New Price #73

Author's note: come on people, you gotta up your power stones game. We're slipping through the ranks! We're all the way down to the 12th position in the weekly rankings FFS.

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Tommy grunted in pain as I pushed his head against the bar, the barrel of my gun scraping against his head, and I could see his friend, Natt, reaching for the gun tucked in his side.

I didn't move and kicked Natt since he was close, sending him flying towards the wall as I drew Ivory from my inventory and leveled it at him before he could gather his wits.

"What's going on?" Selina blankly asked as she quickly put a hand on my shoulder as she tried to mediate the situation, and I had to consciously put effort into not sending her flying with a kick, agitated as I was.

"Son of a bitch tried to read my mind," I remarked with a scowl, increasing the pressure on Tommy's head and pushing harder against the table, to which Selina frowned.

"Are you sure?" Selina asked, her frown visible even under her half-face mask as she removed her hand from my shoulder, her eyes alternating between Tommy and his friend.

"Sure enough to blow his fucking head off," I replied with a scoff, seriously deliberating whether I should just put the man down and get it over with immediately.

"Explain yourself. You said you only managed to glimpse into the demon's mind because of a freak accident!" Selina remarked, her tone growing a degree colder as she turned to Tommy and her expression turned visibly darker.

Tommy had claimed he only managed to "glimpse" into the Mawzir's mind because of some magic bullshitry since he killed the demon before the Arkannone resurrected and sent it back to earth, connecting the hitman and the Mawzir somehow.

Selina would understandably fume at learning the bastard could read minds as she probably wouldn't even touch him with a ten-foot pole to protect her secret identity had she known about it beforehand.

"Okay! Okay! Just 'cause I read minds don't mean I got to go around telling people!" Tommy exclaimed through gritted teeth, speaking in a matter-of-fact tone, causing me to increase the pressure on his head.

"For a guy who's got a gun to his head, you're acting pretty cheeky," I remarked, emphasizing my point by pushing the barrel of my gun hard enough to draw blood from the back of his head.

"I didn't peek into Catwoman's mind and only tried it with you cause I need to know if you're worth how much money you're asking," Tommy explained, resting his hands against the bar as he stopped resisting my grip as a sign of surrender.

"He isn't lying," Jason said as he stood up from his chair and walked towards me, and I frowned but didn't reply, a clear sign of my displeasure that the demonologist seemed to have caught.

"Hey, I'm just saying. I owe Monaghan two million dollars, so you'd be doing me a favor if you put a bullet in his head since I won't need to pay," Jason added, shrugging his shoulders and raising his arms to emphasize his lack of desire to interfere.

I remained silent as I thought about the consequences of killing the hitman and what I'd stand to lose and gain if I killed him now or spared his life.

Realistically, there would be no consequences since Selina had blood on her ledger, and Jason Blood had bucket-fulls, so they had no moral high ground to stand on and question my decision should I decide to kill him.

On the other hand, if I killed Monaghan, I'd waste a valuable opportunity to fight a demon, and no, I didn't suddenly turn into a battle maniac. I could do without the thrill of the battle and that kind of shit. What I'd be missing, however, is the learning opportunity.

As long as I'm in this world, it's only a matter of time before I'd have to fight a demon or something along those lines, especially if I pick up the occultist archetype later.

Tommy Monaghan was a small fry in the grand scheme of things, and the demon after him couldn't be that strong, or he wouldn't survive since that's how comics work.

In the end, it would all depend on Etrigan taking out the Arkannone and bringing back the antique rifle to earth, and I had no doubts he'll make it since he's a demon prince, and not many can stand in his way in hell.

And starting with such a low-class demon is the perfect way for me to get familiar with such creatures, not to mention I might waste the chance to get my hands on the Ace of Winchesters.

"Look, I can already see you're worth your asking price, so how about this?" Tommy remarked, snapping me out of my line of thought as I turned to him.

"Instead of the 250 you asked, how about I give you 350, and we put this thing behind us?" He asked, and I quickly decided to spare him for now, but I couldn't make it easy for the bastard.

I said nothing as I cocked my gun's hammer and increased the pressure on his head, and he seemed to have gotten the hint.

"500, that's all I have," Tommy exclaimed through gritted teeth, and that was all I needed to hear as I let go of the hitman and took a step back to let him breathe.

"There won't be a second time," I said, my expression easing up under my mask as I saw Monaghan wipe the blood off his head while Natt got off the floor, shooting me a cautious look as he did.

"Pay's upfront, by the way," I remarked as I took a slip of paper with my bank account number and slammed it at the table to get the hitman's attention.

"What, right now?" Tommy asked, raising an eyebrow, and I didn't reply, my silence the only reply he got to answer. He sighed and picked up the paper while retrieving his phone.

I kept my eye on the hitman and his friend until I knew he'd wired the money to my account for sure and turned to Selina, who had an amused smirk on her face.

"That's the second time you slipped," I said, not in the mood to tolerate Selina's smug expression. "Would you have blamed me again if he glimpsed your secret identity?" I added with a scoff, emphasizing the word "glimpse" while resisting the urge to fist-pump as Selina's smirk promptly disappeared.

"In any case, does the demon have any weaknesses we can abuse?" I asked as I turned to Jason Blood, dropping my schadenfreude and moving on to more important subjects.

"When people speak of fighting demons, abuse isn't a word that comes very often," Jason Blood said, raising an eyebrow as he lightly chuckled, clearly amused by my choice of words.

"But to answer your question, yes, there are many. Theology, iron, and hellfire, to name a few," Jason replied as he raised one finger with each weakness he gave.

"Hellfire is out of the question unless you have a vial of it tucked away somewhere in that trench coat of yours," the demonologist remarked, lowering one finger, and leaving two remaining.

"Iron only works on low-class demons, and although the Mawzir is no archduke of hell, it is no grunt either," he added, shaking his head and lowering another finger, leaving only one.

"That leaves us with theology, which is self-explanatory; we find a church and wait for the demon to come," he explained with a shrug as he relaxed his fingers and waved his hand to the side.

"Though the demon might be able to enter, all the same, the holy ground would considerably weaken it," Jason concluded with a careless shrug as he alternated his gaze between us, looking for signs of approval or disapproval.

"Even if it's weakened, that thing is pretty powerful, and we have to worry about the criminal organization it took over," Tommy said, frowning as he interjected with a shake of his head.

"I'll take care of the demon if it shows up. The rest of you only need to keep the goons off my back while I deal with it," I said with a shrug, speaking in a confident tone that would have been impossible for me a month ago.

Here I am talking about fighting a demon like it was the most casual thing in the world when I'd been terrified by a mere Firefly when I first came to this godforsaken city. Then again, I might be just getting cocky, but I guess I'll find out sooner rather than later.

Upon hearing my words, Selina's smirk returned, and she looked like she had something to say, but I quickly cut her off with a raised hand as I turned to the bar's entrance.

"Someone is approaching the bar, female, dark skin and hair, armed, possibly a cop..." I remarked as I saw the person approaching the bar through my pigeon drone, noticing the police standard gun straps on her torso.

"Acquaintance of yours?" I asked as I drew Ebony and Ivory from my inventory and prepared for a fight, to which Monaghan quickly nodded, but I didn't put my weapons away.

"Either way, we got a fight on our hands. There's a bunch of people tailing her," I added with a shrug, and everyone's eyes widened as the two hitmen quickly reached for their guns, and Selina brandished her whip.

Whelp, here we fucking go again.

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