Chapter 103: Surprise
Suddenly. Aoto felt the surroundings were a bit different, he felt things far away looked quite blurry.
Then even blurrier. Aoto immediately entered a state of vigilance and turned repeatedly to look around.
—"Huh, not good."
Around him at this moment was being surrounded by a thin grey smoke.
—"What is it? Fog? Smoke?"
—"Someone is having intentions toward me? Followed me when in the market?"
Aoto realized his sensing was becoming difficult. As if the sensing was only surrounded within this smoke layer.
The energy he felt was as if being drained away. And he felt his concentration and vigilance were not good at all.
Aoto was quite bewildered, eyes still scanning around.
—"Energy feels like it's being lost, sensing ability is also neutralized, I even feel I am being neglected."
—"Seems like this smoke layer is weakening me."
—"But what to do? He might launch a surprise attack on me."
Energy radiated around him with a green color. He clearly felt that weakness, it would make it difficult for him when fighting.
—"Not good, feeling my energy is being lost. Now if running into the smoke the possibility of being surprise attacked is certain."
Suddenly, the smoke layer in front manifested a figure, but it was no one, but simply someone created it.
Aoto frowned when seeing it smile lightly then vanish.
—"It's waiting for me to weaken further."
Whoosh!!!
A sword from behind Aoto's back launched with very fast speed, tearing apart the thin smoke layer. Silver light flashed from the sword, glowing and sharp.
Aoto sensed it, immediately snapped back. He leaned his body back and the sword grazed above him. An expression of bewilderment was clearly shown.
—"Attacked already?"
Aoto reached out his hand and wanted to summon the energy spear. His hand glowed brightly, but then faded gradually.
Opened eyes knowing this would be a disadvantageous situation.
—"Damn it."
Unexpectedly, appearing in front of him. A figure both strange and familiar. It was Droven, the person he had bumped into when going in the black market.
Aoto still remembered and recognized, his face relaxed slightly, voice loud as if interrogating:
"You are the person I bumped into at the market, right? So what do you want? Money? Or just want to kill me?"
Droven with a cold face, soulless eyes but full of scratches looked at Aoto.
Right hand firmly held a glowing sword in hand, from the mouth breathed out a small trail of smoke.
—"Close, I need to sell you."
Aoto frowned before that answer.
"Sell me? You lack money."
Droven smiled awkwardly, hand lifted the sword and pointed toward Aoto.
"Right. The price of an Elf is very high, if I can sell you then surely it won't be under 50 gold coins, not to mention you are very young."
Aoto was quite surprised, he didn't understand why he could sense his energy.
—"The energy of an Elf is nearly the same as an Elemental, but an Elemental is stronger than an Elf in energy. He hasn't interacted with an Elemental so misunderstanding is certain."
—"But how can he sense through the hidden energy layer?"
Aoto felt he was falling into a difficult situation, he was extremely anxious.
"How did you sense it?"
Droven lowered the sword, still keeping the cold face.
"Since I was born, I have had the ability to sense better than others."
Then Droven laughed lightly, glancing at Aoto standing in front, face full of tension.
"Don't think of stalling for time, you cannot escape. The more you try to stall and think of ways, the weaker you become."
Aoto knew that, but he could not think of any way.
Suddenly, in Aoto's mind appeared many other Aotos. Large noise like a broken beehive kept echoing without hearing a single word clearly. But then he brushed them off and stopped thinking then they vanished.
Suddenly, Droven walked slowly over.
Aoto opened his eyes wide, he instinctively stepped back. But standing long in the smoke made him weak even in strength.
Aoto fell backward, bewildered eyes looking at Droven standing in front with a delighted face. He saw he was about to have money so he broke into a wide smile.
"Whether you run out early or late. I have already spread this smoke very wide. You running is also hard, only resisting."
Aoto trembled in intervals as he was about to be caught.
—"I should have run instead of staying and observing."
Droven reached out his hand, light obscured Aoto's vision. But he did not easily submit.
His energy radiated what was weakest.
Boom!!!
Aoto self-created energy to cause interference and exploded. The explosion was quite small but also created smoke and dust quite thick so looking in was quite hard.
Aoto panted, he ran behind the smoke and wanted to hide. But his legs were now limp without strength. Each running step was like carrying boulders. He ran a few steps and was already tired.
—"Damn it, must run. The cursed smoke."
But suddenly, Droven stood in front of Aoto from who knows when, he laughed lightly. Pointed his finger down below.
Aoto frowned, he bowed down and looked.
Droven's hand immediately bunched four fingers together: thumb, index, middle, and ring finger.
As for the pinky finger, it stood upright.
The left hand glowed strongly with blue light.
Under Aoto's feet immediately rose straight up a transparent rectangle with light blue color. It seemed that was a barrier.
Aoto immediately slammed his face into the barrier, he stepped back and clutched his nose. Bewildered eyes looking at the transparent blue barrier layer in front of eyes.
—"It's a barrier. I will be caught."
Droven stepped closer with a light smile, eyes showing a bit of joy. Voice full of mockery:
"Goodbye, pray that you will meet a good master."
Aoto ground his two rows of teeth with angry eyes looking at Droven.
Droven seeing that was even more joyful.
"Don't be angry at me."
Aoto growled his voice full of anger:
"You truly want to do this?"
Droven laughed lightly.
"Why not? You are weaker than me then you are defeated by me, and I am the winner. I can do whatever I like with the loser."
His face changed color, returning to a cold state.
The left hand approached the barrier and pressed the palm in. Aoto was bewildered, not clear what he wanted to do.
But it was clear. He pushed smoke inside and wanted to make Aoto choke.
He hurried close and wanted to stop it, but this was his barrier, this was his ability. He could not stop it.
In a moment, smoke had crowded tightly inside the barrier and it was impossible to see inside.
Inside, Aoto was coughing convulsively.
Cough…cough
He tried to breathe, but could not. Inside was only smoke and smoke. Tears and snot because of the smoke flowed out a lot.
Quickly, Aoto collapsed and fainted in the smoke after experiencing a period like being tortured.
Droven smiled, but he was still very vigilant. He kept it like that for a while longer, avoiding the case of Aoto faking death.
He calculated according to his sensing that if leaving it a bit more Aoto still could not die.
The smoke around was disappearing gradually, vision gradually returned to how it was. Only the box full of smoke remained, unable to see inside.
After a while, his left hand released the fingers, no longer bunched together. The barrier layer immediately vanished.
The smoke layer finally dissipated.
Right below were four quite large spheres, seemingly used for sealing. They emitted light yellow light.
Reaching out his hand, the spheres were as if sucked, immediately sucked into his hand in a gentle way.
He hoisted Aoto up and laughed lightly.
Night fell. The moon stood at the peak of the head, radiating cold silver light down upon all things. Under the moonlight, the scenery became ethereal and mysterious, trees, rooftops, or roads were all covered with a layer of sparkling light as if plated with silver.
The night sky was deep, not a single cloud, revealing millions of stars twinkling like giant diamonds someone had scattered. The sound of insects chirping, blending with the sound of the rustling wind, created a symphony of the night.
Even though it was night, this place was still lit with lamps. Bustling people walking back and forth and strolling in the night.
Kazuka and Takeshi met each other on the road segment going to the meeting spot.
Takeshi waved his hand and called loudly:
"Takeshi, I'm here."
Takeshi saw someone calling him, he turned over because he had also sensed Kazuka's energy. Just a bit hard to determine as it was still very crowded here.
Kazuka ran over, happily keeping a bright smile on his lips.
"Wait for me."
Takeshi: "Just go, arriving either way."
Then suddenly Kazuka's eyes darted and saw Airi, Elyssia, and Ayaka standing waiting. He pointed his finger and spoke loudly:
"Look, they're there."
Kazuka looked around, trying to find Aoto's figure but did not see him.
"Don't know what Aoto is doing that he hasn't arrived yet?"
Takeshi shook his head.
"What worry, he isn't a child."
Kazuka also nodded.
"Um, whatever. Probably in a bit I will wait for him and explain briefly."
Stepping close. The three girls turned over.
Ayaka only saw Kazuka and Takeshi without seeing Aoto anywhere. She pointed her finger, voice curious:
"Where is Aoto? Why only you two?"
Kazuka shrugged and shook his head.
"Don't know, we split up."
Airi: "What worry? He surely still has to work. And he isn't a child."
Takeshi looked at the three girls with quite dirty bodies.
"So let's go to the inn and rent."
Airi's voice curious:
"You have money to rent an inn?"
Takeshi nodded. Then glanced over Kazuka and laughed lightly.
"Right."
Airi glanced at both with narrow eyes.
"Don't say you guys went stealing then Aoto got caught?"
Elyssia still silently listened.
Takeshi and Kazuka puffed out their chests confidently.
Takeshi: "We have to steal?"
Kazuka also nodded.
"That's right, doing business properly."
Airi frowned and asked again:
"Is that right?"
Takeshi took from his person seven gold coins and eight copper coins. He held them out in front, making the three girls open eyes wide in surprise.
Finished showing off, Takeshi quickly put them back into his person and turned everywhere with a careful look.
Elyssia: "So much money."
Ayaka nodded.
"What did you do?"
Airi lowered her voice:
"How did you get it?"
Takeshi propped hands on both hips full of pride.
Kazuka retold: "We were just going on the road normally. Suddenly a person came out from behind a carriage and said: help him work and he will pay."
"After that he said if carrying some boxes into the house before noon he would pay ten gold coins, while until evening only five gold coins. But we said: if doing within one incense stick we would be paid twenty gold coins, and this person agreed."
Takeshi pointed his hand toward Kazuka and spoke instead:
"We divided equally to keep to avoid being lost."
Airi still felt it was untrustworthy.
"Carrying some boxes and getting that much money? Sounds a bit hard to believe."
Kazuka: "That person said: those boxes are Elixir. And that stuff the sooner used the better, so it was urgent."
Airi: "There truly are many types of medicine like that. But hearing such a high pay is truly hard to believe."
"I think those are addictive substances."
Takeshi shook his head.
"Surely not. There were many carriages and crowded places there. Who would dare do it?"
Elyssia: "The most dangerous place is the safest place."
Ayaka nodded.
"Maybe they bribed the guards."
Takeshi sighed.
"Anyway it's already like that, cannot be changed anymore."
"And the most dangerous place is the most dangerous place, right?"
Ayaka sighed. She shuddered when remembering back.
"I went to serve food at a very large eatery. Many nobles came there, but they kept looking at me with weird eyes."
Airi nodded, grinning cunningly.
"I was in the back arranging food which was also leisurely, sometimes even stealing snacks."
Elyssia saw she was the only one left who hadn't spoken, she also should introduce.
"I went to a shop selling from a person refining herbs through Elemental Fluid. I had to go into the forest and find herbs."
Takeshi pointed at himself.
"So Airi see if that place accepts people? I'll come work to conveniently protect you guys."
"Because I am working at a place building a house. And they usually pay after each workday. So can quit whenever."
Airi shook her head.
"No need, with you it'll only be more messy. When we have enough money, those noble guys who dare to pull tricks, I'll give a slash."
Kazuka at this time was still observing the surroundings, trying to search for Aoto.
"Don't know what Aoto is doing that he isn't here now?"
"He was assigned to go buy things."
Elyssia: "You guys split up?"
Kazuka did not hear, he still observed.
Takeshi answered instead:
"I went to find an inn, Aoto went to buy things, and Kazuka still went to find work."
The whole group was also gradually feeling worried, everyone was anxious, inside heating up like burning fire.
Ayaka lowered her voice showing clear worry:
"Would he have something happen?"
Elyssia was quite worried, but she still thought optimistically and trusted.
"Don't worry, he's strong."
Takeshi frowned, he self-repeated the word: "strong" in his head.
"Could he have met someone very strong and had trouble?"
Kazuka turned back, face showing clear worry.
"Looking in the crowd all this time and there's no one."
Takeshi: "Don't say something truly happened?"
Airi sighed, she lamented:
"Our group truly is unlucky."
"I think we should go find him. One person stay here and just wait. The rest disperse."
Takeshi nodded.
"That works, currently we have more than ten gold coins, living in this city is still surplus."
"Wherever you guys are working, just quit is fine."
Elyssia: "Good, so we will search. If not found then sleep temporarily somewhere, then return here when the sun rises."
The whole group looked at each other and together nodded.
Kazuka pointed his finger at Ayaka.
"So you stay here, okay?"
Ayaka nodded.
"Okay."
The faces of the whole group changed color seriously and dispersed each in one direction.
…
Before long, the dawn glow burst out, dyeing a corner of the sky pink. The first rays of sunlight pierced through leaf gaps, waking all things after a long sleep. Morning dew still lingered on tree branches, blades of grass, sparkling like tiny diamonds. The wind blew lightly, bringing the breath of a new day, fresh and cool. Dawn is not only the start of a day, but also the source of hope, signaling a bright future.
The sound of horse hooves running steadily from early morning, the noisy sound of food delivery, fragrance spreading everywhere making hungry stomachs growl.
But contrary to that overflowing life. Five humans, with five pairs of dark-circled eyes at the same time stood gathered together close to a small corner of two houses. They no longer stood in the middle of the road because it was very crowded with people and horse carriages going back and forth. Even people riding giant animals such as: eagles three times larger than a large horse carriage, lions even larger than that,... and very many…
But they did not care, standing in a circle.
Takeshi's voice interrupted repeatedly, as if his breath was weakening:
"Hey, you guys?... Found him... yet?"
Kazuka leaned against the wall and breathed heavily, he shook his head weakly.
"Not yet."
The three girls were also quite tired, they all worked during the day, then stayed up all night and ran around the city searching for Aoto. Ayaka then stood then sat, she was also discouraged. They only shook their heads weakly, signaling they hadn't found him.
Takeshi: "What to do now? He cannot just disappear without a reason, he would at least come back and notify us once?"
Airi sighed tiredly. Health was still there, but the only thing was discouragement and wanting to rest a bit.
"Hope that he forgot."
Elyssia: "Maybe he found a job that must go far? Then didn't have time to notify us."
Ayaka nodded.
"Reasonable."
Airi: "Or he went back to the forest?"
Takeshi's voice became serious again.
"He wouldn't do that, don't worry."
Suddenly an extremely fragrant smell made the whole group as if wake up.
Kazuka stepped over with a bag of grilled meat and a large water bottle of leather. On his mouth still held a meat skewer.
"You guys eat to get strength."
Suddenly, from the sky. A giant eagle swooped down making the wind shriek, giant wings spread wide, wingspan as if covering a whole area of the sky, creating a large shadow down below where all five people were standing. Sharp eyes like knives seemed to aim at the grilled meat bag in Kazuka's hand. Sharp claws extended, in a stance ready to snatch from Kazuka's hand when landing close enough.
But the whole group did not easily let it do that. Kazuka and Takeshi immediately burst out external energy and caused the stone surface below to crack like a spider web, eyes glanced slightly, also knowing it was coming, just hadn't acted yet. Elyssia and Airi also sensed it, but the two only were vigilant without radiating energy. They were both helped by Aoto's item to hide energy, if using energy then immediately it would be exposed. Not to mention there were Kazuka, Takeshi, and Ayaka already.
Ayaka also radiated energy. She leaned her body back. Hand summoned the bow, immediately in that leaning stance pulled the bowstring. An energy arrow was immediately formed. She released her hand and the green energy arrow headed straight toward the approaching eagle.
A loud call from far away echoed:
"Stop."
At the same time, an energy slash flew over and collided with Ayaka's arrow and exploded in the air.
Boom!!!
The eagle flew out of the smoke cloud, seemingly not hit by the explosion. It flew lowering down, as if waiting for something.
From the rooftop on the side, a figure jumped up into the air, the blurred silhouette showed he was very fast. But that was only to normal people, all five people still saw very clearly.
This person jumped onto the back of the large eagle and stood with right hand propped on hip, directing the gaze down below. The eagle flapped its wings slowly while standing in the air, but each flap, its body lifted a gap, then fell back and continued flapping.
That girl stood on the eagle's back looking up and down.
That was Mythyr. She is the "City Defender", meaning protecting this citadel and the strongest in the city.
She wore a pair of tight long black shiny pants helping easy movement. Wearing high-top boots nearly to the knees. The right side pinned a quite long sword with a black scabbard. Wrapped around the hip and a leather segment, and that leather segment had a dagger pinned behind the back. She revealed her waist, it was quite white and small. Above was a normal shirt, inside was a tight shirt layer the same color as her tight pants. Deep blood-red hair long past the shoulders was tied quite neatly by a black fabric segment. Her eyes were red with strange circles and vein lines, mistaken for being even more weird than snake eyes. Arrogant face as if despising those below. The wind on high grazed past her face making the hair fly lightly.
Spoke loudly down below as if reproaching and interrogating:
"You people at least must look before attacking, right? Not bothering to look and daring to attack, if there is a big problem you will have to take responsibility. Don't think that you have a bit of strength and want to do whatever you like."
She finished speaking, looked down at the large eagle she was standing on, meaning to talk about the attack on her pet.
Airi's eyes still glanced staring up according to Mythyr. She spoke as if aiming at Kazuka and Takeshi:
"Calm down, don't be hasty. She seems to have some capability. Being allowed to ride her mount flying in the city surely means she has authority."
Kazuka still looked up, but also knew Airi was talking to him. He spoke softly to reassure:
"Don't worry, I won't do anything."
Vermyx in Takeshi's head kept constantly speaking echoing in the head like bees humming:
—"I want to eat her meat so much, kill her. You can kill her, then take the sword on her for that Kazuka friend of yours too."
—"Hurry up, I'm hungry."
Takeshi cursed with irritation:
—"You shut up. Here is a place with laws. Don't incite me wrongly you bastard, just sit still and speak less."
Vermyx still tried to speak:
—"I'm starving to death..."
Takeshi tried to ask: —"Does she have something that you crave?"
Vermyx, voice complaining:
"Just catch her..."
At the same time. Ayaka stood straight, her eyes directed up and spoke loudly:
"It attacked us, saying it's self-defense surely isn't wrong, right?"
Mythyr folded her arms, she smirked long full of contempt, looking down at Ayaka, voice full of mockery:
"You are also quite brave, huh? Want me to defend against you?"
Kazuka pointed his finger up straight toward her face then pointed down below, his face full of annoyance and growled:
"That bird of yours attacked first, you want to bully us seeing we are young?"
Mythyr "Hmph" coldly once, voice clearly showing contempt and a bit of anger.
"Daring to call my pet a bird you brats? If I say I bully you, then what do you want to do to me?"
Takeshi sighed and spoke softly:
"Not good then, we truly are being bullied by her."
Kazuka's eyes twitched, he was quite angry. Remembering back to his group always encountering trouble, then suddenly she appeared. Then out of nowhere doing nothing but trouble was sought. His voice became smaller, still remembering this was a strange place one shouldn't speak wrongly:
"The furnace-head, red-head like a broom."