Chapter 140: It's All About the Application
"Remember, our goal is to bait the entire city into being alert. Act as suspicious as possible without getting caught and if you're ever in a situation that you can't deal with, find me."
"I will."
After giving Serena a few more instructions, the two of them separated. He also didn't forget to show himself jumping from roof to roof to the panicked civilians. In a few moments, knights and Inheritors should be chasing after the two of them and once the situation is defused, even more would come.
They had to stall for as much time as possible and Sebastian decided to go with the riskiest method to ease the burden on Serena.
He saw some knights trying to guide the citizens away and dropped down. He knocked one of the knights out with the back of his sword and alerted the rest of the knights.
"Identify yourself immediately!"
One of the knights yelled as they all unsheathed their swords. They slowly began to surround Sebastian to prevent his escape. One of the knights also pulled away his comrade while the others kept Sebastian in check.
Instead of answering, Sebastian stepped forward and swung his sword at one of the knights and the fighting ensued.
The citizens who were already in panic after the explosions became even more alert and spread out too far for the remaining knights to take control.
'Good, now…'
Sebastian looked around for an escape route. Although he was currently locked in combat, the difference in strength and skill allowed him to have leeway.
Once he managed to find one, he knocked one of the knights back and made the others distance themselves by spinning his sword around him and dashed. It was a speed that the knights couldn't catch up to but he made sure that they wouldn't lose him.
Sebastian scaled the building's windows and ledges and managed to get up to the roof but as soon as he landed there, something exploded in front of him and made him fall from the roof.
"Ugh…"
Sebastian quickly stood up as he was surrounded by knights and looked at the source of the attack. There was an Inheritor looking down at him from the roof, he had dark green hair and tanned skin.
'I didn't sense his presence until the last second…'
Having been through countless dangerous situations by being with Blue Rose, Sebastian had confidence in his skill at detecting danger and sensing presences. There weren't many people who could use their abilities in his presence without being detected.
As Sebastian frowned, his nose twitched and he jumped backward. A second later, the place he previously stood on exploded. The knights who surrounded him had been at an appropriate distance and didn't get affected.
'This is going to be troublesome…'
…
At another location, quite a distance away from Sebastian, Serena was escaping her pursuers. Unlike Sebastian who had abilities to boost his body, Serena was just a trained person.
While she could scale buildings and jump from roof to roof, her ability didn't allow her to make it any easier. The knights, though armored, were able to keep up with her by running on the leveled ground and some Inheritors were chasing her from behind. She had made it seem like she was trying to impede them by throwing smoke bombs and caltrops behind her.
'This should be enough to gather attention.'
Having more pursuers would make her risk going into combat to reduce their numbers. To make sure the status quo remained the same, she began to run faster. The Inheritors that could barely keep up with her were lagging behind while the knights chasing her from below had to take a few detours to catch up.
After a while, she sped up even further and entered discreet paths to lose them completely.
'That should be enough attention… But, I feel like I lost them too easily.'
Given how persistent they were, Serena wouldn't be surprised if they spent a few more hours trying to find her but in just a few minutes, she couldn't sense even one of their presences or any presence for that matter.
That moment, it finally clicked inside her head. Something was wrong.
Serena quickly took out a dagger and went into a state of alert. In a time as chaotic as this, it was impossible for there not to be any noise.
"Show yourself!"
Responding to Serena's request, a man walked out from one of the alleys.
"You noticed pretty fast."
'Isolation? Sebastian told me about an ability like this before…'
Serena observed her surroundings closely as she tried to recall Sebastian's words.
"Look for any spots that don't seem right—!"
While Serena was looking around, a small dagger was thrown at her. She managed to dodge it at the last second and put her attention back on the man.
"Is this the time to be looking away? You're in front of a person who can kill you, you know?"
Serena bit her lower lip and took a stance. It was just a feeling, but she couldn't help but feel uneasy. Her opponent wasn't someone she could see through, that was what her instincts were telling her.
She looked for an escape route but just as her eyes left the man again, daggers were thrown at her, she dodged them in just the nick of time.
'If it were Sebastian, he would've deflected them all but…'
Unlike Ainslie and Sebastian, she wasn't abnormally strong physically. At most, she was above the level of the average knight. The reason why she was taken on this mission was because Ainslie is injured and that there shouldn't have been any strong opponents to deal with.
She was confident in her ability to escape—but not her ability to fight. The only person who believed in her potential to fight was Sebastian alone. Wisteria had said that even she couldn't see why he had trust in her ability that she had yet to display.
The man leaped into battle and engaged Serena in close quarters. She did her best to dodge each of his attacks and only once every few swings would she be able to attack. Still, her opponent's skill with a dagger far surpassed hers and her attacks became less and less frequent.
"Obviously not a run-of-the-mill terrorist, who do you work for?"
Terrorists were mostly vagabonds, and the desperate roped into that life by those with ambition, rarely was there anyone strong among them as the profits of legal employment far outweighed the risks of opposing the hierarchy.
The man suddenly stepped forward during one of their exchanges and Serena was knocked off-balance. She barely managed to twist her body as the dagger brushed past her arm and left a small cut.
She then retreated a few meters away and didn't forget to raise her dagger.
She needed to find a way out, and fast. A battle of attrition wouldn't work if her opponent was someone way above her.
'But, I don't even have the time to think…"
Even just thinking took a lot out of her. She couldn't fight and think about ways to escape at the same time. If she could just run away, it would've been perfect. However, her opponent's unknown ability was a dangerous variable that couldn't be ignored.
'There's only one chance.'
If neither escaping or trying to match the opponent in close quarters wouldn't work, then she only had one option up her sleeve.
Serena used her other hand and took a small ball out of her pouch—trying her best to hide it from her opponent. Then, she took a spare dagger she had hidden by her waist and after taking a deep breath, she threw both of her daggers in quick succession.
"Oh!"
The man was surprised and the second dagger grazed his cheek. However, Serena wasn't done. She threw the smoke bomb on the ground and charged forward with the dagger that had been thrown at her before.
"That… won't work on me!"
Though impeded by smoke, the man didn't falter. He had been in similar situations before, another one wouldn't make any difference. He would counter the dagger just as it's about to hit him and subdue his opponent completely.
However, just as Serena and him were a few steps away from each other—allowing them to see the other's silhouette, he saw her dagger leave her hand and instinctively stepped to the side to dodge.
'She threw her dagger-no, she dropped it?'
It was just one mistake that lasted a fraction of a second. Should he have chosen to ignore the dagger and attack Serena, he'd have won the exchange.
However…
"Sorry about this…!"
"...!"
The dropped dagger mysteriously curved in the air as a near-translucent silhouette wrapped around Serena and grabbed it. Then, the dagger was swung down from the man's collar down to his abdomen with little resistance causinf blood to spur out of his wounds and the man to fall back.
"Ack…"
The man spat out some blood and looked at what had hit him just moments prior.
"A ghost…?"
The man's last words as his consciousness faded. The smoke became thinner enough for Serena to confirm her attack and breathed a sigh of relief.
She also began to hear noises from the surroundings again. In just a few seconds, she could hear the shouts of the knights and people chasing after her and she quickly began to run once more—or at least, she tried.
"Ugh…"
Serena stumbled. Though she didn't fall, she was close. Her breathing was rough and she was becoming paler by the second.
"This is why I didn't want to use it…"
Like Ainslie, she was an Inheritor. But, her ability was an all-for-nothing ability. She had the ability to physically manifest her soul in the outside world in the form of a ghost-like silhouette.
Her ability could touch things in the real world but the more she uses her soul, the greater exhaustion she received after.
She had used it a few times before, but she had never used it in combat. At most, she would use it to take something she wouldn't be able to grab with her hands. Opening a door with the handle on the other side, for one, though it was better to just pick the lock.
It was Sebastian who had told her that it was an ability she could use in combat and if she mastered it well, she would become someone on Ainslie's level.
"Over here!"
Her fears were realized. Serena turned her head back and saw the knights about to turn the corner, she began limping away and hoped she could hide from them.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone