Steve and Altima left the shop together, and after they did, he immediately wanted to ask her a couple of questions. He was feeling particularly vengeful tonight, so he wanted to find the one or two frogs who had almost stabbed through his organs, just a day before. He truly wanted to kill them, or at the very least, he wanted to have Altima kill them, because he didn't feel good about letting them roam free.
Anyway, in order to track those men down, he had to ask her a couple of questions first. Since she was all in his personal space, it didn't take much effort to catch her attention. He looked up at her, and gestured that he wanted to ask something.
"I'm looking to find these couple of debt-collectors... I think that's what they're called. Two of them tried to kill me, so we're about to return the gesture, but, would you happen to know where they could be hiding? My memory became fussy after they stabbed me, so I have no idea who they even are." He asked.
"Oh, I know where those filthy animals dwell. One group is even in this neighborhood, so that's our best bet, and I can take you to them if you want." She explained.
There was no second-guessing that offer, these debt collectors should be close by. Steve got a dagger on him now, so he was looking forward to stabbing at least one of his enemies against their spines, if he could! If their journey allowed it, then he'd rather not pay any debt to them at all, because he felt that he paid his debts when he was left for dead on the dirty street, there was no going around that fact!
They walked for about ten minutes, and since it was quite dark at the moment, they used the night's coating of darkness to their advantage. They became really sneaky when they reached the vicinity of the 'business' that these debt collectors held, so they managed to sneak to their very doorstep too, without running into any of their men, and or their guards!
Then, like the live tank she was, Altima broke the door open with a kick! The door was torn clean off its hinges, probably because it was made out of wood, but still, it had taken quite a lot of force to tear through it. She was quite strong, and with such confidence, she rushed into the shop with her two-handed, battleax jerked forward!
A guard tried to swing at her, with a punny sword, but she kicked it away, and knocked her opponent against the head, with a kick, and with the handle of her weapon! She was efficient.
The way she tore through the obstacles so far, was almost superhuman, or superfrog? She almost killed that man, but then a couple of older guys rushed in the shop's tight corridor, and tried to take control of the situation. They weren't as violent.
"What the hell are you doing? Who are you looking for?" One of them yelled out.
When he asked that question, Steve then walked in the shop, and cackled when he saw at the destruction that Altima had caused. Afterwards, he decided to answer the middle-aged men, who seemed terrified, they didn't seem ready to fight, so they hadn't even bothered to pick up any weapons.
"I think I owe money to you guys, that's why I'm here." He answered them, "It has to be you who I owe money to, because some bastard stabbed me three streets away from here, and my partner tells me that there aren't any more 'lenders' in a five mile radius. I'm certain that we're not in the wrong shop."
"So it was you they stabbed?" One of the men asked, frantically. "We're just carrying out a request from our boss, you owe him ten ingots, kid, and for that kind of gold, I'm surprised that he hasn't fed you to his… experiments already. I'm sorry to say this, but I heard that he had your sister too, and odds are that she's dead by now, because he isn't such a sparing man. My point is, you got yourself into all sorts of trouble with him, it was all you, so breaking our door down won't fix your problems."
Just like that, his biggest fear came true. He owed ten ingots to some crazy man, so it necessarily meant that he'd always be in danger, unless he paid his due, or unless he eradicated this 'problem' entirely. It was also terrible that this 'boss' of sorts, held his sister captive, and although this was a family member that he couldn't really remember, or picture, he'd still rather hang on to any bit of family that he had!
Overall, he felt quite threatened, so he decided to scare some of these guys straight, with a sort of exaggerated threat of his own!
"Tell your boss that I'm going to gut him, and turn him into a hat." He specified, "I can find ten more beasts like my friend here, and we'll be erasing you bastards from the city's history afterwards, even at the expense of my own sister. Be warned!"
Most of his words were empty threats, and they were effective because he held the dominant position, but then, another man walked down from upstairs and made a mess of things. He walked into the shop, and admitted that it was him personally who stabbed Steve, he was brave, threatening, and even started running his mouth too! He tried to chase Steve and Altima out of the shop moments later, but that was no easy task.
Steve stepped out of Altima's way, and then she charged forward, and swung against her target, all of this happened within seconds. She cut the man's head off clean, and since she did it in confidence, Steve guessed that there wasn't a single law that would've stopped her from doing so! She killed a man, even though she was just a hired arm, and this itself hinted how barbaric the country of Firestone truly was, it was not a place for the light-hearted!
Anyway, the couple of older men hadn't fought back, even after their subordinate was cut down, because they simply weren't strong enough to fight back. Steve guessed that they were crippled in some way, or just too old, so he decided not to kill them for now. They hadn't really gotten on his nerves, and it would appear that they were just doing their jobs too, so it was a bit cruel to kill them.
Furthermore, the guard that Altima had kicked down when she rushed into this shop, was still asleep, so this meant that she didn't have to fight anyone anymore. With their main target killed, she and Steve could leave the shop peacefully, without having to spill any more blood, so they did exactly so.
Before they left, Steve faced the couple of old men, and said. "I will spare the both of you, but leave this business while you can, because your boss is already a dead man. I will find him, and I will kill him!"
After he said that, they left the shop afterwards, and were on the move. Steve may have been bluffing most of the time, because he learned that his bluffs were very convincing, but he did mean a couple of the words that he said. First things first, he wanted to kill 'the boss' that those men mentioned, and secondly, he needed to hire more body-guards and or mercenaries, in order for them to carry out his first plan.
That was his simple, and potentially effective plan. He didn't plan on fighting anyone personally, as that would be very stupid, because he could barely hold a dagger straight, not to mention fight, but by all odds it was unlikely that he had to fight.
"If all the big men and women cost a single gold bar a month, then I can get myself an army in no time. Hell, I'll raid that crazy bitch's house if I run out of gold, she has plenty of gold to spare and there shouldn't be enough laws to stop me from doing whatever I want." He plotted.
Steve may sound evil right now, but considering how rugged this world was, he was just adjusting accordingly. He didn't have what it takes to fight for himself, so he'd rather have other frogs do the dirty work for him. His solutions were a tad cruel, but they were solutions nonetheless! The city of Ankamus cannot put him down that easily.