I have already decided to put my trust in Joshua ever since I first noticed the threat.
His faith appeared genuine, and with me being the high priest's guest, he would definitely do his utmost to keep me alive.
Thus, instead of trying to escape back into the smithy (which had already closed and locked its doors), or trying to run up the street, I instantly dashed to the carriage, which was standing, motionless, at the side of the road – closer to us than the enemies.
At the same moment, I felt a strange warmth on my left shoulder – a quick glance had revealed the paladin beside me already withdrawing his hand, having bestowed some kind of blessing.
Of course, the gangsters dashed forward as well. The beasts, with their owners letting go of the chains, were obviously faster than the humans.
However, the half-elf, who appeared to be their leader, was even faster than the abominations, seemingly using the same movement technique that Thomas did, making his figure blurry.
‘Good thing I didn't run.’
The short thought was all I had time for before colliding with the wooden face of the carriage, and pressing my body against it, causing it to tremble from the impact.
Joshua caught up just a moment later – at the same time that the enemy leader finished his leap, appearing on the carriage’s roof, his cold, emotionless eyes locked onto me.
“Ha!”
Joshua's hand shone with yellow light, and, without slowing down, he slammed it into the crest at the side of the vehicle.
Whooom
!
I felt a wave of heat pass through me, as a barely visible pulse of shimmering air was emitted from the carriage.
To be precise, it wasn't a pulse, but rather the deployment of some kind of shield, which passed through me without much effect, yet pushed the half-elf off the vehicle, forcing him to land a few meters away with a somersault.
“Rwaargh!”
thud
The first creature collided with the barrier, and was pushed back instantly, with the shield buzzing ever so slightly.
“This will buy us a few minutes.”
As Joshua whispered, the beasts tried to claw and bite at the air without much effect, and the men stopped in their tracks.
“It also sent a signal to the watch. The nearest guard patrol should already be running this way.”
His face, still burning with the same mixture of resolve and just wrath, was now slightly more relaxed, and his tone even.
However, it would seem the enemy leader had already seen something of the sort, as his face, which I could see through two sets of carriage windows, remained unperturbed, and his even tone did not change either.
“Alchemist’s Fire. Use everything you got.”
As if to set an example, he had already reached into his potion case (not unlike my own), taking out a familiar looking concoction. With an inhumanly powerful throw, the glass vial flew at the barrier.
While the defensive mechanism seemed to repel the beasts in a relatively smooth fashion, it was nowhere near smooth enough to prevent the brittle glass vial from shattering, its contents igniting the moment they were engulfed by air.
The liquid fire spread over the sphere's western side, slowly fizzling down, while flowing to the ground by gravity's edict. However, the barrier buzzed and vibrated much more violently than before.
“...damn it!”
Joshua couldn't help but curse in frustration, which was not very paladin-like. However, I wasn't one to judge.
“How long can it hold?”
“At this rate? One more minute, at best.”
While we were talking, the rest of the men, having encircled the vehicle, threw three more concoctions at us, and the leader threw his second one.
It looked as if we were surrounded by a sea of flames, their muffled heat reaching me from behind the deteriorating barrier, one meter away.
The flames slowly flowed down, only to be replaced by a fresh set from three more vials.
“Listen-”
“Does this barrier have any other function?”
Just as the paladin spoke, I had finished formulating a plan of my own.
The paladin looked at me with furrowed brows, but in a split second decision, he came to the conclusion that wasting time would be the costlier choice right now.
“Flare plus knockback. One time use.”
“Great!”
As his description exceeded the best I could hope for, I showed Joshua the contents of my ‘accessory case’ – right now, it contained only a single arcane contraption.
It didn't take more than a second for the paladin to realize my intention.
Meanwhile, the third set of firebombs hit the barrier. It seemed to be the last of their kind, judging by the gangsters who were closing their cases, but the sound from the barrier made it clear it would not last much longer. Perhaps, if we didn't act now, its secondary ability would be lost due to the lack of energy.
Taking one last look around, I locked eyes with the paladin once again, then nodded my head towards the northeastern end of the street.
Without me having to say a word, Joshua nodded in return, his hand glowing with warm yellow light once more.
Wheeeee
For a moment, a sound similar to screeching car brakes pierced the air – before the nearly-transparent barrier around us turned completely white.
Ba-bam
!
I squinted my eyes, expecting the flare to potentially hit the insides as well, but, thankfully, it was only a soft glow, which instantly expanded outwards, pushing the disoriented beasts backwards while the two gang members in front of me jumped back themselves, half-blind as well.
Meanwhile, my body had already taken an intimately familiar stance.
[Charge Thrust] !!
The men were too far, and in the split second I was given to think, I judged the closest one to be able to dodge, even in this state – he was clearly a Path-bearer with 2nd realm Agility.
I didn't waste time evaluating the 2nd man, and simply targeted his abomination, which was slowly descending to the ground after being knocked backwards, and up into the air.
Splat
!
The sturdy scales on the creature's side were no different from tree bark when it came to my Adamantium Arm. With the sound of steel piercing flesh and innards, my thrust went through the diagonally turned beast, from slightly behind its left shoulder to its right hind leg.
“Woowoooo-”
A pitiful whine was all the creature could muster, as its dark-yellow blood burst like a fountain, splashing all over me and filling the air with a rancid smell akin to rotten eggs.
This seemed to be the limit of my surprise attack – while the two men had only just regained their sight, the beast beside me was already lunging at me, relying mostly on its keen sense of smell, and perhaps hearing.
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I was going to raise my sword and point it at the beast, forcing it to stop in its tracks, when suddenly…
There was no sound, save the faintest whistling of air, such that even my senses barely managed to pick up. However, perhaps this subtlety was exactly why I felt an extreme sense of danger.
[Arc Slash] !
On pure instinct, I swung towards the glimmer in my vision – which instantly materialized as two short swords, crossed in a scissor shape, aiming straight for my neck.
Clang
!
Simultaneously, I also twisted my body and leaped backwards, in case the enemy had a way to retract his momentum and sneak past my defense.
This proved excessive, as his attack was clearly an activated skill. Upon colliding with my sword, his weapons did not break, but his forward movement was abruptly stopped, while my backward leap had more than doubled its force.
At the very least, my newfound momentum helped me increase the gap between me and my attackers, especially the beast, who had swiped at the air where I was located half a moment ago.
The half-elf recovered faster than me, and looked like he was going to attack again..
thud
!
..but the best he could do was raise his arms in defense and twist his body while attempting to jump to the side, only to be flung back by the large shield of the charging paladin, who seemingly used a movement-control skill, focused on the defensive arm.
Still, the situation wasn't great.
The creature in front of me didn’t charge forward – as its initial attempt failed, it jumped backwards, awaiting a better opportunity. Perhaps it saw the corpse of its kin, with its scales being pierced with ease.
“You bastard!..”
The two men behind me had recovered, and were about to charge forward.
Finally, one more man - a lean bold man with two forward-curved swords - and his beast just emerged from the other side of the carriage, ready to join the fray.
‘Hope I got this right!..’
Following the instructions of the tinkerer I visited yesterday, whom I obviously asked how to operate it, I pressed my thumb against the Darkness Sphere (or more precisely, its activation ‘needle button’) with force.
While the button went down by a small bit, the thin needle in its middle remained in place, piercing the tip of my finger and letting a drop’s worth of blood flow down onto the crystal.
Fwoom
!
For a moment, I saw what looked like a concentrated cloud of dark mist rapidly expanding from the case on my waist. The next moment, my vision was dyed black.
“Worf!”
Judging by the uneven footsteps of the gang members, the contraption caught the two nearby by surprise yet again. The same could be said for the beasts, albeit to a lesser extent, as one of them had clearly demonstrated its low reliance on vision.
However, the gang member farther away seemed to only slow down for a moment, before advancing in my direction, albeit more cautiously.
As for their leader, whose steps I could barely hear before, I had little doubt in his ability to orient himself even in such darkness.
My first instinct was to use [Charge], and escape in the agreed-upon direction. However…
“Come!”
That would leave my only companion stumbling in the darkness, at the mercy of the beasts beside him.
I quickly made my way closer to the paladin, as both of us rushed towards the northeast – at least, to the best of my senses, this was the right direction.
“Look out!”
At the sound of the scraping claws, I tried to warn Joshua.
Screeee!
By the sound of it, he managed to block the swipe from one of the beasts, while throwing it back with the slam of his shield.
whhh
At that moment, I heard the faint sound of steel piercing the air.
Without hesitation, I swung my sword in a diagonal motion in front of me, while dodging to the side mid-run.
The sword hit nothing but dark mist, as the sound, which was coming from my right, shifted farther to the side. However, a moment later, I heard the soft sound of soles.
“Ugh!..”
I barely contained a gasp of pain as the short sword managed to slash at the back of my right thigh, a place completely unprotected.
Judging by the direction of the cut, the attacker was moving diagonally to me, and must have positioned himself behind me.
‘He’s too fast! Damn it..’
If I continued running normally while he used his movement skill again, there was no way for me to escape.
“Charge!”
Sincerely hoping Joshua could use his own movement skill, I used mine just as I cried out the word.
In an instant, I found myself outside the large sphere of black mist.
Instantly turning my head around, I noticed an internal tear in the sphere, exactly where my sword had passed – although it closed itself an instant later.
Disregarding that, my pursuers have not come out yet, at least in the second that passed since my emergence.
However, I could hear some of their steps through the smoke, as well the scraping of claws. Those claws were scraping over metal – it would appear the beasts focused on the paladin, preventing him from escaping.
I also heard a commotion at the far end of the street – about 400 to 500 meters away from me, a group of armed guards emerged from behind the corner.
I instantly made the swiftest of internal calculations, evaluating three options.
I was pretty certain I wasn't faster than that half-elf, especially with my fresh wound. I could spend the next two seconds drinking a potion – however, instead, I decided on a different course of action.
Between the adrenaline pumping through my veins, and my absolute focus on my hearing, I didn't even feel the stinging pain or slowly rising exhaustion, getting into a stance while focusing on the upcoming footsteps.
“Wait!”
I started to believe the half-elf had taken that Superior Darkvision potion I heard about, as his voice, sounding from about halfway into the fog, was clearly directed at his two comrades, who were a few steps away from exiting the darkness.
One of them, heeding his warning, immediately halted his footsteps. The other, whose footsteps were heavier, hesitated, his steps slowing to a halt over the next two seconds, stopping at the very edge of the darkness.
This was enough for me.
[Charge Thrust] !!!
By my estimates, the one closest to me was the biggest of the two men, so I aimed my sword appropriately.
Crunch
!
The feedback I got was of steel piercing leather and flesh like they were paper, then shuttering bone, likely the center of his ribcage, sending tremors down my arms, and absorbing my remaining momentum.
“Smallfang, go! Claw, leave the paladin to the dogs!”
Without waiting for the half-elf's subordinates to resume their chase, I had already leaped backwards.
I could try to catch the other gangster (probably the one called Smallfang) as he exited the mist, as well, but given the competence of their leader, and the location of his voice, this was likely within his expectations.
Instead, I turned around.
“You!..”
[Charge] !
“Fluffy!.. Bigpaw! You'll pay for this!”
After creating some distance, I began to run, followed by the roaring shouts of one of the criminals, who was furious over the deaths of his beast and comrade.
However, my destination wasn't the group of guards, who were running in this direction, but still hundreds of meters away. Instead…
gulp
I drank the remaining half of my stamina potion, discarding the empty vial.
[Charge] !
Feeling the strain in my calves diminish, only to flare up again with the use of my skill, I turned my head, to see the blurry figure exactly where I stood a moment ago.
However, I was already at my goal. Jumping forward, I turned around mid-air.
The figure did not stop, rapidly following in my steps.
I raised my sword…
Clang
!
Without using any skills, I swung at the half-elf, only to have my swing blocked by the crossed swords. However, he was forced to halt his advance.
[Arc Slash]!
Using the impact from the clash to help pull my sword backwards, I swung again, hoping to at least break one of his weapons, if not to finish this fight outright.
However, rather than meeting the skill head-on, the man skillfully deflected my attack with his short swords, at a good angle, too, distributing the force over both weapons, and also jumping backwards and right (my left), in the direction of the swing.
After this short exchange, I raised my sword in the thrusting stance, ready to to use my ‘half-Skill’ in case the half-elf rushed in again. As for him, he raised his blades once more, looking for an opening.
He would have had a much easier time finding one, too, had I not been standing a few meters into a narrow alley, barely wide enough to fully swing my sword while occupying its center.
“Boss!..”
The man called Smallfang, one with short black hair and a mug only a mother could love, holding a long steel halberd, finally reached the alley’s entrance.
I could already hear the footsteps of the second man close by.
For some reason, a glimmer of anger flickered through the half-elf's eyes at the sound of the man's voice, but his cold, calculating demeanor returned right after.
For a few seconds, we stood, facing each other, locked in a standstill. Meanwhile, the man with the two forward-curved swords (which looked like something ancient Greeks used, to the best of my memory) finally made it to his comrades.
Two of the gangsters stood at each side of the alley, unsure how to proceed, while their leader was rapidly calculating a plan.
The guards, still far away, were nevertheless coming closer by the second – it wouldn't be longer than two minutes until they finally arrived.
Now, the ball was in their court.
I just had to hold on long enough.