There was a man leaning on the stair railing. He was a thin man, not very tall, with pale blond hair and light blue eyes that were visible in the dim light. Although he wasn't an ugly man, there was something disturbing about his face, as if he resembled a snake. There was a slice of cake in his hand and a cup of tea, the fragrance of which reached Arsh. Still eating his cake, the man looked at his men on the ground.
"Useless… you see, they can't stand on their own for more than five minutes."
Tedor was ready to fight and jump toward the man.
Juan, however, was quite calm. He turned to Arsh. "Stay out of the fight. Find the keys and check on the kids." he said.
Juan and the others had already warned him more than a couple of times while they were waiting. The plan was for him to hide in the darkness and watch them while they fought.
Arsh didn't have to try very hard to find the key. The golden threads were pointing toward the snake-faced man in front of them.
"The key is on him" he said to Juan.
Upon hearing this, Tedor didn't think twice and lunged toward the man leaning on the railing. The man didn't take the attack head-on and jumped back. Even though Tedor tried to attack a few more times, the man kept dodging easily. Then he gently placed the tea cup he held on a dusty, broken table.
What is he, some kind of acrobat?" Juan said.
A moment later, Arsh noticed a faint smoke starting to spread from the man into the air . When the smoke reached Tedor, he began to cough.
"Tedor, retreat and cover your mouth. Arsh, you too."
"Is it poisonous?" asked Arsh while covering his mouth.
Hearing this, the man burst into laughter. The last thing Arsh saw was the man pulling a gun from under his jacket and pointing it at them. Then he disappeared into a thick layer of smoke.
Just in time, Juan grabbed Arsh and they jumped behind an old cabinet. Tedor had thrown himself in the same direction with them. Quickly and silently, they slipped through the scattered objects and put some distance between themselves and the man.
"Tedor, how are you?" Juan asked quietly.
Tedor was out of breath; he was holding it in so he wouldn't start coughing. "My lungs hurt… I only took one or two breaths. Other than that, I'm fine."
"Good."
At that moment, they heard the man's steps approaching them. But he was moving quite slowly. When Arsh looked through a small gap toward where the man was, he couldn't see anything but a cluster of smoke. The smoke was drifting forward little by little, but it wasn't spreading enough to fill the entire floor.
With each step he took, the smoke kept spreading slowly around him. After a while, it stopped spreading. It didn't go far, stopping about two meters away from the man. Arsh turned to Juan to see if he had noticed it too. Juan, just like him, was watching the man through a small opening.
"The poison isn't spreading very fast. He's staying in the middle of it to keep himself safe." Arsh said.
"I think you're right. So he wants to take us out before we get close to him. Let's try first."
Juan picked up a small glass vase he found among the scattered objects and threw it as far as he could. The man followed the sound of the vase shattering and fired in that direction. But his steps didn't get much faster. Still, he had altered the rhythm of his movements just enough for them to understandthe speed of the smoke's spread.
After the gunshot, Arsh turned to Tedor and Juan and asked the question on his mind.
"So… why don't you have a gun?"
"Nice question. I'll explain the reason later. For now, let's think about how we're going to take this man down."
"We need to make him move faster. If we force him to move outside the area where the poison has spread, the only thing he'll have left to use is his gun." Arsh said.
"Alright then. Arsh, you run to the far side and distract him. Meanwhile, Tedor, can you get behind him and push him out of the smoke?"
"I can hold my breath and land a solid kick. He already looks pretty weak."
"Alright, once he steps out of the smoke, leave the rest to me."
They quickly put the plan into action. Arsh first walked away slowly, then began to run fast once he was outside the man's shooting range. After taking a few steps forward, the man sped up a little. This time, although the poisonous smoke cluster was still around him, the density of the mist and the area it covered began to shrink.
Meanwhile, Tedor was following the smoke cluster as closely as he could without entering the man's sight. After the man picked up speed, the smoke thinned, and his silhouette finally became a little visible. The moment he caught this opening, Tedor jumped into the cloud of smoke and kicked the man.
Tedor was big and strong, while the man was half his size and appeared sickly. Just as Juan had predicted, the kick was enough to send him a few meters out of the smoke and make him collapse to the ground in pain.
He quickly tried to get up and pull the smoke back toward himself, but it was too late. Juan had already wrapped his hands around the man's throat from the shadows. After a faint cracking sound, the man collapsed motionless to the ground. The poisonous smoke in the air vanished as if it had never existed.
Meanwhile, Tedor was also trying to recover on the ground.
"Hey Tedor, don't you have any of Reiner's medicine with you? Wait." Juan pulled a small metal flask from a tiny pouch attached to his belt, hidden under his rags, and gave it to Tedor. After that, Tedor's breathing began to improve slightly.
Arsh took the keys from the pocket of the motionless man lying on the ground and ran toward the room where the children were.
When he opened the door, he couldn't see anything at first—only faint sounds of crying, hiccups, and murmuring coming from inside. When he grabbed the gas lamp hanging on the wall next to the door and held it inside, the scene he saw was far worse than anything he, Juan, or their team had imagined.
Some of the children inside were covering their faces because of the unfamiliar light, while others were huddled together, clinging to one another. All of them had fear in their eyes.
The problem was the number of children.
The others had anticipated that there would be many children inside, but the actual number exceeded their expectations. There were definitely more than fifty children in the room, ranging from the ages of four or five to around ten or eleven.
Juan and Tedor, who had just followed him, felt the same shock as Arsh, momentarily holding their breaths.
"Juan, what are we going to do?" Tedor asked.
At that moment, one of the children lost control and began to cry, and a few more soon joined in.
"There is nothing we can do, just follow the plan. Tedor, you and Arsh look after the children; I will go first and check the situation at the back door. I've already given a signal to the others" Juan said.
After Juan left, Arsh tried to calm the children. They were very frightened, but hearing this man assure them that they would return to their families, many began to relax and show a braver attitude.
The older children held the hands of the younger ones and helped Arsh calm them. Tedor, meanwhile, had moved the men lying by the door from their sight so that the children wouldn't be scared.
Soon, Arsh and Tedor led the way, and behind them, hand in hand, 68 children began climbing the stairs. When they went upstairs where the where the staff and supply doors, they waited for a moment.
The doors were behind the kitchen area. It was impossible to see what was going on there, but some noises could be heard.
The children were crowded in the corridor, silently looking at them with expectation. Tedor started moving down the corridor without waiting any longer.
"I'll check the situation, wait here for a moment"
Arsh could hear the sounds of fighting growing louder. There were a lot of children. They couldn't just run away like this. If they wanted to get out safely, they had to deal with all the men first. If they were followed, there would be no safety at all. There simply weren't enough of them to protect so many children.
Arsh closed his eyes and focused. 'The safest way to get the children out.'
When he opened his eyes, he saw only a single golden thread, but it wasn't very bright, faintly glowing. Arsh decided to follow it, but he didn't know how to tell the others.
'Should I just leave them and follow the light?' He wasn't sure and he knew there wasn't much time.
As he was thinking, he heard footsteps rushing toward him. A moment later, Juan's voice echoed in his ears.
"Arsh, be careful."
The only thing Arsh saw was a flash of lightning coming toward him. He managed to avoid the first one, but the next attack came too quickly. He barely dodged the lightning fist with his arm.
'It feels like it's burning.'
When the children saw it, they began to cry. They were barely holding themselves not to cry in the first place.
Arsh saw the man this time. He was fast but he stopped for a second because of the crying children. Still on the floor, Arsh kicked the man's feet, making him also fall. But the man quickly recovered.
Again his fist started to light again. It was fire, there was fire in his hands.
'Oh it gona hurt.' Arsh thought again and ready to dodge.
But he saw a shadow surrounding the man. He couldn't move. He tried to escape from it.
Now fire was coming up not only from his hand but from his body. He was struggling.
Arsh heard Juan's voice, echoed in his ears.
"I will take care of it." Juan said.
Taking the chance, Arsh stepped forward. "I found a safe way."
Juan didn't question Arsh. He answered immediately.
"Go now. We'll follow you."
While Juan was still struggling with the man, Arsh told the children to follow him. He headed in the direction the golden thread was guiding him.