"This act shall never be forgiven. I shall make examples of you and your company."

  His swords glowed red against the growing flames. He walked to and fro, sizing up the armored opponent who stood still, assuming a short stance. This was the first time Cornelia had to fight an Eastern warrior up close. Green scales glimmered as it emerged from the shadow and was highlighted by the burning tongues that surrounded the warehouse. Finding the best time to block unseen strikes was made more difficult with the noise outside; gunfire from the remaining resistance outside blended with the growing noise of sirens and the collapse of nearby structures. Fire did not discern any more than what can be consumed or otherwise.

  And his attacks began; Cornelia couldn't help but block every strike that went for either her helm's vision slits or the joints in her armor. She pressed forward or withdrew, one step at a time. The strikes were fast, and she felt a kind of rhythm in them, even when the attacker added some variety by trying a low kick when the swords couldn't get past her defenses. She tried to come up with a riposte, only to need to block another blow before her sword could be poised for a blow.

  "Can't hurt this guy too badly, but I can't waste my time here either before that flame-flinger decides that blowing him up is a better idea."

  She waited for the blade, then ducked and rose hard—pommel to chin. Cornelia swung her weapon at the shaken warrior; the pair of swords clattered to the floor. She held the broadsword by the blade and swung the hilt at his cheek. The Eastern man spun before hitting the ground, and Cornelia pressed her weight against him, ending the fight with a fist to his face.

  "How's everything there, Miss Cornelia?"

  "Everything is... fine and dandy here, thank you." Cornelia stood up and looked at the grumbling warrior who fought to keep what little consciousness he had. "Good thing I have it all wrapped up before you could even think of scorching these men to nothing."

  "How many of them are we taking?" Even when speaking from his mind, Gerhard's voice had an air of curtness in it.

  "Around eight of the Easterners." She picked up her broadsword from the ground, sheathing it before leaning on the warehouse wall. "You know, keeping them alive is harder than I thought."

  "Perhaps it would have been better if you hadn't held back too much."

  "Easy for you to say. You don't have to worry about an early end of contract if you fail to meet your boss's requirements."

  "I'll arrange for the transports to pick up the bodies. Stand guard there while we hold off the Town Guard from approaching too close."

  · · ─ ·?· ─ · ·

  An explosion followed by tongues of fire marked the ongoing chaos in Altrecht's warehouse district; the resulting shockwaves were felt as far as two kilometers from the scene of the fires. The Town Guard moved in immediately to find the cause of the destruction, but was pinned down by gunmen who made barricades out of ruined walls, broken machinery, and other debris that were pulled into the streets.

  Rinvar did not expect that his trip to Connsbruick would be interrupted by an ongoing shootout. He woke up, put on his regulation jacket, and saw Farin preparing to move out as well.

  "Looks like we're needed outside. The Territorial Army will take its time before moving here." Farin checked her pistol and sword, wearing them on her waist, before proceeding. "Take this as a good chance to learn more about these gangs of Altrecht."

  "I'm all-in. Can't miss a chance to get a good lead when I see it."

  The Blaurosen captain and his men quickly arrived at the scene and attempted to secure the entrance to the warehouse compound. Bullets from unseen guns strafed the walls and threw grains of earth on their shoes.

  The fire has consumed much of the warehouses, and black air began blanketing the sky. Rinvar heard a cry of one of the town guards who had been hit by a bullet to the leg as he tried to move out of his hiding place to join the rest of the company. A faint muzzle flash was seen not too far from the burning fa?ade of the first warehouse.

  He pulled up the bolt and heard the click of a bullet readied in its chamber. Rinvar tracked the sniper who was running to the safety of the remaining intact warehouse.

  "Bad idea..."

  The trigger was squeezed with a split-second difference between the ejected round and the man's shoulder locked onto his sights. Direct hit. Rinvar's bullet lodged at the runner's shoulder, and its force spun him to his side before he hit the ground.

  "Got him..."

  A second bullet was extracted and chambered; the bolt clicked in affirmation that his weapon was ready to release a follow-up volley. The captain was about to squeeze the trigger when he felt a hot, heavy wave of air heading his way. His eyes were off the sights just in time to see a bright crackling white ball about to hit where he hid. He withdrew his weapon and ducked, rolling out of the path before the compacted energy mass carved a crescent on the part of the wall where his head was supposed to be.

  "What the... a magician?"

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Rinvar got up right away and aimed at the source of the blast, but he was only able to probe the tip of someone's cape, disappearing behind a ruined warehouse. He leapt to his right and tried shadowing his target, and ended up on the extreme right side of the perimeter. Rinvar used a hand as leverage to jump over the fence and rolled to an area where a building's shadow kept him hidden.

  A man with a cloak and hat stood alongside another who held his shoulder. Joining them were four unusual figures clad in metal and with glowing green eyes that resembled flared lamps. Rinvar decided not to use his rifle and watch what would happen next.

  Four flying disks emerged from the smog and headed towards the retreating group and fired blue lights overhead. Those hit by the beam disappeared from where they stood. The captain watched the floating machines finish their job and fly out of existence as soon as every single body in that area was gone. Rinvar slapped his eyes to check if the smoke was messing with his mind, and was convinced that none of the group was standing around after his palm hit for the third time.

  "What the devil just happened?"

  A town guard sergeant found Captain De Melvich standing dumbfounded at a corner minutes later; the officer saluted and said:

  "We have cleared the area, sir."

  It took Rinvar a few seconds to snap out of what he saw earlier. He shook his head and focused on the sergeant, saying, "Good. Did you get any prisoners?"

  "We've rounded up a few men who fled the place through the riverbanks," the town guardsman answered. "They seem to be more than happy when we turned them in."

  "That's odd. These gangs would rather die than stay in our prisons."

  "Our chief is talking to them as we speak. They are blubbering weird stories about an armored knight and metal monsters."

  Rinvar fell silent in thought. He walked out of the area with the sergeant. He could hear jets of water flying towards the roofs of the blazing warehouses - the firefighters had finally gone in. The captain returned to the place where that energy ball almost decapitated him; the scent of smoldering rock left a faint presence on the wall.

  He walked towards his Blaurosen colleagues, who were helping in rounding up the stragglers, but he paid no attention to them. Rinvar stared at the sky; the black smog that blocked his view of the moon was thinning away. He searched his left jacket pocket and managed to pull out a block of chocolate from it. He peeled off part of the wrappings and took his first bite when one of his men called his attention. The young man was panting and held his knees before gathering enough air to say:

  "Sir! Come, quick. You must see this."

  Rinvar was led to a street that connected the warehouse complex to Altrecht's market block. Three pyres were scattered all over the place. Rinvar picked one of them up and noticed that it was the head of one of the "armored men" he had seen during the firefight.

  Nobody was wearing these strange suits; the deep inward bows of their legs would have eliminated their possibility of being manned in the first place. All that remained of their fearsome forms were melted circuits and charred insides, possibly caused by the implosion of an innermost component. These machines managed to draw fear and paranoia among the ill-fated men who defended the warehouses; their odd shapes, along with the heavy weapons they wielded, certainly caught many off guard.

  "Mechanical soldiers..." Rinvar kicked one of the now-inert husks; most, if not all, of the shots that put the machine out of action were found at the back.

  An acidic yet metallic scent of spent core fluid stung the investigator's nose. Bullet holes were found at where these machines' 'hearts' would have been. The size of the punches quickly suggested that a pistol or another firearm of such a type was used to destroy the constructs. Rinvar knelt and felt for the holes in the rear armor. While possible, it would have taken several bullets to even make a dent in the alloy used in creating these automatons. The metal seemed to have oozed away, allowing the rounds to enter with little or no resistance offered by the outer shell.

  "I wonder what kind of bullet whoever took these down used to punch right through them..."

  The accounts from the surviving gang members recollected the failed attempts to engage the constructs frontally. A tough alloy, doubled by the sleek, sloping form of these machines, made it nearly impossible to break through them using pistols and rifles. Bullets bounced in front of these metal warriors, and they returned fire and killed off their attackers with little difficulty. Whoever destroyed these constructs was far from dead, Rinvar could ascertain. Shots to the rear were the best recourse, but the plating would have easily deflected pistol rounds.

  The Empire did not have any bullets that melted through armor to penetrate.

  All Rinvar could do was to thank whoever this combatant was. He at least found and showed all the constables involved in this firefight that these menacing machines were not invincible. Plugging grenades or rockets into the rear armor of these fighting machines would be the only viable tactic should any of the law enforcers come across them. His thoughts were dragged back to reality when a small chain of explosions rocked the area. The fires seemed to have reached the ammunition stores kept by one of the burning warehouses.

  "Are you all right, Captain?" An Altrecht town guardsman approached Rinvar and extended his hand.

  "Yes, I'll be fine. We'll have to take these wrecks with us to the Capital." Rinvar addressed the town guardsman who led him to the site. "Tell your chief to keep these under custody until we can get transports to cart them away."

  "Right away, Captain."

  "These are going straight to Blaurosen. Farin and the others will have to be quick to get anything out of these."

  This was a vastly different battle than one would expect of warring syndicates, especially when one of them had a strange mix of mechanical killers and magic-wielders in their arsenal.

  The one who cast the energy ball on him was in league with whoever created these constructs. Rinvar's stopover at Altrecht would be longer than he expected. Now he would have to question those caught from tonight's incident if they had any members with magical affinities.

  Rinvar read the documents; the alleged "unknown technologies" used by the Gray Fox. The constructs before him could give him a lead, but not more than saying these machines belonged to the elusive crime lord or someone under his wing. There was that angle, and another that had the question of whether or not magicians were being recruited by syndicates in their phony war.

  All of this was too much for him to absorb in one night, yet it did not stop him from wondering. Should the Empire get its hands on The Gray Fox's contraptions, would it hasten its leaning towards renewed expansionism? That magician was another subject to unpack, but he remembered Luminberg, and it reminded him of Elena waiting for him on his off-days.

  Rinvar took another bite out of the dark bar and listened to his mouth smack and munch while staring at a construct's severed head he held in his hand.