Chapter 180: Chapter 168: Yara, Long Time No See

The two uncannily similar faces before her, along with a strange energy fluctuation, struck Flora Bloom as both familiar and alien.

"Tanuki? The Crown Prince?"

The sudden appearance of these two gave Flora Bloom a headache. She quickly glanced behind them. When she saw that he wasn’t there, she couldn’t tell if she was relieved or just tense as she looked away.

"Why are you two here?" ’Shouldn’t they be with Lex Cross in Argent right now?’

"Greetings, ma’am!" Tanuki and The Crown Prince didn’t just look alike; their voices were nearly identical too. When they spoke in unison, it sounded like a single person talking.

They saw Flora Bloom glance behind them and exchanged a knowing look. The Crown Prince looked up and asked, "Ma’am, are you missing the boss?"

Flora Bloom pursed her lips and glared at The Crown Prince before saying with mock ferocity, "Right now, all I want is to catch the little thief who stole my Crystal Cores!"

The Crown Prince and Tanuki grinned at each other, then patted their chests confidently. "Ma’am, leave it to us! We’ll catch him for you!"

The words were barely out of their mouths before both The Crown Prince and Tanuki vanished. Although the visuals of their disappearances were similar, the energy fluctuations they gave off were worlds apart.

The energy emanating from The Crown Prince and Tanuki was subtle. If they hadn’t appeared right in front of her without deliberately concealing themselves, Flora Bloom might not have detected them at all.

The little thief was different, however. She’d heard of his kind of Hidden Ability—a type of physical superpower used for attacks, and exceptionally rare. Rarity implied power. But even if the man was at least Level 3, she wasn’t the least bit worried for The Crown Prince and Tanuki’s safety.

After all, Flora Bloom couldn’t gauge the true strength of The Crown Prince and Tanuki either. Besides, it was two against one. They had the advantage no matter how you looked at it.

Tanuki and The Crown Prince chased a figure, weaving through Heath Holden’s and Seth Warren’s ranks like intersecting shadows.

Every so often, the thief they were chasing would casually cut down a few of Heath Holden’s men.

Ultimately, the thief was specifically targeting the men under Seth Warren and Heath Holden. His attacks were fast, precise, and ruthless—every blow was a killing strike! He was like a professional assassin, honed by countless battles.

He moved from place to place so quickly that The Crown Prince and Tanuki could only tail him, constantly changing direction. And from the looks of it, the thief hadn’t even noticed their presence yet.

Flora Bloom’s water mist seemed thin and intangible, yet it could blur one’s vision so much that you couldn’t even see the person standing right in front of you.

Heath Holden gathered his Earth Element energy for a long time, but he had no idea where to unleash it. Hitting his own men wouldn’t be worth it. Hearing the screams around him and smelling the scorched scent of Fire Element Energy, he assumed one of his own Fire Ability Users had cast it and quickly shouted, "Which Fire Ability User is flinging their powers around? Stop using your superpowers indiscriminately!"

Hearing Heath Holden, they were rendered speechless. ’Use our superpowers? We’ve lost them all! Aside from being full of hot air, we can’t even let out a fart right now, let alone use a superpower!’

But when they opened their mouths to speak, the dense water vapor felt like it was condensing inside their throats, making them extremely uncomfortable.

As a Second Level Fire Ability User, Seth Warren struggled but finally managed to form a Fireball in the mist, hoping to burn away the vines binding him. To his dismay, the Fireball he conjured was weaker than a lighter flame. The instant it touched a vine, it went out with a FIZZLE.

The most miserable ones in the mist were the plant-based ability users who had come with Seth Warren. Their vines had just been desiccated, and as they tried to flee the fiery chaos, they discovered that the very vines they couldn’t retract were being lit by stray flames, a fire that then traveled back to burn them alive.

Flora Bloom saw that most of the two teams were dead, leaving only the four leaders and a few low-level superpower users who had lost the ability to fight back. In the next instant, she let the water mist dissipate.

When the disorienting water mist vanished, the residents of the nearby high-end buildings, who had been watching in confusion, couldn’t believe their eyes.

The two captains from two of the base’s three major factions, men who were normally so imperious and arrogant, were trussed up completely, unable to fight back.

What was even more stunning was the state of the nearly two hundred men they had brought with them: a field of dead and wounded. Besides the leaders themselves, only a handful of critically injured superpower users remained, collapsed on the ground and covered in burns. Of all the plant-based ability users Seth Warren had brought, only one survived—a woman whose face was now horribly disfigured.

"Well? Still think there are infected people on my team?" Flora Bloom walked over to Heath Holden and nudged his stunned, rigid body with her foot.

Heath Holden had never imagined it would end like this. As the mist cleared, the scene before him told him everything: his power at the base was finished.

He had mobilized almost every superpower user on his team, all for the sake of making a show of force. No matter what a bastard his uncle was, the person who dared kill him had to pay the price at this base.

But he had lost. Utterly and completely.

"Still going to avenge your uncle?"

In that single moment, Heath Holden’s face seemed to age years. In just half an hour, he had lost everything.

’No, I still have an ace up my sleeve! Lucia... that woman’s brother’s girlfriend! As long as I have her, I still have a chance.’

He scrambled to his feet and suddenly burst out laughing. "HAHAHA! So what if I lost? Dead is dead! Flora Bloom, your brother’s girlfriend is in my hands now! If you know what’s good for you, get on your knees and apologize! Do that, and maybe I’ll be merciful and forget about you killing my uncle!"

"Otherwise... heh heh... that delicate little thing, Lucia... Oh, and I hear she’s even pregnant with your brother’s child. It’d be a real sha—"

Before he could finish, a thin red line appeared on his neck. His eyes, wide with fury, were fixed on Flora Bloom, but his gaze slowly drifted to the side.

A single, fatal strike.

’It was the little thief!’

"Cynthia, bind him!"

Cynthia Grant finally got a glimpse of the man. Her vines had just reached him when he vanished into thin air, reappearing right behind Flora Bloom.

At that moment, Tanuki and The Crown Prince also reappeared in front of Flora Bloom, the easygoing confidence gone from their faces. This kid was too damn fast. He’d been leading them by the nose the entire time, and they’d had to use their ultimate move just to wound him and force him to show himself.

And now, this same thief was clinging to their ma’am’s shoulders, yelling, "Help me!" The sight didn’t just make their jaws drop; it brought cold smirks to their faces.

"Lady, help me! These two psychos are trying to kill me!" His face, arms, and back were covered in a network of fine cuts, but he kept a death grip on Flora Bloom’s shoulders as he hid behind her.

Flora Bloom glanced at the hands on her shoulders and tried to shrug them off, but it was no use. They felt like they were glued in place, their grip immensely powerful and blazing hot.

An axe with a metallic sheen appeared in Flora Bloom’s hand. "I’m the one who wants to kill you!"

But before she could swing the axe at his face, the air behind her suddenly crackled, and a storm of violent thunder energy surged and gathered there.

’Thunder Element?’

A loud thunderclap cracked the air. Countless tendrils of lightning erupted from the blast, pouring directly into the man clinging to Flora Bloom’s shoulders. And yet, not a single spark of Thunder Energy touched her. The attacker’s control over the element was terrifyingly precise.

Flora Bloom spun around. She saw the little thief who had stolen her Crystal Cores convulsing on the ground. A familiar figure then pushed off from the roof of a low building, landing cleanly on the ground not far away.

Though travel-worn, his posture remained so noble he looked like an illusion. Lex Cross was like a War God descending from the heavens, tall and imposing, his aura chillingly sharp.

His hawk-like eyes locked onto hers, as if announcing his arrival to his prey.

Lex Cross wrapped an arm around Flora Bloom’s slender shoulders from behind. His thin lips were set in a frosty line, and his voice, cool and deep, resonated in her ear.

"Flora. It’s been a while."