Welnar walks aimlessly through the streets of Ekstrall, on the east side as the bounty poster said. “Sure wish this thing gave better directions…” He mutters to himself out loud.

  {“You may have better luck asking around y’know.”} Monarch responds.

  {“Well, maybe. Okay yeah you’re right. But I still don’t want to!”}

  {“What? Welnar seriously?”}

  {“I’d feel weird after like, the third person. These guys are experienced, so there’s no way they’d just be hanging out in a tavern somewhere without a care in the world.”}

  {“Come oooon, at least try one. Entertain my idea.”}

  Welnar sighs. {“Fine. Just one.”} And so, Welnar walks up to the first person he sees that looks like they’d know something about some thugs. “E-excuse me, sir? I’m a bounty hunter, have you uh… Seen anybody that looks like these people around?”

  The young, well-dressed looking man squints as Welnar holds up the bounty poster for him to see. “Yes actually, I think I saw them entering a tavern nearby. Looked like they didn’t have a care in the world.”

  “I- Wait seriously? Uh. Where, exactly, is this tavern?”

  “The Gilded Wings Tavern, a couple blocks down and to the right. Big golden looking wings at the front, can’t miss it! Anyway I gotta go, sorry hunter!” And the young man continues walking past Welnar, who just stands there dumbfounded. In his mind, he can feel Monarch radiating smugness.

  {“It’s almost like I know something, as old as I am.”}

  {“Whatever… We got lucky…”}

  {“Only because of yours truly. Your welcome Welnar.”}

  {“I don’t like you when you’re smug.”} Monarch just giggles at Welnar’s annoyance, as he begins to make his way down the street. As he does, he starts to form a plan… 3 thugs, 1 C-grade fire elementalist. All experienced. How should he go about it… Intimidation is definitely out of the question, considering Welnar doesn’t look very intimidating. He doubts they’d just roll over and let him take them in, and it’d be 4 on 1. They wouldn’t be scared in the slightest, probably confident even. Perhaps he’ll make use of that. Use their overconfidence to get the jump on the Elementalist, and take them out first. Then he can focus on the Normals.

  {“Maybe if you flashed your S-Grade bounty license they’d be a bit more intimidated.”} Monarch does have a good point. Maybe he could intimidate them actually…

  {“But wait, I should be using this opportunity to train my fighting skills right? If they just surrender immediately, I won’t gain much.”}

  {“Maybe, but at least you’ll get the money. The choice is yours really.”} Welnar nods in response as he turns right, noticing a building with large gold coloured wings above its door. Looks like that's the place. He walks through the doors into the bustling tavern, quickly looking around and spotting his targets around a table in a corner, near a window. There's a tall and lanky looking one, a smaller but more buff guy and one wearing an eye patch, with quite a few scars. The leader maybe? But most notably of all, is the cloaked fellow, radiating magic power. The Elementalist, no doubt.

  Welnar sighs, mustering up all his courage and walking over to the table, slamming his bounty poster on it. “I'm a bounty hunter. You four goons are coming with me, one way or another. Don't make me beat you up!” As he says this, Welnar shows off his S-Grade bounty license… He wants the money more than the combat experience.

  The four men all look at each other in shock for a moment… Before busting out in laughter. “Man, didn't know they're handing those out like candy nowadays!” The eyepatch thug says.

  “It's gotta be forged, I mean look at the twerp!” The buff one goes on. Welnar sighs.

  The lanky thug is about to say something, but is swiftly interrupted as his head is slammed into the table with incredible force, knocking him out cold immediately. There are gasps as the attention of the tavern is on the sudden fight now.

  The buff one is momentarily surprised, before his expression turns to rage, throwing a wild haymaker with his left as he stands up. Welnar slips under it, hitting the man square in the nose with a counter… He barely moves?!

  The buff man grabs Welnar's fist with his free right arm, grabbing him by the neck with the other. “I'm gonna enjoy making you eat the pavement asshole!” And in one swift motion, Welnar is thrown through the window and out onto the street, rolling for a few moments before getting to his feet. His body is covered in scrapes and cuts from glass, wincing with every movement. Crap… This didn't go as planned- {“FOCUS!”} Monarch's voice cuts in, Welnar narrowly sidestepping a raging ball of fire that flies out the shattered window toward him! The Elementalist steps through it, as the two other thugs come out of the front door. This isn't what he thought would happen at all… That buff guy is like a damn rock.

  “You picked the wrong people to mess with. Now it's time to pay the price.” The eyepatch thug calls out, taking out a dagger. Welnar takes a deep breath… The Elementalist is still top priority. Those fireballs look seriously deadly. And so, with a sudden burst of speed, Welnar charges toward the Elementalist, closing the distance swiftly and aiming a right hook. But he dodges back, and runs to the side. Welnar tries to follow, but is intercepted by the buff thug who swings downwards on him! It's a narrow miss as Welnar back steps away, blue energy forming in his hand instinctively… His creations are rather limited in both size and range. But the way the creations fly back towards him after reaching their max range can be utilized in itself. The blue energy in his hand quickly takes shape, forming a throwing knife that Welnar tosses at the buff man's thigh. It hits its mark, as he grunts in pain. Welnar quickly follows up the knife, dashing in and yanking it out of the man's thigh, aiming a stab for his gut… But Welnar stops short, feinting the attack as he lands a clean left hook to the jaw of the thug, sending him reeling. Welnar wants to continue the assault, but the eyepatch thug closes in before he can.

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  He slashes diagonally with his dagger, Welnar backing away as he lets his own manifested dagger disappear. He doubts he'll need it. The man slashes horizontally, Welnar ducking under it. He gets ready to come back up with an uppercut, but is caught off guard by a knee to the stomach that causes him to stagger. “JUST DIE ALREADY!” The thug swings downwards with his dagger primed to stab Welnar straight in the skull. And the dagger meets flesh. But not the flesh of Welnar’s head… With mere inches to spare, Welnar raises his right hand up to the incoming dagger to cover his head, the dagger piercing straight through it down to the hilt. He clenches his teeth, the pain immense. The thug is completely caught off guard by this, allowing Welnar to wrap his fingers around the dagger embedded in his hand, and yank him in as Welnar gives him a nasty headbutt! He staggers back, and Welnar finishes the assault with a brutal left hook, the blue energy that forms around his hand as he does, unleashing a secondary shockwave on contact that sends the thug flying back, and skidding along the ground. Out cold.

  Welnar looks at his right hand, grabbing the dagger and with a yell, ripping it out and tossing it aside. Then, he looks at the two thugs still standing, the buff one and the Elementalist. Welnar looks a fair bit cut up from getting tossed through the window, a scratch here and there, some torn clothing. Blood freely flows from the hole in his right hand. Yet even so, he points a finger at the thugs. “Who’s next.”

  To them, Welnar looks like a monster. To any bystander, he looks like a monster. Even Monarch is a little unnerved. Monarch is the only one to realize though, that it’s not just that he looks like one. He feels like one too. Like an aura radiating out from him, that makes him seem so imposing, despite his relatively unfit looking body. Is this… Another aspect of his magic? She’ll have to ask later.

  Meanwhile, the buff thug has frozen in fear, while the Elementalist behind him shudders… “Y-you think you’re hot shit?!” And tosses another fireball towards Welnar. With surprising speed for his injured body, Welnar dashes forward, past the fireball and around the buff thug. The Elementalist tries to run, but Welnar catches up, tackling him to the ground and pinning him. Just in time, as a group of people in full plate armor approach, wielding halberds.

  “IN THE NAME OF THE GUARDSMEN OF EKSTRALL, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!”

  And in a flash, at least a dozen halberds are pointed straight at Welnar.

  “Woah woah woah! I-I’m a bounty hunter guys! I’m taking these thugs in, I’m on your side!”

  “Present your license at once!”

  Welnar looks down at the Elementalist, who is remaining silent and still… Probably because he knows it’s over. Then, he takes out his license and the bounty poster, presenting both to the guard interrogating him, who takes the items from Welnar and inspects them closely. After at least 20 seconds of inspecting and some hushed whispering amongst the other guards, the license and poster are returned to Welnar, alongside a signature on the bounty poster.

  “Your bounty is officially recognized as complete by the Guardsmen of Ekstrall. You may bring it back to your office, we will take things from here. Good day, hunter.” With those words, the guards move to apprehend all of the thugs, although it’s not too hard. They’re all either knocked out or frozen stiff from fear. Welnar stands up, dusting himself off, and walking away, back to the bounty office.

  …

  It’s a bit of a long walk, made even longer by the pain Welnar is now in. His adrenaline has long worn off by now, and the injuries he has taken are very apparent. His entire body aches from cuts by that window he got tossed through, and his right hand is in agony from that stab he took. Maybe he should’ve asked for a healing potion from those guards before he left… Whatever. The bounty office is in sight now at least. He’s getting plenty of odd looks from passing citizens, but he doesn’t care. He drags himself through the doors of the bounty office, getting even more looks once inside as he walks up to the front desk, slapping the bounty poster on it. “I’m done. Can I have my money now, please?”

  The same old lady from before looks down at Welnar’s bounty for a moment, inspecting it before putting it away and opening a drawer, taking out a sack and placing it on the desk, the distinct jingling of coins being heard as it hits the desk. “50 gold coins as promised sir.”

  Welnar takes them… “Where’s the nearest alchemist shop with healing potions?”

  “Take a left out the doors, and just down the street.” The lady responds. Without another word, Welnar leaves the bounty office, turning left and heading down the street. At the corner, a small building sits with a sign out front in fancy letters reading “Alchemist’s Delight: Open.”

  Welnar walks in with a bell jingling as he does. It’s got shelves down the middle of the place with various bottles of many shapes and sizes, swirling with all sorts of colours too. At the back of the store is a counter with a young woman behind it, wearing a tall pointy hat and a colourful dress. She seems to perk up as the bell jingles, immediately taking notice of Welnar. “Oh dear, you don’t look too well. I presume you’re here for a healing potion?” She calls out.

  “Yep.” Welnar plainly responds, searching through the shelves and quickly snagging three small bottles of green bubbly liquid, labeled “Minor Healing” before walking up to the counter and placing them on it.

  “That’ll be three gold coins sir.” The woman says, Welnar taking three of them out of his newly acquired sack of fifty and putting them on the counter. The woman takes them, and Welnar takes his potions in response, turning away. “Have a good day, come again!” She says, Welnar waving as he walks away. He just wants a big nap… Once outside, he chugs down one of the potions, and immediately feels his wounds begin to close as his body’s natural healing is sped up by a large amount. It feels weird… This is the first time he’s ever tried a potion before. Alchemy… One of the very few ways a Normal can harness the magic of the world, to create potions. Welnar doesn’t know much of how it works though… It’s super complicated. Apparently there’s a whole lot one can do with alchemy though, and it can get even crazier when a Sorcerer starts doing alchemy.

  And to think, that was only a minor healing potion… Welnar looks right as rain now. What could a stronger potion do? Regenerate whole limbs? {“Yep. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Alchemy has probably progressed massively since my time as well.”} Monarch chimes in.

  {“Maybe I should try alchemy sometime… Could be useful.”}

  {“It could. But it’d also take a long time, and acquiring the Hearts is something that should be done sooner rather than later. Ah! That reminds me Welnar, there was something curious I noticed about your magic-”}

  {“Hang on, Monarch… I’d rather save the questions for later, please. I want to go take a damn rest.”}

  {“Oh. Fair enough then Welnar.”} Monarch was really curious, but looks like she’ll have to save her questions for later. Welnar manages to find a small inn, paying for a basic room… Only 50 silver for a night, so half a gold coin. Welnar just decides to call it a tip as he puts a gold coin on the counter, going up the stairs of the inn to the room he was given. A bed and a bathroom. All he needs, Welnar thinks as he face plants into the bed, falling into a deep slumber exceptionally quick…

  …

  A group of guards stand in an alleyway, investigating a mutilated corpse. On either side of the alleyway, a pair of guards stand to keep citizens away from the scene. These murders have been occurring for a week now, all in roughly the same way. Dozens of stab wounds from a small bladed weapon, the victim’s body drained of blood entirely. It’s highly suspected that this is the work of a Sorcerer, but tracking them has been impossible. One day someone on the west side is killed, the next it’s the east… It feels like they’re everywhere at once, and it’s had the Ekstrall Guardsmen totally stumped. Of course, they’re acting like they have everything under control to the public to not cause unrest. Lucky for them though, things seem different here… The body is relatively recent, and there’s a pool of blood a small distance away from it that bubbles and boils. Just what is this…

  And meanwhile… In an abandoned building on the outskirts of town, a man sits in the darkness, peering at a blood bag before hooking it onto his belt. “What a mighty close one that was, hehe…” The man giggles with an almost playfully sadistic demeanor. Within him, beats a Psychotic Heart…