Chapter 20

One day before Leo and Alan's failed rescue mission

In the outlaw city where the city never sleeps, the brothel, pub and gambling house were always opened until dawn. Prostitutes and drunkards always walked everywhere on the streets. Some of them were happy and enjoyed their night, whereas some of them drank until they were drunk to the point that they forgot what had previously happened during the day. They just sat there and waited for a new day.

In the middle of the crowd, three men rushed towards one of the largest pubs in the outlaw city. Some of the prostitutes tried to attract their attention by seducing those three men. They were tempted by the beautiful prostitutes but they had to control their lust as they had some urgent matter to deal with. They had to nicely reject those prostitutes and then proceeded to walk away quickly.

With smiles on the faces of those men, one may have thought their presence in this city brought good omen but nobody knew what their intentions in this city were. They smashed the pub's door and with pride, walked towards the bartenders. The bartenders kept on working and ignored the arrival of those men. Those men stared impatiently at the bartenders as they waited for him to finish his work.

"What do you all need?" The bartender was disturbed by the stares of the three men. They looked to their right and left, to ensure that nobody overheard their conversation. "I need to speak to Lady Gudnight." One of the men whispered to the bartender. "Speak for what purpose?" The bartender wanted to know whether they came with good intentions or the opposite. He did this to protect Lady Gudnight from harm because she was the leader of this city and as a result, many people wanted to take her down, take her place or kidnap her in exchange for a bounty.

"I will tell her directly what my purpose is." That man stared sharply towards the bartender as if saying that he would never tell him any further details. The other men kept an awareness of their surroundings in case anything happened. The bartender felt doubtful. "Drink first." The bartender served that man a drink. The man threw the glass of alcohol to the ground, which caused it to shatter.

"I don't want any of this bloody alcohol." The man responded in a rude manner to the bartender. After that, the man felt uneasy and proceeded to look to his back. Without realizing it, he had provoked all of the men inside the pub. All of them stared at the three men while they prepared their weapons. Those three men were disgruntled to see this. "I come with a very good offer. If you don't like it we will just walk away." One of those three men shouted in hopes that Gudnight heard his proposal.

There was no response from anyone in the pub except for silent eyes that glared at them. This discouraged them and made them walked away as they did not want to waste their time. "Is it lucrative for me?" Gudnight's voice was suddenly heard from among the people in the pub. However, no one physically saw her. "Even the world wouldn't be able to decline our offer." One of the three men smiled cynically after he spoke to Gudnight poetically. At a certain corner of the pub, the men in the pub moved aside to make way for Gudnight's presence. She was seen seated with her chin raised and her legs crossed. "Entertain me, shall you?"

One of those men snapped his fingers at his friends. His friends immediately opened his bag and took out something from inside the bag. He held a small brown-colored chest in his hands. As he took out the chest, he walked forward to present something that was kept inside of it to Lady Gudnight. Once he opened the chest, Lady Gudnight happily smiled as she was interested in the item inside the chest that was presented to her. However, no one knew what was inside the chest, except for those three men and Lady Gudnight.

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The day of Leo and Alan's failed mission

Daylight was put to an end as dusk approached; a transitional phase before darkness completely engulfed the night. From the hills or any other high place, it was the best hour to witness the sunset. There was someone in a black cloak and a face mask that stood standing on one of the hills watching over the outlaw city. From afar, the light in the outlaw city looked very beautiful even though in reality that city was not as beautiful as most people thought. Rather, it consisted of wrecked buildings and was largely a dumping ground for criminals.

Unfortunately, he was not there to enjoy the view but instead he was waiting for the right time to enter the outlaw city. As it was a windy day, the cloak that he wore was lifted up a little by the wind, which revealed the equipment that he wore on his body. After a few moments, he got down from the hill and then proceeded to ride his horse to the outlaw city.

When he arrived at the main gate, he got down from his horse and walked inside the city with his horse in tow. On the right side, there was a guard who stood there and looked at him suspiciously. "You over there! Stop!" The guard quickly came to him and blocked the road. The guard was taller and had a bigger built than the masked man who looked much slimmer in comparison. As a guard normally held a spear in his hand, people were usually afraid of him.

"Hey kid, take off the mask." He laughed at his own mockery as he thought it was witty. The masked man was not bothered about the guard's mockery. He just stood still and did not make even a single movement. The guard felt annoyed that he was ignored. "Are you deaf or what?!" The guard quickly used his hands to try to remove the mask from the face of the masked man. Unlucky for that guard, the masked man's hand was faster than him. The masked man quickly blocked the guard's hand and proceeded to twist it which resulted in him falling to his knees. The guard was in a painful state.

"Where is Gudnight?" The masked man used a voice generated by his mask. "Fuck you…" The masked man twisted even more of the guard's hand to the point it nearly fractured his bone. Another guard suddenly appeared from the right side. "Hey, you bastard." This guard had the same built as the guard whose hands were twisted quickly attacked the masked man with his sword after he saw his friend was injured by the masked man.

The masked man easily dodged the attack. With his bare hand, he punched the guard's face. The guard collapsed and was unconscious with a broken nose. The masked man stopped facing the guard. He then gave him death stares to terrify the guard. "Gudnight is at her usual place in the pub, please have mercy on me." The guard surrendered and begged to be released. Without a word, the masked man broke the guard's hand which made him moan in pain. The masked man then punched the guard's face until his moans stopped and he passed out. The masked man left both the guards lying on the floor and went to look for Gudnight.

The surrounding of the pub was noisy as usual. People in the pub enjoyed drinking with each other. Some men joined gambling, some of them chattered with each other, and others enjoyed the company of women beside them. The joy and laughter from the pub attracted more customers to visit the pub.

Suddenly the pub's door broke as a result of a man being thrown against it. The impact of the incident made the man fell forward and slide to the floor which caused him injuries. The environment became silent as everyone was shocked. The women started to scream and run to find a safe place to hide and the men stood up with their weapons in their hands as they were ready to fight anyone who made the disturbances.

From the door, they saw a shadow that slowly approached. A masked man appeared standing in front of the door. The masked man looked at his surroundings. He was aware that all the people in the pub held their weapons in their hands. "I need to see Gudnight." The masked man spoke but their facial expression showed anger towards him. "Do you think we will give you what you want after you attacked one of our men?" The man who held an ax was pissed off.

The masked man already knew what would happen next, thus he then started to draw his sword. A black sword with a diamond-shaped Mana stone embedded in the middle of it caught the eye of his enemies. "You saw that mate, it will be my loot." The man with an ax pointed at the sword that was held by the masked man. The ax man started to attack. He slashed his ax towards the masked man as he was overconfident that he would defeat him.

The masked man saw his attack but he still remained calm. The overconfident man with an ax was surprised, as suddenly the masked man appeared beside him. It turned out that his attack only managed to slash the pub's floor. It was only then that he realized his hand was slashed and that there was blood dripping from the masked man's sword. At that moment, everyone was silent as they had witnessed something unbelievable. The man with an ax screamed in pain after he lost his hand. His blood would not stop squirting from his wound.

Immediately, everyone turned their faces towards the masked man who also turned to look at his enemies. With anger, all of them tried to seek revenge for the axeman. They started to attack the masked man simultaneously. Unfortunately, all the attacks missed their target and their weapons collided with each other. They seemed confused about how the masked man dodged all of the attacks and how he got into a different position from where he was initially.

The masked man now stood behind them. His enemies had to change their positions. At this time, the masked man stood in his stance. Calmly, he counter-attacked his enemies. The enemies did not make it in time to defend themselves because he attacked too fast. The masked man easily took down his enemies; one at a time. The visitors of the pub who did not participate in the fight and were in hiding saw him slashing down his enemies by just looking at the movement of his shadow. The blood of his enemies was splattered everywhere.

Some of his enemies begged to be shown mercy after they were injured. However, the masked man did not have any pity for them. Other people in the pub that were not involved screamed at the sight of people being killed in front of them. As they were traumatized and crippled by fear, they were not able to physically move their own body to escape. When the masked man looked around, he noticed that many enemies were severely injured. The masked man then calmed down after almost all of the surviving enemies that had left except for one. That enemy felt afraid and helpless when he looked at his injured and perished friends.

The masked man gave his final blow as fast as a flash before he stopped himself and got into a crouching position on the floor. The last man was defeated. Suddenly, someone pointed a gun at the masked man's head. "I have to stop you now." It was Gudnight who pointed the gun. The cocking sound from the gun made the masked man remained still in position. "I know why you are here, masked man…or should I call you Lady Tiara?" Gudnight already knew the identity of the masked man.