Chapter 20: “The Pawn”

You are the one who decides your destiny

-"I want you to tell me about the other Dukes"-, I said calmly to Tiglish.

-"You idiot! You are crazy! Do you have any idea who you are dealing with! Vinicius will kill you and all those who are important to you!"- Tiglish said furiously again.

I grabbed his wrist again and cut another segment of the little finger and cauterized the wound with the lighter, again frantic screams of agony filled the hold during the process.

-"I'll leave you a moment to think about it carefully, maybe the other gentlemen are smarter than you"- I said with a bored face as I gagged his mouth.

I then walked slowly towards the leader of the thugs that I had followed here.

The man started screaming when he found out that she was walking towards him.

-"I think you are smart enough to know what is good for you and what is not"- I said coldly as I looked into his eyes.

The man looked away as he screeched in terror and nodded.

-"Smart of you, first something easy, just answer yes or no, do you know who the other Dukes are?"- I asked for.

The man first looked to his right and to his left at the thugs who had accompanied him and I could see both of them nod when they exchanged glances.

-"Yes"- he answered in a shy and doubtful way.

-"Well let's start with our good friend Orlan, tell me everything you know about him"- I said, as I turned to take a look at the pile of corpses and Tiglish, the man gulped and began to speak.

-"Orlan the Assassin, is a member of the group of assassins called the Ravens, they work alongside Vinicius and keep the competition at bay, the Ravens also protect drug shipments and the places where they are grown, Orlan was the one who handled the extortions and is in charge of stolen things and other illegal merchandise, he is also the second strongest of the dukes"- replied the scared man and swallowed again.

-"Well, now don't tell me your name, I'm not interested, just tell me what your men call you"- I said while pretending to play with the knife with which I cut Tiglish's fingers.

-"Everyone calls me Knuckles"- he said shyly.

-"Well Knuckles now let's continue, who are the other Dukes, start with the most important of them all"- I said.

-"Morok the Torturer, he is a wizard who was kicked out of the wizard guild of the city, he claims to be a great wizard, but as I hear he is not as strong as he appears, but he is very good with illusion magic, he takes care of drugs and liquor, he is not in the city, he is based in a small town called Aube on the outskirts, he controls the whole town, he is a true son of a bitch with the townspeople but no one can oppose him because he has several of the crows with him there"- Knuckles said with a face of regret that caught my attention.

-"So you have something to do with that town?"- I asked for.

-"Yes"- answered Knuckles after hesitating for a few seconds.

-"Ok Knuckles, you can call me Lykos, my problem is with Vinicius and the Dukes, if you help me with them, I could return the favor, let's say with that particular town, and you have already witnessed my strength"-I said.

I looked him in the eyes with a serious face, Knuckles again crossed glances with his men and they both nodded.

-"I want Long and Ears to be part of this too, they are involved"- he answered decisively.

-"Good but what you offer me must be very good"- I replied and helped both men to sit next to Knuckles.

Tiglish was protesting angrily with the gag on, as it would no longer be of use to simply stab him in the heart to quickly end him as he was obviously against any deal.

-"Our parents are slaves in that town"- Knuckles said sadly.

The other men made faces of regret.

-"I see, it will be difficult and very dangerous for everyone, but we are already in water up to our necks anyway"- I said.

While the three men looked at me attentively.

-"Please we will do whatever it takes but please save our parents"- the three men begged me in unison.

-"Good, but to do this we must eliminate the Dukes and Vinicius, I will not ask them to fight but they must give me as much information as possible about them"- I said.

The three men looked at each other again and nodded again, then Knuckles looked into my eyes with a determined face.

-"I agree"- I answer with determination.

Then Knuckles began to talk about the remaining Dukes, also his friends Long and Ears provided information on every detail, the next was Pilis the Terrible, unlike the other dukes he was not a strong person in fighting, he was someone extremely cunning and intelligent, Pilis had been the person who originally dealt with the Ravens through Orlan, he was the right arm of Vinicius, he was in charge of handling illegal bets, elaborate scams and kept accounts of all the organization's businesses, as he had no fighting skills he had a strong escort provided by the Ravens, he moved freely around the city wearing the facade of a respectable businessman, he lived on a luxurious estate in the North Quadrant where he raised racehorses.

Toria the Tamer was a former adventurer who had been expelled by the Adventurer's Guild for her shady practices and ties to Vinicius, they had known Vinicius since he was a small-time thug and they had been doing business together for many years, Toria controlled the red light district where he lived in a luxurious pent-house located on the most luxurious brothel of the red light district in the East quadrant, they called her the tamer for her sadistic habit of "tame" anyone who opposes her and finally the most mysterious of all, Zuk the Demonic Sword, he acted as Vinicius's personal bodyguard and never strayed too far from him, rarely seen, said to be a disgraced former knight who had come from a distant eastern nation.

I took note of the most important points of all the information, location of their businesses/hiding places, the probable number of guards, known routines, which gave me an idea of ​​the big picture, Vinicius's organization had at least 100 assassins of the Ravens in his service, although not all were that strong, in fact, the bodyguards that I had killed and Tiglish were part of the Ravens, most of the guards were level 2 warriors, about 50 guards protected the town where Morok was, about 20 guards protected Pilis, between 10 to 12 protected Toria and the rest were with Vinicius.

Of the Dukes, Orlan, Toria, and Zuk were level 3 warriors, although Zuk was the strongest of the 3 by a large margin, Morok was a level 3 mage, Pilis was a normal person without great fighting ability, Vinicius's strength was not known with certainty but he should be a warrior of level 2 at least, it was definitely too much for him to handle alone if they were just ordinary thugs like the ones who tried to attack the orphanage there would be no problem but an organization of assassins was a very different thing, the advantage it had was that they would probably never imagine that they were attacked by a single person, surely they must be at odds with several similar organizations.

In the city, there were no other organizations comparable to that of Vinicius, at most small families in the style of Italian mafias or youth gangs that controlled little territory or were dedicated to minor crimes since it was impossible for them to confront Vinicius who had the protection of the Ravens, everyone had to endure abuse, keep their heads down and act submissive if they wanted to survive, which had caused everyone to develop strong hatred and enmity against Vinicius, in addition, several of the leaders and members of the gangs came from the same town as Knuckles, which would give me an advantage if I needed to negotiate with them.

-"Well with all that information I can make a plan"- I said while untying the three of them.

-"So what do we have to do?"- Knuckles asked.

-"So they don't suspect you, you'd better report Orlan's death, say there was a big commotion here and you sent your men to investigate, do not take or touch anything, let them think that Orlan was the target of a professional assassin"- I said and handed back the money I had taken from his safe.

-"Just keep acting like always, keep sending money so they won't suspect you and don't look for me, I'll contact you"- I said to Knuckles.

-"But how will you deal with them now?"- Knuckles asked.

-"I will get strong allies, don't worry we will finish them all and liberate the town of Aube"- I said confidently.

-"Don't do anything stupid and die, you better go now, I'll clean all this up"- I said to Knuckles and his men.

They left quickly after nodding their heads, I carefully checked the place where I had fought for any clue that could give them a clue of what happened, I also cleaned up any trace that Knuckles and his men may have left, it was a few hours before dawn, I retired through the roof again following my own trail and eliminating any possible trace when I finished I took several laps through the alleys of the city to make sure that no one was following me, so I sneaked back to the inn to rest.