Ealdton's streets tremored beneath the footfalls of its citizens.

Sylphia followed along behind Evrika and her right-hand man, Aberdeen, as they headed back up town to meet up with the rest of the guard.

"Move along! Don't push!" The guards funnelled the people onto the streets. "Hey, I said don't push!" Though, with their small number, keeping order among hundreds of people rushing to a single point proved to be a daunting challenge.

"Aberdeen," Evrika said, pacing her words with her breath, "how many squads are still accounted for?"

"Sorry, Cap," he said, "we only met two other squads on our way to your patrol route. We sent all of them to reinforce the defenses Northeast."

"Good. We'll meet up with them."

In the meantime, Sylphia lagged further and further behind. Oh God... Sylphia panted. Not being used to walking, much less running, with sandals, she pressed on with an unsteady gait, as if she was always on the verge of falling over. Sweat poured down her forehead. Occasionally, they even ran down into her eyes, causing a painful burning sensation. Good God, this town is huge... My feet are killing me, I can't breathe, my eyes hurt... When I promised to help them, I never expected to be running this much...! Are medieval towns really this big!? Have video games been lying to me this entire time!?

Glancing behind her, Evrika met eyes with Sylphia. "Miss Heroine," she said, "are you alright?"

"Eh?" She lifted her head. Why, do I look fucking alright to you!? Is panting-heavily-with-your-tongue-hanging-out a sign of good health in this town? Keeping her snark bottled up, she simply nodded, and said, "Y-yeah..."

For a moment, her brows fell and her lips pursed up. "Um, okay..." She then turned away without another word.

The setting sun tinged the sky bright orange. Gradually, the bright streets began to recede behind the cover darkness. The houses deeper in town were evacuated first, and the sheer isolation gave Ealdton an eerie atmosphere that contrasted heavily to what it used to be, not more than a few hours ago.

"Geez, what's happening to my town?" Evrika mumbled. By this time, Evrika had slowed her pace down to match Sylphia's and was running beside her.

Evrika... Sylphia looked around, at the hastily deserted homes, and the shops still half-stocked with produce, presumably the lesser valued ones that the owners hadn't had the time to bring with them. So this is actually her hometown, huh...? An tinge of sadness stung her chest. I didn't live in a time nor place where there was even the slightest risk that my hometown would be destroyed... I could only imagine what's going on in her mind right now...

Suddenly, Aberdeen yelled, "Look, over there!"

A group of people came towards them. Their silhouettes, blotted out by the shadows of the houses lining the road, gave no clues as to their number, but Sylphia guessed there might have been eight or so of them, just from its sheer size.

"Ah!" he added, "That must be Michael's squad!"

More guards, huh? Geez, where were all of these guys earlier!?

In spite of that, Evrika barred her arm in front of them. "Wait, stop," she said.

"Huh? What is it, Cap?"

The group walked at an almost leisurely pace down the road. At that distance, only their large, rounded shields and long spears could be made out from their silhouettes.

"They're guards, aren't they?" Sylphia said.

"No..." she said, lowering her spear to her waist. "Get ready, you two!"

"What?" Sylphia cocked her head.

"Miss Heroine," Aberdeen placed his hand on her shoulder. "look."

Soon, wild cackles entered earshot. What Sylphia thought was a band of eight guards turned out to be a gaggle of 12 bandits. Six among them were decked out in the same armor as Evrika and Aberdeen, presumably stolen from other guards.

"Bastards!" Aberdeen grit his teeth.

"Calm down!" said Evrika. "Get into position."

"Right, Cap!"

Shit, this looks really bad. There's no way just the two of them could take all of these assholes.

At that moment, a voice rang out from behind them. "Captain!" There, the rest of Evrika's squad came running up the road and formed back up with them.

Evrika lit up. "You guys! Are the townspeople safe?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The man in front gave her a salute. "We shuffled out with Andy's squad as soon as they arrived! They are now using the event hall as a refuge."

"Alright! You heard that!" Evrika raised her voice. "We can't let them near the event hall, no matter what!"

Sylphia clicked her tongue. They're staying in town, huh? As I feared, they're banking on the guard gaining the upper hand. She clenched her fist. But you can't just bank on the assumption that you'll win!

While she was lost in thought, a gruff voice called out to her. "Yo, Miss Hero..." Amid a chorus of sneers, a large man stepped in front of the band of thugs.

Sylphia's heart dropped.

"Did ya miss me?" The thug from earlier that day stood before her, with a cocky grin on his face. "I thought I'd gather my boys, so we could..." He snorted. "...play." He then lifted a large woodcutter's axe over his shoulder. Following his example, the other bandits also brandished their own assortment of weapons.

"Bascal!?" Evrika yelled, her eyes alight in frenzy. "You piece of shit! Don't tell me you're with the bandits!?"

"Hah, hahahaha! Sure took you a while to figure that one out, Evri! You never did have a lot going on around here." He said as he tapped his forehead. "But I'm different! I knew that this outfit was going to make it big! So I did the smart thing - I joined it when it was just starting out, and now, I'm the big boss of my own crew."

The men around him started sneering.

"Alright, alright, pipe down, fellas." He then turned his attention to Sylphia. "Anyway, Miss Hero, now that I think about it," he rubbed his chin, "you've got a pretty face there, don'tcha." His lips then formed into a lecherous grin. "It'd be a shame if something were to happen to it, eh?" He then licked his lips. "But I'll save that for after me and the boys are done with you..."

A chill ran down Sylphia's spine.

Evrika stepped between them with a scowl on her face. "Bascal, you scum!" she screamed, "You're going too far!"

"Heh. You still have a chance to run away, Evri." He lifted his axe and tapped his wooden handle onto the palm of his other hand. "My business isn't with you."

Evrika smirked. "Hah, do you really think you losers stand a chance?" She pointed her thumb at Sylphia. "You're taking on a Legendary Hero, you know? In fact, I can just walk away now and watch you get your ass handed to you by a little girl!"

"Eh!?" Cold sweat formed on Sylphia's forehead. Heeeeeey! Don't even joke like that! You could get me killed, you know!?

"Right?" Evrika gave her a thumbs up and a wink.

What!? She bit into the nail of her thumb. Wait...Hold on - that idiot believed me when I said I was the Legendary Hero earlier... Maybe, if they take it at face value, they'll just run away and leave me alone! Finding her resolve, Sylphia took a deep breath, suppressing her nerves. Here goes nothing...

"Aa ahh..." Sylphia shrugged, "I don't really want to waste my time on small fry like these guys. Can't we just hurry this up and get to their boss already?" When those words left her tongue, she noticed her vision darkening slightly.

This time, instead of shaking it off, she instead reached out and swept in front of her eyes. Upon closer inspection, it was not that she was blacking out, but it seemed that a black smoke formed before her. As her arm swept into the smoke, it twisted and turned around it, clearing her vision in the space created in between. Wait, what the hell is this? She had not satisfied her curiosity when the smoke had completely dissipated. Am I seeing things...?

While Sylphia lost herself in thought, however, Bascal broke into a seething rage. "Who the fuck are you calling small fry, you fucking bitch!?"

"Eh!?" Sylphia flinched. Wait, shit, what!?

"I don't fucking care if you're the hero of what!" He yelled. "I'll fucking kill you, you cunt!"

Aaaaaah! What the fuck!? Why did it have the opposite effect this time!?

"Get ready!" Evrika yelled. One by one, the guards formed their shields beside one another, leaving no room for Sylhpia to slip back between them.

Hey hey hey heeeey! You fucking idiots! Let me through!

"We've got your back, Miss Heroine!" Aberdeen said.

I don't give a shit about my back, these assholes are gonna stab me in the front!

Finally, Bascal cried out, "Get 'em boys!"

All at once, all twelve men ran forward in a big clump, their weapons raised and pointed right at Sylphia.

With a raging tide of muscle coming from the front and an impenetrable wall of bronze in her back, the little heroine found herself stuck in a corridor of death. Oh my fucking God! I'm gonna get crushed between them! She swiveled her head around for a way out. Immediately, she came upon a narrow side street just beside them. Here it is!

"Pull back! Here!!" Sylphia yelled, dashing into the alley.

"W-what!?" Evrika hesitated.

"I said, run over here, now!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs when her vision darkened yet again.

Damnit, not now! She swept away the smoke in front of her eyes. Don't give up on me yet, you noodly armed little girl!

"Hah!? Hey!" Bascal's voice bellowed as they ran into the alley. "Come back here!"

With the guards behind her, Sylphia then shouted, "Form a shield wall!" Again, the black smoke formed. "Geez, this is annoying!" she said to herself as she brushed it away.

"Y-yes, ma'am!" the guards said.

While she was distracted with the smoke, the guards formed a single file within the alley, their shields linked side to side and their spears protruding between the tiny spaces left in between.

Sylphia's heart beat faster and faster as she heard the rumbling of the bandits' footsteps coming over the alley.

Ambush... A bunch of bandits who ambush helpless farmers for a living won't expect to be ambushed themselves!

As soon as the slightest silhouette of a person emerged from the corner, Sylphia yelled, "Advance!"

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

As she said so, every single guard took a single step forward and thrust their spear at the oncoming bandits.

In a single instant, the bandit at the very front found himself at the receiving end of a flurry of spear tips. With no time to defend himself, he was turned into a human pincushion. His arms flapped down, dropping his sword and shield onto the ground. With him suddenly stopped in his tracks, the bandits right behind him collided into him, pushing him further into the hafts of the spears.

As the guards withdrew their weapons, his body folded over as he fell, motionless, on the ground.

"Pull back! Let's go!" As Sylphia gave her command, the guards then withdrew their spears and reformed their shield line a few paces back.

Woah, these guys are pretty good! Not only are they obeying my commands, they're actually moving in sync! Are town guards in this world actually top notch!? It's like that one game I played where the NPC guards were more powerful than players to stop PKers!

"You fuckers!" Bascal screamed. "Get out of the way!" After a while, the bandits managed to stop bunching together at the corner and, finally, entered the alleyway. There, they were greeted with a full line of shields with spears protruding between them - a miniature phalanx formation. It stretched fully across the alley, the brick houses on either side precluding any possibility of a flanking attack.

"That's pretty clever," he said, "but that won't help you! Trample 'em boys!"

"Uroooogh!" With a thunderous scream, the bandits charged forward.

In the center of the mob, Bascal brandished his mighty axe. "Hahahah! You'll regret messing with me!"

As soon as they closed the distance, Sylphia held her arm out. "Spears!"

"Haha, you idiots!" The man at the very front held his shield up. "That ain't gonna work twice!"

"Uoooooh!" Aberdeen yelled as he thrust his spear as hard as he could into the thug's shield.

Crack.

"Hnnf!" The thug's shield splintered the moment it made contact with Aberdeen's spear. The steel tip then went on to pierce the man's midsection, skewering him like a kebab.

Sylphia's jaw dropped.

"What the fuck!?" All at once, the bandits' boots screeched to a halt.

"Holy shit!" Aberdeen screamed as he pulled his spear back. "The fuck just happened!?"

Clutching his stomach, the thug then fell to his knees, before finally slapping his face down onto the cold floor.

"Deen, man, what the hell!?" The guard beside Aberdeen nudged him on the shoulder. "You need to teach me your training regimen after this."

"Wha-" He winced. "No! I don't train any more than you guys!"

"Grr!" Bascal growled, his face contorting in fury, "Don't stop, you idiots!" With all his strength, he lunged forward and swung his axe at full speed onto Evrika's shield. "Rraagh!!"

Caught off guard, the force threw Evrika onto her back. "Kya!" she screamed. The attack blasted a hole into the shield wall, and right in front of Sylphia, no less. In the meantime, the rest of the guards were held up by the wave of bandits crashing against their line.

"Gahahah!" Bascal loomed over her. "You're dead now!"

Shit, they're through!

"Reform!" Sylphia screamed as she leapt backwards. "Two ranks!" The black haze appeared yet again. "Double time!"

From Sylphia's words alone, the three guards on the sides stepped back and formed another line behind the first.

"Shit!" Bascal saw this and leapt back before their spears were able to pierce his gut.

His leather boots scratched against the floor. A small trail of blood followed his step as he landed in the pool gathering around his fallen minion.

He gasped for breath.

After suffering a few injuries without inflicting any on the guards, his men soon withdrew from the melee.

"The fuck is up with these guys!?" A thug with a large scar on his cheek said, "I was told the guards here were nothing more than Lendway City rejects!"

"Shut up!" Wiping the sweat from his brow, Bascal yelled at him. "Just need a breather and then..."

"Cap!" Aberdeen helped Evrika to her feet. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah..." She patted her clothes down. "This shield won't take another one of those, though."

As soon as Evrika was back on her feet, Sylphia gave out her next orders. "Withdraw! Here!" She took a turn in the alleyway and ran in, followed closely by the guards.

"Follow them!" Bascal shouted. "Oh wait, fuck, hold on! Don't just turn that corner!"

After a short while, he peeked his head cautiously into the turn in the alley.

Already ahead by a long way, Sylphia looked back at him and sneered, "Dumbass, did you think I'd pull the same trick twice in a row? Are you retarded!?" She then stuck her tongue out at him. "Bleeeh!"

"Rrrraaagh!" Bascal growled. "After them!"

Soon, Sylphia's group cleared the alleyway, and they ran back out into the road. "Split up!" she said, and the guards ran evenly in opposite directions.

Bascal's voice echoed from within the alley. "Splitting up won't save you, little girl! We'll chase you no matter where you-"

Dumbass. She then gave her signal. "Spears! Advance!"

Immediately, the guards closed in on both sides and skewered the bandits running out from between them, killing three at a single stroke. The screams of the dying men resonated across the alleyway, terrorizing the remaining bandits.

"Well, well, well..." Sylphia walked out from behind the guards, who now closed the exit to the alley with a wall of shields and spears. "It's six versus six now..." She snickered. "I'd say we can have a fair game now, can't we?" She then drew her sword and thrust it into the chest of a dying bandit laying beside her feet. Finally, she stepped onto his face and used it as leverage as she pulled her sword back out. "Oops." Her lips twisted into a malevolent grin. "It's five versus six now, hahahahaha!"

Once more, the thick black smoke appeared around her. It was such that the alley had become painted in a deep black.

Wait, Her brows knotted together. There's only five of them left? How many have we killed so far? A cursory count of the bandits does number them at five, however. Maybe they ran away or something. Well, good for them.

"W-w-what... are you!?" Bascal whimpered, his low gruff voice dissipating into a soft, nasally tone.

"Weren't you paying attention?" Sylphia drew a cruel grin on her lips. "I'm the Heroine, Sylphia. The cutest girl in the world, and protector of cute girls, everywhere."

"W-w-what the fuck!?"

She pointed her thumb at Evrika. "And you just happened to make the mistake of messing with this cute girl when I was around."

"E-eh!?" Evrika jolted. Then, with flushed cheeks, she looked away, muttering to herself, "C-cute...?"

"So, now," Sylphia then pointed her sword at them, "who else wants their heart pierced with my love!?"

The bandits shuddered.

"Yaaaaaaaahaaaaa!!!" With a high pitched squeal, Bascal and the others ran as fast as they could and disappeared into the alleyways. They ran with such haste that some of them even dropped their weapons and even jettisoned their stolen armor while they were at it.

"W-we... won...?" Aberdeen said, with a shaky voice. "We won!"

"We won!" The guards cheered, pumping their fists in the air.

"Miss Heroine, you... you did it!" Evrika clasped Sylphia's hands. She looked as if tears were ready to stream down her eyes at any moment.

"Hmph." Sylphia smiled. "What are you talking about? I didn't even do anything." Sylphia placed her hand over Evrika's arm. "You, on the other hand, are you okay?"

"Eh? I-I..." Evrika averted her gaze. "Mm. I'm fine..."

"And by the way, you all did pretty good." She looked at each of them. "Where did you all learn to do all that?"

The guards looked at each other with a baffled expression.

"U-uh... I don't really know." Aberdeen said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

The guard beside him said, "You were really cool, though, Deen - you took out two of those guys, didn't you?"

"N-no, I didn't, that was Roger!"

"Huh?" The one at the far back turned to them. "I-I don't know, I just... you know, kapow! You know?"

"What?" The guys scratched their heads.

"W-well," he said, "It's just that, when I heard Miss Heroine's voice, I just sort of had an idea of what to do?"

"Actually, yeah, something like that." The guard beside Aberdeen patted him on the shoulder.

"Y-yeah..." Aberdeen crossed his arms and pondered.

Meanwhile, Evrika spoke with Sylphia. "You surprised me though," she said, wiping the sweat off her forehead, "Miss Heroine was pretty frightening back there..."

"Ah-" Sylphia averted her eyes. "Y-yeah... I got a bit carried away there..."

"Ehehe," she chuckled, "You sure did!"

While most of the guards were in a celebratory mood, one of them remained silent and looked to be in anguish.

"Are you hurt?" Sylphia approached him.

The soldier jolted the moment he heard Sylphia's voice. "Huh? Ah, no... no. I'm unhurt."

Hmm? What's with that reaction? That's very fishy.

"Is that so?" Sylphia laid her hand on his shoulder. "Just hang in there."

Again, the black haze appeared in front of Sylphia's eyes, the moment she said those words.

"Miss... Miss Heroine..." the guard spoke, his voice seemingly relaxed, "thank you."

Huh? What's going on with these people? Stress at work?

Her eyes met with that of a bandit lying dead on the floor.

I guess so. This probably isn't the sort of thing they do from day-to-day.

"But we aren't finished yet," Sylphia said, "You said there's even bigger trouble Northeast of town?"

"Yes," Aberdeen lowered his head. "Most of the other guards scrambled over there - it was the gate where the bandits flooded in from."

Shit... so those idiots weren't anything more than a small group? Give me a break. This is gonna be a long day.

"Alright!" Sylphia pumped her fist in the air. "Let's keep going!"

"Yeah!" The guards cheered once more.

Finally, their group headed deeper into town.

As she followed behind the guards, Sylphia felt a chill on her shoulder; an odd sensation of being watched. Even when she turned her head to look, and found that there was not a single soul behind them, the feeling would still not go away.