CHAPTER 210: CHAPTER 206 DUEL

Facing Kallen, who refused to admit, Perfikot shook his head helplessly and said, "Miss Kallen, the alchemical tools on you are really too conspicuous. As an alchemist, I can’t ignore them even if I wanted to.

Moreover, the perfume you use also gave away your identity. The night before last when you stole from me, this scent had already clung to my Golden Touching Rod.

So just surrender, Miss Kallen. I really don’t want to be someone who harms a delicate flower. As I said, flowers as delicate as you should be gently cherished."

However, the answer Perfikot received was an exploding smoke bomb.

Perfikot was not surprised by this. She didn’t even stand up because of it, only loudly shouting to the venue, "Everyone stay where you are, do not move around, the thief won’t get away."

Perfikot could remain calm, but the dignitaries from various fields invited to the venue could not maintain the same composure as her.

The smoke bomb Kallen tossed did not just explode beside Perfikot. It seemed she had laid traps throughout the venue in advance. Now the smoke bombs exploded simultaneously, instantly raising a large amount of white smoke that obscured the vision of most people in the venue.

Obviously, this Miss Phantom Thief, though unable to extinguish all the lights, could use other methods to blind everyone’s vision.

However, Perfikot’s vision was not affected. The power of the Eye of Omniscience allowed her to see through the fog and understand the truth she wanted to know.

Not only that, her original red eye was not limited to conventional optical vision. The moment the smoke rose, her eye automatically switched to infrared vision, rendering the smoke’s occlusion effect invisible.

After all, the smoke bomb Kallen used was just an ordinary smoke emitter. The white smoke it emitted, apart from being voluminous, did not even have infrared blocking functions, and the temperature was low, so it almost did not interfere with Perfikot at all.

Thus, Perfikot could clearly see Kallen quickly changing out of the cumbersome and inconvenient-to-move-in gorgeous long dress after throwing the smoke bomb, then shooting a grappling hook from her wrist that latched onto the ceiling of the venue, swinging her whole body from her seat to the center stage of the venue.

She kicked over the glass cover enveloping the Flying Stone with force, then grabbed the blue gem.

However, just as she thought she had succeeded and was preparing to retract the silk thread pulling her grapple hook to retreat along an already scouted escape route, she suddenly realized that the retraction force of her grapple hook line had suddenly increased tremendously, pulling her entirely off her predetermined trajectory, almost slamming her into the wall.

Kallen followed with a roll, trying to regain control of her body, only to find that with just a normal exertion, her whole body spun like a top, completely unable to control herself.

Moreover, she found that she couldn’t land at all. Her whole body was mysteriously floating in the air, and any struggle only caused her to lose control of her body.

She tried firing her grapple hook again, but the retraction force of the line still caused her to veer chaotically in the air, unable to find an accurate direction.

At this time, the smoke released by the smoke bomb was about to dissipate. If Kallen couldn’t leave, she would lose the chance to escape.

Just as Kallen frantically tried to stabilize her body in this waterlogged-like state, the sudden sound of a gunshot and the searing sensation grazing past her made her realize someone had fired a shot at her.

"Miss Phantom Thief, I advise you to surrender obediently. The shot just now was fired with restraint due to the pleasant conversation we had. But the next shot..." Perfikot stood in the center of the venue where the exhibition platform was, holding a gun shorter than a regular flintlock rifle in her hand. She was pulling the bolt back, ejecting a brass shell, inserting another bullet into the chamber.

The shell fell to the ground with a crisp sound, and Perfikot had the sights trained on Kallen’s body.

"I won’t surrender! Don’t underestimate the skills of a phantom thief!" Kallen quickly analyzed her situation and decisively threw the Flying Stone in her hand. As expected, once the Flying Stone left her palm, she felt that she could control her body again, free of the strange weightlessness.

This made Kallen instantly realize her suspicion was correct, that this was a stone capable of making one fly.

Although the influence of the Flying Stone prevented Kallen from escaping according to her planned route, she still had enough composure and confidence at the moment.

She threw her grapple hook once more, and this time it worked without a hitch, accurately taking Kallen’s body toward the retreat route she had already prepared—an hidden door in the ceiling.

The Flying Stone she threw earlier was also heading in this direction, and Kallen used the momentum to crash herself and the Flying Stone into the hidden door.

Perfikot was not polite either, quickly pulling the trigger, firing one shot after another until she had emptied the five-round magazine before stopping.

Out of the five rounds, apart from the first shot which was intentionally missed, the other four all hit the target.

But unfortunately, the shooting window was too short. Although all four bullets hit, Kallen still managed to crash into the hidden door.

Just as everyone felt regret, thinking this audacious phantom thief had escaped, Kallen’s body fell out of the hidden door once again, plummeting down and nearly crashing to the floor.

The reason it was nearly is because she tightly held onto the Flying Stone, using its power to mitigate her fall without severe injury.

However, at the moment she landed, four iron muskets were already aimed at her, locking her body in place. Any movement on her part would result in the Steam Knights tearing her to pieces.

Only now did the crowd see that Kallen’s legs had both been hit by bullets, not fatal but incapacitating her mobility.

The other two bullets shattered the grapple hook launch device on her wrist, while another hit the grapple hook she had thrown, breaking it and denying her the use of the grapple hook’s power.

"What a pity, I really didn’t want to do this, Miss Kallen," Perfikot walked up to Kallen, shook her head slightly, and said with regret, "Your abilities are truly exceptional. If I hadn’t intervened personally, you might have succeeded today. But regrettably, you still couldn’t steal my things from me."

With that, Perfikot took out the Golden Touching Rod, touching it on the Flying Stone in Kallen’s hand, putting it into a dormant state before taking it back.

Kallen, with a look of reluctance, was escorted by the Steam Knights to await her fate.