"NOOO...!"
"Is that truly how you treat a lady, gentlemen? No wonder you work the night shift. Or is that just because you are the scum of the night."
The voice startled the men, startled Belle too. Just as she had expected the first hit or unwelcome touch, the raspy, male voice come out of the shadows. Maybe she was just imagining it. The Guardsman turned around to face who had insultingly spoken to them and found themselves peering into the shadows of the adjoining alleyway.
"Bugger off", the leader call to the shadow man, "We're with the Red Guard and you are out past curfew."
"As I am well away of the rules and law you abide by, I, myself, must refuse. I will would hope that even such filth such as you Guards would realize that I only offer my own warning once."
Belle felt confused, amazed, and nauseous all at the same time. How was it this man, though she only heard the voice, would be so bold as to challenge the Red Guard so brashly? She couldn't really get her mind around it, though that could also be due to the adrenaline and fear still coursing through her veins. Surely this voice couldn't do anything to save her from the Red Guard. No one ever escaped the Red Guard, not completely.
Just as she began to doubt her savior, a figure in a black cloak, a bad hat, and a Guy Fawkes mask as a face emerged from the shadows, silently and gracefully. The jovial smile of the mask could almost fool someone into a lulled sense of a non-threatening presence. Belle did not wish to be left alone with the masked figure anymore than the Red Guard but he was her only hope at the moment, so she must embrace the lesser of both evils.
"Who do you think you are talking to us like that and refusing to obey the law?", asked one the lesser Guardsman, " You're in just as much violating the law as the girl and you're not nearly as good looking."
"I did so try to warn you", said the masked man. And with that, he began to rush the Guardsman, taking his first swing with his gloved hand at the leader. It landed square on the man's jaw, causing him to take a first steps back. The other two Guardsman, in order to back up their boss, threw Belle onto the ground, the pavement colliding with her body. She could feel a bruise forming on her left elbow, where the brunt of the fall had connected, but other than that, she assessed she had no serious injuries.
When she looked up from where she had been thrown, Belle felt nothing but terror. The masked man and the Guardsman were throwing punches at each other, the masked man landing more than the men. One of the lesser Guardsman tried to use his beat stick, swinging it low then high toward the masked man. The masked man dodged the swings easily enough and produced his own long cane, that could almost qualify as a bow staff, and effectively struck the man at the knees, ribs, and skull.
The man feel unconscious, landing on the ground in an ungraceful pile. The other man that had been holding Belle charged the masked man from behind, only to be flung off and taking down by a blow by the masked man's cane. Belle felt a little bit of awe at this vigilante's ability to fight so well but she wasn't ready to completely intrust her safety to him. The leader of the Guardsman was now enraged.
"You are going down, you bloody bastard!"
The masked man didn't say anything. As the Guardsman swung his right fist in a hook punch at the masked man, it connected solidly with the mask itself. The fist and mask together made a heavy, metal noise, as if there was solid steal behind the mask of the man. The Guardsman howled in pain but refused to give in and foolishly took another swing at this man.
This time it was different. The masked man did not use his cane to take down the Guardsman. The masked man side stepped the enrage man, pulled out a blade, and plunged the butt of the dagger into the Guardsman shoulder blade. The man continued to howl in pain but feel to the ground. The ruthless masked man didn't stopped there but started adding insult to injury.
"It always amazes me at the level of stupidity you of the Red Guard possess. I had hoped that the Chancellor would have chosen competent men to enforce her laws, but I have been know to be wrong a time and again. Not often, mind you."
The Guardsman coughed up some blood, it running out of his mouth and down the side of his cheek. The mask man grabbed a hold of his shirt and yanked the man to eye level of the mask.
"Please...stop. I can't take it anymore. Please..."
"Like you were going to stop when the young woman asked, I think not. Plus, I did think I am doing the Chancellor a favor by getting rid of you. Your begging is really pathetic to me."
Just as the masked man was going to plunge the dagger into the Guardsman, Belle managed to surprise everyone, including herself when she yelled out...
"STOP!"
Both the Guardsman and the masked man turned and looked at her.
"I know he shouldn't get away with what he has done but you can't just kill a man. Please, just don't kill him."
The Guardsman's slimy smile returned slightly but the masked man cocked his head to the side as if he were trying to figure out about why she asked him to stop from killing her attacker, almost rapist.
The masked man turned back to the Guardsman, pondering what to do with him as well. Just as Belle thought she was going to witness a murder, the masked man twirled the dagger in his right hand, and with one hard blow, hit the Guardsman in the head. Then he discarded the body with the other unconscious men.
Belle felt fearful for her life. What was going to happen to her now that it was just her and the masked man, all alone, in the dark alleyway, no one around to save her from him?