Mistand 7

The four prisoners all laid dead on the ground. Lia wiped the bloody knives on their clothes before hiding both under her clothes, strapped to her thigh.

Then she took a deep breath, controlled her trembling hands and her rapid beating heart. She debated if she should use their corpses when loud sounds appeared. Lia rushed to the source and saw Mika hurt, stumbling out of the house.

When Mika saw Lia, he signalled her to stay where she was. Lia wanted to help him but caught on that Mika was coming her way. She ran behind the house again and waited for him, however, after seconds Mika didn't come.

With a bad feeling, Lia peeked around the corner and witnessed Mika being pushed to the ground. Quickly, Lia grabbed an axe, dashing towards Mika she swung the axe at prisoner no.5 who held Mika down.

However, prisoner no.5 dodged and with a kick, the axe fell out of Lia's hands and was flung away by prisoner no.6. Prisoner no.7 pulled out to cut Mika with his axe.

Pushing himself off the ground, Mika narrowly escaped and together with Lia, they coordinated to take down the three prisoners.

A few minutes later, their corpses were thrown onto a pile with their fellow mates.

"Good job," Lia patted Mika's shoulder.

Mika turned his head away and spit blood. He had to take a heavy blow to his stomach and was sure he was bleeding internally. However, looking at Lia who took on four prisoners, had no injuries, Mika instantly became depressed and took her praise as mockery.

"Whatever," he brushed off her hand and walked to the house here Oldie was.

Once they entered they saw four knocked out men lying before Oldie who still sat at the same spot. Both Lia and Mika became instantly suspicious. How? Was the only thing they both thought.

"Late to the party," he said as he saw them both. If he had a bottle of beer in his hand, sunglasses, a leather jacket and a beard, it would suit this image Lia had of him at the moment.

Mika kicked one of the prisoners while Oldie said, "He's not dead yet, none of them are. How could I kill them, right?"

He was hinting that he could see through them. Lia didn't take the bait and nodded, "How did you knock them out? How long will they stay like this?"

"Maybe when the weather finally gets better," Oldie shrugged his shoulders.

Now that Lia thought about it, the prisoners mentioned that no one without a way out would enter Mistand, so why was Oldie here? What was his purpose? His goal?

"How long have you been here?" Lia didn't beat around the bush and asked Oldie.

"Way too long, my old body already hurts from walking too much."

"This doesn't answer my question."

"It doesn't?" Oldie scratched his chin and looked like he wanted to say he was sure it did.

"If you don't want to answer then say it, no need to waste your breath and our time with your nonsense," Lia finally had enough of the Oldie's personality and didn't find it intriguing and amusing as in the beginning.

Mika was glad they were now on the same page. Oldie seriously got onto his nerves.

"So impatient, miss, what will your father-in-law say?"

Lia almost had her eyes fall out of her head, "Where did this come from? What does this have to do anything with anything we're currently discussing?"

"I'm just saying, you're not very empathetic. A father-in-law is like a father. It seems like you have no good parental figure to teach you to be nice. How sad the generation nowadays is," Oldie buried his face in his hands and looked disappointed.

Several veins littered Lia's forehead. This old man's tongue was annoying enough to be cut off.

"Enough," Mika came to Lia's rescue but only threw himself under the bus.

"What about your mother-in-law? How would she feel to have a son whose face one day definitely experienced a stroke, I mean young boy your face makes up for your average height by its constantly stoic and scowling, loosen up a bit, you're young and fresh and-" Oldie continued roasting Mika.

Both Lia and Mika stood in front of Oldie who seemed like a father scolding his kids and pointing out their flaws. The only problem was whatever Oldie said was nonsense and trash.

"Listen, I'd be happy to see you be my daughter-in-law, however, my son's a desperate and proud loser, I can't make you suffer like this," now Oldie even roasted his own son, "What I'm saying is- give me that."

Oldie pointed at Mika's knife.

So, all that talk was to confuse them and silently beg him to stop, so he could take Mika's knife?

The sad thing was it worked. Mika was just happy Oldie stopped talking and didn't even consider the consequences of giving him the knife. Oldie could've just easily stabbed them but instead, he winked at Lia and said, "Don't fall for someone like my son and you young brat, don't fall for me."

Then like the wind Oldie took off and ran out of the house to disappear in the mist. It took Lia and Mika a second before they realised what was happening and ran after him.

They both cursed themselves for being careless. They chased him through the mist, yet the wondrous thing was that it was fairly easy to follow him. They were always able to catch a glint off him before he disappeared and reappeared again. It was however only the rim of his clothes they saw.

"Should've just ended him," Mika grit his teeth.

"I agree," Lia also harboured the same thought but was surprised by Mika. Wasn't he against killing?

"You're becoming more bloodthirsty," Lia teased him.

"It's your influence."

Lia sighed and they continued running, seeing the damned Oldie always vanishing before their grasps.

"What if Oldie is actually Elder T?" Lia had this thought for a while.

If Oldie really belonged to the T family, Lia had no idea what to think, especially of his son he liked to make fun of.

Lia wouldn't fall for a son whose father was like this anyway.

"I hope not," Mika's face turned sinister. Even if Oldie was Elder T, he would need to hit Oldie's face a few times. Who was average height? Who had a face that looked like it could have a stroke any minute? Who fell for that damned old geezer??

Lia snorted lightly, Mika's face was easy to read. Various angry emotions came through.

"By the way," suddenly they heard Oldie's voice echoing, "This is a really good exercise."

"This damned bastard!" Mika finally snapped.

He had the audacity to treat this as a morning walk, "Return my knife!"

Mika could summon a new one, however, he just didn't want Oldie running around with his.

"I'm collecting it as the fee for the info I gave you," he sounded cheerful and Mika entertained him, "Feed your info to the dogs!"

"Ok, ok, lemme give you a service for free. Young Lady," then his voice turned serious," Your powers can be repaired."

"What?" Lia shouted but Oldie's voice disappeared and with that they never saw a glimpse of Oldie again.