Chương 91: Chapter 89 – No Escape.

Rusty barely had time to register Alexander's warning before he heard footsteps echoing in the alleyway. Shadows shifted, and figures emerged at both ends, boxing him in. Rusty tightened his grip on Gleam's cage, his mind racing. The figure at the far end of the alley stepped forward, his blue cloak flowing behind him. It was the same man who had bid against him in the auction house. Flanked by two towering, heavily armored guards, the man moved his hood out of the way to reveal his face.

"Don't make this more difficult than it has to be, adventurer. Relinquish the monster to me and you can leave." The man's voice was smooth but laced with a warning. He looked to be a man over sixty, his hair already gray. Rusty adjusted his stance, positioning Gleam's cage behind him. The man's eyes gleamed with an unsettling intensity, and he continued speaking, his tone deceptively calm.

"I'll even be generous," He said, producing a small pouch and shaking it so the sound of coins rang through the narrow space.

"Twenty gold coins, right here. Not as much as you've paid, but I suppose your life should be worth more than five measly gold coins? It's a fair price, and I'm not here to spill unnecessary blood. But if you refuse…" Not only were there two armored men with him, but also an additional two soldiers blocking the side paths of the alleyway behind the auction house. The door leading back inside was thick, and he had heard it shut firmly behind him.

Even if he tried to run back, getting through would likely be impossible. The auction house was a tall building, but he wasn't much of a climber. Rusty needed to decide - to fight or give in to their demands.

"˙◠˙""What? You want me to leave you here? I won't!" Gleam called out to him from within the cage. She sounded quite distressed, her small, ant chirps quite faint. She seemed to want him to relinquish her to save himself. Rusty glanced down, slightly mad that she would even propose such a solution. There was no way he'd hand her over now, not after everything they'd been through. The blue-robed man took a step forward, his guards advancing in tandem, closing the space between them.

His eyes narrowed as he gestured to the guards, impatience flickering across his face.

"Very well, then. You leave me no choice but to take it from you by force."

'Rusty this doesn't look good, those people mean business! Maybe it would be better to think this through and…'

'Shut up, I'm not giving Gleam up again!' Alexander attempted to reason with Rusty, realizing these people weren't just simple adventurers. Their armor surpassed the E-rank level, and the most troubling figure among them was the one in robes. He carried himself like someone well-versed in battle and could very well be one of the worst opponents Rusty could face. But Alexander's thoughts and shouts couldn't reach him, as a burst of darkness erupted in all directions.

"Oh?" The man in blue raised an eyebrow as Rusty's shadowy energy surged outward in a strange, mist-like form. Shadows spilled from Rusty's body like liquid smoke, flowing toward both sides of the alley where the armored men stood. It was a preemptive strike that none of them expected from someone who looked like a frontline fighter. The four guards faltered slightly, but their leader remained steady, raising a strange, crooked staff Rusty had never seen before.

With a quick gesture, the man raised his magic weapon, and the gem atop it glowed, casting a shimmering blue shield - not around himself, but around Rusty. The magical barrier flickered as Rusty's shadows surged against it, and to his surprise, his previously unstoppable attack was fully contained. The dark mist swirled around in a circular pattern, unable to penetrate the blue wall of energy the man had conjured. Rusty's attack lacked raw power, functioning more as a debuff meant to weaken enemies upon contact.

But unless it touched their bodies, it had no effect - and it seemed the man in the blue robe knew this all too well.

"Interesting skill, but did you really think a little dark mist would make me cower? The darkness element is an interesting choice and I'm not sure how you are fine in there, but sooner or later you'll run out of mana to sustain it…" He said mockingly while holding his staff towards Rusty's location.

"You clearly lack the understanding of magic needed to wield those powers effectively, just give it up, you'll just damage the young lady's monster and that will be troublesome." Rusty found himself in a serious dilemma. He'd assumed that if he could just surround the area with his black mist, everything would be fine. Once his enemies started weakening, he'd planned to make a break for it. Even though he was cornered, this wasn't a dungeon; he was in a city teeming with various intelligent races.

He had places to escape to, like the thieves' guild, and he'd even thought of diving into one of the wells or hoping that any late-night city guards might stall his pursuers.

'What should I do…' Rusty wondered, seeking help from his guides as his initial plan started to crumble. He quickly retrieved some explosive potions from his stash tab and hurled them at the shimmering mana field. Covered by shadows, his attackers couldn't see him going through his inventory - just the explosions bursting against the shield.

"Hah, what was that? A goblin-fire potion? You must be joking…" The mage holding the shield laughed, as though the idea of his barrier breaking from such a low-quality potion was absurd.

'This isn't looking good. That mage is likely above D-rank; nothing we have in our inventory will work on him, and those soldiers are probably all stronger than you, Rusty…' Alexander observed grimly. The man in the blue robe seemed to be a powerful mage, at least a rank above Rusty. The only reason they hadn't been incinerated by magical flames was Gleam as it was clear they wanted to capture her alive. Using powerful offensive spells would likely kill her instantly and Rusty, who was defending her.

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'Then what am I supposed to do? Just give up and die?' Rusty snapped, his frustration increasing as he tossed all his remaining potions at the shield. Small explosions burst against the barrier, but none pierced through. Gleam, as a light-aligned creature, was somewhat protected from the dark mist, but the constant barrage of explosions was rattling her cage and causing enough damage that Rusty had to stop.

'Wait… that might not be a bad idea' Aburdon suddenly chimed in, surprising both Rusty and Alexander with an unexpected plan.

'You want me to die?' Rusty asked, bewildered by the response.

'Well… in a sense. Don't you have a corpse inside yourself already?'

'Yeah? But I'm not sure where you're going with this…'

'Just listen, I'll explain, and if this fails, we'll go with the backup plan!'

'There's a backup plan?'

'What do you take me for? I didn't become the Demon King by accident! Now, here's what we're going to do…' Rusty was unsure where Aburdon was headed with this, and his mana was dwindling fast. He'd already splashed one mana potion over himself, but he couldn't keep the dark element attack up forever. As Aburdon laid out his risky, improvised plan, Rusty realized it wasn't half bad - and maybe, just maybe, it could work.

'I see… it might just work…' As Aburdon finished explaining, Rusty nodded his head. He stopped the barrage of potions and let his hands drop, feigning surrender. Aburdon's plan was bold, bordering on reckless, but if executed properly, it might just turn the tide. First, he opened up Gleam's cage with the key he was given, letting her move onto one of his hands and then he stopped the production of the pitch-black mist.

'(ó﹏ò)''Don't worry Gleam, everything will be fine, just follow Aburdon's plan, we don't have another choice.'

'(•̀ ᴖ •́)و' Gleam didn't seem too happy about the order but she wiggled her antennae as she understood the assignment. She had been stuck in a cage for more than a month now and all her attempts at escaping had been thwarted. There was much at stake here and this did seem like the only way out of it. After a few tense seconds, the darkness swirling inside the mana barrier began to die down. The mage watched Rusty carefully, noting his lowered stance and the way he seemed to sag under the weight of his armor.

At last, Rusty fell to one knee and raised his hands in a display of surrender.

"About time." The mage sneered, lowering his staff. With a muttered incantation, the blue barrier flickered and dissolved.

"But why is the ant…" He noticed one oddity, the white ant that had been in the cage was now out in the open, with the cage and key discarded to the side. While it would not be a problem for the man to re-capture it again, he wondered what the armored man was trying to achieve. Soon he would realize as with one swift and desperate motion, the ant was tossed high into the air.

"Bastard! What is the meaning of this!" The mage's eyes narrowed with fury, but before he could conjure a new spell, Rusty unleashed another surge of dark mist to cloud everyone's vision, filling the alleyway with shadows once more. The blue-robed mage had no other choice but to bring up another barrier around him to stop the spread of the dark mist. Gleam flew high into the air and landed on the wall quite gracefully.

The ant stuck to the bricks on the wall and looked down to the barrier around which Rusty remained. Soon after she made her way back up and quickly crawled to the rooftop to disappear from sight. The mage attempted to cast a secondary spell but he was too slow and perhaps afraid to hurt the creature he wished to capture alive.

"You will regret this!" The mage glared furiously as the mana-filled bubble of darkness dissipated, revealing Rusty, sword and shield in hand, looking battle-ready. He ignored the mage's seething gaze and the guards' shouted profanities, instead activating one of his newest skills, 'Provoking Shout', and charging at the mage with all his strength.

"Get out of the way, you fools!" The mage barked as his two armored guards immediately sidestepped. They cleared a path as their leader raised his staff, the jewel atop it glowing ominously. Flames began to flicker around it as the mage chanted a spell in a language Rusty couldn't understand. Determined, Rusty sprinted forward, aiming straight for the mage as if he had nothing left to lose.

But before he even reached halfway, the mage's spell erupted - a blazing fireball shot forth, slamming into Rusty's shield and burning through it, sending him hurtling backward. Rusty's armored form crashed against the metal door of the auction house, leaving a slight dent. His shield, which had once withstood the blows of orcs and lizardmen, now bore a gaping, charred hole.

The mage's spell had torn through his shield like it was nothing, and he found himself stunned, sprawled against the auction house's metal door. His helmet had been flung into the air, clanking down on the hard rocky ground to reveal a face that looked rather pale.

"... Is he dead?" One of the armored men called out as the body of their adversary just continued to slide down while slipping forward. There were no signals of life coming from him, they also couldn't see anything to indicate that they were breathing. The guards took cautious steps toward Rusty's unmoving form, their weapons at the ready. The mage, confident in his victory, lowered his staff and gestured to his men.

"Check if he's breathing, but be quick. I want that ant found before it scurries too far." One guard advanced, nudging Rusty's exposed neck with the tip of his sword. The pale face before him was blank, with a glassy stare but no blood trickling to indicate an injury. Yet it was clear that he was looking at a foe that wasn't there anymore.

"He's gone. Looks like the fireball finished him off, that darkness magic must have caused his body to look like this…" The man could tell that there was something wrong with this corps here. It was a lot paler than what a fresh body should look and assumed that magic was at play.

"Using cursed magic drains the body of its vitality. He must have burned through his mana and died to the plague of darkness…" They gathered around the defeated foe, convinced of their victory. However, everything was unfolding just as Aburdon had predicted. The enemies assumed that Albert's body was his true form and that he had perished during the fight.

The fact that they hadn't received any experience points from the battle would not raise suspicion as they believed he had succumbed to his own darkness spell and was merely a dead man walking, someone who had effectively died by their own hands. Rusty's helmet lay against a nearby wall, waiting for their departure. This was his true and critical body part. The plan had been to feign death and hope they would leave him behind. With no chance to defeat them or escape, this was his only path to survival.

However, Aburdon had miscalculated, as events began to stray from their intended course.

"... Take his remains; we can't leave any proof behind. That ant couldn't have gone far. One of you, climb to the roof and search. You there, go get the tracker! Hurry up, We don't have time! We need to get that monster before the day comes." The mage barked orders, and to Rusty's dismay, they began lifting his body. While this was still manageable - since he only needed his helmet for survival it became concerning when one of the guards seized it.

Now, Rusty was being hauled off somewhere, while Gleam remained hidden in the city. While they were unaware of his true form, he still needed to play along. Things weren't looking well but not all hope was lost as his partner was free and he was not alone either…