Now back to the present.

As all eight of them rushed the duo, they put their backs to a nearby house and prepared themselves.

As soon Tibaut finished summoning the fire lances he immediately targeted the one with a limp. She tried to dodge and successfully avoided one of them but was hit with the remainder when she put her body weight on the injured leg. Before Tibaut could summon another they were all in range. All the close-range combatants were in their personal space while the staff users kept behind them.

Tibaut launched a fireball at the ground causing some to instinctively back away while others stood their ground. Tibaut blocked a baseball bat slicing through the newly formed dirt cloud, although the sound his arm made as it blocked the bat made him cringe. He grabbed Grace with one hand and attempted to jump over them. The staff users landed various blows on him when this happened, but they were able to escape being cornered by them.

He landed on the ground face-first from the blows but it seemed they left Grace unscathed as she gracefully landed on her feet.

Grace picked Tibaut up as the entourage was once again in their face. The time on the floor was enough for him to recover and he fired off a prepared fire lance into the throat of the staff user. They were barely quick enough to place a hand over their throat, but the force seemed to have knocked the wind out for them as they fell to the floor gasping for air with both hands on their throat. Tibaut didn't see this of course as they didn't even spare a moment for their fallen ally.

He immediately had to parry the punch of them one with brass knuckles which tore the sleeve of his shirt. They seemed to have put a lot of force behind which caused them to lose balance.

("Shit, that was a quick punch. They must be using the brass to give them more pow-")

This thought was cut as a staff hit him square in the gut. He was glad for his training with Elizabeth or else that blow would have completely knocked the wind out of him. He backed away and blocked the other two attacks from the bat wielder and one with a baton and narrowly ducked down when he realized the brass knuckle user had gotten behind him.

Grace was violently knocked to his back and she used this opportunity to headbutt the brass knuckle wielder and slam her forearm into their throat as they both fell to the ground. Before she could land a decisive blow she had to roll away from her two opponents, who were in hot pursuit of her.

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Tibaut had no time to appreciate what she did as immediately after ducking he delivered an earth-shattering blow to the crotch of one of his opponents which caused a husky "Argh" to be heard.

("A boy, no, a woman?")

He had no time to contemplate this as he attacked the other one like a hungry wolf to not give a moment of reprieve.

("Fuck it, I can afford to lose my hands.") Both of his hands were already killing him from the blows he blocked and his punches had lost their edge in dealing damage. He decided this was a more efficient move.

He aimed his hand at the chest of the other attacker and formed a fireball within his hand. They quickly backed away but it was too late. The blast destroyed the armour on their chest and sent them flying back. He couldn't even spare the time to check their status as the staff user attacked which he countered by stomping its top to the floor. They quickly let go and…

Started running away?

("Huh?")

Before he could process what happened two of the women that Grace had been fighting picked up, their comrade who had been hit with the near point-blank fireball and ran off. Although the blast hadn't completely burned through their shirt it left a few holes in it. Under it he could see skin and what looked like a material similar to hand wrap covering their chest.

("Were they injured beforehand? Don't tell me I fought these guys at half-strength. Wait besides that.")

He looked around. He now noticed that the others began limping away as well.

They all congregated and Tibaut watched as they got together.

("This is good.") He thought. ("Now I can use my fireballs without worrying about being too close plus even if they do throw something it won't reach my fireball quick enough to be a danger to me.")

Before he could react a glass bottle from an outside party was thrown and a gas formed around him. He quickly used cure on himself but they used this opportunity to use the remainder of the stamina they might have had and unashamedly ran away.

He clicked his tongue and turned behind to check on Grace. She limped over and looked worse for wear. Her hair was dirty, she was bleeding from her forehead and had a black eye along with various bruises.

"Tch, they got away." She bitterly stated.

"Seems they had one more friend in hiding," Tibaut commented as he breathed a sigh of relief. At the end of it, nothing major had happened due to him and Grace being there. Though he had no idea why the cult came.

"Why were they here in the first place?" Tibaut wondered.

"Beats me. I wish we could have gotten some help from those guard guys but oh well. Let's go look for them."

"The guards…"

Now that he thought about where they were?

"So that's what the darts were about."

Grace looked at him puzzled before opening her mouth and widening her eyes.

"Oh, that's why they aren't here."

As they reached their realization, they heard various shouts in the distance.