The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Isaac kept following the man... left, left, right, left. They moved through busy streets and entered an empty alleyway. Rather, the man entered the alleyway while Isaac waited around the corner. He would be spotted the moment he entered the alleyway, so he just peered around the corner and watched as the man stopped in the middle of the alley, then threw down the bag and bear head.

The man was about to turn around, so Isaac pulled his head back to avoid being seen. However, he could still hear the man shout,

"Come out, I know you've been following me!"

Only a fool would 'come out' when he was asked to, so Isaac stayed put. It was likely that the man was bluffing and was just trying to lure out anyone that might be following him. Isaac stayed as silent as possible and didn't fall for it, but he was surprised by the man's next words,

"Yeah, you with the brown version coat and the blue eyes, hiding around the corner to my right! I've been watching you in the reflections of mirrors and window panes. You've been following me around like a dog follows its master, so be a good bitch and come here!"

The man's description was a little too specific to be a guess. Isaac could just stay hidden and see what would happen next, but the man would probably just escape. In fact, he could've escaped already if he wanted to – he'd only stayed so he could teach Isaac a lesson.

Isaac disliked the feeling of being caught. It felt like failure. However, he didn't have many options left, so he pulled up his hood and stepped into the alleyway.

The man smiled viciously. His twisted, toothy grin and the scar under his left eye made his face look hideous.

"Heeere doggie doggie, look who's got a treat for you!"

He held his arm outwards and beckoned for Isaac to come closer. Of course Isaac came closer. He couldn't beat this guy up without getting closer. His blue eyes glinted maliciously from underneath his hood, but he did his best to stay calm against the man's mocking. If anything, Isaac got more serious and less angry than before. His opponent seemed to be relying on taunts to disrupt Isaac's focus, so resisting his provocations would be the first step towards winning their fight.

All the scarred man could see was Isaac walking towards him while looking down at the floor. His hands were in his pockets and his hood was pulled up, meaning the man couldn't see the glimmer in his frosty blue eyes.

In fact, Isaac's figure looked so meek that the man thought he might apologise and ask for a lighter punishment. That was why he was surprised to find a blade slashing towards his neck.

The attack caught him slightly unprepared, but he would never drop his guard in the presence of a stranger. He reacted quickly, his fingers transforming into ebony black claws as they moved to catch the blade.

However, Isaac's sword changed course mid-swing, a technique he had practiced countless times. The blade was now heading towards the man's chest, but he tucked both his elbows in to block the strike.

A normal person's arms would have been sliced off by Isaac's attack, but this man had thick white fur covering both forearms. Isaac's sword cut deep into the man's arms, but he didn't even reach bone, let alone cut all the way through.

Isaac hesitated slightly after his sword was stopped, giving the man an opportunity. He aimed a hard kick between Isaac's legs, and Isaac had to jump back to avoid it.

This created some distance between the two and there was a short pause in the fighting which allowed Isaac to observe his opponent's transformation.

The man's forearms were covered in pure white fur, but Isaac knew the skin beneath it was tough and his flesh was dense and muscular. His hands were now paws, with black claws that were bigger, sharper and more curved than any normal wolf's.

Their sect specialised in Beast-style Anima, specifically those related to wolves, so Isaac recognised it right away. It was the Razorlight Claw Anima, which transformed the user to give them the claws of the Razorlight Wolf.

One of the disadvantages of choosing a popular Anima was that everybody was aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Isaac knew these claws were sharper than his sword, and the man's toughened arms would give him some protection. However, it had a glaring flaw: you had to be right next to somebody to fight them. This flaw was exacerbated by the fact that the scarred man had no movement Anima and couldn't close the distance to Isaac.

The fight resumed as the man lunged forwards. However, he quickly retreated again as his head was nearly skewered. Against most people, he'd be skilled enough to duck and dodge his way into range, but Isaac's sword stopped him every time he tried to get closer.

"Come on you coward, put down that sword and let's fight like real men!"

The man continued hurling taunts and insults, but Isaac responded with silence and another swing of his sword. Wounds were beginning to accumulate where the man had been caught by Isaac's blade. The growing frustration from his taunts failing and his advances being blocked or even countered caused the man to lose his patience – not that he had much to begin with.

He took a couple steps back, then charged towards Isaac. Isaac's sword slashed towards his head but the man didn't react. He continued running towards that blade as if it wasn't about to brutally end his life.

His hope was that Isaac would panic and try to stop his strike, since killing a fellow disciple had severe consequences. Then the man would have a huge opening to attack Isaac.

But that was just wishful thinking. Isaac did not withdraw his strike. No, he simply spun the sword in his hand so the flat side of his blade hit the man instead of the sharp edge.

Imagine sprinting by the side of a road, when a horse and cart comes speeding along in the opposite direction. Now imagine that the cart has a metal sign hanging out of the back which hits you square in the face... yeah, that's roughly how the man felt.

The point is that a very hard object collided with the man's nose at a very high speed and it hurt very, very much. The man flew about 1m back from the impact alone. His nose was broken so badly that here was no word to describe it, and some of his upper teeth made tapping sounds as they fell on the cobbled pavement.

Isaac actually did a double take. He obviously didn't have time to think about what he was doing, so he didn't realise the mere impact of his sword might be enough to kill someone. He quickly stepped over to the man to check he was still breathing, then sighed in relief. He was still breathing and also hadn't suffered serious blood loss. Obviously his nose was bleeding like hell and his face was covered in red, but it wasn't enough to kill him.

After checking, Isaac just stepped over the guy and took his bag as well as the bear head. He wouldn't get punished unless the man had brain damage, so he didn't really care what state he was in. If he did have brain damage, Isaac couldn't do anything about it now. Therefore, he decided to leave.

He walked out of the nondescript alleyway, not a speck of blood on his crisp bearskin coat, and returned home. When he was there, he found his cupboard draw with false bottom and pulled out 2 sets of claws. One set belonged to a fox, the other belonged to a wolf. He dumped the claws into a bag which already contained a set of bear claws.

Then he slung the bag over his right shoulder and grabbed a handful of the bear head's fur, picking it up with his left hand. He brought these bits with him to the market.

He sold the eyes and teeth of the bear for some copper pieces, and its nose sold for 1 iron piece. The meat in a bear's cheeks was known as a delicacy in this part of the world, so Isaac managed to sell the rest of the head for 1.5 iron pieces.

Then he headed to the alchemy shop 'Herbal Fumes' to sell his claws.

"Hello again!" The alchemy disciple was as cheerful as usual, "Are you here to sell more claws?"

"That depends on what price you can offer."

The alchemist's smile disappeared like she'd dropped it.

"I really can't give you much... I've already spent most of my allowance on claws from your friend. I can give you 1 reward point per collection of claws."

"I apologise, but that simply isn't enough. If you can offer 2 more iron pieces, then we can start to negotiate. If you can't do that, I'm afraid I can't even discuss selling them."

The woman smiled wryly in response. She wasn't going to give a better offer.

Isaac knew the market price and he knew this wasn't the only apothecary buying animal claws. He always came back here since he had been offered good prices whenever he came, not because he had any kind of loyalty or affection towards the store. Now that the money was gone, so was he. He picked his bag up off the counter and promptly left.

Now that it was becoming difficult to rob anyone, Isaac would struggle to complete any collections of claws. Since the alchemist disciple wasn't giving him a good price anymore either, he had no reason to continue stockpiling claws. He would just find a good buyer and sell all of them.

Since he had the collection of claws with him right now, he sold them to an elderly alchemist for 1.2 reward points. He told the alchemist that he had more to sell and the alchemist seemed very interested. It looked like he could get a good price for them, so Isaac headed home to retrieve his stockpile of claws.

However, a deeply unpleasant sight greeted him when he walked into his street.

The door to his home was open. It had been bashed to bits and was hanging off of 1 hinge. It almost looked like a battering ram had been used to break it down.

Inside Isaac's house was even worse. His cupboards and draws were all open and his food, clothes, cutlery and various other things were flung haphazardly around the room. His mattress had been thrown off of his bed, and his duvet and pillowcases were torn open. Someone had searched this place, and searched it thoroughly. They'd even discovered the false bottom in one of his draws, and his hoard of animal claws was gone.

He'd been robbed.