"What did you say?" Kepli asked when he heard the words from Carlos.
"Hanson and the others have told the other gang bosses that you are here, boss. You need to leave as soon as you can," Carlos said. "I have no idea who else is in on it, so you have to be careful not to trust anyone else."
The figure behind the curtains moved silently, but it said nothing.
"How confident are you?" Kepli asked.
"Hanson spoke those words to me to try and dissuade me to come to his side, so there's a chance he could be lying too," Carlos said. "But I don't think the boss should be taking that chance."
"How do we know you're not in on it? And that the friend you've brought along is actually one of the people that are trying to kill the boss," Kepli said.
"Don't trust me then," Carlos said. "This friend is someone who saved me twice today. If not for him, I would've died to both Gerrin and Hanson. He currently has some memory loss, so I was hoping to use the gang's influence to try and find where he's from."
"You brought him here for that?" Kepli asked.
"That and I was hoping to have him join the gang. He's strong," Carlos said.
"He's a Physical Improvement realm kid," Kepli said.
"Yes, and he's strong," Carlos said, only looking at the boss, who didn't speak.
"But he's still a—"
Kepli stopped talking when he saw the boss move. The boss's silhouette gestured for him to move on with the matter.
"Alright, enough talk about him. It's time to talk about the crystal," Kepli said. "Bring it out so we can see that you at least did what you were asked to do."
The boss nodded on the other side of the curtain.
Ning looked at the silhouette as well and tried to understand why the boss was being so… quiet. He had heard the boss give orders, but for some reason he wasn't speaking at all this time around, only moving his body slowly… like a puppet.
Ning's eyes went wide. "Carlos, stop," he said.
Carlos, who was reaching to the back of his belt where he had stuck the crystal, paused and looked back towards Ning.
"The boss," Ning said. "He's not talking. Confirm the boss is alive."
Carlos's head quickly spun around to the silhouette which was still moving. "Boss? Are you really there?" he asked. He slowly used his Essence sense to sense for his boss, and while he did notice the Essence from the area, it wasn't necessarily from a living body.
Kepli frowned. "Stop being stupid," he said. "The boss is here. Just take your crystal out and let us see how good it is."
"No," Carlos said. "Not until we talk to the boss. As long as the boss says something, I'll hand it over."
"You blustering idiot," Kepli shouted. "The boss is alive and well. He just doesn't want to talk right now. Just bring out the crystal so we can be done with this."
Carlos dropped the sand sword he had taken from Hanson's corpse and brought out his two daggers.
Kepli was getting angry now. "You stupid fucking dumbas—"
A loud explosion sounded from somewhere in the building. From what they could all hear, it was from the floor above them.
"The hell is happening up there?" Kepli shouted.
Just as they said that the wooden roof croaked, and then the entire upper floor came caving in on them.
Carlos jumped to the side and Ning was close enough to the door that the debris didn't come close to him at all.
Kepli on the other hand was trapped underneath the rubble.
Carlos got back up and looked up in fear. he got behind Ning and stuck his dagger into the rock constriction he was in. "I'll break you out," he spoke softly.
"Don't bother," Ning said. "I could get out whenever I wanted to." At some point early on, Ning realized that since his body was in contact with his sword, he could use Essence to get rid of the stone if he wanted to.
He had only stuck around in it so Kepli wouldn't kill him for acting out.
Above the rubble, 3 men stood, with one of them standing next to the corpse of the middle-aged woman from upstairs.
"Haha, so it was hidden so close to us, huh? To think we could get here so easily," one of them spoke. The man was middle-aged at best and his physique was in a state which could make any other men jealous.
He didn't wear any upper-body clothing and showed off his fine features. He held a massive hammer in his hand, which was made up of wood for the handle, and something fiery for the actual hammer itself.
"You guy sure we didn't kill him already?" another man asked. This one wore a red ribbon around his forehead and held two single-handed axes in his hand, each of which seemed to be made out of fire and earth.
The last man looked more intellectual than the other two. He had long flowing hair that was tied behind his back while he held a book in his hand. He held a simple staff in his hand, with a jewel attached to the end that was made up of water.
Kepli grunted in pain and forced himself out of the debris. He made small gaps using rocks he created and crawled out.
However, right as he was out, the man that was dual-wielding axes stepped on his back and stopped him from moving.
"Is this the boss?" he asked.
"His feature matches the one they called Kepli," the staff-wielding man said.
"Oh, the Boss's right-hand man, huh?" the man with the axes said. "Good to meet you, buddy. You know who I am right?"
"You attacked us, Bodrick," Kepli said through his grunted teeth. "You won't survive today."
"Oh yeah? We'll see about that," he said and looked around. "Where's your boss?"
