“Crap!” I spit at the situation in front of me, “They did us in, to think that half of the guests here were Neo Urbana gang members! I gotta find the other Generals, and quick!”

I quickly unsheathed my sword from its scabbard. Escalating the situation even further, I chose to yell out to the attackers and provoke them into making the first move, as my specialty lied in parrying. The first person ran up to me with a blade of his own, after him came a bulky fellow wielding a giant mace. The next two hoodlums then took me by surprise and grabbed both of my arms, restraining me. Their buddy was now running to stab me straight in the chest with his knife…!

*smash!*

I opened my eyes upon realizing I felt no such stab, and saw an amazing sight in front of me.

Adam Grys was holding a broken vase, which he used to bash the attacker with the knife. I used the chance he’d given me and quickly threw the two hoodlums over my back, thus smashing them to the ground. Adam was seriously having fun here, I thought as I noticed him laughing maniacally, screaming “My parents will never believe me when I tell them this story!”

I guess bragging to your parents is a thing everyone does, be they Nobles or Commoners. In any case, his heroic moment was almost abruptly stopped when a gang member tried to strike him with his sword from behind. I quickly had to step in and save him (he expressed his gratitude before picking up the attacker’s weapon from him).

This is when Liebert quickly shouted at his troops Don’t hurt any of the Nobles, you idiots! Which gave me an idea…

“Yo, Adam!” I stopped to ask him for consent on the matter, “How would you react if I used you as a human meat-shield?”

“Huh? WHOA-!!!” He didn’t really have time to answer back, but I didn’t really have time to wait around, so I just picked him up by the shoulders.

I did ask for his consent, didn’t I?

“What are they doing?!” Liebert said, mocking the two goofs who weren’t taking the ambush seriously at all. “Attack them!” He ordered his troops.

“But boss,” a grunt answered back, “you said not to harm the Nobles!”

As Liebert fumed with anger after realizing we outsmarted him, we quickly made our way through the room, and if anyone dared attack us, I’d just knock them over with Adam, the Brotector! (pun intended)

My friends were quite literally spaced out with everyone on a different corner, so I had to act fast! The closest person to me was Cecily, so I made my way to her.

“Lune?” she said, questioning why I was holding a noble like a shield.

“Adam! Have you met my dear Cecily?” I stopped to introduce them.

“Oh, so you’re the lovely Madame I’ve heard so much about, congratulations on the baby!” he shook her hand.

She didn’t have time to chat, instead asking what we’re gonna do with the situation laid out in front of us.

“Don’t you know?” I asked rhetorically, “The people here are knights, they don’t fight dirty!”

She looked at me quizzically for a second before a smile erupted from her face when she realized what I was getting at. Indeed, one thing I noticed whilst fending the gang members’ attacks was that they all used the same attack pattern my father used when he taught me swordsmanship. They didn’t use the terrain around them, which was to be our main win condition!

Cecily whipped out her trusty knife before wreaking havoc upon the ballroom, practically dancing around it as she made cut after cut, leading the enemy’s numbers to dwindle in a flash. She would toss the curtains over a bunch of them, before knocking another fellow off the balcony with a swift kick. The dress she wore made her movements a bit duller than how I knew them, but they were still overkill for these suckers. Within minutes of her joining the fight, almost 50 of their men were rendered useless, and she was barely breaking a sweat!

“Whew!” She sighed as she wiped a bit of sweat off her forehead, “That really limbered me up, my body really needed this, I didn’t visit the gym since we left Bilgam!”

Adam was quite shocked by her ability to fight, even asking her to tutor him when this whole situation is dealt with, but she mentioned she didn’t have the time for it as she has Nelly to take care of. He was a bit bummed, but was at least glad he got to help.

“Well, I see you’ve got the situation under control, I’ll be on my way now-!”

“Hold it, where does my shield think he’s going?” I said as I grabbed his shoulders with an iron clench, disabling his ability to flee. He gulped before surrendering to his fate as our most prized asset.

“Listen, everyone!” Liebert spoke up again, “I know I said the Nobles should stay neutral, but if anyone manages to kill or subdue our dear guests here, I will grant you a large share of the gang! Remember, even 1% ownership of Neo Urbana is enough to secure you a comfy life, so think wisely on whose side you're choosing!”

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Looks like the stakes were raised, do you really want us that bad, Berty? I know it was obvious, but I still asked Adam if he was going to backstab us or not, just in case.

“Never!” He yelped, “You’d destroy me in a second!”

“A millisecond.” Cecily corrected him, leading to him gulping in fear.

“A-Apart from that,” he continued, “I’d never even dream of harming a fellow intellectual such as yourself.”

A sudden praise! Stop it, Adam, I already have Cecily! All jokes aside though, it was nice to hear Adam is staying on our side, as he’s become quite indispensable due to his ranking. Apart from that, he is sword-certified, so the less people we need to deal with, the better.

Making our way to the next person, we saw Ed, who was having quite the trouble against the masses. C’mon guys, the poor fella’s still a bit down in the dumps and you gang up on him? Not very chivalrous of you, I’ll tell you that much…

“Grim! Cecily! For Gods’ sakes, help!” he screamed out as he was barely surfing the waves of the masses, jumping from one guys back to the other, somehow managing to stay afloat.

“How are you this good at evading attacks?” Cecily stopped to ask. "You were like this even back during our fight against TBL in The Depot!"

“Ugh, Grim used to chase me around with his wooden sword while he was still training under his father, so I grew used to it…” He said, making me remember a rowdier time in my life.

“Jeez, don’t make it sound so bad! Didn’t I tell you it’d be useful in the future?” I tried saving myself from Cecily’s judgement.

“W-Well, I guess.” He said looking down to the ground, “But I’m an apprentice doctor, not a fighter! It isn’t my place to be here!” He said.

“Ed, don’t worry.” I grabbed him by the shoulder, “This guy here is a prince himself, and he’s still useful, right Adam?” I turned to face him as he weakly nodded.

“Really?” Ed’s eyes lit up, “Okay then, what can I do?”

“Well, Cecily needs a shield…” I said.

***

“WOOOOOOO! Isn’t this fun, Ed?” Cecily shouted as she held him up, much like how I did Adam.

“NOT. AT. ALL!!!!” He screamed with all his might as he was used to ram into his enemies. Be they big or small in stature, Cecily wasn’t one to discriminate, she simply kept on steamrolling them one by one.

Before we realized it, we had made it to Jorgen and Max, who were doing their best from their own side. To be honest, I’m sure they could beat everyone in the room up without any issues, they were both Gray Iros, and they had their weapons with them. Well, Jorgen did, but Max on the other hand…

“Mine broke…” he sniffled as he mourned the loss of his trusty blade, which got taken from him and snapped like a twig in front of his very eyes. Every one of the Generals knew how much he loved that thing, so seeing it gone kinda made us a bit sad as well. Not as sad as losing Carter, though… (too soon?)

In any case, that didn’t seem to make him any weaker than he already was before. Strength lied in the person, not the weapon, and he was the perfect example of that. He rolled up his sleeves before winding up for the hardest sounding punch I’ve ever heard in my lifetime. I was sure I saw him send three people flying from just that one punch alone, but he wasn’t done just yet. No, he was only getting started!

He swiftly ran up to a gang member before kicking him in the shin, aggravating the gang member to attack. That poor fuck then probably saw his past life flash before his eyes with how hard he was kicked! The next fella’ he ran up to was too scared to even initiate an attack, and who could blame him? After seeing what this demon did to your friends, you’d be scared too! But instead of unleashing a whole new dimension of pain for the guy, he lightly patted his head, giving the gang member false hope that he’ll be spared. But too bad, as when he raised his head, Max shoved both his index and middle finger into his eyes, making him wince in pain before falling down. He was a younger recruit, too… I thought.

“Jeez!” Adam commented, “Are all ARA Gang members this scar-err, skilled?”

“Well, you can’t uphold peace in a rowdy community such as a gang without being strong, can you?” Jorgen replied.

“Sure as shootin’!” Max continued Jorgen's reply, “If you want to join our gang, I’m sure you’ll be just as strong! So, whaddya say?”

“Uuuh, I’ll pass…” Adam weakly gave his response.

Jorgen, on the other hand, was quite angry himself. “And THIS!” he pierced with his sword, “Is for having SHIT TASTE IN TEA!” He screamed out.

“A-ha!” Adam sounded like he figured something out, “I see! ‘TEA’ is a code word for something!”

We didn’t have the heart to tell him that Jorgen was just genuinely mad at these people for not having good tea here…

***

Finally making it to Aaron, the team was complete, but the battle was basically all but done by now.

“How many guys did you get?” Cecily started a competition, “I counted 67 knights!”

“Damn, I’m 54! So close!” Max felt sad as he revealed his number, “But there was that one money-hungry Noble who tried to attack me. He must count for something?”

“You could hardly call that a threat, Max.” Jorgen said calmly, “If anything, I’d deduce a point for fighting a person not associated with a gang…”

“Oh, come on! It’s not like I killed him or anything, and how much did you get, smart guy?” Max said furiously.

“I stopped counting after a hundred.” Said Jorgen.

“A hundred?!?” I gawked before saying what I had originally wanted to say, “No wait, more importantly, you guys were counting!?! This is a serious situation!”

“Uhm…” Ed raised his hand, “Since I knocked over all those guys on the floor over there from my evading, that puts me at 101, actually. So it’s my victory.”

We all turned to face him, with some even laughing at him for trying to pull such an obvious fast one on us, but sure enough after we had Adam count all the people lying there, his statement did indeed check out.

This motherfucker…

“How are you all so goddamned incompetent!?” Said Liebert as he kicked the fallen gang members who laid on the ground knocked out.

“Oh?” We chimed in, “If they’re so incompetent, then we take it you’re a better match?”

He eeped in fear after hearing that. We didn’t plan to kill him of course, but taking over the whole Neo Urbana Territory now seemed more possible than eve-!

“Watch out!” Max said, pushing all of us out of the way as he took an arrow to the chest.

“Max! Shit!” we screamed out, looking around for the person responsible. It was a Noble, of all people, a bastard who only wanted money from the bounty Liebert placed on us…! Shit!

“Muahahahahha!” Liebert laughed upon witnessing this, “Finally, someone capable!”

“Max? Max! Speak to me! Oh God, he’s out cold!” Jorgen cried out.

“I ain’t losing another General, damn it!” Aaron said, quickly trying to improve Max’s state as he tried his best to do on-field first aid.

"Here, I'll help!" Ed chimed in, “...I stopped the bleeding! There might be a chance he’ll live, guys! ...Guys?” After raising his head to look at us in relief, he realized (just like we did) that we were surrounded by the reinforcements Liebert had called during the confusion.

“Take them to the dungeon!” He said, mocking us as we were escorted to the basement of their base, “And make sure that that selfless General of theirs doesn’t wake up any time soon! Heheheh…”

It’s checkmate…