Autophagy

Aston and Song Lei looked through the gaps between the shelves from their hiding place. They were currently in the warehouse Song Lei had scouted out before. Hector, the leader of the Wolf Gang was right there, sitting in a circle with his men. Right in the middle of them was a commoner tied to a chair. Although he was a grown man, he was crying like a little baby.

"You took that money and thought of running away huh..?" Hector said with his rough voice. Hector was a man in his thirties with black hair and brown eyes. His body seemed frail under his clothes, however, Song Lei and Aston were sure that that wasn\'t the case. After all, how could a criminal organization of this scale\'s leader be weak?

"I- I swear I wasn\'t trying... *Sob... To run away..." The man said with hardship amidst his hiccups. "I- I can bring the money a week later if you let me go! Please!"

"Hmm... What do you think? Should I let him go?" Hector asked the thug next to him. A wicked smile appeared on the thug\'s face.

"No boss! You should use him as a toy! If he can\'t pay using money, he should pay with his body!" The thug said. Hearing his words, the commoner\'s face contradicted. His beggings turned into inaudible cries for help.

"That\'s indeed a good advice..." Hector said. He rested his chin on one of his hands and thought while closing his eyes. "How about we spice the things up a little? Why don\'t we bring his wife and children here? I\'m sure he would be happy to see them before he dies."

As Hector\'s voice reached the man\'s ears, he stopped completely. His expression darkened.

"Sick bastard..." Song Lei whispered while watching the heinous acts of Hector. If he could, he would jump out right there and then to kill him. Unfortunately, they couldn\'t do such a stupid thing and risk their chance of killing him.

After all, The Wolf Gang had turned out to be a much bigger organization than they had initially thought. If Aston and Song Lei were to expose their intentions and fail in killing Hector, they would lessen their chances of a successful assassination by a lot.

Even though he wasn\'t particularly in an alert mode, Hector always went around with ten thugs acting as bodyguards for him. He was already this careful. In the case Aston and Song Lei were to fail their first attempt, the second one would be much harder.

The reason why Song Lei hadn\'t acted on his own was this. No matter what he did, he wouldn\'t be able to beat eleven people who were well-versed in fistfights on his own. They hadn\'t been provided with the sniper rifles from the Orphanage, so that option was out too. His only remaining choice was to get help from Aston if he wanted to finish this in a single attempt.

"Not them..." The commoner muttered. His eyes went blank when he heard his wife and children being mentioned. This was what he feared. He could try to put up with whatever they did to him, however, his family getting mixed up into this was something he couldn\'t deal with.

"Oh god... Did he really break down just from that!?" Hector shouted. His crazed voice resounded inside the warehouse. He got up from his place and went to the man\'s side.

"HAHAHA! He is broken! He broke down just from that!" He shouted. Suddenly, he calmed down and bent forward towards the man\'s ears. "Or is he acting like he is broken..?" He whispered into his ear. The man shook at his notion. A drop of sweat slid off of his cheek. For some reason, Song Lei felt like he had seen a similar scene to this before.

"I\'m sorry! Please! Just kill me! Torture me! Do whatever you want but don\'t hurt them!" The man started shouting. His screams seemed to put Hector in an ecstatic state as a wide grin appeared on his face. After savoring the screams of the man, Hector turned towards his men.

"Bring his wife and daughter here," he ordered. There were ten bodyguards with Hector currently. Three of them nodded and left the warehouse to complete Hector\'s orders.

"This is our chance," Song Lei whispered into Aston\'s ear. Aston nodded and took out a soul dagger from his bag. Song Lei, too, took out a soul dagger and held it with his right hand before taking out his handgun from his belt.

They waited five minutes so that they were sure the three guards had left. The only reason they decided to launch their attack now was the fact that there were three fewer enemies they would need to deal with.

Because Hector would always have his men by his side no matter where he was, this would be the only chance Aston and Song Lei would have at killing Hector.

Readying themselves, Song Lei signaled Aston to move.

Taking cover, Song Lei started shooting his gun. Unfortunately, it didn\'t take long for Hector\'s men to take cover and leave his sight. He was only able to shoot two of them down before that. He had expected this as these people were used to armed battles. It was enough as long as he was able to shoot two of them down.

After all of the enemies had taken their covers, Aston and Song Lei started traveling between the racks like two ghosts. They didn\'t make any footstep sounds as they kept walking. Because the warehouse was mostly dark, it was incredibly hard for normal people to see them.

However, things would get harder as they kept approaching the enemies as they were near a light source, unlike Song Lei and Aston.

As they kept weaving through the racks, Song Lei managed to locate one of the bodyguards.

"He is here! Come here, bastard!" The bodyguard shouted as soon as he saw Song Lei. A split second later, gunshots started being fired towards Song Lei. Song Lei kept his speed at max. If he were to slow down, he would instantly get shot. Seeing Song Lei charge at incredible speeds towards him, the bodyguard lost his composure. He tried to take out his own gun but he failed to do so.

Utilizing this chance, Song Lei raised his speed to the utmost and stabbed the dagger into his opponent\'s neck. He was unable to make any sounds as his throat was slashed.

Song Lei didn\'t slow down in any way after cutting his opponent down. He feared that he would be shut down if he were to stop. He made sure that he was in a solid cover before he stopped to take a breather.

While he was gathering his energy, a shrill scream sounded on the other side of the warehouse.

\'That should be Aston,\' Song Lei thought. The scream didn\'t belong to him, so Song Lei was a bit relieved. Dispersing these needless thoughts, Song Lei charged towards his next target. In no time, all of the bodyguards were taken down by Song Lei and Aston. Now, it was Hector\'s turn.

"Stop! Both of you!" Hector shouted. Song Lei and Aston looked towards Hector who was now standing right behind the commoner that they had tied onto a chair. He had a gun in his hand, its barrel aimed right towards the man. "If you move, I\'ll shoot!"

*BANG

"Blergh..."

Aston didn\'t care what Hector was saying so he just raised his gun and fired it. Hector wasn\'t expecting them to be so ruthless. A small hole appeared on his forehead as blood started flushing out of it. His grasp on the gun in his hand loosened.

"Huh... That was easier than I expected..." Aston muttered. Song Lei was confused too. He couldn\'t understand why Hector would try such a stupid tactic. After all, in others\' eyes, he and Aston should\'ve been cold-blooded assassins.

\'Why would Hector think that Song Lei and Aston would waver in such a situation?\' Song Lei thought. Suddenly, he felt a cold wave of air hit his body. All of his hair stood on their end. \'Something is wrong...\'

Song Lei worked his brain as fast as he could. Aston didn\'t seem to have realized anything out of the ordinary. Why would Song Lei have such a feeling while Aston didn\'t?

\'What is the difference between us..?\' Song Lei kept trying to deduce. Suddenly, his eyes widened with anxiousness as he shouted towards Aston. \'Quick! Throw me the Soul monocle!\'

As soon as Aston heard Song Lei\'s words, he frowned and took out the soul monocle from his backpack before throwing it towards Song Lei. All of this took less than a second for him to do. Aston knew Song Lei wouldn\'t ask for the soul monocle without any reason.

Song Lei caught the monocle on the air and held it to his eye without adjusting it. He glanced towards Hector\'s corpse.

"Well.... Fuck."