'This bastard is still running even after losing so much blood, how annoying'
Along a certain path within the forest, Motavu was still chasing the monkey like Cabrera, who kept jumping from tree to tree relentlessly for more than thirty minutes now.
'Hmm, it seems I have more rats following my tail than I expected' thought Cabrera as he sensed the approach of a few others.
'It's most likely those White Iron guys. Well, the more the merrier. Who knows, I might not even need to move a finger. Now then, let's begin in earnest'
With that thought, Cabrera increased his speed once more and jumped to another tree, much to the frustration of Motavu who was chasing after him.
But as he jumped off the tree, a large shard of ice almost as big as Cabrera himself was sent flying his way fast.
'Sh#t!' thought Cabrera as his instincts rang out, clearly indicating the danger level of the incoming attack.
But seeing the attack and being able to react to it were completely different things.
It was at this moment that Cabrera showed off the effects of his training by immediately coating his left arm with aura and spinning himself like a top while in mid-air as he destroyed the shard in one powerful blow.
Such a move came at a cost though, and Cabrera was sent flying from the impact.
Motavu immediately stopped and hid behind a tree as he tried to figure out the position of the attackers.
The few boys behind him did the same, but not before the pieces of the shattered ice pierced their skin after bypassing their armor and lodging themselves in the small gaps.
Motavu trusted his boys well enough to survive small shards of ice, so he didn't even bat an eye at all this and kept an eye out for the attackers.
After all, that could have been him. And there was no assurance that, because Cabrera was also their enemy, he would be left alone.
The enemy of your enemy isn't always your friend.
Surprisingly, even after a minute, there was no sign of the attacking party.
"Hmm" Motavu immediately began to ponder on such actions and found some plausible answers.
One was that the attackers were in a vulnerable position after releasing such a large attack.
Another was that they were aiming for him and his men.
But Motavu found the former being more plausible than the latter.
If they weren't weakened, someone capable of dishing out such large attacks would rather face them head on, or even freeze the particular part of the forest, instead of hiding.
But of course, it is better to be safe than sorry.
To test his hypothesis, he pointed to one of the guilders with the least injuries and told him to check the direction Cabrera fell and see if he could find him.
Needless to say, the guilder immediately understood he was being used as bait, but what could he do? So he grumbled inwardly and began moving towards Cabrera's direction like a mouse as he hid behind trees at set intervals to save himself from being skewered from behind.
He found Cabrera's location to be farther than expected.
Even after two minutes, there was no sign of the attackers.
Motavu steeled himself as he saw this and rushed towards Cabrera's direction. He couldn't allow the bastard to run away, especially not after everything he had been through.
Meanwhile…
"Ugh!"
Cabrera groaned as he slowly stood up and stretched his aching back.
*Crack*
The bones snapped in place, giving Cabrera some relief as he looked at his surroundings.
The first thing he noticed was the three trees in a straight line with their lower end broken into splinters.
It didn't take a genius to know what happened.
The rebound effect the ice projectile had sent him slamming through the trees.
"Which b*stard attacked?" Cabrera asked rhetorically as he steadied his breathing and observed his surroundings. He found to his surprise that he had been sent a considerable distance towards his destination.
He didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the matter.
On one hand, this shortened how much distance he had to run. But on the other hand, he had lost sight of the muscle heads he was baiting.
He sighed as he wondered how he was going to grab their attention and make them follow him without arousing their suspicions.
But he didn't have to wait long as the sound of the ground rumbling resounded not a moment later and then a voice rang out.
A voice Cabrera knew all too well.
"I've got you now you son of a b*tch! Let's see how far you can run this time!"
It was Motavu's voice, who was visibly excited at the thought of finally catching the brat who had been the cause of his recent problems.
Cabrera smiled as he thought…
'Luck seems to shine on me today. I was wondering how to make him follow me, but he came of his own volition'
Cabrera spoke out…
"Shit! You muscle brains are unbelievable, can't you give a guy a break?"
"Don't worry, I'll give you a break once you surrender peacefully!" Motavu said as he maintained his smile, but one could see a vein popping out of his head at the words "muscle head".
And to pour fuel in the fire, Cabrera added his finishing touches as he said…
"Surrender? You must have grown senile, it seems. But then again, what can I expect from someone who has muscles for brains?"
Motavu completely lost it at this moment as several veins lit atop his head, which looked like it was on the verge of exploding. He inwardly swore to torture this bastard to death once he was caught.
Cabrera didn't wait to see this and took to his heels once more, this time abstaining from tree climbing as he moved through the forest at a calculated pace towards a predetermined destination, all while holding a wicked grin on his face.
It seemed today was his lucky day considering how easy things had been.
A few dozen meters away from Motavu's guilders who he had left behind were the White Iron guilders.
It was just like Motavu predicted. Among the small group, the girl was the ice mage, and right now, she was lying in the hands of another boy with her pulse severely weakened.
"Why did you risk your life like this?!" the boy berated her with a pained voice.
"I couldn't let that b#stard get away after what he did to Arvin" the girl said.
She had used all her mana to conjure the large ice shard and aim it at Cabrera, which now left her in a weak state.
Her eyes were growing cloudy as she spoke to the boy who looked at her with tearful eyes…
"Vesta, promise me one thing"
"What is it?" the boy called Vesta replied.
"Kill that son of a b*tch"
Vesta naturally knew who she was talking about, it was the bastard that killed Arvin, so he said…
"I swear it on my life"
A smile etched on her now pale face, a side effect of mana overdrive.
"Thank you…" she said as her eyes closed shut.
"Restea? Restea! Hang in there. Fernand, help"
The man immediately panicked as he called her name, before calling over another man to come look at her.
"She's not dead, just dead tired after overusing her mana like that" Fernand replied as he looked at her condition.
"Whew-"
The man sighed in relief and continued.w
"-watch over her and wait for Lazar to get back with help"
Fernand immediately raised an eyebrow as he asked…
"And where are you going off to?"
Vesta glanced at Restea one last time before looking forward as he said…
"I'm going to kill that son of a b*tch"
But before he could walk away, the remaining eight guilders stood up as they said…
"We're going with you"
"Yeah, she was our friend too"
"Don't you dare try to keep the fun all to yourself"
Vesta smiled at that.
"Alright then, let's go get the b*stard's head"
"But Vesta, what about those guys?" one inquired as he pointed at the Red Wolf members in front.
"Avoid them. We can settle the score once that b*stard is dead"
The others nodded in affirmation.
"Let's go" Vesta said as he started running, following Motavu's trail as his face turned utterly serious.
The rest followed behind him as they moved to avenge their comrade.
