Chapter 19

Aoduo caught up. With just one glance at the mouth of the alley, he spotted Dole darting swiftly through the crowd. Hunched over, Dole flickered in and out of sight among the people, and was about to vanish from view. Aoduo immediately flung out a hand in fury. "Go after him! Beat that little bastard to death!"

This was far from the first time Dole had slipped through his fingers. Aoduo wished he could kill him on the spot.

Only three of them had caught up. They immediately plunged into the crowd, leaving chaos in their wake.

Dole was small and nimble, weaving back and forth through the crowd. At first, Aoduo could still see his whole body, but by the end, he could only catch a few fleeting shadows.

Anxious, Aoduo thought, That brat's going to get away again. He wracked his brains, then quickly recalled the roads ahead and came up with an idea. "You two go that way. He'll have to turn there."

Though the slums' terrain was complicated, they had run rampant here for years and knew every inch of it by heart.

The two men nodded and split up.

Aoduo did not slow down, pursuing relentlessly. The people around him changed color when they saw him coming and hurriedly scattered out of the way.

After weaving through the crowd several times, Dole had long since lost sight of his pursuers. Crossing the main road, he quickly slipped into a narrow alley and stopped, gasping for breath. He secretly peered out from the alley entrance a few times. Only after seeing no one coming did he finally relax.

Aoduo really was like a rabid dog. After all this time, he still wouldn't let him go. Once he got the chance, he would have to give him a vicious lesson and make him remember it.

Dole took a few breaths, then hunched over and ran onward.

Just as he was about to reach the end of the alley, he heard a faint patter of footsteps ahead. His expression immediately changed.

They caught up?

He instinctively touched the little hammer at his waist, and a fierce look crossed his face.

Reaching the alley entrance, he secretly looked ahead. Sure enough, he saw two of Aoduo's men running over from a distance, checking the small alleys on both sides of the road as they ran.

Dole drew back his gaze and relaxed. There were only two of them, and Aoduo was not among them. Good, good. These people were merely Aoduo's underlings, commoners' children much like himself. Besides, he had grown stronger now. He did not necessarily need to fear them.

With that thought, he took out his hammer, drew a deep breath, pressed himself against the wall, and slowly crouched down to sit on the ground, quietly waiting for them to come.

"Not in this alley."

"Not here."

"Not over here either."

The two searched all the way over, already growing careless. That brat had run for so long—who knew where he had gone by now? They were only doing this to carry out Aoduo's orders.

Without Aoduo these past few years, they would not have enjoyed such easy days either. They themselves were just idlers muddling through life, and their parents had long stopped caring about them.

Before long, they reached the alley next to Dole's.

Dole had calmed down by then. He took deep breaths and quietly listened to their footsteps.

The two men slowly approached. Their footsteps drew closer bit by bit, the sounds gradually becoming clear.

They reached the entrance of Dole's alley.

Dole crouched low, then suddenly sprang out from below and smashed his hammer straight at one man's knee. After hammering iron ingots for so long, he had long mastered the force and angle of his swings. For accuracy's sake, he had even held back some of his strength.

The two men did not have time to react. All they saw was a dark shadow shooting out of the alley.

Crack.

"AAAAARGH!"

One man immediately collapsed, clutching his knee. The other was still frozen in shock, but Dole was not. Having crippled one, he swung his hammer again, smashing upward toward the other man's chest.

Only then did the man see Dole clearly. Their eyes met. The man panicked, while Dole remained expressionless—even cold.

The man hastily raised both hands before his chest. Dole's hammer struck with a dull thud, and the man's face twisted in pain as he fell backward.

Dole had not expected it to be so easy. Seizing the advantage without mercy, he stepped forward and swung again at the man before him, not caring where he hit—he simply struck.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

He delivered three hammer blows in one breath. The man lay still, with no telling how many ribs had been broken.

Dole rose from the ground, breathing a little heavily as he looked at the man he had struck down first.

The man no longer had the presence of mind to care about the pain. His eyes were full of shock and fear as he looked at Dole.

"Don't kill me! I don't know anything!"

Dole glanced at the man's leg. His knee had been shattered by the blow, bone exposed in a miserable sight. Yet Dole felt no sympathy at all. Who knew how many people these two had harmed? Even beating them to death would not be excessive.

With his leg broken, he was crippled for good.

Dole did not linger. He turned and ran into the distance.

The man immediately let out a breath of relief, then seemed to remember something. Despair spread across his face, and he even forgot the pain.

Aoduo found the alley entrance and saw the two men. His expression immediately changed.

"Who did this to you?" He hurriedly crouched down beside the man lying on the ground.

The man endured the pain, his face full of despair. "It was Dole. He ambushed us. He's really strong, Boss—my leg!"

Aoduo checked the other man. He was not dead, only unconscious. Several ribs in his chest were broken, blood had soaked through his clothes, and one hand had been smashed apart, several metacarpal bones broken. Aoduo examined the wounds carefully. They had clearly been caused by a hammer.

That brat was this strong now?

Aoduo looked over the two men's injuries, and his face darkened. They were only street punks, but they were fairly capable and had followed him for several years. But now...

The man naturally saw Aoduo's expression as well. Countless words rose to his lips, only to be forcibly swallowed back down.

It was over.

After thinking for a moment, Aoduo said, "Don't worry. You'll be fine. I'll call some other brothers over and get you two out first. That little bastard has really gotten on my nerves." He turned and left.

Seeing Aoduo's expression, the man's heart sank, then sank lower and lower, all the way to the bottom. A chill spread through his chest.

Aoduo did go to call for people, but he never came back himself. After tossing them a few dozen copper coins, he never spared them another thought.

There were plenty of dim-witted fools in the slums. As long as they were given enough to eat, some would sell their lives for him.

Having lost two subordinates, Aoduo was naturally unwilling to let it go. As he walked out, he somehow found himself drifting toward the city gate.

When he arrived at the city gate and looked up, his eyes immediately lit up. He searched among the city guards watching the gate and spotted Captain Fele sitting behind the other guards at a glance.

By chance, he had once drunk with Fele and his father. That night, his father had even treated Fele to a visit to a tavern, so they could be considered acquaintances.

He immediately walked over.

A city guard stopped him. Aoduo pointed at Fele behind him and said cautiously, "I'm looking for Lord Fele. We know each other."

The guard glanced at Aoduo and sneered inwardly. Others might not know him, but he did—he was just a street punk.

Still, knowing the captain was another matter entirely.

He turned around and called, "Captain Fele, someone's looking for you!"

Fele raised his head and looked over. Upon seeing Aoduo, he frowned slightly. He knew Aoduo's father, Sam, a supervisor at Bianchi Mine, and could collect quite a bit of money from him every month. His son, however, was not someone he saw often.

He nodded. "Let him come over. He's Sam's son."

When the surrounding guards heard the name Sam, they immediately understood. The guard blocking Aoduo patted him on the shoulder. "So you're Sam's son. Go on, then."

Aoduo let out a breath, thanked the guard, then stood before Fele and said somewhat shyly, "My lord, could we speak somewhere private?"

Dole had no idea that his actions had stirred up some trouble. After hiding for who knew how long and making sure no one was following him, he bought some food and returned to his hideout. He had thrown away all the food while running earlier. Now that he had money, he could buy something better for that dog Aoduo.