If there’s one thing I’m better at than falling, it’s getting up. Something I showed once more as I rolled away from the newly made hole in the wall and got up in a hurry. No one other than me could react after the shock of having one of their allies attack the saints too, so there was no resistance as I moved on.

All left was shouting with my all and then running away.

“Well done, Mr. Lothuth, now let us leave before they overwhelm us!”

My shout made all start moving again. The dark guards rushed towards us while the ones not wounded in the explosion went to help the ones who did. Only the angry dwarf didn't move right away, instead turning to me with anger in his eyes as I fled through the path of boxes.

“Come back here, you wuss!” He barked, blindly firing another explosive shot at my cover as he did, which luckily exploded far enough from me. It still got some damage, but I was fine. I could also hear him moving the lever of his rifle again, though, so it was only 'for now'.

“How dare you betray us, dwarf! You’re putting this whole plan at risk here…”

Another explosion happened way too close to comfort almost exactly where I was projecting my voice after this. It even made me get a barrier up, which wasn’t good considering how much mana I burned already. I still had a lot, but it would run out in time, and I didn’t like the risk.

If it wasn’t for the approaching steps in the other room, I would be in real trouble here.

“Don’t pretend to know me! And you all there, not another step.” The dwarf continued to talk as I moved away while peeking a glance at him, seeing the burly small man holding a pistol in one hand and his rifle in the other, one towards my cover and the other towards the guards. “Hear me out, that’s all a trick. We have to…”

But before he could defuse the situation or even explain anything, all eyes went to an unexpected powerful spell at the exit of the storeroom. A spell circle I’ve seen before and the person who was waiting for her chance to literally shine for a while now.

“Time to run, dimwit!” Elen shouted as I closed my eyes and got everything on running, feeling the heat very close to me and the blinding light all around. It was followed by the explosion of the little items I left behind as they heated up, but I could ignore these... Just the people screaming behind me couldn't.

All in all, a very well-timed strike, as expected from the rogue princess.

Too wide of a strike, though. It was something I thought last time, but she should concentrate on these attacks of hers more. If it could cause this much damage as is, imagine if she made it a proper laser… Maybe it would’ve managed to do more to the dwarf than burn a lot of his beard and make his armor red, at least.

“Stupid bullshit…”

“You’re not fleeing from me!” The smoking dwarf in red-hot plate shouted with even more anger than anything before. And he was turning with his guns to me too… Which was a terrible idea for him.

Two small explosions came soon after, one from the shots being fired and one from when the weapons failed and blew up. That's overheating for you.

I still had to defend myself with some barriers in a hurry, and the impact flung me across the room, but this exchange was mine. He wasn't down yet, but he wouldn't be able to go after us right away. The dark guards walking through the fire were more worrying on that front.

What the hell are these guys?! At least their sights were on the dwarf right now, and he seemed to notice that.

As for me, I still had to get up again. I had some help, though.

“You crazy dumbass! Are you fine?” Elen gave me a hand and started to drag me to the door. I could still hear the dwarf shout something before we left, but he soon had to deal with the guards and we were on the clear.

They would be here anytime now, but the dwarf was still recovering and all else was in full chaos, so we would be able to flee. Especially when I heard noises coming from further away. Noises that were likely the sign Cal and Eve started their part of the plan too.

I guess they took the explosions as the sign to start. Now we only had to rendezvous with them somehow. If it wasn't for the fact I got a little more wounded than expected, that wouldn't be a problem at all, but nothing I can do about that.

I could move fine even if my head was faint already, so that was fine. Things that shouldn't be there were coming back and I couldn't focus a lot, though. Other than that, all I had were some cuts and small burns on the less protected parts of my body. A small piece of wood got stuck in my arm too, but I just took this one away and gulped my one regeneration potion.

Would worsen the faintness, but it would help with all else. All would be fine as long as I didn't waste time anyway. I would be keeping some barriers around just in case from now on, though. Even if it would end up burning my limited mana, getting more wounds would take me down.

So, after leaving the focus of the noise, me and Elen went on running away as fast as we could.

“Looks like things are going fine...” I started to talk to help keep my limited sanity going, but my next words were interrupted almost right away. “Thanks for the...”

“Illia!” The princess shouted and tackled me, sending us rolling on the floor as I heard the sound of metal cutting through stone... Something I never wanted to do.

And as I got up a little after Elen did so, I finally got what had happened here.

Elen was wounded and standing in a fighting stance right in front of me while the dark-armored figure was walking slowly towards us. It was the same one I saw warning the dwarf before, but he seemed to lack the hurry from before. He even stopped to recover the crooked dark blade that got stuck in the wall close to where I was before.

It was also the likely cause of the wound of my ally. The trail of blood and the shallow but dark cut on her leg were dead giveaways, at least. This wound seemed to affect her more than it should, though.

It was also very vexing that our foe seemed to be playing with us here. Especially since he wounded my partner while at it… All things I couldn't let pass.

“I see you survived, but I don’t remember your name, Mr. Cooked.” I snarked in a try to get some reaction while the guy waited for me. “How was the bath back then? Too hot?”

“Are you so scared you can’t take things seriously, duchess?” He answered without showing much reaction other than drawing a common sword from his back. “To think you managed to take me down like this…”

“It’s called being good,” I answered while ignoring the nagging truth behind his words. “You could try it from time to time, not that you could ever be as perfect as I am...”

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While I was talking, I tried to be sure of Elen’s state and fighting capabilities, also using the time to think how long we would need to hold for Eve. Answering them as 'not good' and 'some five minutes' soon after. Neither of which were good answers.

At least Elen's expression as she fixed her posture still made me feel she could fight. It made me less unsure of what to do, at least. However, unless I gave up on both of us leaving this place, getting him down in a timely fashion wasn't reasonable. Holding out was the best I could do.

Luckily, I’m very good at talking and wasting time.

"You know what, since you decided to show how much of a sore loser you are, I'm not against cooking you again."

“Sigh… Losing against you may be the darkest event in my life. Losing the chance to raise all the ranks in a single move and then getting marked forever for it, and all due to someone who has luck and nothing more.” He answered in an eerily calm tone while walking closer to us. “I hoped you would bring something more, but there was nothing there. Just blind luck and petty tricks. To believe someone like this is considered a hero… At least I can use you to recover my fame.”

“I’ll let you try, and after we’re done here, I’ll give you another bath for good measure.” I continued with the same act, and as I thought, he finally reacted after I pressed the right points. “Now move on, Sir Barbecue, and let’s see who’s spitting hotter… Though I guess you do have an advantage in this.”

He was angry, I could feel it, but it wasn’t enough to make him go berserk. At most, it gave us a few seconds. Not perfect, but any help was some help. It made me feel we had a chance even if only for a moment.

“I’m done with the talking, and I guess you two are done with your little strategy meeting, so…” The dark armor spoke up, vanishing from my sight the next moment after a charge that was almost too fast for me to react. “Time to be done with it, girl.”

The normal short blade came down in a full downward swing that only didn’t kill me right away because I had my emergency barrier up since before. All I could do against it was hold out and fly backward before rolling away from the follow-ups until he had to stop to protect himself.

“Don’t forget me, asshole!” Elen joined the fight with her usual fast swings, but her movements were a little off. She couldn’t move around too much, so she was pretty much being shut down due to her lack of mobility, even if it was enough to protect me.

Each of her strikes was either dodged without much trouble or blocked straight up. Her range of movement was too bad, and with the wound, whenever the guy in black attacked, she would wince and be pushed back a little.

It was only a matter of time until her posture would fail, I could see it. A matter of time until a hit would get through, and then things would only get worse from there.

So, I forced myself up and charged into the fight too, pushing the whole of my limited skill to help a little. The effect was very lacking, though.

Even though my thrusts were fast and my hits were heavy, all else wasn't good enough and the most I could do was even the fight a little bit. If at least either of us had all our equipment around...

So, we continued with this precarious dance for a little longer. Elen would try a fast combo with her twin blades and be forced back, which was when I would jump and force the dark knight's attacks away from her. He would still slash way faster than I could defend, but by the time things were dire, my partner could tag back and restart the cycle.

It was as I said before: I don’t know much about fighting with weapons.

I can mimic the steps and keep up based on what more I know, but that’s all. Whenever I forced an opening to the princess, I would be forced to also block some strikes in my way to buying time, and I only had so many barriers and so much mana. Even as I dodged or blocked most attacks, some still managed to pass way too close to comfort, or even get as far as a half hit.

In the end, the only one taking damage in this was me. Not exactly a problem since the regeneration potion was still in effect, but it was close to being one. The wounds were increasing in number faster than they could heal, for one.

The lack of extra armor and equipment I would usually use was hitting hard and I couldn’t use the mini-waystone or any huge spell while focused on not becoming minced meat. All I could see on each exchange was that we were on a timer, and after three of them, the small pause we three did only made me sure of such.

Elen was tired and there was a little too much blood coming from her leg for it to be fine. At least she had no new wounds. It was worsening with time, just like Elen’s expression, though, so we could very well be in a bad enough situation already.

In summary, she was looking worse by the moment and my clothes were in tatters, but the guy in dark armor was barely tired. And more so, he had almost no real wounds in him. A little cut on his arm and another one on the side of the chest, but fine overall.

He had yet to draw the weird magic blade again too.

“How we doing, Elen?” I ignored the burning pain of the slowly closing wounds in my body and tried to be sure of how the white-haired rogue was. If she said anything that didn’t convince me, I would need to go with some forceful measures.

“Two minutes at most. Will do?”

“Will have to,” I mumbled in answer as we both tried to fix our postures as the armored guy got ready to charge again. My wandering mind wasn’t exactly on the enemy right now, though, as I was hearing the approaching noises farther away. “Keep his attention.”

“Got it. And stop protecting me.”

“But I can’t…”

“I said it, so do it! And you…” Elen complained at me and then opened the magical circle of her laser shot toward the armored guy, prompting him to charge. “Die already!”

“Don’t bluff with me!” The angry barbecue moved at an absurd speed again, reaching the princess almost right away. His fast movement was expected, though, so Elen simply fired her spell earlier creating a flash instead of an attack. “Damn…”

The surprise spell gave her an opening to go to the offensive for a moment. Only enough for the princess to stab through one of the weaknesses on the shoulder of the dark armor, making the guy retreat a little as she mocked him. The first real hit, even if at the cost of her one remaining trick.

“Falling for such a weak tactic… I can see how Illia got you.”

“You little…!” He then charged again, losing a little of the precision in the process. But more than that, he turned all his attention to Elen for the first time during the fight.

So, as he charged in rage, he failed to notice the weak mist I was forming at their feet. The same that then had him electrocuted. A little trick that also hit my ally, but the damage on her was minor. And as we both saw the opening there, we went for a coordinated flurry of slashes. One that managed to get some damage on the guy, even though he still soon recovered and pulled some space between us both.

"You two!" He twitched with a new bleeding source on his shoulder and leg, but I could also see Elen almost falling under her own weight. Not that it stopped her from charging right after to keep the momentum.

"I don't care, you bastard!"

Her two blades came from high up, forcing our enemy another step back as I kept on preparing the next attack, another random spell I thought at the moment. But this time, his eyes managed to catch me hiding away...

“This... Once is enough!" He spoke up while still locked in the exchanges with Elen, but broke the engagement almost right away. “Get out of my way!”

His shout came with a sudden change in posture as he drew his other sword in a single moment and overtook Elen's speed, forcing the princess to block. And on the next moment, she noticed it was all a feint. The singular real strike came from lower as, instead of hitting with the swords, she was hit by a lightning-fast kick and thrown on the wall.

It was too fast for any reaction, and by the time I understood the situation, Elen had fainted already. She was down and the dark knight was closing into me faster than I could dodge.

“Now…” He spoke as I watched in slow motion as his normal sword fell to the ground and he held his crooked one with both hands. “Time to be over with you.”

His blade went through my half-backed fencing stance and then slashed at the barriers beneath it, but these weren't enough this time. Not only the slash went through as I tried to dodge back, but as I fell to the ground, I also got kicked away.

In a moment, I took enough damage to almost reach my limit. Just the feeling of the cut on my chest was enough to make me understand why Elen couldn't fight well. Even with how luckily shallow the hit was, my whole body was burning in pain as I rolled through the floor, stopping some meters away from my enemy.

It was a miracle that I was still awake. My head was way too fuzzy to think about anything right now and all else was hurting.

“That’s it? I expected a little more from you.” He mocked me while storing the crooked blade away again. “Will you accept your and this girl’s death now? Isn’t it better to get up and get beaten up a little more? Maybe it’ll even give you a chance to break this ‘crooked blade’ of mine to save her.”

He was speaking a lot, but I wasn’t able to pay much attention to it right now. My head wasn’t in condition to think… It was too painful to think. Not as much as the last time I ended like this, but it still hurts more than I could hold on without losing focus.

More so, I was too tired by now. Drank too many potions. Took too long to fight. Got too stressed with this mess. I was doing too much for too long... Everything was way too much now. Too much for the Illia facade to survive even against my wishes.

My consciousness was going away, but it was worse than any of the times I fainted. Fainting wasn't allowed this time, so all I could do was keep going with willpower. Willpower I didn't have, but that I had...

So in the end, even if Illia almost fainted, ‘I’ was still awake this time…