Chapter 16: Night Knight

The enormous suitcase that had flown out of the building landed in the street without so much as a scratch, though it cracked the pavement beneath it. Gambling Snake's aerial maneuvers had left the pedestrians rooted to the spot, and for the moment no one paid the suitcase any attention.

A few minutes later, police sirens sounded on a nearby street. In a busy downtown area like this, government surveillance cameras covered practically every road, so a prompt police response was hardly surprising.

Someone arrived even sooner than the police, however. He was a tall, thin Black man with a shaved head, wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, and otherwise unremarkable clothes. He slipped swiftly through the crowd, made straight for the suitcase on the ground, picked it up, and headed toward the building.

Security had already shut the building's tempered-glass front doors and locked access to the elevators and stairs on floors fourteen through twenty-eight. With its fully electronic access-control system, a building like this could be sealed off completely in under a minute.

The Black man kept moving, walking briskly up to the building. He looked up to confirm which floor Accountant and Gu Wen had entered, then swung his arm and hurled Accountant's huge suitcase straight through the front doors. This drew every guard in the lobby toward him. Without a word, they grabbed their batons and charged.

He took off his cap and tossed it aside, then removed his sunglasses, revealing an eyebrowless face covered in scars. “Excuse me…” As he spoke, he slapped the first guard to reach him clean off his feet. “Which elevator goes to the ninth floor?”

One of the guards farther back recognized him. His expression changed abruptly, and he shouted, “Stay back! That's Spayton!”

He needn't have bothered. The first man to stick his neck out had just been sent flying twenty meters with a single slap and was foaming at the mouth. Who wouldn't slow down and think twice before going in?

Spayton kept walking. “If you don't dare stop me, answer my question.”

As he advanced, the guards could only back away to keep their distance. They were one step away from turning tail and running.

“A criminal who deserted headquarters—and instead of finding some hole to hide in, you dare attack us here. Such insolence.” A man in a suit and polished shoes entered the lobby. His voice was like a shot of tranquilizer, wiping the fear from the guards' faces.

“Desertion is just what you've chosen to call it. I'm a mercenary. I can change sides whenever I like.” Spayton picked up the suitcase he had thrown inside. “Looks like you want to have a go at me. And you are…?”

“Meng Qi, knight captain,” Meng Qi replied. “No need to introduce yourself, ‘Night Knight’ Mark Spayton. You're with the intruders upstairs. Thanks to you lot, this base has to be abandoned. So before HL gets here, quite a few things need to be destroyed, and you're one of them.”

Spayton showed no sign of even putting the suitcase down. With his free hand, he took a kerosene lighter from his inside jacket pocket, flipped open its metal lid, and struck a flame. “If you've got things to destroy, I'd be happy to lend a hand.” As the last word left his mouth, the lobby went pitch-black. Apart from the lighter's tiny flame, no light remained.

It was still daytime. From outside, the building's first floor looked as though it had been screened off by a curtain of black light.

Meng Qi had heard of Night Knight but knew nothing of his ability. He guessed it was some sort of power that restricted other people's vision. Troublesome, certainly, but not that difficult to deal with.

He charged straight at the flame and brought his hand chopping down. A small spray of sparks flashed in the darkness, accompanied by the clang of metal on metal.

A second later, the guards switched on their flashlights and aimed them at the spot. Spayton stood with the suitcase raised at his side like a shield, blocking Meng Qi's knife-hand strike.

“A mutant, then… Judging by that strength, roughly Normal rank.” Spayton had his measure now. He turned halfway around, tossed the lighter into the air, then fired two quick punches at Meng Qi's head. Both lightning-fast jabs struck the left forearm Meng Qi had raised to shield his face.

The outer edges of Meng Qi's hands and forearms, from the tips of his little fingers to his elbows, were almost as hard as alloy and jutted out into knife-sharp blades. His hands were effectively blades themselves. Fortunately, Spayton had used jabs. Had he thrown a heavy punch, the impact of his knuckles against those arm blades would have broken the bones in his own fingers…

“So you aren't iron all over, impervious to blades and bullets. Just hard arms.” Spayton caught the falling lighter and whipped a spinning back kick at Meng Qi's face.

Meng Qi had absolute confidence in close combat. Mutants of his type generally had exceptional senses and nimble bodies. His arm blades were fast, deft, and sharp. Though classified as a Normal-rank ability user, in physical strength alone he wasn't far behind someone like He Yi, a Strong-rank ability user who wasn't good at hand-to-hand combat. In fighting technique, he was well ahead. That was how he had distinguished himself among the elite knights and become a knight captain with only Normal-rank power.

Unfortunately, he had underestimated Spayton. Night Knight's kick wasn't particularly fast. Meng Qi bent his arms and held them upright in front of him, blocking it solidly. But half a second after the impact, his feet left the floor. An immense force sent him flying through the ceiling and straight up to the second floor.

Spayton snapped the lighter shut. The darkness vanished, and light returned to the lobby. He picked up the suitcase and continued on. Passing the guards, who stood frozen and pale with fright, he remarked, “No need to show me the way. I spotted it. That elevator over there serves floors one through thirteen.”

…

The building's thirteenth floor, five minutes earlier.

He Yi felt the patch on his forehead where the skin had been sliced away. It was only a very thin layer and had barely bled, but his hairstyle was pretty much ruined. He was, after all, Steel Commandment's best fighter in Kaifeng, and he had a temper to match. How could he let this bunch of unknown intruders keep making trouble here?

“Let you through?” He glared at Gambling Snake. “Hmph… You'd do better to beg me to leave someone alive.”

The ten knights beside He Yi raised their right arms and pressed their left hands against their right wrists, aiming their concealed sleeve cannons (projectile weapons mass-produced by Steel Commandment itself) at Gambling Snake.

“In that case… very well.” Gambling Snake spread his arms, brought his legs together, and tipped backward in the shape of a cross, falling out of the building once more.

Just as the knights were wondering whether he was escaping or killing himself, seven or eight grenades came scattering in through the window like flowers strewn by a celestial maiden…

.