Chapter 32: Adverse Reaction
"Shit! Who are those monsters?" A fleeing man asked as he ran quickly through one of the forests near Rosecoast.
As he moved, stones flew through the air at high speed towards him, while two people followed him as if they were playing with him.
But with each stone thrown by one of the two, the air seemed to be cut off, and soon, trees would fall after being destroyed because they were in the path of the stones.
"Your aim is terrible, Levi," Dax commented as he watched his junior's throws miss their prey several times in a row. "Let me show you what a really accurate throw is!"
As he said this, the man with the long black hair ignored the man on one of his shoulders and used only two of his fingers to point in the direction of the fleeing man.
Then he moved his thumb, sending the stone flying so fast that the sound of a gunshot rang out from his fingers just before Levi made a much more complex move than Dax's.
The stone thrown by Levi made a turn, and just before the shot of Dax reached its target, the two collided.
"Have you forgotten that we didn't want to kill him?" Levi asked as he looked at Dax.
"That's right. I forgot it." Dax laughed before he stopped playing with his prey.
He summoned a large hammer from inside his body, revealing his tool by jumping into the air and directing an attack at the ground.
As the hammer moved and struck the ground not far in front of him and Levi, Dax shook the entire area they were in, momentarily knocking the fugitive a few hundred meters from them off balance.
"Shit!" The assassin who had tried to attack them moments ago fell to the ground in a cold sweat just before he felt something powerful coming from the underground where he had just fallen.
He rolled to the side as fast as he could, narrowly dodging an earthen hammer that came from where he had fallen.
But as he dodged this attack, he saw the two men he was supposed to attack appear at his side, one with a man on his back and the other with a woman on one of his shoulders.
"Are you going to surrender for good, or will I have to finish you off?" Dax asked as he placed his hammer next to the man's head.
Gulp!
...
At the same time, Felicity, Grace, and Emery were sitting around a stone table in the main academy of Rosecoast while some hot drinks were placed on their small table.
Emery was comfortably reading some books she already had access to while the two of them and one of the academy teachers who was helping them looked with wide eyes in the direction of where Atlas was.
Not far from them, Atlas was holding the necks of two assassins while one of his feet was resting on the neck of the third person Emery had identified a minute ago.
Atlas neutralized the three, knocking two out with a single movement while holding the third with his toes.
Atlas didn't like wearing shoes, so he usually went barefoot, even after he learned the customs of the people in this area of the Vridor Dynasty.
"You really are weak, aren't you? Why did you dare to attack us? You must be looking for Hwec."
Hwec was how Seth's people saw death, which they believed decided the fate of living beings and took them to the afterlife.
The conscious man felt Atlas's toes press into his neck and made an expression of pain, feeling that his spine had been broken.
"Aren't you going to talk?" Atlas squeezed the man's neck harder, causing him to cough twice before spitting out blood and a few words.
"I'll talk! I'll talk!"
"Why did you attack us?"
"There's a bounty on your head. They're paying 1,000 gold coins for the heads of your group. That's 400 gold coins just for you and the woman!" The man said with difficulty.
"Who offered you this bounty?" Atlas asked as he threw the bodies of the two unconscious men to the ground.
He threw them with such force that if these men were not dead, they would probably die after this!
The ground where they fell was deformed, and the surrounding area shook for a few dozen square meters.
"I don't know. It was an anonymous mission."
"Then there's no reason for me to let you live," Atlas said before lifting his foot and then stepping down hard on the person's head.
Splash!
The three women looking in his direction put their hands over their mouths as they watched the man's brains splatter all around them, staining a few plants here and there.
Seth's people didn't usually kill needlessly, but these people had attacked them with the intention of killing. After discovering what he wanted, Atlas had no reason not to punish them properly!
"I guess that won't be a problem for us, right? Kevin said we have the right to kill if we're attacked." Atlas asked as he looked in Felicity and Grace's direction.
"I don't know who Kevin is, but that's right," Grace commented, not as shocked by the situation as the teacher standing between her and Felicity.
'Who is this person? He just killed a 7-star Ancestor as if it was an easy job!' This teacher, a woman dressed according to her position, with a youthful appearance and brown hair, wondered as she looked at Atlas with many questions in her mind.
"The others must have been attacked as well," Emery said as she closed the book she was reading. "Atlas, let's go back to the Pennel mansion. I think Seth has something to tell us."
"Hmm, ladies, will you join us?" Atlas agreed as he looked at Felicity and Grace.
Felicity nodded in agreement and then said to the brunette next to her. "Jane, prepare the materials of interest to Miss Emery. I'll talk to you later. Now I have to escort them."
Gulp!
"All right." The teacher said as she waved goodbye to her blonde friend.
...
A few minutes later, Seth's entire group was gathered with him at the place where he had failed in his attempt to build something capable of reading their powers.
"You were attacked too, right?" He asked as he felt the auras of his four companions appear in his path.
"It looks like the enemies of this family are targeting us first..." Atlas said, imagining that this was the explanation for what had happened since they had just arrived in the city to annoy someone who could pay a thousand gold coins for their heads.
"I only wanted to help the Pennel family, but if people are willing to attack us directly, we can't act so calmly," Seth said as he stood up from where he had spent the last few minutes studying his mistakes in the artifact he had created earlier.
"Emery and Levi, I want you two to find the masterminds behind these assassins. Dax and Atlas, you should stand by. You'll take care of them for the group as soon as those two identify them."
They all agreed before setting off with slightly different goals in mind.
They wanted to pursue their goals locally while helping Duke Pennel. But now they would do the opposite and solve this problem directly before pursuing their more peaceful goals in this city!
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone