While the three beastal men made their way down the road, they continued to defend themselves as the members of the Blue Sharks came up right at them.

Gin rip and tears every member coming right at him and Gunther blows through the riot with his giant warhammer. His warhammer is capable of even shattering a skull with a single hit. Both of their immense strength was honed through years in combat; there was not a single sign of weakness that they were lacking.

Shouya, who was still learning to use a sword, still defends himself and the other two against the dangerous thugs, only this time, with both Gin and Gunther by his side. He had learned his previous mistake that he almost got himself killed. Now he had to control his temper, didn't recklessly charge head on, and never go alone.

If they continue to stay close to each other, they become unstoppable.

“Man, how many they’re gonna pop up?”

“Who knows. But the more they keep coming, the more I’m having fun!”

Man, these two sure know their way of ‘fun’.

“Ah!”

As he breaks out from thinking, Shouya sees a man on the rooftop on the right of him, carrying a red Magi-gem in hand. The red Magi-gem emits a large fireball from the thug’s hand and fires it at Shouya.

“Got ya boy!”

In a quick moment, Gin’s large greatsword blocks the fireball, protecting both him and Shouya from the fireball. The sword was just big enough to protect two people from harm. Gin counterattacks by launching the large tip of the sword by the chains and cuts the thug in half.

The chain has a supreme long range up to forty feet long, almost as half as running to first base of a baseball field. After Gin struck down the thug, the chain automatically reeled itself and returned his sword to its original form.

“Damn. Didn’t expect they would bring out casters. But at the same time, I’m not surprised.”

“Don’t you think it’s time for a retreat?”

“No can do. We’ve already come this far, it’s too late to turn back now!”

One by one, more Blue Sharks members arrived on the battlefield, challenging the three men who had killed their comrades. The three of them were outnumbered by a long shot. There were too many forces they could hold off. But Gin, Gunther, and even Shouya held their ground.

“Everyone, charge!”

They heard a person shouted from the top of a building, and as that person called out, a large crowd of people, who were bearing arms, attacked the Blue Shark members. They were the citizens of Vincilos who have been living here defending their home.

“…No way.”

Shouya was in disbelief when he saw the people of Vincilos were actually helping them. He didn’t think it was possible, but it was all true. Shouya and the others couldn’t help but cheer in glee when reinforcements came in to help them.

“Hell yeah! Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!”

“Boss!”

Ah, it’s them!

In the midst of everything that was happening, he saw the two familiar beast-men approaching Shouya and the others. They were the same guys who were in front of the store when he first met him.

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“We saw what was going on, so we gathered the people to help us fight.”

“Never thought you would take arms once more, boss.”

“I could say the same thing to you two. But none of that is important! They got my son and I need to defeat the leader to get him back.”

“Say no more boss! We’ve got you covered. Oh, look what we have here. Good to see you again, kid.”

After understanding the situation, their eyes turned to Shouya. They recognized him when they first met him from the store where Clugil and co. was invading Enna’s flower shop. Now they see him once again with himself armed with armor and a weapon.

“So you’re helping out our boss once again, huh? Well, an ally of our boss is an ally of us. We’ll make way for you three to get where you’re headed.”

“Ah, thank you!”

“Don’t thank us, we owe you one. Now follow us! Everyone, make a path for the boss and his team!”

With the help from the two beast-men and the people of Vincilos, they were able to fight off against the Blue Sharks and make a path for them. The people of Vincilos were not forced to fight, they chose to fight. They chose to defend their homes, defend their honor, and defend their loved ones and the people that are close to them.

Shouya looked at the expressions of the citizens that are fighting the Blue Sharks. They didn’t regret the choice that they made, in fact, they were happy; happy to defend someone that they care about, as if they were given a bit of hope, a reason to fight for.

They followed the path that the people made and made their way through with both the two beast-men in front. One was wielding two giant shields while the other was using a crossbow to shoot them from targets that are out of range. The beast-man with the crossbow shot targets that were from the rooftops while the beast-man with the shields defends his allies while both Gin and Gunther goes in for the counterattack.

These aren’t just ordinary people, they are well-trained veterans who know how to fight.

Even though they were fighting for their lives and with a purpose, Shouya was the only one who was left out and feeling useless that he couldn’t do anything. Gin took notice of this and approached him as they ran down the road.

“Feeling tense?”

“Oh, uh, I guess a little…”

“Heh, don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.”

It was a nonchalant response from Gin. He was used to getting fights like this, and it’s not something new to him since he was a war veteran. But to Shouya, that wasn’t the case.

“Say, Shouya.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“You’ve got something on your mind. If it’s something that you wanna say, it’s better to say it now before we fight the leader.”

“Ah—”

Shouya didn’t expect Gin saying something like that out of nowhere. It was a strange thing to say considering the situation they’re in. However, he did want to say something to him, and he asked the question.

“Is there…something in the past that you regret?”

“Huh? Something that I regret? Hmm…”

Gin closed his eyes and sat his chin onto his fingers as he browsed into his memories. He’s been through his entire life in the Silver Moon fighting, there has to be something that he had regretted in the past before.

“Honestly, there was nothing that I had regretted.”

“Huh?”

“Or to be more specific, I don’t remember what I did in the past that I regretted. If I did something wrong before, I would go back in time and fix the mistakes that I made. But that’s in the past. There’s no use trying to change what can’t be done.”

“I see…”

“But it’s such a strange question to ask about that. Why’s that?”

Shouya gave a surprising “oh” after Gin asked him a question. Gin was curious about why he asked such a deep topic. Was he curious about Gin’s past, or was it something that Shouya had regretted and couldn’t forgive himself?

“It’s because I—”

“Look out!”

Before Shouya could finish what he said, the beast-man with the crossbow warned them and shot the Blue Sharks’s member in the head with a bolt before attempting to cut Shouya down. He was lucky enough that he was saved, otherwise he would be killed right there.

Gin turned to the beast-man who shot the bolt and shouted “Hey, thanks bro!” with a thumbs up before turning back to Shouya.

“What were you going to say?”

“I, uhh...nevermind. I’ll tell you after we’re done fighting. Let’s go save Jakki!”

“Oh, right! I nearly forgot about that! Let’s move!”

Their conversation ends as they make a mad dash down the road, passing through the fights around them.