"What business do you have here?"
The guard was hostile. Mergo showed no signs of matching that hostility—he preferred words.
But Lawrence moved first.
Without hesitation, he charged the armored man, morphing his arm into a monstrous crimson-black spear of flesh.
In a savage blow, Lawrence's arm pierced the guard's chest and tore through his back.
He screamed like a madman as tendrils exploded from his arm, bursting through the knight's body and ripping it into scattered chunks of meat.
Not that the guard's screams could be heard clearly over Lawrence's frenzied howling.
As for Mergo, he simply pulled out his usual drink and sipped calmly, waiting.
A few minutes later, the orphanage door creaked open ... and out stepped a single man.
From inside, Mergo could see the children peeking from the windows, fear etched in their eyes as they looked to that man. Their hope rested on him, as if he were their only savior.
