. The bullet drowned out the man's groans for mercy as it passed through his skull and punched through the other side of his head. As the bullet continued through the air, a delayed spray of blood occured. There were shards of bone and brains mixed in, but they were stained such a deep red that they were indistinguishable from droplets of blood amidst the spray.
The wooden floor and white walls were coarsely painted with red, which Baluchta and Jiggan admired with neutral, almost tired faces. Aywa showed anger, sighing from disappointment as he placed his pistol back in its holster by his hip. "Sack of shit," He mumbled under his breath.
"Come on. We gotta pawn the haul." Jiggan patted him on the shoulder and led back into the living room where Teerom sat gloomily.
They left the house, Aleed carrying the bag of loot.
"Oi!" A voice called out from their right, down the street, deep in the Liffad territory. They turned to see a group of women approaching. They wore long grey jackets, black shirts that revealed their stomachs and baggy grey pants. And they had long whips.
"Girlfriends of his?" Aywa asked.
"Definitely not. Liffad's a gang run by women." Jiggan explained.
"Since when?"
"Since I killed their previous boss." Baluchta said.
"Say what?" Aywa and Aleed asked with surprise.
"So that was you, Baluchta." Jiggan chuckled.
"I was always jealous of the fat bastard. I've always wanted a harem and the cunt gets it the moment he was born. Good job, Baluchta." Aywa said, giving her a thumbs up.
"One of his chiefs asked me to do it. Paid me twenty gold coins. Now she's the new boss I think." Baluchta explained.
"Well, what do we do?" Aleed asked as the Liffad gangsters approached them.
"Since they don't seem keen to sit down and get to know each other, I say we run." Jiggan tapped Teerom in the back, "You lead, bud."
"Me?" Teerom asked, surprised.
"Yes. We'll follow you. Go!" He pushed Teerom forward, starting him like an engine. Cluelessly, Teerom sprinted forward with everyone following behind him. His mind was in a frenzy and he kept turning toward alleyways indecisively, slowing everyone down and receiving quite a few angry shouts from Aywa and Aleed.
"Calm down, Teerom!" Aleed demanded fatiguedly; he was carrying about 70kg of loot on his back.
"Give it here." Jiggan pulled the bag from Aleed's back and before sprinting forward added, "You have to carry the next five."
"Hell no!" Aleed shouted as he overtook him thanks to the weight off his back.
Teerom, at the front, was panting and sweating in a panic. He'd never been in this part of Rukae before; all the buildings were unfamiliar. He had no idea where he could climb and where he'd slip and fall off. He didn't even know which way was home.
Swiftly, he looked back at the others. A moment which he didn't realize he needed. Beyond Aywa and Aleed's desperate shouts and Baluchta's neutral expression that some irk was breaking through, Jiggan was looking at him with warm trust and confidence.
'I've got this.' Teerom looked back forward, still on the verge of shitting himself, but with the will to push through. He was so focused on his goal of leading everyone onto the rooftops that he didn't stop to ask himself why they didn't just fight. Although Jiggan never demonstrated his true strength in front of him, Teerom had both seen and experienced all of their strength when they were training him.
But he continued forward, down the street, turning too swift for Aywa which resulted in an aggressive, "Fuck!", as Aywa caught himself with his hands on a wall before resuming following Teerom.
"Sorry!" Teerom shouted, his face lightening up when he saw a tight alleyway ahead, "I got it!" He sped up into the alleyway, quickly analysing it. It was narrow with multiple windows and shoddily made balconies on both walls that would've overlapped if they were at the same heights. It seems stupid to have balconies in an alleyway, but the residents built them themselves to make it easier to hang clothing on the rope lines.
"Up!" Teerom jumped onto the first balcony at the bottom of the first column and pulled himself up with ease, then he quickly turned on its railing and pushed off with his legs, reaching his arms up to grab onto the bottom of the next balcony.
Baluchta followed him and under her was Aywa who commented boldly and stupidly as he received a swift kick to the face, "You've still got a nice ass."
Teerom pulled himself up with one arm, catching the top of the next balcony's railing with his other arm and bringing one of his legs up for support. With incredible swiftness and smoothness like a cat, he pulled himself up to stand on the railing and then jump up to the next balcony, repeating the same steps he took to pull himself up on the previous one.
Baluchta watched him with awe for a moment as he did it again for the next one. At the bottom, Jiggan had just begun climbing as the Liffad women had reached the alleyway. He could grab the top of the balcony by just going on his tip toes and had no issue pulling himself up. In fact, as he pulled himself up, the balcony began to creak and slowly break in short breaks of wood.
It would've broken under his feet if he didn't push the struggling Aleed up to the next balcony and then climb onto that one before it broke.
Teerom found himself in a short dilemma. The balconies above were too high up for him to reach; there was however a windowsill directly above him and a clothing line to the right that he could use to swing to the next column of balconies, which luckily had one at his current height.
Baluchta watched as he crouched. "Where are you-" Her words vanished from surprise when he jumped up, much higher than normal thanks to Strength Magic, and grabbed onto the windowsill. His Strength spell was about to run out with his mana, so he quickly caught his feet on the wall and leaped to the right, reaching for the clothing line.
He slightly miscalculated the jump; the rope hit the bottom of his forearm, but it, not smoothly at all, slid up into his grip. Gritting his teeth because of the friction burn, he let his momentum carry him forward and let go of the rop to launch toward the balconies ahead. His Strength spell ran out just before he caught onto the railing, hurting his hand slightly.
Aleed's mouth gaped wide open as he watched it unfold. "Fuck me. He's good." He said.
It was a relatively smooth climb up from there for Teerom. Baluchta hesitated slightly but succeeded in jumping up to the windowsill and then swing with the rope to the balcony Teerom was just on. Aywa was next, and though he slipped on the leap from the windowsill, he still managed to grab onto the rope.
However, the Liffad women had begun to climb up the balconies and wre about to reach Jiggan and Aleed.
"Aleed. I'll throw ya." Jiggan said, grabbing Aleed by the collar.
"Wait, what're you-" Aleed yelled as Jiggan hurled him beyond the rope and into Aywa. One of the women had reached him and, in what seemed like an instant, slapped her whip around Jiggan's neck.
"You know whips are some of the shittiest weapons?" He smirked. Teerom had just gotten to the top and watched with worry.
"Really? Let me prove you wrong." She pressed a button on the side of the whip which was supposed to tighten it so much it'd slice Jiggan's head off. But nothing happened. She looked at his face and it showed nothing but slight annoyance. "What the hell are you made of?" She asked, shocked and letting go of her whipe to create distance between her and the 6'4 man before her. The other girls were now on complete guard.
"Steel." Jiggan replied, "I would fight you. But I don't hurt women." He smiled coolly, making his attacker's heart skip a beat. After all, Jiggan was a very attractive guy. (he had much of a korean pop star look mixed with badass rugged themes)
He turned to the wall and smashed his fingers into it with ease, holding the bag on his back tightly with the other hand. "See ya later," He jumped with his legs and threw himself up with the one hand diagonally to where there were no balconies blocking his way up. With incredible power, he caught himself with his hand, breaking the wall again. Everyone watched with astonishment as he threw himself up like a monkey, caught his hand violently in the wall, and leaped again.
It only took five jumps for him to reach the top where Teerom was staring at him with a mix of admiration and envy.
"Let's go," Jiggan said and began running forward. Everyone followed him after quickly looking down to see that the Liffad women had given up after that demonstration of strength. Everyone sighed in relief; though everyone but Teerom sighed at the fact that the Liffad women didn't sem realize who Jiggan was.
"How was that, Teerom?" Aywa asked as they ran.
"That was amazing!" Teerom replied, performing a celebratory jump.