All possible escape routes had been blocked by the party, creating three duos, and cautiously making their way near the house.
A lamp faintly lit the whole house, emitting the same scary vibe to it after the death of the massacred family.
"Rumors have it that people would hear footsteps of kids running around inside the house."
"Stop it. You're just scaring yourself."
Being scared of the dead and people who are alive have a clear difference in them. One thing is you won't be able to see ghosts unless you're an esper whilst you always see a person in the flesh.
"A man who has a knife in his hand and is ready to kill shouldn't be acting like a coward just because you've heard rumors of ghosts."
"But it's true!" Persisted the man who was shaking in fear of the dead.
"One time, I sneaked inside the house and I ended up running away for my life when I heard kids laughing in the bedroom!"
A small house with one bedroom, a tiny kitchen, and enough space for a bathroom. The living room is where the kids sleep while their parents are in the bedroom.
There is only one door they can access to go inside the house, and two large enough windows an adult person could use to escape.
The pair in front of the door held the doorknob, staring at each other with wide grins behind the rag in their faces.
"Here goes nothing!"
What greeted them was the gloomy and chilly vibe the house was emitting from inside. The other two pairs that also went inside through the windows, one was in the bedroom, and the other is in the bathroom, felt the menacing aura looming around their head.
Within the house stood a man wearing a mask that covers most of his face and the same clothes he has in the morning. Silence fell upon everyone, the pair that came from the door stared back at Invictus, stopping in their tracks.
Invictus' hands were in his pockets, his posture was intimidating, and the blood splashed around where he was standing gave off a horrendous and sickening feeling in their guts.
"Suddenly, my bladder hurts."
From both flanks emerged the other two pairs with their knife in their hands, tiptoeing their way out.
"Do you bastards know why I chose this house to stay in when there are plenty of neat and much comfortable places to stay in?"
His gestures and the way Invictus stretched his arms to the side as he spoke divulged that he has no weapon or anything he can use against them.
"Who cares about that? We're only here for your money. If you fork over everything you've got, we might even think of letting you off the hook."
Confidently, Jorp said to Invictus as he watched his friends behind slowly get near him.
"Only the brainless would fall for such an obvious trap."
The two pairs behind Invictus had gotten so much closer to him to the point that they triggered the strings he attached to a trap he set right before they came in.
Everyone expected it to be some kind of magic trap or arrows getting shot at them, but what the string triggered is the one connected to his weapon hidden above.
A short sword descended right in front of Invictus' face, swinging left and right three inches away from him.
Swiftly, Invictus' dominant hand, which is his left snatched the short sword from the string but didn't move an inch from where he was standing.
The two pairs behind him were taken aback, confused for a moment because they could have died immediately had Invictus set up deadly
traps.
However, little did they know, choosing the house as his place and leaving the broken locks unfixed, had always been the trap.
"Does your little brains understand now?"
Invictus suddenly let out a surmounting amount of bloodlust, trampling over their confidence and weakening both their knees and will.
"Eep! What killing intent!"
"Don't and never falter!" Jorp tried boosting his friends' morale, staying calm and unshaken, although his mind tells him to run.
'This man! How much bloodlust does he possess?! To display such an amount of killing intent...!'
They can't run away or turn their back. Each one of them is desperate for money to bring food to their tables and to live another day.
One from behind Invictus was brave enough to launch an attack.
Whilst screaming, he charged in like an amateur, holding his knife with both hands where the weapon had found its mark on Invictus' body.
Sweating, the man who changed towards Invictus felt his knife digging into the man's flesh. Upon realizing that Invictus was unable to evade his
attack, his face grimly brightened.
"H-Haa! Seems like I was scared for nothing!"
It happened so fast. Before he realized what happened he was thrown down on the ground, his back crashing on the floor, thus grunting in pain.
Everything occurred so fast to the extent that he could not react at all when Invictus' fist slammed into his face. His blood splattered, a few teeth were broken, and his friends, like a statue, stood in shock, frozen on their feet.
Invictus did not kill him. He just gave the man a beating and it lost consciousness in the third punch with his face swollen and face
covered in his own blood.
Bloodshot eyes shifted to Jorp's location. Fear shrouded their minds, and intimidation overwhelms their desires and desperation, resulting in wanting to just run away and never mess with Invictus again. However, they are criminals, labeled as the most atrocious people in Estaria, prideful wrongdoers whose only purpose in the kingdom is to cause terror and engraved fear in people's minds.
Each of them possessed compulsive behavior, the immense urge to satisfy their desires. It could take many forms, although the common satisfaction for these criminals is their lustful desire or torture.
"Which one of you will be the next victim?"
~