I Can Contract Beauties-Chapter 58: Surrender

The moment the silver grade summoning crystal was revealed, Erika and the others immediately lost hope. Seeing how coordinated the bandits were, she knew that there was no doubt that the leader would be able to summon the contracted beast successfully.

Hence, without hesitation, she abandoned the thought of fighting back, and took a paper cylinder out of her pockets.

Using the Flaming Skull’s fire, she lit up the strand of cloth connected at the end of the paper cylinder and immediately tossed it above her head with all her might. The paper cylinder lit up with a whistle as it traveled even further above.

A moment later, a minor explosion ensued as a red symbol appeared in the air- a bow and arrow pointed upwards surrounded by blazing flames.

The Red Family’s symbol appeared in the sky. It should be visible even from afar. Mercenaries who saw these markings, would immediately return to nearby cities and report what they saw for the reward that they would receive.

When the bandits saw her actions, they immediately realized what she was about to do. However, even if they knew, they did not try to stop her as they knew that they could not do anything to her either.

Their faces were ugly as they knew that they were in a dire situation as well. They were now pressed on time and were no longer as nonchalant as before. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

On the other hand, when Miguel saw the silver grade summoning crystal, he immediately knew that this was the source of their confidence in defeating Erika.

He was about to summon Aaliyah even if it exposes her to resolve the situation, however, he immediately stopped when he saw Erika’s action.

Aaliyah was one of his deepest secrets. If there was another way, he would always make sure that she would not be exposed. She was his last resort and trump card.

When he saw Erika’s actions and saw through her intentions, Miguel immediately refrained from summoning Aaliyah and decided to observe the situation first.

At the same moment the symbol appeared in mid-air, Erika immediately raised her hands and said, "Alright, we gave up."

She smiled and said it nonchalantly. However, Miguel knew that she was only showing an act. Her face may have looked normal and calm, yet he knew for a fact that she was extremely nervous and afraid at this moment.

The same could be said to the other young summoners. Even Murphy, who was already quite old compared to the others also looked at the dire situation while gritting his teeth in anger and frustration.

"Stop fighting back. We can’t win!" Erika stated as she unsummoned the Flaming Skull and her Bronze Grade Grimoire, indicating her surrender.

Gasper gritted his teeth, still unwilling to give up. This was his cousin that they were talking about.

Just as he was about to attack once more, a hand suddenly patted his shoulder lightly.

When he turned around, he realized that it was Miguel who did so.

Miguel shook his head and looked at the disappearing symbol in the sky.

With Erika’s surrender, the others also give up fighting back.

The next moment, the contracted summon of the leader emerged before everyone’s eyes. It was a humongous mammoth with two long sharp tusks protruding out of its mouth. The ground trembled as it let out an ear deafening roar. It was pretty violent and immediately stomped the ground the moment it appeared.

Fear surfaced in everyone’s face as they saw the mammoth for the first time. It was fortunate that Erika decided to give up, else, if they fought such a creature, there was no doubt that they would lose their life in a few breaths.

The leader was exhausted from summoning the mammoth. However, a triumphant and proud grin surfaced on his face upon seeing everyone’s reaction. He has a reason to be proud. A mammoth of this grade and size was already considered top notch manpower in the Blazing Expanse. Without those Golden King Beast, who would be able to stop him from wreaking havoc and ruling over this place?

Erika’s action of sending the signal out indeed made him irritated and frustrated a little bit.

"Hmmp! Do you think sending those signal flares would deter us from capturing you? We planned on informing them about your capture anyway, so you just saved us some trouble," he stated with a grin.

However, since he could no longer do anything about it now, they could only improvise.

With the signal being sent, it was only a matter of time before mercenaries, or even Red Family member’s flock to this area.

He gestured for his men to capture everyone, take their weapons and armors and lock them inside the carriage. The other mercenary also began to dislodge the carriage from the Wind Horses. The Wind Horses were rented but since there was no need to return them, they gladly took them with them.

Only two carriages remained out of the eight.

Even though the bandit said that they would inform the public of Erika’s capture anyways, they knew that they must still retreat from his place as soon as possible.

They were pressed on time and taking all the carriages would delay them even more. Two carriage that can carry the captive was enough.

"Let’s set off!" The leader stated as he rode his mammoth at the front of the bandits, leading the way.

As a silver grade beast, the mammoth also has a deterrence that can make the low leveled beasts they encounter move away. Even if some clueless beast remained on its path, the mammoth could just stomped them to death as well.

Due to obvious reasons, they did not take the public road and even swerved from time to time to confuse whoever was tailing behind them.

Seeing how they could always make a turn without hesitation, Miguel knew that they had already planned the retreat route in advance. This bandit group had truly made a lot of preparations.

It made him wonder what was their real motivation for kidnapping Erika. Whatever it was, he knew that it was pretty deep.

...

On the other hand, at the area where Erika lit up the signal flare of the Red Family earlier, a flock of mercenaries suddenly arrived one after the other.

Seeing the trace of battle on the ground and the remaining carriages that carried the Red Family’s symbol, everyone immediately looked at each other with a smile on their face.

Without the need to say any words, everyone knew that they had struck and found gold this time around.

Reporting this to the Red Family would surely gain them bountiful rewards. The Red Family were the Red Family for a reason at all.

They value each family member, even how trashy they were, how much more if they showed certain talents in some aspects.

Without wasting any more time, the mercenaries coordinated with each other. Some went back to the nearest city, the Red Cliff City to report. Some destroyed the evidence to avoid letting the others report the same information as them while the remaining mercenaries followed the trails left behind by the bandits to gain even more information that they could sell to the Red Family.