Five minutes later, Garrett returned to the room pooled with sweat.
“Ms. Nicholson, you were right. Most of our men were poisoned. Thankfully, you gave us a bottle of Curax. Otherwise, we’d be in deep trouble.”
“Nobody died, right?” Grace asked.
“There’s a few people that were severely injured and couldn’t move. However, it’s not life-threatening,” Garrett answered.
“That’s good.” Grace let out a sigh of relief.
There was a hint of anger in her eyes.
Grace never provoked anyone, but she was not one to let things slide, either. The culprit had used such a sinister way to harm them. There was no way she could let it go.
“Captain Wilder, pick a few subordinates to investigate who’s behind this. Let me know once you find something,” Grace ordered.
“Yes!” Garrett answered before going out the door. His Black Scorpion Squad members were also poisoned, so he was similarly furious.
“Ms. Linsor, something bad has happened! The village chief is in danger!” Osley, Grace’s private butler, exclaimed as he hurried inside.
“What happened?” Grace raised an eyebrow.
“The village chief called me just now to take the camel and pay the balance. However, his house was a mess when I got there, with many people injured or dead.
“I’m not sure what happened to Ryan. He suddenly went berserk and killed anyone in his way. He was so fierce that nobody could stop him,” Osley explained anxiously.
“How could this happen? Wasn’t Ryan just fine a while ago?” Grace furrowed her brow.
“I’m not sure what exactly happened, either. However, all of the village’s forces have been informed of this matter,” Osley replied.
“Let’s go and take a look!” Grace led them out the door after a brief contemplation. A few hundred armed young men were surrounding a man with messy hair in the village center.
The man’s eyes were bloodshot, and veins were bulging on his face. His muscles swelled, making him seem like a crazy beast.
The man was no other than Ryan from Arcane Path Guild. However, he was no longer as sickly as before. He was now energetic and powerful, not to mention he had completely lost his mind.
He would tear anyone’s limbs apart if they got close to him. In just a few minutes, multiple corpses lay on his feet, blood staining the ground.
“Die! I want all of you to die!” Ryan roared, mirroring that of a beast.
At one point, a black line appeared on his body. The lines were like earthworms and looked extremely strange. It started from Ryan’s chest and kept spreading.
Ryan’s skin and bories would be strengthened tremendously wherever the black limes touched.
Nobody there was able to stop him.
“Quick! Tie him up now!” Kayson was ordering the village’s young men.
Those young men were all part of the envoy team he formed, specially trained by skilled teachers. They were a team of elites that could deal with bandits effortlessly.
However, they were not a match against Ryan. Almost ten of their men had been killed.
“Use the golden net!”
The head of the envoy team immediately ordered someone to get a golden net. Then, they hurled it toward Ryan.
“Monsters! You monsters! I want to kill all of you!”
After being trapped in the net, Ryan was struggling wildly. He was pulling several people forward because of how powerful he was.
“Quick! Let’s all try to stop him!”
With Kayson’s order, a few hundred people pounced on Ryan and grabbed the net. They were all trying to stop him. Some even took out wooden stakes and nailed the net to the ground.
Ryan let out inhumane roars.
With the help of the sturdy golden net and the efforts of over 100 people, they finally managed to trap Ryan temporarily.
“That was close!” Kayson let out a sigh of relief. Beads of sweat had covered his forehead.
In his frenzy, Ryan’s strength had increased. It made him extremely hard to deal with. If they didn’t have the golden net, they might not be able to capture him.
“Mr. Zaeske, what happened?” Grace and the others finally arrived.
“Ms. Linsor, you came here just in time. I don’t know what happened to Ryan. He suddenly went berserk and hurt several of our men.
“If we weren’t well trained and armed, we probably wouldn’t be able to control him,” Kayson immediately replied after wiping the sweat off his forehead.
“Why did he become like this?” Grace furrowed her brow as he looked at Ryan. Ryan’s eyes were bloodshot as he remained trapped inside the net. He bared his teeth and wore an unusual ferocious expression.
His huge and muscular body caused him to look completely different than before. If Ryan was about 5.5 feet before, he was about 6.5 feet now!
His muscles bulged, and black lines covered his skin. Some of his body parts even grew scales, causing him to look like a monster.1
“Could it be that he got poisoned before?” Kayson tried asking.
Dustin immediately shut that idea. “I don’t think so. I healed Ryan myself. I’ve also cleared up all the poison in his body. Thus, there shouldn’t be any side effects.”
Kayson furrowed his brow and asked thoughtfully, “That’s weird. How could he suddenly go berserk?”
“Mr. Zaeske, did Ryan act unusually after we left?” Grace suddenly asked.
“Unusually?” After thinking for a moment, Kayson shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
He continued, “After you guys left. Ryan went back to his room and slept. Nothing strange happened during that time. We only found out that he had gone berserk when I ordered someone to send him food an hour ago.”
“Dustin, what do you think?” Grace looked at him.
“Ryan’s body has undergone changes that caused him to be more powerful. However, this kind of enhancement is lethal. If this continues, Ryan’s body might blow up, and he’d die,” Dustin said grimly.
Although Dustin had read many ancient medical books, he had never encountered a case like Ryan’s.
“Oh no! The golden wire is about to break!” someone shouted from the crowd.