Chapter 188 - Appearance

Niko nearly spat out his drink. “What?! Kyle is a high school teacher in the Culdao Peaks now? Why?”

“Don’t spit that shit on me, bitch.” Damian grunted as he wiped a droplet of Niko’s spittle off his pants. “And what’s so surprising about that? He taught us how to fight earlier this year, remember?”

“Oh right, yea… feels like I’ve been in the Seven Snakes my whole life.”

“I can say that, but you’ve only been in the Seven Snakes for less than a year.”

“Still a viper, though.”

“Sure.”

Niko bristled at the reply, still feeling disrespected by the other vipers, even Monica and Adrian who had joined after him. He wasn’t the youngest amongst them but was always treated like the most immature, especially after the factory hijacking he had performed. That was only one time, fuck man…

He was grateful to Kyle for not fucking him over, though he was slightly aware it was due to the high benefits that the hijacking had brought in the first place. If the truck they hijacked were basic supplies and still sparked a conflict with the Ilysian Punks, Niko was not even sure if he would still be alive or at the bottom of the Raktor river.

Still, he had fought just as hard as anyone else during the two-month conflict, yet he was still looked down upon. Not even the associates or cobras truly respected him in the same way they did Damian, Keith and Monica. What gives, man? What more must I do to prove myself?

Now, Damian was in charge of overall security in the ten districts, while Niko was technically his partner but acted more like his deputy. Obviously, this could have sat better with Niko, who believed he could handle the entire security operation himself. “Seriously? After all that we’ve done? You’re still going to treat me like this.” Niko couldn’t take it lying down anymore, glaring at Damian.

“Oh? Let’s talk about that breach in the construction site yesterday, hmm? Two sacks of tools are missing. And you were there on site. Results talk, Niko.” Damian reciprocated the glare, sighing as though he was talking to a kid.

“Come on, I was the one who fucking reported it! Yea, I wanna go!” Niko roared, slamming the table, the mugs of water vibrating violently, yet Damian was not flustered.

“How about you beat Monica first before you try me? You never beat me once in sparring - you won’t get me now, either. You spend all your free time smoking Euria, drinking instead of training and improving yourself. How are people supposed to take you seriously? Furthermore, you’re only nineteen years old; you got to build up more rapport.”

“Keith is fucking younger than me!”

“And he’s doing a damn better job than you.” Damian shrugged. “If I put you in his place right now, could you do the same thing he was doing to the same results?”

Niko stood up from his seat and was about to retort even more, but caught himself. He knew his education was not the best, having worked as a factory worker since young. As he sat down again, Damian placed a hand on his shoulder, the tone suddenly shifting. “Look, I understand you’re young, and you want to prove yourself to us. To prove that you’re worthy of a viper. I was the one who appointed you as a viper in the very first place! You just got to find your strength.”

Niko sighed, his initial anger lost. As much as he was angry at Damian disrespecting him, deep down he knew Damian was right. But how in the world was he supposed to find something that he was good at? In terms of strength, Sasha had everyone beat by a mile – Niko had long given up chasing the crazy lady.

Damian had the most rapport as the underboss thanks to his history in the Seven Snakes as well as being the first training instructor every associate saw. For brains, Keith had the economics down pat, while Reese and Gordon dominated the engineering. Niko knew jack shit about alchemy as well, so he could not head the medical department as well, with Haui and his employees covering for it.

For corporate and people management, Guang Hwa was still doing a swell job. Niko could hardly take over a company and run it as smoothly as they could. It made him feel useless like he was an unwanted cog in the machine.

Even now, working as the deputy of security under Damian, he still makes mistakes occasionally, constantly berated by Damian. Just as Niko was feeling down and melancholic, a dozen guards on break entered the break room as well, prompting him to return to his usual stoic look in an effort to garner respect as a stern viper.

[Patrol guard reporting in, we’ve… I don’t know how to describe this.] The arctech radio in the middle of their break room blurted out, Damian immediately picking it up.

“Who is it? Namor? Tul’e Da’li?” Damian asked.

[No, sir, it's… you have to come to see it.]

Damian and Niko exchanged a couple of looks warily, wondering if it was a trap. “Adrian, come in. Your network spotted anything in that area?”

[Not a thing. I’ll find out on the next check-in.]

“How long?”

[Five hours later.]

“That’s too long; we’ll go in with a squad to check it out.”

[Got it.]

“Well, finally, a job for us. Was getting sick of guarding all those construction sites.” Niko yawned as he stretched.

“You know the apartments are critical to the reconstruction plans. No houses, no local support, no jobs, no money trickling up to us.” Damian berated, putting on his arctech armour again.

“I know, I know, stop treating me like a kid.” Niko grumbled while he tightened the leather straps of the metal armour, grabbing his rifle. “Hey, five of you, with us now.”

The guards on break looked at Niko in slight confusion, not moving immediately until they locked eyes with Damian. Niko’s internal fury was stirred even more, knowing his orders were not being respected as much. Fuck!

They boarded a wagon headed straight for the outlying districts, armour rattling as the wagon jerked violently over leftover pieces of rubble. “I told you we should have immediately suppressed the idiots there,” Niko grumbled, checking the map in his hands now.

“You’re not thinking far enough. If we leave that districts empty for now, the Tul’e Da’li will see it as a potential weak spot and move in instead of trying to sabotage our central districts. It’s like pouring water – give it the path of least resistance.”

“Aren’t you full of wisdom today.”

“Something you seem to lack. Got to make up for it.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Niko dismissively waved his gauntlet; his eyes attracted to the sidewalk as the wagon began to enter the outlying districts. The thugs all avoided the clearly marked Seven Snakes wagon, no one wanting to antagonise them. Some of them even recognised Damian through the window, running away immediately.

Niko locked eyes with a young dishevelled kid, who seemed to have no fear of the Seven Snakes wagon, staring intensely at them. For some reason, Niko saw the same defiance he had been feeling for the last few months in the kid’s eyes, the image lingering in his mind as the wagon drove past.

Niko frowned even more in confusion and irritation. What the fuck is happening today? Everything is getting on my nerves. He grabbed a pipe out from his right pocket, lighting it and inhaling a puff. The hot smoke filled his throat and lungs, a soothing sensation sending tingles through his nerves, reminding him of his first Stamina Potion at the Lusty Arcian. Ellie…

“You should stop smoking that; it makes you less attentive,” Damian warned, shaking Niko out of his brief Euria-induced stupor.

“You’re not my dad; get off my case.”

“I’m sure your dad would say the same.”

He could be dead for all I care. Niko didn’t say it out loud, but Damian got the drift, not mentioning it any longer. The wagon soon came to a halt at the specified location, with one of the patrol guards already waiting for them. “Where is it?” Damian got straight to business as he jumped out the back of the wagon, the guards immediately having their rifles at the ready, frightening the nearby onlookers away from the area.

“Right in here, it’s in the back alleyway.”

“Traps?”

“None I could see, sir, but we haven’t got very close yet.”

“Got it. Stay sharp. Five of you, clear out the nearby area. Sound out if there are any loitering thugs or suspicious activity. Any suspected Tul’e Da’li movement, we pull out immediately. Understood?” Damian ordered the others, delegating the tasks. “Niko, with me.”

“Retreating because you don’t want to stir the pot?” Niko whispered as they were led through the alleyways, rats scampering before their footsteps.

“Because I don’t want to start a war just yet while we’re still recovering, unlike how a certain someone here did.”

“Fuck man, really?”

Before Niko could argue further, they reached an enclosed public square at the end of the alleyway, walled in by the surrounding collapsed factories. There were four other patrol guards there, still checking around the area for traps. His eyes were immediately captured by the sight, his stomach slightly churning. He had seen a lot of shit during the war – limbs, broken bones, but this was way out of his league. He might be a gangster, but no way in hell would he do such a thing.

“Who the fuck are those three guys?” Niko asked, but Damian’s eyes were still locked on the body nailed to the wall in the center at eye level, the skin of his body somehow pulled off only to reveal just the flesh and muscles, still twitching. “That dude is still alive?!”

“Get him down now!” Damian ordered.

“Sir, we haven’t checked for traps yet!” The patrol guard urged. “This is clearly a setup meant to bait us out.” He pointed to the message in blood written across the wall behind the bodies nailed: [Violence begets violence.]

“I’ll do it.” Niko offered, but Damian pushed him aside.

“No chance, you don’t have a defence engraving. I’ll get him down. The rest of you make sure there isn’t an ambush. Clear the factories.”

Niko readied his rifle, checking the surroundings for signs of enemies. He flipped crates and checked doors with the patrol guards, while Damian gingerly stepped forward, his eyes peeled to the ground for mines or wiretaps.

He managed to reach the center body safely, slowly pulling out the nails. The body barely reacted, but it was still breathing. Damian pulled out a health potion vial and dumped it on the body, skin beginning to regrow in a morbid fashion. “Tony, you okay?”

“Shit, you know the guy?” Niko rushed over as Damian laid Tony down onto the ground slowly, the healing potion doing its work albeit slowly. Each restitching of the skin send a jolt of pain up the nerves, causing Tony’s face to wince, though he had no more energy left to even scream.

Damian ignored Niko, and focused on Tony. “Who did this to you? Tul’e Da’li?”

Tony couldn’t respond, his vocal cords apparently crushed. However, his mouth was mouthing a word that Damian couldn’t recognise. “What? What are you trying to say?”

Niko couldn’t understand the word either, but as he continued scanning the roof, he felt something was off. The patrol guards weren’t moving that far away from them either, none of them even entering the factories to clean the floors. He peered up at a ledge, a memory just at the tip of his fingers. Here…. Wait, wasn’t Adrian’s observer meant to be stationed here?

At the same time, Damian figured out what Tony was saying. Betrayal!

“Move!” Niko yelled as he slammed Damian out of the way, their point defence systems activating as the patrol guards opened fire on them, the square filled with streaks of green arcia bolts and blazing pellets slamming against metal.

Niko took the brunt of the assault, his point defence system faltering as he shot back at a patrol guard. Damian recovered fast, fighting alongside Niko as they both dived for cover, no longer in a talking mood. The gunfire soon stopped, replaced by a series of footsteps that did not bode well for either of them.

Damian peeked out from behind the crate riddled with holes, seeing all exits cut off by close to twenty thugs. “Squad 17, come in!” He tried to call the five guards who had spread out to check for suspicious activity, but only static replied him.

“Ah, the coward and the incompetent. I hope the invitation was not too jarring.” A young voice emerged from the group of thugs, stepping forward to grab Tony by his hair, lifting him up with his bandaged left hand.

“Who the fuck are you calling a coward!” Niko retorted from behind the cover.

“Not you; you’re the incompetent one.” The young guy chuckled.

“Are we supposed to know you?” Damian asked. “We can talk this over. No one needs to get hurt.”

“Oh? Does the major gang Seven Snakes want to talk to a small-timer like me? I’m honoured. But we’ve already talked before. Even before the incompetent fuck joined the Seven Snakes, falling up the ranks.” The young guy put Tony’s face right in front of himself. “See? I was right. Violence is the currency of the Sector. How else could I get such two big shots to fall in line? HAHAHAHA!” The laugh was maniacal, almost insane, but for some reason, the thugs all followed his orders.

Niko furrowed his brows, his mind racing. Talked with him before…?