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Ryu's POV
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"Knight! Above you!" (Ryu)

I call out in warning towards Knight, but it reaches her too late as a barrel falls from the roof of a building, landing on her head.

Her body seems to wobble for a few moments before falling backwards, unconscious.

At almost the same time, people begin sprouting from the roofs of the buildings that surround the dead end.

An ambush.

My sense of reason seems to crumble in the face of the 15 or so archers that surround us.

Dashing forward, I reach Knight in seconds, shielding her with my body.

"That's noble of you, isn't it?" (R)

"..." (Ryu)

R begins slowly walking towards us, and I see several figures appearing behind him out of nowhere.

"Shadow Keepers?" (Ryu)

"My, I was right. You are a pest. To think you'd know of the Shadow Keepers. The only assassin and bodyguard group that don't have ties with the Royal Family. The renowned Shadow Keepers." (R)

"Hah, renowned." (Ryu)

"You don't believe me? Well, I suppose normal people wouldn't know of them. After all, they are mighty expensive, and extremely deadly. Not a single person has escaped from them, you know?" (R)

"That's a nice fairy tale." (Ryu)

Despite the conversation I'm having, my eyes are darting around everywhere, looking for a way to escape this situation.

"Panicked, are we?" (R)

"Who wouldn't be?" (Ryu)

"I suppose that's true." (R)

Turning his back to me, R raises his hand high above his head.

"Don't get in our way." (R)

Time seems to slow as his hand falls, a sign for the archers to release their arrows.

I reach over my shoulder for my sword.

Easing into a stance, I see the arrows flying towards me, too many to keep track of.

Seeing an arrow almost reach me, I bring my sword down onto it, slicing it in half, before swinging again towards another.

I can see them.

I can react to them.

I can slice them.

If someone were to watch this from the sidelines, it would simply look like a whirlwind.

The speed I'm swinging at seems to surpass my own strength, and I can feel my body burn under the pressure.

My left eye sears in pain as I continue cutting the arrows, silently thanking that Knight had ran against the side of the building, not the middle of the dead-end.

I feel my body reaching its limit as I see an arrow soar past my shoulder, grazing it slightly and embedding itself into the wall behind me.

But I pay no mind to it, only continuing what I was doing - slashing the arrows.

I pay no attention to my surroundings other than the arrows being fired at me, noticing the decreasing rate.

It allowed me some leeway, so I partly focus on the roofs of the buildings, and I spot a blur flying past the archers.

Only moments after the blur passed them, the archers were cut and thrown off the roof.

Seeing no arrows being fired at me, time seems to return to its original state, and only now do I feel the full effects of what I was doing.

My body starts to feel like lead, forcing me to my knees.

My left eye burns, the pain being nearly unbearable.

The multiple cuts I recieved from the arrows that I missed seem to cry out, only being overshadowed by the unbearable pain of my eye.

"Hahaha, I might've underestimated you, kid." (R)

I can only respond with groans of pain.

Rasing my head, I hoped to get a better look at R, but instead, my vision only blurred, before a gust of ash hit me.

I wipe my eyes before looking again.

"... Captain?" (Ryu)

"Hmm, you seem to have gotten into trouble." (Captain)

I can only muster a single word before my mind is taken by the pain again.

"Now, for you..." (Captain)

Lifting his sword, Captain points it at R.

"You think you can leave after hurting my subordinates?" (Captain)

The Captain's gaze seems to pierce R, as I could seem him shiver slightly as the Captain speaks.

"And if I did?" (R)

Massive amounts of mana and killing intent seemed to leak out of the Captain as R speaks.

"I'll kill you." (Captain)

As if on cue, a magic circle appears under R, summoning chains that surround him and hold him in place.

"Wha-!" (R)

"Let's see whether you can escape that." (Astrid)

Walking around the corner of the building, Healer's staff glows a bright purple, similar to that of the chains.

"You...!" (R)

As if responding to his threat, an arrow lands right before him.

"Don't do that, you'll just get killed." (Kana)

Archer jumps down from the roof, putting her bow behind her back while falling.

"Completely overshadowed by those two. Maybe I should have made my entrance flashier." (Etsu)

Similar to the Shadow Keepers, Vice-Captain seems to appear out of thin air in front of me.

"Wait, the Shadow Keepers..." (Ryu)

I could feel a presence to my right as I finish speaking, but the fatigue on my body stopped me from reacting.

The wind from the slash of a dagger that was aimed at my neck could be felt just centimetres away from me, before the assailant was stopped by the sword of the Vice-Captain.

"We can't have you killing him, sorry." (Etsu)

Pulling his sword out of the Shadow Keeper, he goes to wipe it, before noticing the lack of blood.

"Golems. No wonder they were basically inhuman. Their precision is off the charts." (Etsu)

After a few minutes of Vice-Captain running around the alley, killing the Shadow Keepers, he finally returns, sheathing his sword.

"Now, its just us." (Captain)

"God, you are all the same as that kid, all just damn rats." (R)

R screams out in pain after speaking, due to the chains holding him down getting tighter.

"Don't be too fussy, you can seriously die from these, you know?" (Astrid)

"Now, tells us everything that you are planning to do here." (Captain)

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Author Notes
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It's another chapter done and finished.

I haven't actually written a chapter for a while. For reference, Chapter 35 was written on New Year's Eve, while this one was written on the 9th January. Not super long, but long enough to make me lose my momentum in my writing.

I actually had a lot of trouble deciding what I would do with this chapter.

I was thinking of having a POV of the Captain (Name to be announced) of how he found Ryu and Airi, but I don't think I could wrote 1000 words about it, but I also don't want to switch POVs midway through and have to end the chapter on a weird note.

But, I suppose that's enough ranting, hope you enjoyed the chapter!