Four men were walking in the forest. One of them was a man who was inhumanly muscular and tall. He carried a small girl on his shoulder whose legs and arms were both tied tightly by a rope. On the left side of the muscular man walked a yellow-haired young man, while a long-haired man walked in his right. Behind those three was a small man with short black hair. But when he started talking, a booming voice came out of his throat:             

“Hey, Kranos. Are we there yet?”

The long-haired man known as Kranos, sighed and growled back at him: 

“It’s a few meters away, Bob. Stay on guard”

“Hey, wanna bet whether the girl’s brother actually brought the cash or not” said the yellow-haired man.

“You sure as hell found the time to come up with that idea. We’re almost there, Ryan. I don’t want any distractions now” said Kranos.

“Oh please, you’re always the one to cower away from a challenge”

“No, I just know when to fool around and when to be serious”

“Oookaaay. Suuure. But let’s be honest here. Boss is always non-serious. He always takes on my gambling challenges”

“That’s cause he is an idiot. Sooner or later his gambling habits are gonna cost his life.” said Kranos with a scorn.   

“Ohhh, you called our boss an idiot?! You are just easy to give ammos of gossip to me.”  

“Yeah, like I’ll be afraid of that pipsqueak. I called him a retard a week ago. He immediately shot Peeta instead of me. Told me that my foal mouth was just too cute to be shot down.” mumbled Kranos.

“Ohhh, I see what’s going on here. You're boss's little fuckboy” said Ryan with a sly smile.  

“Ugh, why did that bastard put you in my team” groaned Kranos. 

It wasn’t long before they could see an illuminated area beyond the thick forest. Upon a closer look, it became clear that they had arrived at their destination. The circular grass field glittered. No trees and woods to block the view. The cloudless crimson sky was shining above them.

Seeing the figure of the four men appearing from the forest, Kenji whispered:

“They are here” 

“Is Gabi there?” asked Diego.

‘Yeah, A tall muscular man is carrying a girl on their back”.

The team looked at the four men with bulging eyes. The kidnappers acted rather casual despite their mischievous wrongdoings.  After arriving at the center of the canvas, they put the tied-up girl on the ground and lazily observed their surroundings. Kenji and Mikhail was seeing and beaming their every move until Diego’s patience ran out. 

“Alright, I’ll go” he said. 

Dozens of eyes rolled towards one another. But there was no objection.    

“Be careful” said Mikhail.

Diego crawled back into the woods, then reappeared from its depth from a different direction. A way to disguise the location of his teammates. He walked towards the suspicious men with caution. The four of them eyed and observed his every moment. As Diego got closer, he could very well see that the girl on the ground was indeed Gabi. Her mouth was tied shut by the tape, her clothes were tainted with blue blood. She looked helplessly towards her brother with her dark eyes.

Kranos stretched his arm, showed his palm at Diego, signaling him to stop. Diego froze in his position. Sweat trickled down his chin and throat.   

“Get closer than that and your sister is done for. Her HP isn’t particularly high”.

Diego gritted his teeth and stepped a few steps back. Kranos looked at him sharply and yelled: 

“Put the gold on the ground and move away”.

He did as he was told. And he didn’t necessarily mind it. Considering that backing away meant that he would be much closer to his comrades. When he backed away considerably, the four men advanced and arrived in front of the three boxes. Kranos grabbed them off the ground and examined them with delight.

“I see. It is exactly 3000 gold. The exact amount we had demanded” said Kranos with a grin.  

“I’m a man of my word”

“Yes, yes. I can see that. Unfortunately, we aren’t like you”

Diego’s eyes widened and Gabi screamed from behind her taped mouth. The muscular man sprinted towards him. Diego quickly pulled out a dagger from his bag. But when the muscular man leaped into the air and did a devastating hurricane kick, he could do nothing but block it with his arms. The blow had such force behind it, that he was thrown to his left and rolled on the ground. The man jumped high into the air and stuck his two feet together for a raging stomp but Diego swiftly rolled out of the way and the man hit nothing but grass and earth.

Seeing how his friend was ruthlessly attacked, Bold sprang up to his feet. His fingers danced on his wristboard and he summoned his horse in an instant. The others seeing and agreeing with his actions, immediately jumped out of the bush and charged. Bold jumped unto to the horse and rode after everyone. He easily went past all of them and galloped towards Diego. Seeing the sudden reinforcements, Kranos bit his lips and yelled angrily towards Diego: 

“You lied about being alone, didn’t you? Well, say goodbye to your sister”

“No, please. DONT!”

When Bold speeded towards the four men on top of his horse, he saw Diego yelling towards him to stop and he pulled the reins of his horse.

“Bold, everyone. Just stop”

Diego turned around to face Kranos with a desperate face.

“What do you want from us? I gave you 3000 gold as promised. If you want more, just ask. In return,  give me my sister back”.

“Sorry, can’t do”

“What?!”

“Your sister. She is special. Boss said that we’ll have to keep her until we get the soul gem out of her. The money I got from you. It’s nothing but a price that you’ll have to pay us for maintaining her. But trust me. Even if boss ordered us to safeguard this girl, I won’t hesitate to kill her any moment if you piss me off”.

Diego went through his memories. In an instant, he remembered what the soul gem he was referring to was. 

“T-then. You never planned to-“ stuttered Diego.  

“Haha. Yes. Why did you think we would give our prey so easily to you” said Kranos with a giggle.

Bold heard enough from the man. Rage burned inside his whole being and he burst out:

“Damn you bastards! Do you enjoy playing with other people's lives? Do you know how much he had to strive to get his sister back from your dirty clutches?”

“Bold…shut up”

“But Diego, you-“

“SHUT UP”

He looked towards Kranos’s tormenting eyes and sighed.

“Fine, you can take her away” 

“What? You got to be kidding” yelled Thompson from behind Bold.

“I have no choice. If I don’t do as they say then they will-“

Diego felt it needless to finish his sentence and turned his gaze back at the four men.

“I’ll just ask you one last request”.

“What is it?” asked Ryan sarcastically.

“Every day, when I went to work, away from her. I would always give Gabi a kiss on the cheek. Could I, one last time, give her a kiss, on the cheek?”

Diego’s eyes were honest and sure. Kranos’s hardened face showed a bit of sympathy for the man. He glanced towards his fellow members to see that their face did not suggest any denial.

“Alright. I’ll allow it. But pull something funny and you and your sister are dead”.

Diego gulped his saliva back into his throat and pranced forward. Passing Kranos, he arrived in front of Gabi whose body was locked tight behind the muscular man’s tight arms. Diego gently smiled and caressed her chin slowly and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek and watched her fear-stricken face and teary eyes closely.
 
“Sorry, Gabi. Looks like this is goodbye”