Dominic prowled forwards towards the large group of Gnolls that were stood around in small circles, various small fires and piles of refuse were scattered around and the air was thick with smoke despite the relatively open area they were occupying. Dominic wasn’t keen on the underground warren of old piping and tunnels that the Gnolls occupied, they were cramped and resources were scarce and that was before you even considered the hundreds of competing individuals that called them home. The closest group of Gnolls eyed him as he moved past, glares and barred teeth being flashed his way as a warning to stay away. Graffiti covered practically every surface and the sound of chatter and laughter was heard echoing from practically every direction as the smell of burning carrion and other delightful scents reached his way. He scanned the many groups looking for one of his littermates, but thus far they eluded him as he continued to make his way through the throng. 

“Hey Dom! Dominic!” came the sounds of a voice from behind him trying to get his attention, the Gnoll twisting his head he groaned inwardly as he saw one of the smaller and more abused of the Gnolls that Fix had rejected several times. 

“What is it Jit?” he grumbled as the considerably smaller Gnoll scurried up to him with his eyes darting around. Dom quickly noticed that he had obviously been in several fights recently, his neck and muzzle being covered in large crusty scabs that were practically still oozing where they had cracked open and re-healed several times. Dom continued to move and even quickened his pace slightly as Jit rushed to keep up as he smirked knowing that Jit was one of the more untrustworthy and desperate of the runts around here. 

“You wanna put in that good word for me yet?” He asked his beady eyes darting around at the others that were watching the pair make their way through the large group “I got something to trade ya”. 

Dom rolled his eyes dreading what he was about to endure, the last time Jit had offered him a trade he had been in possession of what had turned out to be a rather fake ‘magical’ artefact, a small mouse skull amulet that he had insisted was blessed with good luck – but turned out to just be a small dead rodent on a piece of string. Before that Fix had given the Gnoll a chance, giving him a small quantity of Dust to sell, but Jit had disappeared for weeks before reappearing and claiming he had been attacked and the cash he’d made from selling it had been taken, not that anyone had believed him for even a second. 

“Piss off Jit” barked Dom as he went down into one of the open pipeways that lead deeper into the Gnoll’s warren. The small Gnoll looked dejected but kept by his side. 

“You ain’t gonna sell me anything either?” he asked. Dom paused and again rolled his eyes.

“Got cash?” replied Dom glaring at him for a moment. Jit licked his snout before he glanced down at the ground, his expression saying more than his words could. 

“Piss of Jit” repeated Dom this time a slight growl escaping him. The small Gnoll this time took the hint and disappeared within a few moments, already aware of the penalty for trying his luck too many times. 

It took him almost an hour before he spotted a group with several of his brothers amongst them. The greetings and ‘reunion’ of sorts were short lived and felt only half sincere, though they perked up when he handed his eldest brother a bag filled with cash – after all family was important even if Dom considered Fix and the crew more-so family than the one he had been born with. Fix had earned his trust and loyalty, as Dom before had earnt his with his enterprising employer. 

After that Dom had been interested to learn that as far as his brothers and the Hunters were concerned, they’d had nothing at all to do with the attack on the Militia or the Blood that had gone missing. Going as far as to in hushed tones imply that some of the Hunters had traced the culprit to some butchers shop somewhere in the city – though beyond that they hadn’t been heard from again and hadn’t provided any more information to the Gnolls, so they were at a bit of a dead end and couldn’t tell him anything else. 

“Oh and Dom” added his brother in his guttural accent “word is someone was lookin for your boss and some of the pack rolled on his location, just a heads up. Wouldn’t wanna see you get dead for that idiot”. 

Not like Dom didn’t already know that, having had the pleasure of meeting the Anansi with Fix and listened to their conversation. Regardless he thanked his brother and assured them he’d be about more, not that he intended to follow through with it but such words were always polite. He failed to mention that he thought it was the rest of the Gnolls who were the real idiots, skulking down here without a single ambition beyond what they considered to be their own little realm. 

As he was leaving Dom spotted from across the way Gideon, Fix’s eldest brother and self-proclaimed ‘leader’ of several of the little gangs that the Gnolls comprised. He was glaring at him without restraint, flanked by several of his cronies. Fortunately it looked like they weren’t making any moves towards him and they simply stared as he made his way out. The words of the Anansai struck him suddenly, that some of the other Gnolls were envious of Fix’s ambitions and success. He wondered possibly if Gideon had anything to do with the breech of location and made a note to talk to Fix about it. 

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Grizzo hawked back the slime that was gathering in the back of his throat, half gargling half snorting as he did before he spat out the huge loogie directly into the face of the man that was stood in front of him brandishing a savagely serrated blade.  

“That… was… not… wise” growled the man in broken English, his thick accent dominating his speech and he glared at the goblin who was strung from an old rusty coat hook bound by thick ropes. The Chinese man had a shaved head with a little strand of braided black hair hanging down at the back, wearing what looked like silken robes embroidered with fancy patterns and swirling colours. 

“That was not wise” mimicked Grizzo in his most irritating high pitched voice as he struggled wildly attempting anything he could to do to get himself loose. The ropes around his wrists cut deeply into him and warm blood was starting to trickle down his arms as he did so, but it was amazing how motivating the threat of imminent death and torture was against the pain. The man frowned deeply and took a small step forwards as he pressed the large knife into the restrained goblins chest and began to carve a deep gash from his collarbone down to his lower stomach, his frown turning into a slight grin as the goblin thrashed, squealed and cursed. 

“Ready to talk?” he questioned as he stopped and moved backwards to examine his handy work “I assure you that death by one-thousand cuts is not pleasant. I am an expert in making sure that you will not draw your last breath before I have the information I need”. 

“Chink! Gook! Fucking Yellowman!!” screeched Grizzo as again he tried to hawk some spit at his interrogator, but this time it was more of a feeble spray as the pain radiating through the goblin started to be almost unbearable.  

The evening continued much in the same fashion for what felt like more than a few hours, though as the sun started to set with it went the goblin’s enthusiasm, his torso and arms soon  covered in a generous  amount of deep cuts and roughly carved Chinese symbols his interrogator had grifted into his flesh with a sadistic glee.

“We didn’t take your blood” spluttered the goblin meekly for what must have been at least the tenth time, wracking coughs also escaping him “Are you fuckin stupid? Everyone knows it was the Militia… why would we sell out the merchandise we were going to buy?” 

“Maybe you think they sell for cheaper? Maybe your boss is báichī to know to cross Tong to die? All know Gnoll dishonest backstabbers… just like soulless Mogwai like you. You will tell where you base is and how to get in” he said once more approaching the goblin with the blade drawn.

As once more Grizzo’s screeches rang out there was suddenly a echoing bang that wrung through the small warehouse, causing the interrogator to swing around as a floor grate in the far corner  slammed open and thick smoke began to bellow upwards out of it, the huge plume spreading rapidly and obscuring  the entire southern end of the large room. 

The interrogator shouted rapidly in thick Chinese, above him on a raised metal walkway several more Tong members emerged from a control room with various guns clasped in their hands as they took up positions aimed at the smoke. There were a tense few moments as they waited and exchanged confused looks, before suddenly a wild stream of screaming Goblins and Gnolls not only charged forwards, but several of them also disappeared with brief blue flashes, moments later reappearing in various other positions as the Runez that coursed through their systems started to kick in. 

The sound of gunfire was deafening as the Tong opened up, moments later their attackers returning fire and the warehouse was filled with shouts of pain and confusion as two more smoke grenades flew from the previous plume and clattered to the ground before they began to hiss and spit out copious amounts of obscuring smoke that added to the chaos and reducing the vision within the warehouse to practically nothing. Occasionally a cry sounded as someone took a round and crumpled to the ground, their death throes adding to the symphony of bullet-fire. 

As his interrogator took a few steps backwards Grizzo took the opportunity presented to him and as the man came within range he sunk his little savage teeth into the back of the man’s neck, clamping down as hard as he could. As the man screamed and tried to pull away the goblin focused every inch of his being into biting down as hard as he could, maintaining the grip for a few moments longer before the man tore free and stumbled forwards twisting around, his face contorted in rage as his own blood ran thickly down his shoulders and back. He screamed in Chinese and lifted the knife before lunging forwards, intent on ending the life of the disobedient little creature before he could be freed. 

Another gob of hot phlegm, now mixed with his own blood was his reward as Grizzo somehow found the strength to once more spit, hitting him squarely in the eye – the goblin cackling as in shock the man stopped for a second to wipe his eye clean with a grimace. Before he could resume his momentum and plunge his blade into the goblin an ominous shape appeared in the cloud behind him and leapt onto the man, pinning him to the ground as the knife clattered off disappearing into the smoke. Grizzo watched in glee as he saw Fix, his face contorted into an otherworldly snarl, his eyes practically glowing a deep red as the Gnoll was obviously under the effects of Demon’s Blood as he mauled and reduced his interrogator into a writhing bloody mess. A few moments later at his side Diero appeared and with a quick motion had used a flip-knife to cut him free and hauled the goblin onto his shoulders before he began to run back into the smoke towards the grate that they had attacked through. As they did so Grizzo found the motivation to yell “Fuck em all boss! Fuckem till their all good and dead!” 

The Gnoll however did not hear him and moments later left the Chineseman’s bleeding corpse and bounded away heading for the metal stairs that would lead him up to the walkway towards those enemies that were still alive as bloodlust took ahold of him. 

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The smoke had long since cleared and Fix was sat on a crate cradling his head in his hands as he waited for the whispers he heard and his throbbing headache to subside, fortunately for him he still had the presence of mind to ignore their gnawing suggestions that his most trusted allies were all betraying him and laughing at him behind his back (as well as that he was by far the most hideous Gnoll that had ever lived, which was obviously untrue as far as he was concerned). He glanced down at his suit and shirt, now almost completely soaked in blood and beyond any chance of being able to salvage or clean the garments – he smirked softly at the thought of the dry-cleaning bill he would receive. Though on the one hand he felt slightly nauseous at what he had descended into, on the other it had felt so good, so pure and so animalistic that he hadn’t wanted to stop and in fact it was only when each of the Tong members lay dead that he had finally started to calm down. Right now it was hard to care beyond the fact that this would probably cause problems. Lots of problems. Definitely cause lots of problems. But the Chinatown Tong had started this whole mess and kidnapped one of his own and as far as he was concerned that was a declaration of war and to not respond in kind would have left them weak and exposed, something that they definitely could not afford at this moment.

Beyond that word had just reached him that he had apparently killed Eddie Martovanni - so he was beyond confused. 

“Everything alright boss?” queried Diero as he moved forwards now wearing a luxurious kimono that he had found in one of the many boxes in the factory. 

“Whisky…” croaked Fix, causing the Gnoll to scurry away immediately, knowing that without a drink it wouldn’t be long before his employer descended into one of the darkest moods possible, something that everyone would want to prevent at such a key moment. 

Fix hardly moved as each second ticked by slower than the one before it. At some point one of the goblins from Grizzo’s family came up and thanked him, promising him that if he ever needed any assistance they’d be happy to suffice.  He made a mental note to talk to them later and see if there were any others that could be trusted to join his operation, but right now he managed little more than a few grunts and nods of comprehension. 

Diero returned shortly after with a bottle of whisky which he quickly gulped down, warmth and a feeling of slight relief flooding through his system as he did. Once he had finished he tossed the empty bottle aside and lit a cigarette before he stood and began to bark orders. The factory would need to be looted, he would need to see Grizzo and more importantly he would need to find out what the fuck was going on with the Italians and why the word was that he had killed one of them and gotten himself within their good books. [i]‘Today is getting better and better’[/i] he thought sarcastically as he took another deep drag. The shipment from the Italians was sure to be interesting, and as such he’d make sure that this time he wasn’t alone and that everyone involved had enough firepower to make anyone think twice about a showdown.