"Huh must just be my imagination."But this gang leader had been involved in the criminal world for a long time and had survived this long by trusting his instincts. He called out to one of his men who was standing nearby.
"Oi you call everyone back I want all the men here in less than 30 minutes."
"Sir what do you mean by all the men shouldn"t we leave some at our businesses?"
"I mean EVERYONE call them all back and lock this place down."
The man ran off to follow his orders even though he didn"t know what was happening but it was never a good idea to questions the boss. While he watched the man run off the boss was thinking. This feeling was worse than what he had felt before and if he wasn"t restricted by his current situation he would already be gone.
Currently he was waiting on a group of powerful and influential people to arrive; these people weren"t just from the local city but had come from several of the nearest hub cities. The hub cities were the commercial and military bases the empire used to forward resources and personnel to the outlying cities.
New Grange City used to be known as a hub city but once the outer cities were lost to the beasts it had been downgraded to a frontier garrison even though the size and number of people was on par with any of the other hub cities and was only smaller than the imperial capital.
These people were coming here to take slaves back to their masters but as these were black market slaves there was no law to protect them, also while a slave seal can"t be placed on an unwilling party through torture and coercion this little protection can by bypa.s.sed.
That was the purpose of this facility and why it was placed in this frontier city. Due to a lack of imperial oversight they could operate with almost total autonomy with just a few bribes and threats. However due to the relative power of the people he was waiting for the boss couldn"t just cut and run so he did the next best thing he could which was to turtle up and get ready.
*****
Returning to Kyle who was still tracking the blood trail through the dark alleys and byways of the slums. As he was moving through the shadows and dark Kyle was projecting various arrays through his armour and cloak which he was still wearing from earlier.
He had cast a "concealment" array on his cloak so no one could see who was rus.h.i.+ng through the dark at this time of night to start with. He was thinking of other things that could help him and looking at how close to the floor he actually was he realised that as he was in a child"s body he would need something to disguise himself which would also be necessary in the future as he worked as Zero of the "shadow hand".
He began to cast an "illusion" array on his armour similar to the ones that had disguised the entrances to the lower area of his mansion but this was intended to make his body look around 6 feet tall. He wasn"t worried about the face as the "concealment" array would prevent people from seeing who was within the cloak.
As he ran a black cloud began to coalesce around him giving form to his "illusion", a few drunks who were stumbling through the alleys saw this living darkness rus.h.i.+ng along and ended up quivering in a corner hugging each other in their inebriation.
Kyle didn"t worry about these guys as no one would believe them even if they remembered what they saw when they woke up. Kyle finished up his arrays and was pleased to note the "illusion" worked better than expected.
It felt like he was raised up and was wearing a leotard or something. It took him a few minutes to get used to the layout of this body but that was to be expected as he had suddenly shot up a couple of feet and his arms were now quite a bit longer.
Carrying on following the trail Kyle eventually reached an area which looked as though someone had thrown out some water and washed away the blood trail. Kyle looked around on the dry areas and couldn"t see anything. If he couldn"t pick up the trail he would have to join his men a t the warehouse district and just hope they could find the correct zone.
Moving along the alley Kyle was hoping that he would pick up the trail again. As he was focusing it appeared his mind and mana had a better idea and he was suddenly a.s.sailed by an increase in sounds and smells. They hadn"t increased in volume and potency rather he was able to sense them more than he could a moment ago.
Kyle knew he was treading new territory with the way he was cultivating and evolving his body but he never expected this. Quickly checking himself he found that the node in the back of his brain was sending mana to a couple of sub-nodes similarly to when he experienced an increase in his reflexes.
This node appeared to govern more than the body"s reflexes it may be better to say it governed perception or just senses in general. While Kyle could smell and hear more it was controlled and he could focus on a specific thing, so returning to where he had lost the trail Kyle sniffed the air and could easily detect the scent of blood.
Following this scent he followed down the alley before turning left into a smaller and darker area with multiple doors opening out onto it. Currently none of these doors were open so Kyle carried on following the scent.
Kyle eventually reached one of the doors and using his enhanced hearing he was able to detect 3 people within. One of whom appeared to be dragging his leg; this was probably the injured man. Still listening he could hear them moving towards the door so Kyle moved away slightly into the darkness.
He could have stood behind the door but that would be stupid so he instead waited in the shadows produced by some light that was spilling from the nearby buildings. The door was flung open by one of the men who began speaking hoa.r.s.ely to the men behind him.
"Look I don"t care the boss wants everyone there. You can get that st.i.tched up later but if you ain"t there he"ll tear all of us a new one."
The one who spoke was obviously the leader of this little crew and while grumbling the other 2 exited as well.
"Hey it ain"t my fault who knew those brats had a bodyguard with em."
"Yeah why was he so hard to put down? He shoulda gone down with the first hit but he just kept comin."
"Look I don"t care and neither does the boss. He"s got clients comin by and he don"t want no problems. So we are gonna make sure n.o.body get"s near and come mornin all the kids will be outta the city. Then we can get you stuck back together but not till then."
On hearing what they were saying Kyle knew they were running out of time. If they managed to s.h.i.+p the kids out of the city it would be much harder to track them until it became impossible. Without permission from the imperial overseer they couldn"t close the gates and it isn"t like he would close the gates just for some commoner so it was up to Kyle and his men.
Quietly drawing his sword Kyle decided he needed to dispatch these three before they got to their destination. He would keep the leader alive for a minute so he could get the information he needed but after that he would have no use.
Kyle shook slightly as he made this decision but quickly used his willpower and belief that this had to be done to calm himself. Moving silently and quickly Kyle approached the injured man who was slightly trailing behind the others. Pulling his sword back he grabbed the man covering his mouth and drove his sword upwards at about a 60 degree angle pa.s.sing through the man"s diaphragm and puncturing his lung.
The man had no chance to struggle or cry out before his lung was punctured meaning even if he wanted to he couldn"t make any noise. Kyle pushed a little more on the sword and pushed the blade into the man"s heart and within 15 seconds he collapsed.
Kyle lowered the man to the ground and moved up to the other two. He took out the other thug in the same way he took down the injured one but quicker as he made the stab in one motion penetrating his heart. Moving to the leader he could hear him talking.
"So when we get there don"t say nothin about the last collection. I"ve already spoken to the others and they know to keep their mouths shut. We don"t know why they had a guard so just in case we"ll deny any knowledge. Also if anyone asks about your leg just say a dog bit you."
Kyle didn"t let the man continue and just slammed the b.u.t.t of his sword into the back of his head to knock him out. The man stiffened before falling on his face. Kyle started grabbing the men and dragged them back into the house they had exited from, now comes the part he wasn"t looking forward to the interrogation and if the leader didn"t answer his questions he would have to torture him.
"This is going to be a long night."