Chapter 5: "Hard-Earned Money."

The middle-aged man counted down, signaling the beginning of the match. 

However, both Elyenora and the Orc slave had their hands simply stand still there on the table, waiting for the other to start pushing down first. 

“Come on, female. I ain’t got all day, so give us an amusing attempt before I shut you down.” The orc spoke with a gruff arrogant voice. 

Still smiling confidently, Elyenora shrugged and replied, "Don't cry later on."  

Soon, she used her strength to push the orc's arm slowly to the other side. When Elyenora had pushed him slightly, the orc was still feeling smug on the inside and had wanted to overwhelm her right at the end.  

But after each passing second, the orc noticed something strange. His opponent's grip and power were beyond what he had imagined, making the situation out of his control.  

He started to seriously push back on Elyenora’s hand, trying his hardest to return it back to the center, however no matter what he did. 

The girl’s hand didn’t budge. 

Dripping in cold sweat, he began using his full strength. But still, that proved to be useless as Elyenora wasn't budging even an inch. 

“Oh? Are you having a hard time?” Elyenora smiled kindly, “Let’s have a soft reset shall we.”  

She let the orc push her hand back to the position where they had started from, simply humming a melody as she did so, as well as closing her eyes in a relaxed manner to anticipate her slowly nearing money. 

"Dammit!" seeing that perhaps the woman was giving him some leeway, the orc didn't miss the chance and poured all of his strength and body weight into his arm. But even with that, Elyenora's hand still didn’t move even a little bit.  

"Is it my turn again?" asked Elyenora lazily, as she slowly but surely, pushed down the orc's hand back to where it was before. 

During the middle of the match however, a hooded man with a brown robe, walked closer and closer with a careful attitude as he observed that everyone's attention was somewhere else. 

His posture was nimble, he was able to cross the crowds unnoticed, as if he were an expert at this kind of thing. Then, after making sure that everyone's gazes were not on him, he moved his eyes to Mon'Ter who seemingly was still focused on watching Elyenora with his curious expression.  

Nodding to himself now that everything was perfect, the man sneaked right behind the middle-aged man who had started the entire event and cut off the bag of coins dangling at his waist.  

Smiling in pride, he guided his body right through the crowd, unnoticed by anyone as he proceeded quickly to the tavern's entrance, going as far as he could outside. 

Unbeknownst to the hooded man however, Mon'Ter had seen his entire action right from the start until the end, even without staring at him in an obvious way. Seeing that the man who acted weirdly on his impression went away just like that, Mon'Ter simply thought to himself, ‘Must be hurrying…’  

With a thud, the orc’s hand reached the table’s surface and everyone simply stared in silence as the cloaked frail looking girl hummed her melody in delight.  

Moments later, Elyenora shouted. "I Won!" she raised her hand high in the air for a victory pose, oozing with happiness. 

‘Now I don’t have to worry about expenses as much!’ Elyenora thought as she grinned ear to ear. 

The orc on the other hand, shamefully hung his head low while muttering “I lost to a female… I lost to a female…” 

‘Another weird… Thing...?’ Mon’Ter thought to himself as he heard the Orc’s mutters, not sure what kind of creature he was exactly. 

“...” The people at the tavern looked in silence for another second, before bursting into cheering and clapping. 

“Good job girl!” An old man praised. 

“Nice one, putting him in his place!” A man in his late twenties whistled in approval. 

“That’s how it’s done! Show them that girl power sis!” A teenage girl cheered. 

“Be my wife!” A random middle-aged man shouted, overly excited for some reason. 

Other such comments flew by as Elyenora stood up and walked to the middle-aged man who was the owner of the Orc.

she ignored the crowd’s cheers and spoke with a proud grin as she extended her hand, "My winning money, if you would be so kind."  

Sighing with disappointment that his orc had lost, the middle-aged man made a mental note to torture said orc later when they were back at his abode.  

The man’s hand went to take out his coin bag, but soon, his expression changed from annoyed to shocked. His hand moved around his body once more, as if searching for something franktically, while Elyenora simply waited while humming her melody.

Seeing the middle-aged man’s actions, the princess furrowed her eyebrows as she felt something was definitely off about this. 

"My money... It's gone! Thief!" shouted the middle-aged man loudly with an anguished face.  

"What!?" With disbelief from what the middle-aged man had said, Elyenora grabbed the collar of his clothes and accused threateningly, "Listen you money grabbing bastard! Don't give me any excuses unless you want me to get rough!" 

"For the love of Goddess Elene! I swear! I swear I had it just a moment ago!" answered the middle aged with flustered gestures. 

“Lying in the name of the Goddess of Love? I’ll have your tongue cut!" stated Elyenora as she raised him up from his feet, shaking him left and right in the air. 

“I-I promise! Please! Believe me!” He began sweating bullets, afraid of the short girl’s temper. 

“Tsk.” Elyenora clicked her tongue, the sight of the joyous humming girl from earlier was completely gone. “Mon’Ter!” She shouted. 

“Yes…?” Mon’Ter asked, observing everything without much of a care as he didn’t understand what was happening. “What’s wrong… Ely…?”  

“Ugh… Someone took something they shouldn’t have, did you notice anything strange happening earlier?” She asked, calming down slightly. 

‘Mon’Ter might have seen it happen, but I doubt he even understood the situation in the first place… I got careless!’ Elyenora thought, holding her forehead with one of her hands. 

“There was… Weird man… Dressed like us…” Mon’Ter began to explain, “He took a bag... From the smelly, fat man and left… In a hurry.”  

“So it was a thief…” Elyenora mused, turning to the middle-aged man. “I’m really sorry sir, I may have gotten carried away.” she cupped her hands in apology. 

“May have gotten carried away?! You nearly strangled me! Do you even have any idea who I am? You stupid girl!-” The man shouted, furious at the way he had been treated. 

“Do you know where the ‘weird’ man went, Mon’Ter?” Elyenora asked, completely ignoring the aforementioned furious person. 

“Hey!” The middle-aged man shouted again, however he seemed to have turned invisible.  

“Me does… Should me… Track him?” Mon’Ter asked, his eye slightly glowing as his senses started to sharpen even more than they are usually. 

Within a second he knew the location of his target. “He’s… Not far… Easy prey...” 

“Great! Let’s go, those coins are rightfully mine now after all.” Elyenora said and got ready to rush out of the tavern. 

However, her shoulder was caught by the hand of the waiter lady from earlier. 

“Miss, I understand the hurry but please don’t dine and dash.” The lady said with a menacing glare, “Okay?” 

“Oh, right! My apologies, miss waitress.” Elyenora said and quickly began rummaging through her small bag. “Mon’Ter, I’ll be right there so please go and catch the thief!”  

“Okay…” Mon’Ter nodded, quickly vanishing from the premise before anyone could notice him leave. 

The streets were rather full at this time of day, the thief could have easily tried to blend in with the crowd however he seemed to be going towards a specific location. 

Mon’Ter ran across the rooftops without as much as a sound, gently gliding through everything like a professional assassin would. 

In the end, he reached a small alleyway that he gazed upon from above. The scent he had been following had led him there, and it was now seemingly underground. 

‘Hiding… Won’t do…’ Mon’Ter thought to himself as he leaped down to the ground and observed his surroundings. 

The alleyway was quite narrow and filthy, leading to a dead end with a multitude of broken planks littering the ground, as well as bags filled with random junk that people no longer wanted.  

It hadn’t been used nor cleaned in a long time and it was rather obvious at that. 

However, Mon’Ter easily found the purpose of this alley. 

At the edge of the dead end, covered in planks, trash and even dirt was a trap door. 

He smiled sinisterly and pierced a hole through the wooden trap door with his sword-like tail, revealing a staircase that led down underneath the various houses in the vicinity. 

“Found you~” Mon’Ter muttered quietly and went inside, walking slowly towards his destination with a sinister glow in his eye. 

… 

Earlier on inside of the thief’s hideout...  

Once the cloaked man had entered and closed the door behind himself, he walked down the stairs and into what seemed to be a decently sized underground network of tunnels. 

The thief made his way through them, navigating his path until a source of light began to glimmer in the distance. 

There, he was greeted with a wide room made of stone walls on all sides, it was an ugly scene with a couple dozen men sitting down at tables and drinking booze. 

It was an underground bar, serving as a hidden safe zone for the outlaws. 

The thief walked past the tables nonchalantly and arrived at the counter, “Hey, boss! Got myself a bag of coins from some merchant fella, he was organizing a little arm-wrestling game at the Mountain Lion’s Tavern!” 

At the counter stood a short obese but muscular man, he had many missing teeth and the ones that were still there were quite disfigured. One of his eyes was blind due to what seemed to be a burn mark on the left side of his face, a red scar spreading around his eye and no eyebrow. 

He wore a white shirt and a white apron, had black boots on and brown leather pants with a pair of short swords at his waist. 

“Really now?” The boss asked, cleaning a mug with his old ragged towel. “How much did ya get? And, please tell me you didn’t steal from any merchant we’re affiliated with again Thomas… I swear I’ll strangle you if you cause more trouble.” The boss said while pointing at Thomas’ face with a finger.  

“No, no! He was some new guy in town, passing by and showing off his orc slave at the Tavern.” The thief, Thomas, said in his defense as he raised his hands up “Oh, I just wish I could see the look on his face when he realized… ‘Oh no! Mi coins ar gone!’ Bahahahah!” He laughed heartily, earning the attention of a few goons sitting at the tables. 

“Tsk. Just don’t go making anyone nosy, we are still doing that big job we got two weeks ago, so we really don’t need the attention! Alright?” The boss said and slammed the mug on the counter, “Now pay up, I’ll give ya a free beer for some silver.”  

“What?! Boss that’s so unfair! How can a free beer cost me silver?!” Thomas protested. 

“I make the dang rules in this place and you’re paying me back for what you owe already!” The boss shouted, “Six silver! Coff em up since you’re so proud of your game.” 

"Fine!" replied the man obediently as he cursed inside his mind, 'Crow's sh*t! F*ckin crackhead! Taking my hard-earned money…’ 

Thomas grabbed his recently found bag of coins and pulled out six of the thirteen silver coins inside. Giving it unwillingly to his boss, he clicked his tongue and said, "There! Happy now?" 

The boss took the coins with a toothless grin, “Not at all, you douchebag! I need some tax for the long ass time it took you to give me back my coins! Six more silver!” 

“What?! You can’t be serious! Go steal something by yourself you fat scumbag!” Thomas blurted out, losing his cool at the unfairness of his boss. 

"This b*tch... You dare to talk back to me now!?" without any warning, the boss moved his big fist and punched right at Thomas's face, breaking the thief's nose in an instant.  

"Sober now? You piece of trash!" The boss spit to the floor as he stood up threateningly, ready for more lessons he would give to a disobedient henchman. “I’ll teach you just who you should be calling a fat ass...” He said while cracking his knuckles.  

Everyone had now turned their gazes towards the poor thief who would soon be punished, sneers and grins flooding their expressions as they awaited the soon to be amusing show. 

Sadly, the cheery attitude they had wouldn’t last for long. 

“Give back… The bag…” A voice spoke in whispers from the dark hallway, walking slowly with enclosing steps towards the big room in which all the thugs were located. 

“Who the hell are you?!” The Boss exclaimed, annoyed to see an unexpected visitor before turning back to Thomas who was still on the floor. "You damned rat! You got followed down here!?”  

“No! Not possible! I made sure to leave no tracks while coming down here!” Thomas bellowed, his supposedly good day becoming worse and worse by the minute. 

“The bag… now…” Mon’Ter said, entering the room filled with thugs. 

He was a cloaked figure, standing with a rather tall and imposing frame, however the people here had seen the like. They weren’t impressed.  

"What bag? You dimwit. Trying to take my hard-earned money ar’ ye?" pulling out his pair of short swords, the boss continued as he stared with a cold expression, "But no matter what it is, ya ain't leavin’ here alive!" 

Thomas couldn’t help but think to himself as he listen to his boss talk, ‘What hard-earned money?! You took it from me you fat ass!’ 

Charging to Mon'ter with a posture to stab in two directions at the same time, the boss' face was full of savagery as his killing intent flashed in his eyes. 

“Me said…” Mon’Ter spoke, raising his hand. “Give me the bag.” he continued, swinging his arm down and smashing the boss’ head into the ground, cracking the stone floor and knocking the man out cold. “Not attack me...” 

"F*ck… he defeated boss Kuccle in one hit.." muttered one of the thugs as the rest of them had an expression of horror and wariness.  

As they hesitated about if they should fight the unknown intruder, they glanced at each other's eyes to see the rest’s reaction. 

"Gang up on him! He's all alone anyway!" shouted Thomas to the rest of the thugs, bringing them back to his senses as they began to glare at Mon’Ter, readying themselves for a fight. 

"Not anymore, lads!" kicking the other entrance’s door open, Elyenora went in as she readied her sword, "There's gonna be hell to pay for those who want to steal my hard-earned money!” 

Upon seeing Elyenora’s figure, Thomas couldn’t help but think to himself once more. 'What hard earned money?! You demolished that Orc! Also why is that monster of a girl here too?! Bloody hell this just isn’t my day!’  

“Where’d she come from!? How many others are there damn it!?” A thug shouted, as he and the rest finally brandished their weapons. 

Swords, knives, axes and spears were raised and ready to butcher the hideout’s intruders. 

"I swear, this all started because that dumbass Thomas can’t keep his tracks clean! Let's skin him alive after we deal with these pests!" interjected another thug.  

“Are you kidding me?!” Thomas yelled in frustration, his bad day becoming the worst he’d had in a long while. 

"We're not kidding! We wanna kill you!" retorted another thug.  

“Enough chit-chat!” Elyenora shouted and kicked the thug that threatened Thomas square in the jaw line, lifting his body in the air and launching him into another two thugs, knocking the three down on the ground. “Give me the damn money back before ‘I’ skin ‘you’ alive!” 

The thugs then all began to rush towards both Mon’Ter and Elyenora, a dozen at each of them. 

Elyenora dodged each strike thrown at her with swift, graceful movements.

After finally resting properly and eating a good meal, she was now back at full strength! Not to mention the thugs, she was confident at dealing with the twenty knights from before! 

In an instant, Elyenora used her rapier's handle to strike behind the neck of nearly half of the men. 

She knocked down six of the thugs, another seven were now left.

She then gazed at those who remained, yelling angrily. “Cough up the coins already!” 

On the other side of the ‘battlefield’, the thugs had begun rushing towards their opponent with a flurry of different diverse weaponry. 

As the enemies enclosed onto Mon’Ter while swinging their weapons at him, he simply punched the front most of the thugs and knocked down another three with the man’s flying body, which had been blown away by the force of his fist. 

The rest of the thugs were stunned at the show of strength, stopping for just a moment to stare at the giant of a man before them. 

“Give… the bag… Now.” Mon’Ter muttered once more, his crimson red eye shining from underneath his hood. 

Once the thugs gazed into it, their vision tunneled onto his pupil while everything else turned to darkness. 

Everything felt heavy and breathing became difficult, as the fear seeped into their very bones and the shadows loomed over them, threatening to consume their very souls. 

It was as if a Demon's presence had descended upon their hideout.