Akki was much faster than the intruder. He leaped forward, pointing his katana straight at the man's chest while the man hadn't even realized what was happening. The katana hit the center of his chest, piercing through chains and flesh as Akki landed his feet on the man's shoulder, pushing him to the ground. The giant noise of the body crushing the decaying floor finally knocked everyone out of their dreamland. Two more men carrying the same type of armament entered through the doorless exit. Roal even spotted another woman ambushing outside the door. People got up from the floor and their seats. Some were confused; some were cautious; some were scared.
As the two men kept approaching steadily, Akki moved backward bit by bit. Although his speed was superior to both of his enemies, they could still defeat him through elite cooperation, which Akki wasn't sure if they had. Suddenly, one of the two swung his sword at a commoner who was just watching aside. Both the Bohito and Eternian immediately understood their action. Akki, willing to risk his life, bit the bait without hesitation.
He dashed toward the falling blade, jabbing the sword off its original track before it could land on the innocent. The other man in armor instantly made a horizontal slash even before Akki could recover his katana from the jab. Not a second after sensing the air pushed forward by the slash, Akki made a backflip higher than the height of the two men, then landed firmly with his katana before him and his sandals, making a few cracks in the ground. That slash didn't even scrape Akki's kimono.
Right after the backflip, another strike was thrown at Akki. With the katana in the right position, Akki tapped the side of the coming blade, forcing it away from his body. Following that perfect deflection, he shifted his body and avoided a poke from the other man. Akki was much more nimble than the two enemies combined; nevertheless, he was at his limit. Akki was supposed to be a master in fighting multiple enemies due to his training in his childhood. However, he never got to finish those trainings.
A bolt from the woman outside the pub hit Akki's right shoulder, the shoulder he needed to hold his weapon; his blood spurted through the light red nagagi fabric and dyed it darker; his strength slipped away from his right arm. Twirl malfunctioned, and he could suddenly feel the rapid beating of his heart, which was the side effect of Twirl. His breath was no more in line. The injured Bohito could neither dodge nor parry another blow. Regardless, the next wave of attacks was coming.
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"Bang!"
A roar louder than thunder stunned the whole inn. Most people, including Akki, flinched instinctively. When that man in armor looked toward the source of the sound, he discovered his dead partner lying on the floor with a hole in the side of his head and a revolver in the hand of that old, hefty Eternian. Before the man could clear his mind from the shock, a katana went swiftly across his throat without hesitation.
"Follow me!" Roal yelled after sending a shot through the door frame. He ran out of the inn, hurrying toward his white horse in the neighboring stable. Akki followed out of the inn, stumbling while faltering, and discovered the corpse of the woman who shot him. Vaulting over the short gate of the stable, Roal then made a deft leap and had one foot stepping firmly on the stirrup. Using the momentum of the leap, Roal easily climbed up the horseback and sat on the saddle, yet Akki drained all his remaining strength just to get on the horse.
The white horse howled and shattered the rotten fence gate as it galloped out of the stable carrying two men on its back. "Yeehaw! Any plan?" asked the old Eternian.
"There is an abandoned monastery outside of the town. We can spend the night there. The soldiers and bounty hunters won't chase us there," the young Bohito infirmly asserted.
"Any further elaboration?"
"That place is infected by the monster core," Akki panted, laying the undamaged side of his body entirely on the old man's shoulder and grabbing him by the waistcoat.
"You're fucking kidding me."
The white horse carrying two pairs of tag bags and two men cantered on the abandoned path. The road wasn't paved by gravel or logs but tinted by nature's green grass and teal grass clumps. These clumps on the ground imparted that this area was infected by a monster core. Aside from the grass, the infected blue and purple leaves on the thin oak trees alongside the road were another admonishment for taking this path. The croaked squeaks and snorted grunts had already surrounded the two fugitives.
Sweat dripped off the elder's forehead, and the younger one was almost unconscious. Roal grasped the rein and clasped his revolver as tight as he could, being ready to shoot down whatever blocked his way.
"Why am I such an idiot?" he grilled himself. The smartest thing to do now was to blast this Bohito's brain out of its shell and take the bounty. Yet, he was now bringing him to safety. The only reason he ran down this path of problems was that little suspense in him, "How could a thief who stole from the vault and attempted to assassinate the town accountant care about the life of an innocent and know things about the Eternians?" He had a guess in which the whole situation was opposite to what he previously learned. He couldn't tell how possible this guess was, but he was willing to help this man out as long as there was a slight chance of those accusations being untrue. It was just like the old days when Roal was still cunning and charming.