Another man with a squeaky voice said, “Nah, kids are loaded these days. Check his pockets. He might be packed.”
Sora could feel a big hand go into his pocket and draw out his wallet. A deep voice said, “There’s about five thousand Zens here. He is loaded for a kid. Now let’s take his bag and go before he comes around and sees our faces.”
The squeaky man said, “We only have to kill him if he does. Let’s take a look at what he’s carrying.”
Sora heard a zip opening and heard the thieves gasp. He couldn’t help but smirk a little and open his eyes as slightly as he could to see their expressions. The figure of four men could be seen. The thin and nimble looking one brought out a shining round object. A big man, who held a bludgeon, was gaping at it. The others started chattering excitedly, “We hit the jackpot. The boss won’t believe his eyes. This is gold, SOLID GOLD!”
“But why is a kid like him having this?”
“Maybe he found it here while researching something for his school. He must’ve wanted to head back to Gildartz city and ended up lost in Stone Hedge Valley.”
The big man with the deep voice said, “Let’s head back to the base and show it to the boss. We might even get a big share of the profit.”
They murmured in agreement and left through the exit of the narrow valley. Sora slowly got to his feet grinning. He had expected this reaction from the thieves. And he had enough time to get their scent. Years of training in Blood Hill Forest had enhanced his sense of smell, which could help him track predators and prey.
He silently followed the same path that the thieves took. He spotted them around a hundred meters away; their backs vanished as they turned around the foothill. Sora ran to the spot and reached the turn just in time to see them walk into a small opening in the mountain wall. He cautiously approached it and peeped inside. There was a small passageway, which led deeper into the mountain. The thieves’ voices echoed through it and Sora followed.
There was little light in the passage, but just enough for Sora to guide himself along the path. At some places, water was slowly dripping down the walls of the passage. Up ahead, he caught a shimmer of light. The thieves were shining a torch to find their way. Sora proceeded cautiously as he had come quite close to them. Unexpectedly he stepped on a loose stone and it slid to the other side of the passage with a clattering noise, which echoed all over.
The torch immediately shone that way, but the path seemed empty. The man with the deep voice grumbled, “Must’ve been the water hitting a stone.” Sora, who was holding on to a jutting rock on the ceiling, saw the light turn away. After a few seconds, he landed on the floor as silently as he could and went on. Suddenly, he heard the movement of rocks ahead. He peeped carefully, with his back facing the wall. He couldn’t see anything at this point; neither could he hear their voices. He stepped out and strained his eyes to see.
He risked it and fiddled with his G watch for a moment. Instantly, it produced a light similar to that of a flashlight. He turned it towards the passage and saw a dead end almost thirty meters away. But then, he noticed an artificial opening at the side. And the opening was beginning to close. In a flash, Sora used his split step and was able to enter just before the opening closed. He switched off his flashlight as he could trace their scent.
The passage seemed somewhat brighter now than before. He proceeded vigilantly, keeping close to the walls. The path brightened, showing that he was approaching the end of the course. He took one final turn and saw the exit. Voices were coming from just outside the exit. As his eyes got used to the light, Sora approached the end and peeped out. He exclaimed, “What the hell is this place!”
The passage he was presently in was one of the six openings to the same location. Mountains in all directions surrounded the place. In the centre was a big warehouse built under a jutting rock. Sora glanced up and noticed numerous jutting rocks all the way to the top. He muttered, “Nobody could spot this place from the sky. And the only way to reach here is through these six routes. This is a pretty handy hideout.”
At the entrance to the warehouse, two men, who seemed to be standing as guards, were chatting with the thieves Sora was shadowing. He used this chance to get closer to them. He used his split step and managed to get behind a boulder around ten meters away from the warehouse. The conversation was audible now. The squeaking man said, “…the best catch ever! You wouldn’t believe it at all. We are going to be rich!”
One of the guards enquired, “What is it already? Spit it out instead of blithering.”
The squeaky man replied, “Can’t do. It’s a secret. You’ll know once the meeting starts.”
The other guard said, “It’s our turn to stay on the lookout. We can’t hear anything from the outside either. By the way, you guys are the last ones to arrive. Don’t keep the boss waiting.”
The group opened the door and went in. Sora got a glimpse of a brightly lit room filled with boxes. As the door closed, one of the guards said, “That Seymore thinks he can just play with us, rousing our curiosity but not telling us what it is. It pisses me off.”
The other said, “Yeah, but we can’t do anything with Barak being in the same group. He was glaring at us and swinging that goddamn bludgeon of his.”
He took out a cigarette and a lighter and said, “I could never get along with that creep.”
“You know, smoking is bad for your health–”
The guards whirled around trying to find the source. In a flash, Sora got behind them and banged their heads together.
“– and for your heads as well.” The two unfortunate thieves fell to the floor, still not knowing what had happened. Sora bent down and picked up the lighter and pocketed it. He muttered, “This will be useful someday.”
Sora looked around for another entrance to the warehouse. Not finding any, he glanced at the door in front of him. He thought, “Either I sneak in or burst in. But sneaking in will do for now.”
He slowly nudged the door open. Through the gap, he could see around twenty men inside. He also noticed some boxes stacked up at the side. Opening the door anymore could get him noticed. Risking it all, he rushed behind the boxes.
But amazingly, not one person inside realized it. Confused, Sora spied through the gap between the boxes. He almost burst out laughing.
Seymore had revealed the golden orb. The whole place went dead silent. Not one of them could believe their eyes. Sora could spot some dumbstruck faces being reflected on the orb. Suddenly a man gave a delirious laugh. His gleeful face was still staring at the golden ball. He said, “I’ve finally found it! After all these years, I finally found it!”
Seymore asked in a taken aback tone, “B…Boss, what do you mean?”
He replied with a wild laugh, “This isn’t just any normal gold orb. This is something people have been searching for since time immemorial. This is the dragon’s egg!”
Sora literally snorted this time. But fortunately for him, the whole place was filled with gasping, taken aback voices. They exclaimed again and again, “The dragon’s egg? The one from the legends? It really exists!”
But Barak’s voice was heard above all the others, “But boss, are you sure? If this really is the holy dragon’s egg and people have been searching for it for centuries, how did a kid end up having it?”
Everyone turned quiet and looked at the boss, who was surprisingly smiling. He said, “I used to study archaeology when I was young actually. And I researched a lot about the dragon era. I was always curious about the contract of god, which had ruled Gara thousands of years ago. And it was said in some sources that soon after the dragon’s victory against Satan, the devil, the dragon produced a golden orb, which he told his knights, held the key to the fate of the world. Many say that it was the dragon’s egg. With all my research, I’m pretty sure that it is the same one from that time. I swear my name as Kudou Hongo, leader of Stone Hedge thieves, on it.”
The whole place was quiet, listening to this story. Even Sora had k
ept his ears open as he heard it. But he felt that he had eavesdropped long enough and it was time to step in. Just then Kudou said, “Alright, time to pack up today’s loot and move out. We have to sell all the things that we don’t want for ourselves.” He took out a cigarette and said, “Someone light this for me.”
With a click of a lighter, the cigarette was smoking. Kudou said, “Thank… who the hell are you?”
A punch in the gut sent the boss flying. “Sora, Lucifer’s Fall contractor,” he said.
The other thieves had just noticed their leader lying unconscious on the other side of the warehouse. There were shouts and yells as they picked up weapons and surrounded the young contractor. Seymore bellowed, “You’re that kid we knocked out! How did you get here?”
Sora said with a smirk, “Your group showed me the place, actually. Very kind of you to do so.”
Some with metal poles rushed at him. The first one to attack tried hitting him from the side. But with a swift movement, Sora deflected the attack with his left palm and stepped in to elbow his adversary on the chest. The next one thrust the pole at his back. Sora whirled around and caught the pipe with both hands. Using his inhuman strength, he lifted his assailant and spun around, knocking out over half the thieves surrounding him. The pole user let go of his weapon, hit the wall and lay motionless.
Sora realized that the remaining thieves had guns this time.
He let out a whistle and said, “I thought you guys were just common thieves. What’s with the arsenal?”
Seymore smirked and said, “We’re ex-militants from the army. We wanted to have a coup but ended up being discovered. We had to run for it and ended up in this line of business. Nice knowing you, kid.”
He then shouted, “FIRE!”
Just as they pulled the trigger, Sora flicked another pipe up with his feet and caught it with his free hand. Just as the bullets fired, he started rotating the pipes at super human speed and deflected the bullets. The assault of bullets continued.
Sora found another pole at his feet. He kicked it with great force, making it strike one of the Uzis. This deflected the direction of the gun, making it strike some of the other thieves. With lesser number of guns attacking him, he used his split step to take care of the rest. Just as Seymore hit the floor, unconscious, Sora let out a sigh and said, “I wasn’t expecting guns. That really surprised me.”
Suddenly, there was a dark shadow behind him. He dived as a bludgeon struck the floor just where he had been standing. Barak lifted it and said, “It’s been a while since someone made my blood boil this much. I miss my days as an assassin for the royal army. Guess I’ll play with you for a while before killing you.”
Barak ran at Sora like a wild beast and aimed at his face. Sora side stepped the attack and caught his arm. He threw Barak in an attempt to smash his face into the floor. But Barak somersaulted and landed on his feet and threw Sora instead. He got away from Barak’s grip and landed to face his adversary again.
Sora said, “You are good. Guess we can decide this by using raw power only.”
Barak smirked and said, “We’ll play it your way then.”
He dropped his bludgeon and rushed at Sora with a roar. Sora closed the gap as well. As Barak’s fist was inches away from his face, Sora dodged and countered beautifully with a punch to the face.
Barak’s eyes squinted and he had a bloody nose. He dropped to his knees and spluttered, “You’re too strong… for a kid.”
The assassin fell face forward and was down for the count. Sora muttered, “Guess I am. Well, I think I better call in the cops now.” But he caught a glimpse of a bleeding man running out of the warehouse. Sora ran after him to see Kudou escaping on a sky surfer with the golden orb in his arms. He was heading to the top of the mountain surrounding the base. Sora followed him by jumping from one jutting rock to another. But by the time he reached the top, Kudou was already flying away.
Kudou shouted, “You’ll never catch me now! You can’t reach me here!”
Sora looked around and then shouted back, “I don’t need to!”
The bleeding boss of thieves was bewildered. Suddenly he heard the flapping of wings. He glanced around and then screamed.
Approaching him was a flock of blade vultures from the nearby mountains. Before he could try to escape, the beast contracts attacked their prey with their sharp wings. The pitiable man was knocked over and falling from a high that would lead to certain death. He was still holding on to the gold orb.
Sora summoned the Wind Fangs and struck the ground he was standing on with tremendous power. The force propelled him towards the sky surfer. He caught it and got on. Using it, he sped past the blade vultures and managed to reach the falling thief before hitting the ground. They landed on the ground near a river. Sora threw him down and sent a wind slash at the approaching beasts. They scattered as it approached and fled in fear.
With a satisfied smile, Sora turned to face the unconscious Kudou. He was still clutching the golden orb as if it were his child. Feeling a little pity for him, Sora decided to let him hold on to it till the police arrived. He could take the sky surfer in return for it. He had already learnt how to use it from Kai.
The police arrived about fifteen minutes later. The inspector, Nitin Ram, thanked Sora for his efforts. He was a short, middle-aged man with a boyish face. Sora seemed to get along with him. He showed the police the secret path into the base and managed to find the right rock to press for the secret passage to open. Some of the thieves had gained consciousness but resisted little. The stolen goods were being surveyed and were sent away in a helicopter. Barak was still out cold and Seymore was sulking, as he was being hand cuffed.
Kudou was the last person to be sent into the van that would carry the thieves into the truck. But he didn’t seem to want to let go of the golden orb. He was overpowered and it was taken away and given to Sora. Kudou asked, “Why… why did you have the dragon’s egg? This is one of the treasures of the ancient world.”
Sora said with a forced bewildered look, “Really? But this is just a pile of scrap metal I smashed together and dipped in gold paint. I never knew what the dragon’s egg was till I heard you mention it. See the paint is coming off now. But you can have it if you want. Consider it payment for your sky surfer.”
Kudou seemed to be brain dead after that, still staring at the now silver-colored metal ball. The police officers were laughing their heads off as well, but Sora couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him. But he still smiled as his watch now had these words on its screen:
“MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!”
Two weeks had passed since Sora’s first C rank mission. With thirteen missions in the bag, he strolled around the city in hopes of rejuvenating himself. This was the first time he had walked around Gildartz city leisurely ever since he arrived almost three weeks ago.
The city was different from any other place he had been to. There were more skyscrapers, bigger residential areas and numerous parks filled with a variety of flowers as well. It was certainly a very comfortable place to live in. Well, it was one of the metropolitan cities of the South continent.
But everything has two faces. In the shadows of the city, there were alleys that locals avoided, which were mainly infested with rats, dirt and scum. In any case, outlaws also need a place to live.
He looked around a little wondering where he should go now. He noticed that the Lucifer’s Fall headquarters was visible from every place in the city. Being the trademark location of the city, it really stood out.
Then, WHAM! Sora collided with someone. He looked down to see a sandy-haired boy, who seemed to be a little younger than him. The boy winced as he staggered to his feet and picked up a laptop. Sora helped the thin boy up with an apology.
The boy replied in a weak voice, “No, I was the one who ran into you. I should apologize. Now, could you please excuse me, I’m running a little late for school. I have to go now.”
Sora was taken aback by the formal and pol
ite tone used by the boy. He knew that he didn’t have the same kind of childhood as normal kids did, but nothing he thought of could make him speak like that.
“You go to Angel High School, don’t you?” asked Sora, glancing at the crest on his uniform. “That’s a bit far from here, almost two kilometres away.”
The boy said with a grimace, “Yes, and the gates close in two minutes. I’ll never reach in time.”
Sora scratched his cheek and said, “Well, as an apology for holding you up, I’ll get you there in a jiffy.”
The boy asked curiously, “What do you… Hey wait! What are you doing?” Sora had picked him up and put him over his shoulder. Then with a blast, they were rushing past the crowded streets, leaving a trail of wind behind. As a bus drove right in front of them, the boy screamed and closed his eyes.
But the impact never happened. He opened his eyes and let out a gasp. They were literally soaring through the air with the world beneath them. He looked at Sora, who winked at him.
Sora said, “I never got your name.”
The boy stuttered, “I… It’s Conner, Conner Wake.”
Sora said, “Well, Conner, hold on tight.” They began their descent.
Sora’s crash landing drowned Conner’s scream. Sora put him on his feet, only for him to stumble and stagger. Conner looked up to see himself standing in front of his school. Their dramatic entrance was causing a lot of commotion. Sora said, “You’ve got more than a minute left. Don’t be late again. I might not be able to give you a lift the next time.”
Conner stuttered, “Who… Who are you? Or what are you?”
Sora grinned and replied, “The name’s Sora, Lucifer’s Fall contractor. See you later, Conner Wake.”
Sora walked away with Conner staring after him as he finally started getting a feel of his feet.
Contractor: The Legendary Contract of Vento Page 10
