Chapter 329: City on lockdown.

Zyra looked up at the stone ceiling and sighed. She had to admit that she had acted on impulse. Her initial plan had been to send Todd to the beast domain and later force him to reveal everything about his operation.

Beauty’s instigation had thrown her off course.

"There is zero chance we get out of here without a real brawl with those guards outside. And the moment we start shooting, every guard in Grimmark is going to pile on top of us like ants on sugar." She said with another sigh.

[Host, use the shock pebble bombs!] the system suggested enthusiastically in her head. [They will shatter the underground structure completely without causing a huge, flesh-tearing explosion. To the people outside, it’ll just feel like a sudden, severe earthquake and they need to run for their lives.]

Before Zyra could reply, the link band on her wrist started to beep frantically. She quickly slapped the face of the device to silence the alarm.

"Thirty minutes are up," she muttered to Vince and Gilby. "That was the exact window Hunter gave us before he and his team forced their way through the front gates."

Zyra quickly called Hunter.

"Zyra? We’re about to breach_" Hunter’s voice crackled through, slightly frantic.

"Hold your horses, Hunter!" Zyra barked into the link band. "Do not breach yet. The mission is almost over. Don’t come in unless I send you a signal." She waved her hand, taking the Monkshood plants into the beast domain too. Leaving them behind was dangerous.

Without wasting another second, she pulled out a pouch of tiny, glowing shock pebble bombs and handed a few to Gilby and Vince. She then walked over to Todd’s cold body, pulled her silver dagger back out of his chest, wiped the blood on his shirt, and tucked it into her belt. She sent the bodies into her beast domain as well. They could always be dropped off in the jungle.

She lit three candles and gestured for Gilby and Vince to follow her.

"Alright, Beauty," Zyra said. "Activate the bombs."

[Countdown starting! 3... 2... 1... BOOM!]

A series of sharp, concentrated shockwaves ripped through the supporting pillars of the underground dungeon. The guards outside the basement door panicked, allowing Zyra’s team a chance to shove them down. The stone ceiling cracked like thin ice, and the entire two-story wooden flat above them collapsed inward with a catastrophic, thunderous roar.

As they raced to the exit, Zyra activated her X-shield, forming a shimmering, translucent dome over herself, Gilby, and Big Vince. Heavy beams, stone blocks, and dirt rained down around them, bouncing harmlessly off the glowing shield until everything went dead silent.

Outside, the market erupted into utter chaos.

"Earthquake! The slaughterhouse has collapsed!"

"Run for your lives."

"Rescue the beast master! Go dig him out!"

Zyra deactivated the shield. Dust was everywhere, clouding the air so heavily you couldn’t see two feet in front of your face.

Coughing dramatically near the exit, Zyra, Gilby, and Vince scrambled out from under a pile of broken stone, timber, rubbing dirt onto their clothes and acting like traumatized, innocent victims of a natural disaster.

"Oh, my leg! My poor, delicate leg!" Gilby groaned, throwing a hand over his forehead like a dramatic street performer.

Vince applied fake blood to his arms, while screaming for help.

Dozens of Todd’s guards came rushing into the rubble, ignoring them, frantically digging with their bare hands. Zyra gave a subtle nod to her team and motioned with two fingers. Move. Now.

They navigated through the panicking crowd and headed straight for the main entrance. But as they rounded the corner, Zyra’s jaw dropped. The iron gates were completely shut, locked tight with thick chains. A dozen heavily armed guards stood in front of the exit with drawn swords, pushing back a growing crowd of angry, screaming townsfolk.

"Nobody leaves! Master’s orders! City Lockdown!" the gate captain roared. "Not until the earthquakes stop completely. It’s for your own good!"

Gilby scratched his chin and leaned over to Zyra. "Plan B? We find a nice, thin wall in the fence and we blast a hole straight through it?"

"No, you won’t!" a sharp, mocking voice sneered from the side.

Zyra whirled around. Standing near an alleyway was a high-ranking guard captain, holding Taylor in a tight headlock. The captain’s steel knife was pressed firmly against Taylor’s neck. Taylor gave Zyra a helpless, guilty smile.

"Drop your weapons!" the captain screamed at the top of his lungs, drawing the attention of every guard in the plaza. "I was in the slaughterhouse and saw you go down with the boss. None of you seems to be injured even though you have blood on your bodies. You are the same group that sneaked in while this one was making a fuss. Who sent you? What did you do to Boss Todd?"

Big Vince scoffed so hard he nearly choked on his own spit. "Who sent us? That’s ridiculous! We came to shop--"

"That’s bullshit. You caused chaos and deliberately entered our town." a man came running from the direction of the slaughterhouse. "The boss’s half-life beast is in a confused state. He is dead. They must have killed him."

"Oh," Vince muttered, blinking. "Now that is a heavy accusation. Why would we do that?"

They were already surrounded by a full battalion, their weapons pointed directly at their chests.

Zyra let out a long, heavy, exhausted sigh. She pinched the bridge of her nose, stepped forward, and opened her mouth to speak. She planned to buy time until Hunter’s group arrived. At worst, she would just teleport them all away from here. The trouble was the man who had captured Taylor. She would have to take him along too and deal with him outside. "Look, let’s talk about this_"

A loud, ear-splitting, terrifying shriek tore through the sky, so violent that it shattered the glass windows of the surrounding shops.

Every single person in the plaza froze. Heads snapped toward the clouds. Down swept a large creature with burning red feathers and eyes like glowing coals_ the king beast.

Zyra’s eyes lit up. Never in her entire life had she been so genuinely thrilled to see a beast interrupting a fight. She actually breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness."

"Red sun, now!" Taylor screamed from the alley.

The moment Taylor opened his mouth to give the order, the guard captain panicked. Fearing Taylor was calling his half-life beast, the captain’s hand twitched, and he ruthlessly sliced his blade straight across Taylor’s throat.

Taylor collapsed into the dirt, blood pooling beneath him.

A split second later, the red monkey shot out from Taylor’s beast pocket. Red Sun had emerged just a fraction of a second too late. Seeing its beloved master lying motionless on the ground, the tiny beast let out a gut-wrenching, tragic scream.

Its glowing eyes burst into blinding, red laser light.