CHAPTER 19: Fighting Eleven Men In An Alley (1)

Alex steeled his resolve then stepped into the alley.

'On the other hand, I know that the cylinder will help we became a lot stronger, I might not be able to show that power out in the open but it's much more reliable to have that skill than take a chance on the word of an old man, no matter how strong he way seem to be.'

I knew that the alley was narrow when I first stepped inside, but to my surprise it became narrower and narrower the further I went in until my back and chest were pressed against the walls and I was practically forcing my way through, inch by inch.

'How long does this alley go on for?' I gasped as I struggled my way through. 'Hasn't it almost been ten minutes that I've been here? And where did that man go? I can't believe that he went all the way through this alley.'

Just as I began thinking about backtracking and checking to see if I missed something, I saw a light some way in front of me.

'Oh good.' I thought then sighed in relief. 'I've almost reached the end.'

I began to notice that the alley was starting to grow wider and moving in it was becoming much easier. Soon I could walk normally again and I began focusing my attention on the light ahead of me.

Soon I was only a few meters away from the end of the alley, it was then that I was able to clearly see what the source of the light was.

"A fire?" I said in surprise as I stepped out of the alley. The light had come from what appeared to be a small bonfire. I looked around and saw that I was in a wide open space that seemed to be in the middle of a group of buildings.

The sight of the fire and this space made warning bells start ringing in my head. How could a bonfire appear at the end of an alley and it not be a trap.

I immediately turned around to go back into the alley.

"Don't leave now, you just got here."

Suddenly the man I had been following stepped out of the alley with a smirk on his face.

I then heard chuckles coming from behind me, and when I looked around I saw around ten men step out of the shadows that the bonfire's light couldn't reach.

'It's like every Ranked I've fought against knows at least one Stance, I thought they would be rarer than that.' I started moving away from the alley and toward the fire. 'Still, this doesn't exactly look good for me.'

I unsheathed my daggers as the group of men surrounded me.

I then called out to the man who had pickpocketed me, since he seemed to be the leader. "Are you sure about this? Do you even know who I am?"

The group of men began laughing and their leader walked closer to me. "We know exactly who you are, ALEX SHAMPA. If we didn't, why would we be here right now?"

"Since you've specifically come after me I'm sure someone put you up to this, so was it the man from Saton City who paid you to attack me?" I asked as I adjusted my grip on my daggers.

"I have no idea who that is,'' said the man as he walked towards me. "I was paid but I don't think it was by any man from Saton City."

The man then shook his head and stopped four meters away from me. "Anyway a dead man walking doesn't need to know why he died."

"And who's to say who's the dead man walking?" I lowered my center of gravity, preparing myself to move suddenly.

"Look around Alex," The man spread his arms out wide. "You're not making it out of here alive."

This was the moment I had been waiting for, my eyes sharpened and I brought both hilts of my daggers together as I leaped forward.

As soon as they met the daggers seemed to fuse and a shaft formed, almost immediately the shaft grew as long as a spears' shaft would be.

'He's the only threat.' I grabbed the shaft of the double bladed spear with one hand and aimed it at his throat. 'Once I deal with him I can take my time killing the rest of them.'

This all took place in the space of a few split seconds and a normal person wouldn't be able to see any of my movements, sadly he didn't seem to be a normal person.

*SWOOSH*

"Wow," my eyes narrowed as I saw him holding the upper shaft of my spear. "If my employer hadn't told me about that trick of yours I might have been caught off guard."

"But sadly," he let go of the spear and smirked at me. "I was informed, and now you've lost your only chance."

He then snapped his fingers and with loud shouts his men all rushed at me.

In an instant the first few men arrived and swung their weapons at me.

'Shit, whoever hired him was probably the same person that attacked me that night.' I managed to deflect the first sword with the shaft of my spear and thrust the other bladed end at someone who was coming up behind me.

All I had managed to do was hold back the first two people who had reached me, but I was now in danger of getting overrun by the rest of them. As soon as I realized this I raised up my foot and brought it down with a stomp.

*CRACK*

After my foot landed the ground started shaking moments later it began breaking apart with cracks spreading as far as some of the buildings surrounding this space.

Most of my attackers had reacted as soon as the ground began shaking so they had gotten away and were now at the periphery where the effects weren't so bad. But those that had stayed were now off balance and I immediately took advantage of that.

*SWISH, SWISH, CLANG*

Moments later two dead bodies dropped to the ground.

"Oh," I raised an eyebrow as I looked at the sword which was blocking my spear which was inches away from the throat of the last person who hadn't gotten away after the ground broke apart. 

I then turned my gaze to the person who was holding the sword. "I underestimated you,"

The leader of the group that had attacked me smiled slightly, then pushed my spear away. "Same goes for me."

I jumped back and held the spear behind my back. I looked into his eyes and I thought I could see pain deep in it, from what I couldn't tell. "I guess I should have expected that whoever wants to kill me won't hire someone incompetent." I then sighed. "So what's your name?" 

The man's face grew blank. "You're asking that now?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "When else would I ask it?" I looked around at the destruction around me, the cracks on the buildings, the bonfire that was now extinguished, I then looked back at him. "There isn't going to be a better time."

The man like me also looked around and seeing how damaged our surroundings were he grudgingly nodded his head before turning back to me. "You can call me Zac."

"It isn't too late for you to back off Zac. Just hand me the cylinder and we can all go our separate ways."

Zac shook his head in regret. "Sadly it is. I have a policy of completing any job I take on, and anyway...." His eyes sharpened and took on a dangerous glint. "Now that you've killed two of my guys. I have to kill you if it's the last thing I do."

"So no way back." I sighed then closed my eyes. "You know Zac, I like you, if we met in a different time and place we could have been friends."

"Maybe." Replied Zac. "But no use in talking about that now." 

He turned to his men. "I'll take the lead fighting him, the rest of you should support me."

"YES SIR."

Zac then turned to the person he had saved.

"Be careful next time, always prioritize your life."

The man had been in shock the whole time but he now snapped out of it and stepped back. "Yes boss, I'll remember that."

I laughed and began twirling my spear.

"The way you're talking it is like you believe that you are going to make it out of here alive, don't make assumptions when you didn't ask me for my opinion first."

Zac ignored me and gave a signal with his hand, after that the remaining eight men slowly circled around me with wary looks on their faces. They had learned their lesson and were keeping a good amount of distance from me, probably so that they could react to any of my movements and either attack or retreat as they deemed necessary.

"Let's go men, kill the bastard that killed our brothers." Shouted Zac.

It was then I realized what the pain in his eyes was for, he actually cared about his men, in his words they were 'brothers'.

I looked around at the faces of the men surrounding me and a wide smile appeared on my face.

"It seems you're all ready. Just remember..." I jumped toward Zac and underneath my mask there was a wide smile on my face. "I offered you a way out."