The man laughed again.
And all the workers that had been doing one thing or another suddenly stopped and turned towards them. Most of them were in the first and second stage, but there were five third stages there, their faces gleaming with the promise of violence. The source of this content ɪs novel★fire.net
But what made things even more terrifying was that they all held artifacts in their hands.
It seemed things were more planned than he expected.
But still, Vacuse was composed as ever and he nodded. "So, a way to keep me and my men occupied and possibly overpower us. But what about the Gold Accord?"
The leader pointed up to the roof.
Vacuse raised his head and saw gleaming runes imprinted on the surface of the stone ceiling.
But the leader was not done. He continued, "Joryth gave you the robes, right? Well, they were made to hide the identity of those who wore them. So, since you left the castle, nobody knew about your whereabouts!"
Vacuse was truly impressed by everything he had heard so far. In fact, he internally praised Joryth for weaving the trap, a trap that must have been in place since the time he arrived.
He also came to a new conclusion. "Joryth Mveil... is the real leader of the Ash Rats, right?"
The man laughed. "Right! Since we knew you were coming, we had already begun planning. In fact, we have buyers on the ground already, ready to pay the amount we have earned throughout our lives in the gang!
"Nobody knows this city more than us, and being gangs that deal with the black market means that we have the means to get our hands on powerful artifacts.
"Nobody will know that you are here, and before anyone notices anything, we will already be long gone!"
He smiled. "It was a messy plan, and that was exactly the reason it would work!"
Vacuse stared at him for a while and then sighed. "Aren't you missing one thing?"
The fake leader frowned. "What is that?"
Vacuse pointed to himself. "You seem to have underestimated me."
The fake leader snorted. "Oh, I know you are strong...!!"
Before he even finished speaking, someone shimmered beside Vacuse and Kagerou appeared. He was smiling and his face was painted with blood.
The sudden appearance made the big guy flinch, but before anyone could do anything, Kagerou threw down a bloody ball.
The ball was, of course, Joryth's head.
The fake leader stared at the ground and the head of the real leader of the Ash Rats in mute horror. He did not immediately comprehend what he was looking at. "Wha..."
It was rather simple.
Vacuse simply did not trust Joryth Mveil. And so, he had asked Kagerou to plant an artifact tracker on him. Once they got to the Ash Rats' underground base, though, the lord had slipped away almost unnoticed.
But Kagerou could turn invisible.
It turned out Vacuse was right, and so Kagerou made the judgment to eliminate him.
Kagerou smiled, his eyes sparkling. "This guy had a teleportation hub built into his office and was ready to disappear once you were caught... together with another 'special slave.'"
Vacuse frowned at that.
A teleportation hub? Those types of things were expensive, very, very expensive. So much so that the Ash Rats should not have been able to get their hands on one.
But they had. And that could only mean that someone very powerful was backing them. The only one that Vacuse could think about was the Eastern Region.
Vacuse sighed. "Well... this is interesting. I, Vacuse Vorrakyn, pass judgment on you all. Kill them!"
And instantly, the room fell into chaos.
Even before Vacuse finished speaking, Harkon was already on the move. He flung himself forward, two flashing daggers appearing in his hands, soon to turn red as he threw them. The daggers cut the air in a trailing yellow arc, so fast that it was a streak.
Straight at the group of stage one.
The daggers exploded, flame and shockwaves of splintered metal shredding through their flesh like paper.
Just like that, six gang members were dead.
And it was only just starting.
Indeed, there were a lot of gang members. So much so that they outnumbered Vacuse's forces one against fifteen. But they were gang members. They could not ever be compared with the best that the Vorrakyn had to offer.
It was like comparing the sun to a furnace fire.
The ten stage threes turned into a blur and painful screams filled the air, followed by flying limbs and choked-off crying.
In just two minutes, it was done.
The ground was covered in bodies and blood.
Vacuse had not even needed to lift a finger, and none of his men were wounded.
Only one person remained alive. It was the fat man, now kneeling, trembling, with his eyes wide. He could not believe what he had just seen.
Vacuse looked at him thoughtfully. "If you were the elite of another power, then we might have been wary. But this is the New Dawn, pulled from the very best Dragon Guards and other forces. Did you actually think that you could overpower us?"
The man continued to tremble. "Yo... you! You would not dare do anything to me! Yes! A very powerful benefactor is backing me, and they are someone you do not want to mess..."
Vacuse gestured impatiently, and the next instant, the bigger man's head flew through the air, shock still visibly written on it.
Vacuse sighed. "I guess I can afford to offend them."
Then things went fast after that.
Vacuse gave some orders.
Kagerou was to oversee the retrieval of anything valuable while the others focused on freeing the slaves.
And Vacuse began to think of what to do.
Since he had already started, he might as well see it to the very end.
Just then, Kagerou approached him, and behind him was a race that Vacuse did not know of.
The... man? Woman? It had a very large head with dark, still eyes that almost took the entire space. It was short and frail-looking, like a sickly seven-year-old, with yellow skin.
Kagerou gestured with a grimace. "This is the other special slave that I talked about... he says he wants to see you in person."