A muscular yet lean arm locked Lawrence’s neck tightly while dragging him deeper into the alleway. He tried clawing at the attacker in an attempt to make him let go, however the difference in strength was simply too high.
In his moment of panic, he recalled something that his son had told him:
“Calmness is essential for survival, that’s why a prey must act like a predator in order to survive.”
Lawrence was confused at the snake’s words, so he asked what he meant. “But isn’t a person’s first instinct is to run when they’re in danger?”
The old man swore he’d seen a soft smile on the snake’s plain expression as he spoke.
“Well, that’s exactly the mindset of a prey, don’t you think?”
At that moment, Lawrence finally understood what his son was trying to tell him. His eyes glanced towards his hip, where his short sword was being covered by his trench coat, and an idea sparkled in his mind.
“Calm…?”
His hands swiftly went down towards the grip of the weapon and the sword was drawn in almost an instant, the blade flickered upwards at the attacker’s wrist.
Although the other man’s reflexes were sharp as well since he let go of Lawrence and backed away, creating some distance between the two.
He turned to face the attacker and realized that he was dressed very nicely in a black suit, as if he was about to go on a date—or maybe he’s a butler for a very rich family.
At his wrist was a small cut that’d been made when Lawrence swung his short sword.
“Who are you?”
The other old man's blue eyes gleamed eerily. “Me? Oh you don’t need to know, good sir. If you come with me quietly then it’ll save us a lot of time.”
The butler’s hair was entirely grey, unlike Lawrence, indicating that the other man was a lot older than him.
Despite that though, the strength of his neck lock was certainly not something to scoff at.
“…An awakened?”
The butler didn’t continue to waste anymore time standing still, he rushed at Lawrence with an incredible speed while he held a small needle between his fingers, as if planning to use that to fight against a sword.
Just as Lawrence was about to dodge though, he suddenly felt multiple sharp stings run down his back. His eyes widened with shock and pain which created an opening for the butler to tackle him and pinned him to the ground.
‘Kuhk..!”
“Hm? Did you think that I seriously didn’t come prepared?” The older man spoke as a creepy smirk appeared on his lips. “Don’t worry though, good sir, the poison isn’t life-threatening, it’ll just paralyze you for a bit until I can escort you to Young Master.”
“Young…master?”
“Oh you must’ve realized by now, no? Those two trash dared to upset Young Master, so I’m here to finish what they couldn’t.”
“!!!”
Lawrence immediately knew where this butler had come from, he gritted his teeth with anger. “Damn It! Let me go and fight like a man, you coward!”
“Coward?” The old man laughed maniacally. “Oh, good sir, you weren’t even on your guard when walking around the streets, I doubt that a normal person couldn’t kill you!”
The butler got off of him and began dusting his own clothes. “Well, it doesn’t matter anyway, you’ll still lose to me even if we’d fought.”
Suddenly, the older man snapped his fingers, at first nothing had happened, but only after the echoes of the snap had dissipated that Lawrence felt something was wrong.
YOU ARE READING
Revenge of the Serpent
FantasyIn a world where suddenly it's every man for himself. A young, popular boy from a prestigious high school had unknowingly triggered an influential man's child and had to recouped with his life. In his last moments, as the heavy rain poured onto his...
