Magic trick

Looking at the weapons, Archie was more than content yet one thing was perplexing to him,"I understand all the parts about offense, Mr. Aratt, but how will I defend myself, at least give me a hide armor?"

Hearing the question caused the Angran to flare up in a bout of coughing, patting himself in the chest he replied,"I didn't expect you to get hit at all Mr. Archie being very honest, but a proper armor for your usage wasn't actually available wherever I searched..."

The sweating Angran meanwhile was trying to evade the narrowed eyes of the human thinking,'I actually couldn't fit an armor in the budget trying to save money, yet who would've thought that an Ascended is part of the task given by the Deacon, but it matters not, the task has to be completed anyway possible and the Deacon himself will appear if any Ascended does appears as he had promised..'

The plotting of the rat was not known to Archie, yet he could make a guess or two on what was going on in his scheming business partner's mind.

Thinking for a bit more, he grabbed a nearby piece of wood and fixed it under his clothes and above where his heart should be,using it as a makeshift heart protector.

The Angran seeing the human preparing for the task couldn't help but ask,"I know it's a bit late to ask,Mr. Archie but how exactly are you going to 'take care' of them? You know that they are kinda undying.."

Archie, who was testing the strength of the rope by pulling it with both hands, answered with a bright smile,"Didn't you say they are pretty close to going hollow?Well I'll just help them accelerate that process!"

Aratt hesitated slightly before asking,"And how exactly are you going to do that? No offense but I haven't heard of any tool that is able to do that."

Archie just shook his head and pointed to the sword,"What do you mean you haven't heard of that, You just gave that tool to me you know?"

The Angran titled his head hearing the answer,"I did give you these weapons but none of them are able to harm them permanently. It is true that the silver in them is helpful for decreasing the speed of their regeneration but that's all. I am still unable to recognise how you are going to deal with them.."

The Human just sighed a bit dramatically and answered,"I am just going to kill them until they die you know, not a big deal, that's how they are dealt with usually, from how I learnt."

Seeing the imaginary question mark floating above the Angran, Archie further explained,"They are close to going hollow, so if i keep 'Killing' them over and over and over, it'll cause their decay to rise further until their minds are not able to handle that much strain, causing them to go hollow, and if no one enters the town square by tomorrow morning , then it'll be a comparably easier task"

The rat seemed enlightened by the answer and responded with a bit shaken composure,"You do not have to worry about anyone entering the town square tonight, other than maybe... nevermind that, but what if some of them didn't go hollow by the morning? wouldn't that be quite a problem?"

Archie, hearing the first part of the answer, was honestly a bit peeved and thought,'They may be able to stop anyone mortal or someone like a Rotted but I doubt they have any way of stopping or detecting the invisible man from that day unless they have someone with similar strange powers... I'll need to find a way to run from him either way if he does come.'

Shaking his head and showing an ugly smile, he replied to the Angran's question,"The silver weapons won't just harm, it'll cause their wounds to heal slowly and their pain to increase, but if either of them do succeed to hold their sanity until morning, then you'd have to start praying for them because by then they'll be in my basement, spending days and days with me, we'll be like a happy family, that should be enough for him to go hollow."

Indeed, A Rotting one with its immortality, maybe unable to physically die,yet their minds were still of a mortal and even if some of their minds could be stronger than others', there still has to be a breaking point, which was how the decayed were dealt with if they caused any serious problems to the nations.

Archie stared at the rat in front of him for a bit and asked,"And aren't you an information dealer too, why don't you know about how they are dealt with? I thought it was the general way of how the undead were dealt with, you know in case they grow arrogant of their immortality and start seriously considering taking over the nations."

The Angran meanwhile, was still a bit stunned from how casually Archie had implied torturing the Rotted, but nevertheless replied,"I usually only concern myself with what's asked from the customer, not many people deal with the Rotting ones anyway, and those that do, don't really ask me how to take care of those decayed for some reason, maybe because they already know and do not want to sell the information?"

The Human stared at the angran, still a bit sceptical, but didn't bother asking more, moving towards the window and said,"Doesn't matter, so when will I get a chance to show my magic to those poor Rotted?"

Aratt walked beside him, staring at the crowd below and responded,"You should be able to move as soon as the night sets in, and your targets will be there for you by the time leaving you alone to take care of them."

Getting a nod from the Human,The Angran started to move towards the stairs and commented,"You can stay here till the time comes,Mr. Archie, until then I'll take care of certain matters from my side, so sharpen your sword or do whatever you people do."

Without getting a reply, the Angran moved downstairs, left the shop and walked out of the town square.

Watching the Angran walk away for a bit, Archie moved his gaze upward to the sun shining above, seeing that it was still some hours before sunrise.He closed his eyes and stayed in the same position for some time to clear his mind before the upcoming challenge.

Indeed, it was a challenge for Archie because he had never fought with more than two or three of them at once, with the deadly prospect of the unknown invisible man, the risk was even more higher.

Even then, it wasn't like there was no hope, which was the reason he agreed to do this, the basis being, first, the undead weren't armed, they might have a hidden weapon or two, but like the rest of the public they weren't allowed to walk with too many weapons with themselves, unlike Archie who had gotten a pretty good arsenal of weapon for himself.

The second point being, he had observed their small clique for 3 days and had determined, all of them, other than their leader perhaps, were pretty close to losing their sanity and going hollow, which could be seen from their behaviour.

The third reason being, if the invisible man would come, he was pretty sure, the Angran or some helper of his might come to save Archie before his death from the hands of the invisible man. He just had to somehow survive until the helper appears which was probably the biggest challenge for the night.

Taking a deep breath, he continued thinking of ways to escape from the invisible man and revised all the ways for him to run away, in case things go very wrong.

As the time slowly passed, the sun started to go down along with the crowd of people decreasing one by one, the stalls and shops started to close.

He saw that several Angrans were speaking to some of the obstinate shop owners who wanted to stay longer, yet in the end the ratkins somehow managed to convince them.

Taking a deep breath, he stood up, checked all his weapons, loaded the flintlock pistol with gunpowder and the iron ball, put the sword in its sheath, letting it hang near his thigh, and tied the rope-dart on his other leg.

Combat with so many weapons was going to be a bit straining but he was used to carrying much more being an explorer.

He was an Explorer first before being a warrior anyway.

Putting the smoke bombs along with the rest of the bullets in his pant's pocket, he moved downstairs and out of the shop, the owner had already disappeared somewhere.

Walking out he saw that everyone outside had already gone their way too, leaving the town square empty, desolate yet strangely beautiful with the fountain of water alone in the center.

Moving further, he saw that the clique of the Decayed ones were still there arguing with a group of Angrans, yet as soon as the Angrans saw Archie walking out from behind the fountain, they all scurried away to some dark alleyway and disappeared.

The Rotting ones, seeing the rats running away, laughed mockingly with one another thinking that they had scared the several ratkins awat, yet their leader sensed something wrong and looked behind him.

Watching as a lone Human walking out from behind wasn't that much stimulating for either of them, yet as soon as the leader saw that the Human was carrying a sheathed weapon and a gun in his hand, he grew a bit apprehensive but still didn't bother moving with his undying nature.

Archie walked step by step, stopping only when all of their attention was shifted to him, cleared his throat and asked,

"Would you like to watch a magic trick,my cabbages?"