Renjiro wondered why problems had tailed him since he got transmigrated to this new world, he groaned in frustration, scanning his surroundings like he saw lyra do, Melora knew she had nothing to offer at the moment so she ran into the vehicle to avoid being a distraction in case anything went wrong.
Lyra was confused, she suspected that someone had caused their crash but she wondered why the person or people that caused it hadn't come out of hiding to claim their loot, unbeknownst to her the culprits were biding their time, waiting for her to come into their range so they could stun her and get on with their mission.
Seeing how she had instructed the rest of her counterparts it was obvious she was the most powerful of them, but looking at her age they were sure the equipment they had purchased were enough to take care of her and the rest of her friends easily.
Lyra refused to move knowing that if she moved even a few inches more, it would leave the vehicle open giving anyone who wanted to cart away with it enough time to move it, and considering the fact that she instructed Melora to stay in the vehicle they'd be taking Melora along with the vehicle.
Over ten minutes passed and the three men couldn't take it anymore the blue haired girl had not relaxed and she refused to move from where she stood, one of them disabled his camouflaging device and stepped out into the open surprising both lyra and renjiro, his crew had tried to stop him but seeing that they couldn't they had no option but to reveal themselves and capture the teenagers in front of them by any means necessary.
Lyra looked at the three men and held down the urge to burst into laughter, one of them had the strip of hair on his head tinted deep blue, and he was short and kind of muscular with stubby arms and legs. He had a pair of combats and singlets on, strapped to his waist was a kit bag with lot of pouches containing god knows what but lyra was sure that it was nothing good.
The other members of his crew were also funny one had a red colored hair and the other white they all wore the same outfit and had the same type of kit bags, they were trying to look mean but the scene was so funny renjiro couldn't help himself anymore and began to laugh.
''what's so funny'' the blue haired man snarled
Renjiro stopped to reply but seeing the expression on the man's face he couldn't help but begin laughing again.
''let's see if you'll find it funny when you get kidnapped'' the red haired man said and the ring in his hand transformed into what looked like a pistol at first glance but upon closer inspection renjiro could see that the gun had runes carved on them, they were so little if one wasn't paying close attention they'd miss the detail.
''duck'' lyra screamed and jumped tackling renjiro to the ground, when she saw the gun she immediately knew what it was, only authorized personnels were allowed to have such weapons, it was a stun ray which could be calibrated with respect to the abilities of the target, the ray of light hit the ground a meter away from them and fizzled away leaving no marks where it struck, renjiro was dazed while he was busy studying the gun he was almost shot.
Lyra knew that if they had been shot there was no way they would escape getting kidnapped, she felt no threat from the men and she estimated that they were weaker than she was or considerably stronger to the extent that they could hide their energy signature from her, considering the fact that anyone who was considerably stronger than her wouldn't need to hide to ambush them and would have dealt with them in seconds she decided go with the former.
''who sent you'' lyra asked trying to understand their motive, she wondered if the cult of osthronos had a hand in this.
''sent? That is insulting, we answer to no one. we are the great red pirates'' the blue haired man said
''how bad can the people of the world get at naming things'' renjiro thought, mentally facepalming.
''you are what?'' lyra asked since she had never heard of them, she had heard about a lot of pirates some so infamous their member were all mid tier elites or above but she had never heard of these group. At least they had stopped shooting at them.
''I have never heard of you guys, and shouldn't you be more than three in number''
''three is more than enough, we have good coordination and we are able to steal whatever we want and from whoever'' the white haired pirate said in a squeaky voice almost causing renjiro to burst out in a fit of laughter.
''how did you get those equipment, I am sure the kingdom of mechmagus didn't authorize it'' lyra asked to keep them busy, during this time she had already requested for help considering a situation where she couldn't defeat them alone.
''trade secret, I can't tell you. Enough talk now surrender to us and make this easier on yourselves, the first shot was a warning to show you that we meant business, if we go all out we might kill you guys and we don't want to risk that'' the red haired imp commanded taking out a sphere from his kit bag.
He threw it towards lyra and a vine materialized in her hand taking the form of a whip, she cracked the whip and sent the sphere flying, it landed and expanded immediately, sealing a few trees inside it.
''I wasn't aware of your status as an elite, I take back my statement. We are going all out, I am sure you guys are going to fetch us a lot of money considering the stress we are going through to capture you runts''