EV B2 Chapter 45:

I didn't have time to consider it, though. As I watched Astrid spit at the man's feet and receive another backhand that left blood trickling her lip. I had to act without knowing what any of the three guards were capable of or what their leader could do. My incisive gaze had only triggered on the man who had just struck Astrid, and he was level 43, so a straight fight didn't seem like my best bet.

But I couldn't just sit here and watch Astrid be beaten, so I acted without thinking too much. Jumping down, I aimed for the guard farthest away from Astrid. That no one had eyes on, my twin swords plunging into his shoulders on either side of his neck and into his torso. Thankfully, it was only a thud, and he didn't have a chance to scream. But Astrid could see me where the others couldn't, and her look quickly gave me away.

They didn't whip around at the thud, but between her look and the noise, they turned. It was not the worst thing, as my movement skills would work to my advantage here. I flashed forward a copy, staying where I was, and I cloaked myself as I appeared behind Astrid, slicing the ropes with one hand as my blade scythed toward the woman's neck.

I felt part of the rope around her hands. She threw herself forward, still bound at the ankles, toppling the chair as she sprawled, but she managed to half tackle the big leader as he was turned to face away from her. He didn't quite go down, as he was too strong for her even as she caught him in the knees, but he at least stumbled.

I half expected to feel my blade pass through the flesh of the woman, but it bounced off something harder than steel, the metal of the blade vibrating in my hand like I just hit a baseball on an icy day. My eyes glanced over for a second before an explosion seared my side and sent me tumbling through the air.

I narrowly missed the leader that Astrid was working on, gnawing on his hamstrings with her teeth, and tumbled along the floor towards the two remaining goons. I would have liked to have flipped to my feet gracefully, but half my body felt like it was on fire, and the other half now felt like one giant bruise as I pushed myself to my knees.

I had to dive and roll out of the way of a kick aimed at my head. Even as I avoided it, I slashed my sword, and I heard a cry as it bit into the leather of a shoe. The leather, though, was not that of this world. Maybe there was a steel toe. It definitely hurt, but the grip of whatever it was was strong enough that it yanked the blade out of my hand. I was down to one as I rolled to my feet, spinning and almost stumbling as my burned leg felt like it was still on fire as I tried to put weight on it.

I focused for a second, pumping mana into my Fool's Constitution, and I felt the pain fade from my mind. Was it healing up or just numbing? I didn't know, but it let me move. I sprang forward, burning mana to move even faster as I danced forward, slicing once and twice before I ducked under a haymaker and sliced at a hamstring.

One guard was injured, and the other I managed to skip past, whirling. I reached onto my back, grabbed a long spear, and hurled it towards the back of the man now wailing at Astrid as she clung to his knees. Some supernatural sense had him throw an arm out to block, but it wasn't perfectly successful. The blade glanced along his forearm, cutting deep in a spray of blood splashed over him and Astrid, even as the spear was redirected away from his face.

I rolled under what looked to be a fireball coming from the woman who had first blasted me away, and I made sure to roll in the direction of Astrid. I thought about attacking the man, but judging based on everything so far, there's no way we would defeat him. So instead, I got to my feet and dove, grabbing Astrid's chair mid-air, ripping her away from the man and snapping the bindings—or yanking her feet out of the bindings—at the same time as I rolled, holding the chair, and she tumbled across the ground.

Another explosion sent me flying into her, and I barely managed to avoid skewering her with one of the shattered chair legs as we slammed into the warehouse wall. If it was sheet metal, I would imagine we would have made a dent, but as it was, we just bounced off of the stone.1118

I groaned as I used the hand not holding my single remaining sword to push myself off the ground, and I watched as one of the goons was completely uninjured and the other limped with a slashed hamstring toward me—both of which looked pissed. But no, nothing compared to the fury burning in the leader's eyes as he ran towards us.

And I didn't even get a chance to look at the woman mage before a flash of mana covered the entire area. Their approach speed halved and then halved again. A flash of fear echoed in the face of the leader, but the two goons absolutely stopped, looking around nervously. The woman wasn't approaching us, but her spell faltered.

I internally cursed as I knew what was happening. Looking towards the entrance, I saw Alana poking her head and hand into the warehouse, her arm outstretched. Her face was pinched in concentration, and I couldn't help but wonder what the guards outside were doing. I didn't imagine that it had—things were going well.

It took a moment of concentration and wove a quick disguise for Alana, making her look like one of the men who had been patrolling outside—before anyone looked over at her. Her face warped, and when the leader saw her, he barked, "We've got this handled. Keep the patrols."

It was a tiny bit of relief, but I didn't trust that to hold.

Only now, I looked over and saw Astrid had struggled to one knee, and I redoubled my focus on Fool's Constitution, attempting to heal myself. And, as I forced myself the rest of the way up, looking around, I prayed for some sort of exit, even as our enemies were overcoming the debuffs that Alana was casting.

Unfortunately, it appeared that no such aid was coming. I took a shaky step forward and dropped my one sword, fishing out a halberd from my bag. I had been relying on my short swords and slowly pushing them up, as they seemed to be the most effective weapons in many of the scenarios that I found myself in. But it was not my best weapon—not by far. Also, now that I wasn't in a tight situation, whereas fighting against multiple opponents without the speed that my usual stat advantage and skills gave me, as I was out-leveled by at least a few of my opponents, the extra reach of a halberd and potential damage seemed to be worthwhile.

The quick switch gave them a slight bit of pause as each of the men stopped to arm themselves, though the woman was appearing to ready a spell. She'd been interrupted before, but as it was, I could tell we had seconds.

"Astrid!" I shouted internally. If you have anything left, now's the time.

My prayers were answered as an explosion rocked us—rocked me—not from the woman, but from behind. I spun and saw that Astrid had her eyes closed and her hand pressed to the wall. A jagged hole rended from the explosion that seemed to pass by her—but not me and our pursuers.

Taking one look back, I spun and whipped my halberd around in a graceless throw, sending it spinning at the captors. They all ducked or dove out of the way to avoid the clumsy throw, but it gave me enough time to bend over and scoop up Astrid in my arms before ducking through the hole and turning to sprint down the alleyway.

Astrid coughed in my arms, looking up at me before she reached up and patted one cheek and then went limp as her overexertion took hold.