A fine line separates courage from stupidity
As I approached the pursuers I could hear a great commotion ahead, about ten men surrounded two figures dressed similarly to ninjas.
As I approached the pursuers I could hear a great commotion ahead, about ten men surrounded two figures dressed similarly to ninjas, while several others passed them by and ran through the alleys in the direction of the south wall; I see, in an attempt to delay their pursuers the survivors had probably started sacrificing themselves to get their leaders to escape.
The two mysterious figures were back to back surrounded by their pursuers, both had a large number of fine cuts in various parts of the body, traces of the fight they had against Toria and his men, the thugs around them didn't look like very strong people but both beastmen looked very weakened, sooner or later they would succumb to the superior numbers of their rivals.
Taking advantage of the fact that the other pursuers had left him behind, I decided to make a play, jump off the roof, and land directly on top of the man who seemed to be the leader of the mob of thugs, the impact he received from above caused his back to bend at an unnatural angle and before he had time to react, he stabbed him in the chest, ending his life, the thugs and the two beastmen were shocked by what happened, take advantage of the confusion and quickly attack the other bullies.
They barely had time to react, he stabbed quickly and accurately, there was no time for anyone to react, then finally the beastmen reacted and taking advantage of the confusion they attacked the other thugs, when the last of them fell both beastmen stood on guard against me but I ignored them and continued in the direction where the other pursuers had gone, leaving the weary beastmen stunned.
I kept running through the alleys guided by the sound of the chase's screams, then the screams changed to sounds of fighting; I came to a large cleared area where fierce fighting was taking place, it was four black-clad shadows against about twenty thugs and eight Raven assassins, one of the shadows was injured on the ground, several of his wounds were visible, while two tried to protect him, a third desperately tried to help the wounded man.
It was a very bad situation, from the way they acted it was obvious that the injured was an important person since otherwise, they would have simply abandoned him, there was no time to lose, I threw myself directly at the Ravens, it was a frontal charge, as they were concentrated trying to overcome the shadows they did not notice my presence until I got very close, I threw four throwing knives at two Ravens, I had charged them with magic at the moment of throwing them, I had planned to make an eye-catching entrance to draw as much attention to myself as possible.
The runes charged with electrical magic activated when the knives dug into the targets, the night lit up with two flashes as thousands of volts electrocuted two men, although if they were high-level warriors it would not be enough to kill them, if it would greatly limit their mobility, taking advantage of the confusion he had created, I charged directly against the closest one to quickly finish with the two stabs in the chest, if they are only level two warriors, I can finish them off without any problem.
While one of the Ravens was shouting orders to the thugs I was attacked by two other assassins and several of the thugs, to avoid being surrounded I started running while fighting, avoid the attack of the two assassins by rolling to the side, so I was faced with three thugs, with a quick movement I stabbed the first one in the chest and with a turning movement to the left I avoided being impaled in the back by a spear while slaughtering the thug who tried to surprise me; but realizing my strength they became more cautious and stopped attacking in a disorderly manner.
Their leader was good, their subordinates were disciplined and knew how to work as a team, hell I had underestimated them, these guys were totally different from the ones we faced in Aube village, under precise orders from one of the Ravens, I was currently fighting four assassins while the rest of the thugs stalked the two shadows that were still fighting from all angles, the situation had turned bad and suddenly got worse, finally the two shadows gave in to the constant harassment, they were brutally impaled and stabbed with spears and swords.
The two remaining shadows were taken hostage, just when the leader of the Ravens shouting ordered me to surrender an icy and sensual female voice that came in the direction of the alleys paralyzed everyone "that will not work", almost at the same time all the men chorused "Lady Toria" and got down on their knees, the picture was getting worse and worse, Toria the Tamer entered the scene! accompanied by a large escort, "those vermin are not companions of this gentleman" Toria said while she gave me a sharp look, "excuse me my lady but what do you mean" asked the leader of the assassins.
"This gentleman is after the same as us, he saw the opportunity and decided to take it, believe me, I recognize a hunter when I see him", Toria said as she licked her lips, "but my lady he was trying to rescue them!" said the assassin, "you really are stupid! You really think that these vermin are responsible for the attacks we have suffered!, they just don't have the strength and ability to be responsible, obviously the appearance of these vermin has also truncated the plans of this gentleman so he also tries to obtain information from them, he was not fighting to protect his comrades, he was fighting to obtain a source of information!", Toria said an accurate analysis of the situation.
Damn the situation is only getting worse, "now by your strength and ability I deduce that it was you and or some of your companions who killed the pesky Orlan and Tiglish, I must tell you that it was a magnificent job, they did not even leave a single trace, there weren't many traces of a battle either, which means they were either totally surprised or just too strong for them" Toria said as she licked her lips again; for a former adventurer, she does pay attention to detail, he even went to the trouble of investigating what happened to Orlan and Tiglish.
"Now let's see what you can do gentleman if you satisfy me enough I might consider having you as my pet," Toria said coldly and I was surrounded by almost all the men in a large circle, it seems that they had formed a makeshift arena; Toria took a few steps forward accompanied by four of her escorts, heck I was in an extremely dangerous situation, I could just use all my strength to escape, I was sure I could do it, but on the other hand he would hardly have another chance to face Toria face to face even though he was completely unaware of his abilities.
"Don't even think about it, you won't be able to escape!" roared Toria and her four escorts rushed against me, "damn?" I said to myself and rolled to the side to avoid several daggers that had been thrown at me, several cries of pain were heard when they collided with several men who had formed the circle, two of the escorts attacked head-on while two tried to surround me on both flanks, I decided to attack the one on the left flank who seemed the weakest of the four, I threw myself against him which took him by surprise although I managed to partially deflect my thrusts.
However, my reaction left them puzzled as they possibly thought that I would fight only defensively, then with the crack of a whip the four escorts fell back, "interesting! Even if you are at a disadvantage, you don't miss an opportunity to attack!" Toria said that now she had two whips in her hands, they weren't ordinary whips, they were whips of fine mithril strands laboriously braided, the mithril had properties that defied the logic of my previous life, it could be as rigid as the best steel or as flexible as synthetic polymers, it was certainly extraordinary material.
Toria went on the attack, it is really difficult to follow or try to predict the trajectory of the whips, in addition, its attack range is much greater than that of a sword, against whips they are only capable of causing damage in the last third of their length, so once they get out of their optimal distance they are totally useless, so my best option is to find an opening in his defense and close the distance to force close-range combat, the first hit came as a side sweep, I avoided it by rolling to the right, was immediately followed by a downward attack, again I rolled diagonally, to the front and to the left, to close the distance that separated us.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan but nevertheless, I saw Toria make a confident smile, then I felt a sting in my right arm.
