A frail-looking young man with dark eyes and ash-colored hair was running at full speed down a dark and gloomy alley in the slums, glancing back occasionally to check if his pursuers were still on his heels.
They were.
'Damn it, how did Blaise get back here in time?! I thought he'd gone to settle things with Shavon and his stupid minions. I should have had at least an hour free to loot their hideout.'
Blaise, a man with a short beard, was chasing him, followed by his henchmen, about ten other people with iron clubs and ropes. His face was red with anger, and he was gasping for air from the manhunt that had been going on for several minutes.
''Lysander, give me back MY money right now, or I swear I won't let you have a proper corpse!! Shavon told me it was you who planted the rumour to make us fight! You really think we'd fall for a petty trick like that?!''
The young man, Lysander, was also exhausted, his malnourished body screaming at him to rest somewhere and regain his strength. Yet, between breaths, he still managed to throw a little taunt at Blaise.
"Sorry, Blaise, I really thought you and your men were stupid enough and too busy acting tough to fall for my trick!"
Blaise and the men behind him were stung in the ego, and all they could see was red and a burning desire to slit the little brat's throat slowly.
Unfortunately for them, blinded by their anger and the lack of oxygen in their brains, they didn't realize where Lysander was leading them.
A dead end.
Lysander stood with his back against a stone wall, his demeanour calm and resolute, as if he were in complete control.
Slowly, Blaise walked toward the young man, twirling his dagger in his fingers.
"Lysander, this is the end for you. You shouldn't have stolen from me, and you'll regret it in the afterlife!"
Strangely, when he met Lysander's eyes, black and deep as night, he couldn't help but shudder, for they were not the eyes of someone whose end was near. They were the eyes of a predator with his dinner laid out before him.
"Blaise, do you really think I would have brought you here if I didn't have a plan? Today, I'm going to get rid of you, you parasites of the slums!"
Lysander raised his arm, his open hand in the air, and roared at the top of his lungs.
"Now!"
The moment the sound left his mouth, an iron rod fell from the roof of the house behind him and landed in his hand.
Shouts were heard from the rooftops of the surrounding houses, and several barrels of boiling oil were poured over the heads of Blaise's men, burning them alive and making them scream in agony as they writhed on the ground, trying to stop their suffering.
Blaise, being close to Lysander, was partially spared from this sneak attack, but his legs were still struck by the oil splashing on the ground, and he fell to his knees, his face white with pain, his teeth clenched until they nearly broke.
"Yo-you bastard!!"
The frail-looking young man whistled three times, and the people above stopped pouring the barrels. He advanced slowly, his iron staff dragging on the ground and sparking. Blaise trembled with pain and fear, for the person facing him was no longer the one he had thought was at his mercy just moments before. It was now the opposite.
"I-I can g-give you the rest of---"
He didn't have time to finish his sentence before Lysander raised the iron staff above his head and struck him in the jaw with full force.
Crack
Blaise felt his jaw dislocate, and he knew it was broken.
"Arrrghhhh!!"
With an impassive face, Lysander continued to strike and strike the man's body at his feet until his blood splattered across the alley.
"You thought I would forget that you kidnapped Rose and sold her to the Ravengers?! I told you I would kill you for that. So now, die."
Cries of agony were heard from passersby near the dead end, but one in particular stood out from the others.
Time passed.
Lysander only stopped when Blaise's face was nothing but an unrecognizable mass of flesh and bone. He picked up the dagger, kicked Blaise's body aside, and walked toward the rest of the gang of thugs who had been suffering terribly for the past few minutes. One by one, Lysander bent down and plunged the dagger into their throats, ending their pathetic lives.
When he had finished, Lysander turned toward the rooftops.
"Guys, you can go down and search their bodies to see if there's anything of value."
Ropes fell from the top of the walls, and several teenagers descended one by one. They were shocked by the sight; some even vomited at the sight of the corpses.
Lysander's impassive face gave way to an expression of concern. He wanted to approach them to comfort them, but noticed the blood that covered his clothes and hands. He held back.
"I'm sorry to make you witness this."
One of the teenagers who had just vomited, Carl, raised his pale head toward Lysander.
"You don't have to apologize, Lys. We each had a debt to settle with those bastards, and you helped us achieve our revenge."
The others joined in.
"Those sons of bitches extorted my mother until she died of exhaustion at the factory!"
"They took the money my parents had saved, and now we're homeless!"
"They beat my father to death!"
They continued listing the crimes of Blaise and his thugs, spitting their suffering like venom onto their bodies.
Lysander let out a sorrowful sigh.
"Hurry up and take what you need from their remains. But I'm keeping the loot I stole. It's for Rose's sister."
The teenagers nodded without hesitation and began looting the corpses, while Lysander headed back to his hideout.
Shortly after, he arrived in front of a relatively well-preserved building, even in the slums, and began climbing the water pipe to the top.
When Lysander reached the top, he saw a young girl with dark hair, around 12 years old, sitting with her back to him on a bench, cooking a can of food. Behind her were two dilapidated tents that served as their homes.
The girl turned abruptly, but when she saw who it was, a wide smile spread across her face, and she rushed to hug him.
"Lys! You're back! Did you make it?"
Lysander smiled back and stroked the hair of the girl he considered his little sister.
"Yes, Jet, I did it."