The Gloves are off III

You already made your decision before this moment. You are ready and he's not. He has the arrogance typical of thugs who have never fought someone at their level.

He could be a Demon, as Goldman called them, but he's cocky as a normal human.

And it will be his downfall.

"I'll just say one thing, mister Nathair."

You can see his tension, the same you saw in the pits before the opening fight.

Your hand drift slowly toward your knife.

"Cheese."

Confusion passes on his face, before the floodlights of your Casino, moved and oriented precisely on his position, blind his face.


"I'll …" He was probably trying to tell "I'll kill you", but your plan was already in motion. Before he could end his phrase, the left side of his face spreads against the floor, the dampened "bang" hardly audible due to the silencer on John's rifles.

It was an injury that would have killed a normal man but on a Demon? Without Goldman's information, you would have relaxed, giving him enough time to respond.

Instead, you'll press your advantage as much as you can.


You switch your butterfly knife and you stab Nathair straight in the neck. You could see bone and muscle on the left side of his face already growing back, trying to close the injury.

You don't know if demons could feel shocked or pain as you do, but his left hand goes toward his neck and he takes a step back from the two attacks. Between the light and the injuries, it's no surprise that he appears disoriented.

But in the adrenaline rush of the fight, you glance at his right hand, which is not empty anymore.

An axe of black metal, with a fleshy handle from which arteries and veins branch off, fusing with Nathair's hand, pulsing like an alien organ.

Your eyes meet Nathair's and on his face, you don't see pain or confusion, but only one emotion, clearly visible on his grinned teeth, exposed from the missing portion of his face.

Joy. Bliss.

In that eye, you can't recognize the gaze of a man, but something behind the flesh is gazing at you.

And in your heart, while chills pass through your spine, you know that something is promising you one thing.

Agony.

You take a step back, while his axe is rising. He's weakened by your aggression, but he's still alive and now he's not blinded anymore by the light.


From his blindside, a symphony of gunshots comes, with bullets hole opening on his chest, leg and arm. But he doesn't sway and neither does his axe.

You barely dodge the blow, which only grazes your shoulder, but the promise of Agony was abided by. Pain runs from the small cuts, running through every muscle of your arm. You clench your teeth and get your gun out. But someone anticipates you.


In the meanwhile, Mercy has reached the demon back and you watch the scene almost in slow motion.

Mercy pushes the nozzle of her shotgun against Nathair's tight and pulls the trigger.

Without one of his legs, the bearded Demon remain for one instant straight, before crushing hard on the floor, the hand on the axe still raised.

You keep your breath while keeping your gun pointed at the Demon, but you don't see bone, muscle or flesh moving to close the injuries that he received.

You relax your breath.

At that exact moment, the blade of the axe, the fleshy portion connected to the handle, split open.

And the axe screams

As answering that loud noise, the pain in your shoulder worsens and you suffocate with a grunt of pain. Mercy's hands go toward her face, where the livid of her last injury was.

Even Fulvia and the others, who hadn't received a single wound, clench their teeth.

But the worst effect was on Felix and the others, who were the most injured.
Carlos, the most injured among Felix's men, starts screaming in synchrony with the axe, before falling to the floor, motionless.

When the noise ends, the silence sounds quieter than ever.

You get close to the Demon's corpse, to confirm his death. You try your best, but you can't help the feeling of fear.

Softly, you can hear Nathair's laughs, not coming from his mouth, but from the axe.

"I like you, Ernesto. This job is so boring, sometimes, but not today."

The body and the axe melt like bloody wax, red smoke rising during the process.

"I can't wait for the second round." He says, before melting into nothing.

No blood, no flesh, nothing. Except for some bullet holes, nothing remains of Nathair.

You take a depth breath.

You won and you know that the victory would have been more expensive in other circumstances.

But while watching Carlos's corpse, you can't help feeling that it was way closer than you like.

The Aftermath

Even though the day was sunny, with no clouds in the sky, the atmosphere inside the Casino was dark. Inside your office, Felix was sitting on the chair in front of your desk. He did his best to clean up but still looked like shit. The last week was very heavy on him.

"When it's scheduled Carlos' funeral?" You ask, looking at him.

You lost other companions in the years, but Carlos is your first loss since you open your Casino. Killed by a magical fuck that promised you that he will be back. You clench your fist at the thought.

"In two days, boss. I already contacted his family and send them some money."

You nod. "What do you think, Felix?"

He breathes heavily: "We need to rest. First the Jackals, then the demon … I can call some friends and get another man on the team. The time to heal our injuries and we'll get back to work. If I may suggest … "

You gesture him to keep going: "I know some good folks that could work with us, improving our numbers. If that thing will be back, he could find more guns waiting for him."

You nod. Nathair wouldn't be introduced by a message next time. If he attacks you while your men are away …

"I'll keep your idea in mind, Felix. Thank you for your help."

Once you are alone, you fall deep in thought.

One of your staff reported that one of the clients was going toward the basement. He was stopped in time, but you don't buy that "he was looking for the bathroom". You would bet that he's snooping around for the Pale Zenith, but at least now you know where they are trying to get and you told Fulvia to pay more attention to who gets close to it.

Goldman is doing his research on the two demons and maybe with your help, you can speed up the process.

You still have the books in your basement. If the Demon is a creature of the occult, adding that kind of knowledge to your arsenal would help in your next fight against him.
He found you ready once, he will find you ready again. If you didn't find him before, of course.

---

New Long Term Goals added.

QM Note: A couple of options changed and a lot more got added. The list is not exhaustive, but I come up with these. A lot of options, but there are also a lot of approaches)All the actions, unless specify differently, are Small risk, Standard effect, Variable cost

Casino Management: (These actions can be performed only by the Main or a Named Character)

Competition:


Ernesto Specials: (Only Ernesto can do these actions)

Occult Action:


Exploration:


Follower's Actions (These actions can be done only by your Followers)

25 hours until the vote is closed.
One thing that I have procrastinated on was giving you a reward for helping me reach my personal milestone for this quest:
10 threadmarks, 10 pages and 10k words.

The reward I had in mind was giving an opportunity for the most active user in the thread to ask me an OOC question that I'll answer to the best of my abilities (or make the answer on the spot).
However, I decided that in the time before the end of the vote, each of you can ask me such questions.

OOC means that the answer will not give you direct advantages with Ernesto's action (if you ask me "How can we kill Nathair", even if I answer you, I still expect you to spend actions to investigate IC).

So, it's your best chance to get info on things that Ernesto couldn't know.