Chereads / KingsStreet: Ante Bellum / Chapter 14 - Fight for life?

Chapter 14 - Fight for life?

The teenagers ran quickly following the rope, their legs fell on the ground without making any noises, some of the dried dirt fell from Viridiana's dress told them they were running in the right path.

Vaterian stopped as he saw some of the rope had been cut, he inspected the rope, it had a clean-cut that was caused by a sharp edge. He looked further ahead toward the stairs, there were numbers of rope painted with the same colour as the stairs and set up perfectly as a tripwire, just waiting for anyone to step on it and send the message to its owner. Vaterian called Igor to let him have a look, they started to move carefully from this point

By the guide of the track and the rope, they reached the third floor, the highest floor in the building. The youngsters slow down their step, they saw a junction once they came up, at the ends of the left corridor there's an opening window. It was the window they saw when they were on the street.

The bell in front of the rooms was hooked up at a certain angle by the rope, so if anyone want to disable the device, a bigger sound would be made.

Vaterian followed the rope to the right corridor, to the room where the rope meets its bell. He put his ear on the wall listen to any voice come out from there, he heard three men. "Three." He made a sign with his hand, telling Igor the information he gathered. Igor nod his head, keep his distance from the door and took out his sword, he will be handling the most important job.

"Bam!" Vaterian ramed the door heavily with his shoulder, the door instantly fall apart. Igor rush into the room as soon as the door had been "opened", he rushed into the room and his eyes sweep across it.

Inside the room was 3 men sitting in a circle on their chair, just at the corner of the room was Viridiana and a middle-aged man, being tied up and falling incautious. Those men were completely unprepared about the sudden door breaching and were stunned by it.

"I thought you said you caught all of them?" The leading man yelled at the rest, he stood up while pulling out his sword, but before he was even able to fully unsheathe his sword the blade from Igor reached his neck with a Oberhau (Upper Strike).

The sound of the blade tore through his flesh sent to his brain through his nerve, that's the last bit of sound he heard. Igor was gentle enough to don't slice his head off, instead, he pulled his sword out from the man's neck while avoiding touching any bone within his motion.

The man closest to the corner realized what was going on and rushed toward Viridiana, also pulling out his sword try to use Viridiana as a hostage. Vaterian already expected that as he was holding his dagger in his hand, which used to place beside his calf. He threw the dagger toward the running man, the dagger flew past Igor's ear, the whistling sound the dagger created and the feel of the threat remained in Igor mind even after the dagger stabbed into the man's leg.

The last man saw this opportunity, he quickly went past Igor and ran toward the exit, where Vaterian was standing. Vaterian holding his sword in a Pflug stance, his legs were spread out and placed one at front another at back, his body leaning slightly forward while his sword placed beside his waist pointing against the incoming person.

The man strike with a desperate Oberhau, it's not hard to defend it but the strength being put in that strike made it impossible to ignore. Vaterian quickly lift his sword and parry the strike, as a habit he quickly followed up with a Unterhau (Lower Strike), trying to take away the man's limb.

The man saw his chance, as Vaterian had turned his body sideways and started to attack, there was a huge gap under his sword. The man quickly threw away his sword, lowered his body and slipped behind Vaterian.

Unexpecting such a coward behaviour, Vaterian was stunned for a while and his hand is still doing the cut, the cling made by the clash with the abundant sword bring him back. He quickly turned his body while slashing around with his right hand only, for a greater reach.

What may bring him disappointment was although he reacted at a fast speed, the man only been injured by the tip of the sword in his arm, which is not enough to let the man stop.

The man run down the stair quickly as he stepped on the tripwire causing all the bells to start ringing, after some sudden speed up in the ringing, it stopped.

While the last man was rushing toward Vaterian, the man who get hit by the dagger climbed up and continue his movement. However, Igor was already on his way, he quickly jumped toward the man and stomped the man on his head, the sign of living was quickly fade away from the man.

Igor turned around and prepared to let Viridiana and the man beside her, who seemingly was her father. He realized Viridiana's eye leash was moving, he looked behind him and saw the body and the blood, he decided to not let her witness it.

He took out his handkerchief, a white fine cloth with the name of his mother Layla sewed on it, and gently covered Viridiana's eyes with it.

"Your better don't see anything happen here," Igor said to Viridiana before she even asked what happened here. For the daughter of a Merchant guild, the smell of blood was not in the "to learn" option.

Viridiana showed her accompany by nodding her head, she was totally shell-shocked by those intense events happened today. Suddenly, Igor heard the constant bell ringing, followed by a intense ring, the bell went silence. Igor had a smile on his face, he knew his trick worked.

As Vaterian went down to the stairs, all he saw was a person fell beside the staircase, the mug and the liquid spilled all over the stairs are obviously the direct cause of it.

"Why it didn't surprised me he always use these tiny trick." Said Vaterian silently.