Chapter 76: Chapter 76 : Raring To Go

Once the Wild Dogs group left, Ralf sighed. “Well, that was unpleasant.” He turned to the mother and son pair. “Are you two okay?”

“Yeah,” Fiona replied, a grimace clear on her and her son’s face. “We’ll manage. It’s not our first encounter with these types after all.”

“Oh,” Ralf’s face darkened. “Can you tell me more?”

Fiona nodded then obliged. “Yes, we’ve run into this situation five times before. It was Wild Dogs this time, but before it was the Red Star, and before that, it was the Blue Swan. They seem to be the dominant presences around these parts.”

Ralf’s eyes turned cold at the mention of the ‘Red Star’. ‘Well, that’s to be expected, there’s no way they’d be satisfied with the amount they’ve been getting from taxing villagers.’ Thinking this in a flash, Ralf’s attention shifted back to Fiona’s account.

“They always come in big groups like that. They tend to stop Adventurers on their way back, when they are mentally, physically and psionically drained. Taking advantage of this state of weakness, they approach the group and take their belongings… just like they did to us,” she said bitterly.

“So, they’re like vultures.”

“Despicable vultures,” Eric spat out with thick disdain.

Fiona nodded at her son’s phrasing. “Yes, they are. They must have licked their slimy lips when they saw that yellow flare in the sky.

“I knew of the possibility, but there was nothing else I could think of doing. Thankfully, you came along when you did. They would have surely taken our items and left us for dead...those heartless bastards,” Eric said, face twisting into a scowl.

Fiona patted her son’s head to pacify any wild thoughts he might have. “It was unpleasant, but it’s behind us. Many have not been so lucky. The Red Star and Wild Dogs have a very dangerous reputation. Nothing is confirmed, but there are plenty of rumours that they’re responsible for a lot of brutal deaths that have been discovered here. These rumours combined with people’s weakened state is why pretty much everybody just hands over their property without resistance.”

Ralf’s eyes narrowed. “How can this be allowed to happen.”

“It’s not. It’s just that they move very sneakily. Most people who run into them don’t report them out of fear of angering a gang, and those who do, don’t have any solid proof. And even if they do, those gangs always have an excuse or wiggle room.”

“Wiggle room,” Ralf repeated.

“Yeah, always,” she said with emphasis. “These groups don’t wear any obvious insignia. They operate like normal Adventurers, for the most part, all the while, they keep track of the Surveyors and notable Adventurer parties’ positions. When they spot people like us or stragglers, they’ll approach. They always move quickly…that’s why they were so impatient earlier.”

Fiona sighed, her gaze moved to the trees that the group had disappeared into. “That group, they called themselves the Wild Dogs, but there’s no guarantee that they’re the real Wild Dogs. They could be from another gang or just random Adventurers using their name. This is a common defence that they use. And even if one can prove they are part of that particular gang, those gangs will say that the offending group were acting independently and against the faction’s principles,” Fiona’s face turned bitter as she explained.

“A load of bullshit,” Eric quickly followed up, “they’re nothing but bastards.”

Ralf nodded before slowly getting to his feet. “Not only that...but foolish bastards. They’re playing a dangerous game,” his eyes moved over the forest. “A Monster Zone has many different types roaming through it. Among them, there are plenty of oddballs that are best avoided. No matter how cautiously they operate, it was only a matter of time until they ran into one of them. Morris is an example, and another is…myself.”

Eric’s eyes flickered at the words. “Ralf, are you…”

“Yeah,” Ralf pointed his gaze eastward. “By the end of the day, the Wild Dogs will be put down for good.”

The mother and son pair recoiled in shock at the declaration.

Ralf shrugged at the pairs reactions and conjured his Psi Bike. “I have a lot to do, so let’s get out of here.”

Fiona and Eric complied, and with Ralf, they headed for the Adventurer Road. Getting lucky, they immediately ran into a Surveyor team. Ralf handed them off while reporting what happened.

Afterwards, he summoned the Psi Plane and rushed back to Ganurg. Flying, he scanned the forest below with his enhanced vision, hoping to find the group on their way back, but this hadn’t come to pass.

Entering Ganurg on his Psi Bike, he sped towards the Golden Gun, where he rearmed, even adding another machine gun into the fray. Now on the bike, Ralf was deliberating something with his other self.

[[What do you think? Should we make a report at the branch? Everything’s perfectly recorded. They can’t deny it.]]

[[They can’t, but the gang can. As she said, they’ll just hide behind whatever convenient excuse they’ve thought up and the Adventurer Association will be paralyzed. There’s no point. Doing so will signal our intention and rob us of the element of surprise. And because we have to wait for the Adventurer Association to act, it gives them valuable time to prepare. We can’t let them dictate favourable conditions. Conflict with them was inevitable, they even said so themselves, so let’s just deal with this problem now before they can make any preparations,]] Rei argued.

The existence of gangsters was enough to light a fire in Rei’s belly, but the earlier events had caused his internal thermostat to rupture. He was raring to go, and so was Ralf.

[[Yeah, let’s do it then.]]

Saying these words, Ralf’s heartbeat began picking up. The loud thumps it created rippled through his blood, flesh, and bones; his entire being was made to vibrate, not in fear, but anticipation.

Since the Morris incident, they had been holding themselves back, being very cautious. Now, an opportunity presented itself. An opportunity to unleash their power and bottled up negative emotions on those who they judged to deserve it.

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They could prepare more, train more and even further polish their techniques, but they wouldn’t. Instead, they decided to throw caution to the wind. They believed themselves more than capable of dealing with some no-name gangsters, especially ones that had to scurry in the shadows and hide behind several cloaks just to get by.

Ralf’s Psi Bike left the main road and headed north.

[[Silver?]]

[[Hmm,]] Ralf pulled on the sidewalk, [[nope, you remember what he said about summoning him.]]

At Ralf’s words, Rei recalled Silver’s.

Don’t use me as a crutch, you’ll only weaken yourselves, which will, in turn, weaken me. There’s only a handful of moments where I need to be summoned to fight. For everything else, fight your own battles. Rei, Ralf, there’s very little you can’t accomplish as individuals, remember that, you’re both Silver after all.

[[Hmm, I see, this doesn’t feel like one of those moments. Let’s flip for it then.]]

[[Sure, I’ll go heads,]] Ralf said as he peeked into the Mental Space.

Rei didn’t contest the call and summoned the ‘Heads and Tails’ coin. Three seconds of rapid spinning later, the coin landed with the ‘tails’ side face up. Rei smirked at the result then headed to the outside world. [[I win. Take a seat and watch me tidy up these dirty streets.]]

[[Yeah yeah.]]

Ralf mentally sighed at his luck. Crossing over, he threw himself on his couch where he promptly began snacking on his favourite treats.

Rei took over the reins his other self had left him, and directed the Psi contraption forward.

[[Hey, know where the Wild Dogs’ base is?]]

[[Nope. I remember Greg saying it’s somewhere in the north. It shouldn’t be too hard to find. We can just ask around, I’m sure people will gladly point us in the right direction.]]

[[Make sense, guess we’ll we have to…]]

[[Rei?]] Ralf questioned as his other self’s words suddenly trailed off.

Rei didn’t immediately respond; instead, he focused on the sensation he was feeling.

It was faint but his Psi Sense picked it up clearly. A Clairvoyant’s Second Sight was currently observing him. The duo had become quite accustomed to this feeling by now.

When in the Monster Zone, they’d feel this form of Psi roam the forest and pass over them for brief moments at a time. These were mostly done by Surveyors, but also by Adventurers looking to scout out ahead. It was due to this that they could reliably detect the presence of a Clairvoyant’s Second Sight and even locate the source of it.

Rei’s mind honed in on the Clairvoyant observing him. He squinted. ‘They’ve lingered on me for several seconds now. There’s no way it’s a coincidence. Did those guys get here first? Unlikely. Then, is it another group?’

[[Rei?]]

His other self’s voice snapped him out of it. Rei immediately relayed his findings to Ralf.

[[Hmm, maybe they’re fans.]]

Rei shook his head at his other self’s thinking. [[I doubt that, and if they are, they’re ones Kitana would wield.]]

[[That dangerous?]] Ralf raised a brow at the comment.

[[To normal people, yeah. To me, no. Whatever they are, fans, stalkers or whatever, I’ll deal with them.]]

Stating this intention, Rei did a few turns until he arrived at a dusty dead-end road.

‘This is good enough,’ he assessed. After spreading his senses, he found no one in the surrounding houses. Verifying this, he dematerialised his Psi Bike and turned his sights to the street’s intersection and waited. The seconds passed by, and then, Rei made a surprising discovery.

‘Huh, it’s them...’

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