The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 140

The shackles that had left his body almost unable to move, even to speak, were finally loosening. Zavi was now able to climb down from the tree after standing there for far too long.

Zavi stared at the two bounty hunter women for a long moment before taking a deep breath and drawing the revolver from the holster on his right side.

Click...

Carefully studying their faces, Zavi aimed the silver revolver gleaming beneath the dim light directly at the woman's heart.

Bang... Bang...

The woman on the right, lying on the ground, reacted to the shots as her body jerked for several seconds before going still. Dead. Fresh blood flowed out, soaking her long dress and the hood covering her head.

Then Zavi shifted the revolver to the left, toward the other woman, and aimed at the same spot.

Bang... Bang...

The woman twitched violently, followed by several seconds of convulsions before her body ceased moving altogether.

Checking their pulses and breathing one by one, Zavi confirmed that both women were undeniably dead.

'Where are the others?'

Zavi's face remained serious as the spent shell casings dropped while the cylinder rotated.

He pulled four bullets from the box inside his coat pocket. One by one, the rounds slid into the cylinder, which spun briefly before Zavi pressed it back into place.

Click...

The revolver was returned to the holster on his right side.

While dusting off his dark blue coat, Zavi resumed walking, leaving the two women's corpses behind. His current objective was to find the other three.

At the place where Aaron was fighting, he was having some difficulty dealing with both the master and his contracted creature attacking together. Meanwhile, the lingering spirits and low-level demons Aaron had previously driven away had returned to assault him once more.

One unavoidable punch slammed into the left side of Aaron's face.

The man, whose name was Kael, naturally followed up by throwing another punch straight into Aaron's chest.

Thanks to his training, and knowing he could not rely solely on his contracted jin, Kael managed to stagger Aaron for several seconds as Aaron felt the world lurching back and forth while his heart pounded violently.

Meanwhile, Kael continued launching relentless attacks without pause, while the jin, his contracted creature, gave Aaron no room to breathe by summoning even more lingering spirits and demons dwelling within this small forest.

The disgusting cackling of supernatural creatures pierced Aaron's mind as his thoughts became clouded.

At the climax of the battle, the jin pointed its glowing dark-purple tail forward and lunged toward Aaron. At the same time, Kael, approaching from Aaron's right side, clenched his fist tightly after noticing his target's weakened condition.

Meanwhile, the lingering spirits and low-level demons formed a circle above the battlefield, making the hairs on Aaron's neck stand on end.

Aaron still managed a smile as he said through a face filled with strain:

"You bastards... It takes this many of you ganging up on me just to win? Pathetic..."

Hearing that, Kael's face reddened. His breathing grew heavier, his fist tightened, and he accelerated even further before throwing a punch directly at Aaron's face with a sharp snort.

Then...

Bang... Bang... Bang... Bang...

One bullet shattered the bones in the back of Kael's hand, while the other three bullets smashed through the jin's bones and tore apart its head.

"Hey, Aaron..."

A firm voice echoed not far from where they were fighting.

"Are you having a hard time because I'm not around?"

Aaron slowly turned toward the voice, and his eyes narrowed in shock as he infused spirituality into them to see a Zavi who looked different from before.

"A-Actitus? How are you able to do this?" Aaron asked, his lips trembling.

The imitation Zavi smiled faintly and replied in a slightly heavy tone,

"Just an experiment. Nothing more."

Aaron smiled weakly as his gaze shifted to Kael, who was suppressing a groan while staring at the wound on his hand.

"Are you a bounty hunter, or..."

"Shut up," Kael snapped angrily while glancing around.

"Hey, bamboo-hat guy. Where's the woman who was chasing you?" he asked while enduring the pain from his injury, trying to stall for time.

The real Zavi, sitting near the corpses atop a tree branch, smiled inwardly.

'You're too stupid for sending those two women after me.'

Zavi glanced at the lower edge of his coat where something hidden underneath slightly protruded.

Knowing that Kael was merely buying time with nonsense, Zavi instructed his duplicate to reveal something important.

"She's already dead. And one more thing, I found something strange hidden beneath her robe."

"Under her robe?!" Kael repeated in shock.

'Could it be the Grade 4 Artifact, the Banishment Fan?'

Kael swallowed hard as he glanced toward the jin, which appeared to be struggling to regenerate its body.

'Damn it. It's my fault that the stolen artifact we obtained back then ended up in the hands of the very person we were hunting. So the rumors are true. Zavi Actitus really is a cunning bastard.'

Following the four of them from northern Minehold in Racon all the way to Chavez had been a terrible idea, even if all of them had agreed to it.

Kael bit his lower lip while thinking and remaining alert for a surprise attack.

'Where are the three of you...? Don't tell me you lost to two women. Idiots.'

Without Kael realizing it, those three men and the two women in question had already collapsed unconscious because they could not withstand the scream of his contracted jin.

Zavi ordered his duplicate to approach Aaron and whisper something into his ear, causing Kael to stare at them with narrowed eyes.

'What are they talking about?'

Aaron, hearing the plan while driving away the spirits and demons above him, gave a weak nod.

"Hmm, I understand. That's a good idea," Aaron said with a slight nod.

Kael became even more curious about what they were actually discussing. Then he glanced to the left, carefully observing what exactly was happening with his jin, which had remained strangely motionless.

"It's the binding power of this strange fan."

Zavi instructed his clone to speak after whispering something to Aaron.

"Thank you for giving me something this good for free."

"Once again, it's called an artifact," Aaron corrected.

"W-What exactly are you planning, huh?" Kael kept backing away as cold sweat trickled down his forehead.

Zavi ordered his clone to immediately move aside. Aaron reacted instantly as the clone drew the Artifact Fan and swung it toward Kael.

Whoosh...

The powerful wind forced Kael away from his position, but he was caught by the glowing dark-purple tail of his contracted jin. Meanwhile, trees, vines, and the small animals singing throughout the night were swept away by the violent gale.

A dust storm instantly filled the area and began drifting toward the residential districts of Chavez.

The jin, having regained its mobility, roared louder than before, and the roar caused the ground to tremble before something shot upward.

Stones floated into the air before flying in all directions, leaving behind explosive impacts.

Knowing that the Artifact Fan was capable of hindering the jin, Zavi ordered his clone to continue swinging the foldable fan.

Whoosh... Whoosh...

The sound of its roar echoed once again, louder than before.

The night grew deeper, yet the battle became fiercer as the surrounding trees had already fallen from the combined force of the wind and the jin's shockwaves.

Kael, standing near his contracted creature, the jin, felt as though his eardrums were about to burst. Yet that never happened because, naturally, he received protection while remaining near it.

Aaron did not want to waste the opportunity while the dust storm obscured the jin due to its physical limitations. Although the method he had devised to defeat them would leave him suffering from extreme exhaustion, he intended to do it anyway. He refused to let Zavi's clone's distraction go to waste.

As Aaron pushed forward through the dust storm, enduring the jin's deafening roars by extracting the fear within his own body, he succeeded in reaching a position directly behind them and touched them to pull their souls.

"Impossible..."

Kael was shocked, but it was already too late as he felt his soul being dragged by an overwhelming force.

Aaron had successfully pulled Kael's soul, while simultaneously struggling with all his strength to pull the jin's soul as he shouted loudly:

"Actitus, use the Artifact Fan and take that man farther away!"

Hearing that, Zavi ordered his clone to do exactly as Aaron instructed. The success of carrying Kael's body away did not last long because the jin resisted fiercely. The enormous difference in spirituality between Aaron and the jin caused the soul extraction through Extraction to fail.

Aaron staggered as he realized the jin was preparing to chase after Zavi.

Whoosh...

In the blink of an eye, Zavi's clone was blasted away with tremendous force, causing Kael, whom it had been carrying, to fall directly onto his contracted jin.

'Damn, it's insanely strong.'

Zavi immediately increased the weight of his clone so it could land safely on the ground. The moment it landed, he ordered it to swing the fan toward the approaching jin.

Whoosh.... Whoosh...

For the first time using a Grade 4 artifact, Zavi lacked the experience necessary to fully utilize it.

Although he knew the artifact could release powerful winds with a single swing, he suspected there was something else the fan could do.

"Aaron, you should be the one using this artifact..." the clone shouted loudly under Zavi's command.

Aaron, who was sliding downhill while chasing the jin, was startled. He had never imagined he would hear that at a moment like this.

"Just use it. You can do whatever you're imagining when you swing the fan..."

Zavi, sitting silently on the tree branch, heard those words through his clone.

'Do anything I imagine while swinging the fan?'

Trying to grasp the meaning behind Aaron's statement, Zavi smiled inwardly. He ordered his clone to charge toward the jin running at moderate speed, waiting for the perfect moment to swing the fan.

"Aaron, don't move..." Zavi ordered his clone to shout as it imagined something and swung the Artifact Fan.

The wind blew so violently that it formed a towering cyclone reaching into the sky and surrounding all of them. Zavi commanded his clone to create an eagle formed from grayish-white aura, which carried the Artifact Fan and flew out of the wind circle.

Zavi's clone smiled faintly as the raging cyclone struck it, and the same happened to the jin before both of them clashed fiercely, waiting for the ring of storm winds to destroy them from within.

With just a single step, Aaron nearly died as he tilted his head upward, shielding his eyes from the dust with his right hand.

His eyes swept across the surroundings, seeing trees flying in every direction. Aaron was shocked when he saw them shatter into countless fragments despite only one-third of their trunks touching the devastating storm.

The mansion that had once stood proudly now consisted of nothing more than ruins left behind by a horrific tragedy that would never be recorded in their calendars.

Throughout northern Chavez, residents rushed out of their homes while groups of teenagers who had been staying up late discussing useless things suddenly became useful for once, warning people to evacuate.

Murmurs immediately filled the stone-paved streets.

"What the hell is that?"

"This is the first time I've ever seen a windstorm pulling everything around it."

"Wasn't there a businessman living over there?"

"Stop standing around, idiot! Run! We don't know whether the Goddess is still willing to grant us the blessing of staying alive..." commented a man wearing a bowler hat to the people around him.

"He's right. Running away is the best chance we've got to survive."

Inside the storm that continued to rage, Zavi's clone gradually began to disappear because it lacked the strength to defeat the jin. The jin, despite its power, was equally unable to catch the clone.

The two ended in a draw, yet both were ultimately destroyed as the immense wind pressure of the cyclone began crushing them, capable of annihilating them in an instant.

Desss....

The windstorm vanished abruptly, leaving behind an indescribable scent as Aaron felt something different while walking with trembling knees toward where Kael lay buried beneath fallen leaves.

'You're just a bounty hunter, but you're a real pain in the ass...'

Letting out a long sigh, Aaron drew his pistol with a hand that had nearly lost all strength.

Using the last remnants of his energy and dwindling spirituality, Aaron aimed the pistol directly at Kael's heart.

'Maybe this will help that damn jin return home sooner...'

Bang... Bang... Bang... Bang... Bang... Bang...

Aaron nearly emptied every bullet in the magazine, channeling all of his exhaustion, anger, despair, and desire to survive into those shots.

He slipped the pistol back into his coat pocket before continuing forward.

Guided by the cry of an eagle formed from grayish-white aura, Aaron eventually found Zavi atop a tree and two wolves carrying the unconscious Hana and Mine.

"What now?" Aaron asked weakly as his body collapsed and he sat down on the ground.

"Just wait here," Zavi replied calmly.

"I'll collect the payment first, and you don't need to worry about those five people. I've already killed them."

Zavi immediately climbed down from the branch where he had been sitting and headed back toward Chavez, toward the alley they had agreed upon.

In Chavez, Zavi found it difficult to move because debris was scattered across the roads, slowing his journey to the alley.

When he finally arrived, Claude Diston was already there. He was not waiting, but rather investigating the massive windstorm that had suddenly appeared several hundred meters away near the mansion.

Fortunately, Zavi handled the situation easily and promptly collected the payment after presenting the serpent-topped ring as proof that the target had been killed.

Claude Diston and Zavi Actitus both obtained what they had wanted all along. Zavi immediately left the alley and returned to where the other three were waiting, and they departed Chavez that very morning after realizing that the bounty hunters had begun recklessly pursuing him.