Chapter Seventeen - I am the Dragon

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Tia asked Locke "There must be at least twenty guys in there! You still aren't bulletproof! "

"What choice do I have, these guys went after Hanna." Locke sighed "I just can't leave this unpunished, besides this time I was lucky to be with her and I was able to stop it, but what about next time? I have to get this over! Now! "

Locke was on the effects of camouflage, standing on the roof of a building on the outskirts of the city, watching a bar from afar, the bar was the meeting place for the gang that Sean had paid to kidnap Hanna. Two men were at the bar entrance, all their body language indicating that they were armed and were dangerous.

"But are you ready for this? You know you won't be able to analyze everyone's memory to decide what to do with them, you're going to have to go full killer spree!" Tia warn as she landed on Locke's shoulder.

"If someone is ready to kill, they must be ready to die!"

"It is good to know that you are determined, but how do you intend to do that? If a bullet hits your head it's game over!"

Locke sighed and started to think about his options. "Damn it, I wish I could get completely camouflaged and take everyone down, it would be a lot harder to hit me if they didn't see me, but the camouflage falls apart with the first attack... There has to be a better way of face that... "

"While about the new skill?" Asked Tia.

Locke opened the system screen, a new ability had been unlocked during his... 'conversation'... with Andre, the ability was called Aura of fear.

[Aura of fear - Special ability: Due to your mana's inherent attribute and your draconic nature, you have the natural ability to instill fear in creatures weaker than you just by manifesting your mana, this ability has no cost. Attention! Emitting your mana can attract unwanted attention.]

"As soon as I saw this new skill of yours I understood why that guy ran away as if you were going to devour him!" Tia scoffed. "This looks useful!"

"It doesn't use up mana either… thankfully it's not a passive skill, I would hate it if Hanna was afraid of me… Anyway, let's go back to the current situation, the daily missions and meditation helped me to increase my mana a little bit, so I can use to create more shadows than before, but I still have to use a lot of mana... Dragon force will also help me to do some damage, but the expense of stamina can end up leaving me in a bad place... Wait a minute, how much vital energy have we accumulated?"

"About forty thousand..." replied the fairy.

"I remember that we rescued the rights of two new blueprints, the magic gags that silenced users completely and the handcuffs that could only be opened by me, if I am not mistaken we have the rights to recover at least one more blueprint, rigth?"

"Yes, but only the recipe for basics magics items can be recovered for now, since our authority over the system is still low... wait, I know which one will be the perfect item!" Tia was suddenly excited. "Do you trust me?"

"With my life," replied Locke.

Tia smiled and opened a system screen for herself, soon a number of points of light began to gather in the air, a black ring fell on Locke's hands.

"What is this?" Locke was confused.

"What do you think it is? Doesn't it look like an ring?"

"I know it's a ring, but what is it for?"

The fairy started to laugh. "This ring has the effect of recovering your mana while you move! Now your mana will always be recovering!"

Locke thought about it and said, "Wow, that seems to be quite useful." One of Locke's concerns was exactly that, running out of mana during a fight, the ring wasn't going to make his mana infinite, but it would help him have more maneuver, he took off his glove and put the ring on his left middle finger, the ring fit perfectly, he put the glove back on, Locke could feel his body draining the surrounding mana slowly. "How many of these can I use?" If Locke had ten of these, he would be like a magic siphon.

"Theoretically you can use as many of these as fit your fingers, the problem is that they are not cheap, I used all the forty thousand just to make this one, but don't worry, I can update it in the future! This will help you to have a little more ammo! "

The ring was comfortable, even under the glove, but Locke still hadn't solved all of his problems, he still needed a way to protect himself from the future projectiles. An idea crossed his mind. "I think I find a way to defend and attack at the same time ..."

"What's your idea?" Tia was curious.

"You'll see ... I just hope it works ..."

***

Two men were standing at the bar door, they had drawn lots and lost, and now they were responsible for one of the most tedious tasks for the family, being on guard in the cold night.

Both were silent, one was smoking a cigarette while standing, the other was leaning against a wall almost dozing off.

"Wake up Dog! If the boss catches you sleeping he will eat your heart!" the smoker commented.

The man in the wall toke a small leap. "Shit man! I always got the guard! it's the third time this week! This is fucking my sleep cycle man!" the man with the nickname dog stood up and slapped his face twice, trying to chase off the sleep.

"If you didn't spend the whole day playing with whores, you wouldn't be so tired! Here, smoke one of these, it will help you to stay awake!" The smoker took another cigarette out of his pocket.

The sleepy man, Dog, reluctantly accepted the cigarette, he bent down slightly so that his friend would light it up, and walked to the side of the building, he swallowed hard and blew a big puff of smoke into the air.

"Damn man, this is some a good shit! Where did you get this, Monkey?" Dog asked.

"Do you liked? This is first-grade tobacco! Rolled up by hand for some of those thai children! I got it from my cousin, he's in smuggling ring!" Monkey, the smoker, smiled at the sleepy man. "If you want some, tell me, I can arrange with him."

The sleepy man started walking with the cigarette in his mouth, he was making small turns near the entrance to the bar to chase off sleep, when he saw something strange. "Monkey? Are you sure this cigarette is tobacco?"

"Yes, why?"

"I... I think there is some crazy dude in costume at the end of the street..."

The man called Monkey looked in the direction his friend was referring to, there was indeed a strange figure standing at the end of the street.

The figure was shaped like a man, a man totally covered in some kind of completely black armor, dark enough that no detail could be seen, the figure had a tower shield in his left hand and a strange kind of spear in his right hand, both as black as the armor, so dark that the figure did not seem to have depth, the only clashing detail was two golden lights that shone through cracks where the eyes should have been.

"What the f*ck is that?" Monkey asked.

"Hey, don't you think it's early for Halloween?" Dog scoffed.

The figure moved slightly, raised the black spear and start a throwing stance.

"What did he-" Before Dog could finish the question, the spear was thrown with surprising speed, crossing the space like a black ray and driving it in, hitting his face right in the middle of the jaw, knocking him dead on the floor .

"DOG!" Monkey took a pistol from his waist, ready to shoot the figure in armor, but the figure was gone, he turned to his friend on the floor and realized that the spear was also gone.

"What in the f*cking hell is that?" he turned to run to the entrance of the bar when he realized that the figure was now in front of him, standing imposing over him, he tried to shoot but the huge hands of the figure in armor got his neck, a black sharp spike grow from the hand, entering his chin and coming out of the top of his head.

"That was a good idea," said Tia to Locke. "Instead of manipulating shadows like projectiles, you built a armor and weapons!"

"Since I can manipulate the shadows however I want and can make them as hard as steel, I thought about using them that way, with the mana I have been able to keep this armor for at least an hour," replied Locke. "Now is the moment of truth!"

Locke walked to the entrance to the bar, he took a deep breath and kicked the door with all his strength, the door burst into pieces of wood and Locke ran inside the bar.

Locke's sudden entrance caused a huge commotion, the first figure he saw was a man near the entrance sitting at a table, he had a pen tube in his hands and was crouching over some white powder, a pistol was resting on the table next to him, at his fingertips. The man looked at Locke in absolute confusion. Locke didn't weigh twice and swung the glaive made of shadows hard, cleaving the man in half, teh man even have time to scream.

That's when the shoting started.

Locke positioned the shadow shield in front of his face and ran with all the speed he had, sending tables, chairs and people flying through the air, like the onslaught of an unrestrained rhino, turning the glaive and hitting all unluck armed figures he can, the pistol bullets bounced off his armor without doing any damage.

"Big gun on the left!" Tia shouted.

Tia's warning made Locke jump to the side, a series of high-caliber machine-gun shots began to follow his figure, but Locke moved like a ghost and escaped the line of fire, exercising his ethereal steps to the fullest potential. Locke ran among the other bandits, causing friendly fire between them, he took advantage of the sniper's short pause when he hit a companion to launch the shadow glaive on his chest, impaling him against a wall.

Locke jumped up and grabbed the man's machine gun, he turned and emptied the cartridge at his old companions, the screams of the men were short-lived, and soon Locke's armored figure was the only live thing in that room.

"Now, to the big boss room!"

***

In a room at the back of the bar, five armed men were waiting tense, all of them were pointing their guns at the door, sweat was streaming down their faces and some were even shaking. They had been listening to the sounds of screams and gunshots coming from the bar for a while, the sudden silence filled them with a horrible sensation.

"What the hell is that? What the hell is going on? " A short man, dressed in a cheap suit, covered with jewelry and golden rings shouted at the others. "Who's attacking us?"

"We don't know, boss," someone replied.

"Damn, why was everything so quiet? Bruce, go outside and see! "

A short, chubby man, who was trembling like a leaf, hurriedly replied, "Me? Not me boss! "

"Bruce, I told you to go outside and see!" The boss spoke in an irritated tone, pointing his gun at the fat man.

The man named Bruce started to walk slowly towards the door, trembling more than before, he reluctantly put his hand on the handle, gathering all his courage to open the door.

"A-A-Are you sure it's a good idea, boss?" Bruce asked.

The door, however, was blown off its hinges, hitting Bruce's fat body and knocking him down to the ground, a black figure burst into the room in a storm of bullets.

The bullets ricocheting in all directions while Locke brandished his glaive, pieces of people flew with each blow, turning the room into a scene directly taken from a nightmare.

Soon the only remaining figures were the chief sitting in his chair and Locke in his shadow armor.

"Who sent you, were the Russians? I can pay you more! A lot more!" the boss was shaking, he tried to negotiate for his own life.

Locke did not answer, he went to the boss and grabbed him by the face, lifting him from the chair with one hand.

"Wha-wha-what are you doing?"

An intense pain in the brain was his only answer, the boss screamed with the full force of his lungs as a stinky liquid ran down his legs. After a few seconds the Locke threw the man on the table, breaking it.

"Who-who are you?" the boss asked Locke.

"I am the Dragon" Locke's voice came.

The shadow glaive cross the air and descended on the chief's body.

"Did you get the confirmation?" Tia asked.

"Yes, it was Sean! He paid two million for those sh*ts for the job"

Locke bent down and took the cell phone from the pocket of the boss's corpse, he unlocked the cell phone with the body's fingerprint and searched for Sean's contact, he wrote a message;

- We have the girl, where is the delivery location? -

The answer was not long in coming, as Sean was impatient.

- Finally, you useless little sh*ts made me wait for a to long! Bring her to address XXXX-XXXX -

- We are on our way -

"Hey, the fat guy is still alive!" Tia warned Locke.

The fat man had been knocked through the door and was passed out, Locke watched him for a second and left the room. "He was lucky, I have another fish to fry."

Locke left the bar and jumped onto the roof of a building, he undid the shadow armor, getting rid of the blood that covered it, looking again at the address Sean had given him and he started moving through the night.

"Prepare your ass Sean!"

***

Sean was happy as a clown in a circus, he was waiting in a room on the edge of the outskirts of the city, it was the place where he used to drag girls who 'did not cooperate', the place was a s*x dungeon, full of the elements of his perversions.

Sean was standing in front of a wall of photographs, a dozen pictures of different girls were stuck on the wall, some very few were smiling, some had an expression of pain, others were even passed out, a special spot had been prepared above all other photos, and Sean laughed like crazy with all the excitement he felt.

Three taps sounded on the door.

Sean moved with a maniacal laugh, drool descending from his mouth as he ran for the door, he opened the door with excitement, only to get a fist coming towards him at massive speed.

Locke fist hit him in the face with the force of a truck, sending him flying to the ground unconscious, without even knowing what hit him.

When Sean woke up he found himself in a strange place, his face hurt like never before and he felt a strong taste of blood in his throat. He tried to scream, but something covered his mouth, it felt like a gag, he was stuck in a chair in a dilapidated room in an abandoned building.

"Hello Sean" the voice came out of the darkness in front of him. "You know, you're the second person I tie to this same chair this night, but unlike the first, things are not going to end well for you."

The figure came to the light and Sean can recognize Locke, he tried to scream, but no sound came out.

"I don't think I need to talk about what's going on, right?" Locke grabbed Sean's chair from behind and started to drag it to the corner of the room.

"I wanted to make a speech and stuff, but it's almost dawn, and I barely managed to get all of your sh*t over with tonight" Locke approached the corner of the room, walking to a dimensional vortex that only he and Tia could see.

Locke crossed the vortex dragging Sean's chair, the sensation of getting into a Rift made Sean's head spin like a kaleidoscope. When his mind cleared, he found himself in a mountainous and rocky landscape, unfit for the city. Locke positioned his chair on the edge of a cliff.

"Well, I'm just going to tell you one thing... Goodbye." Sean was shaking his head hard as tears flowed from his eyes, but Locke didn't care, he kicked the chair hard, knocking Sean down in the darkness.

"You shouldn't have messed with Hanna ..." Locke looked at the bottom of the cliff, confirming Sean's death. "Let's go home Tia."