Captain Murray stood quietly in the corner of 34th street gazing into the sky with a blank look. Beside him, special ops members Erikson and Byron were gossiping about the origin of the man currently being carried into an ambulance.

Broken out of his reverie, John Murray fixed his gaze on Nicole.

‘’Byron, make sure that he stays alive at least until we can get everything out of him. This is of utmost importance. Can I trust you with this?’’ Murray pointed towards the bloodied man carried in a stretcher.

Nicole enthusiastically nodded and saluted her Captain before passing Erikson and whispered in his ear softly.

‘’Take care senior. Cap has been super tense lately, don’t make it worse.’’ Giggling to herself, she skipped towards the ambulance.

Being a grandmaster, Murray twitched his ears and frowned: Obviously he had heard what Nicole said, but could not help but agree with her deep down.

My wife has been swamped with the kids and surprise surprise, who is the one to take all the shit from this? ME. Now that we have a solid lead from Duma guild insider, I can’t help but see some of the light at the end of the tunnel.

Murray sighed a long breath and planned his next move.

A thunderous blastwave ripped throughout the atmosphere, startling everybody on the scene. Sensing the intensity of the mana fluxuations, Murray’s eyes turned serious.

Who is so rampant to start fighting in the middle of the city? And if I am correct, it should be someone just a bit short of grandmaster level…

‘’Byron, you stay with the Duma Rat. Rest, follow me. We can’t let the ordinary folk suffer from some creep having a fit.’’ Captain Murray yelled and sped off to trace the origin of the fluctuations.

‘’Who's a good girl? Who? You are!’’

Playing fetch outside with Pepi, Victor felt his heart bursting with warmness. Seeing the small, furry bundle of love whipping its tail while fetching a small branch thrown by Victor, he felt that there was meaning to his life.

Taking the branch gently from the small Pomeranian, his mouth curved into a bright smile and he could not help but praise Pepi.

After playing for some time, he latched the dog leash back on and headed straight to the nearest bench in the park.

Enjoying the calm and unhurried life, Victor lifted Pepi to sit on his lap and patted it lovingly.

‘’You know…I used to be real smart and think that there was nothing I could not solve…’’ Pausing for a moment, Victor turned his eyes to the sky. Eyes full of nostalgia and a trace of bitterness.

‘’But you know what? The one thing I could not solve before an accident was that I did not know how to enjoy life. Recognition. Social pressure. Meeting expectations. They were among many things that I could not free myself, but now I find life a bit empty.’’

All things have a price though. Victor silently reminded himself, but then broke out of his nostalgia when the puppy licked his hand in a pitiful manner.

I remember that dogs are good at sensing emotions, well aren't you a cute lil bugger.

Lifting Pepi from his lap to the ground, Victor decided that it was time to go back and open up his shop. Constantly having extended lunch breaks is not too good for business, so he decided to get some small exercise in the form of jogging.

‘’Come on girl, it’s time to go back home. I will cook something good for today.’’ Victor coaxed the small puppy that seemed to be rooted in place.

Wondering why the well-behaved Pepi suddenly did not want to follow his plan, Victor tried once more to coax it. After a few tries, Victor shook his head and knew that he had to carry Pepi home.

Reaching out to the puppy in a playful manner, Victor froze in his tracks as he saw Pepi loudly barking at the distance. Even if one knew nothing about dogs, the voice that she let out was desperate and anxious.

Wondering what is going on with Pepi, Victor took a look at the direction and saw a dark tattooed man with a staff in his hand.

What the fuck is that??? Isn’t that the walking stick I sold to Rob and why is it with him?

Suppressing the nervousness he held, Victor tried to play it cool and calm Pepi down.

‘’It’s okay girl, you can’t make assumptions based on their looks. Who knows, this gentleman might be a really nice person.’’ Victor soothed his puppy and tried to make his leave hastily.

Nothing good would come of interacting with such a strange man, so decisively Victor decided to bail.

Picking up Pepi carefully and turning his back to leave, Victor started to power walk towards his little shop.

‘’Same.Origin.Where coward?’’

Hearing a deep and creepy voice of the man from the behind, Victor knew that this dude was nuts. Speeding up his walking, he tried his best to ignore and hope that the stranger would just let him be.

‘’ANSWER…ME.’’ The voice called out to Victor again.

Nervously gulping a mouthful of spit, Victor slowly turned to face the stranger. Awkwardly scratching his neck, Victor pulled out his phone and searched the number left by the police previously. Leaving the phone on call, he then resolved himself to reason with the aggressor.

‘’I am truly sorry man, I have no idea what you are searching. Could you be more specific?’’ Trying to look as calm as possible, Victor wanted to resolve the situation peacefully.

‘’Owner…Staff, WHERE?’’ Two extended his right arm with the staff in hand and growled at Victor.

Seeing the muscles and the thick veins that were about to burst when Two yelled, Victor knew that Rob had pissed this dude off and now he had to deal with the aftermath.

‘’I sold the walking stick to a man named Rob some time ago, he comes to my little shop irregularly and we are not close so I don’t have an idea where to find him. Sorry but could you let me off, I have not done anything wrong.’’ Victor spilled the beans as soon as he could, fearing for his and Pepi’s life.

Two looked at Victor with some contemplation, before giving him a death sentence.

‘’Useless. Die.’’

Knowing that the man meant business, Victor put Pepi on the ground and in panic yelled at her to escape. She turned her fluffy nose at Victor, before a look of resolve shined in her black eyes. You have already saved me once, now it is my time to save you

Pepi defiantly ignored Victor’s pleas for escape and growled at Two, who seemed to enjoy the sight of meaningless struggle. After Two had his fill of the despaired look of Victor, he then proceeded to lift the staff slowly.

Victor saw this, and saw Two’s pupils clearly fixing themselves into Pepi. This fucker? Go bully someone your own size instead of innocent dogs. Realizing that Two was about to throw the staff at Pepi, Victor’s heart shuddered.

No, I can’t lose you too…I have to do something…Think genius think.

Gears turned in his brain at lightspeed, but no perfect solution could come to his mind. Overthinking was not going to help here, so he simply chose to jump and move Pepi out of the staff’s trajectory.

In the air, time seemed to slow down as he dived towards the ground with a puppy in his embrace. Sounds such as birds singing seemed to halt entirely, with the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat. Finally he touched down to the ground with amazement, followed by piercing pain in his abdomen.

‘’Huh? AEEEEE IT FUCKING HURTS! JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?’’ Finally feeling a hellish amount of pain, Victor could not help but cry out loud.

Two seemed to be a bit dumbfounded at the development, but at Victor’s cries of pain he seemed to be enjoying the scenery.

Mustering his willpower, Victor let the puppy go from his embrace. Whining and crying, Pepi tried to make her master feel more comfortable by licking at his face desperately. Feeling the care from the puppy, Victor let out a ugly smile while gritting his teeth and looked at the source of his pain.

Blunt walking staff nailing him from the abdomen right into the ground. With shaky hands, Victor could not muster enough strength to lift himself up nor move around.

‘’I guess this is it… I dodged death once, but now it seems that this is it for me.’’ Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Victor struggled to get the words out.

Feeling that the shadow of death was covering him and the hurried sound of running closing in, he slowly started to close his eyes.

‘’Don’t give up lad, help is on the way! I will take care of this Fiend.’’ A resolute and powerful voice resounded from close distance.

‘’Then… I will leave it to you.’’ Feeling lightheaded from the bloodloss, Victor managed to utter out.

With his consciousness blurring, Victor seemed to hear a cold and dark voice resounding inside his head before falling into a deep sleep.

I suppose the time has come for us to formally meet, Victor Wartell.