Cabrera fell on the ground with his hair filled with leaves and his clothes, along with his face, muddied.
He hastily got up and observed both parties of White Iron and Red Wolf, acting like a mouse caught by the cat while stealing cheese.
He grinned inwardly as he reminisced on Fredrick's plan, and then-
"Ah, shit! Didn't you guys say they wouldn't find me?"
-he faced the party of White Iron members as he spoke not too loud, but just enough for the Red Wolf party to hear.
Cabrera had specifically made sure that he was close to the White Iron party before deliberately falling, because that drastically increased the plan's success rate.
Lo and Behold…
"That's him!"
Baldur, who was the instigator of the whole event, and also the one on the rear end of the advancing party, immediately recognized his voice and promptly alerted Motavu.
"Huh?"
"That's him?"
The remaining sixteen were astonished at the confirmation and couldn't help but ask once more.
"Yes, it's definitely him!"
Baldur re-confirmed it, and the doubts were wiped away in an instant, because…
"So you're that cowardly bastard. Stay where you are and I'll make your death a quick one. So, what do you say?"
Motavu arrived at the front of the group as he swiped his battle ax to wipe away the snake blood. He slowly approached Cabrera while releasing killing intent, trying to use fear to overwhelm Cabrera.
The boys behind him were silent as they instinctively felt fear of a stronger predator.
Too bad though, as Cabrera wasn't a former gang leader for nothing. Also, the training he endured during the past month was too arduous for him to be helpless in the face of something like this.
Cabrera was inwardly smiling as he stayed rooted on the spot while observing the white iron party…and then, he saw the man from a few hours ago. He saw Arvin.
Cabrera turned to the White Iron party with his finger pointed as he proclaimed with conviction…
"So this is how you guys want to play it? I should have known from the beginning. Provoking a couple of muscle heads for what? A single mana technique? Oh, how stupid I was to believe in you wretched fools! I might die here but I'll make sure to take one of you with me!"
Silence!
Complete silence!
Both party members were dumbfounded after hearing such information!
Even Motavu came to a halt as his thoughts churned and he looked to the White Iron party.
'I knew I sensed something following us earlier, but I thought it was just some insignificant snake, but it was these guys? Impressive. But if they were following us, where did that guy come from?'
Motavu wouldn't be a vice guild leader if he didn't see the questionable events that happened, but once he checked the contents of Cabrera's speech, he immediately understood.
'Of course! He said something about being betrayed, so that means…he was running from them as well! Since he already provoked us, he must have gone to ask for the mana techniques, but was almost killed instead. He then fled into the hunting grounds with a large group for protection!'
Motavu nodded to himself. Judging by the current situation and Cabrera's bitter tone, this was most likely the case.
But then came the thousand platinum question.
'But why would they want to provoke us?'
And…
'Why did they use an outsider and not a member of their guild? Wait, this is just one of their branches. What if the guy was from the same guild, but another branch? Hmmm, that would explain how he could easily beat Baldur'
But…
'Why would a guild member need a mana technique…what rank was that mana technique? Maybe that's why they're trying to kill him! If it was one of Dark Gold-rank, I would certainly do the same to keep it an absolute secret'
Motavu once again nodded, feeling he was getting close to something, a secret that could most likely cause a guild war.
But to be sure of his assumptions, he quickly glanced at the faces of those trailing him, and sure enough, he knew each and every one of them.
But more importantly-
'Their combined strength would be a force to reckon with against even me'
-they were all strong.
And so…
'To send such a force to catch only one person?'
It was the epitome of excessiveness.
And the only person able to mobilize such a force would be the guild master!
So that meant…
'Their guild master knows about this'
And more importantly…
'To mobilize such a force means that they want to get rid of him by any means necessary'
Which can only mean that…
'He knows something that they want to hide at any cost'
And so…
'I can't let them kill him just yet. I need to get to the bottom of this mystery. It might be the chance for the guild to rise'
Which meant…
'I need him alive at any cost'
And so Motavu concluded his thoughts.
Like him, the Red Wolf members each interpreted it in their own way, while their eyes blazed fire at the words "a couple of muscle heads".
One thing was confirmed in all of their minds. No matter the truth, this guy had to die.
Meanwhile, the White Iron members were frozen on the spot, trying to comprehend what the hell was going on.
Did they miss something?
What the hell was this guy talking about?
One of the two girls among them quickly surveyed everyone's expression and found that each person was equally dumbfounded at the turn of events, and it was the same with Arvin too.
But she couldn't be sure if he was silent for the same reason as them or because of something else, so she opened her mouth, intent on asking him.
But Cabrera wasn't going to give them any chance to understand the situation, so he shouted-
"Now die, you backstabbing b*stards!"
-before suddenly accelerating as his legs lit up with a gold outline.
And then…
*BAM*CRACK*
The next instant, Cabrera's figure became a blur and vanished, before suddenly appearing in front of Arvin, whose thoughts were messed up at the sudden turn of events.
Without a word, Cabrera kneed his head from below his chin, effectively breaking his neck.
The sound rang out clearly to all those in the vicinity, but Cabrera couldn't care less.
Without stopping, he immediately attacked those beside him, who had quickly put up their arms to defend.
Like Motavu said, they were strong. Cabrera attacked while their minds were in disarray, else his kick might have been avoided or someone else would attack…just like right now.
As soon as Cabrera attacked the two beside him, one raised his arm off to absorb the shock, while the other, which was a girl, had a boy jump in front of her.
But at the last moment, Cabrera withdrew the attack, before immediately stepping on Arvin's falling body and lunging at a tree a fair distance away.
The above sequence of events took place in less than a minute as Cabrera balanced himself on a tree, and then suddenly coughed a lot of blood.
But no one immediately noticed because-
"Ahhhh!"
-one of the girls screamed with tears in her eyes while holding Arvin's now dead body.
Cabrera couldn't be more thankful as he instantly lunged from that tree to another, effectively gaining ground within the two minutes he was given.
Because-
"Men, chase after that bastard. I want him alive at any cost! Kill any who stand in your way! Do you hear me?!"
-Motavu was chasing after Cabrera as he shouted, effectively shaking them out of their reverie.
"YES SIR!"
They didn't question his orders even though some didn't understand why the person they all wanted dead was now needed alive.
Nevertheless, the order was absolute.
And so, Motavu and his subordinates chased after Cabrera who was thought to be injured judging from the large amount of blood he puked.
But what no one could see was the slight smile on Cabrera's face as he briefly glanced at those chasing him and thought...
'That's it, keep chasing me. I never knew baiting them would be this easy…or am I just that good'
He shrugged his shoulders at such narcissistic thoughts and jumped to another tree.
Meanwhile…
"Sean, we've lost track of them. What should we do now?"
The adventure team that was trailing Fredrick's party had been thrown in disarray when Fredrick's party suddenly began running, while not forgetting to wake a lot of sleeping predators up along the way.
With the fear of dying in their hearts, they didn't follow after and were subsequently lost.
Now, they were beginning to consider retreating when a tree at their side suddenly shook.
The archer in their team looked, only to find a man jumping from tree to tree, and surprisingly-
"TO THINK YOU BASTARDS WERE HERE!"
-the man shouted with his voice echoing slightly in the forest, not forgetting to throw stones at the head of the one called Sean and laugh hysterically.
"SERVES YOU RIGHT, YOU BASTARDS! AND YOU BITCHES TOO!"
Sean, who had his head hit with a stone, stood up at this moment and said in a low but cold voice…
"I'm going to kill him, I'm going to kill that-"
But a voice put a stop to his monologue.
It was the archer's voice, whose hands were pointing in a certain direction.
"Sean, I think you'll need to kill that man a bit later, right now…we need to run!"
Barely finishing her sentence, she began running, leaving behind the others who were dumbfounded at the sudden turn of events, but they quickly ran after her.
The archer had saved them from a lot of dangers in the past, so they knew when she said to run, it was better to run now and ask questions later. Questions could only be asked if one was still alive.
And what would you know, the archer showed just why her sense of danger was spot on.
No sooner had they begun running when the tree they were on was cut in half by an overly muscular man whose eyes had turned bloodshot. He wielded two battle axes - he had taken one more from his subordinates - and cut down all trees in his path, consequences be damned!
The next instant, he looked at the running party while trying to piece what Cabrera said into his thought up scenario.
But Asmund knowing them meant they might know something about the secret.
So he called out ten names, the best ten, pointed at the running party and said…
"Capture them"
"Alive or dead?" they asked to confirm.
"At least two must live. You can kill the others if they try anything"
The impromptu leader nodded, before separating from Motavu and speeding up to catch or kill the adventurer team.
If one looked at the forest from above, they would see a small path with trees constantly falling after being chopped by a madman's ax.
Motavu eventually stopped cutting the trees as he found it to be very energy consuming, and focused on catching up to the ever hopping Cabrera, who kept spitting blood occasionally and almost falling down from time to time, but merely hanging on with a timely catch on a branch, indulging Motavu's thoughts of him being severely weakened but keeping on struggling with the will to live.
On this day was enacted the spectacular event spearheaded by Fredrick and Cabrera.
It was the first time both these men tried covering chaos with even more chaos…but it certainly won't be the last!