Settling Down

"What do you mean you don't have the money? Are you deaf as well? We gave you time to scramble all the money together and yet you just spit into our faces, ignoring our generosity." His hand then shot for the breathless man's hair, bringing him on the same eye-level, "You either tell us where the money is or you are going to pay your new medical bills as well."

The man shaked under his gaze, clearly terrified of what they might do to him. It wasn't because the man was weak-willed or anything, although it also had a slight contribution to it, but their reputation was simply not too good, to say the least. In this little town, they were the hunters, and the man in front of him was only one of his countless preys.

Henry sighed internally at the mess that was in front of his eyes. It was just pitiful, but he had a job to do. If he shows too much kindness, others will start to rise up and do something about it, which will be problematic at best and could even incur wrath of his boss. Truly, if not for the latter, he would probably still be an ordinary thug and probably behind the iron bars.

He turned around and addressed his friends: "You know what to do. Don't overdo it, he still owes us money."

The man behind him whimpered: "No! Please! I will bring the money tomorrow, I truly will! I will take loan and ask friends! Just please, one more day!" Henry looked at the pleading man, gazing him up, but gave up on the thought to give him another chance.

"We gave you a month. You knew the consequences. He is yours, boys."

"No, please! Please- Argh!"

Henry looked at the dark sky, hearing only grunts and echoes of pain behind him, as well as sadistic joy of his lackeys. They were all brawn and no brains, which was also the reason why he even bothered to keep them. They lacked ambition but were ready to do almost anything for some money. Truly lucky catch it was.

After cries of pain finally stopped, what his gaze landed upon was a bruised mess with a few fingers broken. It wasn't fatal by any means, it was simply to induce fear and through it some basic obedience. A common tactic. 

"I hope you now understand better what it means to step out of the line. Next time you won't walk away with only a few fingers broken, that much I can promise." Henry crouched down to look his victim in the eyes: "You have three days." With those partying words and mutual understanding, the poor man bolted out of the alley, clearly afraid.

"What a bothersome. Let's go, we still need to report this to the boss." As he was starting to walk away, he heard deliberately loud steps behind him. He turned around, coming face-to-face with a strange young man. He had pale skin, green and black hair, as well as piercing venomously green eyes. Overall, with his tidy black suit, he simply was completely out of place in this place at this time.

"Thousands of years went by and humans are still as boring as they were before. It's surprising, really, that you never learn. Though I don't blame you, as I'm not any better, really." The man said with a barely noticeable smile on his lips, a spark of joy dancing in his eyes.

"Thousands of years? Other races? What the hell are you talking about? Kid, I'm in a pretty bad mood right now, but I will let you go just this once." Henry was somehow creeped the fuck out by this unknown man in front of him. He even somewhat reminded him of his boss, but that was clearly impossible. 

"Let me go? You should rather take care of yourselves first. You know, I'm instead in a pretty good mood today, so I can let one of you go away peacefully. How about it?"

Henry hadn't faced such arrogant people in the long time and in the end, his instincts were overshadowed by his anger. 'Clearly a newcomer if he doesn't know what happens around this parts.' With no thought of backing down, he only needed to throw a glance at the two imbeciles besides him.

Seeing the two man coming towards him, the young man's posture didn't change nor did he even flinch. If anything, Henry was under the illusion that his smile became a tad bit larger. That only increased his wariness, but instead of the usual caution, he instead let glee and anger fill his mind. 'I guess I'm in a really bad mood. Doesn't matter, this kid asked for it.'

Just as he was about to see the usual scene of a man getting beaten up, he instead saw something far more incredible. Jack, the more burlier of the two, was about to swing his fists, only to be undercut by the young man. Saliva flew out of his mouth, but thankfully it wasn't enough to knock him out cold. The knee connecting to his chin in the next second, though, sent the man into the land of dreams.

Nico, instead, wasn't wasting time idly and his punch connected with the abdomen of the young man. Henry also started walking over as the weariness broke through his anger, 'This kid ain't simple. I better knock him unconscious and take him to the boss. He will know what to do with him.'

Although the young man stumbled back a little bit, he didn't falter and instead retaliated with a clean leg swipe, sending Nico plummeting to the ground. After that, a heel kick to the head made the second man also pass out cold. 

Seeing this, Henry stopped in his tracks. Although he knew he was a little bit better in terms of fighting that his quite straightforward thugs, he knew he had no chance against the two of them at the same time. They usually only intimidated people and made them quite submissive and open to stealing. Besides, there weren't any thugs or criminals in this town that weren't under his boss, so real fights rarely broke out here.

"What do you want?" Henry asked straightforwardly.

"Nothing much, really. You will just have to pass out for me and I will make the procedure painless." The man said with now a visible smile on his face, a smile that oozed confidence and... happiness. Henry soon understood why he felt the creeps because of this man. He was a fucking walking psychopath!

"Is it money you want? I don't have a lot on me, but I can bring it all in an hour! I can even-" 

"You really don't have to worry about it. After all, you won't even remember it." With those words, the man disappeared from his place, and before Henry could even blink, a fist connected with his face, making it the last thing he saw before he also fell unconscious.

×-×-× 

"What a bountiful harvest." Lucius thought happily. He truly enjoyed this moment. If he could compare it to something, then he would compare it to the birthday, a date that humans seemed to enjoy greatly, although it only specified on which day they were born. Lucius was confused about that, but he quickly threw it at the back of his mind soon afterwards.

There were several reasons for his joy. First of all, and the most important, he could finally let his body feel the exhilaration of a fight, even if it was a complete letdown. Besides that, he also managed to test his magic knowledge and abilities in a battle, confirming his theories and thoughts. It also helped him to gain some insight into what he should look into in the future, but it was still quite vague and there was too little information. He also would get his hands on some belongings that there were now important in human world, but that was the least important thing.

So, in conclusion, he couldn't feel more fulfilled at the moment.

"Let's see." He quickly emptied their pockets, took their clothes and all their belongings. After that, he checked the memories of the man that was clearly the leader. He felt that checking all three wasn't worth the time it would take to do so and he could barely learn anything from them.

After half an hour passed, he finally fished out all the important memories. He was pleasantly surprised this time, as the man's memories turned out to be a treasure grove to him.

Although on surface they really were only thugs in this small town, the one named Henry knew a little bit more than that. Their actual 'Boss' was a supernatural being Lucius hadn't seen or heard of before. A Fallen Angel, to be precise. The fallen's motives were largely unknown and Lucius couldn't wait to find out more, not so much about his plans, but about the race itself.

"Fallen Angels, huh? Seems somewhat familiar. No matter, I will find out about it tomorrow. Time to see what this world really has to offer." Quickly modifying and erasing some of the memories of the three, he soon left the scene of crime, leaving behind only three naked man, passed out on the hard concrete.