Aurelia takes flight and goes up over the buildings. I start to run, following her to not lose this guy.
The moment we saw him, his fate was chosen. There is no way he can escape from Aurelia! She is faster in the air, and has an eagle view.
I hear Oswald scream something but I am focused in the chase. This guy has a lot of questions to answer.
"Move!" I scream as I pass by bystanders and onlookers that came attracted to the explosion.
He goes behind a corner before I manage to cast [Vines] on him.
I follow. He goes between buildings.
Shit! He is not allowing me to take a shot to get him!
"Guards!" Oswald screams. "Follow that man!"
He is throwing orders while pursuing this chicken man.
I go through the buildings, not letting him go out of my sight for too long.
Aurelia must be having a hard time seeing him.
"Stop!" I yell in response.
We turn to the right once more.
He goes back to the streets.
People gasp in surprise as he starts running by them, pushing someone to the side and throwing them to the ground.
"Watch it, fucking idiot!" Someone screams.
He is now using the group of people to break my line of sight.
[Vines] needs me to see who I am casting the spell on. I can end up catching someone else with the spell by accident.
But then.
"Gitcha bitch!" Aurelia lunges from the air and catches him right before he is capable of going into another alleyway.
The momentum of her body throws them against a stand to the dismay of a merchant that was about to make a sale.
Fruits and spices jump everywhere as their bodies throw the flimsy stand around.
"Good job, Aurelia!" I say to her while stopping and attempting to recover my breath.
I... I don’t like this type of exercise and my body is still hurting from the explosion. Most of my HP went down, but the recovery from the amulet is managing to recover me little by little.
"Got him, boss!" Aurelia smirks.
A cloud of spices that was slowly rising reaches her face and she takes a nice sniff of it.
"Aa....achis!" She sneezes.
"D-did she just sneeze as a cat?" Karina asks, and she starts laughing.
"I didn’t know you had such a cute sneeze..." I comment, chuckling.
Her face goes red, and gets angry.
"Shut the fuck up!" Her voice is as angry as ever, while blushing as red as a tomato.
"Y-you!" The man suddenly talks to me, trying to fight against Aurelia’s strong hold. "Your name is A-A-Amber, right?!"
He sounds too anxious, like he is scared for his dear life.
"What do you want?"
"It worked, didn’t? My sacrifices... You are still alive!" He screams.
What is he talking about?
"What do you mean? What were the sacrifices for?" I get closer. I hear the sound of metallic boots behind me. "People have been dying and others have seen their lives in danger since they saw the names in there!"
"You better answer, punk. Why is Mayor Russell in the names?"
"R-Russell...? N-no! You got it all wrong! I am helping them! They... They are meant to be saved by the chickens! And now 8 people have been saved thanks to me!"
What the hell is he talking about?
If I count the names.
Leiva, Ash, Lisa, Aurelia, Karina, me... 6 people.
Who are the other two?
"Arrest him!" Oswald yells.
Several guards approach Aurelia and the man.
"H-hey!" Aurelia screams when she gets shoved to the aide by the guards and they grab the man.
"Good. You caught the man with the chickens. The Mayor will have your reward ready when he hears the news."
Oswald says and immediately orders his soldiers to escort him out of here.
"Hey, I have to ask a few questions."
Oswald turns to me and, looking stern as ever, answers with a direct strong voice
"Your job was to capture him. Good job."
"W-wait! I have something to tell Miss Amber and her group!" The man says.
"Silence!" Oswald screams.
One of the soldiers punches him in the guts, making him lose his air.
"Hey! I said I want to..."
"You are out of your depth here! We have rules here, laws and an order. If you are not following them, you will be arrested with your group!"
"Hey, you piece of shit!" Aurelia steps towards him. "We are deep in this, and we are not backing down, so don’t come with your threats and cooperate with us!"
But some of the guards are mages. They point their wands and staves towards her.
Was he prepared?
"Slums district! The Mashtuk bar! As for...! Agh!" Another guard slaps him.
"He said shut up!"
I stop Aurelia. There is no need to get a confrontation going.
"Okay, we are backing up. But this is not the last you will hear from us." I answer.
Oswald dismissively turns around and follows his soldiers while they escort the man out.
Something doesn’t add up. From what he said it makes me feel he believes he was helping those in the names, and seemed glad that we were safe even after putting our names in those chickens.
And the other thing: he knew Karina’s name.
"What a mess you got there, missy." I hear a voice close to us.
I turn and there is Ash, approaching us. Lisa is slowly coming behind him.
"Sorry I am late...!" She says.
Her state is worse than mine.
"Ash... Don’t tell me you were following us." I ask.
"Old man! Fight me again!" Aurelia pushes me to the side.
"I told you, that guy has no idea what he is doing." He ignores Aurelia, who is in a fighting position. "Well, you completed your objective. I suppose you got what you wanted."
"What do you want?" I ask him.
"How is Leiva?" He asks.
Heh... I am not surprised.