SIS Book 1 Chapter 54: Fear and Danger [First Draft]

[AN: I don't have to proofread this one, so please forgive any errors you find.]

"A distraction would be helpful right now, Mr Richie!" Lyle shouted into his comm when he was mere feet away from the Barbarians. Naturally, although he was very confident in Daz's abilities, Lyle knew that he wasn't the most athletic person around, so dodging any blows dealt out by these men would be extraordinarily hard for him to dodge or deflect.

What followed, was a loud gunshot and the Barbarian to the far right of Lyle collapsed with a puddle of blood gushing out of his head. In the quick moment of confusion amongst the nine other Barbarians, Sarah cast her new and fairly weak skill, Basic Entwine.

Now, despite its weakness, it actually looked fairly grand as vines spouted out of the cracks in the concrete to wrap around the Barbarian's leg who was right in front of Lyle. Due to the unexpected resistance on his next step, the muscular man fell over. While uninjured, this added to the confusion and gave Lyle the perfect opportunity to inject the Barbarian who had just torn off Sarah's bindings.

After doing so, Lyle stepped back. At this point, Dorian had caught up with Lyle and was now standing next to him with a worried and clearly fearful expression.

"Your gun's got more bullets than that, doesn't it, Mr Richie?" Lyle asked in a slightly expectant manner. 'I must get in shape. There I was, thinking I'd be able to kill one-hundred of these buggers, but just look at me. I'm covered in sweat and exhausted after nothing more than a little run...' he thought as he noted his current physical condition.

"Of course it does, Mr Middleton. But I'm not a master marksman, aiming takes time," Ger replied somewhat impatiently before another shot rang through the air, startling Dorian, making him jump a little bit.

It looked like although Ger had his a barbarian, he was slightly off with his angle, so instead of hitting the man's head, he had accidentally lodged the bullet into the Barbarian's bicep, essentially crippling the muscled arm. 

"Please don't rush me, Mr Middleton, shooting requires concentration," Ger admonished his former employer over the comm. At this point, the Barbarians were now swinging their weapons towards Dorian and Lyle.

Lyle quickly slipped behind Dorian and he said, "I have faith in you, Dorian. Now's the time to show me what you're capable of."

Dorian, while still shaking slightly, nodded his head and pushed his regular umbrella outwards and clicked the small button on its shaft, unfurling the cloth that was designed to shield from the elements. "Cloth Bulwark!" he exclaimed.

Immediately afterwards, the fabric that made up the umbrella's canopy, expanding outwards from its rim. It grew in size to be four meters wide and it looked like a very weak bubble of sorts. This was one of the skills that Dorian had obtained from his class, Brolly Blocker.

Cloth Bulwark [C-Rank (Lower Tier)]

Description

A skill that is exceedingly rare across all worlds due to its very subjective usage. It allows the user to very briefly defend from attacks that are coming from their front and sides.

Abilities

Absorbs damage from all attacks received in exchange for twice the amount of damage dealt being removed from the item used's durability.

Dorian grit his teeth and closed his eyes in fear. He could hear a tearing sound, and in his slightly panicked state, he dropped his umbrella and turned around to run. "AHH!" he screamed as an axe cut his left arm clean off.

Lyle's face visibly dropped at this, so he hurriedly rushed around Dorian's side, and injected another portion of his cyanide concoction in the closest Barbarian's arm. "Hurry, Ger! Empty your gun's clip! Now! I need a distraction!" Lyle yelled into his comm. He was so flustered that he had actually used the wrong wording for Ger's gun, but he cared little since he was in a stressful situation.

Ger didn't respond verbally and simply did as told, and emptied his revolver into the crowd of seven Barbarians. He had already used two bullets earlier, so his gun's chamber only had four left.

One successfully struck a Barbarian in the head. Another penetrated the chest of one while the third hit an arm, forcing the man, whose arm had been injured, to drop his rusty sword.

Ger hadn't seen where the fourth bullet had hit, so he assumed it had missed completely. "Lyle! Get out of there as quickly as you can! I only killed two of them! Are you two okay?!"

"We're fine. Hurry up and reload! They're only going to stay confused for a few seconds at most!" Lyle shouted and he tried his best to move away from the five remaining Barbarians.

Suddenly, Sarah could be heard over the comm saying, "I'll boost you to make you move faster! Oh, Gaia! Ascolta la mia richiesta è concedi loro la tua benedizione della velocità!"

"It's only a boost of five percent, but hopefully it helps. Please, Mr Liddleton, run!" Sarah said emotionally from over the comm. 

Lyle immediately felt himself grow ever-so-slightly faster as an exceedingly light film of green light covered both him and the heavily bleeding Dorian. "Thank you, Sarah, it helps," he replied with kindness and in a slightly more calm voice than earlier. 

He received no reply, so Lyle assumed Sarah was chanting some other spell to help them. At this point, Lyle had hobbled roughly twenty feet away from the five Barbarians with Dorian slumped on Lyle's side.

Dorian was crying and clutching his stump of a shoulder as he tried to not lose consciousness or scream too loudly. "Come on, Dorian. I need you to hold it together," Lyle said in a slightly rough and agitated manner, unlike his usual formal demeanour.

He took a quick second to take out his Antique Syringe and stabbed Dorian with it, forcing his blood into the crippled man's system. Dorian's face gained a slight tinge of life to it and his gushing wound scabbed over on the edges but it was still open and bleeding profusely in the centre.

"Tch, need another vial?" Lyle mumbled to himself as he tried his best to be fast. The Barbarians had gained their bearings by this point, so Lyle quickly stabbed himself with the needle after using another one of his skills, Syringe Disinfection, which was as boring as it sounded. it did nothing more than disinfect any Syringe he wanted in exchange for ten stamina.

After filling the syringe's vial up, he injected Dorian again, closing his wound. Lyle was thankful that he could use his Blood Transfusion skill on the same person twice a day. Now that Dorian's life was in no danger, Lyle sat him on the floor and prepared himself to fight the five Barbarians.

'I can't believe how much of struggle only ten of these barbarians are for us...relying on Dorian was a mistake. It's time to make up for this disgrace to my Lord,' Lyle though as a cold look washed over his eyes and he entered a simple fighting stance.