"I'm not letting Mumbai stay with a bunch of men," Cansan protested, "It's dangerous."
"Fishbone's wife can help her, they've been getting along," Lucian suggested, which Fishbone agreed with.
"If Boss can arrange that, then I'll agree," Cansan was satisfied with that.
"Good," Lucian prepared himself for departure, "Let's begin the operation."
The ferals had successfully raided the Northern Merchant's caravans, destroying the wagons and stealing some of the vulnerable cargo, not all.
The mercenaries and merchants were all injured, but not killed.
'Greed is a sin, and sins get punished severely.'
The defenseless merchant group soon attracted some local bandits and robbers, who took advantage of the weakened merchants and robbed them again.
'Would I get punished if I shared some of my gains with the poor and unfortunate?'
'How would the Gods judge this act?'
'Would they see it as an act of greed or charity?'
During the movement, Lucian used the advantage of having so many soldiers to play fetch with his new weapon, which reminded him of his time with Seline so much.
After two days of travel, Lucian divided the group into four smaller units. Each moved in a different direction, their targets already decided: the Northern Merchant Guild's warehouses.
The warehouses were built on the outskirt of the city with tighter security measures compared to the caravans.
He knew that his enemies would suspect him behind the warehouse attacks, and they would try to find evidence to prove it.
Lucian was fine with it. He would hand the evidence to his enemies on a silver platter. A silver platter with poison in it.
Fishbone and Roland had built his reputation around being a ruthless man against his competitors, with very little proof to back it up. So it was time to live up to it.
The North wouldn't want back a defeated man with his tail tugged between his legs.
Being fair and honorable didn't equal weakness, but being a push over did.
He had to show the consequences of trying to trample over him, or it would only be asking for trouble in the future.
People would have no second thoughts of trying to harm his interests at a first sign of weakness.
He could always twist the rumors before they reached the north like he had been doing the whole time, that the God's were not on the North Merchant Guild's side. From feral attacks, to robbery, bad trade deals and now, a wronged businessman who refused to be wronged again.
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Thick walls and iron doors protected the warehouse from bandits and thieves.
A cluster of buildings surrounded the warehouse, built from the same dull stone, their windows narrow.
The warehouse itself stretched over a hundred meters from end to end, with an inner yard that was used for loading and unloading cargo.
There were around eighty guards guarding, all armed. A few of them had bows. The rest of them were armed with spears and swords. They wore leather armor, and some had chain mail.
The patrolling guards were lazy and careless. Some of them were even sleeping on the job. The ones that were awake were either playing dice, drinking, or chatting with each other.
A dozen of employees loaded crates into the warehouse from the outside, and a dozen more unloaded them from the inside.
Outside the iron gates, four guards were playing card games, gambling their wages.
Swoosh!
The sound of the wind whistling was accompanied by a sharp, metallic sound.
A metallic boomerang with a sharp edge cut through the air, slicing a few cards in half.
The guards stared at the boomerang in surprise, their hands reaching for their weapons.
The boomerang spun in a perfect circle, returning to its owner's hand.
They looked up at the neighboring buildings' rooftop, where the weapon had originated.
A masked person stood there, his cloak flapping in the wind, the mask covering his face, and a hood hiding his hair.
The figure stood still, looking down at them from above.
Lucian rotated his new weapon in his hand with a glowed hand for protection.
The weapon opened into a boomerang shape, had a blade on one side and a metallic surface on the other, which he could use to block or deflect attacks.
This was a southern weapon, a gift from commandant Grim. The man was a collector of weapons and had offered a vast array of choices to Lucian, who still hadn't decided on a primary weapon.
The guards quickly raised their bows and fired arrows at his figure.
One, two, three...five, six.
He counted the arrows and jumped to his left, dodging three of them and cutting three with his weapon, the broken arrows falling on the roof. He moved out of the range of the other arrows, the ones he dodged were stuck to the roof behind him.
He had a grudge against arrows since childhood and took great satisfaction in cutting them in half. One almost killed him, after all.
"Attack! Intruders!" One of the guards yelled, and the rest of the guards drew their weapons, ready to fight.
They positioned themselves in a circle, facing outward with their shields raised.
"Shut the gate!" another ordered, "Don't let anyone in!"
The mercenaries began to close the gate, but Lucian threw the boomerang, and it sliced the surface of their legs, tripping them.
His weapon landed on the ground, and Lucian jumped down from the rooftop, holding onto the rope he had tied to it.
Avoiding more arrows, he used the momentum of the fall and the rope's support to slide down to the ground, landing on his feet.
"Attack," Lucian whispered his command.
Twenty soldiers charged out of the caravans and wagons in a surprise attack.
Another twenty ferals shot a hook from another roof, and slid down a rope.
The guards and mercenaries were caught off guard, not expecting an attack from the inside.
Twenty more feral soldiers slipped through the open gates.
Another twenty scaled the walls, the guards too focused on the attackers inside to notice the attackers outside.
A spear head flew past Lucian, and he caught it, pulling on it, and making the man fall to the ground.
He sprinted towards another guard who blocked his attack with his shield, but the force of the impact sent the man stumbling backward, losing his balance.
"Who goes there?!" The guard in charge shouted, raising his spear.
"Lord Ashtor," Lucian spoke to the man, who showed by his side, "Do you want to do the honors?"
╔═══ Author's note ════╗
I don't know if you've noticed, but Lucian has a habit to pick up random weapons to play with, study, and then eventually use as a weapon:😅🙏
Examples: gardening shovel, trick cane, ship cannon (his favorite so far), axe, short spear, handkerchief, dagger, broadsword (he took from a shackled that held Karolaina captive), syringes, stink bombs, traps.
There will definitely be more, so please don't be surprised when he pulls out something out of his toy box (warehouses) again. 😅
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