It had been a while since Aether had last been in Hargeon, in fact the last time he was here was to bust a group of slave traders and save as many slaves as he could in the process. His guild master, Kakuma, had done most of the work when it came to taking out the henchmen and the two people in charge of the slave trading but he managed to get in and tackle a few of the henchmen who didn’t make it to the main attraction in time with Irina, saving quite a few of the slaves that had taken advantage of the confusion to escape only to end up running into more henchmen. Now Aether stood 4 warehouses down from where all of that took place to take on Jason Goodnight, a local miner turned murderer, to put an end to his spree of rampant killings, for the right price of course.
The local police force had managed to corner the suspect within a warehouse and have set up a perimeter to prevent his escape, their only problem was that they lacked the power to enter the warehouse and leave with their lives. Two squads have already been sent in to attempt to apprehend the miner but only one man from the second squad had managed to make it back, but with one of his arms seemingly butchered from his shoulder and countless slash marks across his entire body. “He was waiting for us…” The officer mumbled under a shaky breath, his one remaining arm clutching where his other arm used to connect to his body. “He knew we were coming so he set a trap... We found the first squad just- hanging from the ceiling, and that’s when he attacked. From out of nowhere a hook on a chain just wrapped around the captain’s foot, dragged him into the darkness. As soon as we lost him the plan all went to shit, a couple of the other guys in my squad tried to get up close and cut at him but he just cut them down as though they were nothing, right through their swords and straight through their chests. Then he came after the rest of us.” The man was visually shaking, it was clear that he didn’t want to talk about his encounter any further as he curled further into a foetal position, his breath shaky as he mumbled apologies to what Aether could only assume was the man’s squad mates. With a sigh Aether got down on one knee and placed his hand on the man’s head, fluffing his hair and with his best ‘everything will be okay’ voice spoke to him as he stared with his one revealed eye into the eyes of the suffering man. “I am Aether Lepan of the bounty hunting guild Black Rose. I swear on my reputation and the reputation of my guild that I will bring this man in.” Removing his hand from the man’s head and standing up, not breaking eye contact as he did so he continued. “I will not make your friends death’s be in vein. I will avenge them in your stead.” And with a smile beneath his concealing mask down at the man, who was looking up at him with tears in his eyes, turned to face the line that divided him and this week’s pay.
Aether crossed the line which the local police had set up to prevent his target from escaping, it had surrounded a small portion of the warehouse district and the one he was in was constantly under watch, with trained eyes focused on every entrance and exit to prevent his escape. Throwing a thumbs up to the police behind him he continued his advance into the warehouse, opening the main door to the warehouse he made his presence known to Jason, remaining in the doorway for some time to keep an eye out for any sort of movement within. The man he had talked to earlier had described bodies hanging from the ceiling, but he never really went into detail about what they looked like. The bodies were mutilated, some hanging from rib cages, others hanging from their necks, and one body was hung from their own intestines, all had similar cuts and bruises to the man who survived but these were far worse, but not the worst Aether had seen, not by a long shot. He pressed in to the warehouse after taking his time to examine the surroundings and let his eye adjust to the dim light, leaving the doors behind him open to cast a shadow if his opponent attempted to attack him from behind, but much to his surprise the man simply walked out into the center of the warehouse, his clothes soaked in blood which was just now beginning to dry out, a chain and hook wrapped around him from shoulder to waste like someone from one of those old movies with the bullet belt, a cleaver in his right hand and a dismembered arm in his left, a carving knife neatly slotted within a sheath at his waist. “You’re not like the others.” The man said “Coming in all alone, thought you might have some trouble finding me so I decided to give you a hand.” With a sly grin he raised up the arm and tossed it at Aether’s feet to judge his reaction, only to find that Aether kept his eyes on the man the entire time. “Not squeamish I see, oh well you’ll end up just like your other friends that tried to stop me. That didn’t end well for them now did it?” the large man laughed as he brandished his carving knife and beginning to rush at Aether with the intent to use both of his carving utensils to cut open his chest in an X formation, but only found himself with a fist approaching his face, causing him to rethink and stop himself before he gets punched. Aether’s attempt to stop his opponent succeeded, quickly manoeuvring his other hand around to grab the flat edge of the cleaver whilst the hand that was burled into a fist made its way down to the carving knife and disarm the murderer. Grabbing each of the weapons by their unsharpened side and pulling forward to knock the man’s head with his own, his hardened skull causing a bruise to form on the man with the impact, releasing his grip on the weapons and allowing Aether to toss them aside as he made quick work into grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and the waist of his pants, using Jason’s own weight against him to pull him over Aether’s shoulder and into a quick bind, unable to move and for that instant took the chain that he had wrapped around himself and tying him up, quickly ending his encounter. “I put my reputation on the line. I’m not going to hold back against someone who looks down on me.” With that he proceeded to drag the man out, alive and restrained to the local police who proceeded to award him with his payment for Jacob Goodnight’s capture.
The local police force had managed to corner the suspect within a warehouse and have set up a perimeter to prevent his escape, their only problem was that they lacked the power to enter the warehouse and leave with their lives. Two squads have already been sent in to attempt to apprehend the miner but only one man from the second squad had managed to make it back, but with one of his arms seemingly butchered from his shoulder and countless slash marks across his entire body. “He was waiting for us…” The officer mumbled under a shaky breath, his one remaining arm clutching where his other arm used to connect to his body. “He knew we were coming so he set a trap... We found the first squad just- hanging from the ceiling, and that’s when he attacked. From out of nowhere a hook on a chain just wrapped around the captain’s foot, dragged him into the darkness. As soon as we lost him the plan all went to shit, a couple of the other guys in my squad tried to get up close and cut at him but he just cut them down as though they were nothing, right through their swords and straight through their chests. Then he came after the rest of us.” The man was visually shaking, it was clear that he didn’t want to talk about his encounter any further as he curled further into a foetal position, his breath shaky as he mumbled apologies to what Aether could only assume was the man’s squad mates. With a sigh Aether got down on one knee and placed his hand on the man’s head, fluffing his hair and with his best ‘everything will be okay’ voice spoke to him as he stared with his one revealed eye into the eyes of the suffering man. “I am Aether Lepan of the bounty hunting guild Black Rose. I swear on my reputation and the reputation of my guild that I will bring this man in.” Removing his hand from the man’s head and standing up, not breaking eye contact as he did so he continued. “I will not make your friends death’s be in vein. I will avenge them in your stead.” And with a smile beneath his concealing mask down at the man, who was looking up at him with tears in his eyes, turned to face the line that divided him and this week’s pay.
Aether crossed the line which the local police had set up to prevent his target from escaping, it had surrounded a small portion of the warehouse district and the one he was in was constantly under watch, with trained eyes focused on every entrance and exit to prevent his escape. Throwing a thumbs up to the police behind him he continued his advance into the warehouse, opening the main door to the warehouse he made his presence known to Jason, remaining in the doorway for some time to keep an eye out for any sort of movement within. The man he had talked to earlier had described bodies hanging from the ceiling, but he never really went into detail about what they looked like. The bodies were mutilated, some hanging from rib cages, others hanging from their necks, and one body was hung from their own intestines, all had similar cuts and bruises to the man who survived but these were far worse, but not the worst Aether had seen, not by a long shot. He pressed in to the warehouse after taking his time to examine the surroundings and let his eye adjust to the dim light, leaving the doors behind him open to cast a shadow if his opponent attempted to attack him from behind, but much to his surprise the man simply walked out into the center of the warehouse, his clothes soaked in blood which was just now beginning to dry out, a chain and hook wrapped around him from shoulder to waste like someone from one of those old movies with the bullet belt, a cleaver in his right hand and a dismembered arm in his left, a carving knife neatly slotted within a sheath at his waist. “You’re not like the others.” The man said “Coming in all alone, thought you might have some trouble finding me so I decided to give you a hand.” With a sly grin he raised up the arm and tossed it at Aether’s feet to judge his reaction, only to find that Aether kept his eyes on the man the entire time. “Not squeamish I see, oh well you’ll end up just like your other friends that tried to stop me. That didn’t end well for them now did it?” the large man laughed as he brandished his carving knife and beginning to rush at Aether with the intent to use both of his carving utensils to cut open his chest in an X formation, but only found himself with a fist approaching his face, causing him to rethink and stop himself before he gets punched. Aether’s attempt to stop his opponent succeeded, quickly manoeuvring his other hand around to grab the flat edge of the cleaver whilst the hand that was burled into a fist made its way down to the carving knife and disarm the murderer. Grabbing each of the weapons by their unsharpened side and pulling forward to knock the man’s head with his own, his hardened skull causing a bruise to form on the man with the impact, releasing his grip on the weapons and allowing Aether to toss them aside as he made quick work into grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and the waist of his pants, using Jason’s own weight against him to pull him over Aether’s shoulder and into a quick bind, unable to move and for that instant took the chain that he had wrapped around himself and tying him up, quickly ending his encounter. “I put my reputation on the line. I’m not going to hold back against someone who looks down on me.” With that he proceeded to drag the man out, alive and restrained to the local police who proceeded to award him with his payment for Jacob Goodnight’s capture.
