Chapter 229: Counterattack

Gideon didn’t immediately move and calm his heartbeat.

His eyes swept across the market as fast as possible, forcing himself to ignore the instinct that told him to pull out his sword and cut every threat down before it reached them.

No. That would be exactly what the parasite wanted.

Open fire to civilians—even when they were infected—would make Freebound’s reputation worse and it would make the meeting and negotiation harder.

The people surrounding them weren’t all infected either.

The crowd had already screamed and hurriedly closed their stalls while parents grabbed their children and ran toward the nearest alley.

Good. At least not everyone had become part of the colony.

His attention returned to the approaching civilians. Their movements were strange. Some walked stiffly while others dragged one leg across the frozen ground, but none of them looked frightened.

They simply kept moving toward the three of them with vacant eyes and faint smiles that made his skin crawl.

"Kilian."

"I’m listening."

"Call every Pathfinder nearby." Gideon’s voice remained calm. "Tell them to bring shields, ropes, batons, anything blunt. No blades."

Kilian immediately understood. "You still think they can be saved?"

"I don’t know. But it’s better than a massacre in the middle of the settlement. They’re also still civilians until Patrick proves otherwise."

Kilian nodded once before turning around and sprinting toward the nearest patrol post.

"Pathfinders!" he shouted. "Containment protocol! Non-lethal weapons only!"

The nearby patrol who were ready with their rifles immediately reacted.

Within seconds whistles echoed throughout the settlement as armed Pathfinders abandoned their patrol routes and rushed toward the market carrying shields, wooden batons and restraint poles instead of rifles.

Even so, Gideon could see several of them quietly unclipping their pistols, clearly understanding that if the situation deteriorated any further, they would have no choice but to shoot.

Aaron slowly stepped beside him. "You really think clubs are enough?"

"They’re enough for people. But I read your reports, if that were true, they would be faster and stronger than half your men."

Aaron frowned. "Then, open fire would be easy when they were still dragging their feet like that. Why aren’t they attacking us anyway? Is this some kind of psychological warfare?"

"Maybe? or that man in the middle wasn’t able to control this ’colony’ yet. Look at him, he looks like he is about to burst."

Gideon was right, the man that was probably the member of Eagle Union—by the way he dressed—was standing in the middle, his face was red, the veins bulged on his temple and his mouth never stopped murmuring something.

Using that window, Gideon opened the Infinite Shop.

Three pairs of sealed tactical goggles instantly appeared inside his inventory.

He handed one pair to Aaron and another to Kilian. The pathfinders already wear them as their protective gear.

"Wear it."

Aaron looked at the goggles before raising a brow.

"...Should I ask?"

"You’ll know in a second."

Aaron immediately put them on without another question.

Gideon equipped his own pair before opening the shop again. This time, several cylindrical canisters appeared in his hands.

Gideon pulled the pin from the first one. "They aren’t immune to sedatives. So let’s find out whether they’re immune to this."

One after another, he threw the canisters toward the center of the approaching crowd.

The metal cylinders bounced twice across the frozen ground before thick white smoke erupted violently, rapidly spreading through the narrow market street between the hanging houses.

Almost instantly, coughing echoed from inside the cloud.

People stumbled backward, covering their burning eyes as tears streamed uncontrollably down their faces.

Even the infected who had been walking without hesitation suddenly halted, clawing at their own faces while blindly reaching through the smoke.

Gideon tightened his grip around the handle of his sword before shouting loudly enough for every Pathfinder in the area to hear.

"Now!"

The waiting Pathfinders surged forward with shields raised, restraint poles and batons ready.

If Patrick’s theory was correct...

This would be the first real proof that, no matter how much the parasite altered the human brain, it still depended on an ordinary human body to carry out its will.

Pathfinders rushed into the smoke with shields raised in front of them while the restraint poles and batons stayed ready behind the first line.

Their movements were disciplined, advancing little by little instead of charging recklessly as coughs, groans and panicked screams continued to come from inside the white cloud.

One infected man suddenly stumbled out first, both hands desperately rubbing his burning eyes.

Before he could recover, two Pathfinders slammed their shields into his chest, knocking him backward while another struck the back of his knee with a baton.

The man’s legs immediately buckled and four others pinned him to the ground before tying both his wrists and ankles.

"It works!" one of them shouted.

Another infected woman blindly swung her arms around, trying to grab whoever was closest to her, but the tear gas had completely destroyed her sense of direction.

She barely took two steps before another shield rammed into her shoulder, making her spin sideways as a restraint pole hooked around her neck.

Within seconds she was forced onto the frozen ground together with another infected man beside her.

Gideon quietly watched every movement while keeping his attention on the real target.

The infected civilians were never the biggest problem.

The man standing in the middle was.

Even through the thick smoke, Gideon could still see him.

His body was trembling violently now. His lips moved faster than before. But the colony wasn’t listening anymore.

One by one the infected collapsed under the coordinated assault of the Pathfinders. The tear gas had reduced them to ordinary civilians whose eyes burned so badly they couldn’t even keep them open.

"...Impossible..."

The man suddenly whispered.

He looked around at the restrained civilians before taking a slow step backward.

Before he finally, he turned and ran.

Gideon’s body disappeared almost instantly. There was no way he let the man run.

The infected man had barely reached the end of the alley before Gideon caught him. Without giving him a chance to react, he grabbed the back of his collar and violently pulled him backward.

The sudden force threw the man completely off balance before Gideon’s fist crashed squarely into the bridge of his nose.

A loud crack echoed through the narrow street.

The man’s body spun once before slamming heavily against the frozen ground. Blood immediately poured from his broken nose.

Before he could even think about standing again, Gideon stepped onto his chest, pressing him back onto the snow while drawing his sword just enough for the cold steel to rest against the man’s throat.

"You, you must be from the Eagle Union, right? Answer me with a nod or shake. Be honest, you know what happens if you don’t."

The man froze. Before he nodded slowly, giving up.

Aaron and Kilian quickly caught up only a few seconds later.

"You got him already?" Aaron asked, breathing slightly heavier.

Gideon nodded and opened the Infinite Shop once again. Two small glass ampoules appeared inside his hand together with disposable syringes already filled with a clear liquid.

He handed one set to Aaron and another to Kilian.

"Low-dose sedative. Make sure Patrick talks to him, he is indeed from Eagle Union and told him that the man able to control the people he might be infected."

Kilian immediately understood.

Aaron crouched beside the prisoner before injecting the sedative into his arm without wasting another second.

The man’s struggle gradually weakened until all he could do was glare weakly at the three of them.

Around them, the market slowly returned to order.

The coughing had begun to subside while the Pathfinders finished restraining the remaining infected one after another. Fortunately, no gunshots had been fired.

Kilian stood back up before looking toward Gideon.

"Only one more Eagle Union in the wild." He sighed, "and I already feel like this is another end of the world."

Aaron frowned. "Shit, I should have been inside Gideon’s warm house and doing nothing."

Gideon chuckled then looked toward the busy streets beyond the market where frightened civilians were slowly beginning to emerge from their hiding places.

"Take every infected person to the containment camp. Make sure Patrick examines every single one of them before sunset."

"What about you?" Aaron asked.

Gideon brushed the snow from his coat. "The meeting. I don’t want to keep Jade waiting."

Without waiting for another response, he began walking alone toward the building.

By the time he pushed open the meeting room’s heavy wooden door, the discussion inside immediately stopped.

Representatives from several guilds instinctively turned toward him. At the far end of the table, Jade looked up as well.

The moment their eyes met, the tension that had been hidden behind her composed expression quietly melted away.

A faint relief that crossed her face for just a brief moment told Gideon she had been waiting for him the entire time.