Bar Fight

"We have located the spy, Your Grace. He is in Flameheart Tavern," Duke Terros' attendant reported the matter.

"Do you know the Lord he serves?" replied the Duke.

"No your grace but it does not seem to be any of the nobles who are in Anticourt. The Shadow Walkers have tailed him and he sent a letter, we don't know the destination but it was heading north,"

"Have they shot the bird down?"

"No, your grace, it was too swift and too high up,"

"Dammit! You incompetent wretches." The duke punched the attendant in his stomach out of frustration. The attendant was sent flying 20 yards away but he got up and steadily went back to the Duke.

"The duke is merciful," the attendant mumbled

"I guess I will have to ask him for help in this matter, because if I'm find out he could be found out as well" the duke said speaking to himself. He turned toward his attendant.

"Are there other nobles in the inn right now?"

"No, your grace, they are in the brothels to taste the local cuisine,"

"Well that is convenient," the duke nodded in satisfaction.

"We need to make a distraction so that the nobles would not go back to the inn. They'll stay in the brothel until the raid is finished. They won't make a move to repel the raiders unless forced to. Tell the escort to use flashy spells,"

"As you command your Grace."

The duke was not concerned whether he was seen to have dealings with the Arcanists, this was something that could not easily be proven.

What concerned him more was that he was using magic cores for dealing with Arcanists this was a big deal because with an inquiry by the Imperial capital the missing cores could easily be spotted. If the knight's report included that matter, then it would be a huge headache especially if the knight reported it to Reitz.

Terros did not want Reitz to know else he would be in a very difficult position, with just a word from Reitz, he could move the emperor to make an inquiry even if there was no hard evidence. If Reitz heard that he was the actual person who plotted his assassination he was sure to give him a hard time.

Reitz was hot headed in battle but cunning in politics. With the discovery of the missing cores he would certainly be beheaded and his whole duchy would be in ruins. He would have to ask the aid of his patron for help so that he could hide the magic cores, the only problem would be on the papers, but if the actual cores were hidden, it would not be easy to make a quick judgement.

The locals were startled at the bell, who would be bold enough to attack a well-fortified village with a myriad of knights? They concluded that the bandits must be brainless but to the knights inside the inn it was a wakeup call. The duke was making a move on Evan's life.

"What do we do know?" asked a fully alert Rycharde.

Ezra woke up but he seemed not to be himself, he opened his eyes and closed them again, he was exhausted from the events that had happened.

Everyone looked at the child but did not dare shake him awake, he was left alone by the knights, and they knew that it was too taxing for a child his age.

"We'll first we should decide what to do with Lord Ezra," Evan said.

"But how do we do that? I think they know that you are here, but they don't know exactly who you are, we have advantage in this respect. They don't know your lord and they will most likely target you alone," analyzed Deimos with a quizzical look as he looked at Evan.

There was a commotion down stairs and there were shattering sounds of wood and voices of commands were reverberating,

"They are inside the Inn," Evan observed.

"Should we go down and help them push back?" Evered asked.

"It's too risky no one will guard him," replied Evan.

As they kept on conversing a boulder crashed into the room next to theirs. The party was alerted and Ezra bolted upwards shouting.

"Can you keep it down with your video games? It's late at night and you have your speakers on at full blast. Can't a guy get some sleep," Ezra blurted this out in English, he was groggy and was startled. The knights were puzzled but did not say anything they thought it was weird ramblings of a child.

"They're attacking the rooms," Phobos shouted.

Evan grabbed the groggy toddler and they started to go out to the corridor.

"They're searching for the room you're in," observed Oswyn.

As they exited the doorway a shadowy blob charged at them, with quick reflexes Deimos grabbed his whip and lashed the charging dark blob with all his strength. The dark blob stopped in its tracks.

"Quick, Rycharde, [Fireball] on where my whip snapped," Deimos let out a frenzied roar.

The ball of flame flew toward the darkness as it ebbed away due to the illumination of the blast. It connected and there appeared a charred head of a young teen around fourteen years old. His head was marked with a 3rd degree burn and his screams were heard by the knights around him as the dark aura was fluctuating on and off.

"That's a kid, barely even a squire," perceived a shocked Dynham. He wanted to go near to help him but he was stopped by his comrades.

"Don't," Phobos raised his arms, "He decided his fate when he attacked us."

"We use whips because they use the darkness to hide their true body, if you attacked with a sword you would be surrounded by darkness unable to notice where attacks are coming," Deimos explained.

"Fire attacks are effective against them as long as it is powerful, it dispels the darkness away, we can't stay here we must get to a well-lit place, we don't know if these shadow walkers are the same as the ones that attacked the caravan before," Deimos continued as he stabbed the writhing boy to the heart.

"Though we must protect Lord Ezra we can't leave Anticourt tonight, shadow walkers are most powerful during night and we'd be killed without preparation if we charge at the Shadow Walkers," added Phobos, he saw the look of the faces of the knights, they knew these people targeted children as well and were worried for their little lordling.

"I think we should go somewhere well-lit right now, we should guard Evan, A few Shadow Walkers may be after his life, I don't think the duke would personally kill him and risk being seen by other witnesses," continued Phobos.

They ran for the stairs the knights were fast and the commotion was loud, there were 10 knights standing off against shadows and three other bandits, screams of frustration could be heard.

"Arcanists are here! These damned shadows what are they?" a voice in the corner of the room howled.

"I've never seen this before, imperials and Arcanists working together, I must be dreaming," shouted another voice.

The party did not try and stand their ground, they hurriedly dashed toward the front door as the two demon hunter's whips were snapping in the air and the shadows danced in evasion.

When the party reached the front door a boulder flew at them they backed away and they noticed that they were surrounded by both men and shadows as Ezra dangled from Evan's back.