Chapter 70

The walls were blown open, and the blast threw me back.

Hitting the wall behind me, I got up as fast as I could and looked at my surroundings to see what was going on.

I could barely see anything due to the plume of debris, but through the haze, I caught glimpses of shadows leaping through the hole blown open by the explosion.

I have to do something because this was Boras’s doing. I don’t know where exactly Clare is, but I must get to her.

Running to the last place I thought she was, I intercepted a man in all-black attire. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew they were my family's black knights, and I had to take him down fast.

Fortunately, due to the plume of debris, visibility is almost nonexistent. I only have a few seconds before it clears, so I'd better take him out quickly.

Grabbing the sword Athrun lent me, I held it by the scabbard and used the guard to hit the back of his head.

As I did that, I heard everyone else starting to fight back.

“Maria, stay behind me.”

Hearing Alex tell Maria to stay behind, I heard Alex clash swords.

It wasn’t just him, but everyone. This was a surprise attack, and everyone who was momentarily stunned started fighting back.

Running to where I thought Clare was, I saw that she wasn’t there. Goddamn it, where is she?

Looking in all directions, I eventually heard Clare scream. Immediately, without time to think, I ran in that direction.

As I ran to Clare, the plume of debris was starting to clear, and after a few steps, I saw that two of my family's black knights were in my way.

You've got to be kidding me.

I stopped immediately because there were two of them, and I doubted a surprise attack would work since things were starting to clear up.

I gritted my teeth because they were getting in the way of me getting to Clare. As I was about to make the first move because I didn’t have time to spare, I saw a golden light glowing on my right, then lightning started to appear, hitting two of my family’s black knights that were in my way.

“Nyx, I got you. Get Ms. Clare.”

I looked at Athrun, by Sarah, who was casting a barrier around her and Alice’s knight.

“Here!”

Sarah raised a free hand at me and cast her support magic on me. I felt her support magic, and my strength immediately started growing.

Running to where the wall had been blown open, I fought and knocked out three more of my family’s black knights.

When I reached the exterior wall, which has a giant hole in it, I didn’t see her.

I look out the hole, desperately looking for Clare. Did they get Clare? Why didn’t they target me?

I continued looking for Clare until I heard my name being called from a distance away. I knew the voice that called my name, and I cursed myself because it was Boras’s voice, the last person I wanted to hear.

“How wonderful, Lady Rita, you’ve finally come to our wonderful party. I was worried you would not show up.”

Boras, who was on the roof of a building on the next street over, had a smile while holding Clare tied up in front of him.

“Lady—”

Before Clare can say anything, Boras places a knife to Clare's throat and covers her mouth, stopping her from speaking.

“Uh-uh, Ms. Clare, quiet now. You don’t want my knife slipping, do you?”

He held the knife pointed at Clare’s throat closer. Slowly and deliberately, the sharp edge of the knife’s blade pressed against Clare’s skin, causing a small amount of blood to start spilling out.

I stare at Boras, rage filling my entire body as he holds Clare’s life in front of me.

“What now…?”

He looked disappointed when I didn’t make any physical expressions when he put a knife to Clare’s neck.

“Oh, I thought that would work. My lady, you really are a heartless master. To think you would not get angry for your one and only loyal servant.”

I remained silent because any reaction I would make would encourage him to continue further. I need to keep a cool head and figure out a plan to get Clare back from Boras.

“If you would excuse us, my lady, we’ll be leaving. Feel free to follow us if you desire.”

Putting away his knife and placing Clare on his shoulder, his hair glowed. Green-colored wind forms around Boras and lifts him and Clare off the roof, toward the roof of another building.

Goddamn it, he is running away.

I quickly look back at everyone; the plume of debris has cleared, and it looks like they are holding their own, plus they have Athrun and Sarah on their side.

I trusted Athrun and Sarah’s strength, which led me to think they could handle it with some time, about a minute or two, but that took too long.

Looking out the hole in the wall and down three floors to the ground, I prepared myself because I was about to do something that I couldn’t do in this life, but not in my past life with my enhanced and augmented body.

“Nyx, what are you doing?”

“They have Clare, Sarah. I’m going after him.”

“Wait, my spell can’t—”

Before Sarah could finish what she was going to say, I jumped because there was no time to waste.

With Sarah’s spell, I could mimic what I could do in my past life. Controlling my descent, I planted my feet on the walls and began running down the building.

Even though I haven't done this in a while, almost tripping a couple of times, I managed to make it work. About a floor off the ground, I reach my hand toward the drainage pipe next to me and plant my feet on the walls to slow my fall.

The soles of my boots experienced a lot of friction, slowing down my descent, but the palm of my left hand did, too.

It burns and hurts like hell, but it was mostly negligible since I could still move it. After all, pain is not a factor in how I fight.

Letting go of the drainage pipe, I jumped up from the wall and landed on the ground.

When my feet touch the ground, I roll to break my fall.

Immediately, when I got up, I started running in the direction where Boras was taking Clare.

This is definitely a trap, but I don’t see any other option but to go along with Boras’s plan.

Looking at my palm, which was burned pretty badly, I should be better prepared for anything. Taking out a health potion, I poured it over my hand and threw the vial away.

It’s a shame that I used a high-grade health potion on an injury like this, but it needed to be done.

Pushing past many people while chasing Boras, I caught a glimpse of him leaping between buildings while Clare was struggling to break free from his shoulder.

I made a turn on the next street over and continued running after him. Then another turn as Boras jumped onto the rooftops of some back alleys.

I entered the back alleys, wondering if we were near their base or the trap he was setting up, and as expected, it was a trap.

Running to a dead end when I made a right turn, a hail of arrows was raining down on me.

Without time to think, I immediately rolled on the ground to dodge all the arrows.

Facing the people who shot at me, who were my family’s black knights perched on the rooftops, I heard the sounds of bows being drawn and arrows being shot to my left.

Moving on instinct again, I jump behind a barrel for cover. Counting them all, there were six in total. Four positioned on the rooftop at the dead end and two on the buildings directly ahead of me.

I debated whether to fight them, make a break for it to continue to chase Boras, or retreat to find an alternative route.

Quickly glancing back, I saw that retreating was no longer an option because a group of my family's black knights, five in total, were behind me, boxing me in.

“My, my, my, what do we have here?”

I turn to that grating voice again to see Boras had a smile on his face with Clare on his shoulder.

“I wonder how my lady would deal with everyone. Try not to act so modest, my lady.”

“You truly are insane.”

Telling Boras that in an ice-cold, emotionless tone, Boras responded back.

“Oh my, Lady Rita, how cold of you.”

He pretended to shiver like he was afraid, but it was nothing more than mockery to get me to react.

Something like that will never get to me, but this situation is very troubling.

However, with Sarah’s support spell, it levels the playing field because I have strength comparable to my past life, meaning I could move in ways I usually couldn’t in this life.

“Well, everyone, shall we begin?”

With that, Boras announces the fight to begin.

Immediately, the Black Knights on the rooftop shot their arrows while the ones behind me, blocking my exit, began running toward me.

Boras was right; I am holding back too much. I need to deal with this situation with less restraint on my abilities.

Without a moment to lose, I ran out of cover.

From being shot at, I could tell that they were very accurate with a bow, but in the end, they were just arrows because, as I was taking a breath, time began to move extremely slowly.

Normally, I could control my perception of time whenever I’m in an extremely fun fight, but this is no time to have fun.

I found an open path through the hail of arrows being rained down on me, which was way easier than dodging bullets in my past life. I took out the sword Athrun lent me, and I cut down and dodged the next wave of arrows, which gave me an opening to deal with them.

I began running up the walls of the back alleys and climbing up with the momentum I built up. Then, when I ran out of momentum, I immediately began jumping from one side of the back alley wall to another.

It helps that my sudden, unexpected action caused them to be stunned for a second or two, but that was not enough for me to climb up to them.

Throwing the sword Athrun lent me at one of my family’s Black Knights on the roof, who was about to shoot me, I then took off my cloak with one hand and threw it up in the air as cover.

The arrows that were shot at me were mostly stopped by my cloak, since I bought it from the 19th floor village, meaning the quality and durability of it were high.

It gave me a couple of extra seconds to climb up, and once I got up, I immediately ran to one of my family’s Black Knights that was the closest to me.

Dashing at him as fast as I could, which was a blur to a normal person, I punched him in the gut, and then I moved to grapple him as he pulled out a dagger.

I dodge the thrust of his dagger and grapple his arm with my upper body, then I jump and headlock his head with my legs.

Dislocating his elbow next, with my almost superhuman strength, allowed me to force him to the ground.

Letting his head hit the rooftop first, which knocked him out, I quickly scanned my surroundings to see bows being pointed at me in all directions, but, more importantly, Boras, who had Clare next to him, was watching me on top of a clock tower in the distance.

They fired their arrows as soon as I got up, but I planned for that.

I grabbed the dagger from the hand of the black knight I had knocked out, and I threw it toward my family’s black knights, who were firing at me.

Once I threw the dagger, I immediately grabbed a bow and several arrows from the black knight that I had just knocked out.

Time moves slowly once again, and I ready an arrow in the bow, then pull on the string.

We all fired our bows at nearly the same time. One arrow grazed my left cheek as I was dodging all the arrows, but my own shot missed its target.

I haven’t used a bow in a while. In addition to not being used to the draw strength, I knew that it was highly likely that I would miss.

However, after firing two more arrows and dodging two more volleys as I was moving toward the sword Athrun gave me, I regained some of my skills of using a bow from my past life and got used to the bow I’m using. So with my next arrow, I manage to hit one of them in the shoulder.

Quickly picking up the sword Athrun lent me, I reloaded the arrows I was holding in my draw hand, and I fired off each arrow, hitting all of them while dodging their arrows.

When I ran out of arrows, I dropped the bow and ran up to each of my family’s black knights and knocked them out.

Boras Perspective

Watching how Rita fought genuinely amazed him. Despite the short time Rita had been on the run, nobody would have even guessed she would be this strong.

He watches as Rita does things he thought were nearly impossible for anyone to do, even for himself, such as running through a hail of arrows without being harmed, not just once, but a couple of times, like it's effortless to do.

Not just that, but when Rita manages to climb up the walls of the back alleys while being shot at, Boras finds it all the more surprising that Rita manages to use a bow and shoot all of the family’s black knights in a five-versus-one situation.

Rita’s father, Lucius Lucendi, sent the very best of the family’s black knights to get her back, and the men who were on the roof, shooting arrows at Rita, were the very best bowmen the Lucendi family has to offer.

No matter how far, how small, or how fast the target was, they almost never missed. With that in mind, the thought of having to kill Rita never came up in anyone's mind because nobody would expect Rita to be this strong despite her lack of magical powers.

That just begs the question: how in the world did Rita get this strong in the first place? Was she always this strong? Or did someone train after her escape, or before that, in secret?

Her moments are too refined to be an amateur, like someone who had fought in countless battles while treating matters of life and death as trivial.

Boras thought these things while watching Rita, and a big, enormous, sinister smile appeared on his face.

Amazing, amazing, amazing, so this is what Lady Rita can do. How much do I need to push her further to make her no longer hold back? Lady Rita has a strange fixation on not taking a person’s life; instead of killing them, she would let them live. Why don’t I fix that?

Boras then turned to Clare, who was struggling on his shoulder.

“My, my, Lady Rita has grown quite strong in the time she has run away. I am giddy with excitement about how I should play with her. Oh, I don’t know… Let's send someone who is a real challenge.”

Hearing that, Clare’s eyes shot right open, causing her to stop her struggling, which deeply amused Boras.

“I knew it.”

With a smile from seeing Clare react in a way he found funny, Boras said.

“It seems that we need a new venue.”

Then, placing his hand on an earpiece on his left ear, Boras spoke.

“You two, if you don’t mind, please come out.”

Two robed figures appeared beside Boras, their black cloaks only slightly masking the glint of metal beneath. Boras told them.

“Introduce yourselves to our Lady.”

In emotionless and lifeless voices, like they were puppets, they both say yes in unison before leaping to where Rita was.

Nyx's perspective

Finishing knocking out the last of my family’s black knights, I turn toward the clock tower, facing where Boras was.

That bastard, I can’t believe I let him take Clare. He’ll certainly have to pay, as would my father and anyone else involved.

He is dangerous, so… I need to disarm him of all his weapons, even his magic. Cutting off his limbs would do just fine.

Looking at the unconscious body of one of my family’s black knights, I was about to grab his bow and quiver since I needed a ranged weapon to fight Boras, because he is up on the clock tower, really high up, and I only had two engraved knives left to throw at him. However, as soon as I was about to grab it, flames started appearing from their bodies, and they burst into flames.

When their bodies started burning and I could smell the scent of burning human flesh, I heard Boras’s voice again.

“Lady Rita, I believe these two are more to your liking.”

Turning to face Boras, I saw that he was waving at me, cheering me on, like a sick, twisted joke.

When I saw the two he was talking about, I cursed at myself because Boras was beginning to jump away with Clare.

Feeling a strange sensation again, like just before the exterior walls of the hospital room exploded open, I sensed and felt something massing toward me, not just one but two, coming from the two people he was sending toward me.