After leaving the rchant stalls, Tyler and his group wandered deeper into the enormous circus tent. Music, laughter, and strange slls filled the air. Every corner offered sothing bizarre and unexpected—beast tars juggling flaming lions, floating tea stalls, and illusion shows that bent reality itself.
Then Tyler’s gaze fell on sothing that made him stop in his tracks.
"Is that... a boxing ring?" he muttered.
Indeed, a small crowd had gathered around a raised platform where an octopus man was dominating the scene. He looked a lot like Taka – their Ship’s Cook — but with more muscle and far more flair. Each of his eight tentacles wore a different colored boxing glove, and he was currently in the middle of pumling his opponent into unconsciousness. His punches were a blur, striking from multiple angles at once.
What shocked Tyler even more was the group of screaming fans nearby—mostly young won waving handmade signs with the octopus man’s na and caricatures drawn in glitter ink.
"Who knew octopus guys had such a fanbase?" Tyler muttered.
A girl grinned beside him. "He’s famous around here. They call him ’Kraken Prince.’"
"But look at him." Tyler squinted. "He looks annoyed."
"He is," Another Guy chid in, munching on sothing fried and suspicious-looking. "He hates creatures with only two arms. He has his own preferences."
The match ended quickly with another victory for the tentacled fighter. Just as he was about to leave the ring, a new challenger entered—a spider woman.
Her upper body was humanoid, though she had six slender, human-like arms and six glowing eyes that blinked independently. Her long black hair flowed down her back, and her chest was bare except for a complex weave of silk-like cloth that barely covered anything. From the waist down, she had the massive black body of a spider, complete with hairy legs and gleaming fangs.
"Uhh..." Tyler blinked. "That’s... a lot."
The octopus man’s mood imdiately changed. His tentacles twitched in excitent, and he adjusted his gloves as if preparing for a real match. It was obvious—he liked her. A lot.
"The Kraken Prince is smitten," The Girl beside Tyler whispered, with jealous.
Soon Tyler found out why Kraken Prince has many female fans. These females are perverts as Mathilda, they just wanted to get humped by those tentacles.
Tyler left quickly, realizing the match was less about fighting and more about the Kraken Prince trying to woo the spider woman.
As he reunited with the other girls who had gone off on their own, Tyler suddenly frowned.
"Wait... where’s Alna?"
The group paused, glancing around. The guide who had been leading them had vanished without a word.
"I saw her talking with soone. From the way she talked it seems like it’s soone she knew," Lily said, scanning the crowd. "I didn’t see where she went after that."
They began searching, splitting up briefly, then regrouping when no one had found her. They stepped outside the tent to check the signal—there was none. The magical interference inside the tent seed to block all communication.
Tyler tapped his communication device "Gang Leader Darla, can you hear ?"
A mont later, the voice of Gang Leader Darla crackled through.
"What’s going on? Did sothing happen?"
"It’s Alna," Tyler replied. "She disappeared. We’re outside now, but her comm isn’t responding either."
"Alna? That doesn’t make sense. She’s not the type to walk off during a job," Darla said, voice growing worried. "She’s responsible. Focused."
Tyler tried to reassure her. "Don’t worry. We’ll find her. I’ll keep you updated."
As he ended the call, he turned to see Lily rejoining them, her expression focused.
"I got a clue," she said calmly.
Tyler raised an eyebrow. "Why am I not surprised?"
Rather than taking their air balloon, they walked along the side of the massive tent. Lily led the way, clearly searching for sothing—or soone. Her eyes scanned faces, darting between booths and alleyways.
"There," she said suddenly, pointing at a young boy trying to slip away unnoticed.
The boy spotted them and froze briefly—then bolted.
"Stop, Nicole!" Lily shouted.
The boy didn’t stop. He ran faster.
"I know where you live!" Lily shouted again.
Nicole stumbled at her words, then reluctantly ca to a halt. He turned around slowly, eyes filled with fear and suspicion.
Tyler instinctively prepared to cast a freezing spell but held back when Lily subtly shook her head.
"That’s the guy Alna was talking to earlier," Lily explained. "I asked around, got his na, and found out the spots he usually hangs out. Locals said he’s shady."
They approached Nicole, who raised his hands defensively.
"I—I don’t know any girl!" he blurted out, panicking.
"We haven’t even started interrogating yet," Lily said with a sigh. "You’re not good at this."
"Huh... We don’t have ti for this," Tyler said, turning to Mana, who was floating in the air with a milkshake bottle in her hand.
Mana gave a small nod and stepped forward. Just as the bottle was about to fall, Mathilda caught it and took a sip, mumbling, ’Indirect kiss...’
In a mont, she vanished—phasing straight into Nicole’s body. His eyes rolled back, and his limbs went stiff. His body lifted slightly off the ground, suspended like a puppet with its strings tangled.
"Mana’s possession ability is getting scary," Darla muttered. "It’s like watching a Ghost."
"She is a Ghost though." Tyler chuckled.
Monts later, Mana erged from Nicole’s body, her expression grim. Nicole collapsed to the ground, shivering and gasping for breath.
"Mana got the mories," Mana said softly. "Alna was kidnapped. A group of n with clown tattoos on their arms took her. They used him to lure her out. This guy is her friend."
Tyler and the others fell silent, their expressions hardening.
Tyler turned and looked back at the massive circus tent.
"Say, Lily," Tyler asked as they walked under the towering shadows of the giant circus tent, "Circus is a massive pirate group, with lots of mbers, right?"
Lily turned her head slightly, still scanning the crowd. "Yes. They have lots of mbers, actually. Why do you ask?"
Tyler narrowed his eyes. "I think I understand what’s going on. Alna didn’t just wander off. Soone noticed her, probably thought she looked too soft, too valuable... and decided to take her."
Lily nodded slowly, her face darkening. "That makes sense. And if it’s Circus pirates who did it... Well, let’s just say their higher-ups don’t care much about what their underlings do for fun. As long as they don’t interfere with official business, they look the other way."
Tyler sighed. "Then we’ll go and find her."
Before Lily could respond, Mana floated down, still sipping from the milkshake Mathilda had returned to her. Her eyes glowed faintly, focused on sothing far off. "Actually... it looks like we don’t need to search for them."
Tyler turned to follow her gaze. "What do you an?"
"They’re coming to us," Mana said, her voice calm. "The ones who kidnapped Alna."
A group of five rough-looking individuals erged from the shadows at the edge of the clearing. Tyler imdiately recognized them. They were the sa ones who had been tailing his group the previous day, lingering just long enough to be noticed but not confronted.
"Ahh... it’s the stalkers," Lily said, folding her arms.
The pirates paused mid-step, clearly caught off guard. Lily’s words had struck a nerve. They realized the group had known all along that they were being watched—and had simply chosen to ignore them.
The leader of the small group stepped forward. A lean man with wild eyes, an oily grin, and a prominent clown tattoo spiraling up his arm. He looked down at Nicole, who was still on the ground, trembling and avoiding everyone’s gaze.
"So," the clown-tattooed pirate said, "I assu you’ve already figured out the situation. Let’s not waste ti."
Tyler didn’t say a word. His gaze was steady, unreadable.
"We have the girl," the pirate continued, unbothered by Tyler’s silence. "If you don’t want her hard... you’ll co with us. All of you. Quietly."
Behind him, the other pirates slowly began forming a loose circle around Tyler’s group.
"Alright," Tyler said, surprising everyone.
Mathilda raised a brow. "That easy?"
Tyler gave her a slight nod. "For now."
Mathilda sighed in frustration as she hid so vial that she taken out.
With the five pirates surrounding them, Tyler and his group were led away from the tent.
After a few minutes of walking, Lily frowned. "This direction... Isn’t this toward the Colorful Forest?"
"Yeah..." Tyler nodded, his eyes narrowing. I wonder what they want. Money? Or the girls? he thought.
Whatever it was, he didn’t really care.
He glanced back casually.
"What are you looking at? Move!" one of the pirates barked, shoving Tyler forward.
But Tyler didn’t even flinch. To the pirate, it felt like trying to push a mountain. His face flushed with embarrassnt.
"Nothing, nothing," Tyler said with a smile.
Another pirate, suspicious, glanced back in the direction Tyler had looked—only to find nothing. He quickly turned and hurried to catch up with the group.
The mont they were out of sight, a figure silently erged from the shadows.
It was Su Fei.
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