Danton and the rest spend a few seconds looking at Sybil's disappearing figure.
"You two chase her!" Jabber ordered. "Skinny, come with me!"
Jabber followed the Undying's trail and soon reached a cabin. But at its front, he halted.
"The trail ends here. Sybil shouldn't be able to clear the Undying's trail, right?"
"No," Danton replied. "Perhaps the Soul bond allows something like that, but she probably just launched him towards the air."
"Then we follow her. It's likely she jumped towards where she launched the Undying."
Danton nodded.
After a couple minutes, the two reunited with the rogues that ran before them.
"We found where she landed," one said, pointing at a broken branch and some ripped apart clothes. "But by the time we arrived, she was long gone. How many times can she jump?"
"I don't know," Danton replied truthfully. "But it shouldn't be more than ten."
"No," Jabber said. "It's only five. The one who broke the branch is the Undying. These are his trails."
The old rogue still hadn't cancelled his skill.
"Then she's launching the Undying and then following after him."
"Did you see which way she jumped?"
"No, but it should be at the same direction. If she jumped sideways, we would've seen them in the air."
"Skinny, climb that tree and tell me if you see anything."
Danton did as ordered and started climbing the tallest tree around. Atop it, he looked south, searching for any movement, but couldn't see anything.
"Nothing!" he shouted below. "They're likely running at this point!"
"Come down!"
Danton climbed down and Jabber looked at them with a cold frown.
"We give up for now."
Jabber said. He approached Danton and punched him in the gut. He was so fast, Danton couldn't even react properly.
"Kuakh!" he fell to his knee.
Something definitely broke.
"Rejuvenate yourself, fucker!" Jabber shouted.
With shaky hands, Danton ordered his spirit to heal himself.
"You like to do that, don't you, fucker?!"
Jabber kicked again.
"You'd rather heal yourself instead of committing to the trail!"
He picked up his knife and stabbed it in Danton's palm.
"Because of you, I needed to be stuck using Tracking!"
Another stab.
"If not! I could've easily taken caught that woman! You think I teach rogues because I'm a joke?!"
"No…" Danton whimpered out.
"And now we lost the Undying AND my underling died!"
Jabber twisted the knife.
"Aaargh!"
Jabber pulled the knife out and walked towards the town. "Don't think this is the end of it," he spat out.
Danton managed to heal his hand, and with an emptied spirit, wobbled behind the group.
They arrived near the dead rogue that Sybil had shot. His soul had materialized and was floating silently above his body. Jabber walked over to absorb it into his, and they trudged on.
Slowly, they made their way towards the town once again. Danton was worried about going straight back there. After all, they killed a guard. Sure, he was a soulless, but still, it would be hard for them to explain themselves.
And there was no point trying to hide the fact that they were the culprits, as the soulless were unable to lie to the mayor.
But… he felt no obligation to speak up. It was Jabber's problem. Danton's problem was Jabber's wrath.
'Perhaps I should run away…' he thought for the hundredth time these past few days.
If he went east to the capital, he could make a decent enough living as a rogue. Sure, he wouldn't be as… essential as he was here, but it was definitely an option. Jabber would rage for a few days before forgetting about the matter. And since he was unable to catch the Undying, he'd have to either go back to Belo city and search for another Undying, or he would go back to teaching rogue skills to new hunters.
Either way, he wouldn't go chasing Danton.
His head a mess of thoughts, Danton entered through the town gates. The one guard that was left behind unceremoniously welcomed him in.
Oddly, he couldn't hear the soulless working on whatever they tended to work on. The surroundings were eerily quiet. Jabber and the other two didn't seem to notice it too much. The former was scowling and muttering something under his breath, while the other two looked lost in thought. Perhaps the dead rogue was a close friend.
"Master," Danton spoke up, despite his reluctance. "It's too quiet."
Jabber was about to scowl back at him, but hearing the words, the old rogue inspected the surroundings. Not a single soulless could be seen despite them being in the outer town, and even the inner town seemed to lack any sound.
"Prepare for battle," Jabber spoke.
As if on cue, the ground surrounding them rose. They were blocked from all sides, and when Danton was about to jump over the earthen walls, another layer of earth acted as the lid for the box they were trapped in.
Jabber immediately smashed into the walls so they could break out. But although the body-slam did some damage, the earthen box immediately fixed itself.
"Ms. Eider!" Jabber shouted out. "This is a misunderstanding!"
"There is nothing to misunderstand," a cold voice spoke from outside the box. "Perhaps in your big cities, lawlessness was natural, but Silt is my town. Don't think you can do whatever you want."
The box suddenly elongated to one side, turning into a tunnel. At the end of it, the wall broke down, revealing a massive warrior in full armor. He wasn't carrying his sword, but Danton knew Shekh wouldn't need it.
"Fucker…" Jabber muttered. "You don't wanna mess with me, woman! I'm working under the orders of the Sinclairs! You heard they made a proper rogue division, right? You think they'll let you get away with this?!"
"Hah," the mayor scoffed. "I'll send a letter to the Sinclairs after I execute you lot. Will they send an apology for the unruly behavior of their clan members or will they slaughter your wife and children for slandering their prestigious name?"
At her declaration, Shekh dashed in. The two rogues activated their skills and intercepted the warrior. One aimed at his neck, the other went for the knee. Their skills should allow them to hit their intended target more easily, but Danton did not care about those two.
His eyes were focused on Jabber's hand reaching out to him. Perhaps he was trying to throw him at the warrior. Danton activated Strengthening and kicked Jabber's back.
The stout man glared back as if he was going to murder him, but Danton gave no heed. There would be no surviving Shekh.
Indeed, when Danton looked over, the two rogues lay incapacitated. One had his head bashed in and the other was trying to fix his leg, which was bent in a gruesome direction. Jabber, even after losing his balance because of Danton's kick, had somehow pulled out his knife and was aiming for the warrior's neck.
It was a futile movement, despite the man activating Quickening. Shekh did not dodge or parry, he simply opened his arms wide intending to catch Jabber. The dagger hit the neck true, but only clunked off Shekh's skill, which protected the gaps in his armor.
Shekh then caught Jabber in his embrace and squeezed. Jabber's back was broken and he tumbled onto the ground. No shouts or curses came out of his mouth. Only an endless, agonizing scream. That, too, soon went silent, with Shekh's metal boots falling on his head.
'Is it my turn?' Danton wondered. 'Will I shout and beg for mercy?'
He wished he wouldn't. The groaning and crying were inevitable, he knew that.
However, Shekh only gave him a passing glance and walked away. On the way, he killed the rogue with the broken leg.
The earthen wall fell to the ground.
Danton saw the mayor standing some distance away, coldly nodding at the massacre. Sybil, too, stood nearby, her expression still. She did not bother to look at Danton.
Only the Undying showed a frown. Oddly, he did not look at Danton with hatred.
'How did they come back faster than us?' Danton wondered. 'They must've jumped towards the town out of our sight.'
Danton's thoughts were distracted by the mayor making her way towards him. He stilled his heart and prepared for the consequences.
"Move out of Silt. Don't come back."
Contrary to Danton's expectations, his punishment was light.
"You have a decent enough heart," the mayor added. "But you're too weak for it to matter."
***