[The Shop District]

Bodies lay scattered throughout the streets as enemy soldiers wander with swords in hand. Each one ready to kill the moment they spot someone.

I glance back at Lia before looking towards the streets once again.

"Do you see anything?" I ask while keeping my voice down.

"Honestly the streets seem empty, if you don’t count the enemy who attacked," Lia responds quietly.

"We’re going to have to go down there you know," I say with a calm, yet serious tone.

"I figured you’d say that," Lia replies with a sigh afterwards.

With a swift motion I hop down from the building onto the streets, catching the attention of the soldiers almost instantly. Each one looking my direction with their heart beats increasing.

They probably didn’t expect anyone to just hop down from the roofs like I just did. The fear is evident but they will probably overcome it.

I rip my sword out from my sheathe and begin to look around at each one of them.

There’s about four or five of them in front of me at the moment but I also have Lia to help me out here. The fight shouldn’t be too bad with the two of us fighting normal soldiers.

I haven’t had any blood yet though, that might pose a problem if I’m not careful. Still, fighting them without shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

My skill with a sword is plenty to make up for any lack of strength from the hunger.

Thud! Clank!

The sound of Lia’s gear clanking takes my attention for a moment as I realize she is now next to me.

"It was stupid for you two to reveal yourselves!" One of soldiers manages to shout.

"I don’t think that is the case at all," I respond calmly.

Before anyone else can speak, Lia is already swinging her sword down towards one of them.

SLASH!!!!!

Blood spills out from the first soldier as the others watch, fear starting to radiate even more from them. Nonetheless another one decides to rush towards her.

Clang!!! Clang!!!!!

She blocks the attack with ease as I continue to observe for another moment.

Soldiers are supposed to be a lot more trained than a normal human right? If we aren’t counting hunters that is. These guys don’t seem to be holding up too well against an adventurer.

Lia is strong, but I guess I’m a little disappointed in the results of the soldiers. These are the guys who are attacking Ariel right now so they should be quite skilled in their swordsmanship.

Maybe it is just the grunts I’m seeing right now.

SLICE!!!!!

In mere seconds I cut the throat of a soldier that was about to approach Lia from behind.

STUMBLE!

He falls back a few steps as one hand grips his throat, trying to stop the blood from leaking out.

"I didn’t even see him move, how is he that fast...." Another soldier says with panic in his voice.

Swing!

Splat!!!

I got some of the blood off my sword with that swing but now I need to handle the other soldier who is panicking right now. He will alert more soldiers if I just let him run away, plus he is a human after all.

In one swift motion I use my sword to pierce straight through his chest plate, right through the heart.

DRIP. DRIP.

"At least you got a quick death," I say softly while pulling the sword out.

His body falls back onto the floor as I glance around to see how many more soldiers remain. One left that is currently engaged in a battle with Lia.

Clang!!!! Clang!!!!!

Each hit echoes a bit louder as they clash against one another.

I doubt this soldier is enough to handle Lia since the rest were pretty weak... Especially for the front line. Who would think it is a good idea to just send a bunch of grunts to breach the gates?

Hmm. It did work at the end of the day since they are inside with some control over the streets right now.

Remi might not be able to handle the responsibility as a king if he can’t even hold back an attack like this. What do I know? I’ve not held back any attacks yet myself so I should cut him some slack.

SPLURT!!!!

Blood spills out onto the floor as I realize that Lia has finally killed the soldier. She went a bit more overboard then me, stabbing through him multiple times with her sword.

CLANK!! THUD!!!

His body hits the ground and the sound of his armor clanking echoes off of the walls for a moment before going silent.

"You did all the work," I say while sheathing my sword.

She takes a moment to catch her breath.

"I might’ve taken it easy in them, even though I shouldn’t have," Lia replies while hunched over for a few seconds.

"These men are killing without any care for who it is. I wouldn’t think too much about it when they are already monsters," I say while walking away from the mess.

Nothing is really sticking out amongst the shops in this district... Most of them are closed or blocked off. The people aren’t stupid enough to just abandon the life they made here.

Barricades are smart to a certain extent but it definitely does make my job a lot harder. There is no visible signs of Amelia anywhere around here which means she is probably not in this district.

I still think the guard probably decided on bringing her back to the castle since her father is there. It’ll be a lot harder for the attackers to breach the main castle, or so you’d think.

Sigh.

I’m probably wasting my time doing all of this but he is one of us. I don’t think I could let Remi suffer from the fate that humans are trying to impose on him as well. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Death will come to the ones attacking.