The room was perfectly dark and almost as silent. The men could hear their own heartbeat. It was also very cold and felt big, but of course, they couldn't be sure about that last one. It smelled very bad, like rotten flesh and urine and stool.

'Hey, Carano?' said Benjamin.

'Yeah?' answered Teodore quietly.

'I don't think this is the manager's office.'

'Really, Montgomery? What tipped you off?'

They were, without a doubt, in some kind of basement. It had to be a very deep one, too, as they had to descend on the spiral staircase for more than a minute. This was after they demanded to speak to the manager of the pub, saying that they were looking for a quick quid and they didn't mind the how.

The place, they knew it well, wasn't as much of a pub, but a place for professionals. There were a lot of them: professional mercenaries, professional smugglers and dealers, professional thieves, professional killers and of course, to keep all of those happy, professional prostitutes. So many and so very professional of that last one, that Teodore had to step on Benjamin's foot to keep him focused.

This was not the kind of bar where tourists would hang out, and even if they did, they didn't do it for long. It took for them two days and a couple of dozens of bars, pubs, restaurants, coffee shops and locals to get there. They were relentless and spent a lot of money, too, buying themselves from tips to tips, information to information, and after all this, they were in a pitch-black, stinky basement and the door locked behind them, not only with keys but with several layers of magic too, judged by the glimmering Runes on it.

'Do you have a spare wand? Looks like someone took mine,' said Benjamin, pulling out his hand from his empty pocket.

'Only a few rings, I didn't want to look like someone who's going to war. This idea might have been foolish, in retrospect,' answered Teodore. 'Don't you have tattoos, by the way?'

'Just for the Elements, but I don't think I could detonate us out of here, or anything like that.'

Something clicked and pale white light flickered alive.

'Holy shit!' cried out Benjamin, and Teodore said something very similar, only in Italian.

They were in a huge room, indeed, with a very tall ceiling and exposed bricks for walls, all of them with a carved Rune. There was no window or another door, and no furniture. The place must have been serving as storage at some point, according to the pallets in one corner, but that was not the corner what worried the two men.

There was a cage at the further end, neatly fitted and lined up with the walls. And inside was… They didn't know what was that. It looked like a human, for the first glance, only it was huge, bigger than any man they ever have seen. It wore old clothes, and they were rigid because of the dirt and God knows what else. Its skin was grey and full of carbuncles and old scars, except for its right arm, which was made out of some kind of old and rusty metal. This arm was much thinner than the other, almost like the arm of a skeleton, but it had evil-looking long metal claws for fingers and looked functioning.

The creature had beautiful blue eyes, staring out of the ruins of something which sometimes in the past might have been a face, apparently sewed together from different faces, then let to age and rot. If the thing had a gender, it looked more like a man, but it was hard to tell and did not matter.

It was awake and staring at them, grabbing the bars of its cage. The metal claws creaked on the steel with a noise that scratched Benjamin's brain.

'What the fuck is that?' he asked, taking a step back.

'That, my dear friends, is Frederick. He is a gentle soul, really, but unfortunately, he has a taste for human flesh,' the voice came from a speaker above the door. It had a slight Eastern European accent and was morbidly cheerful. 'I hear you were looking for me, a Montgomery and a Carano together, that is something! I feel honoured. But the question remains: why?'

Benjamin raised his hand because Teodore opened his mouth to answer and that never worked out for them before.

'We are not looking for you, actually. Are you Kovach, right? Word on the street is, you know about everything happening in this city, and we have a question.'

That was true. Nobody could tell them where the Priest was, but almost everyone said that they should ask Kovach, which was an option they really wanted to avoid. Attila Kovach was a Hungarian man, who spent his last fifteen years to build an empire for himself. His hand was in everything from illegal magic to drugs and weapons and prostitution. It was clear that if anyone knows who hired the Priest, it would be him, but unfortunately, Kovach was almost completely insane, and his business partners tend to disappear. Presumably, in Frederick's belly, Benjamin thought and then shivered.

'A question, you say? And tell me, young Montgomery, why would I answer? What do you have that I would possibly want?'

'How about you answer and we won't fuck up your pathetic little criminal life?' said Teodore angrily. Benjamin buried his face into his palm.

'Fuck,' he said quietly.

Kovach sighed, which caused the speaker to creak. Frederick didn't like the noise and hit the bars with his fists. Runes sparkled up on the cold metal to hold back the creature.

'And here I thought we are going to be friends. Oh, well, life is full of disappointments, isn't it? Not yours, mind you, guys. Yours are ending now. Which, now that I think about it, must be disappointing, so I stand corrected. Anyway, good luck.'

The speaker cracked one more time then went silent. For a second nothing happened, and Benjamin was just about to turn towards Teodore to tell him off when they heard a small click.

The door of the cage opened up for a few centimetres. The creature named Frederick pushed it, and it was wide open.

'Every time, Teodore,' moaned Benjamin, 'every fucking time. I have been beaten up at least four times because of you in the last two days. Why can't you just shut up?'

'Focus. Have you seen anything like this before?' asked Teodore, taking out a hip flask. Frederick took a couple of hesitant steps, and now he was out of the cage. His blue eyes were pinned on them, full of hunger and evil intelligence, like a crocodile.

'Nobody has ever seen anything like that. Are you sure you wanna get drunk right now?'

'It's a potion, you idiot. Makes me stronger and faster,' explained Teodore, then he took a sip.

'Do you have something to make you three times bigger?' asked Benjamin. He opened his fist, and above his palm, there was a dancing flame, red and yellow. The creature looked at it with surprise, but not with fear, which was alarming.

'Hit it, what are you waiting for?' asked Teodore, so Benjamin threw a ball of fire towards the creature. He raised his metal arm, faster than anything this big was supposed to move and slapped it aside.

'That's… Not good,' said Benjamin, as Frederick started to run, aiming for him. The ground was shaking under his steps. He raised his metal arm, claws pointing forward, ready to grab Benjamin's heart. He leapt to the right, while Teodore jumped forward, somehow avoided the metal arm, and collided with the monster, shoulder first. The strike was so strong it would have cause several ribs to crack or break if Frederick would have been a human. But whatever he was, there was not much human-like about him, and Teodore simply just bounced off of him. Benjamin let another fireball go, and even though it hit the target this time, didn't make a big difference. Except that it probably saved Teodore's life, who now was on the floor, defenceless. The giant turned around and his angry gaze found Benjamin. His ragged clothes were smouldering.

Teodore reached out for the pallets in the corner, and the Rune of Movement lit up on his ring. A pallet flew across the room and shattered on the creatures head with a loud crack. The thing staggered back, and before he could find his balance, another pallet hit him. He opened his mouth but he couldn't cry; he seemed to be mute.

Benjamin changed gear, and instead of fire, he tried air. Wind roared and Frederick had to take another step back, then one more, as it pushed him. Teodore got up, and fired the last pallet, which did not find its prey and exploded on the wall. He looked around for anything else he could throw, but the room was empty apart from the pillars holding up the ceiling. The Italian marked that as plan B, he preferred escape plans that didn't end with him being dead. So for now, he just sent a pulse of magic, in the form of Movement, and that pushed Frederick backwards a bit, but not quite as much as Teodore would have liked it. It seemed like the creature had some kind of resistance of pure magic.

Benjamin shouted something, but he couldn't hear what because of the screams of the rampaging wind.

Frederick was only a couple of steps away from the cage, but he fought hard and actually managed to stay out, despite the squall Benjamin brought upon him. Teodore saw that Montgomery was using up his energy quickly, his face was sweaty and his whole body shook.

Teodore did not like the idea just sparked in his mind, because it was exactly the kind what could have gotten him killed, but he only got that one plan and nothing else, so he couldn't be picky.

He glanced behind his back, then hit the wall with the strongest pulse of Movement he could produce. He flew right into the wind, which gave him another huge boost. He made a flip mid-air and went feet first, like a living cannonball, and this time he did some damage. Something definitely snapped under the sole of his shoes and Frederick finally fell back, right into his cage. Teodore, laying on the ground again, air out of his lungs, used his ring to shut the door. There was a big, flashy flame and the lock melted around the bar next to it, Benjamin welded them together. Frederick sat on the floor, his back against the wall, barely moving. Both Benjamin and Teodore found that very satisfying.

Benjamin helped up Teodore, whose black suit was ripped but didn't seem to be injured.

'That was a huge clash, man, I thought you were done for,' said Benjamin, 'how are you still in one piece?'

Teodore dusted himself off, then moved his shoulder around a bit. It cracked badly.

'The potion,' he said. Benjamin didn't find that enough, so Teodore sighed and started to explain. 'It's called the Soldier's Elixir. Makes you harder to kill in many ways, but if you drink too much, it will kill you on its own. And even if it doesn't, it has its price. I'm gonna be hungover, like, on an epic scale tomorrow. And I need to eat soon, or I'll pass out.'

'Let's get you out of here, then,' said Benjamin and turned towards the door.

'What about the fuckers in the bar?' asked Teodore 'Do you think they will let us walk away?'

'I took care of them,' waved Benjamin, and examined the door. 'They aren't going to cause any problem for us.'

It took about ten minutes to figure out how to open the door because it was magically enhanced, and they didn't have too many Runes on them. Their solution was borderline barbaric, but it worked. There was no noise from upstairs, as they started up on the spiral staircase, which Teodore found weird. He felt weak, as the potion was wearing off.

The bar was empty. Well, in a way. There were four, five, six bodies lying around on the floor, one on the billiard table and one on the counter. Robert Montgomery was waiting for them, leaning on the bar, drinking whiskey. His immaculate blue suit wasn't even wrinkled.

'What took you so long?' he asked cheerfully.