Chapter Two - Man in the Mask
The Thugs take their chances with Isaac. The Rat Faced one; Steven charged Isaac first, quick and nimble on his feet, Steven starts with a strong downward strike with both of his long knives, easily blocked by Isaac who shoves the Pirate aside and blocks a second strike coming from Joe, a huge Cleaver in his hand Isaac pushes back against the giant man's strike and with a single motion positions himself outside the cleaver's swing, allows the blade to continue on its path straight into the floor where it gets stuck. Now helpless Joe takes a punch to the face from one of Isaac's cutlasses this armored fist smashes into Joes Face breaking his nose and sending him unconscious.
"W-w-what kind of demon are you?" stammers a shaken Steven rising to his feet, shakily he adopts his fighting stance, one knife pointed outwards toward Isaac, the second raised above his head.
Isaac drops one of the cutlasses; he won't be needing it any more. An evil grin crawls over his face as he adopts his own fighting stance standing tall Isaac prepares.
"What are you? Scared?" whimpers a frightened Steven Knives shaking in his hands.
Suddenly Isaac vanishes from his view Steven panics looking all round for his opponent when suddenly he feels a sharp pain in his gut he looks down to see a red line forming across his chest, he falls to the floor dead.
Isaac had done something supernatural... moving faster than the human eye could follow Isaac had ran towards, slashed and gotten behind Steven in a matter of moments. Calmly Isaac tosses his cutlass to the barkeep who opens a chest behind the bar revealing countless cutlasses, katanas and knives of every variety.
He grabs Steven by the scruff of his neck and hefts the unconscious Joe over his shoulder leaves the Tavern and heads towards the Bounty Collection Booth.
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With Isaac gone another Long Coated stranger enters the Sword and Prayer he wears a Skull Mask with two red piercing dots located in the eye sockets by his side hang two katanas, he walks over to the bar.
"Hello sir would you care for a drink?" inquires the Bartender
"Not now" replied the masked man, dismissing him with a flick of his hand "I'm waiting for somebody…"
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Walking through the Streets in Dermabu is dangerous; especially during the night and even more so when you're dragging 15,000 Beri worth of bounty along for the ride.
The streets of Dermabu are long, narrow and several bridge over others creating a strange Labyrinth of twists and turns that would confuse even the most experienced Navigator among these lie streets cut off from the rest of the island full to the brim with thieves and thugs happy to take your hard earned money.
Being accustomed to these winding streets, Isaac navigates them with ease
"A left here and a right here" thinks Isaac to himself as he simulates himself walking down familiar streets.
The Bounty Collection Booth on Dermabu is run by a detachment of corrupt Marines who don't really ask many questions or care who you bring in, so long as they've got a bounty and you aren't looking for trouble they're cool doesn't matter if you're a Pirate, a professional Bounty Hunter or some freelance Marine.
"Hey Guys" says a cheerful Isaac tipping his Tricorne towards the half assed Marines.
"Hey Frank! It's the bum from the bar down on the seafront" shouts one of the Marines, a large cigar held between his teeth.
The Marine 'Frank' comes out from behind a door and he's not one of the usual Marines on duty this one is clean faced his uniform straightened out and a sword sheathed by his belt.
"Hey these guys had an unfortunate accident down at the bar, both of them slipped on a bottle of rum, smashed their faces into the ground and they died, pity" says Isaac Innocently "but they said they had bounties so I came to collect them, all for a good cause of course" a cheesy grin on his face.
Isaac hoisted both of them up onto the counter and 'Frank' looked them over
"This man died from a sword wound" says Frank with a snobbish and precocious air.
"REALLY? I had no idea…" replies Isaac sarcastically. "Just give me their bounties and I'll be off" jogging on the spot whilst pointing off in a direction with his finger.
"Fine…" moans Frank counting out Isaac's money "Just don't spend it all in one place…" handing the wad of bills to the Energetic Isaac.
As soon as the money touched Isaac's hand it was gone along with Isaac who sped off back to the Tavern to pay off his tab and celebrate.
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Isaac burst through the door of the now empty bar.
"Hey Barkeep I got the money for my tab also bring some of your best beer to celebrate I can pay for everything now!" shouts Isaac excitedly.
The other man at the bar caught Isaac's attention, his Skull Mask, black long coat and two Katanas reeked of 'Awesomeness'
The man looked at Isaac two red pupils trained on Isaac, if looks could kill this mans would kill you, bring you back to life, kill your dog whilst making you watch then kill you again.
"You Isaac D No'remac?" asked the man.
"Yep that's me" replied Isaac "Whaddya need me for?"
"Names Revan Advich pleasure to make your Acquaintance…" said the man "by the way you've got a bounty of 100,000 on your head; I want it."
"Listen buddy you don't want to end up like the last guys I fought with" said Isaac coolly "besides have a beer" offering him a bottle.
"I'm Serious Long Coat, besides you're a tough guy , no doubt you'll be in prison for a day then bust outa there" said the man "I get money, you're free it's a win win situation"
"Listen Revan, Buddy I'll buy you something, I'm loaded right now how bout it?" offers Isaac
"Nope 100,000 Beri sounds better than a beer" replies Revan, one of his katana against Isaac's throat
"Didn't want to have to do this" moans Isaac reaching into his pocket for some money and setting it on the bar table.
Isaac leaps backwards simultaneously drawing his quad barreled revolver and firing off a shot, Revan blocks the shot with one of his katanas then lunges at Isaac, wildly slashing at him, Isaac Blocks Revan's strikes with the barrel of his revolver. The two are locked in a stalemate staring at each other with murderous intent as steel grinds against steel before Isaac pushes Revan backwards.
"Barkeep" Cutlass!" shouts Isaac
Behind the bar the Barkeep open up the chest where the Weapons of Isaac's previous foes are stored
"The usual sir?" asks the barkeep calmly
"Not the Time old man!" replies Isaac firing off another shot at Revan
"Here we are sir" says the Barkeep tossing Isaac a Cutlass
Isaac catches it mid air and twirls it about before lunging at Revan.
"ALL I DID WAS OFFER YOU A DRINK!" shouts Isaac slashing at Revan with his Cutlass
"ALL YOU DID WAS AMASS 100,000 BERI IN BOUNTY !" replies Revan blocking Isaac's blow
"Can't we talk about this like civilized people?" asks Isaac blocking a swing with his Revolver
"CIVILIZATION IS FERTILIZER!" Shouts Revan whilst performing a final downward slash.
"You've asked for this" replies Isaac leaping away and firing a shot into the ceiling.
Revan confused looks up to where the shot impacted, the roof is cracking and splintering apart as the hole connects to a series of other holes in the ceiling followed by a distinct cracking sound.
"Isaac you son of a Bi-" but before Revan can finish a portion of the roof collapses on top of him.
Isaac goes back to his seat at the bar and sits down positioning himself so that he is looking at the pile of rubble on top of Revan.
"Barkeep pour out two beers" asks Isaac
"Sir I think he's dead…" replies the barkeep
"Nope he's alive ain't that right Revan" says Isaac as he watches the rubble.
From the rubble emerges the man his skull mask cracked slightly and his black long coat dusty and ripped from the rubble. He stands tall and makes his way to the bar whilst dusting himself off.
"We good Revan? Asks Isaac before taking a swig from his mug.
"Yeah Isaac we're good" replies Revan who also takes a swing from is mug.
"Hey Isaac?" says Revan prodding him on the shoulder with his finger.
"What Buddy?" replies Isaac quickly
"Is your arm supposed to look like this?" says Revan as he points to his arm.
Through the sleeve of Renan's Long coat sticks a sharp piece of white bone unsurprisingly Revan does not seem to show much pain.
"Should probably get that checked out" says Isaac coolly as he takes another swig from his mug.
"Yeah probably…" replies Revan "… I know a good doctor I should…" but before he could finish Revan has fallen off of his chair and is face first into the ground.
Isaac sighs and picks the drunken man up and heaves him over his shoulder.
"So which way is this doctor?"