"Come forward, you cowards! Let's see if you're brave enough to beat my nephew in front of me!" The stronger one shouted while the blue-haired young man next to his uncle smiled.
Brody Peters was not from a noble family, let alone a relevant group in Millfall. But he had been pampered by his family and given the best opportunities from a young age.
At 20, he was already an Intermediate Apprentice with Green talent, someone with a bright future ahead of him.
Even though he did not come from a wealthy background, he acted confidently, and there were few people he would lower his tone or his confidence in front of.
But in this humble tavern, someone had beaten him, taken his belongings, and, most importantly, humiliated him in public.
He could not accept this and had run to his uncle the previous afternoon, the strongest of his family!
'It's time to beat those three bastards!' Brody thought as he smiled, seeing his uncle take charge of the matter.
Jax Peters looked around and soon spotted the young bandit in agony and a tall, middle-aged man holding the naked young man's belongings.
"You... Are you one of the people who hurt my nephew?" He shouted in the direction of one of Vicente's strongest men.
Vicente's group consisted mostly of Junior and Intermediate Apprentices. But there were 4 Senior Apprentices among them. Two of them were now in Zander's tavern.
The one who had broken the now naked bandit's leg was looking at this muscular man, one of whom was a level 2 Acolyte and the other a level 1. Narrowing his eyes, he dropped the little bandit's things and quickly placed one of his hands behind his body, where one of his guns was.
"Sir, the young man next to you tried to destroy this establishment the night before after losing a bet. We only acted to protect the other customers and the establishment itself." He said, preferring not to get into trouble with that person. "There were warnings about what could happen to troublemakers, so your nephew accepted the risks."
"Tsk! A damned Senior Apprentice! How dare you talk to me, maggot? You think you can just touch my nephew because those are the rules of this fucking tavern?" Jax shouted as several customers rose from their seats and moved away from where these people were standing.
The other two guards there moved their hands to their weapons, preparing to act as the opponents seemed to have no idea who they were.
"Sir, if you continue, I will consider you a threat to the establishment's integrity." The guard said in a slightly nervous tone as he saw his group standing by.
"Then show me what you can do!" Jax shouted before pulling a baseball bat from his back and jumping at the man.
Seeing this, the strongest Senior Apprentice of Vicente's men there drew his gun and aimed for Jax's head, firing without hesitation.
Bang!
As the shot rang out, the other two acted, firing at the second man who had come with Brody and jumping at the blue-haired young man.
Bang!
"Shit!" Feeling the power of this weapon, Jax made an ugly countenance and moved his power to increase the rigidity of his body.
The amount of mana an Acolyte had was much higher than an Apprentice had in their body, to the point that the vision of someone of that level was more developed. Jax could see the path of the bullet heading for his forehead!
He could not dodge it, but he managed to raise his defenses against this unexpected action.
The same happened to his companion, who had the disadvantage of being attacked from behind.
"Damned cowards!" The other man shouted as he felt the base of his neck hit by one of the fired bullets.
They both felt the force of Vicente's gun's shot at that moment but neither died.
Having acted quickly enough, they withstood the bullets with relatively minor injuries.
The weaker one had his skin punctured, but the bullet did not hit his bones or destroy any important arteries. Only a little bit of blood flowed from the wound in his neck.
Jax suffered less, but even though he did not bleed from this attack, he felt severe pain in the middle of his forehead.
After feeling that, he couldn't help but turn red with anger. "Son of a bitch! I'm going to kill you!" He shouted as he swung his baseball bat at the strongest of the group of guards.
River saw this and felt his body go cold, afraid of the outcome.
When the two men who had been hit by the first bullets moved again, two of the strongest among the guards suffered from those two first attacks and unloaded their weapons, but without success.
One of them was hit by his opponent's blows and screamed in pain as he lost his weapon, running out of ammunition.
"Aaaaagh!"
"Prepare to die, worm!"
As Jax was about to smash the man's head in, the third of Vicente's men suddenly screamed.
"Stop! Stop, or I will kill your beloved nephew!" The weakest of the guards yelled, pointing a gun at the back of Brody's head.
Swallow!
"Uncle..." Brody said softly, in a timid tone, as he did not normally speak.
Looking in the direction of the door to this place, Jax made an ugly face as he saw his nephew in the cross hairs of a third enemy.
Those bullets wouldn't hurt him or his little brother. But they would do fatal damage to Brody! Jax could feel it!
"Wretches! Fight if you dare!" He shouted angrily at this person using shameful strategies, using a hostage against them.
"I will not repeat myself! Stop, or I will kill this little shit!" The Intermediate Apprentice shouted.
The two brothers ignored the injured guards and looked at the last enemy that could threaten them there.
But this Intermediate Apprentice had been trained by Vicente and knew that in a situation like this, either they would all die or he would use a dangerous strategy to escape from these people temporarily.
"Leave your belongings here and get out of this shop. I will release your nephew when I no longer feel your presence." He shouted, coldly sweating as he followed the protocol Vicente had taught the group.
"Our belongings? Are you insane?" The level 1 Acolyte shouted, taking a step forward.
"Hey, I'll kill him! I'm not kidding!"
The sound of the gun being loaded rang out, and Brody swallowed his saliva. "Uncle, please do what he says!"
Jax clenched his fists so tightly that his muscular hands bled while his face was as red as a tomato.
"Motherfucker! You'll pay for this!" He shouted as he angrily picked up his things and threw them on the ground, the first time being threatened in years.
The surrounding people watched with open mouths, unbelieving that the weakest of the guards had taken such a bold strategy to save their group temporarily.
But the elders there felt this was useless. This was just a way for the group to suffer more, as Jax's group would definitely return this humiliation with interest and correction.
But this subordinate of Vicente's was not worried. He had already used a small magic device that all the men of the Fuller family carried with them, something that would alert his people.
Rory, Vice, and others probably were already coming to this place!
'When the boss arrives, he'll know how to solve this problem.' He thought to himself, grinning at the two Acolytes but nervous inside.
