Kamila looked at her assailants' faces, but the two men were strangers to her. Her eyes then searched the alley for her communication amulet and the main street for a passerby who could help her to contact the authorities, but no one was around.
A spark of light and a buzzing sound preceded a tier two lightning spell that struck her chest and caused her a seizure.
Without the armor Lith had given her, the electricity would have caused Kamila severe injuries and made her faint, instead of just inflicting upon her the equivalent of a brief taser shock.
"So much for professionals. They got their asses handed to them by a woman. My father was right when he said that if you want a job done right, you got to do it yourself." Fallmug said, unleashing a second bolt of lightning before Kamila could recover.
She pumped more of her mana inside her Skinwalker armor, but with her weak mana core and after already using its metalizing properties thrice, she was already running on fumes.
Yet it was enough for Lith's masterpiece to completely deflect the spell.
"Are you insane, Fallmug? Attacking a Royal Constable in the middle of a populated area? The guards will be here any moment." Kamila was dizzy from the shock and the lack of mana, so she decided to try and bluff her way out.
She had a few wands inside her pockets, but she was in no condition to win a contest of speed against someone pointing a weapon at her from such a close distance.
"I'm not stupid. Why do you think I hired those two buffoons?" Another lightning came, but this time she was able to dodge.
"I know the city guards' reaction time, it will take them a while to get here. Those two idiots were supposed to help me kidnap you, but now I've got no time for being nice. Tell me where my wife is or die." Despite his rage, his voice barely higher than a whisper.
He was afraid that someone could hear the ruckus and alert the authorities. The citizens of Belius were famous for being unreasonably paranoid. Before making his move, Fallmug had been forced to wait that Lith was out of the picture and then for the occasion when the street in front of Kamila's home was deserted.
Despite his twisted personality, Fallmug had come well prepared. Hired help so that he wouldn't get directly involved, a means of transportation to abduct Kamila unnoticed, and an illegal wand as a contingency plan.
Unluckily for him, everything was going south. The men he had recruited were down, he couldn't lift Kamila by himself, and the wand seemed to be defective since she was still conscious and screaming.
"You shouldn't have stuck your nose where it doesn't belong!" Fallmug said.
"Now tell me where my wife is and we can solve this peacefully."
His words didn't match at all with his crazed eyes. Kamila knew that her brother-in-law couldn't afford to let her live. Otherwise he would become one of the most wanted men in the Kingdom.
The army didn't take well when someone went after one of their own, even less if a Constable was involved. Fallmug looked nervously left and right, he couldn't afford witnesses.
That night, he would have to kill and dispose of the bodies of three people already, more wouldn't fit into his carriage. Kamila and his hired muscle had to die. He couldn't afford anyone being able to link him to attacking a Royal Constable. The lighter sentence for such a crime was death.
"I really didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice. You force me to…"
"Roll over and die." A voice coming from behind him cut him short. At the same time, a small but strong hand caught Fallmug's wrist, twisting it backward so that his wand was now pointed at his own face.
Then, a low kick broke his left femur in three and a palm strike sent his face slamming against a wall and flattened his nose.
"Lady Ernas, what are you doing here?" Kamila was glad to see her mentor. She was physically fine, but the lack of mana was giving her a strong headache. Her vision was blurry and she had trouble focusing.
"Giving you a lesson, child." Jirni replied. "This is what happens when you underestimate your enemies."
'What a stupid bitch.' Fallmug thought. 'She should follow her own advice and remember I still have my wand!' A stream of lightning came out of the alchemical tool as he unleashed more than one charge at once.
There wasn't time to play anymore, he had to kill them both quickly and get away from there. Unfortunately for him, the needle in Jirni's hand absorbed the spells without letting even a spark reaching its master.
"I didn't mean to scare you." Jirni explained, while completely ignoring Fallmug. "I had to wait until he revealed himself as part of the attempt on your life and more importantly, I wanted you to realize that this isn't a fairy tale.
"Some people will do anything to get what they want. Playing fair will only get you killed. Do you see that scum?"
Fallmug released more lightning bolts, yet they were all absorbed by Jirni's needle.
"That's what you get for leaving him alive. If you want to keep doing this job, you need to grow up. Not asking for my help nor for Lith's when he was still here was stupid. What would've happened if I hadn't been following you all this time?
"Here, let me show you."
Jirni threw the needle at Fallmug's nether regions. Once it hit, the needle released the stored bolts of lightning one at a time, causing Fallmug to lose control of both his wands.
"Look at what he had planned for you. At the pain he would have inflicted upon you if not for your armor. Maybe he would have even let his goons have some 'fun' with you as part of their payment." Jirni said. Then she waved her hand and the needle returned to her.
Even in her confused state, Kamila shuddered at the thought of what could have happened if she hadn't accepted the Skinwalker armor Lith had gifted her. One blow would have been enough to take her out.
Then, without Jirni, her fate would have been sealed. All of her dreams for the future, all the things she had planned to share with her sister, all the hard work she had put into becoming a Constable, would have been destroyed by a petty man for his own petty reasons.
"Now, we can arrest them and have them executed, I can do it for you right now, or even better, you should do it" Jirni pointed at the pocket where Kamila kept her wands.
"Please, no. Have mercy. I've got a family that depends on me. I was just doing my job." The man with the broken arm, the only one still conscious, said.
"And so am I." Jirni replied. "In our line of work, you'll hear pathetic excuses like this one countless times. No matter their reasons, the penalty will be death. The only question is: do you have the guts to defend what's yours?"
She offered Kamila a non-imprinted wand, ready to be used.
"I do." Kamila stood up, her mind was getting clearer by the second. "Yet I'm not like you, Lady Ernas. I can't put down a helpless man. It would make me no different from them, a cold-blooded killer.
