Alex allowed a flicker of his annoyance to cross his face, ying into the persona that he had built for himself over his tenure in Advent Garden.


    "Are you threatening me?"


    His tone was measured but carried a challenging edge that showed the value of his words. He was effectively putting up a brave front for Caius to see right through – he wanted to appear vulnerable in front of him, while under the guise of resistance.


    Caius chuckled softly in as condescending a tone as his earlierugh. "Threatening? No, my dear Alex, you''ve misunderstood me. I''m merely offering you an opportunity to secure your ce here. This city thrives on the contributions, and your tame would be quite the contribution."


    ''Contribution? Yeah right. You just want to line your own pockets with something valuable, and the fact you revealed you yourself are a tamer was stupid enough.''


    Alex met Caius'' gaze unflinchingly. "From how it looks to me, you mean to say this city thrives on coercion?" He shock back in a firm voice. "If you were that confident and open to the offer, you wouldn''t have had me secretly followed and lured me out here, where there are less prying eyes."


    Caius''s smile faltered for the briefest moment, reced by a glimmer of something much more calcting and devious. The man straightened slightly, with his hands sped behind his back as he regarded Alex with something new in his eyes.


    "You''re bold for a man of your rank… I appreciate that. But boldnesses hand in hand with stupidity."


    The air only grew more tense between them, and Caius''s lightly veiled threats were quickly bing increasingly overt. From the way it seemed, he realised that he''d underestimated Alex''s intelligence — he wasn''t expecting him to be so uncooperative and even see through his lies.


    Caius was clearly trying to test him, gauge how far he could push. The man''s demeanour clearly suggested that he was used to getting what he wanted, but Alex showed no intention whatsoever of ying along.


    A few seconds of an intense staredown passed by as the two men looked at each other face to face, neither of them showing any reaction.


    However it seemed Caius realised that Alex wasn''t willing to sell Brontes no matter what he had on offer, and so he broke out in a sudden guffaw ofughter.


    "Haha! It seems you aren''t willing to cooperate – how about this, I''ll give you onest chance toply, or I''ll kill you right here and now." Caius spoke after hisughter died down. His face turned much more sinister now, as the pretenses were dropped. He no longer had to hide his intentions and malice.


    "I''ll give you credit," Alex said, despite the clear threat against him. "You have a way of dressing up intimidation and coercion as generosity. But let me make one thing clear: you targeted the wrong guy."


    Alex smirked faintly, as he let his own aura – his real aura – leak out. Caius'' brows rose in surprise, as Alex''s full B- rank Variant ss aura pushed outwards and drowned their surrounding area.


    The golden eyes of the veiled figure, who''d been surveilling Alex over thest few days, rose in shock and attempted to make an immediate attack on Alex, realising the threat they were facing.


    ''This is impossible!'' She thought to herself.


    ''His aura clearly gave off that of a C+ Mutant ss! This is just… impossible!''


    No matter what, she couldn''t believe the situation that had suddenly unfolded.


    She herself was a C+ rank, but she was Variant ss, and so originally she had the utmost confidence to overpower and kill Alex if need be.


    But now that the situation had unfolded like this, she had to take the initiative tounch a surprise attack, even if it was against someone clearly overwhelmingly stronger than her. Her confidencey in Caius to deal the real damage to him, as he was her only hope of surviving since they had already gone past the point of no return.


    Caius'' real intentions were already revealed to Alex, and she knew that too. The chances of Alex letting people off who tried to coerce him, and probably kill him afterwards, were slim to none.


    After all, he would have to be aplete idiot to have not realised that yet. Was that not exactly why they chose a ce so remote outside the city? In a ce like this they could do their dirty work and nobody would ever find out.


    But now this situation had backfired on them.


    Nobody would find out if Alex suddenly killed her, before Caius killed him! She couldn''t let herself die in vain like this!


    Meanwhile, Alex didn''t even bat her an eye. He simply kept his gaze on Caius the entire time despite the charging C+ rank running to attack him.


    Caius'' eyes revealed their surprise, but there was also caution hidden underneath. Alex had chosen the most opportune moment to leak his aura.


    It was just a few moments before Alex did that Caius had leaked his own, letting his full A- rank Mutant ss aura put pressure on Alex, to weaken his mind and hopefully give him a better chance of giving in to his demands thanks to the overwhelming difference in strength between the two.


    But his ns had quickly derailed.


    He had been deceived. This wasn''t even a situation he was expecting, especially since he had his subordinate follow him the whole time he was in Advent Garden. At no point did he look suspicious or act outside of his supposed C+ rank power.


    This was exactly what made him so cautious now. Not even he could see through the disguise of Alex''s power, which worried him. Only someone equally, or even more powerful as him could do such a thing, but Alex had only revealed B- rank Variant ss aura?


    Did that mean that even this was yet another fakeout? Was this his real level of power? Caius had no way of knowing.