Escaping pursuit

The troublesome Bronze Dragonflight and Infinite Dragonflight had finally left, but the pursuers from SI:7 and Westbrook Garrison were still behind Felix.

"Quick, don't let that damned bandit get away!"

"There's a hefty reward for catching him!"

Once the Sands of Time brought by the Bronze Dragonflight and Infinite Dragonflight had completely vanished, these people loyal to Stormwind City immediately regained their ability to move and continued charging toward Felix.

In fact, they had not noticed at all that, just moments ago, time throughout Elwynn Forest had stood still for eight whole minutes.

Felix fled in haste, but the Stealth Users of SI:7 pursued him relentlessly.

Normally, a novice Rogue like him should not have been able to outrun SI:7's professionals, but now Felix felt as though wind were rushing beneath his feet, as though... wind elementals were pushing him along.

Had Al'Akir sent someone to keep an eye on him too?

Today really was exciting. First, the Old Gods had shown his brothers all kinds of visions, then the Bronze Dragonflight and Infinite Dragonflight had fought fiercely before him, and finally, these servants of the Elemental Lords had arrived too...

With the wind elementals' blessing, Felix quickly shook off every pursuer behind him and returned to the temporary camp where the Defias Rogues were resting.

"Everyone, run now!" Felix shouted. "The enemy is coming!"

"Hey, Felix, what about Joseph, Bazil, and the others?" Dudmore asked anxiously. "Why haven't I seen-"

"They've most likely been caught by Stormwind City's lackeys!" Felix looked grim. "But we can't rescue them now. That'll have to wait. Those soldiers are already catching up!"

Vladimir was immediately alarmed. He had seen Bazil Thredd executed by Stormwind City in that vision. And now, Bazil had been arrested by SI:7's agents. Could those visions all have been real-

"Stop dawdling!" Lightfinger roared. "Whatever it is, we can talk about it later. Our first priority now is to find a way to escape quickly!"

Dudmore began frantically gathering up the several crates of copper coins piled before him. Seeing this, Felix immediately stopped him. "Forget about the money! If we lose the money, we can rob Moonbrook, Darkshire, and Lakeshire again later, but if we lose our lives, we really will have nothing left!"

"But, Felix, it took so much effort for us to get-"

Seeing the Rogues hesitate, Felix could only compromise. "We'll just take those few bags of silver coins back with us. Let all these copper coins roll into the Elwynn River and go to hell!"

Everyone immediately began throwing crate after crate of copper coins down the small hillside toward the river below.

Some of the small crates rolled straight into the river without trouble, then sank to the riverbed; others struck rocks and broke open as they tumbled, spilling their copper coins all over the ground.

Then the Defias Rogues picked up the remaining bags of silver coins and fled east as fast as they could.

"Felix, how are we supposed to get back to Westfall?"

"Forget about that for now!" Vladimir was growing a little impatient with them too. "Our most urgent task is to shake off Shaw and his bunch of bastards. If we recklessly run back without losing them first, wouldn't that be inviting wolves into our home?"

"Exactly," Felix promptly added. "So we should keep running east for now. I know there's a landing nearby. Perhaps we can hijack a boat there and sail down the Elwynn River to escape back home."

"But we might not escape successfully at this rate." Vladimir frowned. "Our brothers are all novice Stealth Users, while those SI:7 bastards are already professionals. We can't be sure we'll slip away from them-"

"Don't worry," Felix said. "Vladimir, take the brothers to find Jerod's Landing first. It should be a short distance to the east. As for these pursuers, I'll think of something myself. Don't worry about me. I can run plenty fast."

"Where did those bandits all go?" Standing on the small hillside, Officer Jackson held his torch high and gazed around, unable to help frowning.

At noon that day, he and his soldiers had already begun their midday rest when they suddenly received instructions from Stormwind City, ordering him to immediately strengthen security at the bridge over the Mirror River and cooperate with SI:7. Reportedly, this was to capture a gang of audacious bandits who had dared to rob His Majesty the King's tax revenue.

The "instructions" also said that only by catching these bandits could they receive a reward.

However, during the earlier search, the Warriors had not been agile or fast enough, while SI:7's Stealth Users were nimble, so SI:7's agents had beaten them to the capture of both "Big Beard" and "Thick Brows and Eyes."

That meant all the credit would go to these damned Stealth Users. He and the soldiers under his command had worked all day for nothing and would get nothing out of it.

"They must have kept running ahead," Andrew Porter said with great satisfaction. He had caught a petty thief that day and was clearly very pleased with himself.

"Right, we should keep chasing them. We can't let them get away!" Teyen said. His comrades had all earned credit, and he alone had not. Wouldn't that make him look bad?

A soldier from Westbrook Garrison happened to glance toward the river and noticed specks of yellow light below. He exclaimed, "Wait, what's that down there?"

"Those are gold coins, glittering gold coins!" The eyes of another soldier, dressed in civilian clothes, were already shining more brilliantly than the moon-the gleam of someone whose eyes lit up at the sight of money.

The plainclothes soldier immediately threw away his torch and charged down the hillside, shouting as he ran, "Comrades, we're rich! Gold, hahaha, glittering gold!"

With that, several soldiers beside him followed suit, throwing away their torches and charging down toward the copper coins scattered all over the slope. They knelt or crouched on the ground, desperately picking up these "gold coins."

On such a pitch-black night, with their torches thrown away, could these soldiers still tell whether the coins going into their pockets were copper or gold?

"Stop!" Jackson and Shaw both shouted anxiously. "Don't scramble for them! Maintain discipline! We need to catch those bandits!"

Unfortunately, the officers' feeble voices were drowned out by the frenzy. At least half the soldiers had joined this feast of dividing up the spoils, and no one paid any attention to Jackson and Shaw.

Seeing this chaos, including the splendid sight of some soldiers trampling one another and exchanging blows, the plainclothes soldier who had been the first to take the plunge smiled smugly in a corner, quietly put on a mask, and vanished into the boundless night.