The man looked at them again, pricking his ears and checking on the boy, who was talking with the bartender.

"Anyways, that old woman ran once she heard that "your friends" were Valkyries," Serina said, tucking the necklace into her shirt and finishing her drink. She scowled at the empty mug before turning around in her seat to glare at Oliver. He'd given her a small cup.
Claire thought of the elderly lady they had bought the medicine from while Oliver ignored Serina. She had looked suspicious, but had been the only one in town selling medicine that might've helped Luka. Serina had been covering her ears and had not shown her fangs when they saw her, so the older woman probably didn't know back then that if she tricked them, Serina was more than capable of taking her life for it.

The Valkyrie looked at the boy as he walked over and took her tiny mug, giving it to the bartender. His clothes were similar to the man in the back of the room except he had shorts on, no boot spats, and no hat. They looked similar feature wise other than the boy's bright green eyes, while the adolescent had blue ones.

"Suppose that boy's smarter than that guy?" Serina asked, smirking at the boy's tie, which was tied correctly unlike the man's and his clothes were neater as if he took better care of them.
Claire looked at the boy, then the man. "Not sure. He's pretty good at card games. I think one's lazier than the other, though."
Serina nodded. "I think I saw the boy once when I came here before. You don't want to mess with him. Oliver seems to like him, and he has a protective sister."

The man had focused on the game again—which had switched to Black Jack—and was still winning. The boy walked over and stood next to the man, leaning on him.
"Noah, you're running them dry. Haven't you played enough? We need to go back to get Alice. She's probably strangling Break."
One of the guys playing against the man looked up and said, "You ain't going nowhere 'till I win a round."

The man sitting next to the other looked up at him and said, "But I won once, can't we go now? You won't have any more money soon."
The first one glared at the other, and the boy's brother laughed.
"Here, how 'bout this," the man started, ruffling the younger boy's hair. "If you beat Oz, you'll get half of your money back. If he wins, we get to leave without any further arguments, 'kay, Borah?"
The first man looked at the boy.
"But, he looks like he's only 12."
"13, actually; almost 14. Don't forget he's my brother, though." The young man grinned.
Oz scowled up at Noah, while the man narrowed his eyes.

"Fine. What game, little boy?"
Oz looked over at Oliver, who just  shrugged from behind the counter.
He sighed and said, "Rummy."
"Okay," the man grunted, gathering the cards and eyeing his coins on Noah's side of the table.

"Who's gonna win?" Serina asked Claire as Noah shuffled the cards.
"The boy. I feel like I've seen him before somewhere too, but I'm certain it wasn't here," Claire replied as the older brother started passing them out; 7 cards each.

The man went first. The bell attached to the door rang as Oz won in less than 4 and a half minutes. The man's mouth was still half open as Oz took his cards up and put them back in the box. The boy gave the card deck back to Oliver and kicked Noah in the leg, who had gone over to the counter to talk with the bartender; not even bothering to watch the game.
"Go get your money, so we can leave," Oz said as the man's friend started laughing along with a couple of other people nearby.

"Okay, okay—no need to hurt me," the older brother said, grinning and walked back to the table. He slipped all the coins except for several of the second man's into a leather pouch. He had stopped playing after half his money was gone, and was currently slapping Borah's shoulder, teasing him while wiping tears from the corner of his eyes.

Noah put the pouch in a pocket on the inside of his vest and waved to Oliver, then winked at Claire and Serina again, who rolled her pink-red eyes. As Oz walked over to the door, the man got up and put a hand to his shoulder, stopping him. He turned around to look at Borah, his eyes skeptical and suspicious.
"Yes?" Oz asked, brushing the man's hand off his shoulder.
Before he could move out of the way, the man took out a dagger and grabbed the boy by the shirt. He held it against Oz's throat as the point of a rapier stopped less than a centimeter of the man's neck.

Claire's eyes widened and she stood up, looking at the rapier.
"Let him go," Noah said, his voice no longer playful, and tightening his grip on the hilt of the sword.
The man looked down at the rapier with his eyes, unable to move his head lest he wanted a pierced neck.
"They're Nightrays," Claire breathed and Serina looked at her in surprise, pushing back her chair as well.

"You knew that you would walk out with my money, Noah," the man half growled.
"So what, you're the one that betted all of it 'till you were broke. Now, remove the dagger, don't make me repeat myself."
The man's friend looked at them nervously a couple feet away.
"Come on. We both know you won't do anything for sure if I got this brat," Borah snarked, arrogantly pushing the dagger's blade toward Oz's neck more. A trickle of blood went down his neck as Oz winced, trying to get the man's arm away from him.
Noah narrowed his eyes, which were starting to glitter with anger.

"Alright! Your attention, please!" Serina yelled before the Nightray skewered the man's neck; her cloak on the floor, and eyes glowing...and Claire gone.
"What? You wanna try and save this boy?" Borah asked, not paying attention to the shadow moving near the wall behind him.
"Oh, no... Not directly, that is."
The Valkyrie grinned as there was the sound of metal against metal and the man jumped back in surprise, releasing the boy.
Claire had drawn her claymore and dislodged the daggger from his hand, away from Oz. He ducked under the man's arms and ran to Noah, a hand to his neck.
Claire cut the man's forearm as he ran towards her, trying to fight her hand to hand, and her hood fell backwards. Noah fought with the man's friend when he tried to get Claire in the black, pulling a dagger out as well.

There was a flash as a black scythe appeared in Serina's hands, who was suddenly a lot closer to the fight, and she slashed downwards; seperating the four, but almost demolishing the floor.
She looked at the first man, jabbing a finger in his direction, and said, "How disgraceful. You lose and pitch a fit against a boy a good 20 years younger than your fat *ss. Even I wouldn't do that, and I have anger issues as well as being younger than you."