The Innkeeper



Under a familiar night sky was a battlefield filled with rubble which once used to belong to some ancient ruins, which were no doubt once a glorious civilization. The battlefield seemed to stretch into forever, and perhaps if the combatants made it far enough, they would once again see some standing ruins. But sightseeing was not really on the agenda for the two combatants, locked in a fight to the death.

John's repertoire consisted of exceedingly lethal and deadly attacks, but the greatest flaw of those attacks was that they were more geared towards assassination than combat. They were designed to be swift, piercing and devastating. But for all the might that they packed, to use each one certain conditions needed to be met. Matching those conditions in the midst of active combat was difficult, to say the least.

But any assassin worth his salt would also know that in case of a failed assassination, he might have to face active combat and perhaps even a siege, so their skills were more than sufficient even in combat, if not quite as good as their assassination.

The issue John was facing, however, was that the massive centipede-like creature he was facing was ridiculously strong. Even in optimal conditions John might not be able to assassinate him, let alone now that the target was aware of his intentions.

John, who was perfectly hidden within the fold of space within a shadow, discovered that much like the Mystery trial, any assassination plan his system helped him conjure would always be perfectly countered by this enemy. It was only when he attempted his own methods that he got even a hint of a positive result, despite the systems approach being more rounded than his own.

He did not know who this fellow was, nor why he had gone crazy in provoking him, but John was not about to take things lightly. Even if direct assassination methods spawned by the system were not working, he had other methods he could use.

John's eye turned black and he once again got ready for one of their brief but deadly clashes. Strange black lines began creeping up on his skin, line tendrils of an unspeakable evil, encroaching upon his body from an unknown abyss.

While John readied his next attack, the centipede-like creature stood silent and confident in the Murder grounds. As a member of the system hunter organization, his personal strength had been judged to be enough to hunt the average system wielder even if he was alone. It would not be so easy to take him down. Moreover, while the creature knew its opponent had a system, John did not know that his greatest secret had already been revealed to the opponent - to a small degree.

The advantage that knowledge presented could either be small or great. But the only thing that was certain, was that the outcome of this battle could not yet be determined based on the advantages any one party had over the other.

*****

The entire security tem surrounded the three rhinocntaurs, watching as Luthor aggravated them. Truthfully, their actions were breaking the rules. The three 'guests' had not done anything illegal, and so it was not appropriate to punish them by blocking their exit from the Inn. Technically speaking, even their challenge to the Murder grounds had been legal.

As if blocking their exit was not bad enough, Luthor even came with the intention of attacking them. Considering all of this was against the rules, all the workers felt quite uncomfortable doing it. But Luthor's plan had personally been approved by Gerard, the head of security. Moreover, the greatest reason Luthor and everyone else were so agitated was that their memory of what had happened to their fellow workers was extremely fresh. In fact, Besides the security team, Harry himself was also present in the encirclement. Although strictly speaking he was not a combatant, and he was not one of the workers that the Inn summoned itself, his attachment to the Midnight Inn was one of the greatest.

As someone who had to rely only on his own skills and connections to live, being accepted by everyone and having a home like the Midnight Inn was beyond a dream. Even before everything was completely ruined on earth, he was a lot more likely to end up homeless and broke than anything else.

So, bound by the feelings of home, of friendship, of loyalty he stood at the forefront. Even if he was not the one who had been challenged to the deathmatch, he would not stand aside and watch as one of his own was threatened.

Recently, a silent sentiment had been spreading amongst all the workers of the Inn. Most of them had no memories before the Inn, and knew no life other than the Inn. Even after interacting with countless guests and learning about the outside world, they did not feel as if they were missing out. In fact, they felt even closer to their coworkers and the Inn.

But if there was one thing that the guests had that they often did not, which made them somewhat envious, was a surname. At some point, as a joke, a certain guest had joked that they were all a part of the Midnight family. But like an ember falling on a pile of dry leaves, the joke did not disappear. Instead, it grew into a small fire which was slowly and steadily turning into a roaring flame.

In fact, unbeknownst to Lex, after he recovered from his near fatal injuries, Harry had given up his original surname of 'Styles' and taken on the surname Midnight.

So now, facing these three conspirators, it was not Harry Styles standing ready for war. It was Harry Midnight, the proud and powerful Glamor Sorcerer of the Inn.

Beside him stood not his coworkers and neighbors, but his chosen family. After all, the blood of the covenant was thicker than the water of the womb.