Caught

Tyr followed the man for a mere 10 minutes in the big street before the scammer ducked into an alleyway.

During these 10 minutes, however, there had been a few times where Tyr was scared that he had been noticed.

The man was looking back behind himself and checking around more times than you would usually expect.

But then again, when dealing with illegal activities like his, Tyr assumed it could also be normal to be so scared.

And just to be safe, Tyr had used Blink Step a couple times to blend back into the crowd and enter a random alleyway to not be detected by the scammer.

As soon as the man entered the alleyway, Tyr used Blink Step to get on top of the rooftop to the left of the alley. He lay down, peering at the scammer from the top.

The scammer took out a black-looking stone, throwing it on the floor before being engulfed in pitch-black smoke. As the smoke cleared into thin air, the man was nowhere to be seen.

Tyr's brows furrowed in confusion as he saw this. He waited for about a minute, and nothing happened.

Then, he decided to jump down on the spot where the scammer had disappeared.

Nothing.

He didn't feel anything, and neither did anything happen to him.

'He just disappeared?' Tyr was disappointed, 'How long could a meeting take? I can wait...'

And so, that's what he did. 

Another 5 minutes passed, which soon turned to 10. 10 turned to 15, and 15 to 20.

At the 25-minute mark, Tyr noticed a slight spec of black smoke appear in the alleyway from his rooftop hideout.

His senses quickly sharpened as he focused in on the spot.

Another cloud of smoke suddenly formed from a small burst, and as it dispersed into the wind, two robed figures appeared.

'Two?' Tyr mused, quickly Scanning both of them.

The scammer turned out to be a basic guy with normal stats that resembled Tyr's stats before putting any levels in. His name was Craig Baldwin.

The other guy, however, made Tyr's eyes expand in shock.

┏━━━Status━━━┓ 

Name: Bilweif Snaas 

Age: 48 Years 

Power Level: 75 

Rank: Apprentice

┗━━━━━━━━━┛ 

'75... that times two is 150, and 150 divided into 5 stats, including Aura, is around 35 into each stat if it's divided equally. Realistically speaking, he's much stronger than me. If one or two stats were higher than mine then that would be another story, but an accumulation of so many far surpassing mine is pretty brutal.' 

Observing closer, Tyr noticed that this Bilweif character had a black snake tattoo on his hand.

'It looks like the one from the line...' Tyr mused, 'Hmm... It's quite the risk to fight him. I do want my items back though. Since that scammer Craig doesn't seem to have any Aura, I can use Hypnosis on him. But the other guy would still get in the way.'

Tyr didn't have much time to think about this, however, as the two were already beginning to exit the alleyway.

If he was going to fight them, he didn't want it to be out in the open where he could get in trouble.

If he was going to make a decision, it was going to have to be quick.

'That Bilweif guy seems to have a backing too. I don't know if the scammer is a part of it but I wouldn't want a big criminal organization coming after me.' 

Before Tyr could think another word, the two suddenly paused right before leaving the alleyway.

Out of nowhere, their heads turned in unison and locked onto Tyr.

Bilweif's lips stretched across his face in a large grin, and the scammer also smirked.

'What!? How did they know I was here?' 

"We meet again it seems, young man!" Bilweif exclaimed, confirming Tyr's theory that this was the guy from the line. "Next time when spying on people, learn to hide your presence along with covering your physical body up, okay?"

'Again, I fall short of hiding my presence. Last time it was with the Charwolf. I'm sure they won't just let me leave.' Tyr stood up, not knowing exactly what to do. 

"Oh! Where are you going, little doll?" Bilweif turned, "Come down and play."

Tyr paused for a short moment. "You know what... fuck it." He jumped down into the alleyway, cracking his neck and fingers as Bilweif's smile grew even more.

He had an ugly face with messed up teeth and black gums. Just by his arms, however, Tyr could tell that he had a vascular and developed body.

'I haven't tried Soul Mend yet either. If I'm not too badly mistaken, my power might even be greater than this fools with it activated...'

Bilweif walked forward, taking off his robe with one movement and throwing it onto the ground.

His body was indeed ripped. He had thick veins going everywhere and was wearing a white tank top and leather pants.

Craig chuckled from behind, "Ahaha! You made a mistake, brat! Did ya' really think you could get your shit back? How about don't get scammed like a little retard!" His voice sounded more annoying than ever.

Tyr got more angry as he remembered how he got scammed.

"You have a lot of hope in life... but you messed with the wrong person today," Bilweif exclaimed as he walked forward calmly.

"Is that right?" Tyr exclaimed with a strong expression on his face.

"Kah! Kekehe!" Bilweif let out an almost maniacal laugh, "You clearly don't know me, so let me inform you!"

"Wait, Boss!" Craig suddenly shouted, causing Bilweif to turn his head past his shoulder and look at the scammer with a slightly irritated expression.

"Should you be giving your identity to this brat? What if he--" The scammer was suddenly cut off.

"There won't be a 'he' around after today, don't you understand, you dimwit!" Bilweif exclaimed, causing Craig to be slightly taken aback. But then, a smile appeared on the scammer's face.

Bilweif continued, "I am Bilwef Snaas, the branch leader of the Black Merchant Guild that runs this side of Drance!" He proclaimed arrogantly.

"Huh? So that means you're just a weak son of a bitch who got a slight promotion by your daddy right?" Tyr replied, showing how much he cared for the bragging.

Inwardly, however, he had different thoughts: 'Damn... it seems I've messed with something a bit bigger than I could chew. I had a backup plan to run, but my damn presence gave me away. I need to find out how to hide that.'

Bilweif seemed to get a bit angry, but calmed himself down and forced on a smile while tightly rubbing his fist against his palm: "You... you're a confident little bud. Too bad I have to end your promising life today."

"Let's see about that!" Tyr said, lunging into a sprint. 'Blink Step.' He said in his head as he got close enough, disappearing from where he was and appearing behind the ugly criminal.

The jacked bastard's face went a bit confused for a second on seeing how fast Tyr was. 

Clenching his fist tightly, Tyr hurled it into the Bilweif's back. There was a thud, like hitting a bamboo trunk, which caused Bilweif to stumble forward slightly. 

However, he turned with an even larger smile stretching across his face.

Tyr was taken aback, his eyes expanding, 'No damage? Even though he has higher stats, I should be able to do a solid amount of damage with 30 points in strength. Unless... he's focused on having more health throughout his life!' He hadn't taken this quite into consideration, but it was a bit too late for that.

Bilweif turned his entire body around with his hip, using that momentum to throw a blistering blow right into Tyr's stomach.

The punch landed, digging deep as it forced all the air out of Tyr's lungs and sent him flying several feet across the alleyway before landing on the floor.

"Hahaha!" Craig laughed, Tyr mere feet in front of him on the ground.

"Do you understand now, little doll? You--" Bilweif attempted to say, but Tyr wasn't having any of it.

"Shut the fuck up!" Tyr shouted, still in pain, 'I should have just used it from the beginning.' He rose to his feet, staring forward with a serious look on his face as he said in his head, 'Soul Mend.'