“What the hell—”

Shaen did not expect this. He looked in the direction of his archers in astonishment.

He noticed that the archers whom he had hired to stay behind the aqua trees had all disappeared; only one person fully covered in a black cloak was found. The person, half-kneeling on the ground, had several blood-stained crossbows at his feet. All crossbows had been loaded with an arrow in advance. The person threw away the crossbow in his hands and quickly bent down to pick up another one. He then held the crossbow and aimed it in the direction of Shaen and Shaquille, seemingly trying to decide who to shoot first.

This person was definitely not a lizard whom Shaen had hired.

Realizing this, Shaen turned around and ran. This helped the person make up his mind—the person shot the arrow at Shaen, penetrating and taking off Shaen’s right ear—the person then picked up the fifth blood-stained crossbow and aimed at Shaen again. Shaen did not make a sound and attempted to stabilize his footsteps helplessly. He panted and continued to run forward along the dry land, with blood coming out of his missing ear.

“Damn it!” said Shaquille, who stopped paying attention to Shaen and turned to rush towards the archer. “Lazer Bernard—!”

Shaquille sprinted, barely making any sound along the sandy land and approaching Lazer at lightning speed. Lazer threw away his stolen weapon, stood up, and pulled out a sword from his waist. He did not intend to take Shaquille head on; instead, he turned his body sideways to evade Shaquille’s attacks.

“Calm down. I was sent by the Juan family here to pay the ransom,” said Lazer with a smile, leaning away from Shaquille’s tail attacks.

Shaquille had a sturdy and powerful tail with rough, hard scales. Getting hit by it would not have been fun. Lazer took a few steps back, trying to effectively distance himself from Shaquille.

Shaquille stomped heavily, bending down and preparing to sprint at any time. He wiped his chin with one hand and stared at Lazer with a murderous look. “You alone represent the Juan family?”

“Of course.”

“Where’s the money?” Shaquille shrieked. It was difficult to tell if it was out of disappointment or excitement.

“Shaen has it.” Lazer removed his hood, showing his pale face, which made his sneer even more pronounced. The silver blade turned slowly in his hands like running water. “You can use the money that Shaen brought with him to make up for the money that I do not have.”

Shaquille grinned.

“Nonsense, chameleon, I guess you came here to die.”

Shaquille raised up hard with both of his feet, almost in a leaping fashion, and flew towards Lazer. Shaquille slashed his scimitar in mid-air and swung it at Lazer once he landed. The lizard’s natural strength enabled him to not have to absorb the impact of landing before striking. He continued to attack in Lazer’s direction.

Lazer confronted Shaquille a few times but did not plan to keep on fighting. He moved around in circles, using the aqua trees as protection and rushed towards the girl.