"Who are those people?" Asked a middle aged woman from near the entrance of the restaurant, with a worried tone.
The hall director, an elegantly dressed woman in her early thirties, approached the group of black-cloaked cultivators "Welcome to the Midnight Teahouse, Is there something I can help you Misters with?" she asked with a faint smile and polite tone.
The most muscular amongst the black-cloaked, while ignored her completely, walked past her, and in between tables.
Once he was in the middle of the hall, and very close to Daniel's table, he took off his hood and said with a reassuring tone "We are not here to hurt anyone. We are under the orders of the government to apprehend this individual." He said while pointing at Daniel. "We have proof that he has been conducting illegal activities, and after taking care of this, we will let you go back to your dinners."
The various clients of the restaurant looked at Daniel with suspicion, while a grim expression appeared on Alesia's face.
Daniel was calm as usual. He was more than aware of what these people really wanted, so, he stood up, and prepared himself to get captured by them. He was sure that he could find a way to escape later, by either fighting, or creating an escape route thanks to his system, but if he were to defend himself there, the aftermath of the fight might end up killing a few of the people present, some of whom could be barely even considered cultivators.
But things did not go the way he expected. Just as Daniel was about to surrender to them, the man whom he and Alesia were making laugh got up from his chair, and said "Can I see the arrest warrant?"
The hall quietened once again, and people started to look worried at each other.
The muscular man turned to look at the man that was eating alone, and said "We have no obligation to show it to you. Behave yourself, or you will be apprehended as well." His tone was righteous, almost as if he himself believed his own lie.
"You don't say?.. Well, after being part of the governmental law enforcement for over ten years, it was my understanding that we had to present the arrest warrant at the moment of an arrest.. It must have been my mistake.." Responded the man with sarcasm.
"Also, while it is understandable why you've locked space and the control over the other essences to prevent a criminal from escaping.. Why did you lock the essence of sound as well? Are you worried that in case these people didn't believe your bullshit, it would have been easier to kill them all without attracting the attention from the people outside?" Added the man with a hint of derision in his voice. He then added "But it is more likely that you already wanted to kill everybody.."
After he finished speaking, this man turned to look at the customers of the restaurant, and said "For your information.. That kid's name is Dan Hiel, the head of a company called 'Golden Karma'.. The company that, as you might have heard.. Recently won the games of the 'A World in the Palm of Your Hand' collective.. There is a very good chance that these people are here to kidnap him, and therefore will likely kill you all in order to prevent you from talking about what happened.."
A few cultivators that were happily eating a few minutes before, were now standing up with faces marked with seriousness. In their hands, a few items had were held as improvised weapons.
The rest of the less powerful cultivators stepped back, and started to hope for the situation to be resolved peacefully.
The group of black-cloaked men was composed by sixteen people, and they were all cultivators at the late stage of immortal cultivation.
On the other hand, the restaurant clients only had five cultivators at the mid or late fourth stage other than Daniel, which was at the peak of the fourth stage, Alesia whose battle prowess reached the early fourth stage, and finally, the man that had stood up for them, which was at the peak fourth stage of immortal cultivation as well.
Technically speaking, Daniel's battle prowess was enough for him to counter whichever blockade a late or peak fourth stage immortal cultivator would create to block him.. But this blockade was activated with an item that had been created by a mid-fifth stage cultivator, and therefore, the immortal essence which kept it up, was not something that Daniel could deal with quickly.
Fortunately for them, these blockades usually had a limited duration, and the more people fought within them, the faster they would wear down.
Despite the fact that the man's words were true, the black-cloaked cultivators did not want to start an all out battle for a simple reason. That reason, was that things were bound to go wrong more and more for every additional second that passed..
But since having to fight was not a remote possibility, the thin man had prepared a plan in case they had no choice but to.
He had already instructed the muscular man that had spoken earlier to approach Daniel's table, so that he could attempt to capture either him or Alesia in case a battle broke out. At the same time, the rest would fight against those who resisted them.
But alas, that was also his mistake.
The muscular man could feel that Daniel had the same level of cultivation as his, so he decided to grab Alesia, from which he could feel a weaker power..
But.. the moment his hand moved towards Alesia, Daniel grabbed his wrist, and while using all of his peak fourth stage prowess, he pulled him hard towards himself, and into the pointy knife that he was holding.
He wasn't even able to react before his neck was penetrated, and his main arteries were cut by the steak knife that, until two minutes ago, Daniel was using to eat dinner.
.
Without losing a beat, Daniel grabbed the sabre strapped to the leg of the man that was currently bleeding out on the floor, and looked around for the cultivators that had stood up to fight.
He threw the sabre at one that appeared to be a swordsman, then, grabbed Alesia's knife, and walked out of the area where the tables were positioned, and in front of the group of cultivators.
In his hands, were two steak knives.. One dripping with fresh blood, the other dirty with food.
"You've picked the wrong night to do this.." He said, before hinting for them to move, and added "Come on.."
The black-cloaked cultivators unsheathed their various weapons, and divided into three groups. One that would fight Daniel, composed by the tall man, the stout man, and two more, one that would watch the entrance composed by two cultivators, and one that would take care of the rest of the people within the restaurant, composed by ten people.
All Daniel could use inside the blockade that had been activated, were his martial abilities which could easily trump each and every cultivator present. Unfortunately, since these people were used to acting this way, they weren't pushovers either.. And four people were still four people.
The place quickly became a mess.
The restaurant customers were not properly armed for this kind of fight, and were forced into a defensive position. They used chairs, tables, and even threw dishes to protect themselves from the deadly attacks of the black-cloaked individuals.
Some of them were not too used to melee fighting, and soon enough, ended up gaining injuries.
The only one that was surprisingly capable with weapons, was the man which had convinced the customers to fight back. He was currently fighting three people, and even though he wasn't able to kill any of them, he was still able to disarm one, and steal his weapon.
Alesia, on the other hand, was defending herself from a single black-cloaked cultivator which tried to capture her. She had a few difficulties at first, but after taking a deep breath, she willingly cut a lateral slit on her dress, freeing her legs, and making her movements less restricted and much more agile.
It was a fortune that Daniel had mastered double knives wielding, as it was only thanks to that, that he was able to heavily injure the stout man, and two others. Only the thin man was still perfectly fine, but since he was now basically fighting alone, he was having difficulties in keeping up with Daniel.
This went on for a few minutes, until Daniel finally managed to kill two of the four cultivators he was fighting with, and throw their weapons towards the restaurant customers.
Unfortunately, the restaurant customers weren't doing as well.
The tight spaces, and the fewer numbers had forced them to group up, and fight in a defensive position between the group of black-cloaked cultivators, and the group of weaker people.
Injury upon injury were being collected by these people, and soon enough, one of them was hit in the chest by a spear, and fell on the ground. He was not dead, but if not treated, he would be soon.
The powerful air and sonic waves battered the blockade constantly, and after about four minutes, Daniel started to hear some cracking noises.
"FINISH THEM! QUICK!!" Shouted the thin man before calling the two cultivators that were watching the door, and making them join him in his fight against Daniel.
Another minute passed, and another cultivator amongst the customers fell to the ground. His arm had been severed, and he was bleeding profusely.
It was at this moment, that the black-cloaked man that was facing Alesia had finally managed to get a hold of her arm.. A hold from which she could not free herself of.
He quickly disarmed her, and turned towards the place where Daniel and the rest were fighting. He then said with a powerful voice "STOP! Or I'll ki-"
*KACHAAAH*
A loud noise of glass breaking was heard in the entire hall, and before anyone could react, two swords appeared on Daniel's hands.
The grip on Alesia's arms became weaker, as Daniel appeared instantly in front of him, and directly cut the man's hand off.
He then started a series of instantaneous teleportations, where each time he re appeared, blood would start spurting out of one of the black-cloaked men's necks.
A few were lucky enough to raise their weapons fast enough to parry the attack, but even then, a powerful electric current was forced from Daniel's blade into theirs, and fulgurated them.
In no longer than ten seconds from the breaking of the blockade, twelve out the sixteen cultivators had died, while the remaining four, were those lucky enough to be closer to the entrance, and were barely able to escape.
Instead of following them, Daniel let out massive amounts of immortal essence in the restaurant, which he then forced into the bodies of the injured clients.
After closing the spear wound from the chest of one of the injured men, and reattaching the arm of the other, Daniel handed over enough healing pills for all of them to make a complete recovery, and a few perfect crystals to the hall director for the damages.
Then, he nodded with gratitude at the man that had helped him, and after teleported next to Alesia, the two disappeared.
-----
When the two of them reappeared, they were in a different area of the city.
The first thing that Daniel did, was to look at Alesia up and down, and with a slightly worried voice, said "How are you? You're not wounded, right?"
"I'm alright" She said with a sweet voice.. Unable to avoid smiling at how worried the usual serious and witty Daniel she knew, was being for her.
She brushed her palm against Daniel's cheek, calming him down almost immediately, and said "I'm alright.. Come on, let's go back."
Daniel took a deep breath of relief, and after going back to a calm state of mind, he attempted to wave his hand.. But before he could, Alesia stopped him, and said "Let's walk.. It's not that far.."