An Axe in the Flames

Nail

"Already we amass more and more in the rebellion. Almost every farmer in the valley and their sons. Three-quarters of the city stands behind us. He wouldn't dare set foot in our home and tell us what to do. Instead, he sends his men of Cor and hides behind his walls. Sitting on his pimpled ass, getting fatter on our money."

Nail rolled his eyes and slid his foot off the bench, this was all getting to be too much. The man wasn't really saying anything important and was still working the men with him up into a frenzy. Best to end this here and now, he thought to himself. He turned around on his bench and from the corner of his mouth he spit. Rabbit looked up and stopped his speech.

"Watch where you spit, asshole." Rabbit said as he stood up in his chair.

"Frankly, fuck face. I'm tired of your mouth, and just tired in general. You, literally, are the most obnoxious man I've ever heard. You whine on like a tot that had his tit taken away before he was full."

Rabbit stood stunned, his mouth working up and down, his face turning bright red. A fat man with the face of a frog jumped to his feet. His stained white shirt bursting at the buttons to hold his belly in.

"Who the fuck are-"

His words died in his throat as Nail's thrown dagger buried to the hilt in his forehead. His eyes crossed as if trying to see the dagger, a trickle of blood running from his forehead and dripping off the tip of his fat nose. He fell backward like a great tree, crashing into a table behind him. The music stopped as the whole bar became silent. Nine men left, easy enough, Nail thought

"A fucking Brother of the Shadows?" Rabbit finally managed to say as he took a step forward.

Nail slid out from the booth and produced two long knives from behind him, "The Brother of the Shadows. Put some respect on my name, dickhead."

Now, Nail had the attention of the whole bar. Most had gotten out of their chairs and backed away from the imminent fight. Rabbit and his men hadn't though. At the sight of the two knives that Nail had produced, they took out their own. Nail smiled, a deadly viperous smile. Full of white teeth and bad intentions.

"Not everyone has to die. We can stop a lot of new orphans being made tonight, and do this one-on-one." He said calmly.

Rabbit sneered, a mousy and meek-looking thing, and replied, "Or you can die and we go about our night."

Nail held his knives out wide and shrugged, "One or ten. Doesn't matter much to me, what does matter is that I was sent by your King to end this little bullshit thing you've got going here."

Rabbit sucked snot from his nose and spit at Nail, narrowly missing him. He watched it land to his right with a sickening smack on the floor.

"That was really nasty. That much snot, really?"

Rabbit was shaking now, anger visibly showing on his red face. Two of his men ran forward slashing at Nail in a frenzy. With a fluid easiness, Nail stepped to the side of one slash and rammed a knife into the back of one man's skull, then swayed back away from the other's knife and rammed his free knife into the other's left eye up to the hilt. He held the pose for a moment and then pulled both knives out with a squelch. Blood shot out from each man's wound as they fell to the floor, and began puddling around them and soaking into the floor. Down to seven, he thought.

"We can really do this in a much easier way."

"Fuck you!" Rabbit screamed as three more of his men came at Nail.

He ducked the first and quickly jabbed in and out of the man's gut. The second and third men swung down with their knives but Nail rolled backward and threw both knives in unison, connecting perfectly with each man's throat. They grabbed at the knives in futility, gurgling with black blood leaking from their mouths. The first man lay on the floor babbling trying to hold his intestines and looking around wild-eyed. Four more and then I can sleep, Nail thought.

"C'mon Rabbit. You're doing this to yourself. I can kill your other three men, or just you. This is child's play to me." Nail said as he produced two more knives from around his ankles. He stood up again and brushed off his black leather pants.

"You can't have any more knives on you now. Four on one. Eight knives to two. I like my chances. Your King is not mine, and our people will not be stomped into nothing!" Rabbit said as he stepped over the man holding his intestines.

"Oh, I'm full of surprises. What kind of name is Rabbit anyway? You couldn't come up with something more...I dunno, menacing?"

The thing was, he didn't have any more knives. Rabbit didn't need to know that, though. It was best to keep a man guessing in a situation like this. He figured he could grab one of the dead men's knives if he had to, but he was gonna keep that secret to himself, don't show all your cards at once. They began to surround Nail, Rabbit in front and his two friends breaking up going to the left and right.

"Your King sent his dog to bite at the hands that feed him? That's all you are, the King's pet." Rabbit spit out as they started to circle.

"The hand that feeds him? You do realize that the only thing protecting you and your province from being raided by Berserkers is him...don't you? This whole rebellion is laughable."

The one on the left came on suddenly, slashing in a crossing pattern as the one on the right went low for Nail's legs. He sprang back and narrowly avoided both men. Nail was calm, he hadn't even broken a sweat yet. He stole a glance around the bar which had almost emptied out. No one else was backing Rabbit in this situation. He eyed the skinny man and motioned around the room with his hands.

"No one else is taking your back. A bar full of your people and they'd rather leave than have an opportunity to rise against with you. The writing is on the wall, buddy. Just give it up."

Rabbit screamed a wordless yell and charged, his feet slipping in the puddles of blood and crashing face-first into the floor. His body twitched and bucked as he rolled over, one knife buried deep into his chest, the other through the side of his neck and protruding from the back. His remaining two men looked on in horror.

"Ah, what the fuck? You stabbed yourself?! I mean, it's fitting and all, but seriously?"

He had slipped and impaled himself, like the idiot he was. You had to be more careful when running with pointy things. Nail laughed at the situation, and then looked up as the remaining two men took off in a full sprint for the door. With quick thinking, he pulled two knives from the bodies on the floor. With a quick flick, he sent both knives through the air, and with the deadly aim of the assassin he was, they stuck hilt deep into the skulls of each man. He turned to address the remaining bar guests.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, let's think twice before starting a rebellion against the kingdom that protects you. Also, let this be a lesson on running with sharp objects. My name is Nail, and it has been an utter pleasure to meet you all."

He bowed, reached down and retrieved each of his knives, and wiped the blood off on each man's shirt. Then he paused at Rabbit's corpse, taking a knife and cutting his right ear off. He held it up to the bar guests and nodded as he calmly walked out of the bar and into the night.