Chapter 3: The Exalted Lance Bladerunner

Meanwhile outside the gates of Lyssandria

‘Wow Fluffy! That was delicious!’ Aria says with a satisfied expression on her face

“I’m glad you enjoyed it Miss Aria. I’ll have you know I was a very talented cook during my previous life. Yes I Count Vanderbilt Leone Von Str-“

‘Fluffy look!,’ Aria says pointing at the group of people rushing out of the city

“Hmm. Something tells me Sir Lance has gotten himself into a bit of trouble. I do hope he’s alright.”

‘Of course he’s alright! Lance is an Exalted after all,’ Aria reassures Fluffy.

“You do have a point Miss Aria. Very well we must go over there and give Sir Lance some backup!”

‘Aye Aye Captain!’ Aria replies with an excited look on her face as they race towards the city gates.

 

The Lucky Maiden: 3:10 PM

“Let’s get em boys! Don’t kill him, no you can beat the living s**t out of him, but I want the boss to see this man for himself,” Knives yells out ordering his henchman to attack

Grabbing whatever items on the floor that could be used as weapons they all rush towards Lance.

“Eat s**t Punk!”; “Don’t Mess with the Black Wolves!” two of his henchman shout out as they signal the rest of the gang to charge forward in their assault

One by one Lance blocks and dodges each and every one of their attacks and incapacitates Knives’ henchman effortlessly.

Lance with an expression of boredom on his face yells out,

“C’mon, this doesn’t even qualify as a warm up!”

‘Just how strong is he? Sure just going by the rumors I knew he wasn’t a pushover, but he was outnumbered 10-1 and just singlehandedly took down that man’s gang!’ Carolyn thought to herself as she watches the battle transpire.

 

“Hey Kid. You aren’t half bad. Sure those guys weren’t trained fighters, but to beat them all singlehandedly is impressive in it of itself," Knives says giving credit to Lance's skill.

Knives begins to crackle his neck

"But I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’m a whole different animal from those bottom-feeders! I eat scrawny kids like you for breakfast!"

He then lets out a sinister grin.

I know you're curious. You wanna know why they call me Knives?! Well tell you what, let me give you a little demonstration!”

Knives conjures up multiple daggers in both hands and launches them towards Lance at great speed.

“Ahh so you’re a conjuror huh? What a shame. Compared to Aria’s conjurings, this inferior level of magic won’t even make me break a sweat”

Lance counters Knives offensive by pulling out one of his broadswords, blocking the daggers’ trajectory with an upward slice.

“We’ll see about that!” Knives says conjuring a second set of daggers and sending them towards Lance.

Lance swings his sword once again deflecting each of the daggers with relative ease.

Unable to control his anger Knives begins to snap.

Conjuring around 100 daggers, Knives sends them all flying towards Lance

“Try to deflect that you little prick” Knives yells as he laughs hysterically

Lance clearly not amused calls out to his adversary.

“Gimme a break.. is this all you got? 

Lance extends his right arm and swipes it left to right and yells out: “REPEL!” causing all the daggers bounce off as if blocked by an invisible force field.

“A different animal eh? You guys call yourselves the Black Wolves but all I see are a  bunch of newborn puppies that wandered too far into the woods!” Lance shouts in disgust

Knives taking offense to that comment lashes out.

“You talk big kid! Maybe I should start off by cutting off that tongue of yours!”

Conjuring up a large curved blade Knives jumps towards Lance.

“Forget keeping you alive! You ain’t worth the boss’s time you little s**t! I’ll cut off that ridiculous head of yours and give it to the boss on a silver platter. NOW DIE!”

Lance lets out a sigh of disappointment and once again extends his right hand.

“I’ve had enough of this.. FLY!”

With that phrase Knives is sent flying across the room and out through the bar’s wall by an unseen force.

Knives attempts to stand up, but after sustaining heavy damage from the last attack Knives falls on his knees and begins coughing up blood.

‘Amazing! He didn’t even touch him, yet he was sent flying across the room. This Lance is something else.’ Carolyn thought to herself

“What.. what the hell was that?” Knives muttered in a faint voice. 

Looking into Lance’s gaze he grows startled.

“Wait.. Those eyes.. Those blazing red eyes.. So they aren’t just for show… You’re one of those crazy Exalteds aren’t you? So Hellhound isn’t the only one in the world with those crazy eyes! That’s how you were able to take us down so easily! You’re a freak!”

‘Exalted? What's that guy talking about?’ Carolyn wonders

As Lance begins walking towards Knives, Knives pleads to him..

“Please stop, I surrender, don’t kill me! I’ll leave and I’ll never bother you again! I Promise!”

Lance picks him up by the collar..

“Where’s Hellhound? Is he in the city? Talk quick while your vocal chords are still intact”

“NOO! STOP!! HELLHOUND’S HIDEOUT IS ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY WHERE NO ONE CAN SEE HIM! NOW LET ME GO! I’LL LEAVE QUIETLY JUST PLEASE LET ME GO!

“Good. That’s music to my ears. Fine.. you and your henchman are free to go but I have a message for your so called ‘boss’. Tell him I’m coming for him and that his days are numbered. Tell him Lance Bladerunner is looking for him, and that he’s coming soon.” Lance says as he drops Knives to the floor.

Knives, picking himself up starts running for his dear life..

“FORGET ABOUT THESE PUNKS! They’re all useless deadweight! I’m outta here! You shoulda killed me when you had the chance kid! Once Hellhound gets word of this, it’ll be YOUR DAYS that are numbered!”

With the battle over Lance looks around at the aftermath of his battle and walks over to Carolyn who stands right outside the bar, still in awe of what she just witnessed.

“Crap looks like I overdid it again. "

Carol who was spacing out returns to reality and meets Lance's gaze

"You aren’t hurt are you Carol?”

Carolyn begins to blush at Lance's concern for her safety.

“N-n-no I’m fine… thanks to you,” she said with a look of embarrassment on his face.

Lance breaths a sigh of relief.

“Whew I’m glad,"

As a result of the battle, the Lucky Maiden's walls topple over leaving the whole bar in ruins.

'Damn, I already know Fluffy's gonna give me an earful for this.'

 

THE BATTLE IS OVER, THE BAR'S DESTROYED. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?