Chapter 321 Kidnapped

With the remains of the swampman dealt with, Edward conversed with the leader of the city watch detachment.

The chief of the city watch—that was, the city’s magistrate had yet to make a formal appearance over various reasons, but both sides were showing understanding in their partnership

On the other side of the street, a bored girl whose silver hair was tied into twintails was sitting atop a roof, her feet dangling in boredom as she had her candy. The whistling cold wind didn’t seem to affect her thin self.

While Eleena was the strongest Player, her identity was too important for her to display her powers in front of everyone else.

Moreover, she was usually very quiet and had nothing she especially liked… aside from eating and killstealing.

She naturally wasn’t interested in the search of those ugly swampmen, which was why she only watched from start to finish. She would only act if Edward and the others encountered something unexpected that they really couldn’t handle.

Nonetheless, all’s well that ends well—the highest level swampman was Level 20 and simply didn’t hold a candle against Edward and the others. Aside from having the boys flex a little to impress the city watch around them so that they wouldn’t have any ideas, there was basically no problems.

Be that as it may, Crookes was quite a vast city and it would take some time even though other Players were helping in the search for more swampmen since they were just a small portion of the entire Playerbase. Most of them were reluctant to take on a quest when the rewards are undetermined, not to mention taking on the long trek there.

But even as Eleena idled, a sackcloth suddenly descended from above and enveloped her entirely!

Then, the figures of two men slowly materialized in the air.

They deftly tied up the sack and casted a spell over it, strengthening the whole sack.

It happened so suddenly that Eleena didn’t realize she was captured.

With their quarry in the bag, the two men promptly leaped off the roof from a direction where there were fewer people, and started to dash wildly along the alley. “And here I thought we would have to run far for the quest. To think our quarry came to Crookes by herself!” The taller man said cheerfully even as he stuffed an object resembling a compass into her chest pocket. “It’s like a rabbit running to the lion’s mouth by itself!”

“Don’t be too pleased yet. Our quest is not over, what with the undercurrents raging in the city. Now’s not the time for us to reveal ourselves… we’re not going back directly, so let’s get to the black house,” the shorter man replied calmly even as he carried the sack.

“You’re powerful, brother, but you’re too prudent as well,” the tall man replied, unconcerned. “Not many in Crookes would best you. And with me, we’re unbeatable in this city!”

“There’s a lot more frightening beings in this world. Dangers lurk everywhere in the Eastern Continent alone, and our ability is at best intermediate—make too much noise and we’re destroying ourselves!” The short man glared at his nonchalant comrade while growling a warning.

It was a pity that the latter didn’t really listen, and continued to strut as he liked.

Moments later, the short man promptly turned, realizing that Edward and the others were giving chase unbeknownst to them!

“Let her go!”

Joe the muscle king was the first to burst out his strength. The veins on his feet were bulging as he leaped into the air at full power, his spirit familiar turning solid to catch him and launch him rapidly at the two kidnappers! “Careful, he can’t control spectrals!”

Even though the short man couldn’t tell what the spirit familiar was, he guessed that it was a being of energy akin to ghosts. “Got it!”

Meanwhile, the taller man had whipped out a warhammer from his pants. However, instead of engaging Joe in a melee, he held the rope tied to the handle, whirling it several times before flinging it at Joe.

The war hammer was not actually large-it was around half a meter with the handle at best, resembling a toilet plunger that was marked with a sapphire inscription, looking small and delicate.

On the other hand, Joe stuck to his instincts that were honed from combat, holding his Giant Toe vertically in front of himself to block the seemingly flaccid strike.

And then there was a loud ‘clang!’

The plunger-sized war hammer had stiffly knocked Joe, a one-point-eight-meter tall youth and his two-meter long greatsword, sending both flying!

Gou Dan agilely evaded Joe as he landed from high above and smashed a hole into the ground.

“Are you alright, Joe?” He only asked then. “I’m fine, I didn’t lose much HP…” Joe said with a long face, his embarrassed expression only half-showing since his face was half-caked in mud. He glanced in disbelief at the war hammer nearby which had smashed into the road, and then at the legendary-tier greatsword which lost a notch of durability. “You can’t see it, but that thing is very heavy! And frighteningly hard…”

“It’s fine. He’s weaponless now.” Gou… Doug Ag appeared unconcerned, however. “Unless his hammer could fly back to him.”

But even as his words left his mouth, he saw the tall man who never stopped running extended his hand. “Come!”

The war hammer that was deep beneath ground immediately whooshed towards its owner.

Joe, who expected to see the man being struck by his own hammer was soon disappointed as the weapon tamely returned into the tall man’s grip.

Beside him, Doug Ag who was forced to eat his own words unfurled AWM over his wrist and started shooting.However, the two men proved cunning—they would take cover behind bystanders, walls or even the most random of objects. Doug Ag did not have a clear shot for days, and since the two men were far familiar with the area around them, they were getting further and further away from their pursuers.

Edward tried to launch several fireballs as well, only to miss just like Doug Ag’s bolts. Even though he could control the black dragon of his ultimate skill, Black Dragon Hellfire, his own body would slow down entirely, and it was just not suitable for pursuit. “It seems that I have no choice…”

Edward raised his hand, with two red crystals held between his fingers.

Those were Illum crystals—similar to the mana crystals of most fantasy novels, a crystallization of pure energy.

Those crystals would crystallize into different colors according to the associated element. And the ones Edward was holding were Red Illum crystals, associated with the fire-element.

“I’ve learned the Level 50 skill, but I’ve never used it because it consumes Illum crystals… but it’s cheap in this city, so now’s the time to use it!”

Edward took a deep breath and raised Happy Flames, the Illum crystal in his hand turning into dust and spreading into the air.

“Red Eyes Dark Dragoon Blast!”