Chapter 106: Band of Thieves

Standing In the middle of a dark alleyway, Tyler's brows furrowed under his hood. He tilted his head slightly as he stared blankly at the metal plates on the bracelets of the figures that had just appeared and were slowly surrounded them.

They were a mix of mostly gold and silver and only one of them had a bracelet of a pale greyish-white metal plate on it. That color meant he was platinum ranked Hunter and signified he was the strongest and most likely their leader.

They were apparently all Hunters and were all draped in dirt brown cloaks but did not try to hide their faces with the hoods. It was either they were very confident in silencing them or the guild wouldn't or maybe couldn't do anything against them for doing something like this.

The laws of this region were very strict towards Hunters, whenever they're caught committing a crime, their punishment was usually twice or three times higher than normal. It was a way the nobles could attempt to tame the wild hunters that sometimes felt they were above the law and no longer answered to the ruling authorities.

The cloaked men had successfully trapped them in the center of the alleyway. Making a headcount, there were eight of them, with most of them being gold rank and only three were at the silver rank. With their leader being a platinum rank Hunter, the group was probably very confident against a single pair of rich and naive merchants.

Even if the hooded figure was a little strong, he would at most be at the Platinum rank as well and being outnumbered four to one, with their leader facing him directly. They had nothing to worry about.

'Give me a break…' Tyler sighed as he took a step forward. It irritated him to see the grins on these idiots' faces as they acted so confidently in front of him. He already had magic sense but even without it, he was easily able to tell when these clowns had started following them.

"Oi, oi, it hurts my pride if you don't take this seriously." The Platinum ranked Hunter spoke again. He had messy short black hair with black eyes. He had two short horns protruding from his head with a long tail that was visible from underneath his cloak.

The man was probably a lesser demon, maybe an imp but Tyler couldn't be sure. Most of the others had similar properties with slight differences so Tyler guessed they were a Hunter party formed of only lesser demons.

"Hehe... Just shut up and drop that fat coin pouch inside your coat, don't think I can't see it. Leave the dog girl too, don't worry, we'll send her back to you alive... yeah alive..."

A skinny blonde man holding a long glimmering dagger said from behind Tyler as he turned a lustful gaze at Nadine, licking his lips at his last words.

"See it, You can see it?" 

Tyler said underneath his breath as he placed his hand on Nadine's shoulder to keep her from retaliating. He knew she was stronger than these guys but didn't think she could handle them all herself without causing a ruckus.

He had been forced to placate himself because he didn't want to cause any noise in the city but he couldn't ignore the last words that had been spoken to him. He slowly turned to face the skinny man and asked a question. 

"Hey, you there." 

The man was startled at the unfazed tone of the figure in front of him but immediately composed himself. "What... oh, trying to beg, just leave the coin pouch here and we won't kill you... We'll only hurt you a lot."

—Ku...kukuku...

The laughter of the men behind him echoed in the quiet alleyway for a moment when a sudden cold voice returned the place to its original state.

"Be quiet when I'm talking to you."

For some strange reason, they couldn't refute him or get agitated at being talked down to. They were either dumbfounded by his stupidity or just shocked at his audacity.

"You said you could see my coin pouch earlier did you not? Is that an innate ability of yours or did you use a Skill? Or was it a higher tiered scroll?"

The men were so confused by what was happening that they couldn't think of their next step. Their only thoughts were: What is wrong with this guy.

"Shut up!" The Platinum ranked Hunter roared in fury. "I get it now, you're trying to buy time ain't ya... Hahaha.... too bad, no one's gonna come save you so just had the bag of coins over before I change my mind and kill you myself."

"Okay."

The other Hunters were starting to feel like their boss was taking it a tad too far. Killing a member if a guild would not go unpunished but their jaws went lose the moment they heard the hooded man's response.

There were generally two ways this normally went. Either the guy trembles in fear and immediately hands over all their belongings, sometimes even willingly offering up their partners to avoid being killed. Or they try to be courageous and attack hoping to find a chance of escape but that never goes how they had hoped.

It was natural since the group was careful about who they chose to attack. Never picking on anyone with the right connections or were too powerful for them to defeat.

However, this had gone nothing like what they were expecting. They were simply unable to predict this guy's responses at all. As most of them stood in their spots still stunned. The man reached into his coat and tossed a familiar-looking pouch at the Platinum ranked Hunter.

The messy-haired fellow almost failed to respond in time and fumbled when catching the pouch but ultimately caught it. He felt a huge jolt of relief, for some reason he had thought they had bitten off more than they could chew but in the end the man had just been puffing out smoke.

He smirked and was about to ask for the dog girl when he suddenly realized something. The weight of the pouch was insane, how much did this pair make from just a single transaction with the guild. 

Thanks to the fairly recent circulation of the higher denominations of platinum coins. Merchant no longer had to risk carrying a large chest of heavy coins whenever they made their usual tropes to restock their wares so one could now carry high sums of money on their person making it a lot easier to move around large sums of money without always need a chest.

However, the weight of this pouch was ridiculous. There should be around 20 thousand DC's in there. His greed flashes in his eyes and made his mouth water. 20 thousand DC was an insane amount of money. He could buy a well-furnished house, a Tier 2 horse-drawn fancy carriage and he would still have enough money left over to enjoy himself every night with a different girl for a good year.

The temptation to take a peek at the contents of the pouch was too great and his mine was too weak to resist the urge. He lowered his gaze to open the pouch, expecting to see the glimmering shine of the coins but was met with a bunch of dark and dull black rocks.

"Gar.. garbage...! You gave me garbage!! you fuc—"

His mouth was unable to complete his rant as an arm was stretched out and a hand grabbed his face before he could even raise his head. The guy that should be standing a few meters away was now just inches away from him, grabbing a hold of his head with his left hand.

His men seemed stunned, it didn't seem like they had seen him move either, he wasn't even sure if they could comprehend what was going on right now. 

Anger rose within him, how could a Platinum rank Hunter like himself be treated like this. He raised his arm to try and pull off the hand on his face but it wouldn't budge. If someone told him the hand was attached to his face he would believe them.

He tried harder but the grip only got tighter and a pained scream that sounded like a wail of a dying animal resounded throughout the alleyway. It was only then his men broke out of their stupor and shouted.

"What the hell do you think you're doing you bastard. You're dead, dead!"

Tyler had swiftly closed the short distance between himself and the Platinum rank Hunter and grabbed the man by the face. His body was then hoisted off the ground.

The man could not even dodge, much less resist the sudden clinch. He had tried to get away from his grip but it was pointless, even without putting much strength into this, these men were surprisingly weaker than he thought.

The men around him who were screaming curses at him still hesitated to move. They were probably still wondering what was happening here. How strong was this guy, if he could lift a grown man who was also a Platinum rank Hunter with one arm like it was nothing. The imaginations of everyone present were now considering that topic.

Still, it only took one person to escalate things. Another gold rank Hunter lost his composure and went mad. "Damn you bastard, Die!!!"

He spread his arms and two magic circles quickly formed before he swiped his arm like he was throwing a weapon. Tyler could see the others around him also preparing their spells and some drawings out their weapons. The shadow under his feet vibrated slightly but quickly stopped.

Nadine was also about to move when Tyler gestured for her to stop. There was no longer any need for them to do anything else. As the gold rank adventurer was about to release his spell when a figure fell from the sky and slammed him into the ground, probably after jumping off the tall buildings that formed this alleyway.

"That's enough!"

Four other figures also came from behind and one of them yelled out to the band of thieves. The group of five were also Hunters with metal-plated bracelets on their wrists.

"Who the hell are you guys, why the hell are you interfering with the Rancor gang's business."

The gold rank Hunter with the long dagger spoke first, trying to understand the situation. One of the four figures in the back answered his question with a chuckle.

"Interfere, I'll say we just saved your lives, you should be grateful, if you still can't understand that then I wonder how you lots became gold ranks."

The one who spoke was a male, his metal plate was a pale greyish-white meaning he was also a Platinum rank Hunter, as a matter of fact, all four of them at the back were Platinum rank Hunters. This was probably why they dared challenge such numbers.

when the gold rank Hunter heard the man his eyes twitched and he took a step back. His other comrades were also hesitating, and the one that was the first to attack was still being held back by an unidentified figure.

"We, w-we can't leave without our boss."

He said those words cautiously as he didn't know what would happen to them now that they were so outclassed. Tyler turned to look at the man with the long dagger and asked again. "You, I'll ask one last time, what did you use to look through my coat?"

The man could not see his eyes but his body was nearly convulsed by that question. He hesitated for a second before looking back to see the four Hunters just quietly staring at them. He gulped and spoke carefully: "It's my innate ability, Perceptive Gaze. I can use to locate anything of value within my range." 

He didn't want to give out such information but the grip on his boss's head was getting tighter and tighter. He hoped that would be enough to satisfy him and he was glad to see that it did. The man just nodded at his companion before turning back to him.

Tyler lightly tossed the man he was holding towards the side. Well, it was light for him, but the speed at which the man flew nearly shattered the wall he slammed into.

"You bastard!.."

One of the other men yelled but retreated when Tyler faced his direction.

"Alright, you guys should get lost before things get worse." One of the other males amongst the group of five spoke sternly from behind and the thieves hurriedly helped their unconscious boss out of the crater and ran away with some of them still cursing back at Tyler with hate in their eyes.

_______________________

Consider joining the Discord Server: https://discord.gg/XvdFxsBkwe

_______________________