Chapter 2: The Thief
The man continued to run through the crowd as fast as he could, not stopping until he could once again believe he was safe. Ducking into a small alley that was just out of sight he stood facing the high wall in front of him. Removing his cloak and throwing it to the ground, the man could feel an icy chill in the air. The man turned his head to look back as he calmly said, "You can show yourself now. I know you've been following me and there's no reason to hide anymore." A few seconds passed as the man stood in the alley, but then a figure dropped from a rickety fire escape far above him. The figure landed on its feet and slowly stood up straight. An eager voice came from the figure, "How did you know I was there? Most people don't realize they're being followed."
The man ignored the question and turned to face the figure. "Why did you follow me?" The figure remained silent as it walked into the pale light of the moon overhead. The face of man revealed itself from the shadows, "The name's Snow, I saw what happened back there. That was one strange creature you fought." The man looked at snow and began to look him over; he was fairly tall and exceptionally thin, but his structure was tough and agile. The man gazed at Snows' face, it was warm and confident but it had a touch of scrapes and in one instance a scar on his cheek. "Tell me Snow, why did you follow me?" Snow closed his eyes and smiled in a thievish manner, "Well you see I'm a thief like no other. I run this city and everything in it, and that includes you. I take what I want when I want and no one can stop me." The man looked at Snow and folded his arms, "What exactly does that have to do with me?"
Snow stepped closer to the man as he reached behind his back and pulled out a large knife. "You see….I'm sorry, what was your name?" The man merely looked at Snow,"Axcellous." Snow continued, "You see Axcellous, I'm here to take what I want from you. In other words, I'm here to rob you." With that the thief snow lunged at Axcellous and attempted to strike him with the knife. Axcellous side stepped the strike and held out his right arm, opening his hand. Snow turned around and saw that Axcellous had his hand open, without hesitation he used his knife to shoot a light blue crystal at the open hand. The crystal struck Axcellous' hand and it slowly began to freeze. Clutching his hand, Axcellous could only mumble under his breath, "Magic?"
Snow smirked as he faced Axcellous, "That's why I'm a thief like no other. I can use magic to my advantage, and ice is my specialty. So please; we can do this the easy way and you just give me everything you've got, including those fancy disappearing swords, or I freeze you then take what I want and leave you cold and alone. Your choice my friend." Axcellous clutched his hand once more as the ice began to turn his skin a pale blue. "You think that only you can wield magic? What an arrogant fool you are." Deep within the ice, a light began to emerge that slowly started to melt the cold prison around Axcellous' hand. Soon a ball of pure fire raged in Axcellous' once frozen over limb, now his rage would take over. Snow was admittedly surprised but every thief knows that you need to be ready for anything. As quickly as he could, Snow shot out three more Ice crystals from his knife. This time Axcellous was ready, he hurled a medium sized fireball towards his enemy melting the ice in flight. The ball continued its path to Snow as he narrowly dodged it.
Axcellous took this as a moment of opportunity as he opened both of his hands again and with a quick flash two swords rested in the empty spaces. The swords both resembled a key in some way, but they both had different looks and colors. In his right hand, Axcellous wielded a key with a silver blade and gold hand guard while in the other hand he wielded a key similar in shape but longer with a gold blade and silver hand guard. With his weapons in hand Axcellous rushed his enemy and attempted to strike with both blades. Snow was quick on his feet and removed a slender katana hidden along his back, blocking the strikes. Both were locked, neither one making a move. Finally they both pushed off of each other and jumped as far back as possible. They both skid across the ground for a short time before they lunged at each other, exchanging strikes and blocking everything the other threw at them.
The sword clashing continued for several minutes and seemed as if it would go on forever, the two seemed like they were equally matched. Axcellous jumped back and threw the sword in his left hand towards snow and charged with both hands on the sword in his right. Snow had managed to block the sword but it seemed to disappear once it bounced from his blades. To his surprise, Axcellous was right in front of him within a manner of seconds. Snow prepared for the worst as he lifted his weapons to block the oncoming attack from Axcellous when a loud sound came from the end of the alley.
Large black portals appeared as monsters similar to the one Axcellous had fought earlier began to fill the alley. Axcellous stopped as the creatures quickly surrounded both Snow and himself. "They've found me again!" Axcellous cursed under his breath as he looked at Snow. "Get away from here! Let me deal with these things, run and stay away from me!" Axcellous began hacking and slashing at the creatures that seemed to flow from the portals. They continued to fall and disappear only to be replaced by two more. Snow quickly got to his feet and readied himself. "Are you kidding me? I can't let you have all the fun!" Snow rushed one of the creatures and began slicing it with his katana. The blade just went straight through the creature, without damaging it at all. Axcellous saw that Snow was uselessly swinging his Katana at the creature. "Use your magic! It's the only way!"
Snow, hearing Axcellous' advice, pulled out his knife. Shooting ice crystals at those surrounding him, snow worked his way to Axcellous by freezing all that got in his way. Once the two were together, they stood back to back to back and began to defend themselves from the mighty hoard. Down by the end of the alley, another portal appeared; this time larger than any one before it. From inside the portal, a winged beast flew out and hovered for a moment. The beast was pale black with golden wings, it had neither eyes nor a face but it had a mouth with razor sharp teeth. Upon its chest was an emblem that resembled a heart that had small sections cut out of it. The beast seemed to hover a bit, without needing to flap its wings and gave an ear shattering screech. Axcellous smashed his swords over one of the creatures as he looked up and saw the winged beast. "Damn it….." Snow covered his ears as he looked at the cause of the noise. "What is that thing?" Axcellous had dread in his voice as he answered, "That….that's a Heartless."
