Jenkins had no intention of summoning the unicorn anywhere near Nolan City in the near future. He would wait, at the very least, until the two mbers of the Church of Sun and Justice were gone. He already had more than enough trouble on his plate and had no desire for a minor slip-up to send his entire life crashing down.
Chocolate had eaten its fill today. The cat was still lively when they left Miss Audrey's residence, but it soon began pawing at Jenkins's collar, demanding to be let inside his overcoat. Once there, it settled down comfortably and drifted off to sleep. Jenkins could even feel the cat's body twitching unconsciously as it dreamt.
The night fog was as thick as ever. On a moonless night with no streetlamps, Jenkins wouldn't have dared to walk the streets if not for his monocle.
He reached the street corner but was surprised to find no carriages waiting. He decided to walk another two blocks to a major thoroughfare where there were bound to be coachn looking for fares.
Just as he passed the mouth of an alley, a strange thud echoed from the darkness and dense fog. Jenkins whipped his head around, instantly summoning his black robe as he ducked to the side.
A man hurtled out of the alley backward, almost grazing him, as if sent flying by so imnse force. He tumbled several tis in the middle of the street before landing facedown, arms flung wide, and lay utterly still.
"I have a bad feeling about this..."
Before Jenkins could even process what had happened, the sharp sound of bootsteps echoed from the sa alley. Judging by the distinct clicks, the boots had to have high heels.
A tall, masked man erged from the alley. He was clad in a black trench coat, the cuffs of which appeared to be embroidered with gold thread. On a finger of his deathly pale right hand, he wore a large ruby ring.
"This has to be so kind of vampire..."
He couldn't believe his luck was this rotten. Though the masked man's eyes were covered, he could clearly sense Jenkins through other ans.
"Ah, I've found more fresh blood..."
He moved toward Jenkins, then tilted his head to look at the portly, pockmarked man cowering under the awning of a sweet shop. In a raspy, surprised voice, he remarked, "I would have thought soone with such exceptional blood would have looks to match..."
"Don't co any closer!"
Jenkins cried, holding up his hands.
At those words, the masked man spread his arms and lunged forward. Jenkins flailed his hands in a panic, and in the instant their palms made contact, a dazzling blaze erupted between them, imdiately engulfing his attacker.
"Aaargh!"
The man let out a piercing shriek, frozen in his forward lunge, before Jenkins sent him flying back into the alley with a swift kick. As the sound of crackling flas intensified and the stench of scorched flesh filled the air, the screams grew steadily weaker.
"That easy?"
He thought, turning to check on the man lying in the street. But the instant his back was turned, a crimson arrow shot out from the depths of the alley. With a sickening thud, it pierced him from behind, right through the heart.
"How..."
He whispered in disbelief before collapsing to one side, hitting the ground with a dull thud. He'd fallen sideways to avoid crushing the cat nestled inside his coat.
"What rotten luck tonight. Just taking a stroll and I run into two Enchanters."
A fourth voice echoed from the alley. Another masked figure in a black trench coat erged, also wearing a ruby ring on his right hand, though this one appeared slightly larger.
"Useless!"
He spat the curse while standing beside the burning figure at the alley's entrance. He paid no mind to the fat man playing dead nearby, instead striding toward the other man in the middle of the street.
"Your magic eye is mine now," he gloated.
He knelt to roll the man over, but the man's hand shot out and clamped onto his wrist. With a sudden jerk, he slamd his head upward. The sharp crack of bone echoed from the impact of a hard skull against a chin—and it clearly wasn't the skull that had shattered.
"Hah!"
Seeing his attack land, the man imdiately flung a tal bolt he'd concealed in his palm. It struck with the heavy clang of falling steel, and the masked man was instantly pinned, his limbs splayed out, paralyzed on the ground.
A frantic flapping sound filled the air.
He struggled violently, and his body dissolved into dozens of bats that scattered in every direction before reconverging in front of a distant storefront.
The masked man materialized again, panting heavily, forced to lean against a nearby wall to stay upright. As far as Jenkins knew, this ability to reform one's body from a swarm of bats inflicted irreversible damage.
"Nolan has definitely gotten more dangerous."
The speaker was the man who had been lying on the street just monts ago. Jenkins recognized him. He was the third mber of the Magic Eye Collectors' Association operating in Nolan, and the only one who had yet to be captured by the Church.
He reached into his coat and produced a short dagger with an unusually long hilt. With a sharp flick of his wrist, a brilliant crimson light flared from the hilt, enveloping the blade and extending outward until it ford a longsword.
"Hmph."
The masked man mirrored the action, but his sword seed to be conjured directly from his own blood. Jenkins suspected the arrow that had struck him was created in the sa manner.
To get a better view, he took advantage of their distraction to quietly shift his head. He used his chin to gently nudge Chocolate back down as the cat tried to poke its head out from his collar.
Clang!
Though neither blade was forged from tal, they rang with the sharp clang of steel on their first impact. Showers of crimson sparks illuminated the two n's nimble forms. With every clash, one of them was inevitably forced to give ground.
"Hah!"
The Magic Eye collector brought his sword down in a powerful overhead strike, only to find his opponent had sohow produced a short dagger in his other hand.
The blood sword shattered under the one-handed blow, but the vampire's left hand moved with precision, plunging the dagger deep into his opponent's stomach.
He moved to press his advantage, but the Magic Eye collector flashed a strange grin and ducked. A dagger suddenly flew past him from behind.
The masked man jerked his head to the side, the dagger scraping past his mask. He'd seen it clearly—the one who threw it was the fat man who should have been dead. In that split second of hesitation, he heard the air whistle behind him once more.
The dagger returned, tracing a precise arc as it sliced across his neck before flying back into the fat man's hand.
"Careful! He has no vital spots!"
"I know!"
Jenkins sprang to his feet, a silver ribbon of light already coiling around his arm as he gave chase.
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