Eye Of The Eclipse - 47 Another Handshake

“Chance told us this was the place to come for premium refurbished goods, not rusted garbage.” Responding to the man’s aggression, Chance drew a dagger from his side before crouching slightly. Rob mirrored his movements silently while separating from the group, allowing him to move in from the skinny man’s left, given an opportunity.

Not only their words, but the silent cohesion between the masked figures immediately sobered the man up. “How do you know Chance? Where is he now?” He asked while stopping his advance yet keeping his daggers drawn.

“He’s laying Low.”

“That bastard’s still in the city? He owes me money and one way or another, I’m getting it.”

It took a few seconds of silence before the man realized he wouldn’t be getting a reply at all. Stabbing both daggers into the wooden counter and taking a seat next to them, he squinted with his legs crossed lazily.

“You might be in the right place or you might not. Either way, don’t think you’re getting shit without clearing what’s owed.” His smirk was only half formed before Chance started walking over with large steps. With the distance quickly closing, the man became alert, quickly reaching for the daggers imbedded by his side.

Too slow. As his hands clasped the handles of the blades, he didn’t even manage to exert any force before a second pair of hands clasped around his. The soft yet slightly rough sensation from the low quality cotton made his heart run cold as it sank into his stomach.

“You were a little quite from way back there, say that again for me. Please.” Chance kept the same dead pan tone since he began speaking to this person. Even after the rapid dash he used to cover the last four metres, there wasn’t a hint of labour in his breathing.

“I said, you ain’t getting sh-” pushing the words out through a clenched jaw, he tried to talk before bursting with all the strength he could muster while in the awkward position, planning to throw Chance off by the sudden movement.

The theatrics and monolog payed off with… a barely discernable tremble, before his hands were once again stilled.

“I don’t care about your ‘issues’ with Chance. You can solve them on your own time. We’ve taken OUR time to visit your store in order to make a purchase. Whether you accept money not, we will be leaving that door with what we came for.” As he spoke, Chance was increasing the pressure on the joints of the man’s fingers, causing them to press into the hilt while emitting a pop now and then.

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The anger on his face hadn’t eased up in the slightest, with the only difference being that his eyes began twitching slightly due to the pain. “Nice to make your acquaintance.”

With that unspoken agreement, the man pried his hands free once Chance let up on the pressure, before walking down a flight of stairs which had been obscured by the counter previously.

“So what should I call you and the rest of your group?”

“Whatever you want.” The rest of his questions directed to their identity, what kind of items they wanted or how ‘Chance’ was doing were all answered in the same way. Nothing was given away and all conversation was driven straight into a dead end as the other three felt no need to break their silence, despite the twins feeling curious to the relationship between Chance and the unnamed store keeper.

Barely four metres down from the top, a door at the end of the staircase opened up to another floor directly below the store front above them. It was as though the building had been built lower into the ground rather than simply building a second floor up top.

Sun stones lined the walls along with a cluster of them stuck together on a pole in the middle of the room, surrounded by walls liked by swords, daggers, shields armour etc.

If the twins were excited before, they practically had trouble stopping their hearts from exploding when they thought of owning the items in front of them. As opposed to the rusted and ill maintained assortment in the store above, these pieces of equipment had been maintained well with only a few nicks and dents present.

Unless being picky, there really wasn’t much they could have asked for besides being brand new. The man stayed at the entrance of the floor, only moving a few steps to take a seat as he resigned from asking any questions to the group after the initial failure.

Splitting off from each other, they all explored the small room independently, picking up and looking through many of the items carefully. Loki and Rykar even going to the extent of trying on some of the armour which was obviously too big for them.

Half an hour later, after much testing and whispering between members of the group, they stood in front of the storekeeper with an assortment in their arms.

Loki had a set of light leather armour consisting of pants, armguards, bracers and a chest piece. Aside from the armour, he picked two mid length daggers with blades around 25cm and a standard short bow along with its arrows.

Next to him, Rykar had a similar set of leather armour, although in a slightly darker shade. What was suprising to everyone in the room is that his weapon of choice was not actually a weapon… After half an hour of rummaging and scrutinizing the weapons available, he had settled on a glove which combined with a bracer.

The bracer had a dull steel exterior with a leather and cotton interior to add padding to the hands and arms. The knuckles and fingertips formed sharp points barely half a centimeter long which served as the main offence. The arm portion of the bracer extended all the way up to the elbows and ended with a blade like protrusion which ended beyond the elbow, laying flush with his tricep if Rykar straightened out his arm.

All in all, it was a weirdly offensive based defensive item but it seemed to suit his tastes and felt comfortable once he put it on. Other than that, there was a short sword which he grudgingly selected along with it when Chance refused for him to have that as his main weapon.

Apart from the twins tastes in gear, Chance and Rob went for similar attire. Leather armour, a long sword and a dagger, the standard set seen around the city.

“Give us some space to change.” Chance threw two bulging bags of coins over to the man before staring him down. Weighing the bag in his hand, he smiled before going back up the stairs but it could be heard that he hadn’t closed the hatch behind him.

Knowing that ht was most likely listening for anything untoward or any information he could pick up on them, the group remained silent as they undressed, taking off everything but their masks and underwear before putting the armour on and then their cotton clothes on over them… With the exception of Rykar who’s shirt wasn’t able to hide the protrusion on the elbows of the gauntlets, causing him to wear them on top in a revealing manner as his arms dragged along his sides.

Rob and Chance helped the twins to fasten themselves in, which was awkward on their part, but they put up with it as they were anxious to finally be in their gear. Storing the residual clothing in his fragment, Chance caught sight of a pair of metal greaves strewn in the corner of the room which seemed to be an extension of his set of bracers.

The steel was designed in a similar fashion with a cotton interior and leather straps. Where the knuckles of the toes would have been, there were pointed metal studs along with a spike at the knee. Like the bracers, it was designed so that it would lay flat against his upper knee and thigh when straightened yet protrude if he bent.

“hmmmmmmmmmmm.” With a squint in his eyes, he squatted in the corner while pouring all of his intent into the leg guards. Ten seconds later, he stood up and sauntered over to the rest of the group, impressed with his own achievement but even while doing so, he began to eye up the rest of the goodies in the room with greed.

“You ladies done yet? I got a store to run out here.” The man called down from the entrance causing Rykar to grimace at the poor timing. Their group made their way up and out of the store without paying the man any attention but he called out behind them.

“If you see Chance, tell him I hope he’s doing well. We’ve worked together before, this is always a place he can fall back on.” He shouted towards them with his voice becoming more sentimental towards the end.

“Mhm, if I see him again, I’ll pass on the message.” Chance replied in the same deadpan voice without pausing at the door.

Watching them leave and take a turn at the street, the expression of care on his face disappeared as he rushed to the doorway and stared at the group of four with squinted eyes. Balled up in his hand was a bounty notice of three portraits.

The two on the top looking like adolescent boys with stone grey skin and odd coloured eyes while the third on the lower half of the page was exactly Chance.