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New Paris [a Modern-day LitRPG]
V1 - C24 - Pawn to E7

V1 - C24 - Pawn to E7

“Do you remember the plan?”

“Yes. Don’t engage first, don’t hurt anyone too badly. Wait for you to get proof for the police.” Cain summarised our plan, as we walked down the stairs of my apartment building.

I had called the police, explaining the situation to them. But they told me they couldn’t do anything unless I was actually getting attacked. After finding out I was a high ranker, which was not information I was eager to reveal, they completely dismissed the case, telling me that I should not occupy the police line with business I could handle myself. Before I had the time to argue, they had hung up the phone.

“Where to?” Cain asked.

“Downtown, under a bridge. The promenade should be empty at this hour.”

“Are you sure that’s the best idea?”

“No. But the only alternative is an alleyway, or a parking lot.” I replied.

Truth be told, I was anxious. As we walked down the streets, heading towards the Seine, I clenched onto my sword with anxiety. Truly, this situation could not have been further from how I imagined my life to be. Yes, the infiltration mission had also been stressful in its own way, but damn; I had lived in Paris most of my life, even before I had reincarnated in this world, so it felt all that more out of place. Being stalked and attacked by some strangers, using others it fight my battles; the only thing that did match up with my previous life was the fact that the police refused to intervene unless someone was being murdered under their eyes.

The irony of this whole situation was that it matched up almost perfectly with the setting of ‘immortal immorality’, and many other eastern novels. With all these nonsensical fights between overpowered people in an urban setting, I could almost see myself as a protagonist of one of these stories. Except that with my skillset, I felt more fit to fill the role of that one NPC who always stood to the side, and cheered for the actual protagonist.

“There’s a bridge there.” Cain spoke as we approached Pont Solferino.

“Are we still being followed?” I asked.

Cain nodded.

“More than one person as well, if I’m not mistaken.” He said.

“Then let’s not keep them waiting.”

----------------------------------------

“Remember us, bitch?” A familiar voice spoke, as a lightly-dressed woman with a long dagger in each hand leapt from the bridge and onto the road below it.

“No. You’ve never seen me before.” I calmly replied, relying on my skills t do the rest.

“That trick worked once, but not twice Mademoiselle de la Sablonnière.” A man spoke as he joined his teammate on the promenade.

Unlike the woman, he had taken the designated stairway that linked this spot to the road above. Although he wasn’t wearing the same jacket, there was no doubt this was the same man who’d thrown an icicle at me. I had no doubts that Cain could easily take this duo down, but what worried me is that he called me by my last name, the one I had worked so hard to conceal. Could these thugs be linked to my father, I wondered.

“What trick?” I asked with an innocent tone. “I assure you, we’ve never met before.”

The woman raised her weapons in a guard, and the man took a more defensive stance as well. I put my hand over the hilt of my sword, ready to draw it at a second’s notice, and spoke:

“No truly, you should consider a different carer path, if attacking young women is all you do for a living.”

“Stop provoking them.” Cain hissed at me.

He was right, of course, but the part of me responsible for reasonable decisions had gone into hiding the second I had left my flat this evening. This tension, and the promise of a good fight were exhilarating. I could feel my own heartbeat resonate within my blade, ready to attack, ready to fight.

“Now, now,” A third voice which I did not recognise, resonated in the tight space between the river and the floodwall, “We have all had a go at doing things our way, and it seems you have picked up on our little scheme. I would expect nothing less of a daughter of the great Lord Vincent de la Sablonnière.”

A figure appeared, as if materializing out of thin air, a few meters away from me and next to the duo. They wore an elegant black cloak which covered all of their features, with just a few strands of ginger hair peeking from under their hood.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” They said, with a bow.

Gerald Leblanc

He/Him

32

B

Illusionist

Discord Bringer

Song of Anthemoessa

Confusion

Soul Mirror

Foresight

Mists of Dawn

luck

26/100

MP

77/100

Strength

9

Dexterity

12

Constitution

10

Intelligence

13

Wisdom

11

Charisma

12 = 10+2 (flair and a penchant for the dramatic)

“Pleasure.” I replied dryly. “Since you seem to be just a tad more well-mannered than your friends, could you also tell me why you so desperately tried to kill me the other day, in the park?”

“Ah,” Gerald smirked, “Well, that I am afraid I cannot do. But as a gesture of goodwill, I shall offer you a gift.”

He extended a hand forward and opened his palm to reveal an antique watch with a crystal cover. Then, in a very elegant movement, he turned his hand, allowing the watch to slowly slide, and drop to the floor.

Cain rushed in front of me, to block a potential explosion, as I myself dropped to my knees and covered my head, expecting the same thing. But nothing of the sort came. The watch hit the ground with a soft bang, and the crystal on its top silently shattered.

Artefact-enabled anti-magic field in effect

Triggers for passive skills no longer exist

MP cost of Active skills double

MP regeneration rate halved

Triggers for luck regeneration no longer exist

“That evens the field a little, wouldn’t you say?” Gerald said with a smirk.

“You just shot yourself in the foot.” I retorted as I got back.

I remembered such artefacts from the book. Although they were rare and powerful, the kind of artefacts that needed to be broken to activate typically had a zone effect, with teleportation stones being one of the only exceptions. Hence, this group had lost its advantage by hampering both their casters. I wondered if they did this because they thought I was a caster myself.

In the end, it didn’t matter, because I didn’t have much combat skills, to begin with, and none of those effects seemed like they could seriously hamper Cain.

The kid looked up at me. Although his expression seemed a bit worried, he nodded at me before confirming:

“This shouldn’t be an issue.”

“You little fuckers-” The woman exclaimed, as she launch at me.

Cain easily blocked her attack. Using her knives as a pivot point, he leapt in the air behind her, and shifted into his wolf form, before letting his full weight drop onto her.

Her buddy, the ice elementalist, yelped and took a few steps back. Clearly he hadn’t expected that.

The woman shoved Cain off her, as they engaged in proper one on one combat. It was obvious from the way he moved that Cain wasn’t really giving his all, and as the elementalist cast his icicle-projectile spell, the blood-red wolf easily blocked it.

In that moment, I should have called the police. I had my phone in my pocket, easily within reach. And I knew the three digits I had to dial. But –

The blade in my hand felt so warm, so right. The enemies were weakened, so this was my chance, if not to kill or wound, then at least to practice-

I launched towards the man in the cape. My white blade shimmered under the orange eyes of the streetlights; it reflected a smile that wasn’t my own.

The Illusionist actually took a few steps back, and to the side, hoping to avoid both my blade and the cold water of the Seine. My sword came so close to his face, but just as it was about to make contact, a dull end of an axe pushed it away.

“Not a second too late, am I?” The new arrival asked.

I snapped my head and found myself facing a bulky man. His tattoo-covered chest was less than a meter away from me. He grinned, and swung his axe back, making me leap away from the weapon.

“I had to tie some loose ends, although some brat seemed to have done most of the work for me.” He informed the cloaked man, as he swung his axe back over his shoulder. “But I am now all yours.” He turned towards me with an amused smile.

The last thing I managed to notice, before we engaged in an elaborate game of wack-a-mole, for lack of a better word, was the fact that his trousers were eerily similar to those police officers wore.

----------------------------------------

I performed a series of jumps, nearly avoiding the battle-axe swinging at me. Thankfully due to the weapon’s size and weight, its movements were easy to predict, although not always easy to dodge. Yet, despite the anti-magic field in effect, I felt surprisingly light on my feet.

But I needed to stay focused and not get too cocky. I wasn’t sure what the aim of this axe-man was, but either he was very unskilled, or, more likely, he was doing the same thing Cain did in that Park, and was trying to tire me out.

So, I had to counterattack.

After carefully calculating his movements (he only had 4 or so different swings), I dashed towards him, aiming to slice at his neck. He grabbed his weapon with both hands, using it to block my movement.

My body moved on its own as I too grabbed the handle of the axe, and used it to partially rotate under it, and slice at his head. The wound closed up right away, not leaving enough time for blood to appear at the surface of the skin.

I was too slow to back away, perhaps too taken by my small victory. The man shoved me away, using the handle of his weapon. I lost balance, and fell to the ground, less than two meters away from him.

Next thing I knew, the axe was falling toward my head, and I had no choice but to roll out of the way. But he didn’t leave me a chance to get up, swinging from above once more, and forcing me to move in the direction of the rest of his party. After a third swing, in a moment of desperation, I launched myself forward, nearly avoiding his blade, and slashed at his legs. That had been a coward move, even by my standards. But it gave me the split-second I needed to jump up to my feet.

As I got up, my back met with Cain’s who had retaken his half-wolf, half-human form.

“Let’s switch targets.” He hastily muttered.

I didn’t have the time to reply, as he pushed me aside, making me spin to face the duo from that alley.

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“Heh, you really think you can take us with your fancy knife? Well guess what, mine are longer.” The woman said with a sadistic expression before launching herself at me.

I wasn’t sure how, but I parried her attack with ease. Both her daggers slid off my blade. She didn’t relent though and tried again. And again. I shoved the dagger towards her, with the dull end of my blade, then I yanked my sword upwards, making her lose balance.

“René do something you useless bum!” She called out, as she took a few steps back to reassess the situation.

My glance shifted between the two of them. I couldn’t be sure where to expect an attack from next.

It came from a place I expected the least, as suddenly something cold hit me from behind, making me topple over.

Luck - 6

“Shit.” I swore, as I found myself on the ground once more.

I jumped back up, but I couldn’t avoid a dagger slicing through my chest.

Luck - 25

“Fuck you lady. Who are you trying to impress with those boobs anyway?” I swore through the pain, hoping that the snarky comment would somehow make it better.

“What, you jealous?” She laughed. “Well, I can give you the name of a good surgeon, although it’s your face that’ll need to be worked on.”

I raised my blade in a guard up before my head, blocking another attack. With my blade up in the air, I caught the reflection of a large chunk of ice heading straight for my head.

I ducked out of the way, not a second too soon.

“René what are you trying to start?” The woman spat, as she easily sliced through the incoming icicle.

“I’m sorry, I just-” The man mumbled, and took a step back.

Perhaps it was the anti-magic zone, or the fact that he was getting yelled at by his teammate, but he seemed extremely nervous. More so than when we had met in the alleyway.

I knew what I had to do from there.

When the woman finally returned her attention to me, and just as she launched a double attack, one from above and one from below with each of her blades, I jumped to the side, and dashed towards the elementalist.

Before anyone, me included, could realise what was going on, I had impaled him through the heart.

He spasmed, and tried to move away. I saw droplets of blood form around my immaculately white sword. I could feel his body heat being slowly absorbed into the sword, as his heartbeat resonated through the metal, getting slower and slower with each passing second.

MP + 30

The woman yelled something before launching a quick succession of attacks at me. I didn’t even turn my head towards her, as my right hand, the one with the bloodied blade moved in a position where it could block all the attacks at once.

I watched as the man fell to his knees, as his head hit the ground, and as a small puddle of blood began spreading from under him. It was as if time had stopped. His back was moving up and down, ever so gently. But it wouldn’t have taken me much to stop him from breathing at all.

He wasn’t my immediate concern though. I stepped away from the woman, letting both my arms fall to my side, inviting her to come closer. She seemed to hesitate. There was something in her eyes, something that made her look more like an animal crossing a busy highway, rather than a human. But that look vanished to leave place to a neutral expression.

We began our dance. Two blades against one, black quillon dagger clashing with the white wakizashi. In a battle such as this, the winner could not be determined through skill alone, as both were limited in the domain of swordsmanship. One was bound by spells and magic, binding her ability to that of the one who pulled her strings. The other was holding a proper blade for the third time in her life and, to make matters worse, was not wielding it with intent to kill.

But that did not matter to me, as in situations like these, what determined the outcome of the altercation was the skill not of the fighters, but that of the blacksmiths who had forged their blades. Just as easily as I had pierced the heart of that man, I waited for an opening and planted the metal that burned under my touch into the exposed chest of this woman. She had the presence of mind to jump away, causing herself more harm in the process, but what was done, was done, and I let her return to her wounded companion.

MP + 25

With the corner of my eye, I watched as she tended to the man, ignoring her own wound. But I no longer cared about her, as my attention turned towards the other two challengers. The illusionist still had that amused look on his face. He no doubt thought that the cards were still in his favour. And they might have been, had I myself been a caster. But I ignored his smug face for now. If he were able to attack me, or my ally, he would have done so already. But it seemed whatever item, or spell, he’d used to make his party immune to my own abilities had rendered him unable to target us.

So, I rushed towards the child.

He was struggling to maintain his animal-like form, no doubt running low on MP.

“Why are you still here?” He asked, eyes full of worry, as I approached him.

“Stay still.” I ordered.

“What-”

I stabbed him in the chest with the tip of my blade.

MP - 67

He looked at me in shock, before leaping away. But the wound wasn’t deep enough to cause any permanent damage or to significantly bring down his Luck.

“Are you betraying your own allies now?” The man with the axe asked, before taking a swing at me.

I easily dodged out of the way and made my way towards the remains of the artefact. If I were to destroy it, I would become close to useless again.

Behind me, the child had finally realised what I had done, and shifting into his wendigo form, engaged again in combat with the axe-man.

“What- I don’t understand.” The illusionist mumbled in confusion.

“Right.” I turned towards him. “I forgot you were there.”

“No, don’t come-”

I rammed into him, pushing him into the river. I waited a few painfully long seconds for him to resurface and start swimming towards the ladder that led out of the water. He hadn’t directly attacked me, so he didn’t deserve anything beyond mild inconvenience.

I headed back towards the artefact and kneeled beside it. With a heavy sigh of regret, I lifted my weapon above my head, readying myself to drop it onto the artefact. I would have needed a magnifying glass to see all the runes that made up this complex and intricate item, but I didn’t deem it necessary to bother with finding that initial rune that had been engraved into it. The worst thing that could happen to me was a swift return to my cosy apartment.

“No don’t!” The child yelled as he dashed towards me, with inhuman speed.

He tackled me to the ground, and out of the way before I had had the time to react.

“You said you’d call the police, that you needed evidence! that – What- ”

His eyes were wide, and his breathing irregular. He struggled to formulate even simple coherent sentences. I supposed it had something to do with his blood-covered hands, and the half-dead man laying a few meters away.

But he had a point. That had been the plan, hadn’t it? With all the excitement of the fight, I had forgotten all about it. That was a mistake I couldn’t afford to continue making.

“Yes, you are – you’re right.” I slowly spoke.

----------------------------------------

It took a hot second for the gravity of everything that had transpired here to sink in.

I gently pushed Cain aside, as I reached for my phone and dialled ‘112’. I waited for the voice on the other side to finish with their usual politeness, before reporting in a flat tone.

“I’m under the Solferino bridge. There was a fight. Two adults are seriously injured. One is mildly injured and-”

I looked at Cain. Other than that persistent weary look in his eyes, and the blood coating his hands, I could not see any injuries. But then again, he somehow managed to smudge blood all over his face, and clothes, so it was hard to tell. I also hadn’t forgotten about the injury I myself had inflicted on him.

“Mademoiselle? Mademoiselle? Are you yourself injured?” The voice on the other side of the phone instantly asked.

“Yes…” I distractedly replied. “I am all right. But you need to send an ambulance.”

“All right, help is on its way. Can you tell me more about what kind of fight it was?”

My eyes drifted once more to the scene around me. I couldn’t summarise it in a handful of words even if I wanted to.

“Madmoiselle, are you still there?”

“There was an artefact used, to create a non-magic zone.” I said before hanging up the phone.

I took a second to breathe in, then out, trying to calm myself down. Then I turned to Cain. I wanted to ask if he was okay, and whose blood that was that he was covered in, but part of me also wanted to tell him to go home and wait for my return there. If the police were to arrive, and ask how we were related, or how he’d gotten here, that would be a problem.

But having a blood-covered child running through the city could be a problem in of its own.

“Well, at least you have had the decency to call an ambulance.” A male voice spoke somewhere on my left.

I slowly lifted my head, only to meet eyes with that illusionist. He was soaking wet, and slightly shivering from the autumn’s cold, but that annoying smug look had returned to his face.

Cain and I had the same idea. Although the boy was quicker to execute it. He jumped up, and dashed towards the man, before punching him in the face.

“Ow, ow, ow…” He muttered as he rubbed his nose.

That gave me enough time to come up to him, and whack him in the neck with the hilt of my katana. He fell to his knees but didn’t lose consciousness. Another hit, at the base of his skull this time, finished the job.

“What now?” Cain asked as he glanced around, no doubt trying to see if there were any threats left.

The only person who was still conscious was that woman. She didn’t so much as look up when I knocked down the illusionist, too busy maintaining pressure on the chest of her companion, whom she’d turn over.

“The police will be here soon.” I said. “If you want to go home, you can. I need to stay. It will look worse if I leave too. But you might get into trouble if you get involved.”

“I’ve already gotten involved.” Cain replied with a flat tone.

I nodded, dismissively. If push really did come to shove, I could always call my father and ask him for help. If his money wouldn’t get us out of this, his reputation no doubt would. But that would go against the one thing I had been working towards; independence from him, and lack of ties with the characters from the novel. But that bridge had been crossed when I went to Geneva.

Suddenly a very obvious thought came to my mind. These people had some sort of link to my father. I knew I had already done enough harm, but, I reckoned I could at least try and ask some questions before the police got here.

I slowly headed towards the woman, since she was the only one currently able to answer questions. I felt a tug at my shirt. When I looked around, Cain was holding the end of the fabric, with a fearful look on his face.

“What are you going to do?” He asked.

His voice was quiet, to the point where it was hard to hear. For a brief second, I wondered why someone like him would try to stop me, of all people, from interrogating that woman. Did he think I was going to harm her?

“I’m just going to ask a few questions.” I softly replied.

“Like hell you are.” The woman swore in a sour tone.

“The police and ambulance are on their way. So you’ll have to answer questions eventually.” I turned towards her.

She locked eyes with me. Although there were still traces of that fierce look of someone who knew and understood the superiority of their abilities, her eyes were now filled with a mixture of fear and worry. I glanced at Cain, then at the battered man laying a few meters behind us. That was truly a fear-inducing sight. But I had seen it before, in that lab, so perhaps that was why I was feeling strangely detached from the situation.

“Who sent you?” I asked.

The woman didn’t reply. She only glared at me. Thankfully Cain had picked up on the situation, and shifted into his half-wolf form before taking a few steps forward, and ordering:

“Answer the question.”

The woman looked away and bit her lower lip. Her hands were still applying pressure on the chest of the elementalist, and, as she was kneeling beside that man, she was as defenceless as one could be. Cain took a few more small steps forward, stopping just outside of the range of her daggers, if she were to decide to pick them up again. He extended a claw forward, in a threatening manner.

“Speak.” He ordered.

I couldn’t fail to notice that his own voice was shaking ever so slightly.

The heavy silence brought on by the refusal of this woman to talk was suddenly pierced by distant police sirens. We were running out of time.

Just as I was about to give up, and tell Cain to clean himself up a little, before the arrival of the cops, the woman finally spoke:

“There was an American man. I don’t know who he was, who he worked for, nothing of that. He offered me and René money. Not a lot, but he told us it was a low-risk job. That you were weak and had no skills. We were to capture you, but there was a bonus if we got you dead. I don’t know the other three. We only met with them two days ago. That smartass nominated himself our leader, and came up with this plan. René was against it. I should have listened. The money really wasn’t that good-”

“Why did that man want me dead?” I asked, before she had had the time to side-track once more.

She shook her head.

“I don’t know. I didn’t care either. In our line of work-” She paused. “But he didn’t tell us you were a high ranker. And he didn’t say anything about the kid.”

The police sirens were getting louder and louder. It wasn’t long until they’d debark on the promenade, and take all of them away, first to the hospital, then to jail.

The woman looked up, and locked eyes with me once more.

“You might be one strong and evil bitch, but you’ve messed with the wrong people. That man wasn’t very resourceful, but he was determined. I’ve been in this line of work longer than you’ve been alive, so take my word for it when I say his kind is the most dangerous out there.”

“What did he look like?” I asked.

I wondered if it could be one of the characters from the novel. Although I wouldn’t think of any reason for them to hire hitmen instead of doing the job themselves or any reason for them to know of my existence at all –

“Nobody move!” A voice called from the street above the bridge.

Two police cars, and three ambulances had just arrived at the scene. They were also accompanied by a yellow car the markings on which I did not recognize, but I assumed to be some sort of swat team that dealt with artefacts (there wasn’t much else it could be).

“Cain,” I turned towards him.

“I’ll hide.” He said, seemingly having understood my intentions without me needing to say a word.

Or perhaps he was scared of the crowd of cops and paramedics that ran down to meet us on the promenade. Either way, he was long gone by the time a cop had run up to me to arrest me.

----------------------------------------

“And were there any other assailants?” The cop, who’d introduced herself as ‘Orianne Delvaux’ over half an hour ago asked.

“No, like I have been telling you, there were only those four. And perhaps a fifth, but I didn’t see them, as they were following me around town.”

“Then how do you know that there was a fifth?” Orianne asked.

“I knew that there was someone following me, but I didn’t see any details.” I said.

I had to stay as vague as I could, unfortunate, with certain questions, as I didn’t want to bring up Cain. I couldn’t straight up-lie either, since Orianne was an Oracle who specialized in these kinds of interrogations. Her ‘social interpreter’ sub-class seemed to be custom-made for her line of work.

“Aright, I’ll drop that for now. Let’s go back to these four people. Are you sure you have no prior connections with them, especially Mathieu?”

“Who?”

Truly, with everything going on, I could not be bothered to remember any of their names.

“Mathieu Boucher. The Weaponsmith.”

“Oh, right.” I could have figured that out by process of elimination since he was the only one whose name I didn’t know. “No, I have never seen them anywhere, as far as I can recall. I was stopped by an officer for an ID check a few weeks ago, but that was definitely not him.”

“Hmmm…” Orianne scribbled something down in a notepad.

She seemed unsure of where to take this line of questioning next.

After they apprehended me, by which I mean after they handcuffed me and took me aside, on the promenade, to question me, they quickly realized that I was not a threat, nor a flight risk (all thanks to Orianne and her skills). So, they uncuffed me and left me with Orianne for a one-on-one discussion.

I had tried explaining everything to her, but with the stress of the situation, and physical exhaustion slowly catching up to me, I had struggled to put coherent thoughts together. Which was why this woman was slowly walking me through everything I had said.

“And the Americana man,” I spoke, bringing the cop’s attention back onto me. “I don’t know who that can be. Will you be looking into it?”

“You said he hired them to kill you?”

“Yes.”

“That sounds a bit extreme.” Orianne dryly stated.

“I’m telling the truth.” I insisted, knowing that the cop knew that already. “They were trying to kill me.”

“Listen…” Orianne looked at me with a compassionate smile. “I know this must have been a very stressful situation for you, and I am not doubting your honesty, you did call us after all. But-” She paused, trying to think of how to phrase her next words nicely. “You are what you are, and at the end of the day they are the ones getting shipped to the hospital, and not you.”

“But they were the ones to attack me!” I almost snapped at the cop. “All I did was defend myself!”

Orianne nodded.

“We will be looking into that as well. All that I ask of you, on behalf of the police department, is that in the future you call us before starting this kind of ordeal.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but my mind went blank with outrage, as I could not think of a single thing to say.

“Is it because I am an S ranker?” I asked when I finally regained a bit of composure.

“I’m sorry, I can’t comment on the subject.” Orianne replied, but her face said it all.

“Then if you don’t have any more questions, can I go home?” I asked with a flat tone.

“Yes, we will contact you if the need arises.” She nodded.

----------------------------------------

I headed back, under the bridge, and up the stairway that led to the main road. I noticed the magic bomb-team, or whoever they were, was still there, despite having deactivated the artefact almost as soon as they’d arrived. The police team was also busy taking pictures of all the bloodstains and other traces of the fight. I doubted they’d ever study them in any way though, if their attitude towards me was anything to go by.

As I stepped off the stairway and onto the sidewalk proper, I took in a deep breath of cold air. My mind was scrambled, like an egg for lack of a better comparison. I wasn’t sure what to think about anything anymore, and I felt as if I was about to shut down emotionally any second.

But first I needed to find Cain.

Thankfully the boy popped from an alleyway, the second I crossed the street.

We silently walked towards my apartment. The streets were too empty for anyone to notice us, and both of us were too tired to care if we did in fact get noticed.

“I’m sorry.” Cain suddenly spoke.

His voice was quiet, and void of that usual touch of sarcasm.

“Whatever for?” I asked, matching his tone.

“The fight. I miscalculated. I thought I could take them on, but my MP ran out so fast. I thought it would be fine, it was always fine before, but they all had such diverse types of weapons… I wasn’t prepared.” He explained in a steady voice.

I smiled, with a smile that didn’t reach my eyes, and patted him on the head. At that moment, that was all I was capable of, between the emotional exhaustion and my sore limbs.

[https://i.imgur.com/GfBl0kA.png]