At the same time Michael and Uriel entered the maximum security compound, there was another battle that was silently occurring throughout the vicinity of the Imperial Prison. Dashing from one place to another, Lucy and Clyde chased one another in an attempt to make a kill. 𝒃𝒆𝒐𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝙘𝙤𝒎
“Hmph. I never thought that there was anyone else who could match my speed other than him and some Supreme Ranks.”
“Thank you for your compliment. This is your reward.”
“That is worthless.”
Peeking out a bit behind the wall of a building, which was her current hiding spot, Lucy threw a shuriken at the position of Clyde, which he evaded with ease.
Actually, Lucy did not throw the shuriken half-heartedly, as it curved a deep hole in the stone wall where Clyde was hiding. It was just Clyde having a great reaction time so that he was able to see her attack.
They had been fighting for minutes, and neither of them had landed a blow on the other yet. Both of them were holding daggers soaked with paralyzing neurotoxins, so a hit could neutralize their target.
But even though both of them gained tolerance for being paralyzed, they still avoided being hit by each other’s blade. Every time one attacks, the other one instantly evades, or more specifically, escapes from them.
It was because each of the strikes of their daggers surely hit their vitals, with no possibility to evade by normal means. That was why they had been spamming Instantaneous Movement to escape from those lethal blades.
“Hmm?” Lucy then received a message from Gabrielle. “Okay, let’s end this fight immediately.”
“…”
Suddenly, Clyde noticed that something had changed about Uriel. Not only did he sense her sudden change in attitude, but he also perceived a huge drop in her speed due to the significant decrease in transparency of her concealment.
“Are you really out of your mind?”
Then unexpectedly, Lucy undid her Perfect Concealment and charged at Clyde in a fast ninja run. Seeing that made Clyde think it was a trap to lower his guard. He had seen how fast she was during their minutes of fighting, so he doubted that it was really her true self.
But there was a slight chance that she was not actually acting either. They had been fighting for a while and had executed several techniques, so she was probably exhausted.
It was a gamble to see if he would bite her lure or not. However, his target was coming directly to him, and there was no way he could let that rare opportunity slide.
“Alright, one or another.”
Clyde ultimately decided to take her challenge and swiftly lunged from his hiding spot to meet her. With a dagger in each of his hands, he then crossed his arms and began executing a Level 8 Dagger Art technique.
“Hundred Slash!”
In just a flash, Clyde slashed his daggers a total of a hundred times all over Lucy’s body. All of his slashes certainly hit her body, but there was one big problem. She did not react or feel pain.
Unfortunately for him, he soon realized that it was just an afterimage of her. Then, out of the blue, he heard her voice coming from behind, and it was all the moment that he knew, he fucked up.
“Death by a Thousand Cuts.”
Suddenly, Clyde caught a glimpse of a streak of lightning before something sharp scraped his back. Afterwards, it was followed by countless doses of it all over his body.
“Ughhh?!”
Clyde painfully felt those cuts all over his body and was agonizing over them. Before he knew it, he had been the target of the ultra-fast blades of a Level 10 Dagger Art technique by Lucy.
Death by a Thousand Cuts was a very complicated and difficult dagger technique that only super-agile people could execute. Even Clyde himself could not achieve it yet. Lucy was statistically not qualified to perform it.
But with the help of the Godspeed unique skill that Raphael had exclusively granted to her, Lucy had surpassed the requirement and achieved the move that every rogue dreamed of.
“Ahh…”
Thud.
Once the endless cuts came to an end, the extremely tattered and bloody body of Clyde powerlessly collapsed on the surface. Light and deep wounds were drawn all over his body, but Lucy had guaranteed something.
“Don’t worry. Even though there is the word “death” on the technique, I can assure you that I did not hit your vital parts.”
“…”
Clyde did not hear what she just said since he had lost consciousness.
After staring at the art she just finished, Lucy then slightly healed him to stop the bleeding and then lifted him before running toward the gate for maximum security.
◆◇◆◇◆◇
The bodies of the knights were lying across the corridor of the Imperial Prison. All of them were harshly beaten, like trampling flowers in the garden. It was as if personifications of violence passed by like a storm and indiscriminately assaulted everyone on their way.
A couple of them were even dead, and the ones remaining alive were guaranteed by their assailants to be incapable of moving for hours. Anguish groans and cries resonated along the hallway. Other than those, there were other noises that harmonized those cries.
“Hey! Let me out of here as well!”
“If you set me free, I’ll give you wealth.”
“Please, I will give you anything if you bring me with you! Money, power, or influence!”
Pleas and tempting offers from detained prisoners showered the group as the infiltrating group passed their cells. Left and right were full of shouts from the people while they held the metal bars of their metallic doors.
All of those voices came from the mouths of heinous criminals around the continent. The ones with either life imprisonment or a pending death penalty should not be allowed to be set free.
And since the facility was built within budget, the convicted nobles and officials had the privilege of being detained there as well. By the way, it was proposed by a noble before and later used by himself after being convicted of corruption.
But the group deliberately ignored their pleas and passed their cells without looking back, as they were not the priority of the group. The one they wanted to set free was just a few bars away. However, problems were approaching.
“Boss, I sense two people trailing us, and they are pursuing us at incredible speed.”
Once the scout of the group said that, the group made a stop and turned around.
“Are they knights?” The boss asked.
“I doubt it, Boss.” He replied. “I think they are more than a knight. And I found something strange.”
“What is it?”
“Well, one of them is probably a magician due to the large mana pool I can sense, but that one is rushing as fast as the other one, who I suppose is a warrior.”
“Hmm, they seem strong; it would be troublesome if they interrupted us.” The leader remarked before turning his attention to the group. “Alright. All of you, intercept them while I am saving her.”
“We understand, sir!”
All of them corresponded with his order in unison. They did not even question his plans, as they had full loyalty and respect for him. They would do whatever he had ordered of them, even if it put their lives in peril.
“Very good, my brave soldiers!” He then commended the courage of his subordinates. “I will be going then.”
After he said that, the leader turned his back on them and started to advance forward. As the remaining six watched his back being slowly swallowed by the shadows, they then talked with one another about how to deal with the incoming threats.
“So it’s going to be a three-versus-one fight? Where is the fun with that?”
The lone female of the six expressed her honest thoughts. She was a renowned swordwoman in her forties and was a proud person, so she was turned off when she realized a three-on-one situation. But the scout just glared at her to warn her to take it seriously.
“Okay, old hag. You can take the mage if you want to enjoy yourself.”
“What did you just say?!”
The middle-aged man spearman sarcastically remarked to the woman, which piqued her interest. But before they could engage in a mess, a man then raised his hand and said, “Malediction,” and both of them flinched.
“Okay, guys.” He calmly said that as he subtly smiled. “As the boss said, these two are quite strong. So how about taking this more seriously?”