Visidia gave her hand to William, and both approached the brothel. It looked worthy of a serial killer's lair; its eroded walls made it look as if the place had been sieged, and its rusty, metallic windows of typical Mauri colonial designs looked stolen from a scrapyard.
"Those rectangular doors and windows up to the fourth floor surely make it a change of breeze compared to the hexagons everywhere around here, right?" she said. "Sadly, the pigs inside will be the same you'd run into anywhere a kilometer around. Of course, maybe these are way dangerous, considering that they are murderous drug dealers and all of that...."
Yellow lights came from the windows of the brothel. Black shades moved around in and out. Drums, whistles, and metallic string instruments resonated inside.
"Alright, here we are. I just hope that trusting in you was not my last bad decision..."
"Why so cynical, handsome?" she giggled once. "I'm gonna show you fun."
He covered his soul absorber, that wristwatch of brass gears and cyan lights well under his sleeve. In that place, getting mogged or pickpocketed for anything shiny would be the least surprising thing.
"Oh, look, some gentlemen near the entrance," she rolled her eyes. "Stand firm, don't look down. Protect your girl and they won't be trouble."
William knew she was speaking sarcastically when she said 'gentlemen'. At least four men in dirty mauled rags drinking as they chatted turned around and kept quiet at the incoming outsiders.
Only the muffled noise of the party inside filled the ambiance. Two approached, wearing bitter expressions on their filthy faces of mucked beards.
"Stop there," said one, wearing an old leather vest before his naked chest. "Oh, look at what we have here lads, a pair of pale whores have come to get some fun!"
Both chucked. The two behind joined them. William traded disgusted looks with Visidia as a pungent stench of urine, sweat, and rancid alcohol hit their noses.
"Puagh. I swear I could smell your stink from the other side of Inanna before even spotting you," he dryly said.
The hooligans didn't look offended, all trading idiotic, intoxicated chuckles with each other. "Oh, yeah, of course, you could! you bitches can smell your daddies and come to them, don't ya? Why don't you come and give us some of that ass already?"
The others laughed, hitting their drinks and getting closer. William kept calm, trying to not let it get to him. Instead, he kept his dagger ready under his pocket, just in case.
"We don't want any trouble. Get out of our way," he firmly responded.
"Oh, but we were just getting started!" barked a lanky, scrawny mugger at the bottom, tottering against Visidia with saliva spilling out of his mouth like a hungry bulldog.
"Come and give that crabby to daddy, you bi— argh!"
SLAM. He tried to get closer, but Visidia's long and thick right leg struck like lightning. A single kick sent the stinky man to the ground, blood and teeth getting shot off his mouth.
He laid there, still as ice. The rest of the hooligans stared in shock as their idiotic grins disappeared, and stepped ahead to their fallen comrade. Visidia rolled her eyes and looked in disgust at her black boots, stained with blood and cheap liquor.
"And I had just bought these last week," she sighed. "why can't a lady have something nice for once?"
"H-he's dead! This bitch killed Zekrem! Get their asses, lads!" the drunkard in the leather vest yelled. Another two had joined the group, probably curious at what they were up to.
The other assaulters either pulled out knives, used their bottles as weapons, or growled their teeth out like angry dogs as they tried to surround them. William looked at Visidia. Goddamnit. That was it, the first brawl they were trying to avoid.
"Oh, you're gonna need those knives, worthless Oksidi insects!" she laughed like a psychopath.
Before William got his dagger out, two of the hooligans jumped on him, cursing and screeching. "You're gonna pay, pig!"
But a swift sensation on his feet kicked in. His eyes reacted to the incoming knife faster than any common human, and he dashed to the left, the drunkard in the vest losing balance at he missed his thrust.
His fellow behind tried to seize the advantage. He lounged, but William's eyes had already intercepted him.
Grabbing his wrist before he could stab him, William smacked his stomach with an uppercut that made the robber flinch with a silent yell, spitting out all of his salivae.
"Why won't you hit me harder, bastard?!" screamed Visidia. "This is not how I like it!"
A fat hooligan locked from behind while another tried to get on her. Her right leg flew upwards, and the sturdy cap of her boot struck her assaulter right above the crutch, where his intimate, masculine twin parts hung.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGH!" he screamed everything out of his lungs before falling and passing out.
William squeezed his teeth for a moment, feeling a pulsing sensation on his crotch at that donkey-like kick.
"Wagh!" he was distracted; the attacker trying to stab him attacked again, and this time his senses were only fast enough to avoid a full stab.
A watery, burning sensation took place on his arm. The knife managed to rip off the shoulder part of his sleeve and make a cut on his bicep. He pressed his hand against it.
"Now let's dance, foreign bitch!" boasted the mugger, his knife ahead of him as he tried to approach.
William spat out, getting angry. That was the only chance that drunkard had of winning. Now the dirt below was gonna get mopped with his body. "Graaagh!" he flinched, a locking weight getting on his back. One of the remaining hooligans got on him.
Trying to plunge him off his back, his eyes immediately spotted a knife about to rain on his neck. His hand was faster; grabbing the assaulter's arm, pulling and tossing him ahead
"Aaaaagh!" sobbed the back-jumper, grabbing his shoulder with a horrid painful expression on the ground. "M-my shoulder! It's off!"
The hooligan with the knife ahead lost his daring face, hesitating as his weapon trembled. William stared at his intoxicated eyes, which went left and right as if he looked for an exit.
"Aggh!" he grabbed his own face, blinded by a shot of dirt William just kicked off the ground at him.
Getting closer, he took inspiration from Visidia and kicked him in the stomach in her fashion. The hooligan left out one last exhausted screech and slammed on his back behind.
William's respiration was agitated. Looking around, none of the drunkards remained standing. Regaining his senses, he noticed Visidia sitting on the belly of the defeated mugger that once held her, her feminine legs and fertile waist posing as she filed her nails with a smug expression.
"William, didn't I tell you to stand firm and protect your girl?"
How did she get rid of him? Realizing their situation, he looked at his hands with the same disbelief, just like when he fought Oraesh Khugazid's skeletons or that putrid, gigantic woman.
Both had won, not only against a single opponent but various at once. His senses proved to be swift and nimble again, his hands and feet faster. With a single kick and a punch, he neutralized two of them and prevented them from harming him. Besides the bleeding edge on his bicep, which was a few more than a scratch.
It was clear that being a lich was something else. He couldn't have defeated those men back when he was only a human...
And Visidia; what was up with her? That strength was not natural in any woman —or any human, for the same matter. Maybe she was not only different in appearance from people in Reniram.
He had to be cautious. Not only her beauty was dangerous...
Two men wearing decent long skirts, loose shirts, and Oksidi scarves came out of the brothel. Before William thought they were wasted, both yelled with laughter and happily invited them inside.
"You're strong, outsider! How the heck did you manage to ice out these vagrants? Addict bastards pick fights with who they should not. They would do anything for a dose of glowdust. Let's get you and your lass inside! Sure we've got something for you."
William was astonished. Visidia extended elegantly her arm to him, and both followed the Oksidi men opening the entrance to the noisy life inside the drinking place.
"Didn't I tell you it was going to be funny? Wait on, boy, there's more for us inside~"
A moth winged on the cloudy night sky above. William only hoped that was their last fight in that place; maybe he had learned enough about his new condition for today...