Coppery light daubed the streets as they came to Skitters’s home. Scanning over the house, Smith clicked his tongue.

“It’s always simple buildings like this, always. Just a pain in the arse to deal with,” he said.

Orion had figured Smith knew more about Grima than he let on from the moment he had tested their claim, and this comment made him sure of that judgement. Considering the number of passages that led into the warehouse, it made sense Smith knew about a few of them, but this then begged the question why he seemed so ecstatic about them finding the base. Was there more to this?

Kora nodded while leading them to the tunnel in the storage room. “It’ll be completely dark so be careful. Also, there’s a small drop someways in so walk slowly,”

The eye-patched leader slipped past her and inspected the opening. “Looks like this is an old one,” he said, before grinning, “Jeez, how did this escape us, eh?” he called to the Seekers behind Orion.

They mainly grunted or shrugged their shoulders, dismissing his underlying message.

“Whatever, we better hurry now. I’ll take the lead,” Smith’s footsteps showed exactly how lightly he took Kora’s warning as he thundered ahead, the others struggling to keep up in surrounding darkness.

The drop in level came earlier than expected, perhaps due to the rush, as Orion fell to his knees despite heeling Smith who hopped down it as if in daylight. This, combined with how casually he had dealt with the Cloudape, made it obvious he had some sort of skill or power letting him sense his surroundings.

In little time, they were at the branching paths lit from above. When everyone else caught up, they saw Smith had already made the correct choice without their guidance as he marched down the rightmost tunnel. Turning around to peer at the expressions behind him, it became obvious to Orion the rest of the Seekers were used to Smith’s work manner as they glanced back passively.

Switching back to his automatic mode, the pale Seeker restarted his walk and only woke from it minutes later when he heard Smith’s laughter roll past, only this time he could sense more anger than amusement. Speeding into a run, he passed the exit and came to the warehouse, temporarily blinded by the sunlight blasting in.

As his vision came back, adrenaline pumped through his body as he looked around. The massive doors to the warehouse was wide open, letting a warm current flow through the building, and there were several oil barrels broken about, releasing a unique smell that arrested him. Smith was fighting a man and woman at once, several more at his feet, while Kora chased after others near the doors and into the docks. The largest Seeker joined her while the rest stood nearby in similar situations to Orion.

His adrenaline rush morphed into a mix of anger and fear, especially fear as the scene in front of him became the soon-to-be scene in his mind: the scorching flames, the thick smoke, the stomach-curdling stench of chemicals. He acted before he could think as he bolted down the distance, throwing his sword to trip one of the retreating enemies, before tackling another to the ground.

He grappled with the woman, whacking her down as she tried to hit him off, eventually trying to boot his balls. Seconds later, after he managed to get her into a chokehold, she lost her chance to tap out as she collapsed unconscious.

Straightening up, he cringed at how violently she’d smacked his thighs. Just as it seemed all the enemies had left, one peeked from behind the warehouse’s doors, metres away from Orion, and lobbed a molotov in. The fiery bottle zipped past before anyone had the chance to act, shattering near a broken barrel.

Kora pelted after the man who had thrown the bottle while Orion shot towards the fire, his heart thumping against his rib-cage as he saw the fire spluttering and withering in a pool of blood, a remnant from their earlier fight. He kicked more blood onto the fire with two other Seekers until it fizzled out, by which time Smith started shouting orders.

“Rick, Lynn, Slinker, outside right now! Watch for any more wretches and kill them if they get close enough. Orion, Kora, check around here for anyone hiding and then join them outside. Lilith and Rore, collect up the papers now!”

Orion and Kora found no one in their search so went outside, standing on guard with the others. While there were many people spying the warehouse from a distance, contrary to Smith’s expectations, these people rushed off after seeing the Seekers instead of planning an attack.

It was close to an hour later when Orion and Kora were called back in, Smith and Lilith still piling up papers. “Ah, help us with this task. All this is solid gold here,” he said, waving his hand at the papers.

“They’re ruined,” Kora said, noting the fact most were covered in blood or oil, if not a combination.

“No matter,” Smith explained, breaking into a chuckle while rubbing at his eyepatch, “We’ve got ways of recovering the writing,”

“Where’s Rore?” she asked as the two of them joined the task.

“Gone to the guild; I told him to get the rest of the guys. It’s a good time to pull out of the war now,”

Orion stopped and stared at Smith. “You’re pulling out?! What’s going to happen then?”

“Bah, it’s not our worry. We were only involved since the Imperial Guard paid us well and had that information on the monsters sneaking into the city. That’s now long passed since those monsters are either dead or escaped, and if neither Rats or Fatso are dead by now, I’d rather not waste any more of us on those whoresons. Too risky, especially considering we’re supposed to be defending against real monsters, not dying against fake ones,” Smith said, rolling over a table to scour its contents.

“Don’t worry. You’re both new here so you wouldn’t know but Lord Risadro has been preparing for an attack from Rats for a long time, maybe too long. I doubt either of them will come off well from this, and that’ll give better-natured men a chance to flourish, now that the big bullies are toppling each other down,” he paused, “Though I reckon the one to benefit the most will be Madam,”

“And us,” Lilith called with her hands searching through rubble.

“Yeah, what in Kovas’s name did you two do here? Clearly, I underestimated you,” Smith joked. Seeing them stuck for words, he continued, “Don’t worry, I don’t actually care how you killed so many, but finding this treasure trove of a warehouse will be rewarded, mark my words. Though for your sake, it must be asked, did you do all this by yourself? Answer honestly: talking better of yourselves will hurt more than benefit,”

“Yeah,” Orion said, confused at his last comment.

“Yeah,” Kora simultaneously said.

“Good, because you’ll soon be dealing with shit harder than anything you’ve exper--”

“What the hell? Are you letting them go before me? What?!” Lilith interrupted, visibly annoyed at his decision.

Smith simply laughed in response. “Just find something of this scale and I’ll push you up as well, you little devil,”

Even though everything they said was going over Orion’s head, taking one look at Kora’s beaming face made him realise they were finally in for some good luck.