The attack Loa had expected never came. That struck him as strange. He stepped into the hall and found only rows of lifelike Ice sculptures.
"No ambush?" Loa looked around and walked farther into the casino.
The once-gilded casino had turned white. Ice covered everything, radiating cold.
Gamblers and attendants stood frozen where they had been, their poses unchanged.
They had no idea what had happened. They had heard an explosion, and then they had frozen.
Loa looked around but found nothing unusual. He approached a man who looked like the casino manager and knocked the shell of ice off him.
"Hah!" Able to breathe again, the man gulped down air. It took him a while to recover from the suffocation.
Then he recognized the man in front of him. He stopped breathing hard and stared at Loa in terror. "W-what do you want?"
"Don't get so worked up." Loa draped an arm around his shoulders and leaned close. The blood streaking his left cheek made him look even more savage.
"I just want to know where your boss Russ is. If you know, tell me. If you don't..."
Loa left the sentence unfinished, but the murderous intent in his voice was unmistakable.
The suited manager trembled like a frightened quail.
"I-I'll tell you! Don't kill me! Boss Russ is in the basement, all the way at the bottom. I don't know what he's doing there."
"The basement?" Loa glanced down. Even through the thick floor, he could clearly sense signs of life below.
There were people down there, and other things too.
"Interesting. Another trap?" Loa sneered and struck the manager, sending him flying. The blow nearly crushed the man's organs. He slammed into the opposite wall and only slid down after a long moment, barely breathing.
Propped against