Vicente looked at the entrance of his building with concern, noticing a level 1 Acolyte there.
However, as he looked at that place, he saw that person fall face-first to the ground, and a young red-haired man covered in blood appeared at that door.
"Rory?"
"Vice?"
The two shouted each other's names, all the enemies in the area already dead or unconscious and unable to hear each other.
"What happened here, man? How did it all start?" Vicente asked as he continued where he was, too tired to walk around the area casually.
"I don't know. We just got attacked. I was training when suddenly there was a bang and shaking. When I realized we were under attack, our men were already unloading their weapons on the enemies attacking us." Rory said as he ran a hand over his mask, removing some of the blood of his enemies.
"So that was it... Anyway, those bastards are from the Defiant Tyranny. They probably attacked us because of the Scarlet Syndicate emissaries." Vicente sighed in defeat, having no choice but to take sides.
He had done nothing to encourage such a group to attack him. He was willing to listen to an offer from anyone who knocked on his door. Yet, he had been brutally attacked by the people from the Defiant Tyranny and had now lost several of his men.
Not only that, but because of a visitor he had not invited, they would now become mortal enemies of the group that had attacked them!
In this society, no one would care if side 'A' killed side 'B' for being attacked in the first place. Everyone knew every action had a reaction, but the attacker did not care about the other party's right to defend itself. If they lost some of their men, they would definitely not stand still just because 'it was already expected.'
Revenge ruled this world!
Was it acceptable to stand still against a group that "dared" not accept the oppression of the strongest? Of course not.
Thinking about it while taking a deep breath, Vice couldn't help but curse the two sides responsible for this confrontation.
'Scarlet Syndicate, Defiant Tyranny, this will come back to you. I promise you that!' Vicente clenched his fists as he looked at the bodies in the area.
At that moment, the survivors inside the Fuller family home finally left their posts and came to help Vicente and Rory.
Rory quickly ordered them to kill the men who had just passed out from exhaustion or injuries while most of the group collected the belongings of the dead.
At 4 a.m., the street in front of the group's headquarters would be completely cleared, with a giant bonfire burning in front of it.
They had already killed all their enemies, so there was no turning back now. Defiant Tyranny would definitely come after them, so there was no point in hiding the bodies or anything else.
Vicente and Rory simply decided to expose their position against this group and publicly declare war on this local underworld organization.
As this fire extinguished the bodies of their enemies, Vicente looked at the flames and said. "Rory, go to one of the Scarlet Syndicate's posts. Accept the proposal from earlier and tell them what happened here."
"Are you sure about this?" Rory looked at his friend.
"We have no choice. Now we either get the Scarlet Syndicate's protection, or the Defiant Tyranny's people will kill us." Vicente said with an ugly expression on his face.
He kept looking at the fire from inside his building, already without the mask from earlier, but still with his clothes stained with blood and remains. "Let's take advantage of it while there's still time to stick to the earlier agreement. We will adjust our plans accordingly in the coming days."
"I understand. That must be the only way to go nonetheless." Rory sighed before leaving his friend to go directly to one of the places Aaron had said belonged to the Scarlet Syndicate.
Rory didn't even bother to change his clothes. Like someone in a hurry, he left in his blood-stained combat gear.
Vicente stayed behind to guard his property, afraid of an enemy reaction.
But while he was in the office on the second floor of the building, one of his men came in with an update on what had happened that night.
"Boss, we have the numbers on the enemies, our members, and the items we have collected." A Senior Apprentice, tall and strong, hairless but with a large black mustache, said this with a terrible countenance.
Blood could be seen on his clothes, a mixture of his own blood and that of the enemies.
"First, speak of our losses," Vicente ordered as he stood with his back to the man, still looking at the bonfire before his area.
"We lost 11 men tonight. Of those, 8 were Junior Apprentices, and the rest were Intermediate Apprentices. But among the survivors, we have 9 seriously injured men and 7 with minor injuries. Some need urgent medical attention. Otherwise, we will have more casualties in the next few hours." He informed, making Vicente even angrier.
A considerable number of his men had died that night!
But not only that had been lost. The building had been damaged and would have to be repaired. Some of the wagons had been completely destroyed, and the group would have to replace them.
"OK, take two of the less injured men to the offices of Doctors Doyle and Hill," Vicente ordered, using some of the names Aaron had given him.
Doyle's and Hill's clinics were open any time of day and kept their clients completely confidential. They even visited their clients in the middle of the night and didn't charge exorbitant prices.
They were one of the few who could efficiently serve the underworld, the only drawback being their peculiar and sometimes dangerous methods. But for desperate people in need of medical attention, they were excellent.
The man made a mental note and gave Vice the rest of the results before he left. "As for the enemies, 26 bodies are burning right now, boss. Eight were Senior Apprentices who fell to our weapons, 14 were level 1 Acolytes, and the rest were level 2 magicians who mostly died at your hands.
None of them managed to escape, so the entire group that attacked us is gone." He said in a tone of obvious satisfaction with that part.
Losing his men were bad. But 11 Apprentices dying in the face of 16 Acolytes and 10 Senior Apprentices were magnificent!
Those 11 men from Vicente's group had died with class!
It was true that Vicente and Rory had killed most of these stronger people. However, these men had their glory, killing higher-level opponents and still helping their leaders.
"Those 26 enemies didn't leave any spatial storage items behind, but we collected weapons, armor, and some coins.
We collected 8 gold coins, 675 silver coins, and 993 bronze coins.
There was nothing else of value among them."
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