He covered the coin with his palm as a snarled expression appeared on his face as his head leaned back. It wasn't visible and his whole body was obscured dur to the rain. He could feel that the person following him was cowering.
"Call it."
The person still seemed to quiver and shake, he turnend around to get a better look, legs out wide, hand still covering his palm.
They seemed to be surprised that I found them. Maybe experienced in stealth. I haven't met many of those people. I guess that makes sense. Certainly cant be Gilded Dregs as most of them turn berserk looking at a copper coin. His thoughts were disturbed from an answer behind him.
"T-tails…"
"…"
"Im surprised you didn't run, that would've been the smartest choice. Are you sure your still confident, after all i did find out you were following me. You seem to have a lot more pride in stealth rather than fighting capability from what I can tell from your body actions. I do applaud you on answering. You left fate to decide. After all, all hero's make foolish actions."
No response.
The reason for Amens response was to stall. Like a host in a party game, Amens built suspense, tension and fear to make them stay longer so he could get a better understanding who they are. To be scared of something like this, they certainly haven't killed anyone so not an assassin. He thought. Slowly, he slid his fingers off his palm, finnaly revealing a faint glisten, enough to be the brightest thing surrounding them. A royal coin.
"Heads"
No matter what the answer was, he could just alter the rules. The fact was that he didn't even know what he would do at the end. He stretched his arms out and legs wide, almost as if he was about to embrace a stab. The person fell to the floor, knees clambering and feet slipping on the wet pavement.
Do-does he not fear death? The person thought.
Once he returned back to his posture, he slowly started walking to the person, almost laughing to himself.
I didn't think I was that intimidating. He thought.
Almost mocking the person, he bent down, shadow looming over them. As he looked at them, he realised it was a female, early 20s, dressed completely in black. Black short hair, tight pants and a black jacket with purpose eyes that wouldn't stop shaking. It was apparent that Amens looking at the girl up and down made her feel more fear and to seal the deal, he bought something perverted would bring a sense of intimidation.
"Your shirt certainly bring out your breasts."
Clearly, it was extremely effective, it was almost as if she was about to faint. A cold, grasping hand seems to stretch across her body, grabbing her and twisting her apart as if choking her. It would be such a waste to put all this effort to null. He grabbed her by the hair, shaking her head violently, barely missing the floor than held her head right to his mask.
"Why did you follow me?"
"A-a man told me to. He-e payed me 7 gramt."
Amens thought for a bit and remembered a man that seemed to flex his wealth. It could be possible that the man did so to show that he could pay lots of money to poor folk, seeming rich when he might not actually be so. To confirm he asked.
"Did he use a gold lined cane made from ebony wood?"
"I-it was gold lined, i dont know w-what wood"
She seemed to get more comfortable as they spoke. As Amens thoughts wandered, looking for more questions or an answer to who this man was, he almost forgot about how this girl felt about her skills. He stood up, smacked his head lightly like he was a jester that made a joke. The mood seems to lighten so the girl tried to lift he foot to run. Before she could even get her footing right, Amens startled her.
"Where the fuck do you think your going?" His tone deep and serious.
"It is quite obvious that you know more but it seems you don't want to speak right now."
"Im not sure what you mean" After she spoke, she covered her mouth. It seemed like her calmness leaked out.
"If you could put on such a preformance then it seems that whoever your client is knows me for a bit. As well as how you can't out run me. Im just going to assume it's a client since I was never popular with the ladies."
"Wanna know a secret?"
He beckoned her to move her head closer and when it was close enough he grabbed her by the side of her neck, almost ripping though it. A whisper in her ear and all that was left was death. A sparkly emitted from Amens. As he took his hand out he revealed the mana instigator, seemingly being active. The chant he said was.
"Ao skaftrum nartrulz o niht" overlapped with "Pchzum ignolipe feem nilsa"
A minute before, when Amens thought of ways to extract information, one of he most gruesome paths came to mind. It was a spell written on a piece of paper from one of the nobles houses he visited. It said as follows:
Evil Mind Poltrice
Madness Nightmare Spell
The victim is sent into a nightmare filled with memories and madness that does not belong to them. The closer you are to a group of mad people the stronger the effects. The victim will be in a catatonic state form the outside. Use sparingly as mana is drained drastically.
The amount of poltrices ate unknown, each having categorised different spells from their incantation and effects. For example, Flame Poltice has fireball and flamethrower spell. There are four types of poltices, hellish, evil, good, divine. Hellish having spells related to punishment, evil having spells that bring insanity or instigate anything negative, good having spells that bring happiness, growth, or interpreting other languages better and divine having spells that provide judgment.
It certainly did seem to take a toll on Amens, air rushed in and out of his mouth, could drips fell form his body.The smell of his body odour filled the alleyway, luckily it was abandoned. The alleyway they were in was located near a place no one sane goes to, The Whispering Hollows. Mostly made of violent cults that worship "evil" or "violent" entities, often preforming "sacrifices" in the name of such beings. The name derived from the populace claiming to hear voices from the beings calling to them and driving them to cults or insanity.
It's best to move out of here quickly. I don't want her too mad. Glad I bought extra rope. He thought.
Through the dark alleyway, obscured by the fog of rain, he dragged the body across, some of the blood leaving a trail. Outside the door of his home, he took a chair nearby and slammed her onto it, tying her onto it and kicking it into his room.
Again, he recited the chant but in reverse.
Waking up, panting, head ringing, cold tears from her skin dropping, panting. It was clear that it was quite effective. Amens, still having his mask, sat opposite to her, tilting his head to see her face which was facing down. His gun was pointed right at her, behind him he took a dead body and hung it so she could see it. A bullet right to the head of the fresh corpse.
Panicked, she looked at Amens, looking like she just came back from purgatory. The only noise were the winds, whispering that of death and her breathing that laid heavy. As Amens turned to get something, a sudden noise, almost impulsive blurted out. He turned his head to look at the girl. Her eyes squinted with the middle part of each eyelid being the highest point. Eyebrows curled.
She was laughing, a grin that seemed to show the real person. Acting like a delinquent, Amens lunged at her with his palm, a smack that deafened her voice and face.
Her face was now a void, completely empty, almost as if anything could just fall through it.
Let's try ask something.
"Whats your name?"
The girl turned her head, smiled again, almost as if she was a repeating mechanism but instead of laughed, she spat something out. It left a puddle of blood on the floor as well as oozing blood down to her chin, dripping onto her tight trousers.
Amens bent over from his sitting position to see it. It was slimy, hot, flexible and sticky. As he held it up to his face, he looked at it and thought to himself.
I was too late.
As he tosses the severed tongue behind him, she continued, her eyes and face now bloodshot red from exhaustion.
Ugh… at least I know that the rich guy was sent after me. Maybe rumours about a "noble killer" is spreading. I don't know how they would pinpoint it to me. They probably just put tabs on fallen nobles. What lazy deduction. Lucky there's so many.
Annoyed and tired, he lifted the chair with her on it, and smashed her head onto the wall across his door away from his home, leaving a blood explosion.
He now lay on his bed and closed his eyes, the world drifting away from what little grasp of the world he had left.