“You can have the ledger, and him for all I care, but let go of my friends first.” Caroline stepped on the almost half dead leader lycan’s chest: “Let go of them, and this doesn’t have to get ugly.”

“Ugly?” the bartender snickered then pointed at the hole on the wall: “Then what do you call this?”

“Collateral damage.” Caroline coughed again, but still keeping her eyes on the bartender and her three henchmen: “Do you want the ledger or not? You can have the ledger, and you can have this entire bar.”

“How uninteresting of you.” the bartender shook her head then laughed out loud: “Aren’t you even a little bit curious what’s on the ledger? ”

“I don’t give a fuck.” Caroline narrowed her eyes at the bartender: “Stop wasting my time.”

“You don’t have any leverage. So you’d better comply.” the man standing beside the bartender said in a cold voice: “Be careful with your attitude. With one order, your friends’ brains will be spilled all over the floor.”

“It’d be a shame if that happens.” the bartender chuckled and said: “I mean, it’d be a bitch to clean everything up, but it will be too bad for you.”

“Okay.” Caroline took a deep breath, took out her flask and took a big gulp: “And do you think you’ll be able to live if you did that? Let’s not forget, I alone did this to your boss. If you didn’t even dare do it yourselves, what makes you think you can survive my wrath, huh? Would you feel this whole thing worthwhile if I am the one who ends up with the ledger and this bar?”

“Oh, I am willing to bet that we’d both like to have a friendly exchange instead of a horrible fight like that.” the bartender sighed and put up a friendly smile: “What do you say?”

“You’ve wasted enough of my time already.” Caroline said: “Let go of my friends, and you can do whatever you want with this man.”

“No.” finally realizing that her charms and hypnotic spells were not taking any effect on Caroline, the bartender’s facial expression changed and gave Caroline a short, cold and decisive answer: “You hand him over first. THEN we will uncuff your friends.”

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“Not gonna happen.” Caroline shook her head, while casually stretching and flexing her right fist behind her back: “You let go of my friends first - I have no use for this fucking ledger.”

“But your friends, who are from the ‘SJPD’ would still like to have this ledger, don’t they?” the bartender said: “Hand him over, NOW! Or I will order my men to shoot!”

Caroline sighed, then slid the leader lycan forward to the bartender and the man beside her with her foot: “Now, you can have him.”

“Now, that’s better.” the bartender stepped on the leader lycan with her feet in a black leather boot and a bright smile on her face, then she nodded at the two henchmen with their hands pointed at Thomas and Detective Kuhn’s heads.

The two men nodded back at the bartender, then laid off their guns and uncuffed Thomas and Detective Kuhn. But the two henchmen immediately pointed their guns at Thomas and Detective Kuhn the moment they were free.

“Thank you, young lady.” the bartender and the other henchman with her also pulled out their guns and pointed at Caroline: “Get out of my bar, now! And don’t try anything funny, or we’ll open fire. These guns are the same grade with the anti-power-wielder weapons issued to agents of the Division. I wouldn’t want to try if the bullets work.”

“Fuck, I am so sorry Caroline.” Thomas walked to Caroline’s side and apologized: “I was caught off guard - these men, they might not be lycans but they’re insanely strong.”

“No worries, this is clearly a trap and we’re all duped.” Caroline shook her head and said to the bartender: “Will you at least give me my weapons back?”

“No.” the henchman standing beside the bartender said: “Your weapons stay.”

Caroline sighed and clenched her fist while staring at the bartender and the three henchmen: “You just have to push it, don’t you?” Then, her lips moved, but did not make any sound. Thomas, on the other hand, moved his hands behind his back and started preparing a spell.

“Give her the weapon.” the bartender said.

“No.” the henchman said: “We can’t. If she has them back we’d be in danger.”

“She’ll honor the deal if we honor ours.” the bartender said to the henchman with a warning tone: “Give, her, back, her, weapons!”

“No!” the henchman still refused.

Caroline raised her left arm at the shield and battle axe stashed behind the counter, and her translucent shield and battle axe instantly broke through the bar counter and shot towards her, throwing the reluctant henchman in the air in the process.

“Thomas!” Caroline caught the shield and axe in her hand, and immediately conjured an energy wall between them and the bartender and her henchmen.

“Bang bang bang bang!” the two still standing henchmen and the bartender opened fire, the bullets were indeed quite powerful, even with its toughness and sturdiness amplified by Caroline’s shield, the energy wall was cracked up and almost completely penetrated by the enchanted bullets.

Thomas clapped his hands in the air, and a ring of flame, light and lightning exploded from his palms. This spell cost Thomas almost all of his power and his power of mind and will, and its power was way beyond he imagined - the ring of various explosive energy blast the bartender and her henchmen away, tore down all the walls of the bar and incinerated almost all the furnitures in the bar.

“Holy shit dude.” Detective Kuhn looked around at the splinters and debris around them with awe: “You should’ve used that earlier.”

“Yeah, well...” Thomas almost fell to the ground, if not for Caroline catching him in time: “This one’s pretty taxing.”

“Here.” Caroline held Thomas up and handed him her flask: “Drink. You did good.”