Nikon stood against the door frame as tightly as he could, willing himself to not move. His days as a thief had taught him that movement was the detriment to stealth, and any flicker of his body could give away his position more easily than any noise he might've made.
The maid who had saw him and came to investigate glanced inside the room curiously. She was sure she had seen someone skulking into the library, and yet there wasn't anything of interest in the room.
She shrugged. Oh well. There was cleaning to be done.
Nikon heard her walk off, sighing. Good.
He turned back to the scene he had left, visible only from the angle he was at. Two guards had been inside the library when he had entered, and he had hauled their bodies to sit behind a couch in the center of the room. The first one had been easy, a slit throat. The second was a bit constrained, as he had turned around at the same time Nikon had fired his crossbow, missing by an inch. He threw his knife and managed to nail the man right in the throat, cutting out his cry. Sloppy, but effective.
The surgeon moved out into the hallway, making sure to stick to the edges of the walls. He didn't have any real idea where he was going, but figured the best way to proceed was forward.
Nikon stopped dead when he saw two guards at the end of the hallway he was in, stopping right behind a small cabinet. They were talking, but were not facing him.
"So, you ever go to that new gambling hall?" asked the first.
"Run by that fat bastard from Karnaca? Matthew Rick?"
"Matteo Ricci, yeah. Hell of a place, you should try it."
"Naw, that place is weird. No dice or cards, betting against machines? Probably rigged."
"Oh, you don't go for the gambling. The whores are top notch there."
"Really? Hmm, doesn't sound so baaargh!"
That last noise was the noise produced when Nikon's knife entered the back of his head and out his left eye socket, scrambling all the brains in between those areas into mush. His comrade turned to glance at his comrade a split-second before a crossbow belt slammed into the base of his skull, and then it was all black.
Nikon grabbed their bodies and quickly shuffled them into a nearby closet. He quickly wiped up the blood with his sleeve, the tile easily allowing him to do so, and kept moving.
The surgeon finally reached a new obstacle, albeit one that was not active. It was a Jindosh Clockwork Soldier, standing peacefully in an alcove at a hallway intersection.
He debated over what to do. If he left it, there was a chance it would activate, and he would never be able to take on that monstrosity in a fair fight. He did not know how to disable or rewire it either.
He paused, holding up his sword. He activated his electric sword, watching the sparks fly off the blade. Every Clockwork Soldier had a panel on their right leg where a decent chunk of wires all directly went into, meaning that it must be important in some regard.
"…well, better now than later," he stated shrugging.
He jabbed the sword into the panel and activated it, releasing lightning into the robot. The Jindosh collapsed into a heap after only a few seconds of that treatment, slamming into the floor with a heavy thud.
Nikon swore and quickly ducked for cover behind a cabinet.
Three guards appeared, swords drawn, all gathering around the collapsed robot.
"The fuck happened?!" demanded the first one, a captain.
"No idea sir!" reported the second.
The third knelt down, nervously tapping the robot. "Maybe it ran out of juice?"
The captain looked around, not seeing any perpetrator, then sheathed his sword. He sighed. "Goddamn it, Kalin is going to be furious. He paid good money for this clanker."
He pointed to his two fellows. "You two, make yourselves useful. I'm going to report this to Morozov."
The two guards walked off, the captain remaining behind and sighing. Clearly, this wasn't going to be a pleasant thing to talk about.
The captain strode further down the hall, Nikon tailing him slowly just in case someone turned a corner and spotted him. A few times he had to Fling himself to the upper rafters of the building, but otherwise his pursuit went unnoticed.
The captain stopped in front of an office door, hesitating at the door. Judging by that alone, Nikon knew this was the right spot to be.
He landed softly behind the captain, immediately lunging forward and planting his sword right into the base of his skull. The captain lurched forward, a stiff arm from the surgeon preventing him from falling into the door.
Then Nikon opened the door, activating Stasis immediately to disguise both himself and the body he was holding.
The office was small and relatively unfurnished, consisting only of a desk and chair with a few shelves on the walls. Save for a window, the room was rather barren.
Anna Morozov stood up quickly, having seen and heard the door being thrown open but not seeing anything that could've done it. She had her sword out, her left hand covered in a metal cestus.
"…hello? Who's there?" she asked cautiously.
She moved closer to the door. Nikon waited until Stasis was just about to give out, then he struck.
He threw the captain's body right at her, the sudden appearance startling her. The corpse knocked her off-balance, but did not knock her over like he had hoped. He lunged with his sword.
Anna blocked the strike expertly, almost contemptuously. She countered with her cestus, slamming it into the side of his chest.
Nikon coughed, wheezing in air that had been punched out. That blow had likely broken a rib or two, and certainly bruised him.
"Guards! Guards!" screamed Anna frantically, not breaking her guarded stance. "I'm being attacked! Sound the alarm!"
Nikon quickly noticed an electrical panel next to Anna's desk, likely one connected to the alarm system in case she needed it. He regripped his sword and threw it.
The blade spun and smashed into the box but did not stick. Thankfully, that had not been why he had thrown it.
The lightning from the sword's hilt jutted into the alarm panel, frying it in the split-second before the sword hit the floor.
"Clever motherfucker," snarled Anna. "But now you don't have a weapon."
She pressed the advantage, swinging her sword with deliberate deadly strikes. Nikon dodged as best he could in the limited space, trying to edge closer to his sword to no avail.
He leaped back and used Stasis, turning invisible.
Anna stopped, backing herself against a wall and studying the area around her. Thankfully, she did not know how his powers worked.
"Come on out!" she shouted. "I know you're here somewhere! I can still see your sword!"
Nikon deactivated Stasis, rapidly reaching for his crossbow and firing a bolt. It smashed into Anna's left forearm she had thrown up to block it, her other hand already moving to stab with her sword.
The surgeon dodged the strike but continued his assault, harshly kicking her in the privates as hard as he could. She groaned, the surgeon firing his crossbow straight down into her right foot, embedding it into the floor.
Anna screamed in agony, her left hand dropping to clutch at the maimed appendage a second before she was staring down the barrel of a firearm.
Nikon blew her head off with his pistol, splattering the entire wall with gore. Her body fell limply to the floor, her foot still pinned.
He rapidly set to work, pursing over her body for any information. Her found nothing but a few bullets and change, so he decided that it had to be in her desk.
The surgeon heard raised voices, and swiftly grabbed her shelving units and threw them over the door. It swung inwards, so they would have to hack it down to get inside. Plenty of time.
He went through her desk, shoving anything that looked like a piece of paper into his pack. Now was not the time for reading. He would investigate them later.
The door slammed, Nikon looking up in a panic. Guards had arrived, and were trying to open the jammed door.
"Got to find Diana, and that bitch Kalin wants before I hightail it," he noted to himself. "The problem is where…"
He stopped, seeing a map in his pack of hastily stolen papers. He read through it, seeing two rooms of interest. Interrogation Room, and Holding Cells, both in the basement.
"Well, best place to start as any," he grunted.
He grabbed a nearby book, tossing it clean through the window to shatter it. He collected his sword, leaping through the glass to stand on the thin windowsill. Time to head back to the roof to start the process again.