Chapter 46: Conflict
"Everyone, prepare for conflict!"
At Elias’ words, the members of the squad looked up with anxiety, fearing it was another Predicament. Though their mood quickly changed once they identified the cause for caution.
"Argh, them again!?"
"We aren’t even hunting in their area!"
Nadia watched as the squad members let out annoyed groans before moving to stand between them and the incoming group.
Their expressions were moody and apprehensive as they tightly gripped their weapon.
An inquisitive look popped inside Nadia’s eyes.
’What’s happening?’ She wondered before coming to a realisation.
She recalled in Ross’ tour that his camp had come into contact with another, but had a falling out as their ideas couldn’t coexist in the same group.
’Are we about to witness some kind of gang war?’
Nadia then casted Hilda a subtle glance.
What were the chances that the woman would intervene if a battle broke out?
’Not high...’ She sighed before looking to watch the confrontation that was about to take place.
Elias stood at the front of his squad, wearing a crooked, hostile expression. With his sharp metal rod resting on his shoulder, he gave off the impression of a thug who was about to break someone’s legs.
"Elias! It’s only been a day since we first met, and your face has already begun to irritate me."
Walking up to him was a tall, muscular woman, standing close to 6ft4, with a mane of ginger hair. She had a pair of feisty brown eyes and wore an attire similar to that of another muscular individual, except just a tad bit more modestly.
Seraphine widened her eyes.
’Roxy Rutherford! She’s finally here!’
This was the group she had originally wanted to go into.
That was because, unlike Ross, who only gathered people in Rusty Den, in case he needed to use them as bait to escape, Roxy gathered people just for the sake of helping them — that was the reason Seraphine wanted to join her group!
’Not like that really matters now...’ Seraphine thought wryly, her gaze drifting over to Hilda.
She had already secured her protector.
Roxy stood over Elias, followed by a squad of 11 people.
She scanned his face before quirking an eyebrow.
"You still have that black eye?" She asked curiously before breaking out into a laugh, "Wait! Is this a new one? It’s on the other eye!"
Elias looked up with a twitchy face, enraged at the woman’s mocking laughter.
"Yeah, so what?! At least I look good with a black eye, unlike you with those rhino muscles of yours!" After he said that, he added smugly, "You guys still butt-hurt over what happened yesterday?"
"Hah! Now that’s a new one!" Roxy bellowed, surprised by Elias’ comparison. She then added with a smug grin, "But to say butthurt would be a bit inaccurate, don’t you say? Considering your boss was the one who left, upset by our little falling out.
"And not only that, weren’t you guys the ones who ran off with our eyes!?"
Watching as two ugly veins bulged on Roxy’s forehead, Elias slowly turned his head, whistling innocently.
"I dunno. Maybe we did. Maybe we didn’t." He whispered under his breath before adding indignantly, "Maybe you guys shouldn’t have kept them all in one big ass bag..."
"Hoh?"
Roxy managed to catch onto that last part and immediately became irritated by what he said.
She pulled Elias in by the collar, shocking the Street Rat.
"W-what the hell are you doing—"
"That was at least 10 pairs of eyes. I recommend that you return them back to us, or else..." Roxy sneered threateningly, "My group worked hard in battling those Predicaments, and for you to just take away our spoils is like trampling over my squad’s hard work!"
"Damnit, we don’t have your eyes!" Elias struggled, "Why the hell would you think we would carry that thing around?!"
"Oh? Then we’ll just rob you of what you have, that’s what rats like us are good at, right!?"
She readied a fist and cocked back her arm.
Elias widened his eyes, then closed them in fear.
’Damnit, not another black eye—!’
As he was about to take another fist to the eye, one of his squad members managed to step in — swinging their metal rod square in Roxy’s face, causing her to stumble back and let go of Elias.
"Argh..." She groaned, clutching her nose, which had begun to bleed out of her nostrils. She clenched her jaw angrily and glared at Elias.
Pushing himself off the ground, Elias growled:
"We don’t have to do this... this place is still crawling with Predicaments—"
"It’s not."
"Huh?"
Roxy slowly took a stance before explaining.
"On our way here, we had noticed that the Predicaments had begun to move more towards inland for some reason. Every single one of them. By now, we should be out of hearing distance from them."
Elias took an involuntary step back at this revelation. This was the first he was hearing of this...
’Wait, is that why we’ve been finding more singled out Scoundrels than usual?’
He had sensed there was something wrong in this hunt, for not once in this expedition did they get ambushed by more than one Predicament. Originally, he had thought it was because they were lucky, and that the Predicament’s might’ve been scared off by Hilda somehow.
But that didn’t seem to be the case...
He wanted to ask why, but found that Roxy’s party had already begun to drop their weapons, readying their fist, as though they were preparing themselves for a fist fight.
Which they were...
"There’s nothing but us and that Predicament of yours." Roxy cracked her knuckles.
She then smirked in a taunting manner.
"How about we duke it out for the loser’s eyes? If you win, you get all of the eyes that we got today. And if we win, we get all the eyes that your squad managed to get today."
Elias’ expression darkened when he heard this. He then gulped when he took a look at their bags, which were rather plump.
Greed flashed through his eyes, but quickly dimmed when he realised who he was up against.
He stared at the woman’s barbarian-like muscles.
Usually, in a situation like this with such an opponent, he would definitely back off, even with the tamed Predicament.
But...
’I’ve got Miss Hilda here!’
Now that he had someone as powerful as Hilda with him, there was definitely no way he was going to lose!
He sneakily shot Hilda a glance and licked his lips.
’I’ve won before it even began...’
He then gestured towards his squad members to drop their weapons, agreeing to the terms of a fist fight.
The members of his squad looked at each other with apprehension. Eventually, they dropped their weapons and stood by Elias’ side.
"We accept!"
"So you do have a spine, you rat!" Roxy cackled darkly.
Hilda, who had been watching from the back, smirked in amusement. She had noticed the sneaky glance Elias shot her and already deduced what he was planning from it.
’To try and drag me into this mess with you when you could’ve just walked away...’ Hilda scoffed, ’You really are a rat.’