章 67: Do not trust prostitutes, please! part 4

Ryu wasn't aware of Ayumi's presence, all the gears in his mind were spinning to find a solution to his current situation in order to save Rina from a horrible fate. Things weren't going as expected by a long shot and he lost all his confidence, besides, his stomach was grumbling non stop begging for food, making him lose his focus constantly.

Thanks to Hiraku flaming arrow he could snap out of it and he quickly scanned the area.

Hiraku was standing on a roof nearby, Ayumi was standing right next to madame Bianca, but Bob and Luke were nowhere to be seen. Instead, a bunch of girls armed with spears and leather vests made a formation surrounding Rina, allowing him to finally focus on his own situation.

When the captain of the guards finished speaking, he went back to stand right next to Ryu. His leather armor looked sturdy, he looked for a way to kill him swiftly but instead of activating his consider skill he felt as if he was going to fall asleep on the spot.

He knew that his skill didn't spend any mana, and even if it did he should've had his full mana capacity. He didn't feel tired either, but just attempting to activate the skill drained him.

Pondering if the captain was just too strong or if something inside him had changed, Ryu stood still as a fight broke out. Some people tried to capture Rina, who they thought was responsible for the winter famine, while others attempted to protect her since they either knew her or were till grateful to her for feeding them after the freeze. After all, if it wasn't for that many more people in town would've been dead by now and they owed their lives to them.

Madame Bianca knew that a fight was likely to happen and was prepared for such eventuality, with just a nod of her head, several guards left the brothel and joined the fray. They actually didn't care if people tried to help them or not, their orders were to attack anyone on sight since their final objective was not to rule over Ironwoods but to raze it to the ground. Madame Bianca was leaving after spring and, as long as there were some people left in Ironwoods, she was at risk of having her misdeeds known to the public.

A baroness couldn't afford such scandals so she planned on leaving no witnesses. By the time the snow melts only those that were loyal to her and her slaves would be left alive. She had been to Celarent many times and she knew that, despite slavery being legal, slaves were a rare commodity and the demand surpassed the offer by far. Still, this didn't mean that they would overlook the law and if it was known that she caused the famine, that she forced people into slavery and all the crimes she committed, she would be harshly punished.

The guards quickly surrounded Rina's group, but they couldn't move a step forward without risking being stabbed by the spear wielding women covering her. They did their best effort to push past them, but all they got in return were painful wounds aimed towards non vital points.

Anne drew her bow and proceeded to fire arrow after arrow, causing many casualties among madame Bianca's men. Dylan, instead, stood by Rina's side covering her from any harm that may come her way, but in doing so he neglected the rest of their group and one of Hiraku's group slaves fell to the ground badly wounded. Her loud scream of pain announced the break of their formation and the tide of the battle shifted completely.

When Ryu noticed this he made up his mind, he couldn't stand idle a second longer and attempted to unsheathe his sword, but no matter how much strength he put into it, he couldn't get it out from its scabbard. Realizing how futile were his efforts he tried to activate stealth, fearing that it might fail as his consider skill did. Fortunately, it didn't fail and allowed him to put himself behind the captain.

Now that he wasn't able to use his sword, he was left with no choice but to wield the obsidian knife. He never actually used it for battle, despite being so sharp it always amazed everyone, because it was so fragile a simple hit could break it to pieces.

Just thinking on losing it pained Ryu, he's always used it mostly for cooking and other non violent activities, but he always kept it by his side. Still, no knife in the world would be so valuable as to not being used to protect someone he loved, and he truly loved Rina.

He took the knife from his new leather sash and before the captain could react he slid the knife over his neck from behind. Because he didn't know how strong was the captain, he did so with the intention to kill him in a single movement, but the captain was wearing a leather gorget that prevented his cowardly attempt to assassinate him. Instead, he noticed Ryu was right behind him and hit him with the hilt of his sword on the ribs.

Ryu felt to the ground and rolled in pain losing the grip of his knife. When the captain came close to finish him, Ryu kicked with both his legs trying to keep distance, but instead of moving the captain Ryu slid on the ground the other way.

"What are you doing kid? Don't you realize that madame Bianca is doing all this to save you?"

The captain snarled

"Save me from what? from her lies? no, thank you, I'd rather die a dog's death than seeing everyone I care fall on her filthy hands"

His words were brave, but in truth he was left bare handed, skilless and alone facing a much stronger opponent. All he could do now was close his eyes and pray for salvation. But he wouldn't do that, if what his companions told him about god is true he doesn't care about good or evil so praying would be completely useless. Instead, he resigned himself and embraced his fate, at least he wouldn't live long enough to see his companions defiled or worse.

Ryu kept his eyes closed and gritted his teeth as the captain let out a scream of pain.

'Was it one of Hiraku's arrows? Maybe Ayumi finally learned to cast spells and did something'

Ryu thought while scanning his whereabouts, but what he saw was a completely different picture than he expected. Hiraku's bow was broken and he was fighting with a spear, Ayumi was fighting with madame Bianca, though by the looks of it, it was more like she was acting as her sandbag. Madame Bianca wasn't skilled in fighting, but she was so strong, fast and devious that Ayumi was helpless.

The one who saved Ryu's life was no other than his beanbag shaped fluffy cat. Mochi was fiercely scratching and biting at the captain, who in turn tried to fend with everything he had. His face was bloody and his expression showed his fear and shock, he didn't understand where did that cat come from nor how could it be so strong. Every time Mochi climbed on his leg, arms or even his back, and the captain managed to somehow take it off of him, the cat would take with itself a piece of his armor or a bite of his flesh.

Onlookers were horrified as the captain was falling to pieces, the more he struggled the more wounds he received. Bleeding profusely and too tired to continue fighting, the captain passed out unconscious.

"That's enough Mochi, go help Rina!"

Ryu said as he ran towards madame Bianca, he took a vial out of his pocked and threw it at Ayumi.

"Ayumi, that's a healing potion!"

Her face was bruised and swollen and there were scratches all over her body, but she was smiling. The reason for that was that madame Bianca was on the ground rolling to the sides trying to put off the fire on her bulky dress.

Ayumi grabbed the potion and drank it on a single gulp, the healing properties were so strong that her wounds closed at a speed visible to the naked eye, but it also meant that her stamina was going to be depleted really fast. She wobbled from side to side and just before she fell to the ground, Hiraku caught her on his arms.

When the guards noticed that they failed to protect their boss, they had to admit defeat. One of the reasons they even bothered following madame Bianca was because she was really strong, If she wasn't they would've just taken the money and ran to the next town. If even she was defeated they knew there was nothing they could do.

The fight slowly subsided creating a prolonged silence that people used to gather their breaths and ponder the consequences of their own actions.

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