Prologue
Zaun, a country operated in the capitalist ideology, industry with no limit and law, everything for a profit. No God or mystics to be believed. No heaven or hell. By money, for money. It was cruel, yes, but it was fair. Those who do not wish to win, already loss. Those who wish to have an honest pay for an honest work, lives in fantasy. But that was reality of Zaun and no one could change it.
But for Malcolm Graves, he could not care less. He was no hero to begin with and ideologies was something too complex for him to bother. Finishing a cigar, he littered it to the ground and stepped on it, killing the fiery tip. He released smoke through his nose and lifted his shotgun so it would lean at his shoulder.
"Time to feed myself…" Graves mumbled.
A few weeks prior to this, he received a letter when he was resting at a bar. A messenger came to his table, asking whether he was Malcolm Graves. He sat silently without a word slipped but eventually his curiosity persuaded him to speak. The messenger did not waste time and left the bar with a letter and a bag on his table. The man did not waste time and opened the bag; finely cut diamonds were the contents. Not more than five and no bigger than the size of peanuts found in the bar, it was worth tens of thousands of gold coins.
Graves tied the bag and kept in his pocket, for safe keeping. He opened the letter and read the content. Wrote in beautiful writing, Graves read the letter in his heart.
Dear Malcolm.
Thank you for sparing your time reading this letter, I hope the diamonds in the bag would be valuable for you as I have a proposal. A job must be done and it seems that you are fit for it. A dirty job requires dirty hands, and surely your hands far more suited for it.
There is someone need to be put down, or death need to meet the person a bit earlier if I want to be poetic. She's a woman, skilled and experienced just like you. People called her Frostbite. A sniper skilled on stealth and long range kills, I warn you to be cautious and primed for the encounter.
If you take the reward without doing the job, then I would not mind. If you succeed and kill her, then there are more rewards and jobs that will come to you. Good hunting.
Yours truly…
J. J. Walker
Being jobless individual that he was currently, Graves accepted the proposal. In two week time, he'd arrived to Zaun with a kill objective on his list of things.
The Outlaw walked to through the empty streets of Zaun. Littered with thrash and poorly maintained by the government. The path that he had taken was between two big factories, both of them producing loud sound and massive amount of smoke. Graves looked up to see the sky, it was as dark as dusk. Despite it was in the middle of the day, the surrounding was dark because no sunlight passed through the thick polluted atmosphere.
Then at the end of the path, was a small two storey building. Empty from the outside, filled on the inside, Graves knew it. The factory had a fence on the border of its place, barbed wire at the top so no one would simply climbed over. He could hear footsteps but no one in the perimeter of the fence, someone was guarding or on patrol. Just by hearing the sound, he was expecting some well armed men inside the building.
A tin can rolled.
Graves had his shotgun at his hand and aimed it to the left. At the other end of the gun, was an unarmed woman. The woman then raised her two hands, shivering in fear. Graves slowly approached to the woman but his finger was not at the trigger.
"You live around here woman?" Graves inquired.
The woman nodded and said nothing.
"You know who's Frostbite?"
The woman nodded, she spoke. "She's in the building, with her gang guarding the building."
"And who are you supposed to be?"
"I worked as a servant for her. Nothing more than that."
"Really? So if I let you go, would you be a busy body and tell her that I come to kill her?"
She shook her head.
Graves lowered his shotgun and simply said. "Ten second. If not, you'll be six feet under."
The woman squirmed and flee from the place, taking as little as a few seconds to be out of sight. Thankfully, the woman did not need more explanation about the message. He dismissed the woman and turned back, with the intention of finding an entrance to the building. It did not took long for him to find someone guarding a door.
Graves increased the pace of his walk and raised his shotgun. Suddenly, the man guarded the door heard the footstep. The man had a rifle and turned to the right. And before he could realize that it was Graves, he was shot at the head. The sound of the shot echoed around the empty space. Graves did not waste time and went to the body to acquire the key to open the entrance.
"What the hell was that?!?" Someone shouted.
Graves paused for a second to listen but quickly open the entrance after that. He unlocked it and went inside. Two armed men was at the yard approaching to Graves, making a few attempts to kill the man. His enemies gave a few shot using their weak muskets. Receiving a few scratches, Graves' focus was not disturbed and he killed the two men.
He advanced to the building, ready for the next encounter. Graves arrived to the door but paused his infiltration, he heard the voices inside. The people inside warned each other to be ready and make sure their weapons primed. Graves took a few steps back and kicked the door. The second that the door was open, he hid himself behind the wall beside the door. The men used their rifles to their fullest, only to realize that they were shooting nothing after their rifles went empty.
After the bullets stopped, Graves heard the people inside reloading their rifles. The Outlaw took the opportunity to kill them quick. He moved out of cover and went inside. He did not shoot the men, rather the shot to their make shift cover was enough. A total of three shots, three men were put down. He checked the corners and the rooms at the first floor, everything was clear.
Graves heard more voices and footsteps but this time there were on top of his head. Chances were that the woman named Frostbite was at the second floor with the remaining men. Graves quickly sprinted to the stairs. One man was on his way down encountered Graves, but The Outlaw trigger finger was faster than him. He walked to the side so that the body fall down and eventually rolled down to the first floor.
Arrived to the second floor, Graves fought with another three armed men. After constant dodging and few scratches here and there, he won the battle and lived another day. There were a few room in the second floor, he checked each one thoroughly and cleared any remaining men. With a total of twelve men in his kill count, Graves finally arrived to the final door. He suspected that the woman would be there ready to fight with him.
Rushing to the door, he shot the door once and heard someone screamed in pain. He kicked the door open and saw a grounded bleeding man, hissing in pain. Graves checked the corners and confirmed that the man was the only person in the room.
Graves checked his shotgun and filled the chamber with shotgun shells. While he was reloading, he approached to the downed man slowly. The man was different that the other. The previous men he had encountered wore the typical rogue Zaunite attire frequently seen. But the man in front of him had a thicker armour comparative to the others.
Finished reloading, Graves aimed his shotgun at the man's head, sliding his finger to the trigger. The man looked at Graves without any fear; he held his wounds and stopped the bleeding as much as he could. The man knew it was the end for him but life clung on him stubbornly. The Outlaw lowered his shotgun and kneeled down, the downed man wanted to say a few words.
"Wh.. Why..?" His voice was weak, death was near. "What did we do to you?"
"Ain't nothing personal, just business." Graves said without any sympathy.
"I… don't even know... You..."
"You've seen Frostbite?" Graves asked.
"What…?"
"The leader of your gang, Frostbite. Tell me where she is before I hunt her down myself "
"Who the hell is….Frost-" The man eyes went up and died, he couldn't finish his sentence.
Seeing the man died in front of him, Graves got up and dumbfounded with the situation. What was actually happening right now, he could not comprehend. Did he just killed a random gang for nothing. Or is the servant woman lied to him about the place, protecting the boss that she was serving. Regardless of which one was right, Graves did not know what to do next.
Then a hand on his right shoulder. Graves turned around.
"Surprise motherfucker…" A voice said.
Someone punched his face and it was the last voice he had heard. Then, everything went pitch dark for Malcolm Graves.
Heyo, Author here.
So yeah, been long time didn't post any League related stories and the fingers could not wait to type. I just finished a long story by the way and took the chance to take some rest and just enjoy doing nothing. And after a few nights of imagining stories and lot of 'what if' moments, this suddenly comes out.
Tell me what you think about this first chapter and follow the story if you want to know what would happen next to Malcolm Graves.
C'ya Mates_
