Chương 35: Chapter 34. On the Hunt

The next day found Oscar alone in the marketplace. When he'd woken up, the first thing he'd done was check the statue above the Burrow for any messages from Oz. Sure enough, there was one in the empty bowl. It had told him to head to the marketplace to meet up with Cry for more information. Gita had declined to come as she said Plank had some sort of training exercise planned for her. With everything that had happened and with the way things looked to be heading, she wanted to beef up her class some more.

And honestly, Oscar was glad to be on his own. He didn't know what Oz wanted from him, but he hoped it remained an individual project. A part of him was disappointed that he hadn't earned a level up. It felt like it'd been awhile since his last one. Similar to games he'd played back home, it was likely that it got harder and harder to level up, or perhaps he just hadn't been challenged enough. Even still, he missed seeing that notification in the depths of his sleep.

Oscar spotted Cry in the same corner that they'd first met. He was wearing a set of tattered clothes that were also heavily stained, creating the image of quite the desolate little beggar. Clearly he was playing some role for a job, but he didn't ask for the specifics. Even if he was just a little bit curious...

"Sorry for the roundabout instructions, boss didn't want to put something that directly led to him lest unwanted eyes discover the message," Cry said.

"Boss wants you to meet him behind at the Hanged Kings and Drowned Queens bar over in District Five."

"That's an… interesting name for a bar," Oscar remarked. Cry shrugged apathetically.

"Eh, a lot of people really fuckin' hate the [King] these days. It's a shithole of a bar, though, so I wouldn't recommend it."

"Are you even old enough to drink?"

"Oscar, I'm nineteen years old. I'm plenty old enough."" What? How are you nineteen? You look like you're like sixteen and that's me being generous." Cry rolled his eyes at him… and then continued to roll them, quite literally, around his face. His other features shifted as well, along with his skin color changing to a darker hue. After a second he became she, resulting in a completely brand new and much older Cry. The clothes were still horrendous, though, so no fixing that.

"Whoa…" Oscar said.

"You're… Whoa… I've never seen that before."

"Not many Shiftlings can do that, you know? It's hard work to change forms, but I'm one of few in this city that have learned how to have spare forms in the reserve. It took many months of hard work to sculpt this face—and there's a body too, but I can't do that here—but now I can freely swap between these two faces," Cry said with a smug grin.

"I also have a third one, but… it's reserved for a special job."

"Shit, yeah, that's impressive," Oscar said genuinely. The two shared a few more words before Oscar left and headed for the bar. Apparently Cry and the others were going to try and break into the church again. He reminded him how to find their hideout and told him to swing by later to grab a few drinks. After giving a flimsy and noncommittal response, he asked for more details on where he was supposed to go. According to Cry, the bar was almost impossible to miss.

All he had to do was stroll down the main road and it'd be somewhere a bit further into District Five. The place wasn't too popular these days unless the owner was running some profit losing sale. District Five was noticeably nicer compared to District Six and Seven. The roads were cleaner, there was less beggars, people in general were nicer as well. That being said, the roads were still dirty, the beggars that were around were still annoying, and instead of being cunts, the people were just dicks instead.

But an improvement was an improvement, so who was he to complain? The one big negative this district had was the overabundance of [Thugs]. Cry had said that District Five was ran by the Reissi family, so he supposed that was who he was seeing. And it wasn't like these men were causing trouble for people. If anything they seemed to be quite well liked. And he thought it was a negative because… uh, because crime is bad. Except it felt like no one else in this city shared that same belief.

It seemed unfathomable to him that these people were fine with the conditions that their [King] was forcing them to live in. Even from down here in District Five, he was feeling anger at the sight of the high walls of the upper city, and that magnificent palace on the top. In his eyes, that should serve as a constant source of ire for the common folk. And perhaps it did, but in general it seemed like everyone was mad at one another rather than what should be the nobles.

At the end of the day, this city wasn't his fight. He had his own stuff to worry about. And besides, it wasn't like he was the most outgoing activist on Earth. The most he'd do is scroll online, get upset at some horrific news, and then go back to gaming. This difference was that this world also didn't have anything fun like MMOs, so these people might as well revolutionize. Oscar's thoughts about the matter ceased as he saw the bar that Cry had told him about.

Creeping around the side of the building, he found the back alley. Standing around like an NPC awaiting interaction was Oz. He was in the shade, with the only thing revealing him being the scary illumination of his serpent-like eyes.

"About time, Oscar," Oz muttered.

"Sorry, I haven't been to this district before."

"Hmph, whatever. I need your help on this lead I got."

"Is it going to end in me running for my life? That sort of just happened last night." Oz stubbed out his cigar, the ashes falling onto his boots.

"Nah, they're all going to die running from us."

"Jeez, uh… what did you find out?" Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"These Reissi fucks are the only ones moving Desire these days. There was some small-time gang led by a man named Crez over in District Seven that had been manufacturing some cheap shit, but he was killed the other day. Him and his crew were slowly phasing out their operations they'd started up on a nearby island and were handing it off to Reissi, but something went wrong," Oz said.

"Whatever happened between them, I don't care. What matters is that the Arturo now has full control over the Desire trade within Dynarus." Oscar didn't respond right away. He was thinking over whether or not he should tell Oz about the wharf last night. After a moment, he realized that it'd be foolish for him to not share this information.

"Last night there was a large shipment of Desire that came in for this insane Reissi brute. They're using the churches within the city to micro-dose their congregation."

"That's why the District Seven church had all those crates of the damned drug…" Oz chewed on the information for a second.

"Fuck, I've got no idea why this would benefit them. Perhaps today will give us some new insight then."

"What'd you find out?"

"There's a place in the district for gambling. One of the people I suspect to be involved in Perry's death runs the place. It's a Reissi owned operation, so the place should be filled to the brim with the fucks," Oz said.

"The thing is apparently some of the [King's] men have decided to take over. As you might've noticed, [Guards] don't patrol the lower city much. And the people that will be inside the place? Not your average [Guard] either." Oscar regretted asking who they were, but he did.

"There's a place in the upper city called the Depths and it's reserved for the worst of the worst. [Terrorists], [Rapists], anything heinous, they're there," Oz explained.

"Except… not really anymore. The people that work there are an elite force that have been kidnapping people at random. It's not a widespread thing that people know about, but I've done my digging. I... might've been one of them? I don't know, but it'd make sense... If only I could fuckin' remember."

"And if the person your after is in there with them… then that means we're about to be on their shit-list."

"Only if we let any of them live," Oz said coldly.

"They're likely some mean bastards, but the two of us together? I don't see any of them surviving… especially if your friend tags along…" he hissed the last few words out and looked up to the building behind him." M'lago! How did you spot me?" A man draped in orange robes said as he landed in-between Oscar and Oz.

"Wait… Shamic?"

"That's the name, s'hika! Glad you haven't forgotten it!"

"Oscar, what's the meaning behind this? Who is this man?" Oz asked. Shamic gave Oz a wide grin.

"The name's Shamic! I'm a s'hika of Oscars and was doing some… research on him."

"You were spying on me? Why?"

"Forgive me, I just needed to know if you were related to someone I once knew," Shamic said.

"I… cannot go into further details. My spying came from a place of care, I promise," he bowed his head slightly at him.

"But perhaps I can lend you my aid as way of atonement?"

"You overheard all of that and wish to help us? Tell me why; you're Relvikian, so you're no friend of the Grand Council, nor likely to be employed by anyone in the city either… So what's your angle?"

"Yes, you're right, I have no stakes in this cities affairs. But like I said… I consider Oscar to be s'hika, so I'd like to help."

"You said you thought I was related to someone… who?" Oscar asked.

"Bruno," he said simply, and then studied him.

"But you're not, I'm confident of that now given your reaction." Oz was getting pissed and Oscar thought he heard the man actually let out a faint hiss.

"Shamic, you said right? I thought I knew the name, what's a—"" Hama, please don't say what I am in front of Oscar. You know who I am, so you know I'm capable. If you truly don't want the help, then that's fine… but before I continue my job, allow me to assist someone who didn't look down upon me."

"Hmph, fine…" Oz said.

"Let's go then, we've wasted enough time already with this distraction."

"This should be a fun warm-up!" Shamic said excitedly. Oscar was still puzzled at why Shamic cared if he was related to Bruno or not, but decided to place it in the back of his mind for now. He needed to be focused on the fight to come.

"So much for a relaxing, solo job today…"

The gambling parlor was apparently in the basement of some nice restaurant. Nice for the lower city, of course. He could see some of these local Reissi mobsters taking their dates here and enjoying the ambiance. Mobster films had always been one of his favorite genres aside from horror, so maybe he was a bit influenced right now.

"Table for three, please!" Shamic exclaimed… to absolutely no one.

"Is this a seat yourself situation? I'm not too familiar with the customs over here…"

"No, I think this is a 'fuck-off-and-die' situation," Oscar said. Oz gave them both an admonishing look.

"Focus, they're likely downstairs," he said as he pointed down at the door ahead.

"One's likely the target, a woman by the name of Hia. She's not a threat, so focus on the Depths agents inside." With that being said, Oz kicked open the door and flew down the steps towards the gambling den. Oscar and Shamic followed, and it was now that he wondered how Shamic would react to seeing Oz fight. He assumed it'd involve those snake-fingers, which was surely not common to see even in this fantasy world. The scene that they stumbled on was not one of gambling, but one of business.

A business that they were clearly not supposed to have stumbled on. There was seven finely dressed men gathered at a round table. Oscar's first thought was that they looked like some bootleg versions of the 'Men In Black'. A strange pin was on each of their suits. It looked like a whirlpool. A woman was in the back, thumbing through something on a desk that Oscar couldn't see. The men at the table had pills in their hand and were vigorously inspecting them. Upon noticing the intruders, they all stood up in alarm.

Curses and insults flung around the room, all aimed at the woman in the back.

"They aren't with us, I swear! Mr. Reissi wouldn't dare try and fuck over anyone involved in the Depths or the [King]!" Hia shouted in a panic. Despite Hia's protests, the strangely dressed men didn't seem to care. One whipped out a compact crossbow and shot a bolt right between her eyes. The others reached into their pockets and downed some other kind of pill. The effects were instantly noticeable to both Oscar and Oz, but Shamic seemed confused.

"They're getting high? What's going on with them?" Shamic asked. Oz ignored him and looked over at Oscar.

"You feel that, Oscar?"

"Yeah… they're corrupting themselves." Oz didn't wait for them to make the first move. With an outstretched hand, his index finger darted forwards, morphing into a viper as it sped towards the man that had the crossbow. With no way to expect such an attack, the viper-finger opened its maw wide and bit straight into the man's neck. With a yank, Oz recalled his finger, ripping away a huge chunk of the man's flesh in the process. The other six men yelped in surprise, but were able to recover quickly.

Shamic on the other hand…

"Goddess… I didn't realize how capable you were, forgive me," he said and then reached into the air, his hand disappearing for a brief moment before pulling out two scimitars. One of the men began to tremble. Whether it was from rage, or the drug's effects, Oscar didn't know. All that he knew was that the man was a threat, and so, when he charged towards him… he stepped back and decided to let Shamic handle this. Was it cowardly? Yes. Did he care? No.

As the man got closer to Shamic, he lunged low, going for his legs. With no weapon in hand, Oscar wondered what the plan was. It turned out that the man did have a weapon. Small spikes, similar in color to the basilisk's, erupted out of his fingertips. With a swipe, he tried to claw Shamic's legs. Despite Shamic's prior goofy demeanor, he was completely serious now and dodged out of the way at the last second.

"[Slice Through]," Shamic said, and when he struck at the man, his scimitar sliced cleanly through the man's shoulder, removing the limb despite how lazy an attack it had looked. Despite such a grave wound, the man didn't seem to react at all. Instead he grabbed his fallen arm and rolled out of the way from another strike. Once he'd put some distance between themselves, Oscar watched as he slapped the dismembered hunk of flesh against the wound… and gasped as he saw the arm reattach itself.

"Oh… that's not normal," Shamic said dryly. All of this had happened within a couple of seconds. Oz watched through those reptilian-like eyes of his. No one made a move, everyone no doubt gauging one another. These men knew they weren't going against normal fighters, and so did Oscar and his group. Unease settled within him as he waited for someone to spring into action. The man that Oz had killed laid slumped on top of the table, blood pouring off the edge.

The sudden intense attack had left them uneasy, and for a moment, he thought no one would make a move. And then Oscar found himself on the ground clutching his stomach as he saw a sharp spike stabbed inside him.