"Bring me his head!"

I took a short breath, studying every last detail of how the mercenaries moved while rushing at me.

And without a second thought, I leaned backward before springing up on my knees and jumping a few paces to the back.

I had no hope that I could jump a considerable distance away. My position was wrong, my legs were already nearing their limit, and…

And as much as I wanted to forget about it, I already tapped a bit too much into the full potential of those legs of mine. Pushing them any further would do me absolutely no good.

'Plus, I can't escape before those two will run,' I thought, turning around while mid-air and jumping with my face directed towards the black-haired woman and the strange kid in her arms.

I ran only a few paces, to where my simple wooden projectile ended up falling down.

My body swung with the momentum of my short sprint, allowing me to send the short wooden stake flying through the air.

Someone swatted it away, quite obviously. Such crude tactics would pose no danger to a proper mercenary.

But for half of a breath, a few of the mercenaries stopped, slowing down everyone down the long line that their host has turned into.

Even the streets of Thatcham were relatively narrow, and this statement rang true all the more for its alleys! And now that the side alley swarmed with people, it suddenly became quite crowded!

Using the distraction to pick up the pace and dash back a few more steps, I turned my eyes toward the duo.

Right now, they were the only limiting factor, disallowing me from just turning around and fleeing the other way.

'Why do I feel like she's the princess that is chasing after me?' I thought, strangely relaxed in the moment of greatest try.

Maybe it was the lacking sense of reality that made me so calm?

It wasn't my first time to struggle during a mind-dive type of game. And it was likely those experiences that changed my perception.

After all, what man could remain calm when surrounded by a furious crowd of professional killers, all out for their blood?

I took a deep breath before jumping again and turning around, facing the mercenaries once more.

'I can't go any further.'

Just a few more steps and those mercenaries would get to the woman and thus the kid.

And if I knew anything about how mind-dive games worked… there was a way out of this situation. A way that allowed me to save the kid and myself…

But there was a gaping abyss of difference between knowing that a perfect method existed and… well… knowing the method.

'Still,' using the strangely dilating time of the moment, I thought about the woman behind me while readying myself to intercept the first fury of my enemies. 'If she's really the princess… then who are those people?'

Regardless of her combat ability, the imperial princess had to boast the strength of the very upper tiers and ranks that a person ever could! Just the might of her mana control was enough to enforce my obedience.

And yet, she didn't do a single thing, limiting herself just to grasping at the kid in her arms.

'Well, whatever,' I rolled my eyes, fully focusing on the threat now mere inches away from my face.

And in the instant before the enraged crowd could smite me down with their rage… I struck with a wide slash at the level of everyone's guts.

Every muscle in my body screamed out when I grasped more power than I could safely handle. The chippings of my sword's blade rapidly increased, spreading as milliseconds passed.

A single cut to slash through three and a half sets of armor.

Save for the two mercenaries approaching from the very edge of the street, the entire front row of the host fell down, dropping to the ground just as my sword reached its limit and shattered.

But in such a tight space, with four corpses now blocking the path… Picking up a new blade posed no challenge at all!

My body screamed out, refusing to accept such overextension.

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This first slash used up nearly every last ounce of strength I had in my hips and chest. With my legs already exhausted, I only had my arms left with any sort of leeway.

And so, I used up everything I had left.

With a few desperate steps, I tumbled through the corpses and fell right in the middle of the mercenary ranks, cutting and slashing with all the viciousness of a cornered animal.

Not a single one of my cuts was aimed to be lethal, even if some of them just ended up reaching that mark. I slashed the blade that I grabbed just a second before with the sole intention of slashing it around.

And for but a moment, this wild strategy worked.

Stumped by the sudden demise of nearly all of the men at the front, the mercenaries failed to raise their guard against my attack. As a result, three more fell to the ground not to ever raise back up, while seven more ended up with wounds of varying degrees of seriousness.

But that was all I could do.

Even without overusing my arms, just going through this wild routine that I could tell my host never mastered, I sapped myself out of everything. If my body were to be compared to a tank for fuel, then I'd just exhausted the last fumes in it.

My body slumped down. I fell down on one of my knees and took a long, excruciating breath.

Pushing myself to the limits like this nearly made me forget to even breathe, putting yet another dimension of strain on my body.

The mercenaries fell back a bit, stunned by my display of violence.

But that was it. And as I failed to raise back up to my feet, their retreat ended prematurely.

A mere second later, one mercenary already pushed forth, clearly hoping to put a swift end to this bloody battle.

"RUN!"

There was no fuel left in the fuel tank of my body. Not a single bit of fumes remained.

So fucking what? I could still burn the very tank itself, right?

I summoned energy from heavens-know-where.

My veins filled with adrenaline, closing off the biological safety circuits of my body.

And for but a moment, the shut-down process came to a halt.

"RUN!" I shouted again, only to turn around and burn through the muscle mass of my legs to leap away.

The sword's handle left my hand. Right now, it was just an added weight.

I didn't even spare a glance at whether the woman and the kid followed my shout.

Right now, I no longer had the leeway of worrying about them, regardless of how important they appeared to be to the plot of this world.

"Your bounty is mine!"

Before I could dash away completely, the powerful voice from before appeared again.

And despite how short this shout was, I could clearly tell the voice's owner was closing in on me!

It took only two seconds, or a single breath before I felt the oppressive aura of what looked like the leader of the mercenaries.

His strength was no joke. It was no illusion like the inherited blood of the nobles.

This man boasted a power that my host severely lacked. A power of endless experience.

I squeezed my muscles, desperate to get away from the man. Yet, before I could leap again, he already appeared right in my face, ready to solve the fight here and now.

"Shadows!"

A strangely high-pitched voice filled the alley, causing everyone to suddenly stop.

And quite surprisingly, it was the mercenary who already grabbed me by my throat that ended up getting hit by the wave of oppression the strongest.

Contrary to most of the mercs around, I could hardly feel a thing… Likely, due to how overused my body was at this point.

Using the moment of opportunity, I took a deep, reinvigorating breath, desperate to regain even the tiniest shred of my strength.

I was already pushing myself way harder than I should have, so this opportunity was simply too great for me to pass on.

And so I breathed in, right as the mercenaries shook off their surprise.

After a mere instant, the oppressive aura diminished, as if cut away from the source.

Using the confusion, I slipped out of the mercenary's leader's hand and took three steps to the back…

Only for the familiar noise to now appear from the other end of the alley too.

I didn't even need to look behind, because I could already tell.

The only path that led to salvation was now swarming with even more of those damn mercenaries!

'I wonder how long will I be able to keep going like that,' I thought, strangely curious rather than terrified of the state my body would be left in once the fight would come to an end.

Still, the mercenary leader was no joke.

He managed to shake off the momentary oppression faster than his subordinates. He closed the distance that I gained in a single instant before reaching out for my throat again…

Only for a strange, silvery mist to fill the empty space between his hand and my neck.

'I can't hold this place up anymore!' My instincts screamed.

'No, it's not just here, but all over the pl-' Before I could even finish my thought, the mist rapidly expanded while its original core lit up…

Only for a new group of strange warriors to come out straight out of that mist!

Momentarily blinded by the flashing of the mist, I could only rely on my hearing to perceive what happened next.

But the screams of the mercenaries closest to me that were quickly followed by another choir from where I heard the mercenary reinforcements coming…

'Okay, this is getting too much,' I thought, swallowing a gulp of blood and saliva before greedily taking another, deep breath.

The leader of the mercenaries didn't scream, though. Clearly, though, he was as shaken by the sudden change of the situation as was I.

But, thanks to the strange detachment of my mental self from this violent scene, I managed to make a certain observation first.

Neither of us screamed. But we were both clearly affected by the sudden turn of events.

And so, before the other man could properly react, I burned out the last bits of whatever it was that was still left in me.

My hand jerked up, shooting the half-sword that was left in my hand across the mercenary's unguarded face.

And by some miracle, I felt the resistance, before the leader finally uttered the cry that I so much wanted to hear.

A cry… that was quickly muffled by the blood that flowed out of his wounds, making him choke on his own essence.

The candle of my body was quickly reaching its absolute limit. In a few more seconds, the last spark would go out.

'Damn, it could work out somehow if Nay were to appear now,' a desperate thought filled my brain when the air in the alley suddenly turned stale.

'Another magic trick?!' I thought, nearly losing my mind.

I was spent. Done. Used up.

Just what fuel I was supposed to burn now, for those guys to throw even more stuff at me?!

This time, however, the attack I anticipated didn't come. But as I turned my head, I realized what was going on.

All the shadows that massacred a huge chunk of the mercenaries have now gathered around the black-haired woman.

And in this single instant, I realized what was going to happen now.

"Take us away!" the black-haired woman shouted, proving my guess on the spot.