"So uh, are we doing this the soft way? Exchanging hostages and they'll let us on our way?" Rina whispered.
"Of course not! We're here for the dragon, and you must pay for this building you destroyed, you know?" Alize shouted out.
"Hey, how can you hear us? No eavesdropping!" Mei shouted back at her.
"It's this guy, he used sound magic." Pearl pointed at the quiet Don who's resting on a cobble nearby.
The three then make sure Don is fully "sleeping", the hard way.
"By the way, Blue Hair With Glasses Guy! Are you a mage or a suicidal bomber? You blew up a building and decided to go one on one with a muscular dude." Alize continued on, not concerned about Don.
"God save me..." Pearl facepalmed himself.
"Oh, by the way, maybe we should grab coffee sometime, Miss Elf! I'm working as a restocker at the building right... behind you. Wanted to say sorry about the wound on your forehead!" Alize confidently said.
Rina then looked behind her back for a moment.
"Restocker? That's an orphanag- What"
"You're messed up." Barack tapped on Alize's head.
"Anyways, yes we're exchanging hostages!" Nea called out to the other side.
…
The exchange began, with the two sides dragging the prisoner towards closer and closer, until they're only fifteen meters away. Pearl from The Freedom Group and Barack from the SSS walked up, escorting Don who was quite "sleeping" and Marc who was still able to walk.
"Marc, you good?" Pearl pushed Don over for Barack to catch. He then catched Marc himself, checking all around his armor and wounds before leading him back to the team.
"Where's Vel? cough" With a slightly raucous voice, he ignored Pearl's question and asked for Esmeralda.
"Come on kid, you're not five years old aren't you?" Rina said, trying to get Esmeralda out from hiding behind her. "What's wrong? Are you mad at Marc?"
"No, it's not like that!..." Slow and soft voice, Esmeralda defended herself and paused for a second.
With eyes staring at her, Esmeralda blushed and began to get nervous. After five seconds of awkward silence, she stepped out in front of Marc, whose legs hurt like hell.
"I'm… sorry for all that happened, las… last night and, and tonight. I'm… I'm" Esmeralda got super nervous and actually talked incoherently like a five years old, unable to express her feelings and form sentences. She's not very talkative in her past life either.
clank...
"Eik?" Esmeralda squeaked a bit, noticing how Marc is quietly walking towards her, his armor iron boots made a loud sound on the rubbles underneath.
Marc, wasted no time to explain, immediately leaned towards and hugged Esmeralda tight around her neck.
"Don't you dare… I'm asking you Vel, don't make me worry again. Please…" Marc quietly rubbed his face onto Esmeralda's cheeks. She didn't respond but instead hiccuped and hugged Marc back.
"I'm sorry… I love you mom…"
That quick moment felt like centuries. Stars have rearranged and fates have switched. Yet in reality it was only a minute or so.
"Is he… alive?" Alize squinted looking at Don when Barack brought him back.
"I'm asking and ordering you not to make any jokes or even say anything you think is remotely funny in fights from now on, please." Barack sighed and began pinching his forehead in disappointment.
"I'm not saying I agreed, but I agree. One day your head will be big enough to fit your messed up mind." Nea put her hands on her hips and smiled.
…
"Can't believe we almost lost to four unknowns." Alize scratched her head.
"It's our win now, for wasting our own time." Barack crossed his arms and took a deep breath.
It was at that moment, The Freedom Group realized that they're in the predator's territory, and the preys are none other than themselves.
"Cough…arg…"
"Mom? Are you okay? Hey!" Esmeralda panicked and began rapidly shaking Marc's shoulders when he coughed out some blood, noticeably feeling pain and aching inside his chest.
clank
Marc dropped down to his knees, with blood still slowly pouring out of his mouth and sheer exhaustion filling up his body. He closed his eyes, seemingly fainted away.
"People, drop your weapons."
Before anyone could understand what's happening — a hooded figure appeared behind them; it seemed to be an average built man with a claymore resting on his shoulder, his face was covered by a black mask leaving only the black eyes to be seen, alongside some white hair shaft.
Pearl, Mei and Rina turned their heads around and quickly took their chances to throw shots at him — staff swing, elbow jab, roundhouse kick. Yet the only thing they noticed is all that got blocked by just one hand holding his big shiny iron claymore.
"Don't be stupid, we are authorized to kill criminals and troublemakers."
"Criminals?" Mei charged up a fire dot, almost like a bullet from her index finger and aimed it towards the man's head. "Guess who started all of this by kidnapping our girl."
The man tilted his head a bit, then pushed everyone backwards with his claymore and parried off the shot from Mei's hand to aim towards the sky above. After that he is met with a punch from Rina's hand, using Wind Dance to turn air into a see-through blade. With one hand holding Mei's wrist, one hand holding the claymore, he easily uses the non-sharp part of the blade to block Rina's hand.
But now Pearl is in, levitating a big boulder underneath, shaping it into a sharp arrow and flung it towards the man's chest with no hesitation.
He knew that two hands isn't enough to block three people, he could always kill them but that won't be good for further questioning. So what he did is held Mei's wrist tight and pulled her in front of him, using Mei as a human shield. Pearl, seeing that, quickly stopped the flying boulder.
"Fight like a man, can't you?"
The man looked over Pearl's shoulder.
"Well we're about to."