"One hundred meters."

With those words, Adrian understood what she was doing and paused. He smiled and nodded, instead stepping in front of her as if to s.h.i.+eld her from Henry James, the group of kidnappers and the Jack O'Lanterns.

"Maybe we won't," he agreed with a shrug. "But before you sacrifice us for whatever ritual you have in mind, you could tell us who wants Melina dead. She managed to guess that it's someone from the Franklin family. The least you could do is tell us who exactly. It's not like they'll know because we're going to be dead, right?"

"Hah! It doesn't matter. Professionalism is professionalism. And I know you're just trying to buy time, kid. Get them!"

James wasn't falling for it, and he ordered his Jack O'Lanterns forward. Adrian sighed and shook his head. Raising his hand, he lanched a storm of flower petals at the approaching monsters, slicing them up.

"Wood spells versus wood-type monsters…I wonder which of us is stronger?"

The surviving Jack O'Lanterns tore through the barrage of Sakura petals, but Adrian had already prepared a second wood spell. Vines erupted from the ground and entangled the charging monsters, immobilizing them. They flailed about futilely before the vines slammed them into the ground and tossed them about. A few of them slammed into the dinosaur bones on display – one of them finding itself impaled by the huge horns of a Triceratops.

"You know, it's kind of fitting that you brought us to a place like this," Adrian remarked as he glanced at the dinosaur skeletons that filled up the exhibition. "You're going to go extinct like the dinosaurs here!"

"Very funny," James fumed. "To be honest, it wasn't our idea to bring you here. We were ordered to. My client requested that we perform the ritual inside this building, and we're just obeying orders."

He glanced away and sighed.

"Honestly, I find it distasteful…sacrificing a couple of young kids like this…but a job is a job. Orders are orders. What can we do?"

"Defy them, maybe?" Adrian replied. Then he shrugged. "Oh, but if you were in any position to defy them, your organization wouldn't the type of shady guild that it is today. You remind me of the a.s.sa.s.sins Guild."

"In a way we're similar." James shrugged. "We've been tasked with a.s.sa.s.sinations before, but that's not our forte. We're known more for doing the…dirty work behind the scenes. Kidnapping, blackmailing, threatening, intimidating, that sort of stuff. We won't shy away from killing, of course, but people will generally hire the a.s.sa.s.sins Guild for that. We're…how do I put it, considered lower cla.s.s than the real a.s.sa.s.sins."

"You should count yourselves lucky," Adrian replied as he conjured a wall of wood to deflect James's whip. "Brother Richie would destroy you if you turn out to be a.s.sa.s.sins. He'll call down the wrath of the Silver Wolves upon you."

"Hah! Your so-called brother, eh?" James threw his head back and laughed before cracking his whip once more. "You know, Weaver's Festival is something I generally avoid because of how…chaotic and full of people it is, but it actually helped us out today. All that festive mood and people in costumes – we were able to blend in, with no one the wiser about the fact that we weren't actually cosplaying. None of the security was present, and when you kids conveniently separated yourself from your friends and slipped away from the gaze of your chaperon, we swooped in and kidnapped you! Even your big brother wasn't able to track us once you left his sight!"

"Eh? Brother Richie was there?"

"Yeah, he was watching over you guys, but then his schoolmates had to come and chase you off. I really need to thank that girl…she might be a b.i.t.c.h, but thanks to her, we were able to kidnap you so smoothly! I was on the verge of giving up!"

The b.i.t.c.h was referring to none other than Nan Gong Ji Yan. d.a.m.n her.

"He must be in a panic right now! But he'll never be able to find us here. Besides him, no one will be paying any attention to you during the festival. Also, our guild has blocked this whole area off."

James's whip cracked against Adrian's wall of wood again, while the Jack O'Lanterns continued to flank him. Adrian threw his hands up and launched a stream of Sakura petals toward both sides, discouraging their a.s.sault. A couple of Jack O'Lanterns too slow to retreat were cut into shreds, but the rest pulled back in time.

"You won't be able to call for help. We've jammed communications here. But I kow you've tried that already. Notice that your smartphones are giving you the notification that there is no signal? Besides, even if you were able to get a call through, my client has already pulled some strings and rearranged the security around the city."

"What? Rearranged the city security?" Adrian repeated incredulously. The weight of James's revelations. .h.i.t him hard. For someone to be able to exercise such authority, he would have to be ranked very highly in the government, perhaps someone from the ten great families. Then again, James had already admitted as much that this person was from the Franklin family.

Which of Melina's uncles or aunts was behind this? Or perhaps it might even be her grandfather?

"It can't be…" Melina was swallowing. "Father…?"

She then shook her head frantically, refusing to believe it. Adrian nodded.

"It's definitely not your father, Melina!"

"Ha ha ha ha! You kids have quite the rich imagination! Why would your father want to sacrifice his own daughter?" James was laughing as he lashed out with his whip again, only for it to entangle with several of Adrian's vines. They became pretty entwined and unable to dislodge from each other, until James sent a surge of destructive mana to blow up the wooden tendrils. "Oh, whoops! I shouldn't have told you that! It'll allow you to get closer to guessing the real ident.i.ty of my client by process of elimination! Then again, it's way too obvious…"

"Master James, we have to hurry!"

One of the hooded kidnappers was rus.h.i.+ng forward, leading a squad. From the other flank, the Jack O'Lanterns screeched incoherently as they lunged at the two kids, closing on them in a pincer attack.

"Done," Melina murmured, and she sprang to her feet. At that word, Adrian ducked down while dismissing all of his spells. Melina raised a hand and unleashed the holy spell that she had been casting all this while. "Wrath of G.o.d!"

"What…?!"

"Watch out!"

The entire exhibition hall was engulfed in a blinding white light, the destructive mana flaring out and disintegrating almost the entire horde of Jack O'Lanterns. The hooded, masked dudes tried to withdraw, hurriedly casting defensive spells, but several of them were flung away by the concussive force, their bodies seared by the holy light. Even Henry James was forced into a retreat, his whip coiling into a s.h.i.+eld-like contraption to protect him from the blast.

"f.u.c.k! I forgot that the girl was quite the talented mage! Of course she would have such a trump card hidden up her sleeve! I focused too much on the boy!"

The spell was powerful enough to leave blisters and burns on his arms, and he shook them, grimacing from the stinging pain. Exhaling in annoyance, he glared at where the two kids were, but found himself blinded by the bright, holy light.

"d.a.m.n it! Of course!"

He squeezed his eyes shut, cursing under his breath. Melina's holy spell didn't just destroy monsters and repel enemies – it served as an effective smokescreen to obscure their vision, so that the two kids could get away while everyone was still blinded.

"I underestimated them."

While he staggered back, s.h.i.+elding his eyes, he could hear cries and yelps from his men as they crashed about clumsily in the exhibition hall. Loud, thunderous noises of collapsing skeletons informed him that they had blundered into the dinosaur fossils that had been placed on display, knocking them down and sending tons of bones raining down on them.

"Aw, f.u.c.k…don't you idiots know how much these cost?" he shook his head. "Well, we had better get out of here before anyone finds out, otherwise they'll send Grimaldus an invoice that we can't afford to pay off…then again, if they discover that we're behind this, compensating the museum for these damages would be the least of our worries."

The holy light continued to sear into his retinas for a couple more minutes, but when it was finally gone, he was able to lower his hand and take stock of his surroundings.

"Whoa, these kids really did a number on us, didn't they?"

As he suspected, the Jack O'Lanterns had been decimated. The majority of the horde that he had brought in with him had disintegrated from the powerful holy spell, leaving him with less than half. That was fine. The monsters were expendable, and he had more in reserve. He was glad that he came prepared. One of the worst case scenarios that he had envisioned was facing off against the kids' private tutor, and he had almost an entire army of them waiting outside.

The fools who were supposed to serve as his subordinates were lying about, sprawled in dust and broken bones. A few of them had been buried under the heap of bones that used to be reconstructed dinosaur skeletons, and quite a lot of them had been injured by the powerful blast. Some were unconscious, knocked out by the overwhelming force.

The spell truly deserved its name, Wrath of G.o.d.

The remaining subordinates who had endured the onslaught and emerged unscathed were milling about, carrying musket-shaped rifles and searching for the kids. One of them hurried over.

"Master James! We've lost sight of the kids!"

"Barricade all the exits," James ordered, calm and composed. This was just a minor setback. It was all within expectations. If they had lost the kids, then all they needed to do was recapture them. "Isn't that obvious? Make sure they don't escape from here."

"Understood, sir."

"Make sure you take them alive. Don't kill them – the ritual will not work without living sacrifices. That said, you can rough them up a little. Make them suffer for their impertinence." James grinned. "Even if they are missing a limb or two, as long as they're still alive, I don't care. They don't have to be in one piece, just…alive."

"Yes, sir."

"But…these kids are a lot more troublesome than I thought. It wouldn't do to underestimate them." Henry James began walking toward the set of doors that led deeper into the museum. His subordinate hurried after him, confused.

"S…sir? Where are you going?"

"After the kids, of course!" James snorted. "Considering how you fools have been bungling the job so far, it's best if I go after them personally."

Meanwhile, Adrian and Melina were sprinting deeper into the museum, trying to put as much distance between them and their pursuers as possible.

"Are you all right, Melina?"

"Yeah. Thanks for buying me the time I needed to cast Wrath of G.o.d!" Even as she replied, Melina continued to run, refusing to look back. "How about you? They beat you up pretty badly, didn't they?"

"Don't worry," Adrian a.s.sured her. "They roughed me up, but it's nothing I can't handle. Actually, I'm surprised that they were so weak."

"I'm sorry." Melina's head drooped a little. "They were after me. It's all my fault. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be dragged into this mess…"

Adrian reached out and hugged Melina, stopping her in her tracks.

"Stop blaming yourself, Melina. I promised to protect you, and I will. We'll survive this together, no matter what. I will protect you, Melina!"

"Uh…" Melina was flus.h.i.+ng crimson.

"Besides…" Adrian let her go, then grabbed her hand and resumed running. "This isn't your fault. If anything, it's that b.a.s.t.a.r.d's fault. When we get out of here, I'm going to tell Brother Richie, and we'll go beat him up."

That brought a smile to Melina's face.

"Yeah. We'll definitely get out of here together. The both of us will definitely survive this!"

Then the two of them increased their pace, charging headlong to wherever the darkness ahead planned to take them.

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