Frederick, Juliet, and everyone else, including their enemies, stared at the bubbles coming from the water. No one had been ready for such a move on Jacob’s part.

“What the fuck!?” the skinny guy screamed, somehow freaked out by the kid’s move.

“Someone go in the water and get him!” their Boss commanded.

Two guys swiftly removed their armor and jumped after Jacob.

Frederick and Juliet exchanged glances before he took a step forward and smiled toward the malicious crowd in front of him.

“Gentlemen, good morning!” he said with a broad smile on his face.

Jacob has told us to stall for time.

His friend had lowered his voice in order not to be heard by these bastards, warned them, and then he had jumped in the water.

Three minutes?

Could they stall for three minutes?

“Good morning?” the skinny guy was taken back by Frederick’s word.

Well, ten seconds were gone. Come on, little idiot, waste more time for me.

He had never been so nervous before, not even when competing in the European cup for skiing. But he also knew that Jacob had never let them down so far, that his choices had always turned out to be right later on. The guy had saved his life not once but two times.

Frederick had never been a particularly loyal person and had always seen himself as a leader, but Jacob had shown him authentic leadership, the one you didn’t need to flaunt.

“Yes, good morning! We are survivors from St. Peter. Monsters attacked us, and we fled that sh*thole! We see that your people are strong and powerful. Can you tell me how you managed such a feat?”

The skinny guy looked toward his boss, who just nodded toward him.

“We weeded out the weaklings and kept just the most useful ones,” the guy said with a leer.

Frederick turned toward some of those warriors and now saw that most of the women had bruises on their faces and bodies, on top of tattered clothes. The environment around St. Peter was still chilly, even though they were in Spring, so they must have been quite cold.

“Seems like a good strategy to me,” Frederick said, trying to hide all his despise.

“Yeah, wise-guy?” the skinny warrior took out an ax from his side and pointed it toward him.

“I’d say that your group looks like a bunch of retards and idiots. But I see that you have a couple of pieces that might interest our boss and us. So what do you say you start with sending that little candy on your side to sit on our boss’s lap?”

“It seems like the most reasonable thing I have ever heard.”

One minute down. Jacob, for fu*k’s sake, hurry up.

Frederick turned toward Juliet and shielded his gaze from their enemies. He winked toward her multiple times so that she would play along.

“Juliet, what do you think. Their boss doesn’t seem like a bad guy, right?”

Juliet was clearly boiling in anger. Frederick didn’t know her that well, but he knew enough to be sure she wanted to rip all these people’s heads off.

She hung her head on her chest and avoided talking.

Right then, the two people who had dived after Jacob emerged and shouted.

“Boss! We have lost the kid. He disappeared!”

For the first time, their boss showed some emotion on his face and stopped looking at Juliet’s body.

“Disappeared? What do you mean disappeared! This is a fuc**ng swimming pool. Where do you think he disappeared?!” the boss slammed his hand on the platform, and the entire room trembled.

Fu*k, that guy’s strong.

“You, little kid, where did your friend go? I saw him saying something before jumping in the water!”

Their boss was now talking to him.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m so rude. My name’s Frederick, sir. Could you tell me yours?”

The man looked genuinely puzzled at such a display of good manners in front of his bloodthirsty fellas.

“Name’s John, kid. Care to tell me where your stupid friend went before I give you the same treatment we gave to those whiny weaklings at the entrance?”

“John? Like the evangelist? Very nice name,” Frederick said before continuing, “our friend is a bit of a lunatic. He likes to scuba dive. He’s basically a fish. I bet he just went to hide after seeing how fearsome you all look.”

Flattery and lies were not Frederick’s bread and butter, but he could put on a show if he needed to. And never had he needed it as much as he had now.

“So, you are telling me that the little idiot is just hiding in water?”

“Well, you know, these changes to our body make it possible to be stronger. They also increase the lung capacity of people. But, you know, Jacob’s a bit nut. Oh, what’s that? Is he coming out?”

He pointed toward some very still water, and everyone stared at it for a good half a minute. Then, right when people were starting to turn his attention to him again, Frederick shouted: “Oh, right there! Right there! I think I see it! But my eyes are not that good, do you people see it!?”

“Boss, I think I saw something!” a couple of people had gotten up, and one of them shouted toward the boss.

Frederick slowly exhaled.

Suggestionable people, fuck. Three minutes are up, Jake. Where the f*ck are you?

Frederick was not sure how long he could keep the circus going.

And as if someone had read his mind, the skinny guy ignored all the commotion and just started jumping from platform to platform until he reached them.

The skinny guy went in front of Juliet and smiled at her, placing the back of the ax to her cheek.

“Oh my, look at this lovely face. This b*tch is lacking in the rack department, but the rest of her body looks lovely!”

Juliet was fuming, but she still did nothing. They had received orders from Jacob, and she was sure that the guy would soon emerge to save them from their predicament.

When the skinny guy leaned forward with a fetid smell coming from his mouth, he said: “I think I need to sample these lips, boss, then I’ll bring her to you.”

Juliet closed her eyes, hoping that such a disgusting act would be as short as possible. However, when nothing came in the next second, she opened her eyes.

“What the f*ck are you doing, kid!” the skinny guy was choking in Frederick’s grip on his neck.

“Oh, nothing, don’t worry about me.”

Frederick was still at the 3rd level of the Cockroach realm in Qi, but his talent was beyond what these people would ever be able to imagine. Talent levels were on a logarithmic scale, in fact.

He snapped the skinny guy's neck and plucked the ax from his dead hands. He handed it out by the handle to Juliet.

“We have to survive until Jacob is back. You’ll need this to tank the big bastard over there. Let’s hope Jake will be back soon, or we are all dead meat.”