Vol.2 Ch.39 - Let's dance!

“Crap!” I spit at the situation in front of me, “They did us in, to think that halfof the guests here were Neo Urbana gang members! I gotta find the otherGenerals, and quick!”I quickly unsheathed my sword from its scabbard. Escalating the situationeven further, I chose to yell out to the attackers and provoke them into makingthe first move, as my specialty lied in parrying. The first person ran up to mewith a blade of his own, after him came a bulky fellow wielding a giantmace. The next two hoodlums then took me by surprise and grabbed both ofmy arms, restraining me. Their buddy was now running to stab me straight inthe chest with his knife…!*smash!*I opened my eyes upon realizing I felt no such stab, and saw an amazing sightin front of me.Adam Grys was holding a broken vase, which he used to bash the attackerwith the knife. I used the chance he’d given me and quickly threw the twohoodlums over my back, thus smashing them to the ground. Adam wasseriously having fun here, I thought as I noticed him laughing maniacally,screaming “My parents will never believe me when I tell them this story!”I guess bragging to your parents is a thing everyone does, be they Nobles orCommoners. In any case, his heroic moment was almost abruptly stoppedwhen a gang member tried to strike him with his sword from behind. Iquickly had to step in and save him (he expressed his gratitude beforepicking up the attacker’s weapon from him).This is when Liebert quickly shouted at his troops Don’t hurt any of theNobles, you idiots! Which gave me an idea…“Yo, Adam!” I stopped to ask him for consent on the matter, “How would youreact if I used you as a human meat-shield?”“Huh? WHOA-!!!” He didn’t really have time to answer back, but I didn’treally have time to wait around, so I just picked him up by the shoulders.I did ask for his consent, didn’t I?“What are they doing?!” Liebert said, mocking the two goofs who weren’ttaking the ambush seriously at all. “Attack them!” He ordered his troops.“But boss,” a grunt answered back, “you said not to harm the Nobles!”As Liebert fumed with anger after realizing we outsmarted him, we quicklymade our way through the room, and if anyone dared attack us, I’d just knockthem over with Adam, the Brotector! (pun intended)My friends were quite literally spaced out with everyone on a differentcorner, so I had to act fast! The closest person to me was Cecily, so I mademy way to her.“Lune?” she said, questioning why I was holding a noble like a shield.“Adam! Have you met my dear Cecily?” I stopped to introduce them.“Oh, so you’re the lovely Madame I’ve heard so much about, congratulationson the baby!” he shook her hand.She didn’t have time to chat, instead asking what we’re gonna do with thesituation laid out in front of us.“Don’t you know?” I asked rhetorically, “The people here are knights, theydon’t fight dirty!”She looked at me quizzically for a second before a smile erupted from herface when she realized what I was getting at. Indeed, one thing I noticedwhilst fending the gang members’ attacks was that they all used the sameattack pattern my father used when he taught me swordsmanship. They didn’tuse the terrain around them, which was to be our main win condition!Cecily whipped out her trusty knife before wreaking havoc upon theballroom, practically dancing around it as she made cut after cut, leading theenemy’s numbers to dwindle in a flash. She would toss the curtains over abunch of them, before knocking another fellow off the balcony with a swiftkick. The dress she wore made her movements a bit duller than how I knewthem, but they were still overkill for these suckers. Within minutes of herjoining the fight, almost 50 of their men were rendered useless, and she wasbarely breaking a sweat!“Whew!” She sighed as she wiped a bit of sweat off her forehead, “Thatreally limbered me up, my body really needed this, I didn’t visit the gymsince we left Bilgam!”Adam was quite shocked by her ability to fight, even asking her to tutor himwhen this whole situation is dealt with, but she mentioned she didn’t have thetime for it as she has Nelly to take care of. He was a bit bummed, but was atleast glad he got to help.“Well, I see you’ve got the situation under control, I’ll be on my way now-!”“Hold it, where does my shield think he’s going?” I said as I grabbed hisshoulders with an iron clench, disabling his ability to flee. He gulped beforesurrendering to his fate as our most prized asset.“Listen, everyone!” Liebert spoke up again, “I know I said the Nobles shouldstay neutral, but if anyone manages to kill or subdue our dear guests here, Iwill grant you a large share of the gang! Remember, even 1% ownership ofNeo Urbana is enough to secure you a comfy life, so think wisely on whoseside you're choosing!”Looks like the stakes were raised, do you really want us that bad, Berty? Iknow it was obvious, but I still asked Adam if he was going to backstab us ornot, just in case.“Never!” He yelped, “You’d destroy me in a second!”“A millisecond.” Cecily corrected him, leading to him gulping in fear.“A-Apart from that,” he continued, “I’d never even dream of harming afellow intellectual such as yourself.”A sudden praise! Stop it, Adam, I already have Cecily! All jokes asidethough, it was nice to hear Adam is staying on our side, as he’s become quiteindispensable due to his ranking. Apart from that, he is sword-certified, sothe less people we need to deal with, the better.Making our way to the next person, we saw Ed, who was having quite thetrouble against the masses. C’mon guys, the poor fella’s still a bit down inthe dumps and you gang up on him? Not very chivalrous of you, I’ll tellyou that much…“Grim! Cecily! For Gods’ sakes, help!” he screamed out as he was barelysurfing the waves of the masses, jumping from one guys back to the other,somehow managing to stay afloat.“How are you this good at evading attacks?” Cecily stopped to ask. "Youwere like this even back during our fight against TBL in The Depot!"“Ugh, Grim used to chase me around with his wooden sword while he wasstill training under his father, so I grew used to it…” He said, making meremember a rowdier time in my life.“Jeez, don’t make it sound so bad! Didn’t I tell you it’d be useful in thefuture?” I tried saving myself from Cecily’s judgement.“W-Well, I guess.” He said looking down to the ground, “But I’m anapprentice doctor, not a fighter! It isn’t my place to be here!” He said.“Ed, don’t worry.” I grabbed him by the shoulder, “This guy here is a princehimself, and he’s still useful, right Adam?” I turned to face him as he weaklynodded.“Really?” Ed’s eyes lit up, “Okay then, what can I do?”“Well, Cecily needs a shield…” I said.***“WOOOOOOO! Isn’t this fun, Ed?” Cecily shouted as she held him up, muchlike how I did Adam.“NOT. AT. ALL!!!!” He screamed with all his might as he was used to raminto his enemies. Be they big or small in stature, Cecily wasn’t one todiscriminate, she simply kept on steamrolling them one by one.Before we realized it, we had made it to Jorgen and Max, who were doingtheir best from their own side. To be honest, I’m sure they could beateveryone in the room up without any issues, they were both Gray Iros, andthey had their weapons with them. Well, Jorgen did, but Max on the otherhand…“Mine broke…” he sniffled as he mourned the loss of his trusty blade, whichgot taken from him and snapped like a twig in front of his very eyes. Everyone of the Generals knew how much he loved that thing, so seeing it gonekinda made us a bit sad as well. Not as sad as losing Carter, though… (toosoon?)In any case, that didn’t seem to make him any weaker than he already wasbefore. Strength lied in the person, not the weapon, and he was the perfectexample of that. He rolled up his sleeves before winding up for the hardestsounding punch I’ve ever heard in my lifetime. I was sure I saw him sendthree people flying from just that one punch alone, but he wasn’t done justyet. No, he was only getting started!He swiftly ran up to a gang member before kicking him in the shin,aggravating the gang member to attack. That poor fuck then probably saw hispast life flash before his eyes with how hard he was kicked! The next fella’he ran up to was too scared to even initiate an attack, and who could blamehim? After seeing what this demon did to your friends, you’d be scared too!But instead of unleashing a whole new dimension of pain for the guy, helightly patted his head, giving the gang member false hope that he’ll bespared. But too bad, as when he raised his head, Max shoved both his indexand middle finger into his eyes, making him wince in pain before fallingdown. He was a younger recruit, too… I thought.“Jeez!” Adam commented, “Are all ARA Gang members this scar-err,skilled?”“Well, you can’t uphold peace in a rowdy community such as a gang withoutbeing strong, can you?” Jorgen replied.“Sure as shootin’!” Max continued Jorgen's reply, “If you want to join ourgang, I’m sure you’ll be just as strong! So, whaddya say?”“Uuuh, I’ll pass…” Adam weakly gave his response.Jorgen, on the other hand, was quite angry himself. “And THIS!” he piercedwith his sword, “Is for having SHIT TASTE IN TEA!” He screamed out.“A-ha!” Adam sounded like he figured something out, “I see! ‘TEA’ is a codeword for something!”We didn’t have the heart to tell him that Jorgen was just genuinely mad atthese people for not having good tea here…***Finally making it to Aaron, the team was complete, but the battle wasbasically all but done by now.“How many guys did you get?” Cecily started a competition, “I counted 67knights!”“Damn, I’m 54! So close!” Max felt sad as he revealed his number, “Butthere was that one money-hungry Noble who tried to attack me. He mustcount for something?”“You could hardly call that a threat, Max.” Jorgen said calmly, “If anything,I’d deduce a point for fighting a person not associated with a gang…”“Oh, come on! It’s not like I killed him or anything, and how much did youget, smart guy?” Max said furiously.“I stopped counting after a hundred.” Said Jorgen.“A hundred?!?” I gawked before saying what I had originally wanted to say,“No wait, more importantly, you guys were counting!?! This is a serioussituation!”“Uhm…” Ed raised his hand, “Since I knocked over all those guys on thefloor over there from my evading, that puts me at 101, actually. So it’s myvictory.”We all turned to face him, with some even laughing at him for trying to pullsuch an obvious fast one on us, but sure enough after we had Adam count allthe people lying there, his statement did indeed check out.This motherfucker…“How are you all so goddamned incompetent!?” Said Liebert as he kickedthe fallen gang members who laid on the ground knocked out.“Oh?” We chimed in, “If they’re so incompetent, then we take it you’re abetter match?”He eeped in fear after hearing that. We didn’t plan to kill him of course, buttaking over the whole Neo Urbana Territory now seemed more possible thaneve-!“Watch out!” Max said, pushing all of us out of the way as he took an arrowto the chest.“Max! Shit!” we screamed out, looking around for the person responsible. Itwas a Noble, of all people, a bastard who only wanted money from thebounty Liebert placed on us…! Shit!“Muahahahahha!” Liebert laughed upon witnessing this, “Finally, someonecapable!”“Max? Max! Speak to me! Oh God, he’s out cold!” Jorgen cried out.“I ain’t losing another General, damn it!” Aaron said, quickly trying toimprove Max’s state as he tried his best to do on-field first aid."Here, I'll help!" Ed chimed in, “...I stopped the bleeding! There might be achance he’ll live, guys! ...Guys?” After raising his head to look at us in relief,he realized (just like we did) that we were surrounded by the reinforcementsLiebert had called during the confusion.“Take them to the dungeon!” He said, mocking us as we were escorted to thebasement of their base, “And make sure that that selfless General of theirsdoesn’t wake up any time soon! Heheheh…”It’s checkmate…