CarburetorThompson

  Cng!

  Fiona riposted a bde that reached out towards her. Before she had even recovered from the strike she was forced to repel another attack.

  She had killed many of her attackers, but now she was visibly faltering and on the back foot. Any momentum she had gained in the confrontation was slowly withering, as her deteriorating state inspired a newfound courage in the thugs.

  “Gah! What’s all the commotion? I was trying to enjoy the time with me girls.”

  Eyes moved over to the rge man who descended from the central staircase.

  He was not only tall, but wide as well, a veritable wall of meat. Though to Fiona’s eyes he appeared shorter than the Bck Knight’s vice captain, he was still over a head taller than her. Though difficult to hear over the sound of cshing bdes, the stairs trembled and creaked under each of his steps.

  His stomach hung loose, he was clothed in only a loosely buckled pair of trousers, and over his shoulder was slung a rge iron hammer, with a long wooden shaft. His bald head looked tiny when pced upon his broad shoulders.

  Fiona tried to keep an eye on the man. Sizing him up while still repelling attacks, she tried to anticipate when exactly he would involve himself in the fight.

  That weapon, even using mana, it would be a difficult one for me to wield.

  Despite feeling it was too te to regret her actions, she still continued to do so. There was no one who would be able to save her. The intimidating vice captain, and the skillful young knight, were both tasked with destroying the Bckthorn gang’s other hideouts around town.

  The pn was for them to meet up with her afterwards, and take on the remaining gang members in the main base. Her bad habits put caution second to coins, and she had ended up destroying the pn.

  Though her ability to stealth seemed quite solid, having snuck up on Fiona twice already, she could not imagine the faerie captain being able to do much beyond that. Even with the sword she wore on her hip, to Fiona it looked to be a mostly symbolic gesture. She struggled to picture it being used in actual combat.

  “Out of the way.” Said the rge man in his rumbling deep voice. “I’ll take care of this.”

  He grabbed one of the men in front of him by his jacket colr, tossing him to the side with a single hand. Though he seemed to have caused him no harm, as another thug quickly caught the falling man, while the others cleared a path for him that led straight towards Fiona.

  The attacks halted for a moment, as the gangsters seemed intent on letting the rge man solve their issue. Fiona pointed the sword she held towards him as the man inched closer.

  “Ha! All this struggling over one cute little girl?” He said with a snorted ugh.

  “Careful, she’s a mana user.” Cautioned a voice from within the crowd of men.

  “Nonsense, she already looks half dead.”

  The man was confident, and it only served to worry Fiona further, three knights had already gone missing trying to destroy this base. Although the mana she could feel from the man did not seem to be anything out of the ordinary, it was not unheard of for those with monstrous strength to subjugate knights without the aid of mana.

  While it was hard to believe that a man had killed three of the lord's knights using only the strength of his muscles, Fiona had yet to spot anyone else in the building who would be capable of the feat.

  “Tell you what.” Spoke the man with a wide grin. “You become one my girlies, and I might just let you li-“

  Bzzzzzt!

  Before he could finish speaking, the rge man fell forwards. Colpsing under his own weight, his limbs bent in unnatural directions. Fiona saw the man buckle over and onto the floor, and she also saw the golden streak that passed by his head, flying faster than an arrow.

  Bzzzzzt!

  The buzzing sound persisted, and the golden bolt continued to pass through the air. At first Fiona thought it might be the spell effect from a magical gun, simir to her own, but the projectile's path bent and twisted through the air in a way that a fusil’s spell bullet could not.

  Next her mind went to a mage’s spell, but it seemed it was not that either. The movements were extremely fast, but also finely controlled. It would take a top level mage to be able to pull off something like that, and it was doubtful that such a skilled caster would be out this far into the frontier, much less the fact that a top level mage would go out of their way to save her.

  The trail zigzagged through the air, leaving only a golden shimmer in its wake. As it traveled it wrapped around the heads of the gangsters, men who simirly colpsed onto the floor as soon as it left them.

  “Gahhhh!” Cried one of them.

  “It’s a ghost!” Screamed another.

  Bzzzzzt!

  Yelling spared none from the golden wrath, and only a few seconds ter, Fiona stood alone in the gambling hall. Accompanied only by the piles of corpses that id out in front of her.

  “You’re lucky I made it in time.”

  “Wahhh!” Fiona jumped up in surprise at the voice that echoed loudly in her ear.

  Once more perched upon her shoulder sat the chapter captain of the Bck Ram knights. While her small bck outfit concealed it well, her bright blonde hair could not. Stains of blood congealed onto her petit form, though Fiona was certain none of it was her own.

  I… I did not think she would be so strong.

  “You really went and made a mess of the pn.” She reprimanded.

  “I'm sorry.” Said Fiona, she gazed towards the bloodied floor and away from the eyes of her commander.

  It was the only reply she could give. Not only had she ruined the pn, but she had also doubted her leader. The very same leader who had saved her from her own foolish actions, and had in the end saved her life as well.

  “We’ll talk about it ter.” Replied Aubrey, still perched atop her shoulder. “For now I am just gd you survived. There aren’t many Bck Knights, it would bring me great sorrow to lose an important member so soon after they joined us.”

  Fiona continued to stare downwards.

  “Don't just sit there. It doesn’t look terribly bad, but you should still start dressing your wounds.” The faerie finally departed her shoulder, flying over to a table across from her. “I would offer help, but I'm afraid my hands are too small to be of any use.”

  Silence washed over the gaming hall. Fiona turned away from Aubrey, unable to meer her gaze. Instead she began to take off her leather jacket.

  The jacket was in rough shape, there was a long cut that ran along one of the sleeves. Other damage included a series of punctures and cuts from either bdes or musket balls.

  Damn. I really liked that jacket.

  Though covered in wounds, her ability to use mana prevented any life threatening damage from being done. That was just how significant of a difference the ability to preform mana control made.

  The sleeve of her shirt was also simirly sshed through. She tore off the shredded fabric, attempting to clean the area around the wound. Mana control had many uses, and could even be used to stifle or stop bleeding, but it had no such powers over infections. As such even for a knight cleaning flesh wounds was essential.

  Creak!

  The doors at the building's entrance squeaked as it was pushed open.

  “Looks like you started without us.” Said a rumbling voice.

  Ducking under the threshold was the towering man in bck armor. Following only a step or two behind Marcus was Ludwig, who simirly walked out onto the gaming floor.

  “Things did not go exactly as pnned, but the overall objective was still completed.” Said Aubrey

  Her voice was quiet as she spoke from a distance, but it was not so soft that the two men could not hear her.

  “There are a couple more on the second floor, the guards should be able to handle them. For now I'd ask you two to assist Ms. Redcy with her wounds.”