GREED: ALL FOR WHAT? - Chapter 2294: Bowing To Pressure.

Chapter 2294: Bowing To Pressure.

Black Axe couldn’t even beg for his life. The best he could do was say, “Rice rock rain rough rat.”

The words he wanted to say to plead for his life came out as a garbled mess. Fortunately for him, Legion didn’t plan to kill him.

The bloody limbs wrapped around his body and pierced his limbs. They incapacitated him so he couldn’t resist. Then the third, the traveler, and the knight took him back to the base.

While they were doing this, word quickly spread out that Black Axe had attacked one of the leaders of the Golden Hammer gang and had been captured alive.

The news was spread by the onlookers in the restaurant who had witnessed the fight and survived it. The news was also confirmed by nominal members of the Golden Hammer gang and the spies that had been placed within the gang and around their territory.

This news caused a massive outcry. Unexpectedly, the outcry wasn’t in support of the Golden Hammer gang, who had been attacked and who were clearly the victims here. The outcry was against the Golden Hammer gang and was in support of Black Axe.

Everyone didn’t want the Golden Hammer gang to gain another advantage. They didn’t know why Black Axe would go and attack the leaders of the Golden Hammer gang, but they were not going to support the Golden Hammer gang in anything.

The leaders of the other gangs came together and reached out to the Golden Hammer gang to pressure them. They claimed that Black Axe had been lured to the territory of the Golden Hammer gang and asked for him to be released immediately.

Despite them being unfair and taking the wrong side in the matter, what they asked for wasn’t excessive because gang leaders can be captured in fights and ransomed. That is usually what happens because gang leaders usually consider their duty as jobs, and at most, they consider their position as parts to play in a game.

They don’t take what they do to each other personally and don’t think it is worth it to kill each other for some wealth. So even when they challenged each other and attacked each other openly on the battlefield, the losers that were captured were not usually killed. They are ransomed for money.

Capturing and ransoming is normal, but the coalition of gang leaders have no moral high ground to ask for it. After all, Black Axe has broken the rules by attacking another gang secretly.

Black Axe should be punished for what he did. But the gang leaders claimed that they have to listen to his side of the story first, so he must be released before he is punished.

They were not willing to be reasonable about the matter at all. They even made it clear that if Golden Hammer didn’t release Black Axe, they would attack his gang and destroy it.

The coalition of gang leaders was looking for a reason to fight the Golden Hammer gang. So even though the Golden Hammer gang was in the right, they would be the ones to suffer. Even the nobles didn’t speak up for the Golden Hammer gang.

So Golden Hammer bowed to pressure and decided to release Black Axe. But he asked for a lot of money.

Golden Hammer refused to back down on his requirement for the ransom. He said, “I can take a loss in other things, but I won’t take a loss in this. Someone must pay for what happened.”

This time, the nobles spoke up in agreement. They agreed with Golden Hammer and asked the coalition to pay the ransom.

White Cape paid for most of the ransom, but the other leaders also paid something. Then Black Axe was released by the Golden Hammer gang.

After Black Axe was released, Golden Hammer asked, “Now that he has been released, he can say his side of the story. So when will the trial be?”

One leader said, “We will figure that out when Black Axe recovers.”

This leader was clearly trying to brush Golden Hammer off. But the other leaders supported him in it.

They would have been glad if Black Axe had attacked someone else. They would have turned in Black Axe and split his territory between them. But they were not going to do that now because the biggest beneficiary would be the Golden Hammer gang.

In their humble opinion, the Golden Hammer gang was already too big. So there was no way they were going to let the Golden Hammer gang gain anything from the Black and White gang.

The coalition prefers to do Black Axe a favor and use that favor to gain some benefits from the Black and White gang. That’s why they contributed part of the payment for Black Axe’s ransom.

All of their planning and scheming meant that Black Axe would mostly get away with the attack. Golden Hammer could only fume and be frustrated.

Black Axe returned to his territory safe and sound. Then he went up to the balcony to meet the sleeping White Cloak.

White Cloak was still sitting on his chair and sleeping. He ended Black Axe’s presence, so he woke up to greet Black Axe.

But he took one look at Black Axe and said with certainty, “You’re not Black Axe.”

Black Axe smiled as he asked in amusement, “What are you talking about?”

White Cloak wrapped his cloak around himself tightly. This was done not because he was timid and afraid. He was afraid, but he had wrapped his cloak tighter around himself in preparation for a fight.

He didn’t answer Black Axe’s question after tightening his cloak. Instead, he attacked him.

The attack he used was his rank 1 divine ability called Sleep. This is a mental ability that attacks the mind of targets and compels them to sleep.

Unfortunately, the attack didn’t work on Black Axe because he had an Aegis Shield around him. The attack only caused the purple shield to light up and shimmer.