The Judgement Of Divinity (TMOE #2)

Chapter 14: Sneaky furniture

He wasn't even that threatening.

Much to Lucius' general dismay and current confusion, people rarely found him to be much of a threat until he actually hurt them. So what reasons did the Larkspur member who'd fired a bullet in his direction have?

The ear deafening pang behind him was a relief at least, revealing it had hit the wall instead of its intended target. While he couldn't see if it actually would have hit him, Lucius wasn't very thrilled by the idea in general.

The person who'd fired the shot had made one big mistake however. They'd gone for Lucius instead of Ivan. While Lucius was indeed the one with the weapon there was no way he should be the natural subject of priority when it concerned threats. Not when a seasoned veteran with an apparent affinity for gunpowder explosions was standing on the other side of the room.

Against his better judgement Lucius spared Ivan a look.

He was unarmed, he supposed, unlike Lucius. Not to mention his cane implied some form of inconvenience when moving around.

Yet Lucius had no doubt Ivan could snap his spindly bones like twigs if he wanted to.

"Drop the knife," a young man hissed as he stepped forward from the pillar, turning his head to Ivan right after. "And don't try anything, or I'll shoot for real this time."

He was surprisingly well dressed for the occasion, lanky frame covered with a matching set of clothes from neck to toe. It was hard to see details in the dim light but for some reason he looked proper enough to be walking outside on the streets, which to Lucius seemed odd in a scary research facility.

Fuck's sake, he's even better dressed than Anthony.

"Well, isn't this disappointing," Ivan then said, and at first Lucius couldn't help but wonder if he'd read his mind about the Anthony criticism, but soon snapped back to reality and found 'disappointing' to be quite the understatement. "First we find nothing and once we do, it's a scrawny bookworm with no aim."

Lucius, being an equally scrawny bookworm with no aim and the very person having just been shot at, was not amused by this.

"Maybe don't talk like that to someone trying to kill me," he therefore said through gritted teeth and Ivan scoffed.

"If he actually wanted to shoot you he would have done a better job, don't you think?"

"Perhaps second time's the charm," the man responded to that, and Lucius made the troubling discovery that the rifle he was holding had two barrels. "Think I'll be fine with just one of you alive for now."

"No, I think two is a much better number," Lucius disagreed, relieved to notice the man's gaze kept darting in Ivan's direction. "What, uh... What do you want with us?"

"To know how you found this place, of course," the man hissed. "Now drop the knife!"

Lucius made a face but obeyed, knowing he could pick it up from the ground fairly quickly should the aim drop for a moment.

Then a sound echoed through the corridor, alerting them all that the stone door had been opened again. The Larkspur member barely got a chance to turn his head entirely. As soon as his aim faltered Ivan had taken a surprisingly quick step forward and grabbed his rifle, yanking it forward at first only to redirect it and smash it right into the man's nose.

Lucius bent down to retrieve his knife, unsure whether to be delighted or disgusted by the cracking sound that followed the attack. Before he could stand up straight again Ivan had already kicked the man off his feet, grabbed and spun the rifle around, and pointed it at its former owner.