"Free them.
Now!"
Roland heard someone speak in a grim tone to him. It was the same shadow that had thrown the severed head of Jario toward him.
This white-haired young man had a mysterious air around him now that he had freed himself from the burning building. It was as if he was still not satisfied with the number of killings he had performed inside the city hall. He wanted more.
This blue-eyed man was looking for an excuse to cause more mayhem now that it had come to it. His annoyance and anger were influencing his mana signature. A few streaks of lightning sparked and made their presence known all over his body.
Roland also observed that the man was just in his 6th stage of the Meta rank. Being an Awakened ranker himself, the guards' captain didn't have any reason to obey the orders of someone like him.
And yet, for some reason, he was compelled to do so. The young man's presence was too domineering for him not to.
"Release Miss Miranda and Miss Kiara."
Roland sheathed his sword and sighed before ordering his subordinates. Hearing this, the soldiers looked at each other with doubts on their faces. One of them couldn't help blurting out to his captain.
"But captain... our binding contract with..."
Roland looked at the source of the objection with dissatisfaction before speaking up.
"The contract is no more. For us to be bound by the contract, they needed to take these rankers with them. Now hurry up and do as I say."
Whatever their fates might be, Roland understood that he, his subordinates, and the people who had been taken hostage couldn't depend on Bulal's side anymore. The only option they did have now was to cooperate with the rankers who had come here to complete the mission.
Eren was really angry. The first team mission he was part of ended up being almost sabotaged by the team's allies. He could hear Tory's laughter in his head, taunting his luck for what it was.
Reece, Mia, Ekay, and Rhea were behind Eren. They had also been joined by all the other rankers. Thankfully, there was no casualty from Eren's side. The demonic rankers had relied on the miasma too much. As such, they were immediately overwhelmed when Reec kept waking up the members of her team.
"Eren...!"
Miranda mumbled Eren's name under her breath when she saw him. He had broken into the sixth stage of the Meta rank, which caught her off guard. It was as if the guy was gliding through his stages.
Kiara and Miranda both got free from their bindings. In the next moment, Roland was punched in his face by someone with a fist coated in dark orange flames.
The soldiers who were standing around the scene like spectators raised their weapons when their captain was viciously attacked by an angry-looking Kiara. But they were stopped in their tracks by Roland's next command.
"Stop! Don't do anything stupid."
Roland said while getting up from his position. His body had been flung a few meters away from his position after he received the punch in his face. He was close to falling on his back but managed to stay on his feet.
Roland wiped the blood that was coming from one of his nostrils and adjusted his nose. He looked at the wiped blood on his finger and smiled bitterly before speaking up.
"Alright. I guess I deserved that. But can we talk about how we are planning to take care of the mess we have found ourselves in?"
Roland said while looking at Kiara's hands, which were still engulfed in flames. Even Eren could feel the warmth of those flames even when he was standing at a sufficient distance away from her. It was clear that Kiara didn't pull anything back when attacking the guards' captain in front of his own guards.
Kiara wanted to continue attacking Roland to vent her anger on him. But she knew he had a point. Still, she looked at her team and Miranda for confirmation. Only after nobody voiced their objection did Kiara extinguish her flames.
"What is there to talk about? Nobody has got any sleep anyway. Let's launch this blood mission now that it has come to this."
Kiara said and looked at the soldiers surrounding her with nonchalance. However, her aura told them that she was more than eager to cause more pain to them if any of them voiced their objection.
***
Pointlet forest.
In the middle of the dense vegetation was a tribal ground. It featured various huts and wooden houses. The shabby construction of these houses would tell the spectators that they were just recently built.
There was a two-story stone construction in the middle of these wooden houses that stood out from the rest. The stone walls appeared to have been built with earth-element spells.
This stone house had various rooms on the top floor. The ground floor of the house was a giant hall that served as the meeting room as well as the space for conducting blood rituals.
Bulal Blood was pondering over something while sitting on a giant chair that oddly looked like a defunct throne. The chair was located at one side of the hall on a raised platform that offered Bulal an elevated view of his audience.
There was a bunch of demonic rankers standing with their hands behind their backs. They were like his small army, ready to attack any opponent upon his command.
Bulal Blood was an old-looking man with a long gray beard. His shoulder-length white hair was cascading from his aged, cruel face. He had long white eyebrows and sunken eyes that were not overly visible.
Bulal had pale skin. But his hands were surprisingly red as if he had just dipped them into the pool of blood.
Bulal had donned a long coat that looked worn out. Inside the coat, he was sporting a knight-like armor that didn't bode well with his image. Tapping his finger, he looked outside the open hall.
"Hm. Why hasn't Jario contacted me yet?"
Saying this to himself, Bulal frowned. In the next moment, he sensed some mana disturbance not too far away from him and his tribal ground. He stood from his seat and looked around as if trying to gauge the situation.
Bulal Blood knew that the tribal ground he was at was surrounded at this point.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l