Ambushed

"They're on my back like a horse's tail..." The Black Fang wasn't going to give up easily, were they? Kies was getting impatient about them following them wherever he went. Like mad hounds to a sheep, they wanted him, but unfortunately for them, the prey they were after was a sheep in wolf's clothing.

Kies didn't have the time to play with them, or did he? Now that the herbalist was gone, he needed to find another way to cure the queen. Nyana wasn't confident since he lacked the expertise of the desert's herbs, and since the Black Fang were the ones responsible for poisoning the queens, they may have a cure. Kies just needed to get it off them, one way or another.

"Did you think you lost us!?" the short thief asked, chuckling. "Heard you broke Ragar's nose, then you almost killed him too!"

"I don't see him here. Where is he?" Kies asked, curious where he was. That man held a grudge against him and he didn't seem like the type to let it go until he got his revenge.

"Him? Don't worry. You'll die here before you can see him again."

"You'll have to send more than four to kill me."

"Ha! Mages. Think ya tough cause you can do some fancy tricks!? I'll teach-"

"Shut up!" Another one of the thieves was getting impatient and punched the short thief in the back of the head.

"Ow! The h*ll was that for!?"

"We're not here to godd*mn talk!" The thief pulled out a knife and threw it at Kies. Kies tilted his head and the knife flew past, landing on the roof behind him and sliding down onto the ground.

The other thieves got in position and began to bombard Kies with arrows and knives. "Winds, deflect them." As Kies ordered, the winds formed a wall in front of him and stopped everything. He returned them all back to the thieves but left the short one alone. He was going to leave that one alive. He looked to be the most talkative one out of them all and most likely the easiest one to get information out of.

The thieves all ducked and moved away. However, one of the arrows pegged one of them in the leg, causing him to fall over. He cursed and crawled behind a small cart to hide from Kies. However, he should know that a cover was useless against a mage that could attack from anywhere.

"Finish him." The winds went around and over the wall. There was a loud cry, but it was short lasted. It was a quick death. There wasn't much time for the thief to suffer. It was a death that the thief didn't deserve considering what the Black Fang did to the people of Otane. The other three members of the Black Fang looked behind them at their fallen comrade. They couldn't see him, but the blood on the ground and walls were more than enough to tell them that he was dead.

"F*ck! He got Mesh!"

The other three looked at each other and then nodded their heads. They all spread out and surrounded the house that Kies was on from three different sides. Ignoring the short thief who he was going to interrogate later, Kies went for the other two, sending the winds after them.

"Watch your backs!" the short thief yelled at them, hearing the howl of the winds. They both looked behind them but they caught on too slow. By the time they realized it, the winds were already too close for them to get away. The first thief was killed in an instant. The winds pierced through his heart and the thief died just like that, without the chance to do anything. The other thief was a bit luckier and dodged a lethal blow to his heart, but it still hit close to it.

The thief sprawled on the sand, coughing so much blood out that it looked like he was emptying all the blood in his body. The thief's hand went into his cloak, seemingly reaching for something, but he didn't have enough time to take it out. He lost too much blood and died seconds after receiving the wound, following his buddy to the afterlife.

The short thief was now the last one left. Seeing that both of his accomplices were dead and he was alone, he was panicking. Just like the other thief, he reached into his sleeves to take out something. Kies stopped him before he had a chance to take it out, blasting him in the leg and knocking him off balance.

"Ah!" The thief fell onto his back and a small spheric object dropped onto the sand, rolling a few inches away from the thief. "No!" The thief scurried, getting onto his belly, and reached for the object. Kies recognized what it was that he had quickly called the winds to grab it before the thief could.

He could only watch the bomb fly out of his grasp and into the palm of Kies' hand. "And I thought that the soldiers confiscated most of your gunpowder..." The number of bombs they have is unbelievable. They even had enough gunpowder to blow up the entire colosseum.

"It's not over yet!" The thief reached into his cloak once more and took out a needle and a small vial containing some sort of a substance inside. He popped open the vial and stuck the needle inside.

"You're really going to do that!?"

"Yes. Whatever it takes to see this place crumble down." He took out the needle which was coated in the substance. The thief laughed, holding the needle next to his neck. "It's over for you!"

The thief pushed the needle against his neck, but the needle didn't penetrate the skin. "What?" The thief pushed harder, not understanding why it wasn't going on. Was his skin made of steel? What was going on? He put so much force on it that the needle broke in half, rendering it useless.

"Why didn't the needle go through!?" The thief rubbed his neck to see if something was there. Nothing. "Huh? Then why...?"

"Can't figure it out?" Kies asked the man, still standing on the roof and watching him. He stood still for the last minute, not having made a move.

"Is this your doing!?" There was no other explanation. Kies had to have interfered somehow, and he did.

"I'm not so dumb that I would let you do that." Kies waves his hand and ordered the winds to show themselves. There was a super thin layer of wind surrounding the thief's body which he hadn't noticed and it prevented the needle from touching his skin. It was no thicker than the thief's skin to make it blend in perfectly so that he wouldn't detect it or feel that something was off.

The winds flew off the thief's body, taking the broken needle and the vial so that he couldn't try anything else with them. "When...?" The thief was in disbelief. How could someone use magic like that?

"Do you have any more cards up your sleeve?" Kies asked the thief, taunting him to use whatever he had left. He was more than confident that he could deal with whatever tricks he still had, that is, if he had any left.

"Yes... I still have this!" The thief raised his arm and fired an arrow from under his sleeve. It was the last trick he had. But Kies saw this too many times already and dodged the arrow without much effort. However, what he didn't know was that this arrow was a bit different from the previous ones.

Upon passing him, Kies heard a hiss, and by then it was already too late. "You idiot! Did you think that we only repeat the same tricks!?" the thief mocked him.

Kies turned around just in time to see a burst of orange and red, followed by silver flying everywhere. One of the needles hit him square in the neck. Another hit him in the arm. A third buried itself in his stomach.

"Ha! You're mine now! Once you transform, you'll become my slave."

"..."

Kies pulled the needles out of his body and threw them away. Each and every one of them was coated in the substance that turned humans into monsters.

"...Why aren't you transforming!?"

"Transforming? Oh, don't worry, I am. I am about to become a demon alright." Not physically of course. The thing had no effect on him. What Kies meant was that he was going to show him something he will never forget.

Kies dashed to the thief so fast that it almost looked like he teleported. "When- Oof!" Kies punched the thief in the stomach, causing him to hunch over. He then delivered a blow to his face, kicking him into his back. "Ah!" A tooth flew out and blood spilled out of his mouth.

Kies walked around and planted his foot on the thief's neck before he could get up. "So tell me, what's your big plan? Why are you doing all of this? What are you doing it for?"

"Do you think I will tell you that!?"

"Oh, you will." It sounded like the thief needed a little encouragement. He wasn't yet ready to tell him anything.

Kies didn't know how to torture people. He only knew how to kill, but that should be more than enough. He knew what killed and what didn't. As long as he didn't accidentally overdo things and kill the thief, it should be a piece of cake.

The thief's eyes widened as Kies' foot came down on his hand, crushing several of the fingers. "Arghh! I'll kill you!"

"Not enough?" Good. It would be a shame to end it just like that. Kies was just getting started.

For the next few minutes, Kies best the thief ruthlessly, not giving him even a second to catch his breath. Broken fingers, broken legs, broken arms, and all in all, broken bones all over. The thief couldn't move at all anymore.

"Are you ready to talk now?" Kies asked the thief for the tenth or so time now. He was a mess with blood everywhere, breathing heavily. There was still some fight left in his eyes, but Kies didn't want to continue since he would risk killing the thief if he did.

"You will regret this. Oh, yes you will," the thief said while grinning, showing two rows of crooked teeth, each separated by a gap after Kies punched them out.

"If you keep talking like that, it will be you who will regret things."

"You're acting tough, but you don't know that your three friends are in trouble."

"What did you say?"

"Heh. The princesses and their dog? We know where they are. We followed you."

"So you did..." The thief didn't sound like he was lying. Kies didn't even notice that he was being followed at all. But the three of them should be able to handle the thieves... Maybe?

Kies needed to head back and quick. He held his hand over the thief's chest and was about to kill him when he opened his mouth again to say one last thing.

"And if you think that they're fine, you're very wrong. The ones who went after them are nothing like is four. They're psychopaths... They're the real monsters of Black Fang."

"There's a second group after the queen. Our job is to stall you, and you took the bait. And if you think they are okay... You should know that the ones sent after the queen are the most twisted ones out of all of us."

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