It turned the corner again, and so did we. We chased it, following and shifting through the screams of the young girl echoing throughout the labyrinth of alleyways.
When it hit a dead end, that didn't stop it. It started climbing the walls with its six arms and onto the rooftops of buildings.
"Ryo!" I yelled.
"Right behind you!" he confirmed as we jumped crisscross from wall to wall on the mech's trail.
When we got to the top, it was already a good distance away, and we jumped down into another part of the alleyways again.
"Goddamnit, faster!" I said to myself as we leaped over the assorted buildings.
By the time we jumped down to where we saw it go, it was gone entirely. The screams of the young girl could also not be heard any longer.
"Fuck!" I said, throwing a foot down, shattering the ground from impact.
Ryo laid a hand on my shoulder and calmed me instantly, "Stay calm, we will find her." he took the lead and asked, "What was that thing?"
"That was the mech from the hourglass, well, perhaps one just like it," I said pacing, thinking where it and the young girl would have gone.
Ryo began surveying the area for any clues. He went around the corner as I searched a different part, but before I got too far, he called for me.
"Greed, over here, look!" he called me over.
I rushed to where he was, only for him to stop me midway before turning the corner. He held out a hand to me, facing the opposite direction, looking over the wall.
When he finally faced me, he held his index finger to his mouth and gestured to the path. I peeked and it was a longer path. At the end of it, we could hear growing chatter and music of some kind.
"Okay? Looks like an event or something in this part of the Kingdom. What's this got to do with that mech?" I whispered.
"Just look," he said.
We continued to observe as a few people, about four of them, walked out from another part of the alleyway further down. When they turned, the logo on the back of their jackets was undeniable.
"Motherfucking fake Black Wolves," I said irritably.
"Language," Ryo responded obnoxiously like some kind of school tutor.
I jeered at him, and he gave me an innocent look as he shrugged.
What were they doing here? The fakes have never been seen behind Kingdom walls before. So why now? Were they under our noses the whole time posing as us? I asked myself these questions, knowing I had none of the answers.
When the group of four exited the alleyway, I went in front of Ryo and took the lead, gesturing him to follow. As we sneaked closer, we saw more of them—more of those damn fakes.
The group turned and merged into a larger group at another district in a more ghetto part of the Kingdom. Crowds of fake Black Wolves entered in from other alleyways every which way. The citizens in this district began shutting their doors and windows—turning off their lights even to draw less attention to the hooligan "Black Wolves" who were all gathering. They bantered like they owned the town.
"I'm assuming you don't know these Black Wolves, right?" Ryo rhetorically asked, he knew the answer to that already.
I didn't even bother answering. I merely clenched my fist at it all. Had this been going on under our noses this whole time? How could we be so careless and let them within the Kingdom walls? And that blonde haired girl... where had she gone?
Where did that mech take her? If we followed this crowd, would we find them?
It was probably the best bet we had at this point.
"I don't know what kind of a joke this is, but I'm following them. You don't have to join me, Ryo." I said without facing him.
"What kind of a friend would I be if I let you go alone? Actually, what kind of a Valley Knight would I be if I just went home like nothing happened. We still have that young girl to find, and she needs us."
"Alright," I said, "well, what size jacket you wear?"
"Large, why?" Ryo asked.
Saying nothing back, I threw my hood on and my hands in my jacket pockets, stepped out of the alleyway we watched from and dipped into a random group of fakes.
I led one of them out and pushed him into a random alleyway, where we were covered by the shadows shortly after.
"Whatchu want, man? I ain't sellin'," he said to me. A dim old light flickered weakly on and off as it sensed us standing there.
"I ain't buyin'," was all I said as I drew closer to him and the vamp of my boot met the side of his face before he could even blink in response. He flipped into a pile of trash completely knocked out.
I exited seconds later from the alleyway with another fake Black Wolves jacket in my hand, leaving the fake I knocked out face flat in the trash pile with ziplocked bags of white powder I dumped out from his jacket.
I maneuvered back into the crowd and back to Ryo, tossing it to him feet away.
"Hope that fits; these fake Black Wolves jackets are not authentically made. It's trash quality if you ask me." I said, standing before him, hands in my jacket pockets, looking away into the crowd passing by.
Ryo chuckled, then switched his own jacket with the one I stole for him. The bomber he wore disappeared into a magic item pouch he had on his waist, meant for storing other items and such.
"Is that a fanny pack?" I asked, scoffing at him.
"It's a belt bag!"
"Don't try to make it sound cool."
He threw on the fake Black Wolves jacket and even managed to change his pants and boots to black as well, I didn't even see him do it.
"Ready," he said.
"You just carry your whole closet in there or what?" I jabbed.
"Well, I gotta look the part, right?"
I looked him up and down before heading out. "Yeah, that look doesn't suit you at all."
"I'm hurt," He replied sarcastically, fist-bumping my chest as he threw on his fur hood and then headed into the crowd before me.
From there, we merged into a group of fakes, blending in, and followed them… wherever they were going.
***
The crowd led us to an underground passage under an abandoned building. The music reverberated the walls and could be heard a lot more clearly here even though it still muffled the walls it was behind. It sounded like underground techno or some genre I dreaded to listen to.
We kept walking with the crowd until it finally halted. A line. And it looked as if it led into a room or area where the music was coming from.
There were bouncers, wearing all black along with their own fake Black Wolves jackets on, at the entrance. They didn't seem to be checking anybody who walked through so long as they were wearing a Black Wolves jacket... or so I thought...
As Ryo and I adjusted our hoods, and we got near the doors. One of the bouncers pointed in our direction.
"You there!" he yelled. We looked up, but he wasn't looking at us...
Behind us, a male with his fur hood on and a white billed cap jerked his head upward and ground his teeth, running out from the crowd as the two bouncers pursued him.
It didn't take much effort for them to catch and subdue him. His white billed cap fell off as they pinned him to the ground with a knee.
"Negative. It's not him. Was just a similar looking mutt," the bouncer relayed on an earpiece he had on.
"Get off, man, I can't breathe! I'm just here for the party!" the male said as he squirmed on the ground under the bouncer's knee.
"Why the hell did you run then!?"
"I'm trippin' balls man! Come on, get off!"
"Damn junkie…" the bouncer murmured as he released the male, who then went to grab his billed cap off the ground, and scurried back in line.
I caught the end of it as Ryo and I finally walked in, looking at the white billed cap that tweaker fake was wearing...
Right as we entered, the music blasted through like it had been waiting for the drop just as we came through the doors. The underground techno club consumed all our senses. I couldn't hear myself think.
Random colored lights flashed everywhere as we proceeded through the dark room. It was filled with people, mages—all of them fake Black Wolves, all of them dancing to the music that we had followed earlier. Some were drinking, others doing drugs. No corner was spared from these imbeciles.
The room itself had indoor balconies where one could continue to see fakes mingling and dancing from above. Most of the girls were almost half-naked and had multicolored luminescent paint on their faces and random parts of their bodies.
The crowd was so thick, Ryo and I struggled to maneuver our way through it. Girls began dancing on us, and I pushed them away disinterestedly. Ryo did the same, but in a more polite manner.
When we finally got through it, we saw the room extend into a hallway that went farther down. More of these fakes were there as we continued in that direction.
Passing through the extended hallway, we found ourselves in a bleacher seating area, and below us looked like some underground arena.
There was a DJ on a floating pedestal that had girls dancing seductively, wearing nothing but bikinis and fake Black Wolves jackets and more multicolored luminescent paint on their skin. On another floating pedestal, there was an announcer, more girls and a figure on a throne-like chair hovering across from the DJ's pedestal—rotating all around us from above.
"Hey, did you hear? They say the big boss will be here tonight too!" a random fake said to another.
Big boss. Was it the guy on the floating pedestal?
The music's volume lowered throughout the underground club, allowing the announcer to make an introduction. His voice echoed loudly through the speakers laid out all over the place, "Alright, Wolfie's, AWO-AWO-AWOOOOO! Tonight's brawl will be one you do not want to miss! Please stay clear of the arena unless you want to get completely fucked and shredded. The underground matches are about to begin!"
Ryo and I found some clear seating, but it quickly gathered with fakes. In a matter of seconds, the place was jam-packed with them as they pushed and shoved us by their sheer number alone.
Then the song changed. A lower, more intense beat started building all around us.
"AWO-AWOOOOO! Are you ready, you freaks?! Let's get these matches started!" The announcer shouted through the speakers.
Right then, parts of the ground in the arena began to sink. The dirt from underneath fell into rectangular holes in the ground. From below, mana cages lined up all around. Nothing could be seen from the cages until they released what was inside.
Then one of the cages lit up, and what was inside was a monster of sorts. Afterward, the middle ground formed a big hole and what emerged from it was a heavily armored mech. It seemed to be about seven-foot in height and was built large in frame from head to toe.
The cage that held the monster undid itself, and it now was free to roam in the arena. The other cages then went back underground leaving only the large mech and the monster to face each other now.
Ryo looked to his upper left and found a balcony where a shadowy figure was sitting all by himself. He nudged me, and I confirmed with a head nod.
"Looks like that's boss man," Ryo said, yelling, though it would have still been considered a whisper with how loud the place was.
The figure on the pedestal, and now the lone figure in the balcony. I noted their locations.
The crowd cheered like a bunch of drunken, tweaked-out animals as the mech and the monster in the arena hashed it out.
The monster was probably a Grade 5. It stood no chance against the seven-foot mech, which bore similarities to the six-armed one we were chasing, and still found no sign of.
We sat through the fight as the mech utterly destroyed the monster, leaving green blood splattered in the center of the arena, decorating there for a moment before fading away.
"Looks like Puppet Master has won this round!" the announcer shouted.
I was getting anxious. Where was that girl?
The cages emerged from underground again, and one of them lit up.
My eyes widened as I saw what—who was inside.
Scared, barefoot, and crouched down in the corner of the cage was the young girl with blonde hair.
That was her. But it looked as if she was next...
Her cage was undone, and the other cages went back down underground like clockwork.
Standing there was her and this "Puppet Master."
She stepped backward and twitched her bottom lip uncontrollably. I could tell she attempted to shout, but her throat was dry.
Tripping on her own nervousness, she fell to the ground and turned herself over to crawl as fast as she tiredly could.
The Puppet Master drew closer with each step. It held up a gnarly hand as it inevitably reached her, forming a fist to strike down. She looked back, and tears were in her eyes as she witnessed it. The crowd cheered animalistically all around her.
"Get her! Get her! Get her!"
"Tear her to shreds!"
"Rip that little bitch apart!"
"Squash her to bits! HAHAHA!"
The Puppet Master threw its fist down aggressively.
"I've had enough…" I said under my breath as I stood up, and the sound of the crowd muffled in my ears, pushing away the fakes that sloshed around, making room for myself.
Faster than anyone could see, I bolted down onto the ring between the young girl and the mech. From the bleachers I once was, the fakes had recoiled like bowling pins as I shot out and onto the arena. Its fist bore down onto my forehead just as I arrived, and I stopped it in its tracks like an insect slamming into a wall.
SLAM!
My eyes swirled in a wild rage as it remained at my forehead, unable to penetrate nor move me, staggering its large fist.
The gust from the impact scattered the dirt from all sides of me, avoiding the girl. Only a small breeze blew her way, fluttering her blonde bangs from her face.
Dirt and smudges decorated her from her face all the way to her bare feet. I could feel her gaze upon my back as she asked in utter astonishment,
"Who... Who are you?"