The Nine Shadows

Chapter Four: The Rescue

I stood and rested against the wall as I took my bow from my shoulder, strung it, and latched an arrow in the strings. I took a breath and moved out from the cover I aimed at the lookout and let the arrow loose. It flew swiftly hitting its target as the arrow sunk deep into the hunter’s skull; he swayed a little then fell forward onto the platform of the tower with a dull thud.

The two hunters from the entrance appeared to the left between two buildings. I pushed my power into my legs to give me a burst of speed, I flashed behind the two men. I cut one down quickly my blade slicing his throat before the other could react. The other turned to defend himself but it was too late for him as Wolfe jumped on top of him pushing him onto the ground he lunged taking a bite into the man’s throat and pulled away ripping there was a gurgle of blood at the man died. I finished off my opponent digging the blade into his stomach and with a twist the man drew his last breath and relaxed falling to the ground. I hid these two men in the bushes covering them with foliage and moved towards my next objective, the headquarters of the bounty hunters.

I moved silently as I found a way up to the rooftops. Wolfe jumped up first and I climbed up behind him onto the rooftop we made our way slowly jumping from rooftop to rooftop as to not alert anyone. We had to save this girl before it was too late before we ran out of time. We both managed to get to the headquarters without any further trouble from the bounty hunters. The headquarters was three floors I had to locate the girl quickly and get out. The smell in the air was a mix between sweat, blood, and alcohol it was an awful stinking rotting smell. I immediately felt sick, I felt the vomit bubbling in the pit of my stomach, and I somehow was able to control my intense urges enough to repel the thoughts of vomiting. I located a balcony Wolfe jumped down onto it while I checked for more hunters. When I knew it was safe I lowered myself down and hid beneath one of the windows into the headquarters, I could hear voices coming from this room, they were speaking of the girl, the sounds where muffled so I could not make out exactly what they were saying although I managed to hear something of someone she had killed but that was all. I calmly closed my eyes and concentrated on counting the voices in the room. One, two, three, four, five there were five voices in this room, it would not be possible to get to the girl this way I would be caught before I even got close to her even with Wolfe’s help I needed to find an easier way in.

I moved along the balcony to the back of the building, with no other entrance on this floor I looked over the edge and noticed there was a basement door and another door that by the smell of food must lead to the kitchen. I opted to go through the basement door; this would be the easiest way to avoid conflict as I tried to rescue the girl. We descended from the balcony onto the ground and I approached the basement door. It was locked from the outside. I quickly broke the lock with a swift pull due to my enhanced strength and got inside the basement shutting the door behind us both. I hid at the door’s entrance and looked for the stairs to the floor above and looked down at Wolfe;

“Here goes nothing buddy” I softly laughed and Wolfe barked softly. We made our way up the stairs carefully staying alert for anyone approaching.

How I was going to know where the girl was located in this building I didn’t know the answer to this all I could really do is check floor by floor until we found her which would take time but it had to be done.

If only, there was a way to use my power to locate the girl. Suddenly a light went off in my head, there was a way a way to locate the girl using this power I had. I calmly summoned the power, building more and deeper inside me. Wolfe stood guard at the staircase as I concentrated on what I was doing. What I was going to do is push all the energy into my hearing and heighten it beyond super human extremes like a bat using its sonar. Then use it to push outwards throughout the building locating the enemies and the girl. I pushed the energy outwards through the building, there were three floors in this building which was a lot of ground to cover but this way I could do it quicker and find exactly where I had to go. There were seven hunters on the first floor, nine on the second, and eleven on the third floor which included the five I had heard in the room from the balcony. I could faintly hear the girl coming from the third floor. This was bad.

The leader of the guild would be somewhere in this building but also at least over twenty hunters throughout the three floors. We set out making our way to the third floor of the building we had to dodge as many of them we could as we got to the top floor again. I peered round the frame of the door at the top of the basement stairs. I looked once to the left then once to the right and then back again; there were voices away to the left at least five voices there was another to my right but where was the seventh. I listened to every movement on this floor Wolfe growled I turned to him to see him looking to the right. I listened intently, there it was he or she was approaching fast I hid back on the stairs. The man walked past stairs there was a noise from behind me that made the man look round he approached the staircase slowly on high alert. I moved to the other side of the staircase wall just as the man’s blade appeared followed by his wrist. I grabbed him quickly yanking him forward and put my arm around his throat with the other tightening the grip like a wrestler putting his opponent in a sleeper hold. I squeezed tightly then with a swift tug I snapped the man’s neck with a crack. I carried him downstairs into the basement and put him into the broom closet. I looked out into the hallway I found the stairs to the second floor; I made sure the way was clear of any enemies before we proceeded. We climbed the stairs silently; and finally we got to the second floor.

A door opened with a creek, someone was approaching. We quickly darted into the closest room and closed the door behind us listening out for the enemy approaching; the footsteps grew louder as he got closer to my hiding spot the door to the room I was in opened as the man entered luckily we were hiding behind the door. I decided the safest option was to get rid of him. I shot out from my hiding spot and cut at his legs neatly slicing his tendons in his knees he fell to the floor before he could make a noise Wolfe finished him off. There were another two of them chatting about the girl as they walked by; I listened to them as they began walking up the stairs to the third floor. They were heading to retrieve the girl, it was them, the two I had overheard two days before. This was the opportunity I had been waiting for she would be alone with these two would be assassins; I could easily take these scum out and escape with the girl.

We waited in the room as I built up this mysterious power; some time had passed when I heard the voices return this time with a girl’s voice with them. The men were laughing as the women struggled. Their voices grew louder.

“Let me go, let me go NOW!” shouted the girl.

“HA-HA, that isn’t going to happen lady we are going to have a little chat with you before we need to escort you away in the morning” laughed the tall man winking at his friend.

“Yeah” said the other winking back “We are going to have such a fun chat with you, you stupid little bitch.”

My hand tightened around the hilt of my blade as my anger rose at these words were spoken by this scum.

“We need to take her to an empty room so we don’t get disturbed while we have our little chat” said the tall one as he spoke to the smaller hunter.

The men led her into another empty room at the end of the hall on the floor. Now was the time for me and Wolfe to strike while the men were busy distracted by the girl, I moved ever so carefully with Wolfe toward the door to the room where the girl was. The voices became louder again; I could hear what was happening in the room I gently opened the door a little and peeked through the crack in the door to see what exactly was happening. The girl was bound to the bed with long metal chains, one of the men was watching from a chair in the corner to the left as the other finished shackling the girl’s feet to the bed. He encircled her slowly as if she was his prey and he was the predator, he unsheathed his sword from its leather scabbard.

“Please stop! Don’t do this!” screamed the girl as the man used his sword to glide along her tummy in a circle then slowly cut up her white top until it was cut in half, he nudged the halves of the top until they fell open revealing her red bra. She struggled against the chains the metal rubbing against her peach skin as the men laughed at her pitiful attempts. The man moved to her left side and with one fluid movement he severed the left bra strap.