"Let's go, captain. We don't have time to look for others." Rowley stepped towards the ships, but Brink stopped him. He felt something was wrong with the whole situation.
Those pirates knew the seriousness of this mission and were also aware of the consequences of breaking his order.
'Also, my men would never leave the ships alone on the shore.'
'Another trap?' Brink's eyes suddenly caught some shadowy figures hiding in the surrounding woods and grew uneasy.
Although he did manage to stop Rowley from entering the trap dug by the enemy, he couldn't manage to stop the other pirates.
The pirates who came out of the fortified tower were utterly exhausted. Upon seeing their ships, they stepped forward and subconsciously ran towards them.
"No! Don't go." "Stop!" Brink and Lavada shouted in panic, but their voices mingled with others' excited shouts and couldn't reach anyone's ears.
The excited pirate group moved one hundred meters towards their ships, but suddenly a metal arrow flew from the nearby woods, directly entered a lean pirate's neck from the left side, and came out from the other side.
A second later, the lean pirate running ahead fell on the sand and went motionless.
The front row tried to stop their footsteps, but those who ran after them pushed them harder and crushed the lean guy under their feet. Only Brink and other elite members from the two famous pirate groups managed to see what had happened and grew more anxious.
"Shit! It's useless to warn them now. Let's go." Brink muttered in a cold tone and chased after the group.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh.
But before he could take two more steps, many iron arrows flew from the left side woods and poured on the pirate group like rainfall.
Thud! Thud. Thud!
One by one, pirates started to fall.
"Worms. Where are you running after attacking my Magic tower? I never permitted you to leave." A chilling voice came from the woods. The next instant, a hooded human figure walked out of the woods and glared at everyone.
After a swift glance, he took out a long sword from his space ring, gripped the hilt tighter, and removed the black hood, revealing his face to others.
He had dark green eyes, short black hair, pale skin, a broad forehead, and appeared to be around 170cm high.
He was none other than the Official Necromancer, Murius!
Before Brink could say something, he stepped toward the fallen pirates and started killing them by stabbing his sword into their chests and heads!
Stab! Stab!
"Please don't kill them!" Brink couldn't watch his henchmen being killed brutally and shouted at Murius with bloodshot eyes.
"Humph, You shouldn't have come here and tried to invade my tower, mortal!" He shot back at Brink.
"I-I agree that it was our mistake to invade your tower, My Lord. Please have some mercy on my friends." Brink almost prostrated himself on the ground while other pirates from Nelson's groups lowered their heads.
"Even if you knelt before me and begged like a slave, I will not spare anyone of your lives." Murius's words were cold.
"Bastard! You are a cruel person, aren't you?!" Lavada gritted her teeth and shouted in rage. Simultaneously, a mysterious small ball of black smoke came from the woods at an incredible pace and entered her body before anyone could notice.
Snort!
"Watch your words, girl. I will kill every one of you in a blink." Murius looked into Lavada's eyes and spoke coldly.
Upon hearing those words, Lavada's dark emotion had almost reached its peak. The next instant, she curled her lips upward, made a wicked grin, and spoke with a ridiculing tone.
"You can try, necromancer. But if you did that, you won't be able to save Aliza from being ravaged by your trusted bandits."
Her words were filled with madness, echoed in the surroundings, and caused a gloomy atmosphere to descend.
Murius frowned.
Meanwhile, Brink tried to cover her mouth, but it was no use.
"Please don't stop me, dear," Lavada said with a hateful tone,
"If we didn't make any deal with him now, I knew he wouldn't let us go on our way. You also thought the same, right?" She paused, turned her gaze towards the brown-haired lady, and asked. "Sis Zita?"
"I hate to admit this. But Brink, it seems we don't have any other choice now. If we don't reveal that news to him, I don't think he will let us live," Zita said while suppressing her voice.
"Do you think this necromancer will let us go after knowing that we had kidnapped that girl?" Brink retorted before letting out a helpless sigh.
'We shouldn't have come after this guy.' Finally, Brink realized his mistake but knew it was too late.
"Don't say that we are the ones who kidnapped her, dear. In the first place, it was all Keith's plan." Lavada whispered in Brink's ears with a malice tone.
"What are you all mumbling about? Also, what do you mean by 'I won't be able to save Aliza from being ravaged by trusted bandits'? What are you hiding?" Murius turned his face gloomy and walked towards them with slow steps.
But whenever he took a step forward, an invisible power appeared around the surroundings, making all the pirates kneel.
At that moment, an unsettling feeling emerged in Murius's heart!
Before he could organize his thoughts, Lavada's voice echoed from the kneeling pirates.
"Your so-called trusted bandits didn't go to kill the newly titled Baron of Alastall Woodland," Lavada said with mockery.
"Keith had told us about the girl long ago, and all of us knew about her background. We planned to give her to the light church to get the bounty- pfft" By the time Lavada finished speaking, she almost coughed up some blood due to the sudden increase of the invisible power.
"Talk." A cold mutter came from Murius, causing everyone to tremble in fear.
Anyone could tell from the chilling tone that he was pissed!
"B-But we didn't expect you to be much more powerful." Lavada wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth using her hand and stopped her talking, making that area eerily silent.
Only blood-gushing sounds and groaning mutters from the gravely injured pirates could be heard.
Meanwhile, Murius stood there like a statue for a whole minute while digesting the shocking information from Lavada and soon grew angrier at the pirate group.
After that, he took a deep breath, turned his gaze towards the brave pirate woman, and spoke.
"Now, I have a question. Why did you come here to dig your own grave? If you guys have taken Aliza to the Light Church and gotten her bounty amount, you would be able to live your whole life luxuriously, right?" That was something; he couldn't understand. He knew these pirates were not fools and thought something was still wrong with their actions.
"It's a request from the newly titled Baron, M-My Lord. He told us that he would give us 10,000 white gold coins if we managed to kill you as a reward and even promised to accommodate us in his territory." Lavada stopped her speech and quietly observed the pale-faced hooded necromancer.
Meanwhile, Murius was startled inside.
'That baron knew about me? How?' He was confused. But that thought soon disappeared from Murius's mind as he realized the current situation and sighed deeply.
At that moment, his aim now was to find Keith and save Aliza.
He closed his eyes for a few seconds and once again opened them.
"Scram! Don't even dare to come in front of me once again." Murius's black lips trembled as he spoke. After that, he turned around and sprinted into the woods.
"Let's get out of here before he comes back." Lavada breathed a sigh of relief, stood up from the kneeling position, and muttered in a weary tone.
'Thankfully, he didn't kill us to vent his anger. But I will make him regret this choice for the rest of his life.' Her pink lips curved upwards and turned into a cruel smile.
Soon, Brink and other pirates quickly dashed towards the remaining gravely wounded soldiers and promptly dragged them towards their ships. Out of 250+ pirates, only 40 managed to survive this mission, causing everyone's faces to turn gloomy.
"Be glad that we are standing alive, morons. Set sail." Lavada said in a cold tone.
When the pirates heard Lavada's words, they glanced at each other and nodded helplessly. At first, the pirates thought that killing this necromancer was an easy task, but they never imagined him to be a formidable foe.
"To the pirate town at full speed," Lavada ordered sternly. Within a few minutes, two large ships moved from the shoreline and drove deep into the devil sea, leaving dead pirates and other small ships behind.
…
Meanwhile, Abium's group traveled through the woods and soon reached the base of the Frozen Mountain Range.
After that, Abium went on his own while telling others to rest under a tree shadow and searched for the entrance to the underground tunnel.
After 30 minutes of a long search, he finally saw an egg-like shining rock covered in vines embedded deep into the mountain and smiled.
'Finally!' He moved closer to the rock, imbued his mana into his sword, and slashed it.
Crack!
Slowly, that round rock split into two and rolled on the ground while revealing a gloomy pathway.