The warehouse where the party had hidden the package stood on the outskirts of the city—a quiet, forgotten place where even the stray dogs didn't linger for long.
The air was still. Unnaturally so. A thick silence clung to the building, as if the structure itself were watching... waiting.
Grass had begun to reclaim the stone path leading to the rusted doors, which barely hung on their hinges. The warehouse, once solid, was slowly giving in to entropy—being unmade where it stood.
The party walked in silence, their boots brushing over the wild grass that had overtaken the old walkway.
Jenny's mind raced.
The information was too convenient. Reliable source, sure—but too clean, too perfect. Why leak something the guild itself was desperate to bury?
She couldn't find the answer. She shelved the thought. I need to focus. Stay in the mission. Answers come after.
Walter handed each of them a cloaking rune.
"These will keep us invisible—but not silent," he whispered. "We need to be absolutely quiet going in.
We don't know if they've arrived."
They moved toward the staircase leading to the basement—the only part of the warehouse untouched by time.
And then they stopped.
A silhouette. Towering. Still.
A giant figure stood beside the door. They couldn't see his face—but they could feel his gaze, heavy and precise, despite their cloaked presence.
Malcador stood at the only entrance to the basement.
He couldn't see them. But he didn't need to. Every other sense told him his prey was here.
"I had a feeling you'd show up," he said, voice calm but impossible to ignore—like steel drawn in silence
"I know the three of you are here. You might ask how I knew you'd come." He turned, staring directly at the space they occupied.
"Because I wanted you here."
The words settled like stone—heavy, un-moving, undeniable. This wasn't a coincidence. It was a trap. And they'd stepped into it.
Jenny's stomach turned. She knew it the moment he spoke. Black Knight.
David's mind scrambled. The tavern. He was the man at the counter... But what is he doing here?
"How do you know that we aren't here for something else" Jenny spoke up.
"Simple really" Malcador pointed at his ears
"Makes eavesdropping way easier"
Light spilled in through holes in the warehouse roof, catching on dust and silence. Tension pressed in on them like a weighted cloak.
David's body twitched with energy. Manna surged through the rune stones buried beneath his skin.
He couldn't hold it in.
He flexed. The cloaking rune snapped in his hand with a crack of broken stone. He stepped forward, face to face with the Black Knight.
Malcador exhaled, almost disappointed.
"Only one of you has courage," he said. "But from the looks of it... borrowed courage." His eyes dropped to the scars on David's arms. His voice dipped into disgust.
"You weren't meant to wield the arcane. And I'll make sure this is the last time you do."
David's gaze hardened, fire behind his eyes. "I fought my way up to this point. Every scar I wear—I earned with blood and sweat"
"Not that a well trained dog like you would know"
"You were handed your power, and now you are leashed by masters who point and watch you do magic tricks for their pleasure"
Malcador looked at David, unwavering at his verbal attacks "Petty insults from a wounded pride. I shall put you down like the rabid dog you are"
David activated his runes readying himself for a fight, the air sizzled as manna leaked from his scars, sending small sparks in the air around him.
Jenny's thoughts were faster than she could grasp them. It was a simple extraction, we take what we came for, then got release the officer, But this!. This may be too much, even for David.
Walter, still cloaked reached out her hand to search the place where Jenny could be, his hand touched something and small gasp was heard.
"Let him do this, we'll come back for him" Walter knew that he was lying to himself the moment those words left his lips, he knew David very well, and knew how well he fought with his runes. But this was no ordinary brawl or pit fight.
"Jenny, we both know he won't come with us, but we can still finish what we started" Walter said as he held Jenny's hand.
Jenny knew very well what Walter meant, she reluctantly agreed and they began to return to where they they came in from.
Malcador hearing the exchange between the two "Your allies abandon you" he shot at David, "I the weak have no loyalty"
"They trust me, But you wouldn't know what trust is even if it stabbed you in the chest" David shot back at Malcador.
Malcador let his aura bleed into the air around him, like a smooth wave rolling off the calm beach, readying his body and mind for a fight.
"Make this worth my time," Malcador grumbled, settling into a loose stance. He wasn't even posturing—just waiting, amused, curious.
David didn't wait.
The moment the words left Malcador's lips, a burst of manna exploded beneath David's feet.
In a blink, he closed the distance.
A flash. A thundering kick.
Malcador was thrown back into the wall, the impact sending a spiderweb of cracks through the stone behind him.
He hadn't even seen it.
David was already standing where Malcador had been—a stance frozen mid-kick, steam and sparks rising from the runes etched into his legs.
How did he—? Malcador's thoughts scattered as another burst of manna struck.
A second blow. Elbow to ribs.
Another impact. A punch to the chest.
Malcador was slammed back into the wall again.
How!?
I can read the flow of combat before it begins—see movements before the body even decides to move. But him... I can't track him.
David didn't pause. He couldn't.
Don't let him think. Don't let him breathe. Don't stop.
Manna surged through the runes along David's arms and legs, lighting up in rapid succession as he cycled through stances faster than thought. Every movement cracked with energy—short, brutal, efficient.