Corporal Nico Reese was currently in an old warehouse filled with a bunch of old adventuring equipment. On the ceiling hung an old siege car, various pieces of equipment were either in class display cabinets or boxed away. He was surrounded by four demon masked individuals, each one armed with a different weapon.

One stood on an upper landing armed with an energy crossbow pointing it at him. Two of them stood on either side of Nico. One held an energy sword and the other had some type of hooked blade on a chain. The fourth stood at floor level but was quite a distance away, pointing a staff at him Nico assumed that the fourth was a spellcaster.

Nico tried his best to keep his eyes on all of them as the two melee fighters inched ever closer to him. Nico gritted his teeth; it was going to be hard to deal with the four of them by himself normally and right now he also had to protect two children.

Standing right behind him were two of the Coldwater children, Sable and Gareth Coldwater. The two of them cowered behind him in fear, though Nico wasn’t exactly sure if being behind him right now was actually the safest option.

How did it get to this? He thought. A third Coldwater kid, Bryson Coldwater had instructed him to follow the two as they snuck off into a warehouse filled with old adventurers’ junk. This current situation was not what he was signed up for and he definitely was not trained for something like this.

Never before had he had to ever face four assassins in a dingy warehouse while protecting two noble children. Nico had no idea how to properly fend his opponents off while keeping the two kids safe. He really wished the guard that was assigned to them was here. But no they just had to sneak away from him and enter alone with Petyr.

Nico noticed that the assassins signalling to one another and were about to make their attack soon. He had to be ready for it. As he readied his own enchanted blade, he did briefly wonder what exactly Bryson Coldwater was busy doing.

***

Bryson and Lila sprinted through the alleyways, relatively slowly to be perfectly honest. The two of them had begun their sprint quite quickly, however they very quickly moved in a beleaguered jogging pace.

“Oh… okay… this was a stupid idea.” Bryson panted out.

“Why are you so slow?” Lila complained.

“I’m seven! What’s your excuse?” He snapped back.

“I’m bad at running! Besides I had to run to get you already.” She indignant.

“How long until we get there?” He asked.

“I don’t know… twenty minutes?” She said between breaths.

“Gods be damned. We may as well have not bothered!” Bryson complained.

“Don’t you have some sort of trick as a Coldwater?” She asked.

“We both know that’s not how magic works!’ Bryson snapped, then he gave a small pause, “Wait, actually I might have something.”

“You do? I wasn’t actually serious.” She said in surprise.

“Yes. Now shut up and let me concentrate.” Bryson said annoyed.

He took out his deck of playing cards, with a single flick the entire deck of cards spilled out. The cards all joined together and, swirling around they formed a staircase that lead up to the roof of the building they were next to.

Bryson took a tentative step forward, checking out if it could hold his weight, finding it solid he began to ascend the stairs.

“You coming?” He asked looking back at Lisa.

“Can this support my weight?” She asked hesitantly.

“I don’t know, how much do you weigh?” He asked.

“Don’t asked me that!” She said defensively.

“What? Why?”

“Just don’t ask a lady that question!”

“But you- ugh, whatever. It can probably hold your weight.” Bryson said exasperated, “Are you coming.”

She then followed behind him and Bryson suddenly had to reinforce the cards that she stood on.

“Woah, you weighed more than I thought.” He said aloud.

“Hey!”

“Oh, shut up and on the roof already!” He said angrily at her as he got onto the top of the building. Lila quickly hurried behind. The cards quickly flowed back into his card case, and he stashed them away. On the new vantage point, Bryson was able to clearly see the warehouse.

The set of buildings that they were on were all built closely together making it easy for the two to move from one building to another. On top of the roofs, they were able to ignore the long winding alleyways and head directly toward the warehouse. With the celebration going on no one was around this neighborhood spotted the two jumping from building to building.

Still, even with this more direct route it would still take a few minutes before they arrive. What Bryson was going to do when he got there… he still didn’t know.

***

The assassin with the sword attacked Nico first. Nico brought his blade up and their blades crossed. Quickly slipping to the side Nico freed his blade and struck down at the assassin, only for his blade to be parried.

Before Nico was able to follow up with a second attack the chained blade came flying toward him. Lurching back, he narrowly avoided getting struck. The sword wielding assassin then took a slice at Nico, who was barely able to bring his sword up in time.

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Damn it, forgot that weapon could do that. He chided himself. Nico now realized that there were three attackers that could hit him at range. This is a problem. He thought as he tried to figure out the best course of action. His blade wasn’t anything special, just a standard issue sword given out to any swordsman with the most basic of enchantments.

In his peripheral he noticed the assassin armed with the crossbow fire. Nico seeing the direction the crossbow was pointed didn’t have any concern, for it was going to miss him. It wasn’t until the energy bolt was travelling halfway through the air that Nico processed where the bolt was going land. Right at Gilles Coldwater.

Panicking Nico lunged forward and was able to deflect the bolt away from Gilles and into a glass cabinet displaying a set of armour. The impact shattered the glass and sent the armour scattering about the floor.

The two Coldwaters yelped in fear as the debris scattered near them. Nico was then forced to defend against more strikes from the swordsman. Able to break off the engagement he stepped back. Repositioning himself, he put himself in a better position that could protect the two.

He remembered that it wasn’t him who was the target of their attack, but that it was the two children that were the target. They were the ones that were lured in here, not him. All the assassins wanted to do was to distract Nico long enough so that they could get the two. Nico needed to get the Coldwaters out of here.

But how? He wondered. He had no idea how to keep the four of them back while they could escape. His thoughts were interrupted when a flash of energy surged toward him. He leapt backwards and with one hand outstretched he managed to push Gilles and Sable down in time as the red energy slammed past their heads and into the wall behind them.

The impact of the force sent reverberations around the entire room; Nico hoped that someone heard that. Looking up in confusion he tried to find the source of the blast, he found the source immediately. The spellcaster.

Whoever this person was they were dangerous. Nico saw the glow of their staff dim as they had completed their attack. The spellcaster only wore a half mask and Nico could see their lips form a cocky sneer.

“Oi, watch those spells, we’re suppose to be taking them down silently.” The assassin with the crossbow screamed down at spellcaster.

“And you were supposed to make sure no one followed us, yet here’s this guard. So shut up and take him out.” The spellcaster yelled back.

“Relax, this place is soundproofed.” The assassin with chain called out, “No one’s coming.” They said pointedly to Nico.

Nico clenched his teeth and under his breath he whispered to the two kids, “I’m going to create an opening and you get away.”

Without waiting for a reply, he kipped up and charged the assassin with the chain. The one with the sword intercepted. The two blades clashed in the bind once more, this time however Nico got in close and leaned his weight to the side and was able to get some leverage. With a quick flourish, Nico disarmed the swordsman and quickly brought his hilt into the temple of the assassin.

As the assassin dropped to the floor with a thump the assassin armed with the chain stared in shock at how quickly their ally was taken down.

“Oh, shit.” They uttered.

But before Nico could continue his momentum and attack the assassin another bolt of energy flew toward him from above. Nico once more was able to deflect the bolt away, it flew back toward the shooter narrowly missing them.

However, this moment of pause was enough for the assassin Nico was trying to fight, from their hand came darting the bladed chain. As the chain unwound, the barbed blade embedded itself into the shoulder of Nico.

“Gaaah!” He screamed out in pain.

The assassin began to pull the chain back, painfully dragging Nico toward them. The barbs kept the blade embedded in his left shoulder. As he was being yanked, Nico could feel his flesh and muscles being torn with each tug. What’s more was he felt that the pain was far greater than it should have been.

Gritting his teeth, he tried to grab onto the chain and pull the assassin toward him. His attempt didn’t last long as another hard tug from the assassin sent him falling to a knee. Looking at the blade sticking out of him he noticed a faint glow of magic and realized why his wound hurts so much.

From the assassin’s offhand appeared a dagger and as they continued to pull him toward them. Nico needed to move, but he also needed a moment to collect himself. Right now, he wasn't going to be able to do either.

That was until Gilles Coldwater came charging toward them, his high-quality sword in hand toward the assassin. This came to as a complete shock for both Nico and the assassin, never expecting the young ten-year-old throw themself into the fight.

With a battle cry, Gilles shot forward toward the assassin. The attack caught the assassin off guard, and they reacted to slowly to his attack. Gilles’ enchanted blade managed to cause a large slash across the side of the assassin who pulled back.

Gilles continued to press his attack, but now the assassin was prepared and quickly got used to his rhythm of attack. A swift kick connected to the skull of Gilles and sent him flying several meters back. Tumbling a few times, he landed in an unconscious heap. Sable gasped watching her brother fall.

Nico used this brief moment of distraction to charge forwards and was able to embed his blade into the midsection of the assassin. Still unable to use his left arm due to the blade still embedded in it, he relied completely on his right arm to fight.

Just as he withdrew his blade, he heard the assassin from above him shout out. In the corner of his eye, he saw Sable run over to Gilles in concern, trying to wake him up.

“He just took down Jones!” The assassin yelled out in panic.

“Use a heavy bolt already!” The spellcaster yelled back.

“But the noise!” The crossbow user yelled back.

“We sound proofed it! Use it!” He screamed.

From the crossbow user’s quiver, they pulled out a new energy bolt marked with a red symbol and loaded it into weapon and fired it at Nico. From the crossbow erupted a massive violent red stream of energy that was as wide as Nico’s chest.

Nico stared at the bolt firing upon him in slow motion. He couldn’t move, so the only way to stop the from harming either of the Coldwaters was to try and deflect the attack. Concentrating, he used his good arm to raise his enchanted sword up and began to imbue the blade with as much magic as possible.

Pouring his limited amount of mana into a basic standard issue longsword, he prayed that it was enough. As the bolt hurled toward him, he swung his sword against the blast with a single arm. It lacked any finesse and was more akin to a baseball bat being swung.

Nevertheless, the blade made contact with the blast, and for a moment the two forces were at an impasse. Battling to see which direction the blast will wind up.

Nico felt the muscles in his arm travelling all across his right side being taxed by the force of the energy bolt. He felt as if his muscles were beginning to tear. Gritting his teeth and taking a quick breath, he pushed forward, using his knees to boost himself forward and pushed back against the force of the bolt.

The battle between the blade and bolt came to a sudden conclusion when the bolt exploded. The force sent Nico flying backwards, nearly as far as Gilles was launched when he had been hit. Sable gave a yelp as the young knight nearly crushed the two Coldwater kids.

Fortunately, Nico wasn’t the only one who suffered from the explosion. A stray rush of energy flew back toward the crossbow user. Trying to turn away as the blast hurtled toward them, the impact smashed them right in the back. They smashed into the wall and collapsed flat on their back.

Nico, with a groan, opened his eyes and looked up at the assassin on the upper landing had been incapacitated. Feeling a bit of validation, he then looked over to where the spellcaster and any feeling of joy disappeared as he saw the staff glow again.

“You fought well, but just not well enough.” The spellcaster said with a smile. The staff glowed a dangerous crimson red, sparks began to fly around the end of the staff.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that there won’t be a trace of any of you left after this attack.” The spellcaster assassin gloated.

The next thing Nico heard was Sable’s scream and all he saw was a wall of crimson red, crashing toward him.