"Alright." Although it wasn't convincing Taliesin had no reason to deny, because he couldn't take chances even if it was a hunch.
The carriage driver maintained the carriage's speed, while those inside monitored the carriages around them.
"As you said, it is nothing but a hunch. You just wasted our time." Taliesin said as the suspected carriage packed by the side of the road while their carriage kept on moving.
Taliesin's hands were about to turn off the detection, but Blake quickly stopped him.
"Don't turn off the detection array yet, be a little more patient."
Blake's action caused him to furrow his brows, but he agreed just to see the look on Blake's face when he turned out to be wrong.
Surprisingly, after 10 minutes the suspected carriage which was removed from their list of suspects reappeared and joined the queue.
"How did you know?" Taliesin blurted out in surprise.
"That is not all, there are two more. That and that." Blake pointed at the holographic projection of 2 more carriages.
At first, it sounded unbelievable, but with what just happened Taliesin became more patient. After close to 20 minutes of observing them, they confirmed that they all followed the same pattern.
The first carriage was to follow them for some time, before parking so as not to raise suspicions. The second carriage was to continue tailing and keep track of their path, while the third one was at a safe distance waiting for its turn to take over.
"F*ck!" Brian and Castiel cursed aloud.
'Yup… We are up against a strong wealthy mad man. Yay' Blake thought in a sarcastic and depressing tone.
'Just like master had said, he is a mad man. If he had sent 3 carriages for such a small party, I wonder how many that were sent after the stronger parties.' Taliesin's brows were deeply furrowed as he was in deep thought.
The situation had gotten more complicated than he had prepared for. If there were 6 people in each carriage, he was certain that with the help of his artifacts and personal strength he could take on one carriage and also help out Blake's team, but three carriages were something else.
Although he wasn't sure about Blake's team's strength, one thing he was sure of was that a bunch of kids couldn't handle that much. So he decided to call for backup.
"We are being trailed by 3 carriages. We need back up." Taliesin spoke to the leader of a decoy party that was the closest to them.
The party consisted of a demi-God in charge of the mission just like Taliesin, and two adventurer parties. The adventurer parties hired were famous C rank parties and each party consisted of 5 members in which none of them were below the hero realm.
"Interesting seems the mad man has given a lot of priority to even the weakest party." The blonde-haired muscular demi-god at the other end of the communication orb said in a nonchalant tone, as his eyes scanned every member of Taliesin's team.
His words hurt the trio, but after seeing the way everyone in his carriage composed themselves, Blake didn't need to be told that he was a very powerful person so he acted as if he heard nothing.
After checking out Blake's team the blonde demigod continued. "You aren't the only one being tailed. We are being trailed by 6 carriages, 7 now…" The Blonde demigod looked out the window when he sensed a newcomer, before turning back to the orb with his nonchalant expression. "Back to what I was saying. With the artifact in my possession, I scanned the carriages and if the newcomer is included they have 2 demigods on their side.
So I can't render help at the moment, but immediately I am done dealing with them I will head over to your location." Immediately the blonde-haired demigod was done talking he cut off the communication.
'His level of confidence is on another level. He is about to go up against 2 demigods, but it looks like child's play to him.' Although he wasn't sure if the blonde demigod could back up his attitude with his actions, Blake was glad that he was on their side.
"Seems we are all alone in this…" Taliesin sighed.
Knock! Knock!..... Knock!
Taliesin gave to short knocks and a long one informing the carriage driver of the change of plans.
"There will be a change in plans. Right now they are tailing us, but once we get into the slums they would go all out to get the package.
Since we are outnumbered a direct confrontation isn't advisable so we have to follow a roundabout process." The crystal orb at the center of the carriage projected the map of the entire slums.
'I need one of these.' Blake thought after seeing the wonders which the carriage was capable of.
[I commend you for not being as tensed as your teammates in a situation like this, but I will like to inform you that with your current income it would take you at least a decade before you can afford a forgemastered carriage.] The system snorted at Blake's wishful thoughts.
"Staying on the streets will leave us open, so we will no longer follow the agreed route. This is the new route…" Taliesin pointed at an alley, causing the trio to wonder if he had gone loco.
Seeing the looks on their faces Taliesin quickly explained. The alley he had pointed at was a secret passage controlled by a gang leader. This was part of his contingency plan in case worst came to worst, but he hadn't expected he would have used it so early.
"What's stop them from following the secret passage?" Brian asked.
"It's business. There are multiple secret passages all across the city and each passage can only be booked once in a day for the customer's privacy." Taliesin cleared their doubts and told them about things to do in different situations.