Chapter 359 Chapter 358: Three Punches! One Victory!
Evi paused for a minute as he thought about Blood Stepper's offer. In such a dangerous scenario, it was better to be cautious and not take the first offer.
"These robbers have a strong relationship with each other. This is especially the case for the robber holding Yoze hostage."
"So it is reasonable for him to want his brother to escape before letting go of Yoze. But there is a big risk I have to take if I allow this robber to go."
"Let's see what my skills in diplomacy and words can get me." Evi's eyes flashed as he turned towards Blood Stepper.
"Your offer is too dangerous for me and Yoze. How can we guarantee that once I let your brother go, he won't get reinforcements while you continue to hold Yoze hostage?"
"You are also taking a huge risk by holding Yoze hostage. Who is to say how much longer you'll be able to hold him captive?"
"Just from the difference in body size, he is a better martial artist. If you make one bad move, he might be able to reverse the situation and capture you instead." Evi took a deep breath to pause and collect his thoughts.
"So, how about this? Both of us will meet next to the campfire. At the same time, I will let go of your brother, and you will do the same with Yoze."
"This way, there is no chance that you can slit Yoze's throat in the confusion, and I can't recapture your brother."
After Evi finished his proposal, he stopped talking and allowed the silence of the night to once again engulf the forest. With nothing to keep his mind occupied, Blood Stepper slowly realized the amount of pressure he was in.
Though he found it hard to keep up with the words Evi was rapidly spitting out, Blood Stepper found it hard to distinguish the contradiction in his statements. Yoze, on the other hand, saw through Evi's trick and almost wanted to nod his head with approval.
"Wonderful! Evi first made me sound weak and helpless to make this robber feel that the deal he had offered him was too unfair. By discounting my strength, Evi made it seem like he and I were the ones in danger."
"But just in the next sentence, Evi reversed the position of power. Instead of being a liability for him, I am now powerful enough to escape on my own, making this robber no longer feel comfortable holding me hostage."
"Unless this robber sees through this small trick, he might accept an offer that puts him in a disadvantageous position with no upside."Yoze smiled in the darkness and felt comfortable in the hands of Blood Stepper.
Even with a knife on his throat, he didn't feel scared or nervous as it wouldn't be able to cut his skin anyway.
"Okay, I understand your position, but you still have to allow my brother to leave before I let go of your teacher. No matter how you spin it, I can't allow your martial arts teacher to escape at the same time as my brother."
"Instead, why don't we follow your plan, but you allow my brother to go, and thirty seconds later, I will let go of your teacher. This is my final offer!" Blood Stepper slowly said as he compromised.
"That is fine." Evi paused briefly to make Blood Stepper think he was hesitant before accepting the deal.
With both in agreement, Evi and Blood Stepper walked slowly toward the extinguished campfire and looked at each other. With the help of the light from the moon and stars, they could see each other in more detail.
"Yoze looks ridiculous!" Evi thought to himself when he saw how weird it looked for someone of Yoze's size to be captured by someone much smaller than him.
Being nearly nine feet tall, Yoze dwarfed Blood Stepper, who was only five feet and eight inches tall.
Even after bending his knees to lower himself to match Blood Stepper's height, Yoze still found himself the taller party, which forced Blood Stepper to stretch his arms to keep his knife on Yoze's neck.
However, Evi found this all to be stupid as he knew that Yoze could kill everyone here with a single thought. He still took it seriously and kept his face stern throughout the process.
"Let him go." Blood Stepper said after observing his younger brother.
Evi nodded and slowly unwrapped his hands on the Blood Stepper's brother's neck. Once free, the younger robber took a deep breath of relief and looked at his brother.
"Go, idiot! What are you standing here for!?" Blood Stepper screamed when he saw his younger brother wasting his precious time standing there helplessly.
"Make sure you escape brother!"
Terrified that he was putting his brother in danger, the younger robber immediately dived into the bushes. After the bushes rustled in the darkness, it seemed as if the younger robber had vanished.
"Incredible. Even though these two robbers don't seem to practice body cultivation methods and can't be called full martial artists, their stealth technique is incredible. They could have been great assassins if they didn't choose to become robbers." Evi thought to himself as he waited for a few seconds to have passed.
He was not planning on waiting the full thirty seconds and was instead waiting for the moment Blood Stepper lowered his guard.
"That's it!" Evi's pupils shrunk when he noticed that Blood Stepper had become distracted.
Treating this as a life-and-death situation, Evi took immediate action and ran full force to tackle Yoze and Blood Stepper.
"Shit! You goddamn liar!" Blood Stepper angrily screamed.
The force of having Yoze's and Evi's body weight falling on top of him blew the air out of his lungs and dazed him. Before he could recover and counterattack, Evi grabbed the arm holding the knife and moved it away from Yoze's throat.
Unfortunately, just as he used to move Blood Stepper's knife away from Yoze's neck, Blood Stepper recovered from the tackle and threw a punch to Evi's face. Scared of being punched, Evi jerked his head away from the punch and narrowly missed it.
However, this hasty dodge allowed Blood Stepper to regain some of the upper hand as he used his legs to push Yoze and Evi off him.
As an experienced thief, Blood Stepper had experienced numerous dangerous situations and survived all of them. Even though he lacked in-depth education, Evi had learned to become a scholar when it came to street smarts and fighting experience he had Evi beat.
After regaining his balance, Evi's face turned grim as he looked at the sharp knife in Blood Stepper's hand. Fighting someone with a weapon without one was highly disadvantageous. It could easily result in his death if he wasn't careful.
"You big-time city folks are all big hypocrites! We could have ended this peacefully if you had just followed our deal." Blood Stepper growled.
He tightly clenched the knife in his hand and felt slightly safer. Facing two martial artists who could kill ordinary people with a single punch was ideal.
As a thief, he preferred not to have to fight directly. From how easily Evi had taken down his younger brother, Blood Stepper did not doubt that if he turned around to run, he would die. So he could only wait for an opportunity to dive into the bushes and escape using his Plant Shadow movement technique.
"Lucky, GeGe had already escaped. Even if I am captured or killed, he is at least safe." Blood Stepper grinned as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.
From the amount of confidence he displayed, most people would have thought that his reinforcements were arriving soon. This was a trick he had learned from his many years of stealing.
The more confidence he showed his enemies, the more likely they would make the wrong move and feel less confident fighting him. Unfortunately, Evi wasn't going to fall for such a simple trick. He took a deep breath and ran over to Blood Stepper.
Now that he had allowed one of the robbers to escape, he had to capture Blood Stepper, or he might fail Yoze's first test for him.
"Damn! Why is my first test so hard? Why couldn't Yoze just choose the standard test of checking my skill mastery with a dummy?" Evi told himself to file a complaint to Yoze once this is over.
After throwing away all his caution, Blood Stepper gritted his teeth and stabbed Evi while trying to prepare himself to fight against Yoze's ambush. Unfortunately, with his attention split, Evi was able to narrowly dodge his knife stab and threw a Spiral Bull Fist directly into Blood Stepper's jaw.
"Pa! Pa! Pa!"
The impact of Evi's spiral Bull Fists lifted Blood Stepper's feet a few inches off the ground. Not letting this opportunity go, Evi threw two more Spiral Koi Fists straight at Blood Stepper's chest.
With three powerful punches hitting him directly, Blood Stepper's ordinary body couldn't handle the force and was sent flying a whole foot before his body slammed into the ground hard and rolled into a nearby tree.
From his motionless body, it could be seen that Evi had knocked him out cold.
"I won!"
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