Augustus kept Lily held, turning to Aaron who observed them with a raised brow. He sighed, then cleared his throat, "She's my sister, Ylil. It's been so long since we last had a talk, but she's always in such a hurry. So, about the gates?"
"We've not confirmed if they are hiding there. It could be a trap, and the gates seems to have been locked from the inside." Aaron explained, "I made sure to clear the area of a few dozen raks, but we need to get back to Arlene and Felix as soon as, cough, possible."
"Oh, I understand." Augustus nodded to Aaron, turning from the man back to Lily, a cold gleam in his eyes. He released her, watching as Lily rubbed her arm, "Don't bother trying to escape, because I will find you and kill you."
"Thanks, edge-lord." Shifting her glance from Augustus, Lily sized up Aaron without saying another word. She turned back to the building she'd hid in and shut the doors, "It was well protected, and no raks got past me. I can assure you that."
"I'd rather not waste time." Augustus sized the building with narrowed eyes, then he returned his gaze to the path. He frowned, "There are thirty buildings to the left, and I'd guess thirty-seven to the left. Half can house a sizeable band of ra—"
"Okay, genius wannabe." Lily groaned, glaring as Augustus turned to her with a lifted brow. She rolled her eyes, then pointed to the distance, "The raks gathered at the fountain, and not a lot of them are in the buildings. Their swarming to sweep the gates."
'Oh, I see. Raks aren't that intelligent, so I'd guessed they'd repeat the former tactic I'd seen at the market, but I am wrong.' Augustus narrowed his eyes, then snapped his fingers as a gleam flashed through his eyes, "Augustus, let's head over to the gates quickly."
"What are you thinking of Augustus?" Lily gave Aaron a bombastic side-eye. Augustus replied with a chuckle, and hearing it caused Lily's brows to jump, "The last time I heard a chuckle like that, you bombed the courtyard gathering and nearly killed Ullyr."
[Hack «1 Second Skip» can be evolved to «10 Second Skip»!]
'So, that's the talent she'd been using earlier?' Out of the eighty reincarnated humans who were sent to lord parts of this world, Augustus was the only one with the ability that to evolve other talents, 'No wonder I was taken off guard so quickly.'
"I thought my talent was locked." Augustus muttered under his breath, a cold gleam in his eyes as he turned to Aaron. He examined Aaron with «Traveller's Eyes», then smiled, "I should have double checked it, but his skill is not changed from before."
He had woken up here with all of his memories intact, but since the awakening event had not occurred yet, Augustus believed his talent was still dormant. It was a broken skill, allowing him to turn pathetic fools into hardened warriors in a blink.
Two-Hit Critical, a talent that made Aaron always deal critical damage on the second hit could be evolved to One-Hit Critical. If he had Aaron build heavy weapons, it would be guaranteed that all Aaron's hits would deal insane damage to their target.
1 Second Skip, that allowed Lily to alter the senses of time for one second could evolve into 10 Second Skip and further into 10, 000 Seconds Skip, each evolution having a lower success than the last and more difficult to achieve with less trusting followers.
"Hey, you spaced out again."
Hearing the voice, Augustus blinked. He raised his head to find himself staring face to face with Lily, and seeing the look in his eyes, she shook her head and stepped aside. With his brows knitted, Augustus observed the gate, "So, it's locked from the inside?"
"Should we bust it down?" Lily turned to Augustus, but he gave her a weird glance. As she returned her gaze to the gates, holding her chin, "If we try really hard, then I am sure we can tear down the gates with our bare hands in a few minutes."
"I always knew you had a flair for vandalising public property." Augustus scoffed then turned to Arlene and Aaron, "Haven't you tried initiating a conversation? It'd be smarter if we don't tear the gates down for the raks, and tried knocking?"
"We knocked, but no one replied." Felix answered, crouched by his mother and flicking pieces of sand into the air. He shifted his big green eyes to Lily, focusing them on her, "Are you the woman who burnt down our shop? You are a bad person."
"Oh, Haha. That, Haha. I didn't know you'd remember it, Haha." Lily blinked, turning as red as a tomato in a few seconds. Seeing Augustus's judgemental look, she exploded, "I just wanted to help with the kitchen! It's not my fault it just up and exploded!"
"Kitchens don't up and explode, ma'am." Felix pointed his finger directly as Lily, "You know that it was totally your fault. If you didn't know what you were doing, then you did not do good stepping into the kitchen. I lost a few of my toys…"
Augustus returned his gaze to the gates, walking towards it and drumming his fists on the surface. The sound travelled far and wide, but there was no reply. Augustus lifted both hands to drum on the gates again, then paused, "This may attract—"
He turned to see Lily holding her daggers, Arlene holding her child and Aaron with his sword drawn. He blinked, cleared his throat then drummed on the gates again. After a few seconds, Augustus's hair stood on ends, and he spun around at lightning speed.
Spears rained down from the top of the gates, stabbing into the earth. Augustus, wide eyed with a spear only an inch away from his nose, raised his gaze to the gates. Sighting a man sitting there, his heart beat calmed, "I guess that had an effect."
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" The man glared at Aaron, a ghastly cut along the side of his face and it bled profusely. After a second, the man noticed Aaron and his jaw dropped, the stick he chewed on falling out of his mouth, "You are alive?"