"Two of you, take care of the corpse." One of them suddenly commanded while looking around, trying to figure things out. "The rest will follow me to chase after him. We can't have any witnesses."
Theo was already running for his life, wondering what just happened.
'Seriously… Did I just stumble upon an assassination?' Theo thought and entered the dense woods. 'But this is really dangerous right now… They seem to be calm in dealing with the situation, meaning they have an experience… Unlike younger generations.'
While thinking about it, he recalled their appearances. He didn't know the woman at all. Considering the other party was this skilled, Theo believed the woman was someone important.
Hence, he concluded the danger level he experienced right now..
"Kyu!" Ava warned him while looking at the back.
"So, they know my position…" Theo frowned. His heartbeat increased as he started panting, trying to get the air into his brain to keep thinking about the solution.
Unfortunately for him, he had little information about his pursuers.
"What should I do?" Theo thought while remembering a certain thing. He subconsciously reached the pocket watch on his chest but soon realized it was missing since he put it down earlier. "Ava, grab my pocket watch in the bag."
"Kyu!" Ava nodded.
'Considering the level of monsters in this area, I think I can safely assume they are level 300 or more. And I just learned that I couldn't handle so many people at once, especially with the enemies being this experienced.' Theo took a deep breath and summoned his clone, sending him to test their strength. "If I end up overthinking this, it's good. If not, I will open the pocket watch."
Clone Theo then headed straight to them while summoning his Magic Bullets.
Seeing Theo's movement, a black-haired guy, who commanded them earlier, shouted, "He's coming."
"Wait, Captain. I have another visual from afar!" Suddenly, another person informed him.
"Then this must be an illusion or something. As usual, everything that comes after you is real until proven otherwise. We will break through this illusion and chase after the original." The black-haired guy said.
They didn't bother to cover their face, so Theo reassessed them.
'They are not assassins, but an elite group or something. Still, this level of calmness…' Theo clicked his tongue and realized this was the first time he fought such a group. He took a deep breath and covered both hands with Cannon Blast.
"Eit, Sin, go forward!" The leader announced out loud after seeing the Cannon Blast. "The rest will destroy those incoming bullets."
Two guys increased their speed to block Theo while the rest maintained their speed.
"!!!" Theo punched both of them with all his might, trying to see their strength.
The two muscular guys that came to the front also punched Theo's fist, trying to destroy the illusion in one go.
However, something big happened when their fists collided.
The energy coming from Theo's fists contained not only the Cannon Blast but also the wind that had been controlled by his Materialization, External Flow, and his Telekinesis.
He released his most powerful strike hoping to kill them. After all, killing them also meant Theo's current strength could handle these guys, especially together with Ava.
To his surprise, the two muscular guys felt something was wrong with Theo's punches and released all their power in an instant.
That decision saved their lives as the four fists collided.
Their wrists suddenly snapped as the hands bent backward for both guys. Theo then launched them back with the residual force, stunning all of them.
"Argh!" The two guys gritted their teeth, enduring the pain.
"What happened?!"
"We don't know!"
The black-haired guy instantly assessed the situation and coped with whatever this was. "Three of you stay behind and destroy whatever this is. Eit, Sin, you should still have enough power to fight, right?"
"Yeah." The two guys nodded.
"Okay, the rest of you, follow me." The leader then continued his pursuit after leaving enough people to handle the situation.
"Roger." The other four quickly followed him as Clone Theo needed to face the rest.
"Seriously?" Theo, on the other hand, had a grim expression. "This situation is no joke. I still can't properly check the enemy's power, but I guess their strength is around 320 to 350. They are at least 50 levels above me and we haven't talked about their calmness in coping with every situation.
"It's hard to make them fall for my tricks…" Theo was finally on his wit's end. "My luck is really bad."
He thought he was able to flee by using the forest terrain, but the pursuers managed to match his pace and locate him that easily. So, Theo thought about flying.
Before that, he had one more thing to do, "Ava, have you found it yet?"
"Kyu…" Ava's voice was suppressed by the bag as she still searched for the pocket watch.
"It's inside. I don't put it on the bottom." Theo clicked his tongue.
Even though Theo said all those words, Ava really had a hard time searching for it. Not only the bag kept shaking, but the items were also bouncing around.
Theo had yet to realize this as his mind was occupied by the escape route. Otherwise, he would have used his Telekinesis to fly to stabilize his movement.
"Kyu, Kyu!" Ava told him to wait a bit longer as she tried her best.
Theo glanced at his back while sharing his vision with the clone. He soon found out that everything turned out to be as he said.
Their pure strength was close to that of Alea and each of them could maintain their calm even with their wrist broken. He knew it would be hard to lose or kill them.
Hence, he wanted to open the pocket watch.
After considering his situation, Theo decided to do one thing before flying to the sky.
He recalled his clone and summoned it again. The clone went in a different direction while Theo halted his step and retracted his Metamorphosis, showing his real appearance.
Theo straightened his back while making a shocked expression.
"!!!" They met up in three seconds, staring at each other in shock.
Theo pointed to the right while saying, "Are you chasing that guy?"
Without hesitation, he directed their focus to his clone while preparing for his escape.
Everyone surely knew Theodore Griffith, and not many of them dared to kill him unless they dared to face the implication. At the same time, Theo believed the killers would chase after his clone first as "Theo" didn't see them killing the woman. Instead of killing the famous Theo, they would surely choose the witness… Or that was what was supposed to happen.
The black-haired guy recognized Theo's face and came to an instant decision. "Theodore Griffith! He is on the top priority. Kill him first!"
"Wait, what?" Theo took a step back. "That's not what you were supposed to say…"