Chapter 73: Trap
When they arrived at the agreed location, there was already a large group of people waiting for them. Each one was riding a horse and they were in a square formation which made them look impregnable like a fortress.
Seeing this, Darius made a series of hand gestures.
The guards immediately formed a triangle formation according to his commands.
When they reached a certain distance, Darius raised his fist in midair to signal the group to stop their march.
Darius squinted his eyes as he scanned the opposing side. After a simple observation, he found out that they had over eighty martial practitioners. On the other hand, his group only had fifty people, but he wasn't worried.
A trace of anticipation flashed in his eyes.
"Bring the prisoner!" He shouted.
A guard grabbed Raphael and pushed him in front of the formation.
"Stop pushing me! I can walk by myself!" Raphael's arrogance returned when he saw the Blackcrow Household's martial practitioners. To his surprise, there were a few notable warriors among them and this made him feel a bit relieved.
Darius stared deeply at him before turning his gaze back to the opposite group. "We have brought Raphael! Bring us the agreed goods and we will return him to you!" His booming voice echoed in all directions.
A moment later, the square formation of the opposite group suddenly parted, revealing a woman on a horse. It was Agatha Blackcrow, the second heir of the Blackcrow Household.
Following behind her was the famous Owen, a martial practitioner at the peak of the Core Formation realm.
"We will send half of the agreed goods first! We will only deliver the remaining half once Raphael is released!" Agatha responded.
Hearing this, Darius frowned. 'How did Lord Fredrinn predict this?' Before coming here, Fredrinn reminded him of the possible things that would happen in the exchange. This was one of the situations that he had predicted.
He resisted the urge to look at Fredrinn who was in the middle of the triangle formation.
Knowing that this would happen, Darius was only briefly surprised. "Alright!" He shouted in response.
Meanwhile, Agatha raised her eyebrows in surprise. She didn't expect that they would agree to her demands. If she was in their shoes, she would have cursed out loud before rejecting them. 'Something is off here…' She thought.
She looked around with narrowed eyes, but she found nothing abnormal.
"Is there anything wrong, Miss Agatha?" Owen asked when he saw her staring around with a wary gaze.
"Have you checked the surroundings?"
"Yes, miss. I sent our men to scan the location." Owen nodded.
'I must be overthinking things.' She thought.
"Send them half of the agreed goods and get Raphael." She instructed.
"Yes, Miss Agatha." Owen nodded. He then turned around and gave a series of commands to his subordinates.
A moment later, five martial practitioners pulled twenty-five war horses toward the front and brought them to the opposite group.
Seeing this, Darius sent a signal to the guard who was holding Raphael's chains.
The atmosphere became tense and everyone prepared themselves for what was to come.
At this moment, Fredrinn was silently observing the most dangerous individuals on the Blackcrow Household's side. 'It looks like I have overestimated Reynard's intelligence.' He shook his head in disappointment.
Other than Owen, there were only five more at the late stage of the Core Formation realm. The rest are in between the early and the middle stages of the Core Formation. There were even some at the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm.
This lineup should have been enough to overpower Darius' group, but Fredrinn's confidence lies in the group that was hidden underneath the dry land.
In the past few days, the best array maker of the Firecrown Household, Ardul, set up a concealing formation. This was to hide the experts of the city lord's mansion.
Fredrinn spent a few sleepless nights overseeing the construction of this trap. He even mobilized his guards unit to make the terrain look more natural.
While he was silently cursing Reynard's careless move, the exchange had already halfway concluded.
"We have already released Raphael! Send us half of the remaining goods!" Darius shouted. At this point, he was only waiting for Fredrinn to give the signal.
"Don't worry! We won't renege on our promise!" Agatha responded. After she said this, the remaining war horses were taken to the front, but they suddenly stopped halfway through.
Fredrinn who was watching everything had a bad feeling about this. He jumped out of his formation and shouted. "Do it! Don't let them kill my horses!" His voice carried a trace of anxiety. This was what he was most worried about.
"Surround them!" Darius immediately shouted when he heard Fredrinn's urgent words.
As soon as he gave the command, the warriors hidden underneath the land finally revealed themselves.
Their sudden appearance stunned the martial practitioners of the Blackcrow Household.
Agatha's face fell. "What is the meaning of this?!" She glared at Darius.
"Miss, it's dangerous! Please stay behind me!" Owen and a few others circled her with grim faces.
"You were the first one to go back on your words! Don't make me laugh with your hypocrisy!" Darius responded with a mocking tone.
Agatha didn't expect that the Firecrown Household would be so bold!
"Miss Agatha, please tell your men to drop their weapons! We don't want any bloodshed to happen today!" A city official who was disguised as a guard of the Firecrown Household warned in a stern voice.
Agatha stared fiercely at the man and the hundreds of martial practitioners that surrounded them. She gritted her teeth while looking at them with a defiant gaze. She knew that they would die if they fought back, but she didn't want to surrender.
Just as she was about to order her troops to attack, she felt a sharp pain at the back of her head and her vision began to blur. 'What happened?' Before she lost consciousness, she saw Raphael staring at her with a cold look. 'That bastard! How dare he…'
Owen and the others looked at him in shock.
"Don't worry. She is still alive. Knowing her personality, she would have ordered our men to attack. We might as well surrender and wait for the family to come." Raphael muttered indifferently.
"You!" Owen was speechless.
"As the third heir of the Blackcrow Household, I command you to throw down your weapons and surrender!" Raphael shouted.
The martial practitioners hesitated for a moment, but under the threat that surrounded them, they could only obediently follow his commands.