[3rd Person's POV]
'I shouldn't have made them my enemy,' thought a man, who sat on a round table while reading a report of what happened to one of his hideouts. He had a frown on his face. Reading about one's own losses and regretting their decision isn't the best experience. Six people were sitting around the table, and each one was the controller of the underworld in their respective businesses.
At this moment, there was a meeting between the underworld's top dogs. The topic was about a new power that has risen in recent years. They called themselves Silent Rouges. The problem wasn't them creating an organization. There were many dark organizations in the Kingdom, but they had to abide by the rule of these Mafia Bosses.
But this new organization, whose leader was still unknown, has even refused to acknowledge their presence, let alone heed their warnings. This made Frisk, the Boss of Assassins, furious. Because the new organization was dominant in assassinations and killing, they had to contact and stay under Frisk's indirect control to stay in business.
Such was the rule of the underworld; any new business had to stay under these Mafia Bosses. The new organization may rise to power gradually, but they always had to start from the bottom, raising their grade slowly. Some of these Mafia Bosses' organizations became powerful by rising up this food chain. When they became powerful enough to control their sectors of business, they started gatekeeping anyone to be successful enough to surpass them.
Frisk was such a Mafia Boss who had climbed the food chain. His organization, 'House of Blacks,' was once a bottom feeder. And now, it gained such fame that even the common masses knew of it and came to fear it. When he noticed a new organization centered around assassination and contract killings, he confronted them. There was no way he would let go of this. The underworld's rules have been in place for more than a century, and there's been no one daring enough to break them recklessly.
But something happened that Frisk didn't expect. This new organization refused to comply with his demands and burned three of his hideouts, killing and capturing all of his assassins. This caught everyone by surprise; House of Black's hideouts were almost impossible to find and even more impossible to completely wipe out.
Everyone was terrified about this new power that appeared from thin air, which could give one of the scariest organizations this much of a face slap. Especially Frisk, who was bewildered by the result. He wasn't an arrogant piece of shit that was just handed powers. He was far from that. Frisk has been the leader of HOB for more than fifty-five years now. He has played political games and fought countless battles to reach where he was, and his instincts told him that this new organization was stronger than his.
[A/N: HOB - House of Blacks]
Frisk has garnered pride through his efforts and achievements. Never had he been face-slapped and humiliated so severely. Although his approach toward Silent Rogues was forceful, and he tried to subdue them with force, their retaliation was just overkill. They had killed 20% of HOB, and an even absurd report was that they were killed by just two people.
"Who even are they?" said Pixy, the Boss of Pleasures, who was donned in baggy clothes just to hide her sinful body. Her clothes did nothing to hide her beautiful face, which had a severe expression. Although brothels and other prostitutions are far away from these fight-related organizations, they always need their help for security and safety. The weakening of HOB indirectly affected the already fragile ecosystem of the underworld.
"My spies can't locate them. They have no records in the main market, too," Cipher, the Boss of News and Espionage, said disappointedly. Collecting news was his life. Failing in this mission gave Cipher an existential crisis.
Everybody was ashen by the words of Cipher, for the person who even knew how many times they go to the bath, telling them that he didn't know something. "Let's put the matter on hold till now. We need to sort out our personnel and reduced manpower," said Bigfinger, the Master of Coins.
The discussion continued about sorting and dealing with less security personnel. Although HOB dominates in the assassination, the killing requests don't come often, especially where HOB has to do the job. So the members of assassination organizations work as part-time mercenaries and bodyguards to earn money.
The current system of the underworld was interdependent. If one side of the business failed, the others would take a critical hit. That is why these six Mafia Bosses kept close relations with each other and didn't let the system collapse.
After an hour of discussions about rerouting and restationing supplies and personnel, a magic communication device ring interrupted the meeting atmosphere. The magic device was of Frisk, and it gave him some trauma in recent days that whenever he picked it up, some horrible news would come.
Steeling his resolve, Frisk picked it up. And the first word from the other side almost made him cough blood. "SIR, THE BASE IS UNDER ATTACK; IT'S THE SAME TWO PEOPLE" screamed the voice from the other side. It was loud enough to be heard by the other Mafia Bosses. Everyone gasped at the news. Will they lose more of their manpower? What kind of enmity this organization has from the underworld? It was all in their minds.
"Start the video broadcasting you prepared, fast," said BigFinger, who had awoken first from this shocking news. Others nodded to this suggestion. Frisk screamed, "OPEN THE VIDEO!! DEFEND THE BASE WITH ALL YOU GOT. I AM SENDING THE BEST TROOPS AS REINFORCEMENTS" the other side complied, and a video of the Base Leader's point of view started playing inside the conference room.
Frisk quickly contacted other bases for a distress signal and ordered reinforcements. For now, all the Mafia Bosses could do nothing but watch the live feed and pray that reinforcements reached on time. All of them were nervous, but they all had a certain spark of excitement, especially Cipher, who was trying to collect this information. They will finally be able to see the culprit that has shaken the whole underworld.
-- -
[Base Leader's POV]
The call hung up, but the Boss could still see my point of view. I should not be afraid anymore. No matter how skilled a person may be, I need to buy time. I ordered my subordinates to not engage the assailants directly and employ a hit-and-run tactic.
Only two people were reported to attack the base, just like the other bases. I am assuming that the same two people had come here. They are dangerous, but I think half of their danger comes when an opponent underestimates them.
I left my office, and with four of my best fighters, I started moving inside the base, trying to regroup and recruit all the people I could. Voices of screaming and shouting were echoing throughout the corridors. It is truly an eerie sight.
I turned towards a corner, only to find some frozen and impaled corpses. The temperature of the base was noticeably going down at a fast rate. We started moving in a random direction. At this point, we had no idea where we were running or the culprits.
I managed to gather 5 more people in my group. We saw the same sight of brutally mutilated and pierced corpses wherever we went. The culprit had Ice as his element, 'but weren't there two? What happened to the other one?' I thought because all the corpses I had seen were from just one person's attack.
This makes the group more terrifying. Only one person filled our base with so much carnage. I can't even fathom the actual might of the organization. I was lost in my thought as I heard one of my team members coughing blood and holding his neck as if something was choking him. And then, the next moment, his lifeless body fell to the ground.
We all feel a subtle feelingthat we are getting weak. Something is affecting us from the inside. "Poison?" I thought aloud. There was no way I was infected by poison. This was something else; it was corroding my magic core. I have heard about this in rumors before, the legendary element of darkness. However, when I tried to voice my thought, I saw it...
Bright yellow eyes glowing in the dark, the person looked like a kid of 15-16 years of age, which made it all the more terrifying. The person casually walked in front of me and said, "Game of tag is over now," in an emotionless icy tone, and then... I died.