CHAPTER 75: A BAT

Rufus was intrigued by the bottle on the counter and, more importantly, by what Raze had said concerning Rune text. He leaned on the counter and looked Raze right in the eye.

"Don’t play with me, kid. Do you really have rune texts?" he asked, wanting to ensure that Raze indeed had some of them.

"What would I stand to gain from lying to you? The issue is that most of my bags were taken to the academy already, but I can get them for you in time," Raze explained.

Rufus stood straight, stroked his beard slowly, thinking about it for a few seconds, and then spoke. "That’s fine then, kid. I’ll do it, hoping that you make it worth my while. So, what do you have in mind?" he asked.

The moment he did, Raze stretched out his hands and picked a piece of paper from the table and a quill. He began drawing with speed, and when he was done, he showed it to Rufus, who was instantly confused by what he was seeing.

"This, what is this?" he asked.

"A bat," Raze replied. "I want you to make my tool like this."

He had chosen a bat. The idea came to his head, and it made sense to him. He didn’t really want to kill anyone that came after him, but he wanted to make sure he beat the hell out of them when they crossed his path, especially with a magical bat.

The man looked at the drawing, lifted it up, and then smiled. "This... this is really nice. Hahaha!" He laughed and placed it down. "No one has given me a good challenge in a while, and that’s why I don’t make special items. I’ve made everything over and over again, but this time, you’ve given me something to work on," he said with a grin on his face.

He and Raze spent a few minutes talking about what the bat should feel like and what it should do. Then he paid for the staff that Riker got, and they finally left.

The staff that Riker had gotten was a simple staff, straight, with a curved top holding a blood-red crystal in the curve, held in place by two small extensions. The curved head of the staff was covered in some runes.

"So, what were you discussing with Rufus?" Ella asked after they left.

"Well, a special tool for me," Raze replied.

"He agreed to make a special tool for you? He hasn’t done that in a long time," she said, evidently shocked.

"Well, I guess I have my way with people," he said.

"Tsk," she clicked her tongue. She couldn’t say anything about it because Raze wasn’t someone she could even wish to understand.

Since they were done there, they decided to get some food to eat, so they headed deeper into the town. They got closer to the center of the town, where the guild was. They passed by a lot of adventurers.

As they got deeper into the city and neared the center, they finally found a place to eat. They waded through the thick crowds, heading toward it when suddenly, Raze froze. Something felt off.

He instinctively reached for his waist, and his pouch was gone.

Instantly, his eyes sharpened. Using God’s Eyes, he scanned the entire area, every movement, every flicker of mana, every detail. Then he spotted her, a small girl, no more than ten years old, sprinting through a narrow alleyway.

"Someone took my pouch," he said sharply, before launching forward at full speed.

Gavin was the second to react, following right after him. The memory of Raze slaughtering those assassins before still lingered in his mind, so he felt he had to be there before Raze did something like that to the person who stole his stuff.

They raced through the streets, shoving through the crowd as startled citizens jumped out of the way. The rest of the group followed behind, but none of them could keep up with Raze and Gavin’s speed.

Gavin vaulted onto a small stand, then leaped up to the rooftops, running alongside Raze, who had just entered an alley below.

Through God’s Eyes, Raze traced the girl’s exact movements. She was quick—too quick. In her ragged clothes, she moved with unnatural agility, flipping off a stall and scaling a wall in seconds before darting across the rooftops.

With no choice, Raze activated his Qi. The energy surged through his body, filling his limbs with raw strength and speed. He pressed his feet hard against the wall, cracking it from the force as he launched himself skyward.

Bam!

He landed hard on the rooftop, the tiles splitting beneath his weight, and then took off again in a blur. Gavin followed closely, sprinting from roof to roof beside him.

The girl glanced back for a moment, her blonde hair whipping through the air, her sharp, cat-like eyes locking onto Raze before she turned forward again. Her ears twitched, not human ears, but cat ears perched atop her head. Beneath her ragged skirt, something shifted, a tail.

Raze didn’t care. All he saw was the thief who had stolen from him.

She was fast. Faster than anyone her size should be.

’What the hell? How could someone that small move that fast?’ he thought, gritting his teeth as he pushed himself harder, his body cutting through the air as he leaped from one roof to the next.

He rolled as he landed, barely stopping himself from falling off the edge. His hands gripped the roof’s edge, and he pushed off again.

The girl darted east, heading toward the city’s outer wing. People below looked up, startled, pointing at the blur of figures racing across the rooftops.

Finally, the girl reached a long gap between two roofs and stopped abruptly. She turned, her chest heaving, eyes flicking back toward Raze and Gavin, still chasing, still closing in.

She took a few steps back, braced herself, and leaped.

The distance was too wide. She barely made it, her small body slamming into the far edge. Her fingers clutched the lip of the roof, nails scraping against stone. With a grunt, she hauled herself up, landing on her knees before sprinting again without a moment’s pause.