"This is the plan?" Bolton growled as the three of them stood in front of the counting house.

Sayed smiled. He did not know what the plan was yet, but he was ready to try it. His blade rested against his shoulder as he looked up at the massive sign over the building marked as 'Grim Aegis Counters.' Today was definitely not going to be a normal day.

"We're outlaws, aren't we?" Alex asked. "What better thing to show it than to rob a bank?"

"That'll draw those Hell Knights straight to us."

"That is the point, right, brother?" Sayed asked. We draw them here and face them, causing the most noise. Then, the real villains will appear for us to defeat."

"It's part of it." Alex nodded. "The other problem is all the spiders. Doing this will give us two options for dealing with them."

Sayed raised an eyebrow, not understanding, but who was he to question it? He already had what he wanted when the villains responded. The spiders could be someone else's problem.

He would be getting a fight.

A flame had flickered in Sayed's heart for some time, calling for him to go beyond the bounds of butchery. Slicing meat was a fine profession, but his true calling was that his sword was steady in his hands because he had a higher calling. He was a warrior. He was meant to test his wits and skill against an opponent in life-or-death battles.

He couldn't explain his reasons, but they rang true deep in his heart.

"So, how are we starting this?" Bolton sighed, tapping out another cigarette as he looked back and forth down the street. "You're going to clear out all these civilians first, I imagine. Maybe you'll go in and tell the staff to evacuate first."

"Why?" Alex asked, a grin cracking his face. "The entire point of a distraction like this is to draw as much attention as possible. I don't know if we can draw out the spiders unless we have another gem to break."

"So, the bigger, the better, brother." Sayed tapped his chin with a free hand. "I can see the point."

There weren't many people out on the street, as it was still early in the morning. On a normal day, Sayed would be doing his daily prayers right now. However, God could have waited a little longer if it had given Sayed a good story. The story was more important than worship, after all.

"So, are we going in or what?" Bolton reached for the gun on his hip.

"Hah," Alex said, taking on a wide stance and holding out a hand. "That wouldn't be dramatic enough, would it? Grab my shoulder, Sayed. I don't know if I can pull this out without going with it."

"Right, brother." Sayed grabbed hold of his shoulders, immediately noticing that a force pulled against his grip.

Alex's power was one over metal, though Sayed did not quite understand the mechanism completely. That understanding would be locked in his memories, and he was far from getting those back.

"Force Pull." Alex grunted out the words for his technique, and the force doubled.

Skrrt.

Alex scooted forward across the cobblestone road, an invisible force pulling him toward the front doors of the counting house. Sayed gripped Alex tighter, holding him steady as he was pulled closer to the wall.

"What are you pulling?" Sayed asked as he leaned back with his full weight against Alex's shoulders.

"The vault," Alex said as blood dribbled down his nose.

People began to yell inside, though Sayed could only vaguely hear them through the windows. They jumped to the side as something barreled through the middle of the room.

Boom. Crack.

Something heavy slammed into the door. The wood distended outwards with long splinters cracking open. Sayed watched it, but he did not flinch away. A smile crept across his face.

"I'll be damned," Bolton muttered from the side before taking a puff of his cigarette. "We'll have to work together once we're off the island. Think about what you could steal with a slipship parked above a city."

"Nah." Alex grunted, his breaths coming in short bursts. "One more pull."

"Understood." Sayed pulled hard against Alex, his long arms nearly extending his full weight to the ground.

Boom. Clatter.

Several wooden shards and two long beams that held the front of the store together crashed to the ground as a massive metal box slid through. It was twice as tall as Sayed and nearly half the width of the storefront in front of him. It scratched across the ground until it dropped in front of them off the counting houses patio.

"What is all this?"

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An older man staggered out of the wreckage that had been the counting house front door, a pair of black spectacles in his hands as he looked over the gathered outlaws. The weight holding Sayed up suddenly released, and Sayed fell to the ground, only catching himself on one hand. It was an awkward moment to get his feet back underneath him, but he managed, picking up his sword and standing next to Alex. Even Bolton joined them, drawing his gun and pointing it out in the sky.

"This," Alex said. "Is a robbery."

The old man looked over the three of them and then to the safe beside him. Sayed could not tell if he believed what he was seeing. He pinched himself on the cheeks once, which Sayed often did when he thought he was dreaming.

"You're cursed," the man said slowly.

"Yep." Alex nodded.

The man nodded, raising his hands before turning and sprinting down the street. He looked odd to Sayed, running with both hands up while yelling and screaming. They had not even threatened to kill him.

"Hell Knights!" the man yelled. "Someone get the Hell Knights! We have a robbery!"

"There we go," Alex said as more people rushed out from inside the counting house, screaming as well. "That should be enough chaos to start us off."

"Start us off, eh?" Bolton sighed.

"They are the fly to the spider's trap." Sayed nodded. "Now we just need to prepare the web to catch them unawares."

"About that." Alex opened his palm toward the vault door, splaying out his fingers and causing the vault's lock to twist. "Help me distribute the coins around. They're plan B for the spiders."

Click. Click. Click. Creak.

In moments, the vault door fell open, revealing the contents inside. Several paper bills filled one side of the vault door while a layer of gold, silver, and copper dolers covered the bottom. Sayed nodded, reaching in and gathering handfuls of the coins before tossing them out of the vault and onto the street.

"So you're saying you don't need the paper bills." Bolton licked his lips. "I can get them out of the way for you."

"Feel free," Alex said. "With the chaos that's about to unfold, I don't think anyone's going to be worried about money anytime soon."

Bolton began stuffing the bills in his pockets as Sayed, and Alex distributed the coins across the road. Some townsfolk watched them from the ends of the street, but none of them dared come closer.

"Should be any minute now," Alex said as they finished throwing around the last few coins, Bolton joining them with a much puffier jacket than he had before.

"That weight will trouble you, brother." Sayed eyed him. "Is the money worth the cost?"

"The money is always worth it," Bolton said, a trail of smoke rising from his cigarette. "This world don't work without money."

"Greed will get you killed someday." Sayed shook his head. "Better to take payment in a tale than to be chained by vice into the river's cold depths."

Sayed frowned, and he noticed Alex was watching him. He did not know where that saying had come from. However, it felt right to say. He smiled his most friendly smile and patted Bolton hard on the back.

"Apologies, that may be my old self slipping through." Sayed grinned. "We will find out when this fight is over."

They didn't have long to wait. The crowd parted at one end of the street, and five armored knights followed in the now clear wake. The crowd hemmed in behind them, not fleeing from the area. They, too, could not resist a good fight, and Sayed could not blame them.

The Hell Knights were armored monstrosities, given power by the black armor they wore to superhuman heights. One Hell Knight could take on a group of twenty rabble-rousers with ease. In the eyes of the crowd, the outlaws' daring robbery of the bank would easily be overturned.

"Is that you, Ortega?" the head knight asked, his red visor glowing bright. "To think you finally broke. I wondered why you weren't in your hovel last night. And here I find you now, just like the worthless dog you are. I won't let you get away with just a beating this time."

"Ah, good." Alex smiled as blue lightning flickered across his arms. "It's Garrett. I'm going to enjoy this."

"There are five of them," Sayed said, stepping up beside Alex and taking a wide stance with his sword above his head. "I do not think there will be enough left over for you, Bolton."

"Bunch of crazy bastards." Bolton sighed, stepping to the side with his gun. "My curse is useless right now, so I'll support you both from behind. Don't jump in the way of any of my bullets."

"Draw steel!" Garrett said, and his fellow knights drew their blades.

Fwoosh.

Flames licked down the metal as each of them drew a longsword. Sayed imagined his own sword doing the same. They were called 'Hell Knights,' but to Sayed, flames were the province of the divine. God was not blessing them, in his eyes, though.

"You may have stolen God's flame, but it will not grant you a mercy for that feat." Sayed narrowed his eyes as he picked his first target. "I will tear you false swordsmen asunder with my blade, and then you will know God's fury in your hearts."

"Spread out!" Garrett didn't respond to Sayed's provocation, and the knights started forming a circle around the outlaws.

"I'll knock them down first," Alex said to Sayed. "There'll be some resistance, but if I overload it, it'll buy us a few seconds."

"Understood, brother." Sayed nodded, taking in a deep breath and funneling the aether into his limbs.

"Divide!"

"Force Wave!"

Thud.

"Step."

Crack.

The four underlying knights charged at Alex and Sayed, two to two. Sayed gripped his sword tight in one hand as the expected force blew past him. The knights were pushed away by an invisible force, thrown into the far walls by Alex's curse.

"Demon's Thrust!"

Ting. Crack.

Sayed rushed forward at one of the knights pinned against the wall.

Blade met armor as he crashed against the knight. The tip of his blade found a hole in the armor, a weak cloth point covering the knight's armpits. Sayed jammed his sword hard into that, cutting through the weak point and sending the knight's sword crashing into the ground.

Clatter.

With one knight down, he turned to face the next, who had already pushed himself up from the wall to recover. Sayed came for him with his sword, swinging hard and catching the burning blade with his khopesh.

"Demon's Fist!"

Sayed drew back his free hand, punching hard into the knight and sending him off balance. When the knight was down, Sayed slammed the hilt of his sword down hard on the visor. In moments, he had dealt with two knights, and when he looked over to Alex, Alex had done the same.

"You've gotten braver," Garret said, drawing his blade. "But you'll find I'm a harder opponent than my brethren!"

He didn't even have time to swing his blade. Alex extended his hand, lifting the armored knight into the air with his curse before slamming him into the stones below. The sound echoed through the street like a crack of thunder.

Boom.

"Now," Alex said, raising the armored knight high into the sky again. "We just wait for the spiders."

Boom.

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