4) Chapter 4: Unexpected treasure

Upon impact, Castille immediately felt the strength the person possesed. He dug his feet into the ground, parrying the attacks the person sent.

He had to admit that this person was pretty skilled. Although a bit sloppy, he could see some complex sword techniques shown. Still, he wasn't really anything special to Castille.

Infusing his sword with mana, the boy swung his sword right at the man's head. As expected, he blocked it but his hands were shaking. With a grunt he pushed Castille's blade away from his face and attacked again.

Castille dodged and turned, kicking the cloaked figure in his side. The person was launched into the side of a building. A cloud of dust filled the air making it hard to breathe.

Coughing, Castille whirled around to grab the items before the rest of the group ran away. As he was sprinting towards the end of the alley, he suddenly felt a pain in his leg.

He cried out and turned around to see one of the people digging their dagger into his leg. Castille clenched his teeth and summoned his sword in the other hand. He slashed his sword through the persons neck before going after the others.

They couldn't have gotten far based on the time it took for him to deal with that one person. Looking back out the passage he saw the rest of the people turning the corner. Castille cursed under his breath and pursuited them. His leg hurt like hell so he couldn't match their speed.

Not only that but his disguise was slowly faling apart. Strands of golden hair began to show between his black locks and his eyes had already reverted. He had to finish this quickly.

He was beginning to lose sight of them so he pulled out a pistol from his pocket. Not know this would happen, Castille hadn't brought any bullets with him, but he could make at least one magic bullet with his remaining mana.

Concentrating his energy into a single bullet, he loaded the gun and aimed it the person carrying the bags. He pulled the trigger, sweating as he watched the bullet soar towards the person. If he missed this shot he'd be unable to catch up to them. He couldn't miss this oppurtunity.

In seconds the bullet reached the person, piercing through their side. Seeing the person fall Castille saw this as his chance to get this over with.

The group was hurriedly picking up the fallen person and the items, not noticing Castille nearing them. At this point, Castille was exhausted from the chase so, without a word, he grabbed the cloak of the nearest person and stabbed his blade through their neck. He then whipped around to parry another dagger and kicked their chest.

There were around four people left who were standing. However, none of them were comparable to the man from earlier. Castille knew he couldn't use anymore magic so he was cautious in his attacks. Grabbing the inside of the man's jaw next to him, he spun around and threw him at another person. Blood and shattered teeth flew through the air as both people were thrown onto the floor.

Before they could get up a sword stabbed through the both of them. Screams echoed through the streets and Castille frowned. That was sure to gather the gaurds here quicker. They just had to make my life harder.

The boy turned around to deal with the last one but noticed that they disappeared. Huh, how could I let one go?, Castille thought. Whatever, the bags were still there so there wasn't that much of a problem.

Hauling them onto his back he limped towards the exit. Honestly, he deserved them for taking down all those people. They would have been lost anyway if it weren't for him.

Castille expected guards near the staircase but there were none. All of them were probably rushing towards the sound of the scream earlier. Limping up the stairs, he finally made it to the antique shop. The store owner glanced at him before lifting an eyebrow at the bulging sack on his back.

"There's so many nice things down there I just had to buy a lot." Castille said with a smile. He knew he looked insane with blood all over his clothes so he added, "I also went to the wrestling ring, so don't worry about this mess."

The elder shrugged and turned back to rearranging the items. Castille sighed and left. He was totally drained after that fight. Normally he didn't keep a disguise on when fighting so it wasn't unusual. Dragging the items to the ally beside the shop, he dug inside in search of something.

When he felt the smooth, scaled shell of the egg he felt excitement. He gently pulled it out the bag and examined it. It didn't look all that great. With it being from Smaug he at least expected a flamboyant looking egg.

It looked almost normal, keeping Castille skeptical. The last member group couldn't have switched it out, right?

Nah, I mean who just keeps a dragon egg in their pocket?, Castille frowned, squinting his eyes. Besides, if they really did, they would've tried harder to make it look real.

He really was stuck with a basic-looking egg. It was a dark red with specks of gold dotted between the scales. The scales itself were pointier than a normal dragon's, but that was about it.

Castille scratched his chin before looking further into the bag. What his fingers slipped across made him freeze in shock.

It's not what I think it is right..