Kapitel 40: The Appearance of the Wanted Criminal
"Second place, let's give applause for Miss Araisa!"
Elijah didn't hear who got third place. But Elijah heard clearly, that he had won second place in the dance competition. Elijah looked up in disbelief after hearing the announcement from the host. If Elizabeth hadn't pushed him up to the podium and congratulated him, Elijah might have been forever shocked by this unexpected development.
"I think everyone agrees that Miss Araisa's sword dance has managed to amaze everyone here. It is both powerful and beautiful. This is the first time for us to witness such a fascinating performance."
Elijah could see that Heidi was struggling to contain her laughter as she heard the MC praising Elijah earnestly. Elijah narrowed his eyes in warning. Now that Elijah knew how the system worked in assigning missions, he vowed never to let himself get caught up in silly missions like this again.
"Then, the one everyone has been waiting for, the winner of this year's sun goddess festival dancing competition is...."
Elijah's attention returned as he heard the MC's voice. Elijah's eyes swept over everyone more thoroughly than before. From the participants, the organizers, and the audience, everything Elijah looked at to find irregularities at the end of this event.
"Miss Elizabeth! Give a big round of applause to this year's best dancer!"
Elizabeth took the stage with a big smile, while Elijah's eyes didn't leave the girl after he found out that Elizabeth was the criminal's next target. Elijah was frustrated that nothing strange had happened until now. Everything was going smoothly until they couldn't guess when the criminal would show up to kidnap Elizabeth.
"Elijah, we did it!"
Elizabeth was purely happy that she managed to get first place in this competition, but seemed to be completely unaware that there was a danger that would approach her since she was declared a winner. Elijah's expression turned serious as Elizabeth hugged him as soon as the girl stepped into the stage. For a naive girl like Elizabeth, it seemed unfair for her to be kidnapped by someone when she had tried so hard to win this competition.
"Alright, now for the prize-"
"KYA!"
A commotion ensued as the light in the castle suddenly disappeared, leaving the room pitch black. No one could see anything in such a situation. Elijah moved with his instincts. In this situation, the first thing he did was to make sure that Elizabeth was still beside him even in this darkness.
"Elijah! He's in front of you!"
"Fire!"
Amidst the chaos and darkness, Elijah could hear Heidi's voice screaming frantically and immediately used his fire magic to attack anyone who tried to get close to him and Elizabeth. The light that briefly illuminated the dark place allowed Elijah to see the villain he had to catch. A man in his forties with a small cut on his lip. Everything fits the description their client had given them.
DING!
[Side mission: The Forgotten Dance
1. Participate in the dancing competition at the festival event. (COMPLETED)
2. Find the criminal in the middle of the competition. (COMPLETED)
3. Captured the criminal and ended the terror at the dancing competition.]
The new notification sent by the system strengthened the suspicion that the man was indeed the criminal he was looking for. Elijah no longer had any doubts, especially when his mission was on the verge of failure at the moment.
"Back off, Elizabeth!"
"Kya!"
On mission, Elijah no longer cared about anything other than the success of his mission. Elijah pulled Elizabeth away from the criminal who was targeting her while he used his other hand to direct another magic at the criminal.
"Thunder!"
"Tsk!"
That villain deserved to be considered the fastest criminal in Nala City. One second he was in front of Elijah, but the next second he had disappeared into thin air. Elijah thought he was still in the room because Elizabeth had pulled back. But in the darkness, the sound of Heidi screaming made the now frustrated Elijah frustrated.
"Elijah, he managed to take Elizabeth away!"
In the dark surroundings of the castle, the only ones who could see well were the werebeasts, which was Heidi in this case. In fact, Heidi wanted to rush up to the stage to help Elijah catch the criminal. However, the crowd's panic was worse than Heidi expected, so the girl had a hard time getting out of the crowd's way. Heidi could only watch helplessly as the criminal wrapped his arms around Elizabeth's waist, then carried her out of the castle through the large castle window.
CRASH!
Elijah heard the sound of the window being forcibly broken and then knew that the criminal had managed to escape from them. Elijah used the Body Enhancement skill on his own body, then jumped to directly reach the broken window.
"Heidi, we have to get out!"
"I got it!"
In the darkness, they shouted at each other and moved quickly to chase after the criminal. Heidi finally escaped the crush of panicked audiences after transforming into her cat form. She was no longer embarrassed, even if she had to transform in public. With their mission on the verge of failure, Heidi no longer had any thoughts of embarrassment at that moment.
Having transformed into her cat form and no longer struggling to move, Heidi jumped nimbly to reach the window that had been broken. The girl chased after Elijah, who had already left to pursue the criminal they were after. With Heidi's current transformation, her speed increased many times until chasing after Elijah was no longer a problem for the girl.
"Elijah! He's moving too fast!"
Heidi spoke to Elijah, while Elijah didn't look the least bit surprised at the cat suddenly speaking to him. Elijah knew that the cat was the transformed Heidi. The teenager stared at the villain who was outrunning them all, then a crazy idea came to Elijah.
"Heidi, can you use wind magic?"
Elijah already knew the answer thanks to the information from the system, but he asked anyway to avoid suspicion. Heidi had never told him about the magic she could use, so Elijah could only play dumb to get an answer from Heidi.
"I can use it. However, I can't control it well because I'm not a mage in the first place."
"That's okay. I want you to hit me with that wind magic."
"Huh?!"
Elijah said calmly, while Heidi looked so surprised after hearing Elijah's crazy idea. From the start, wind magic was not transportation magic. Especially with Heidi's poor control over magic, using wind magic on Elijah would only cause the teenager unnecessary harm.
"Use your wind to push me to reach that villain, Heidi. Don't worry about anything else. We'll never catch up to him if we keep this up."
Elijah did not know how the villain could outrun them. But right now, their priority was to chase down and capture the criminal, who was about to escape. Elijah looked so serious about his crazy idea that even Heidi began to feel that it didn't sound so crazy anymore after seeing Elijah's expression.
"However, I-"
"Heidi, now!"
Elijah found a good opportunity to dart away, and he immediately forced Heidi to cast her wind magic. In an urgent situation, Heidi was no longer given the chance to think. The girl panicked and could only obey Elijah's orders in the heat of the moment.
"Don't blame me if you get hurt!"
Heidi stopped running, then changed back to her human form very quickly. Both of Heidi's hands were aimed at Elijah, who was using his Body Enhancement to the max. Heidi took a deep breath, then used wind magic which she rarely used because of her poor control over magic.
"Wind!"
A big wave of wind came and immediately hit Elijah really hard. The blow made Elijah feel like someone slapped him hard. But Elijah survived and shot up quickly with the help of his body enchantment skill.
"Curse!"
When the distance between Elijah and the criminal was no longer far, Elijah immediately activated his special skill to weaken the criminal's power. A black mist came out of Elijah's body and darted quickly toward the criminal. Curse was the only skill that would not hurt Elizabeth. The criminal felt his power suddenly run out and fell hard to the ground.
"You did it, Elijah!"
Heidi watched as Elijah used strange magic but was too happy to care that they had finally caught the wanted criminal.
"Miss Elizabeth, are you alright?"
Heidi rushed over to Elizabeth to separate the poor girl from the person who kidnapped her. Heidi tried to engage Elizabeth in conversation. However, no matter how loudly Heidi called out, Elizabeth still did not show any reaction in front of Heidi.
"She seems to have been under the influence of an illusion."
Heidi told Elijah, who finally came closer. Elijah nodded in agreement with Heidi's words. Now their gazes fell on the villain, who was writhing in the dirty streets. Since this was the first time Elijah had used his Curse skill on a human, he didn't expect that the effect would be so strong like this.
Not only was the criminal's energy immediately drained completely, but he also looked distressed like a dying man. His body struggled on the streets, so Heidi finally couldn't bear it anymore and asked Elijah to lift the strange 'magic'.
"Undo curse."
After Elijah said that, the fog that enveloped the villain disappeared. After the villain was released from Elijah's curse, he started coughing like a fish that was eventually thrown back into the water. Heidi took the opportunity to tie him up with a special chain. Not to forget, Heidi also covered his mouth with a cloth so that he could not talk nonsense or activate any skills anymore.
"We finally caught you, you crazy man."
The girl smiled with satisfaction, especially when she realized that there would be no more victims after they caught the criminal. Heidi ignored the resistance of the criminal as she carried him like a sack. The catgirl looked at the silent Elijah, then spoke to the teenager.
"Elijah, can you carry Miss Elizabeth? We need to take her with us to the city guard's office as evidence of this man's crime."
Elijah nodded, then carried Elizabeth, who was still trapped in the illusionary magic used by the villain. The system notified him of the completion of the side mission after that. Elijah unconsciously let out a long breath. No one knew how much Elijah had been waiting for the notification of the completion of the mission since before.
Walking together, the two finally left to end the illusion case that had claimed many victims over the past few years.
Geschenke
-- Geschenk
erhalten Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein